ABC in Russia policy for the new NSC team:
1. Nord Stream 2 is designed to split the EU & the West. With SPD in her coalition government, Angela Merkel is too weak to stop it. Then the US should help but fully sanction it, but it did not.
1. Nord Stream 2 is designed to split the EU & the West. With SPD in her coalition government, Angela Merkel is too weak to stop it. Then the US should help but fully sanction it, but it did not.
2. When Russia provokes, always stand up against it. The US was right to send in war ships into the Black Sea at the time of the Russia military mobilization around Ukraine in April & very wrong to stop their entry. The UK acted rightly.
3. When Russia provokes the West, never give it anything for free, such as a summit with the US president.
4. Whenever Russia does something outrageous, such as cyber attacks, assassinations in the West, violating chemical arms conventions, etc. Hit hard with sanctions that really hurt, financial and personal sanctions on Putin's oligarchs, his cronies & their families.
5. The Kremlin is very good at realpolitik, so you need not worry that they don't accept something that is in its interest because you hit hard elsewhere.
6. The essence is: when you deal with the Kremlin, stand up and fight and hit hard. If the Kremlin actually wants an agreement, it will surprisingly climb down in the last moment as the literature on how to negotiate with Russia teaches.
7. Russian leaders often speak of desiring "stability & predictability," but their actual preference is instability & surprises.
8. Putin loves ongoing conflicts, as long as they don't cost too much, in Moldova, Georgia, Nagorny Karabkah, Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Central African Republic, etc. You name it. Instability abroad makes a military power such as Russia more important.
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