February, 2022

• 10 February

  Tunisia’s Democrats Aren’t Buying Saied’s Roadmap to Elections

  

  Tunisian President Kais Saied announced a timeline for a new constitutional referendum Monday, to be followed by elections to restore the parliament he disbanded in July. But the plan remains silent on the question of who will draft the new constitution, and Saied’s announcement suggests that the country will remain …

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• 10 February

  Iraq Is One Step Closer to Forming a New Government

  

  Negotiations to form a new government in Iraq have entered a final, decisive phase, with the process shaping up to be a dispiriting contest among several factions that unfortunately share broadly similar authoritarian characteristics. The disputes over power-sharing arrangements and government positions are complicated, and the final lineup is still …

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• 10 February

  US troops could help evacuate American citizens in Ukraine should Russia invade, Pentagon says

  

  U.S. troops could be used to help evacuate American citizens from Ukraine should Russia invade the country, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday. Kirby’s comments came as roughly 850 troops with the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., arrived in Poland in response to more than 100,000 Russian …

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• 10 February

  Strykers and soldiers from Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment mount up for open-ended Romania deployment

  

  Strykers and combat support vehicles lined up at the Army airfield Wednesday as about 1,000 American troops prepared to head to Romania for an open-ended deployment meant to reassure allies worried about Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine. The Vilseck-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment soldiers will remain in Romania to shore up …

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• 10 February

  Islamic State likely to pick battle-hardened Iraqi as next leader – officials, analysts

  The next leader of Islamic State is likely to be from a close circle of battle-hardened Iraqi jihadists who emerged in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion, two Iraqi security officials and three independent analysts said. The group of potential successors to Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi, who blew himself up …

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• 10 February

  China vows to take powerful measures against US’ latest arms sale to Taiwan island

  China on Tuesday vowed to take countermeasures after the US announced a plan to sell $100 million worth of Patriot missile upgrades to the island of Taiwan, which would be the first US arms sale to the island in 2022 and the second under the Biden administration. The arms sale, …

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• 10 February

  France’s Macron Claims Progress in Ukraine-Russia Crisis, but Kyiv Remains Skeptical

  French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday there is an opportunity for further negotiations to de-escalate the crisis on the Ukraine-Russian border, after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Kyiv. “Our desire for the following weeks and months is for the situation to stabilize and for us to …

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• 10 February

  «Позиция Эмманюэля Макрона заметно отличается от подхода США»

  Максим Юсин — о посредничестве Франции в украинском кризисе Президент Владимир Путин считает, что в предложениях России о гарантиях по безопасности нет ни одного неисполнимого пункта. Об этом он заявил по итогам встречи с французским коллегой Эмманюэлем Макроном. Президент Франции в свою очередь признал, что добиться результата в таком вопросе …

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• 10 February

  Западные партнеры окончательно согласовали между собой, что будут продвигать имплементацию “Минска”. Для них этот вариант наименее рисковый

  Переговоры Макрона – Путина, заявления Блинкена – Борреля и переговоры Шольца – Байдена. Все это можно свести к нескольким ключевым выводам, как мне это видится. Западные партнеры окончательно согласовали между собой, что они будут продвигать имплементацию Минских соглашений как единственный способ для деэскалации и компромисса с РФ, самый безболезненный для …

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• 8 February

  Do Not Open Nord Stream 2

  

  The Russian threat… was very clear — that Russia would then be able to shut off its gas to Europe in the middle of winter [by means of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline], if it chose to, as a form of blackmail, at which point the US might then be …

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