Tag Archives: Ukraine

Ukraine in Crosshairs of a New “Evil Empire”

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  AUG 28, 2025 

There’s a telling and disturbing story about Russian President Vladimir Putin in the new book, The Situation Room, by George Stephanopoulos.

During an interview with former President Joe Biden, Stephanopoulos asked him about reports that as Vice President in a 2011 meeting he told Putin he had no soul.

“I did say that to him, yes…I wasn’t being a wise guy,” Biden confirmed. “I was alone with him in his office. And that-that’s how it came about. It was when President Bush had said, ‘I looked in his eyes and saw his soul’, I said I looked in your eyes and I don’t think you have a soul. And he looked back and he said, ‘We understand each other.’”

As I sort through the reams of news reports on Ukraine, now coming every day, all day, that passage haunts me. Continue reading →

Trump Stumped by Putin, But Wants Nobel Prize

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JULY 15, 2025 

President Donald Trump keeps getting stomped on by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Just in recent days, President Trump said he has had some “pleasant” and “lovely” conversations with Putin who he has called a friend for years. Shortly after those calls, Putin attacked Ukraine again.

With friends like that, who needs enemies.

At the same time, President Trump has publicly and aggressively campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize. He really needs to suspend the campaign until he can fully recognize the delusions he harbors about the Russian President.

In the past couple of weeks there are indications he may be turning a corner. We must hope it doesn’t become a U-turn. He seemed to accept the fact that his Russian friend was not going to “STOP” (Trump’s word) the reign of terror raining down from the skies over Ukraine. He finally decided to open the pipeline for more weapons to Ukraine he says NATO nations will pay for.

When Putin continued the bombardment, Trump came up with a new threat: if Putin doesn’t agree to a truce in 50 days, he would impose severe economic sanctions (called secondary tariffs) on countries that buy oil and other critical products from Russia. Again, good effort, but maybe wasted. Former Russian President and Putin proxy Dmitry Medvedev said the Kremlin “didn’t care” about Trump’s “theatrical ultimatum.” Continue reading →

Ukraine: Battleground for Democratic Rule

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  MAY 5, 2025 

When I was a young journalist, I wrote newspaper columns. In one I lamented the fact that through most of my life the US had been involved in one military action after another, from Asia to the Caribbean. I wrote it during those days and weeks we were ingloriously taking our leave from South Vietnam, 50 years ago this month.

It was an era when many Americans, especially the younger generations, were tired of war and longed for lasting peace. Music of the time reflected that, especially the reincarnation of an ageless Civil War era African-American spiritual, Down by the Riverside. Among the lyrics: “I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside. I ain’t gonna study war no more.” Pete Seger recorded a new version in 1963 and it became a Vietnam protest ballad.

So here we are again. More than a half-century later, while global war has been averted, military conflicts are widespread, from the South Pacific to the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Eastern Europe, Africa, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

You would think that the young journalist today would side with President Trump’s car-lot dealmaking style to end the war in Ukraine at any cost as long as it benefited the dealership. No thanks.

The United States must stand behind Ukraine, aggressively. Continue reading →

The US and Ukraine and A Blow to Democratic Rule

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  FEB 24, 2025 

I have this rule.

When something is said or done that hurts or angers, I hold off any response for 24 hours, knowing full well that I probably don’t have enough information or the placidity to make a reasoned judgment. It’s tough. In this day and age, it is a rule that begs to be broken.

I invoked the rule last week when President Donald Trump let loose on Ukraine and looked like he was gift-wrapping the country for his friend Russian President Vladimir Putin’s birthday. I couldn’t believe my ears, so I waited not 24 hours but 48. In the meantime, I read a variety of perspectives from right to left. I researched Ukrainian history and slowly replaced emotion with reason. But it didn’t change my mind.

Trump’s actions on Ukraine are unnerving and to some extent just plain scary, made more so by the disturbing trends taking place on the domestic front in just the first weeks of the second Trump term.

A case in point: Trump recently said that his swordsman, Elon Musk, isn’t aggressive enough. I hope that was in jest.

It is often hard to discern if the President’s bluster is just a bluff or his real intent, damn the consequences. He doesn’t seem to be bluffing or engaging in his brand of transaction diplomacy with Ukraine. Continue reading →

They Could Bring Back the Tanks

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

In the late 1980s, there were teams of Americans – Republicans and Democrats – who were deployed to nations that had been members of the Warsaw Pact but were now free of the Soviet yoke.

We worked with local groups to help them jump start political organizations. Center Right parties were guided by teams sent by the International Republican Institute (IRI); Center Left parties were aided by teams sent by Continue reading →

Another Election

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

From Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine

I’ve been here for two days preparing for, and actually observing, the Ukrainian parliamentary elections. I was part of the International Observer Mission in that effort.

SIDEBAR

The day before I hopped on an airplane from Kiev to come down here, we were briefed by various government and political leaders. One person in our group asked whether international observers could remain in a precinct to watch the counting process. Continue reading →