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Natylie Baldwin is author of The View from Moscow: Understanding Russia and U.S.-Russia Relations available in e-book and print. She has traveled throughout western Russia since 2015 and has written several articles based on her conversations and interviews with a cross-section of Russians. She blogs at Natyliesbaldwin.com.
Natylie is also co-author of Ukraine: Zbig's Grand Chessboard & How the West Was Checkmated. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in various publications including Consortium News, Sun Monthly, Dissident Voice, Energy Bulletin, Newtopia Magazine, The Common Line, New York Journal of Books and The Lakeshore. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
SHARE Saturday, March 27, 2021 Book Review: Memoirs of a Russianist, Volumes I & II, by Gilbert Doctorow
Russia analyst Gilbert Doctorow has written a 2-volume memoir that takes the reader on a journey through his years as a Russia specialist. Starting with college and graduate work in Russian history at two Ivy League universities followed by decades of business management and consulting work, Doctorow provides a rare peek into the last days of the Soviet Union and the chaotic transition of the Russian Federation.
(9 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 20, 2021 The 75th Anniversary of "The Long Telegram": Was George F. Kennan's Assessment of the Soviet Union Accurate?
February 22nd marks 75 years since George F. Kennan sent his famous "Long Telegram" to the State Department in which he provided an assessment of the Soviet Union that is credited with shaping the U.S. containment policy of the Cold War. Conventional wisdom generally has it that Kennan's assessment of the Soviet government was accurate. But was it?
SHARE Friday, January 15, 2021 A Closer Look at Russia's Constitutional Amendments
In January of 2020, Putin gave his annual Address to the Federal Assembly, announcing that amendments would be made to the Russian constitution. Now that those amendments and supporting legislation have been passed, we can look at how they line up with what Putin actually said in his speech.
(7 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 27, 2020 A Hot Mess of Innuendo: A Closer Look at Catherine Belton's "Putin's People"
'Putin's People' is an attempt to weave all the strands of the anti-Russia propaganda narrative into a coherent whole: Putin is a corrupt autocrat who has created a kleptocracy. His main purpose, however, is not just to undermine or prevent the development of democracy in Russia. His purpose, according to Belton, is to destroy western democracy in the U.S. and Europe ever since the end of the Cold War.
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, September 1, 2020 Putin on the Situation in Belarus, Interview With Rossiya TV
In a recent interview with Rossiya TV, Vladimir Putin discussed several issues, including the current state of the Russian economy and the Covid pandemic. However, I have excerpted below the portion dealing with what is presently happening in Belarus. - Natylie Baldwin
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, July 31, 2020 Why America Needs to Embrace Pluralism Instead of Exceptionalism
Diplomacy will require the acceptance of a balance of power and pluralism. The United States is gradually losing its preeminent status of most powerful nation in the world. It is also gradually losing its ability to dictate what will be. It should therefore stop wasting its resources on an absolutist and "exceptionalist' agenda that inevitably leads to eternal and implacable conflict.
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 23, 2020 Is Putin a Nationalist and What are the Implications for Russia's Relationship with China and the West?
In an interview with Rossiya 1 on May 17th, Putin stated that Russia - a country straddling two continents and 11 time zones - was more its own civilization than just a country. He also said that, while Russia may borrow useful ideas from others, it would retain its own independent path and had the ability to develop technologically in its own manner.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, May 16, 2020 Is the U.S. the Norma Desmond of the World Stage
As a fan of old movies in general and Sunset Boulevard in particular, I keep coming back to how the psychological profile of Norma Desmond's character seems so reminiscent of the United States right now - or more precisely the political class that dictates its policies and the narrative used to maintain the illusion.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 13, 2020 How We All Benefit from Improved U.S.-Russia Relations
But, in fact, the U.S. and Russia together still have 1700 nuclear weapons pointed at each other on hair trigger alert. Several scientific studies have indicated that, in addition to killing millions in the immediate aftermath of the explosions, even a limited exchange of these weapons would lead to nuclear winter within a year, wiping out much of our global agriculture and killing billions of people through starvation.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, May 12, 2017 The Russian Revolution, Stalin's Crimes and the Day the U.S. and Red Armies Met Up at Elbe
Overall it was a fulfilling but exhausting day and I was glad to get back to the apartment. Later, I would begin processing what I had seen and learned from my guided tour through Russia's complicated history, from the Revolution to the Gulags & the Elbe meeting between the US & Red armies.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 10, 2017 Victory Day & The Thwarted Quest to See Lenin's Tomb
It's a shame that the Cold War and Washington's post-Cold War triumphalism have undermined our ability to acknowledge the sacrifices and achievements of the Soviet Union when we were allied against the Nazis.
(11 comments) SHARE Monday, May 8, 2017 Greetings from Moscow
The first thing one sees to their right as they begin the descent down into Moscow's main airport is the sun glistening off the Moscow River surrounded by lots of greenery. It gave me the pick-up I needed after an exhausting 24 hrs of minimal sleep, being crammed on several airplanes & literally running from one end of an airport to another because one flight was almost 2 hours late & nearly made me miss a connecting flight.
(24 comments) SHARE Monday, October 24, 2016 Russia's Very Different Reality
The demonization of Russian President Putin and Russia, in general, has reached alarming levels in the West with a new "group think" taking hold that ignores Russian realities and interests, writes Natylie Baldwin.
(51 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 12, 2016 Has Zbigniew Brzezinski Really Changed His Tune?
Zbig's idea that Washington could somehow implement a divide-and-conquer strategy with China against Russia is a pipe dream. The train has left the station in terms of Eurasia largely controlling its own destiny in the future and Zbig seems to be in denial.
(12 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 30, 2016 Pre-Soviet Philosophical Thought & Contemporary Russia - Part I of III
A common theme in Russian philosophy of the 19th and early 20th century involved trying to reconcile different forces and influences. To some extent, these are universal concerns for most cultures at various points in their development, but for Russia, it is perhaps even more so due to the nation's particular geography, climate and history.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 5, 2016 Still a MAD World: The Insanity of Nuclear Weapons
Jerry Brown provides an excellent and thought-provoking review of William J. Perry's book, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, this month at the New York Review of Books. Brown takes the reader through Perry's evolution of thought about the weapons that he was providing research, management and advice on over the course of decades.
(9 comments) SHARE Friday, June 24, 2016 "EXTENDING AMERICAN POWER" -- A Sneak Peek at What a Clinton Foreign Policy May Look Like
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a think tank connected to the Democratic Party, particularly with Obama's transition team at the beginning of his first term, published a 20-page policy paper last month called "Extending American Power." This think tank is not only close to the Democratic Party establishment, but this policy paper is disturbing because it was co-authored by Neocon Robert Kagan.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 1, 2016 "FAIL-SAFE": How a Classic Cold War Novel Still Resonates Today
Unlike articles, which attempt to marshal facts and logic, story-telling is what moves people. Our need and capacity for story-telling is perhaps one of the most essential aspects of being human. A film, book, or other work of story-telling art for a contemporary mass audience that can convey on such a visceral level what is at stake in terms of the continuing dangers of geo-politics in the nuclear age is desperately needed.
(14 comments) SHARE Friday, February 26, 2016 Review: JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters
The book elicits a profound respect for the moral courage demonstrated by both President Kennedy and his Cold War counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, at moments when so much hung in the balance. The bond these two men developed as a consequence of their taking humanity to the brink and the terror they both felt from looking into the abyss led to a mutual desire to negotiate an end to the Cold War and work toward disarmament.
(10 comments) SHARE Monday, January 25, 2016 The Empire Files: Examining the Syrian War Chessboard
The war in Syria is an unparalleled crisis. It has gone far beyond an internal political struggle, and is marked by a complex array of forces that the U.S. Empire hopes to command: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and more. To simplify this web of enemies and friends, Abby Martin interviews Dr. Vijay Prashad, professor of International Studies at Trinity College and author of several books.