Two vignettes and an organizational chart: I. In August 1991, I was part of a group of maybe fifteen Americans who visited with Gennady Yanayev in the Kremlin. Yanayev was a big deal at the time — the Vice President of the Soviet Union. Our visit to his well-appointed suite of offices was part of …
Yesin on China’s Nukes
by | 2012-06-29 | 12 Comments
Phil Karber has placed another story, this time directly associating himself with the discredited claim that China has 3,000 nuclear weapons. Karber found an essay by General Viktor Yesin (in Russian), a former commander of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces, and placed it in the Falun Gong-run Epoch Times. Yesin’s essay is full of errors, …
Haggling over Peripherals
by | 2012-06-25 | 23 Comments
Negotiations between the United States and Pakistan over the cost of hauling freight from Karachi port to Afghanistan and the wording of a statement of regret or apology over Pakistani deaths at a border clash last November have become demeaning to everyone involved. Patching up these contentious issues will have lasting benefit only if a …
China and DPRK Sanctions-Busting
by | 2012-06-24 | 36 Comments
On Friday, June 29, the United Nations Security Council will release a report telling us about efforts by the DPRK to obtain weapons and WMD-related items in violation of UNSC sanctions. That’s interesting because, according to two Japanese press reports which appeared on June 22, this is the first time since 2010 that China–one of the countries fielding experts …
