Moscow believes that obtaining legally binding security guarantees from NATO members is of paramount importance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a video address to the Disarmament Conference. "[Our] Western colleagues have not yet shown any willingness to provide Russia with long-term legally binding security guarantees. For us, achieving these objectives is of fundamental importance," Lavrov emphasized. The minister stressed that the issue here is refusing NATO’s expansion any further, and abandoning the "Bucharest formula" (2008 Bucharest Summit - TASS) that sees Ukraine and Georgia becoming members of the US-led military bloc. "Western countries should refrain from establishing military…

America is still a superpower. But in the face of Russia, the US is not almighty. Russia has violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and international law. The US response has been economic: sanctions against Russia that are the largest ever and yet simultaneously unlikely to alter the shape of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression. So, how should we think about the US as a superpower in 2022? It’s too early to draw broad conclusions about what war in Eastern Europe means for the future of America in the world. But there are enough clues to suggest that America’s power has limits, and…

China's State Council Information Office on Monday issued the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. The report said the human rights situation in the US, which has a notorious record, worsened in 2021 as political manipulation led to a sharp surge in Covid-19 deaths, and shooting deaths in the country hit a new record. The report revealed that despite having the world's most advanced medical resources, the US has the biggest number of Covid-19 infections and deaths globally. But the US government isn't rethinking its approach and still lacks effective anti-epidemic plans. Instead, it stoked…

Russian forces shelled Ukraine’s second-largest city on Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 40-mile convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles, as talks aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking. The country’s embattled president said the stepped-up shelling was aimed at forcing him into concessions. “I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address. He did not offer details of the hourslong talks that took place earlier, but said that…