Full Program

Part 1

Today we examine a number of stories and issues in the news, focusing mainly on the tinderbox confrontation between Russia and Ukraine following Russia’s military occupation of Crimea and its threat to move into Ukraine. We also look into the chaotic situation in Ukraine where the military has just been mobilized by an un-elected government whose treasury in empty, having been looted by the previous regime. We begin and go to Moscow to speak with Dr. Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent defense analyst who writes for Novaya Gazeta, the only newspaper in Russia not controlled by Putin, and discuss what Russia’s military objectives might be with Russia and Ukraine on the brink of war.

Part 2

Then we examine the Obama Administration’s limited options short of cutting diplomatic and economic ties with Russia and returning to a Cold War standoff. Charles Kupchan, who was director of European Affairs on the National Security Council during the Clinton Administration, joins us to discuss what might have transpired in the 90 minute phone conversation between Putin and Obama and what leverage the U.S. and the West has over Putin.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with a Ukrainian scholar who is a specialist on nationalism, revolutions and empires. Alexander Motyl joins us to look into what Kyiv can do to reach out to the Russian-speaking East who Putin is claiming need Russian protection from fascists and terrorists, now that Putin has been given a blank check by the Russian parliament to intervene military anywhere on Ukrainian territory.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with Tuesday’s apparently contentious phone conversation between President Obama and Afghan president Karzai and look into whether any kind of settlement is possible before the U.S. and NATO deadline to pull out of Afghanistan at the end of the year. Christine Fair, a former United Nations political officer in Afghanistan who is a professor in the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, joins us to discuss Obama’s bitter divorce from a corrupt partner he inherited from George W. Bush and his threat to leave no troops behind to stabilize a country that can not pay its way and is likely to fall apart.

Part 2

Then we look into the decision by Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State to suppress Democratic votes by cutting early voting on weekday evenings and Sundays to block the black church’s “Souls to the Polls” voting drives. Robert Alexander, the Chair or the Department of History, Politics, and Justice and professor of political science at Ohio Northern University joins us to discuss a flagrant attempt to limit African American voting in this year’s mid term election in which low voter turnout helps Republicans.

Part 3