Christian Caryl

Columnist @ForeignPolicy. Insomniac, naturalist, frequenter of diners. Ex-WaPo, ex-Newsweek. Own worst enemy.

[Christian Caryl @ccaryl]

I firmly believe that Putin has miscalculated, and that his war will only lead to the outcomes he didn't want. Here's why
https://t.co/hJr6gNX8Ub

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

Trump, 80, seems unaware that everyone else is posing for a photo

[Julian Röpcke 🇩🇪🤝🇺🇦 @JulianRoepcke]

“Russia did not start this war because it lacked security. It did not invade Ukraine because it feared a NATO attack. If that were the case, we would see extensive defensive fortifications and military preparations along Russia's western border. During a recent visit to our eastern frontier, I asked one of our border guards whether there was any sign on the other side of the border of defensive structures suggesting that Russia genuinely feared NATO. His answer was telling: no, of course not.”

#MustRead from @markomihkelson
https://t.co/gvk3TH8f4Z

[Marc Thiessen @marcthiessen]

If this is accurate it’s a complete disaster.

[Nicolas Tenzer @NTenzer]

And still some, in Europe, are advocating discussions with russia... This is genuine foolishness.
To discuss what?
You don't discuss with terrorists and murderers.
You beat them.
We need adults in the room.

[Christopher Miller @ChristopherJM]

Ukrainian officials have told the @FT that US supplies of Patriot interceptors are too few and arriving too slowly, leading to more direct Russian strikes on critical and civilian infrastructure. Zelenskyy said he discussed this with Trump and their teams “will continue working” on the matter, including possibly obtaining a license for Kyiv to produce Patriot interceptor missiles. https://t.co/StyZzoMcGU

[Hanna Liubakova @HannaLiubakova]

According to Lukashenka, Russia didn't fail to take Kyiv because of Ukrainian resistance, catastrophic military planning or Putin's delusions.

No, apparently the Vatican and "the Jewish lobby" tricked the Kremlin into withdrawing.

Five years into Putin's "three-day war."

[Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom]

Holy schnikes

[Christian Caryl @ccaryl]

🧵(reposting a bit late but still very relevant)

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Putin faces a succession crisis in Chechnya that could erupt into a new war inside Russia, draining troops and money he needs for Ukraine — Christian Caryl, Foreign Policy.

The region's ruler Ramzan Kadyrov, 49, is probably terminally ill, and his heir is his 18-year-old son. 1/

[Vladimir Kara-Murza @vkaramurza]

Few have engaged in political projection as openly and shamelessly as Vladimir Putin — and one particular idée fixe that has featured prominently in his speeches gives an idea of what occupies the Russian dictator’s subconscious.

https://t.co/BBj0d505wu

[Siobhán O'Grady @siobhan_ogrady]

After a night of nonstop bombardment, I learned that the son of our lovely elderly building concierge has died from frontline injuries. His soldier son, her grandson, died two weeks ago. She is still wearing her black mourning scarf. She will not take it off. This is this war.

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

They warned me that if I voted for Kamala Harris we’d get a new deal with the Iranian regime worse than the JCPOA. I voted for Kamala, and they were right.

[Kenneth Roth @KenRoth]

Trump claims to champion “the West” but defines it so narrowly and so aggressively that most actual Western nations fail to qualify.
https://t.co/Qesw751UqQ

[S Sebag Montefiore @simonmontefiore]

Terrible scenes here as the majestic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra- the Monastery of the Caves - burns, deliberately struck by missiles sent by Russia under Putin who presents himself as the leader of a Christian Civilisation and Russian World.
The attack is a sign of desperation - a nihilistic attempt to destroy Ukraine's own history culture and religion, the ugly rage that if Russia cannot have it then nor can Ukraine. The Caves are older than Russia, much older since Russia was in part invented by Peter the Great but even a century older than the earliest foundation of Moscow as a minor fortress. Indeed it is not just ironic but revealing that the founder of Moscow itself, the Rurikid Prince Yuri I Vladimirovich known as Yuri the Long-Armed, Dolgorukiy, is buried there. Founded when Russia did not exist, when Moscow was a forest, it was initially ruled by the fissiparous Rurikid princes of Kievan Rus and built by priests from Mount Athos around the 1050s. It was sacked several times by Mongol invaders and the Mongol rulers of Russia the Genghizid khans of the Golden Horde - echoes of today - and later ruled by a succession of realms including the huge Grand Duchy of Lithuania.... And then swallwed into the Principality of Muscovy by Peter the Great's father Alexei.
In 1787, when Catherine the Great progressed down towards the newly conquered Crimea, she rendez-voused with her co-ruler Prince Potemkin in Kyiv. He was half sybarite half coenobite and while he was waiting for her, he moved into the Caves and lived there for months, holding court for ambassadors and adventuresses - in between spasms of prayer and scourging. Putin identifies with Catherine and Potemkin who conquered Crimea and south Ukraine and he stole the body of Potemkin during this war. But Potemkin loved the Lavra... As the Red Army retreated in 1941, the Soviets blew up parts of the Lavra and it was rebuilt after the war.... Now its destruction is heartbreaking - it semaphores the barbarism and bankruptcy and nihilism of the Russian war - it may just mark a new low in a bloodcurdled spiral of brutality that is this unnecessary imperial conflict but one can only hope that the vandal madness of this attack marks another stage in the road to the realization that Putin's war has failed ....

https://t.co/gwYWdaMtt0

[Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof]

Putin’s advisor Ushakov says Trump, in a conversation with Putin today, promised to put pressure on the Europeans and Ukraine during the G7 summit, and otherwise, to accept Russian peace conditions.
(Uncommon in a readout to speak on behalf of the interlocutor, by the way.)

[Carlos Abadi @NewSamawal]

The US secretly approved a financial and maritime arrangement between Qatar and Iran, under which billions of dollars were paid to Tehran in exchange for free passage for Qatari tankers and ships through the Strait of Hormuz, three diplomatic officials now confirm.

This was a deliberate and conscious course of action by the US administration, which allowed its navy to turn a blind eye to the arrangement, in complete contradiction of its declared policy. The move was intended to ease the crisis in global energy markets and curb rising oil prices.
https://t.co/xDCmqWLT3B

[Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 @bayraktar_1love]

Russian Colonel Oleg Sokolenko, the military commissar of Rostov's Pervomaysky and Proletarsky districts, has died after falling from a window of his own apartment.

Sokolenko was found unconscious beneath his apartment building with injuries consistent with a fall. He later died from his injuries.

[Jacob Heilbrunn @JacobHeilbrunn]

I ponder: Is Trump’s birthday extravaganza his last hurrah? https://t.co/Zyr6HURV74 @ccaryl @melindaharing @EdwardGLuce

[Edward Luce @EdwardGLuce]

"You might have thought the world’s richest man had enough on his plate teeing up history’s biggest IPO. Yet Musk has been devoting many of his waking hours to stoking racial hatred in Britain on this site." My Swamp Notes with @robertshrimsley
https://t.co/KXJvHjuDFK

[Christian Caryl @ccaryl]

Note Putin’s persistent claim that Ukraine is being “supplied” with drones by the West & and that it has no serious air defenses of its own. He simply can’t admit to his domestic audience that Ukraine is actually outclassing Russia in many respects. https://t.co/9XOMl44nfi

[Edward Wong @ewong]

NEW: China arrested a US citizen after Trump met with Xi in Beijing and accused him of endangering national security — a rare charge against an American. The detainee, U Min Zin, is a grad student at @UCBerkeley who researches Myanmar. This adds a new strain to US-China ties.