Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
DW
Jamie Shea likes to reference knowledgeable people. In the context of the NATO enlargement process, he quotes Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, who said: "All great truths begin as blasphemies."
Ten years ago on March 29, 2004, NATO underwent the biggest enlargement in its history. Seven new member states in Eastern Europe joined the most powerful military alliance on the planet, some of them former members of the communist Warsaw pact.
"People said if you enlarge NATO, it will become dysfunctional. Of course the argument was it will potentially antagonize Russia," Shea told DW. He has been with NATO for more than 30 years and currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges.
Al Jazeera America
Russia has pulled out a motorised infantry battalion from a region near Ukraine's eastern border, the Russian defence ministry said.Monday's announcement pointed out that the battalion was heading back to its permanent base in Russia's Samara region after completing trainings, but did not make clear whether other Russian troops near the border would pull back.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin told Germany's Angela Merkel in a phone call on Monday that he had ordered a partial withdrawal of Russian army from the region, Merkel's spokesman said in a statement.
The move came after US Secretary of State John Kerry said - after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday - that progress on resolving the crisis over Ukraine depended on a troop pullback from the border.
Earlier on Monday Ukraine's defence ministry said there has been a gradual withdrawal of Russian troops from its border.
Spiegel Online
In last Monday's meeting of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leaders in Berlin, the Angela Merkel spoke extensively about war and peace, including a detailed look at the Ukraine crisis. The chancellor also focused on her telephone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as the role played by US President Barack Obama. When she then turned her attention to NATO, many expected a mild rebuke for Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen.With her comments published in SPIEGEL a week ago, in which she urged NATO to show a greater presence on the alliance's external borders, von der Leyen dominated the German news cycle that weekend. Many interpreted her demand as a rhetorical escalation in the ongoing standoff with Russia and there was plenty of criticism, including from Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).
The Guardian
Russia flaunted its grip on Crimea on Monday, with the prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, flying in to the newly annexed territory for a cabinet meeting, cementing the sense of resignation in Kiev and the west that the seizure of the territory is irreversible.At the same time, Russian forces appeared to be pulling back from the border with eastern Ukraine. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, said in a phone conversation with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, that he had ordered a "partial withdrawal" from the border, according to Berlin.
The developments came after a four-hour meeting on Sunday between the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, in which both sides put their visions for resolving the Ukraine crisis on the table. After the meeting in Pairs, Lavrov said Ukraine should introduce federalisation of power.
"Both sides had very concrete positions, and it was perhaps the first time over the past few months that things were called by their real names," said a source in the Russian delegation, who did not elaborate further on whether this left the sides closer or further away from an agreement.