GZERO MEDIA - Key Persons
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Russian writer, philosopher and dissident, once said: "The battle between good and evil runs through the heart of every man." While Paul Kagame has pioneered reforms that have helped stabilize a war-torn country, many believe that his oppressive tactics have led to continued pain and suffering, making it hard for Rwanda's post-genocide society to fully heal.
Job Titles:
- Creative Director at GZERO Media and a Senior Editor
Alex Kliment is Creative Director at GZERO Media and a Senior Editor of Signal. He also writes and directs Puppet Regime, GZERO's political satire puppet series. Alex first joined Eurasia Group in 2006 as a Russia analyst, after which he co-founded the firm's first Emerging Markets practice and later led a research team serving the firm's corporate clients. He's also worked previously as a journalist for the Financial Times in Washington, DC and São Paulo, Brazil. Alex holds degrees from Columbia University and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Alex speaks a few languages and is the only person you will ever meet who has impersonated a New York City phone booth, killed Alexander Hamilton in a suburban commuter parking lot, and done a better Trump voice than Alec Baldwin (bring it on, Alec.)
Medical workers take swab samples from residents at a COVID testing site in Hong Kong.
How do civilians prepare for a war they aren't sure is coming? With a possible Russian invasion looming, we got some views on what life is like on the ground in several cities across Ukraine.
A hostess stands before the opening of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, (FOCAC) in Dakar, Senegal.
Alexsandra Sanford is the Chief Executive Officer of GZERO Media, a subsidiary of Eurasia Group, which she co-founded in 2017 with the firm's president, Ian Bremmer. GZERO is a publisher and multimedia production firm dedicated to helping people make sense of global politics without ideology or agenda.
Prior to GZERO, Alexsandra led global communications for Eurasia Group since 2004 and she remains a member of the senior management team. She played a central role in building the firm's external profile, overseeing the brand and communications strategy, digital communications, and content marketing for Eurasia Group's global offices. Alexsandra previously worked for ABC News, where she produced award-winning international and domestic coverage for "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings." She holds a bachelor of arts in English and French literature from Tufts University and master of international affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
British PM Boris Johnson makes a statement on Sue Gray's report regarding the alleged Downing Street parties during COVID-19 lockdown, in the House of Commons in London, Britain, January 31, 2022.
Boris Johnson's stormy Monday. British PM Boris Johnson's political life got even more complicated on Monday as the highly anticipated "Gray Report" went public, even in heavily redacted form. The report summarizes a parliamentary investigation of parties held at 10 Downing Street during periods of tight COVID restrictions. It remains redacted because many of the events detailed in it are under formal investigation by UK police. But the report still raises questions that Johnson struggled to answer - or simply evaded - during a stormy session of the House of Commons. MPs are drawing particular attention to a party that allegedly took place in Johnson's residence on November 13, 2020. That damning detail could cost the prime minister support from members of his own party, because Johnson denied during a parliamentary session in December 2021 that any such event took place. If the unredacted Gray Report and police investigation reveal that he lied, it could mean the end of Johnson's premiership.
Job Titles:
- Senior Writer of Signal
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and French President Emmanuel Macron. February 8, 2022
Carlos Santamaria is Senior Writer of Signal. He joined GZERO Media from a UN agency, and has also worked for the Asian Development Bank, Devex, Philippine online news platform Rappler, and news agencies EFE and Xinhua. Carlos spent over a decade in Asia and has worn many hats throughout his career, but he's a journalist at heart and feels right at home with Signal's team of political news nerds. The only thing he loves more than writing about global politics is watching FC Barcelona football (soccer) games in his native Spain.
A Muslim student joins a protest against the recent hijab ban in India's Karnataka state.
Job Titles:
- Pulitzer Prize - Winning Columnist
Job Titles:
- Founder
- President
- President of Eurasia Group
Ian Bremmer: It will. I think, and I'm quite surprised that Zelenskyy is not staying in Kyiv. I hope he brings an extra suitcase or two. But I mean, there is no question. The one good piece of news is that I've never seen the NATO Alliance this cohesive, frankly, in terms of the way that they're responding to this challenge.
Ian Bremmer is President and Founder of GZERO Media. He hosts the weekly digital and broadcast show, GZERO World, where he explains the key global stories of the moment, sits down for an in-depth conversation with the newsmakers and thought leaders shaping our world, and takes your questions.
Ian is also the President and Founder of GZERO Media's parent company, Eurasia Group, the leading global political risk research and consulting firm. Ian is an NY Times bestselling author of nine books including "Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World," "The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?" and "Superpower: Three Choices for America's Role in the World." His latest book, "US vs Them: The Failure of Globalism," looks at the failure of elites to address the growing spread of populism around the world.
Ian earned a master's degree and a doctorate in political science from Stanford University, where he went on to become the youngest-ever national fellow at the Hoover Institution. Although he might not admit it, Ian's secretly jealous of his puppet's weekly interviews with the world's most powerful leaders.
Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: Hi, everybody. Ian Bremmer here and right from the Bank of England, where we are looking at the beginning of a new Cold War between the United States, NATO, Europe, and Russia. It has indeed been an extraordinary momentous 24 hours. The Russians have decided they are going ahead to recognize the independence of the breakaway Ukrainian territories in the Donbas, sending in troops. Certainly, expected given where the Douma was heading and the statements from Putin over the last week. But nonetheless, this means diplomacy has failed between the United States, its allies and the Russians. It means sanctions are coming on to the Russians and the Russians are likely to respond and retaliate.
A couple things that are incredibly important here. The first is the Chinese response. The Chinese gave Putin the strongest possible support when he was in Beijing for the Olympics, in a joint statement made by Xi Jinping and President Putin. But since then, the Chinese have also made clear that they support a diplomatic resolution of Ukraine. They support Minsk negotiations going forward, and they supported the Ukrainian territorial integrity. Despite all of that, the Russians have basically just put a handout to the Chinese. They've said we are uninterested in supporting what you are promoting. And given that China is the most important by far a friend of Russia on the global stage among major powers, that's going to be immensely important to see how the Chinese respond here. If they decide they're really opposed to what the Russians are doing and willing to use their leverage with the Russians, keep in mind, you've got sanctions from the US and Europe. The Chinese are incredibly important, that could help bring a climb down. Short of that, we are in severely escalatory territory. We're going to see more sanctions, cyberattacks, which had been cut down by the Russians on critical infrastructure on the US, on other European countries, likely to return in very short order. And it's very hard to imagine with the end of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that suddenly the Russians are going to take those kinds of costs on board and only take the occupied territories of the Donbas. You would expect they're going to go farther than that. And that would include taking territory that not only is Ukrainian, but that presently is occupied by Ukrainians. That means you start to see Ukrainians getting killed. It also means much more severe sanctions are coming on board. So, in escalatory mode as that occurs.
Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: We are looking at the beginning of a new Cold War between the United States, NATO, Europe, and Russia. The Russians have decided to recognize the independence of the breakaway Ukrainian territories in the Donbas, sending in troops. This means diplomacy has failed between the US, its allies and the Russians. It means sanctions are coming, and the Russians are likely to respond and retaliate. Chian's response is incredibly important - and could help bring a climb down, if China is willing to use its leverage with Putin.
Kerry, who now serves as President Joe Biden's Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, also warned that the biggest concern for Russia's economy right now is not it's expensive military operation in Ukraine, but rather the country's melting permafrost, crumbling urban infrastructure, and how they extract their natural gas. "Russia has a profound climate problem," Kerry added.
Job Titles:
- US Vice President Kamala Harris
Job Titles:
- Freelance Journalist from Donetsk
Meanwhile, in separatist-held Donetsk, people's views of the situation are different. There, says Kateryna Malofieieva, 33, a freelance journalist from Donetsk who covers the conflict from both sides, Russia isn't seen as a threat. And with few people in the Russian-backed enclave reading western news sources, there is little sense of panic.
Job Titles:
- Estonia 's Former President
Mircea Geoană, Deputy Secretary General of NATO, says that when the alliance decided that cyber should be considered an "operational domain," the bloc also made the call that a "massive cyber attack" on one member state could trigger Article 5 of NATO's Washington Treaty. This strikes at the heart of the alliance's defense clause, which states that an attack on one country is considered an attack on all allies.
Job Titles:
- German Chancellor
- President of Ukraine
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Volodymyr Selenskyj, President of Ukraine, give a press conference
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends a news conference in the Federal Chancellery following the video conference with the country's 16 state leaders on the surge in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, in Berlin, Germany, December 9, 2021.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder of the Independent Media Organization Nakipelo
Job Titles:
- President Joe Biden Delivers Remarks on Tuesday about Russian Aggression in Ukraine. ( Reuters )
- US Vice President Kamala Harris
President Joe Biden took to the airwaves Tuesday to address Americans about Russian aggression in Ukraine, warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to "carve out a big chunk of Ukraine." Putin deployed forces to the Donbas overnight, and on Tuesday said these newly "independent" regions extend deeper than the two republics he recognized on Monday, including areas under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian government. "He's setting up a rationale to go much further," Biden said.
In response to the Russian moves, and in coordination with western allies, Biden is imposing sanctions he says go far beyond those imposed in 2014, when the Kremlin annexed Crimea and stoked a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. The new measures include full blocking sanctions on two large state-owned Russian banks, VEB and Russia's military bank, as well as new restrictions on Russia's sovereign debt.
"That means we've cut off Russia's government from Western finance," he said. "It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either."
Biden also said that certain Russian elites and their family members will also be targeted with sanctions because they benefit from the "corrupt gains of the Kremlin's policies."
The US president hits back at Russian aggression in Ukraine, detailing sanctions that are meant to inflict financial pain on the Kremlin.
An invasion of Ukraine could wipe out half of Russia's invading forces and could even topple Vladimir Putin.
That's what would happen if Russia invades Ukraine, according to Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's ambassador to the UN.
In an interview with GZERO, Ukraine's former deputy minister of foreign affairs called the Russian military buildup an "unnatural, unjustifiable concentration of troops." Kyiv estimates there are between 120,000 and 130,000 Russian troops deployed along its border, but Kyslytsya said Moscow will need more than that to invade.
"It's not [a] sustainable occupation, because the casualties will be so high that you can easily lose half of your personnel in a week," said Kyslytsya.
Job Titles:
- Brazil 's President Jair Bolsonaro at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia / REUTERS
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Travels to the USA for His Inaugural Visit
- Signal Writer
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ( L ) and Russia 's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Arrive for Security Talks at the Hotel President Wilson.
A Russian serviceman takes part in combat patrol and anti-sabotage drills involving RS-24 Yars road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile systems.
Job Titles:
- Senior Editor
- German Chancellor
- President of Ukraine
- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping Hold Talks in Beijing, China
- Russian President Vladimir Putin Speaks During a News Conference Following Talks With Hungarian PM Viktor Orban in Moscow on February 1, 2022.
Willis Sparks is a senior editor for Signal. He is also a Director in the Global Macro practice at Eurasia Group, where he has worked since 2005. He has made speeches on international politics on every continent except Antarctica, and appears regularly as an analyst on CBS. Willis holds degrees from Brown University, the Juilliard School, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He also holds an honorary degree from the Moscow Art Theatre School. A native of Macon, Georgia, Willis has worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera. As a child, he declined an opportunity to spend an afternoon riding the Great American Scream Machine, a rollercoaster, with Ronald McDonald, for money. He has never regretted that decision.
At the age of 10, Mohamed Bouazizi became the primary breadwinner for his family, and at age 26 he was earning his money by selling fruit and vegetables off a cart in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid.
On December 17, 2010, local police confiscated his produce for the umpteenth time, but this time they also beat and humiliated him. Bouazizi walked to the town hall to try to get his vegetables back, but no one there would talk to him. He then walked outside, doused himself in gasoline, and lit himself on fire.
Satellite television and social media began beaming his story across the Middle East. By the time he died on January 4, 2011, protesters who understood the hopelessness and desperation that drove Bouazizi to suicide had filled Tunisian streets demanding change. Ten days later, strongman President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, in power for 23 years, was forced to resign. The protests spread to Egypt and then across the region.