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David R. Sands

David R. Sands

dsands@washingtontimes.com

David R. Sands covered numerous beats, including international trade, banking, politics and Capitol Hill, and spent eight years on the foreign desk as senior diplomatic correspondent. He has authored The Times' weekly chess column since 1993.

Articles by David R. Sands

Swiss Federal President Ignazio Cassis speaks during a press conference in Bern, Switzerland, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. The Swiss president says Russias attack on Ukraine is unacceptable and Switzerland will adopt European Union sanctions, including asset freezes. (Peter Schneider/Keystone via AP)

Famously neutral Swiss sign on to European sanctions against Russia

Switzerland, which has long jealously guarded its neutral status in the face of past world crises, said Monday it will join European Union sanctions against Russia and top officials including President Vladimir Putin in the wake of last week's invasion of Ukraine.

February 28, 2022
A Russian armored personnel carrier burns amid damaged and abandoned light utility vehicles after fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. The city authorities said that Ukrainian forces engaged in fighting with Russian troops that entered the country's second-largest city on Sunday. (AP Photo/Marienko Andrew)

Pressured Putin hints at nukes but agrees to talks with Ukraine

Facing a wall of global opposition and unexpectedly fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces, Russian President Vladimir Putin played the nuclear card Sunday, ordering the country's vast nuclear arsenal be put on a "special combat readiness" status to persuade the U.S. and European nations not to come to Kyiv's aid.

February 27, 2022
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba speaks at the general assembly hall, Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, at United Nations Headquarters. Russian President Vladimir Putin has received no support from members of the U.N. Security Council for his actions to bring separatists in eastern Ukraine under Moscow's control. At an emergency meeting Monday night, the U.S. called Putin's moves a pretext for a further invasion. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Ukraine sees win as Russia agrees on peace talks

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to emergency talks on ways to resolve their five-day war, with Kyiv officials saying the Kremlin's agreement to talk is already a sign things aren't going as planned for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

February 27, 2022
Viktor Orban delivers his annual state of the nation speech in Varkert Bazaar conference hall of Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, Feb 12, 2022. He is preparing with his right-wing party FIDESZ for the upcoming elections on April 3. (AP Photo/Anna Szilagyi)

Putin’s friends in Europe turn on him after invasion

Some of Russian President Vladimir Putin's few sympathetic partners in Europe turned on him sharply Thursday in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, dimming further the Kremlin's hopes of creating new divides in the West as it responds to the crisis.

February 24, 2022
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, center, participates in a media conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Charles Michel at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, Feb 24, 2022. NATO envoys met in emergency session Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a large-scale attack on Ukraine as the 30-nation military organization prepares to bolster its defenses in allies neighboring both countries. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

NATO plans Friday virtual summit to coordinate Russia response

The NATO military alliance will hold an emergency virtual summit Friday to coordinate its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while issuing new orders giving NATO commanders greater freedom to redeploy troops quickly to Eastern Europe.

February 24, 2022
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the media after Friday prayers, in Istanbul, Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. The European Union should assist Afghans both inside Afghanistan and in neighboring countries in order to avoid a new migration wave, Erdogan told Greece's Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a telephone call Friday. Erdogan and Mitsotakis discussed developments in Afghanistan in a rare call as both countries raise concerns about a potential major influx of people fleeing the Taliban.(Turkish Presidency via AP, Pool)

Turkey’s Erdogan calls Russian moves against Ukraine ‘unacceptable’

Turkey, whose control of access to the Black Sea could play a critical role in the crisis in Ukraine, rejects Russia's recognition of two breakaway Ukrainian enclaves as "unacceptable," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call Tuesday.

February 23, 2022
Acholonu-Frenkel after 52. Qe2.

D.C.’s storied role as an incubator of Black chess in America

'As a matter of fact, one can claim the greater Washington D.C. metropolitan area was the cradle for Black chess in America." Local writer and two-time D.C. chess champion Gregory Kearse made that claim in a seminal 1998 article for Chess Life, which noted that the thriving local area chess scene in the 1960s helped develop the first officially rated African American chess masters.

February 22, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has convened top officials to consider recognizing the independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine. Such a move would ratchet up tensions with the West amid fears that the Kremlin could launch an invasion of Ukraine imminently. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Putin orders troops to ‘protect’ breakaway Ukrainian provinces

Defying warnings from the U.S. and its allies, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized two breakaway enclaves in neighboring Ukraine as independent states and authorized Russian troops to cross into Ukrainian territory as a "peacekeeping" force.

February 21, 2022
President Joe Biden speaks the about the long-delayed cleanup of Great Lakes harbors and tributaries polluted with industrial toxins at the Shipyards, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Lorain, Ohio. Cleanup will accelerate dramatically with a $1 billion boost from Biden's infrastructure plan. (AP Photo/Ken Blaze)

‘Very high’ chance of invasion soon, Biden says

President Biden and his top aides unleashed a new volley of warnings Thursday that the Kremlin is preparing for a military invasion of neighboring Ukraine, perhaps in the next few days, as the administration brushed aside Russian protestations to the contrary.

February 17, 2022