Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.

[Q]: Russia is part of the solution and the problem. When it comes to Russia, I must admit, I have my biases . Political and economic developments in Russia have a direct impact on the Caucasus and particularly my own country, Armenia . The heightened tension between Russia and the West limits Armenia's ability to balance between two friendly sides while Russia's economic reversals impact Armenia's fragile economy . Not to mention what another Cold War might do to Armenia, to the region and the world . My enquiry generated a commotion in the hall and the Finnish representative, pre-empting the speaker, challenged my premise arguing that Finland's choice was of its own volition , which is not the case in Ukraine . Schussel concurred . Fair point . But in international relations, a state's "volition" is so often shaped and determined by perceived threats . It's called diplomacy and it requires reconciling the pursuit of national interests with regional and global peace . Finland's President Sauli Niinisto himself, in a recent interview with the Washington Post, predicted that Finland joining NATO would negatively affect relations with Russia . "It is very obvious that if Finland joins NATO, that would undoubtedly harm our relations with Russia . You have to keep in mind that 1,300km is a long border, and you just don't keep it closed . On the contrary, it's a living border," Niinisto said . It's time Ukraine does the same . The world is inching towards a new Cold War and at the heart of it is Ukraine . When and what will be the last straw is hard to tell . But then it will be too late to reverse things from a point of no return . Russia today faces serious geopolitical and economic challenges . It is in direct confrontation with the West on a vision about the world order, on Ukraine, on Syria and on a great many other large and not-so-large issues . Economically, Russia is beginning to feel the aggregate impact of the West's economic sanctions , falling oil prices, the devaluation of the ruble, capital outflow and a decline in direct foreign investment . But to think that these pressures will force the Kremlin into even partial submission and to change its posture on global issues and weaken its grip on its immediate neighbourhood would be to misjudge President Vladimir Putin . It could have the exact opposite effect , as Russia's president perhaps walks his way out of this through consolidation at home and further assertiveness and intransigence abroad . In his annual State of the Nation address to parliament on December 4, Putin evoked exactly that . He called for the public's resilience in the face of hardship, and promised to continue his foreign policy in the belief in the justness of Russia's cause and greatness . Russia's(or Putin's) convictions are anchored on several real or perceived premises . Russian influence . First ,  Russia believes that the US never stopped containing Russia . Since the collapse of the Berlin wall, NATO's and the EU's borders have moved east . Russia fears that Ukraine's and Georgia's expressed desire to join both organisations, risks bringing those organisations to Russia's most vulnerable borders - to the east and the south . In his address condemning the "pure cynicism" of the West, he accused western governments of seeking to raise a new "iron curtain" around Russia and suggested that even if Crimea had not been annexed, the West would have come up with a different pretext to impose sanctions to contain Russia's resurgence . Second ,  Russia firmly believes that Americans are interventionists and falsely moralistic in their discourse . They are heavily involved in using soft power to manipulate and shape the will of the people while advocating the independence and sovereignty of states and respect of the will of those same people to determine their own future . In the same speech, Putin accused the West of meddling in Russia's internal affairs, claiming that sanctions were merely an excuse to weaken Russia . Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov charged the West with seeking regime change in Moscow . Russia has always blamed the West for its policies of interference in other countries' internal affairs, but had never before implied that it had worries of its own . As we are faced with the possibility of another Cold War and are challenged to look for ways to avoid it , it is worth looking into history's verdict on the original one . Facing a Cold War . First there are the traditionalists of the 1960s who argued that the Cold War was the direct result of Stalin's aggressive Soviet expansionism . Later on, particularly during the Vietnam War, the revisionists (William Appleman Williams) challenged that view blaming the US for the Cold War, arguing that:"America's chief aim in the years after the war was to make sure that there was an 'open door' for American trade, and that this led the American government to try to make sure that countries remained capitalist like the United States." Then there were the post-revisionists (John Lewis Gaddis) in the 1970s who believed that:"America and Russia wanted to keep the peace after the war but that conflict was caused by mutual misunderstanding, reactivity, and above all the American inability to understand Stalin's fears and need to defend himself after the war." The latter is the closest guide to today's problems . One of the specificities of the current period is that the West considers Russia to be both part of the solution but part of the problem as well . Indeed ,  Russia supports the separatists in Ukraine and is the only power that can influence decisions there and make the rebels listen . In Iran, Russia built the heavy water Arak nuclear power station which was perceived to be a huge problem , even as it offers to supply enriched uranium or host Iran's centrifuges as part of a solution . In Syria, Russia backs the Assad regime while it remains engaged in the political process and under certain circumstances can influence Assad's decisions . The list grows even longer if one considers the conflicts in other parts of Russia's neighbourhood . From the Moldovan to the Georgian and the Armenian- Azerbaijani conflicts, Russia has a major influence and say in the final outcomes . As a result of this duality, the line is blurred between engagement and confrontation, creating misunderstandings and uncertainties, but also opportunities for both Russia and the US . This was not the case in the East- West standoff during the Cold War . These beliefs and perceptions are both strengths and weaknesses for one side or the other . Taken together, they nullify each other . In the bigger picture, in the face of enormous global disturbances causing untold carnage and loss of life, they seem trivial . It is time that the major players look beyond history and personalities and transcend the zero-sum thinking of the past .
[A]: When it comes to Russia, I must admit, I have my biases Political and economic developments in Russia have a direct impact on the Caucasus and particularly my own country, Armenia


[Q]: The trap of insecurity: Extrajudicial killings in Kenya. Over the years, Kenyan police have acquired a dubious reputation of being a source of insecurity instead of one of security . In many instances, the police represent clear, palpable and imminent danger to the lives of Kenyan citizens . The transformation of the police from a security institution into a bastion of insecurity didn't occur overnight , nor did it come as a surprise ; it was the inevitable outcome of a number of factors . Some of these factors are beyond their control . For instance ,  policemen are underpaid and ill-equipped to do their job ; others seem to be an institutional choice, such as the endemic corruption within the police force . Under the previous constitution, the police were at the beck and call of the executive , which used it as a tool of coercion to further its political goals . As a result , when confronted by a new security situation, the executive's default response has been to set up a "special" police unit to address the situation . In most cases, t he unit would operate under minimum oversight and maximum impunity . More than any other institution in the country, the police has deep institutional problems , but one of the most detrimental ones is its involvement in extrajudicial killings. Remarkably, this is not only a new phenomenon , but it is deeply entrenched with a clear pattern . In the 1990s, crime was on the rise in Kenya . In order to stem the high rates of carjacking and violent robberies, in 1995 the government formed a new police unit called the Flying Squad. This special unit was given the express authority to shoot any suspect on sight without due process . As a result, the unit was implicated in multiple and egregious extrajudicial killings , which they claimed was their way of dealing with the new security reality . In some cases, the police officers were caught shooting suspects after they had surrendered or were lying face down . The unit executed several innocent people in cold blood . The police command instead of seeing the unit's trigger-happy attitude as dangerous, celebrated it as the only "medicine" with which to treat spiralling crime . The late 1980s and 1990s saw deep economic problems, shrinking political space for dissent and increasing insecurity . This was the time when criminal gangs emerged and flourished . These gangs e stablished their "spheres of influence" , mostly in slum areas, where the state's presence was negligible . To establish loyalty from the community and enhance their legitimacy, these groups provided security for a token fee . To exert their superiority, from time to time, these groups engaged each other over "territories" and business interests . Among these groups were the Mungiki, the Taliban, the Kosovo boys, the Baghdad boys, Chinkororo, and the Kalenjin Warriors . Mungiki is a Kikuyu word for multitude . The organisation had both a cultural and political element to it . In the beginning of the group's existence, the social aspect was more prominent and it involved traditional Kikuyu beliefs in the god named Ngai. But as the organisation expanded, it began taking an overtly political posture , which brought them into confrontation with the state . Mungiki operated primarily in the Nairobi slums, in the Central Province and parts of the Rift Valley . In these areas, the group started providing the poor in slum areas with protection and social services for a fee . Refusal to pay the protection " tax " almost always resulted in violence and killings . In 2002, the Kenyan government banned 18 of these criminal gangs . The spread of Mungiki's influence forced the government in 2007 to establish a special police unit called Kwekwe which was tasked primarily with hunting down members of Mungiki . But Kwekwe's operation against the criminal group went too far . According to a National Commission on Human Rights 2008 report:"Extrajudicial executions and other brutal acts of extreme cruelty have been perpetrated by the police against so-called Mungiki adherents and that these acts may have been committed pursuant to official policy sanctioned by the political leadership, the police commissioner and top police commander" . HRW observed in 2008 that,"The brutality of the police crackdown matched or even exceeded that of the Mungiki itself." Kenya has been in the crosshairs of the transnational jihadi movement . In the past, the fact that Kenya was seen as being firmly in the western sphere of influence made Kenya a target , with most of the incidents, including the 1998 US embassy attack, targeting western interests . However ,  after Kenya's intervention in Somalia in 2011, the country itself become a target . Terrorism activity in Kenya reached a peak with the attack on the Westgate shopping mall in September 2013 , when unidentified gunmen killed 67 people and injured almost 200 others . As a response to the growing terrorism threat, the Kenyan government created the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) in March 2003, following the 2002 attack on an Israeli-owned Mombasa hotel . This was also accompanied by the passage of Anti-Terrorism Act in 2012 . As part of the wider counterterrorism effort, the government also began a huge crackdo wn on the Somali and Muslim communities especially in Nairobi, parts of Northern Kenya and coastal Kenya . As the crackdown intensified, a number of extrajudicial killings of Muslim preachers took place, some in the coastal city of Mombasa . Most of the victims were suspected of having connections with Somalia's al-Shabab group . While in almost all the cases the police deny culpability , research by human rights organisations reveals the ATPU's involvement . In its August 2014 report,"Kenya: Killings, disappearance by anti-terror police," HRW points to" ...evidence of at least 10 cases of extrajudicial killings of terrorism suspects, some of whom were last seen in ATPU custody or had been threatened by the unit's officers after courts had released them" . The Kenyan government has accused some of the clerics who were killed of recruiting Muslim youth for terrorism activities through their mosques . However ,  despite initiating investigations against them, the government never followed through to prosecute the imams . After public outcry over the killing of Muslim cleric Ibrahim "Rogo" Omar, the government set up a task force to investigate his murder . The director of public prosecution promised in 2013 that he will institute an inquest, but has not done so yet . One of the commissions established following the 2007-2008 violence to look at the role of the police, was the Waki Commission . Established to look into the circumstances and facts surrounding the violence and provide recommendations, the Waki Commission found that of the 1,500 deaths, the police was responsible for more than 30 percent of them . As a result several reform measures were proposed including the establishment of a civilian oversight of the police, and many other reforms . However ,  due to lack of political will, the police reforms have stalled . The extrajudicial killings by the police in Kenya are anchored in a systemic lack of accountability and deeply entrenched culture of pervasive impunity . While the police undoubtedly face ever changing security challenges , its involvement in extrajudicial killings make matters worse . Effective security sector reform is the only way forward .
[A]: Over the years, Kenyan police have acquired a dubious reputation of being a source of insecurity instead of one of security


[Q]: Diversity among police officers is key, but it won't solve the problems with policing. In Ferguson, Missouri, 50 of the 53 police officers are white in a city that is two-thirds African American . In Connecticut's state capital, Hartford, 66% of the police department is white but only 16% of the residents are . And these are just two examples: despite progress over the past 50 years, many police departments remain predominantly white in cities and towns where the majority of the population is nonwhite . There are some important exceptions to the disparity pattern . Several big city police departments are majority-black or majority-Hispanic (Atlanta, Birmingham, Detroit, Washington, Miami, Santa Fe and El Paso, for instance) , while others (such as Chicago) are so diverse that no single group comprises the majority . Yet for many other cities, the gap between the complexion of the police department and the local population is huge . Why does this matter? Do police officers of different racial and ethnic backgrounds act differently while on the job? Do they have different kinds of relationships with minority communities? Aren't all officers trained to do their jobs similarly and to treat all civilians the same regardless of race? Research shows that, in general in the US, there is not a strong correlation, let alone a causal relationship, between an officer's race and how officers treat members of the public when they respond to calls from civilians or stop and question them on the streets Statistics are, of course, not predictive of individual behavior , and studies of specific departments or communities vary . A 2004 study in Indianapolis (Indiana) and St  Petersburg (Florida) by Ivan Sun and Brian Payne, for example, found that black officers were more likely than white officers working in black neighborhoods to provide information, referrals to other agencies, and to treat residents respectfully , although the black officers were also more likely to use physical force against citizens in conflict situations . But ,  again, most studies find similarities overall in police behavior irrespective of officers' racial background . Shared training in the academy, as well as on-the-job socialization by fellow officers, results in more similarities than differences among officers when it comes to their policing activities, including similarities in how officers of all races treat white versus non-white citizens . So we should not view racial diversification on the force as a panacea for improving police treatment of minorities : instead if minority officers adopt majority attitudes about those they serve and protect , it might hardly help at all . A 2008 study in Baltimore, Maryland by Peter Moskos documented precisely this shared mentality among both white and black officers . But it can pay major dividends in other ways . In one poll of 1,791 Americans that I and a colleague conducted for our book, Race and Policing in America, more than 70% of blacks, Hispanics and whites in the United States believed that a city's police department should have a similar racial composition to the city . The same study found that very few blacks and Hispanics (only 5%) want most officers who work in their neighborhoods to be exclusively of the same race as the residents , and instead most people prefer to see racially- mixed teams of officers patrolling their streets . . Importantly, such diversity can help to build trust and confidence in the police : the more a police department reflects the composition of the local population, the higher the department's reputation among residents , which can provide a foundation to build further trust, coupled with other needed reforms . It also helps, in majority-black or majority-Hispanic cities, if the chief of police comes from that community as well because, as the public face of the department, he or she can allay suspicions when controversial incidents occur in a way that white police chiefs may not be able to do . A diverse police force can also help to decrease the sense that individuals are being stopped and questioned solely because of their race . This clearly applies when the officers and citizens are of the same race , but even encounters between white officers and minority citizens may be perceived as less racialized when the department has a critical mass of minority officers . A representative police force can, in other words, have symbolic benefits that enhance the overall status of a police department and also reduce the perception that actions, such as stops or searches, are based on racial profiling . Most police chiefs realize the advantages of a department that represents the local community , but there are big challenges in recruiting more minority officers . Many Hispanics and African Americans are reluctant to consider a career in law enforcement - not surprising, given the history of policing in America coupled with more recent events . Highly-publicized incidents like the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York only make it more difficult for police departments to recruit minority officers . Recruiters can have some success, however, if they broaden their outreach efforts to include churches and community centers - and if there are pre- existing positive relationships between the police and residents in those minority neighborhoods where community policing has already taken root , which can be built on . Although troubled interactions between minorities and police garner most of the headlines, there are neighborhoods in American cities where working-class and middle-class black and Hispanic residents - including youths - have better relationships with the authorities than on average, as I found in a study of Washington DC neighborhoods . It is in these communities that the police can enhance their recruitment efforts and achieve at least some success . Racial diversification is one crucial ingredient in a larger program of reform that is required to improve police departments throughout the country . A representative police force is not a panacea - but it is a positive reform, and an achievable one .
[A]:
So we should not view racial diversification on the force as a panacea for improving police treatment of minorities