…personally, having worked with Russian dissidents, independent journalists and feminist nongovernmental organizations for three decades, I see how cold war has been used to suppress independent voices in that country.
Analysis
‘DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?’
This morning, as world leaders prepared to address the United Nations General Assembly, in Afghanistan the Taleban stormed the city of Kunduz. If the Islamic State’s capture of the Iraqi city of Mosul last year wasn’t evidence enough of a failure of American foreign and military policy, the loss of Kunduz surely is.
Speaking to the UN, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin made it clear that he believes that the Americans have only themselves to blame.
PUTIN AND TRUMP ESTABLISH BILATERAL CHANNEL TO MOVE FORWARD (Richard Sakwa)
The two leaders also set up a working group on cyber-security. Above all, although numerous contentious issues divide the two countries, the meeting clearly suggested that, unlike in the Obama years, they would not become personalised.
Daily Beast scrapes bottom of the barrel for anti-Russia coverage
The Daily Beast is not somewhere I would generally turn to for balanced coverage of Russia, and mostly, I scroll past it without reading. But occasionally they manage to prove that there apparently is no limit to the depths they will plunge for a good old anti-Russia story.
Every now and then it drifts from seething hatred of Russia as an entity and Putin as a leader to pure Russophobic insanity. Often they use Russian authors to disseminate the worst of it, as if that somehow makes it more acceptable.
Worst Spy Story Ever: Media Builds On Le Carre Knockoff “Tinker, Trumper, Lawyer, Spy” (Jonathan Turley)
This posting is simply about the suggestion that this was, as stated in the email, a Russian government operation.
Let me try to sum up this theory.
Russia and the US: The End of Evangelism (David Shipler)
Today, Vladimir Putin’s Russia seems driven only by a non-ideological impulse to protect its borderlands militarily, promote itself economically, and expand its international reach to recover its reputation from the humiliation of decline.
VIDEO: Maddow’s Dots May Never Connect’: Max Blumenthal Blasts Trump-Russia Narrative (Tucker Carlson)
While many on the left continue to accuse President Trump and his administration of colluding with the Russians, one well-known progressive thinker said such actions hurt their cause.
VIDEO: NATO-Russia Tensions Rise, Arms Makers Benefit (The Real News)
For the first time, the U.S. has deployed advanced Patriot missiles as part of military exercises in the Baltic region, escalating tensions with Russia and helping boost military industry stock prices to record highs. Aaron Mate of The Real News talks with Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the independent, non-partisan Arms Control Association.
The West is moving Russia’s way, on Syria and even Ukraine
Former British Ambassador to Russia Tony Brenton notes that “behind the misleading briefings, it is plainly the build-up of Russian troops in Syria that has precipitated the meeting [btwn Putin and Obama – ed] . Western commentators have offered the normal range of fanciful explanations for this: to replace the fading US presence in the region, or to put pressure on the Saudis over oil prices. The reality is simpler. As Putin says (and on this is to be believed), Russia’s overriding aim is to block the rise of Islamic fundamentalism which is a direct domestic threat to them in the Caucasus and elsewhere.”
How Russia-gate Met Magnitsky (Robert Parry)
A documentary debunking the Magnitsky myth, which was an opening salvo in the New Cold War, was largely blocked from viewing in the West but has now become a factor in Russia-gate, reports Robert Parry.
VIDEO: Stephen F. Cohen On MSNBC Talking US-Russia Relations and RussiaGate
Princeton and NYU Professor Emeritus and Nation contributor Stephen F. Cohen talks to MSNBC’s Ali Veshi. According to Cohen “the relationship with Russia today is a dangerous as it has ever been in my lifetime. What does Russia want? It doesn’t want this relationship, it’s bad for Russia, it’s bad for Putin, it’s bad for the ambitions Putin has to rebuild Russia at home…”
Russiagate and the Magnitsky Affair, Linked Again (Matt Taibbi)
When I first read the explosive New York Times story about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, I had multiple reactions, writes Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi.
Democracy Breaks Out at the UN as 122 Nations Vote to Ban the Bomb (Alice Slater)
We are witnessing a striking shift in the global paradigm of how the world views nuclear weapon
Kiev Right Wing Violence: Time for Poroshenko to Look in the Mirror?
It’s only now, when extremists pose a threat to the government itself, that the international media has woken up to the rise of the political right. For years now, however, the nationalist right has posed a risk to independent leftists on the ground…Svoboda also has a peculiar habit of resuscitating dubious World War II icons. Svoboda leaders, in fact, admire “proto-Nazis” such as Ernst Jünger, and are “understanding” of Goebbels.
Russia Baiters and Putin Haters (Patrick Buchanan)
When did support for spheres of influence become un-American?
VIDEO: Sparks Fly as Tucker Carlson Battles Romney Adviser on Russia Threat (FNC)
Tucker Carlson had a heated exchange with neoconservative Max Boot over Russia and US Middle East policy.
Russian Involvement and a Redirection of Policy on Syria
The recently increased Russian involvement in Syria ought to be viewed as an opportunity, more so than as a threat or as something that needs to be countered. Although Moscow’s current involvement is only an extension of its longtime relationship with the Syrian regime, it represents just enough of a change to serve as the closest thing we are likely to have to a peg on which to hang some needed rethinking about the Syrian conflict.
Donald Trump Jr.’s Emails Aren’t a “Smoking Gun” or Evidence of Criminal Collusion (Democracy Now, feat. Glenn Greenwald)
Democracy Now! speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept, who notes that Democrats have had similar entanglements with foreign governments.
Putin is Crazy and Sick: The Lows of American Rusology
As the Ukrainian civil war heated up in summer 2014 a slew of articles began appearing claiming that Putin was ‘erratic’, ‘unstable’ etc. None of these were claims were based on anything approaching sound evidence. A classic example is Brian Whitmore “Putin’s Plan or Kremlin Chaos,” RFERL, 28 August 2014, www.rferl.org/content/putins-plan-or-kremlin-chaos/26556263.html.
PODCAST: Trump-Putin Détente Partnership Begins as ‘Russiagate’ Attacks on It Grow (Stephen F. Cohen)
Princeton and NYU Professor Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen argues that a new détente—cooperation in place of conflict—with Russia is imperative due to the unprecedented dangers of the new Cold War, with conflicts from Ukraine and the Baltic region to Syria fraught with real dangers of direct military action between the two nuclear superpowers.