It’s easier to get a substantive comment from the National Security Agency than from The Guardian on this story.
Sergei Halimi: The Guardian’s fake scoop
Had Manafort’s three meetings with Assange really taken place? At first glance, there could be no doubt: the Guardian is respected around the world, and leads in the denunciation of fake news…
VIDEO: Stephen F. Cohen: Trump-Putin dangerously hamstrung by Russia-gate hysteria
Larry King talks with scholar Stephen F. Cohen, whose new book “War withRussia?” details a dangerous new Cold War, made worse by the media andpolitical frenzy over the Mueller probe.
Nikolas K. Gvosdev: Warnings From Eurasia
Perhaps the globe will muddle through the coming crises—and avoid major disasters—but perhaps not.
Reuters: Putin tells Trump that Moscow is open for dialogue
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in a New Year letter on Sunday that Moscow was ready for dialogue on a “wide-ranging agenda”, the Kremlin said following a series of failed attempts to hold a new summit.
PODCAST: Sharon Tennison on Citizen Diplomacy with Russia During the Cold War
Sharon Tennison of the Center for Citizen Initiatives tells her incredible story of citizen diplomacy in the 1980s, when she made dozens of trips to the Soviet Union hoping to meet and befriend regular Russian civilians.
Where Did This Bernie Go? (LA Times, April 28, 1985)
“A handful of people in this country are making decisions, whipping up Cold War hysteria, making us hate the Russians. We’re spending billions on military. Why can’t we take some of that money to pay for thousands of U.S. children to go to the Soviet Union,” asked newly elected Burlington mayor Bernie Sanders.
Ted Galen Carpenter: NATO Partisans Started a New Cold War With Russia
When historians examine the first few decades of the so-called post-Cold War era, they are likely to marvel at the clumsy and provocative policies that the United States and its NATO allies pursued toward Russia.
Aaron J. Mate: New Studies Show Pundits Are Wrong About Russian Social-Media Involvement in US Politics
Far from being a sophisticated propaganda campaign, it was small, amateurish, and mostly unrelated to the 2016 election.
Mark Weisbrot: “Fort Trump” in Poland Is Another Dangerous, Delusional Idea
Should the United States build a permanent military base in Poland? Even some of the more hawkish military analysts, such as Ben Hodges, commander of US Army Europe from 2014 to 2017, have argued that this is “unnecessarily provocative.” The idea was roundly rejected by the US and Germany when it was suggested in 2016.
Lyle J. Goldstein: How Russia Views Mattis’ Departure
Moscow isn’t exactly jumping for joy…Upon news of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw all American troops from Syria, the foreign policy “Blob” in Washington, D.C., has gone into high gear with shrill opposition.
Sarah Lindemann-Komarova: Maria Butina and the Criminalization of Citizen Diplomacy
Prosecuting Butina endangers NGO activists in both Russia and the US.
Michael Tracey: In defense of Maria Butina
It seems entirely plausible that her biggest crime was networking…
AP: Putin issues ominous warning on rising nuclear war threat
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a chilling warning Thursday about the rising threat of a nuclear war, putting the blame squarely on the U.S., which he accused of irresponsibly pulling out of arms control treaties.
Lyle Goldstein: Quandaries of the Kerch Crisis
The United States must act cautiously to defuse the new crisis in the Sea of Azov.
Carl Boggs: Russophobia and the Specter of War
In contrast to earlier cycles of anti-Soviet hysteria, including 1950s McCarthyism, the newer variant comes not from the extreme right but mainly from liberal Democrats and their allies in the “intel community”, warfare state, and media culture.
Glenn Greenwald Talks to NY Observer
“I think journalists ought to be aware that when you’re using intelligence [sources], there’s always a high risk you’re being deceived, lied to, propagandized or manipulated since that is what those agencies are designed to do,” explained Greenwald.
Happy Holidays from ACEWA
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Stephen F. Cohen: The year 2018 in the history of the new Cold War.
US political and media elites remained obsessed with the fictions of Russiagate—which increasingly appears to be Russiagate without Russia and instead mostly tax-fraud-gate and sex-gate…