The claim that Russian meddling in the election is “an act of war” comparable to these events isn’t brand new. Senators from both parties, such as Republican John McCain and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, have long described Russian meddling in 2016 as an “act of war.” Hillary Clinton, while promoting her book last October, described Russia’s alleged hacking of the DNC and John Podesta’s email inbox as a “cyber 9/11.”
The End of the American Empire (Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr.)
In these remarks to the East Bay Citizens for Peace, the Barrington Congregational Church, and the American Friends Service Committee, former Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr., a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, address what he calls the “end of the American Empire.”
Leonid Bershidsky: President Trump, I’m Russian and I’m Not Laughing
I fear the indictment of Russian internet trolls may lead to less freedom for both Americans and Russians.
Kennan Cable: Understanding the “Under Control” Donbas (Brian Milakovsky)
After nearly two years of war, the contested Donbas region in eastern Ukraine is split in two between the Russian-backed “People’s Republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk and the so-called podkontrolny (under control) Donbas.
Blake Hounshell: Confessions of a Russiagate Skeptic
Why I have my doubts about whether Trump colluded with Moscow.
Netherlands to hold referendum on EU-Ukraine deal (AP/Fox News)
Dutch voters are going to the polls on Wednesday — but the topic is Ukraine, not their own country. When Ukrainians rose up against their government in February 2014, the trigger for their anger was then-President Viktor Yanukovych’s refusal to sign an agreement fostering closer links between his country and the 28-nation European Union.
FLASHBACK March 2011: Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media
Military’s ‘sock puppet’ software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda.
U.S., Russia Call for Restraint After Outbreak of Fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh (WSJ)
The U.S. and Russia urged the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan to end fighting around the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region, after an outbreak of intense combat over the weekend claimed the lives of at least 30 people and injured many more.
Robert Merry: U.S.-Russian Hostility is Now Inevitable, and the Results Could be Tragic
Note that the Ukrainian revolution occurred in 2014, which just happened to be the year, according to the U.S. indictments, that Russia initiated its grand program to influence America’s 2016 elections. George Kennan was right: Russia inevitably would react badly to the NATO encirclement policy…
Russia the Eternal Enemy Quotations (George Soros via Patrick Armstrong)
“The race for survival pits the EU against Putin’s Russia. Isis poses a threat to both, but it should not be overestimated. Attacks mounted by jihadi terrorists, however terrifying, do not compare with the threat emanating from Russia.” – George Soros, The Guardian Feb. 2016
Reason: The Never-Ending Search for Foreign Subversives
As in past panics over foreign propaganda, from the 1790s onward, these fears have culminated in calls for controls on expression. Tim Wu had an Orwellian op-ed in The New York Times last week that redefined certain forms of speech—”false stories,” “foreign propaganda”—as forms of censorship, so that suppressing them is really “reinvigorating the First Amendment.”
U.S. Troops on Russia’s Borders (Paul Pillar)
Official Washington’s hype about “Russian aggression” has cloaked a U.S. military buildup on Russia’s borders, possibly increasing risks of escalation and even world war, explains ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.
Jacobin: Who Is Adam Schiff?
Resistance leader? Not really. Democratic congressman Adam Schiff personifies the link between foreign policy hawks and deep-pocketed defense contractors.
Kremlin denies report of Russia-U.S. deal on Assad’s future (Reuters)
The Kremlin said on Thursday that a report by the al-Hayat newspaper on an agreement between Russia and the United States on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not true.
The Hill: Former Pentagon chief: US shares blame for poor relations with Russia
The United States is as much to blame for the state of U.S.-Russia relations as the Kremlin, a former Defense secretary under former President Bill Clinton said Thursday.
Trump’s New Russia Adviser Has Deep Ties to Kremlin’s Gazprom (Bloomberg)
Carter Page brings a “real-world” resume—and says his close relations with Russian business are a strength.
Remembering Robert Parry: When ‘Independent’ Journalism Meant Something
The late publisher of Consortium News was a trailblazer who held lazy reporters and groupthink in the highest contempt.
PODCAST: The Importance of Palmyra, Colonizing Kiev, and Donald Trump (Stephen F. Cohen)
Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US–Russian Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com.) By regaining control of Palmyra, a major and ancient city, Cohen argues, the Syrian army and its ground allies, backed by Russian air power, have dealt ISIS its most important military defeat.
The victory belies the US political-media establishment’s allegations that Putin’s six-month military intervention was a sinister move designed to thwart the West’s fight against terrorism. Instead, it has gravely wounded the Islamic State, whose agents were behind the terrorist assaults on Paris and Brussels. Indeed, Cohen points out, US–Russian cooperation in Syria, which includes the Geneva peace negotiations, is the result of a kind of mini-détente brokered by Secretary of State Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. Not surprisingly, these positive developments are being assailed by the American-led war party, which has redoubled its vilification of Russian President Putin, preposterously accusing him, for example, of “weaponizing the migration crisis” in Europe, even though the crisis began long before Russia’s intervention in Syria. Putin clearly backs Lavrov’s initiatives, even meeting with Kerry several times. Obama’s stance, it seems to Cohen, remains unclear. Neither he nor the American commander of NATO congratulated or otherwise applauded the Syrian–Russian victory in Palmyra, and Obama again went out of his way to insult Putin (twice).
With US backing, the Kerry–Lavrov mini-détente might extend to the political epicenter of the new Cold War, Ukraine. Instead, Cohen explains, Washington is seeking to make the US-born Natalie Jeresko prime minister of Ukraine, putting an American face on the ongoing Western colonization of the Kiev government. Jaresko is also the candidate of the US–controlled IMF, on which Kiev is financially dependent but whose demands for economic austerity measures and “privatization” of state enterprises will almost certainly further diminish the government’s sharply declining popular support and further abet the rise of ultra-right-wing Ukrainian forces and Kiev’s conflict with Russia.
Nina Agrawal: The U.S. is no stranger to interfering in the elections of other countries
The CIA has accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 presidential election by hacking into Democratic and Republican computer networks and selectively releasing emails. But critics might point out the U.S. has done similar things.
Are Russia And The U.S. Starting To See Eye-To-Eye? (Kenneth Rapoza)
Russia’s bombardment of anti-government forces in Syria, coupled with a few daily poundings of jihadis belonging to the thugs known as the Islamic State may be winning the heart and mind of one man: John Kerry. He and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov were never bitter rivals. But a recent power-meeting between the two ended with a sober to upbeat sit-down with Vladimir Putin on March 25 that bodes well for U.S. Russia relations.