There are some useful tests that can be applied to judge the claims of Russia influence.
BREAKING: Official: Russia conducts first airstrike in Syria
Washington (CNN)[Breaking news update, 7:53 a.m.]
Russia has conducted its first airstrike in Syria, near the city of Homs, a senior U.S. official told CNN Wednesday . The Russians told the United States that they should not fly U.S. warplanes in Syria, but gave no geographical information about where they planned to strike. The senior official said U.S. missions are continuing as normal.
PODCAST: Cold-War News Not Fit to Print (Stephen F. Cohen)
Princeton and NYU Professor Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen argues that the mainstream media narrative of the new Cold War, and of “Russiagate,” which has become a constituent part of US-Russian relations in American politics, excludes important elements of events that do not conform to the orthodox view that Russian President Putin is solely to blame for the new Cold War…
Putin and Obama clash over Syria as Russia calls for ‘anti-Hitler’ type alliance against Isil
In his long-awaited speech at the United Nations, the Russian president fiercely attacked American policy in Syria and around the world and criticised the West for “exporting social experiments” in the form of democratic revolutions, which he blamed for the Middle East crisis.
PODCAST: Reconsidering Russia: Zhores Medvedev Talks To Pietro Shakarian
Dr. Zhores Medvedev discusses his life and career. This exhaustive interview includes discussions of Dr. Medvedev’s scientific research, his youth in 1920s-1930s Leningrad, his father’s arrest during Stalin’s Terror in the 1930s, his military service in the Red Army during World War II, his dissent, and the dissent of his twin brother Roy Medvedev.
Book Review: Henry Kissinger’s ‘World Order,’ 2014
In 2010, when I published Great Post-Cold War American Thinkers on International Relations, I was concerned that a goodly number of the thinkers were well advanced in years and might not last very long. Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Noam Chomsky were all in their 80s, and others among my chosen 10 thinkers were not far behind. From my selfish perspective, the early demise of any would cut both their and my book’s relevance and drawing power.
As it turned out, only two of my great thinkers have died. Sam Huntington passed away before my book appeared. And the second, Stanley Hoffmann, left us just two weeks ago. The other eight are alive and well, and one, in particular, Henry Kissinger, has been going from strength to strength.
Time for sober realism on the U.S.-Russia relationship (Katrina vanden Heuvel)
…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.
‘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.
Ukraine crisis: Vladimir Putin ‘told Kiev he may accept peacekeeping force in eastern region’
Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, has said he may agree to the deployment of international peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine, the Foreign Minister in Kiev, Pavlo Klimkin, has told The Independent.
Mr Putin, who is said to have made the remarks during informal talks at peace negotiations in Minsk earlier this year, has shown no public sign of accepting such a move.
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.
President Obama UN speech transcript
Out of the ashes of the Second World War, having witnessed the unthinkable power of the atomic age, the United States has worked with many nations in this Assembly to prevent a third world war — by forging alliances with old adversaries; by supporting the steady emergence of strong democracies accountable to their people instead of any foreign power; and by building an international system that imposes a cost on those who choose conflict over cooperation, an order that recognizes the dignity and equal worth of all people.
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.
The Full Transcript of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Speech at the United Nations General Assembly
The 70th anniversary of the United Nations is a good occasion to both take stock of history and talk about our common future. In 1945, the countries that defeated Nazism joined their efforts to lay a solid foundation for the postwar world order. Let me remind you that key decisions on the principles defining interaction between states, as well as the decision to establish the UN, were made in our country, at the Yalta Conference of the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition.
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.
U.S. support for Syria rebels illegal: Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday branded U.S. support for rebel forces in Syriaas illegal and ineffective, saying U.S.-trained rebels were leaving to join Islamic State with weapons supplied by Washington.
In an interview with U.S. networks recorded ahead of a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Putin said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deserved international support as he was fighting terrorist organizations.