American Committee for US-Russia Accord

As opposed to Obama’s confident assertions that the nebulous “international community” led, of course, by the United States, can and should bend the arc of history to its will, Putin expressed a humility born of failure. As Putin told the UN Assembly: “We also remember certain episodes from the history of the Soviet Union. Social experiments for export, attempts to push for changes within other countries based on ideological preferences, often led to tragic consequences and to degradation rather than progress.”

That is only too true.

‘New Russia is dead! Long live Little Russia!’ Aleksandr Zakharchenko, leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), announced the formation of a new state, Malorossiia, ‘Little Russia’…

During a busy week for US-Russian relations, ACEWA Founding Board Member Professor Stephen F. Cohen continued his weekly conversations with WABC radio personality, John Batchelor. As US President Obama and Russian President Putin faced off at the United Nations this week, the conversation between Cohen and Batchelor takes on even greater import and is a must listen for those deeply concerned with the future of the West.

The words above were spoken by former National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice in reference to Iraq’s purported possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) prior to the Iraq War. With the latest allegations against Donald Trump being labelled by some as Russiagate’s “smoking gun” Rice’s quote is actually much more relevant and truthful now than when it was originally uttered.

There are some useful tests that can be applied to judge the claims of Russia influence.

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…

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.

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.

…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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.