American Committee for US-Russia Accord

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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…”