American Committee for US-Russia Accord

It’s not all about Russia…

The Ukraine crisis and the attendant confrontation with Russia assume a “phony war” feel these days. As in the perversely calm months between the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the Blitzkrieg into the Low Countries the following spring, nothing much seems to be happening.

The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States at first seemed likely to rearrange the U.S.-Russia-China strategic triangle.

The U.S. government and mainstream media present Russia as a dangerous aggressor that must be resisted and punished, but American citizens who toured Russia in May found a very different reality, reports Rick Sterling.

As Trump and Putin strive for an essential US-Russia alliance against international terrorism, American media frenzy, fueled by anonymous leaks, continues to thwart it.

Since the Maidan Revolution, Right Sector has maintained only marginal public support. Currently, the party holds just one seat in the parliament of 422. Recently, however, as the group has become more outspoken against the current Petro Poroshenko administration, its numbers have risen.

The current course of denigrating those deemed insufficiently Ukrainian will only lead to a fracturing of the country.

Nation contributing editor and ACEWA Founding Board Member Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussion of the renewed US-Russian Cold War.

This week, the subjects include, among other things, why, after President Obama praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for his role in the agreement with Iran, is his administration escalating its rhetorical and military offensive against Russia?

A de facto directorate of several hundred managers sitting atop dozens of military, diplomatic, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies, from the Department of Homeland Security to the National Reconnaissance Office, has come to dominate national security policy, displacing the authority not only of Congress but of the courts and the presidency as well.

Merry warns that Russians are referring to the political climate in the US as “schizophrenic.” Carlson observes that what Jared Kushner is accused of doing, in attempting to set up a ‘back-channel’ with the Russians, is perfectly legal, while Merry notes that every new US administration contacts foreign governments before taking office.

Trump critics are treating the latest revelation as further evidence of Russian collusion, but given the constant stream of leaks coming from the intelligence agencies, it may have been the best option to improve relations with the Kremlin.

The Kremlin seems to have bet big on the willingness of U.S. intelligence agencies to leak.

One of Canada’s well known journalists was in Ukraine last month on reporting duty. Readers of mainstream media in Canada will be surprised to read Diane Francis’ observations of her visit. She has penned several articles in the World Post praising the extreme-right and neo-Nazi paramilitary forces that are allied with the Ukrainian government in waging civil war in the east of the country.

The stakes are high for both men, even if they are not at the same level for both. It is fitting at this point to examine the present situation of Russia and of the Russian economy. Russia is emerging from the 2015-2016 recession. Yet, the circumstances of this emergence remain blurry.