​Resume: Russophobia, as psycho-social-political pathology, is diagnosed as a disorder in The West since before the 1000-year-old Roman-Orthodox religious schism and most recently manifested with a vengeance in the course of the 2013-14 with Edward Snowden’s revelations of mass surveillance by the US and its covert activities leading to the Ukraine coup with Russophobia used thereafter as a weapon of mass deception to inflame this latent pathology in the public.

After more than a year since we first heard the BBC “breaking news” about the “Russians Poisoning the Skipals”, all we have are allegations, but there is still no real evidence to present before a judge and jury for a just trial, only media propaganda which has provoked even more fear and hysteria meant to distract people from the government’s bungling and high level of anxiety over Brexit by once again blaming Russia. Never-the-less, it prompted politicians to administer instant sanctions against Russia as punishment. That first day, the “evidence”, presented in the usual clipped, “authoritative” British accents, included interviews with a conservative British MP, then the former US Ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow (2001-05), now with the notoriously hawkish US-based think tank, the Atlantic Council. Thus, the three of them: the BBC “journalist” and the two “experts”, colluded to transform false allegations into “facts”… fueled, as always, by their perpetual prejudice, RUSSOPHOBIA, in the course of their propaganda war to force Russia to surrender to American-led Western Domination or else: have their economy destroyed & their people suffer. Indeed, it is a threat to the whole world played to the discord of rattling nuclear swords with a chorus of vindictive Russian oligarchs, whom Putin expelled for robbing the Russian people. So, now living in London as expats, they would seem to be the more likely culprits. All the while elsewhere in London, thanks to our “special US-UK relationship”, Julian Assange has been excommunicated and imprisoned in a tiny “cell” at the Ecuador embassy for revealing embarrassing American secrets via Wikileaks.

There we have it: the poisoning of our minds by the media and politicians which are owned and controlled by the US-UK-EU 1%, who benefit from Western Hegemony. So, these deluded few are now desperately defending it from the rising powers led by Russia and China with India not far behind demanding a multi-polar, democratic world order.

My search for the roots of this particularly vicious and extremely dangerous hate campaign began in a Dartmouth College Russian Foreign Policy course, which led me to the book, “Russophobia: Anti-Russian Lobby and American Foreign Policy” by San Francisco State University Professor Andrei P. Tsygankov (2009). And there, the detoxification of my mind began as I studied his deft, well-documented deconstruction of the political propaganda disseminated “by various think tanks, congressional testimonials, activities of NGOs and the media” (preface p. XIII)

Then in Italy the following winter, I discovered the work of the Swiss journalist, Guy Mettan, in the Italian geopolitical journal, LiMes: an excerpt from his book, “Creating Russophobia: From the Great Religious Schism to Anti-Putin Hysteria” (2017). There, Mettan informs us that this psycho-social pathology in Western Civilization” goes back more than 1000 years: to the division of Christendom between the Orthodox and Roman churches. Indeed, his research into the depths of history confirms the diagnosis by our renowned American psychiatrist, Robert Jay Lifton, in his 2003 book, “Superpower Syndrome: America’s Apocalyptic Confrontation with the World”. Therein, Lifton states: “More than merely dominate, the American superpower now seeks to control history. Such cosmic ambition is accompanied by an equally vast sense of entitlement, of special dispensation to pursue its aims.” (p.3) And Mettan’s analysis of Russophobia also underscores the work of University of Chicago Professor John J. Mearsheimer, our leading international relations “realist” in his three Henry L. Stimson lectures at Yale University November 2017: “The Roots of Liberal Hegemony”, “The False Promises of Liberal Hegemony” and “The Case for Restraint”: https://macmillan.yale.edu/news/john-j-mearsheimer-liberal-ideals-and-interntional-realities with his book, “The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams, International Realities” published in 2018.

​But what about “Russian Aggression” in Ukraine & Crimea?

In the first place, it was the astute Mearsheimer, who, in the Sept-Oct 2014 Foreign Affairs, informed us “Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West’s Fault: The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin” (pp 77-89), but the American foreign policy establishment, together with ambitious politicians and the me-too media, paid no heed and continues to repeat its fabricated “facts”.
Never-the-less, Mearsheimer is backed up by Richard Sakwa, Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent. In Sakwa’s book, “Russia Against the Rest: The Post-Cold War Crisis of World Order”, 2017, we turn to the section on “Reality Wars and American Power” on p. 217 to read: “It does indeed seem that Russia and Western elites live in totally different worlds, divided by different epistemological understandings of the nature of contemporary reality. The Ukraine crisis crystallized the profound differences between Russian and Atlanticist understandings of the breakdown and its causes.” And he continues on p. 218: “Elite and policy-maker perceptions and attitudes forged in the Cold War years sustain these legacies and frame the discussions of such crucial issues as NATO enlargement, democracy promotion in the post-Soviet area, and strategic arms talks.” Adding that these “are no longer so much legacies as self-regenerating narratives and modes of discourse that preclude a more open-ended understanding of the dynamics and concerns of Russia today.”

Karl Rove: “We’re an empire now; we create our own reality.”
​
[In 2004, journalist Ron Suskind wrote in The New York Times magazine that a top White House strategist for President George W. Bush—identified later as Karl Rove, Bush’s Deputy White House Chief of Staff—told him, “We’re an empire now, we create our own reality.”]
Thus, we’ve become trapped in a contrived “reality” promulgated by neo-conservative warriors under cover of neo-liberal “democracy-spreading-humanitarian-interventionists” to justify an American Empire promoting itself as the indispensable “Liberal World Order”. However, under that global order, as Sakwa points out on p. 219: “If a foreign power is considered to have violated ‘international order’, then it can be overthrown” as a rationale for American “regime change” anywhere around the world: whether to control the supply of copper in Chile or oil in Iran. And, with its eye on Russia’s vast oil, gas and other natural resources, America claims the right to threaten Russia by ringing it with weapons which we would not abide were the Russians to place missiles in Mexico…as the Soviets did in Cuba to defend it after our “Bay of Pigs” invasion that brought humanity to the brink of nuclear war. Thus, Russia was defending itself in Ukraine against further NATO expansion while Crimean citizens, by majority vote in a democratic referendum, chose to rejoin Russia as they had been one country ever since Catherine the Great…except for an interval in the ’50s when Crimea was” gifted” to Ukraine while they were all members of the Soviet Union.

“Ditching Solzhenitsyn, Defender of Russia”

And not to forget that in 1974, after being expelled from the Soviet Union, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn and his family fled first to Zurich then to Vermont in 1976 and lived on a farm near Cavendish, where he continued to write and publish his work. Meanwhile, Mettan, as a journalist covering events related to Russia, became quite distressed over “the widespread prejudices, cartloads of clichés and systematic anti-Russian biases of most western media.” And he went on to say that “the more I traveled, discussed and read, the wider I perceived, the more the gap of incomprehension and ignorance between Western Europe and Russia became evident.

“That was why, during the 1990s, I was shocked by the way the West treated Solzhenitsyn. For decades, we had published, celebrated, and acclaimed the great writer as bearing the torch of anti-Soviet dissidence. We had praised Solzhenitsyn to the skies as long as he criticized his native country, communist Russia. But as soon as he emigrated, realizing that he preferred to isolate himself in his Vermont retreat to work rather than attending anticommunist conferences, western media and academics began to distance themselves from the great writer.

“The idol no longer matched the image they had built and was becoming a hindrance to their academic and journalistic career plans. And once Solzhenitsyn had left the United States to go back to Russia and defend his humiliated, demoralized motherland that was being sold at auction, raising his voice against the Russian ‘Westernizers’ and pluralist liberals who denied the interests of Russia to better revel in the troughs of capitalism, he became a marked man, an outdated, senile writer, even though he himself had not changed in the least, denouncing with the same vigor the defects of market totalitarianism as those of communist totalitarianism.
“He was booed, despised, his name was dragged through the mud for his choices, often by the very people who had praised his first fights. Despite that, against all odds, against the most powerful powers that were trying to dissuade him, Solzhenitsyn defended his one and only cause, that of Russia. He was not forgiven for having turned his pen against that West that had welcomed him and felt it was owed eternal gratitude. A dissident today, a dissident wherever truth compelled, such was his motto. This deserves to be remembered.” Mettan, pp. 15-16 in “Creating Russophobia”.

Russophobia: akin to Racism

From another perspective: Mettan’s chapter on “German Russophobia” set me thinking that this “Western Supremacy” political-cultural pathology known as Russophobia is like the racism which I knew growing up in totally segregated Oklahoma. Until in high school, I became so perplexed and appalled by the curtain of hate and “justifications” in which we were smothered: the Negro schools on the other side of town? and why were there separate waiting rooms, drinking fountains & restrooms in bus and train stations?…that I began poking holes in the curtain to see what was outside…and found a book in the library: “South of Freedom” by Carl Rowan, an African-American Minneapolis Star Tribune journalist, describing his journey from South to North. So, thanks to what I learned from Rowan, I began to tear the whole damned curtain down…at least in my mind.

Whom the Gods would destroy, they first drive mad?

So, here’s a Swiss journalist punching a hole in this wall of Russophobic Western Supremacy… and through that gaping hole, we are reminded that the Russians are Europe’s neighbors who sacrificed more than 26 million of their own lives to save Europe, America and Russia from the Nazis. These are not poor “niggers” from the Eurasian ghetto we’ve been trying to club into submission as second-class citizens of “The Liberal World Order” dominated by US; they’re nuclear-armed and no longer willing to sit at a separate, inferior table with no vote and no voice over who makes the rules…nor are China, India and Brazil. And last year, while the wave of Russophobic hysteria over alleged “Russian poisoning” was rolling out of the UK and engulfing the Western world in the latest siege of mass madness…with only Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the British Labor party, having the courage to stand up in Parliament on the Ides of March and demand Evidence! only to be pilloried by the mindless politicians and media…led by the once esteemed BBC. And the week following the August 7, 2018 Trump-Putin Helsinki summit, will surely go down in psychiatric circles as another case of mass media-political delusions led by cheer-leader-in-chief, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC.

Meanwhile, not to forget that it was Hearst newspaper propaganda that whipped the American public into a war frenzy to support our first step in empire-building: our 1898 intervention in Cuba’s war for independence from the Spanish Empire which had dominated all of Latin America for 500 years. As the former NYTimes journalist/bureau chief in Istanbul, Berlin & Central America, Stephen Kinzer reminds us in his latest book “The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire”, Twain, Booker T. Washington and even Andrew Carnegie leading a handful of other anti-imperialists…were not able to prevail against Roosevelt with his Rough Riders and the Hearst newspapers’ war propaganda.

Regime Change Comes Home

Never-the-less, after a very long run of American “regime change” abroad leaving a bloody trail of destruction, dictatorships and chaos from Iran in 1953, when we joined with the British to overthrow the democratically-elected President Mohammad Mossadegh to maintain the Brit-US control of its oil…on through Guatemala, Vietnam and Chile…to name a few of our interventions…we were back for a second round with “coalitions of the willing” or not? in the Middle East where our regime-change machine managed to plow its way through Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya…before breaking down in Syria. Until now it’s been brought home again, renovated and renamed “RussiaGate” for another attempt at removing a President for trying to mend US relations with Russia. Though even after more than a year of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigations accompanied by such cinematic support as the movie, “Felt”, another “Watergate” re-run. Did anyone else notice the resemblance between “Felt” and Mueller? And despite the media’s commemoration of its 44-year-old “moment of courage” with the movie “The Post” to promote Trump’s ouster, our democratically-elected President, as of this writing, remains in power. However, in this rush to “regime change”, didn’t the our “ruling elite” read Jane Mayer’s “The Danger of President Pence” in the 10/23/17 New Yorker? At least the 70s’ “ruling class” was smart enough to remove an unqualified Vice President Spiro (who?) Agnew…before “regime changing” Nixon and replacing him with the more or less benign Gerald Ford.

A Florentine Epiphany

But back to last January in Florence, Italy, when I was hiking in the hills beyond the Piazzale Michelangelo, with its spectacular view of that Renaissance city and its centerpiece, the Duomo, I came across the Villa Galileo, which had been his last home after his trial as a “heretic”, during which to save himself from torture and execution, he was forced to deny his helio-centric vision and henceforth lived under “villa arrest”, from 1631 until his natural death in 1642. While pondering his fate, I continued walking along the gently rising, ever-narrowing road between ancient stone walls overlooking villas and olive groves until I reached the peak, where I felt as if I were standing on top of the world as I contemplated both the Arno and Ema river valleys far below and where I swear I heard Galileo declare: “The world does not turn on an American axis!”

The 21st Century Inquisition

So how is it that we now have contemporary Inquisitors persecuting so many truth tellers…such as Edward Snowden, our electronic age “Solzhenitsyn?” in Russian exile; Chelsea Manning, imprisoned some 7 years for revealing US brutality in Iraq; Julian Assange confined to his Ecuadorian Embassy exile in London since August 2012; Katharine Gun, a whistleblower attempting to stop the Iraq invasion, who faced 2 years of British imprisonment before her case was dropped; James Risen, former New York Times journalist who was persecuted by our “justice” system for revealing our government’s surveillance of US! 

Any Good Sense Left?

So, do we the people have enough good sense & independent thinking left to follow the advice of Henry David Thoreau?

“Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through church and state, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality.” - “Walden” 1854

If not, the Doctor prescribes Shock Therapy:

For a week, a month, or however long it takes to cleanse and open the mind, one must adhere to strict abstinence from Mainstream Media propaganda, junk news, pseudo analysis, fake photos, TV & videos including absolutely NO phony “for, by & of the people” NPR, PBS, BBC or other Government-funded Neo or LibCon Imperial tranquilizer.

© Jean Ranc | 2019

Originally published: 
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/04/13/russophobia-wmd-weapon-mass-deception/

​All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​

Dear friends of the Russia & America Good Will Association (www.raga.org) and antiwar colleagues!  

1. Some good news for the start of the beautiful Summer. As one of the founding members, I am glad to announce that The US Peace Memorial Foundation has decided on UN PEACE PRIZE NOMINEES!

Our Founding Members have nominated six individuals and four organizations to be considered for the 2019 US Peace Prize.

The 2019 Peace Prize nominees are:

Ajamu Baraka
Erica Chenoweth
Stephen D. Clemens
Thomas C. Fox
Bruce K. Gagnon
Jewish Voice for Peace
National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth
Sally-Alice Thompson
Women's March on the Pentagon
World BEYOND War.

You may read about their antiwar/peace work in the US Peace Registry.  The information published there will be the only data considered by our Board of Directors when making the selection.  Read about previous recipients at www.uspeacememorial.org/PEACEPRIZE.htm.

The US Peace Memorial Foundation directs a nationwide effort to honor Americans who stand for peace, by publishing the US Peace Registry, awarding the annual US Peace Prize, and planning for the US Peace Memorial in Washington, DC.  These projects help move the United States toward a culture of peace by recognizing thoughtful and courageous Americans and U.S. organizations that have taken a public stand against one or more U.S. wars, or who have devoted their time, energy, and other resources to finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts.  We celebrate these role models to inspire other Americans to speak out against war and to work for peace.  

​Thank you very much for your ongoing support.

Michael D. Knox, PhD, Chair
US Peace Memorial Foundation
Knox@USPeaceMemorial.org

As one of the founding members of US Peace Memorial Foundation, I want you to know that RAGA is not alone in its peace-promoting endeavors. Though disappointed that my preferred nominations did not go through, I am glad to see several deserving groups and individuals on the list.
​
I am especially delighted to see there the Jewish Voice for Peace, of which I am a proud non-Jewish member. JVP has been at the forefront of the Non-Violent efforts to dissuade the Right-wing Zionist government of Israel from its racist oppression of the Palestinians both inside and outside its borders, a policy which former President Jimmy Carter condemned as apartheid. 

2. Now I hurry to forward to you the sad news about Lyndon LaRouche passing away and the event in his memory sponsored by the Schiller Institute. I have met Lyndon and heard him speaking more than once. I regard him as one of the most outstanding champions of PEACE and international harmony. May his life serve as a model for the younger generation in seeking a peaceful and just world. My condolences go to Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Lyndon’s widow and tireless helper in all his endeavors. I hope that she and Lyndon’s large family of followers will carry his banner into the future.
​

You are invited to attend the LaRouche memorial in Tysons, VA (Spring Hill metro station on the Silver Line).

Though he left us on February 12 at the age of 96, LaRouche’s economic and philosophical principles continue to influence the policies of nations and people throughout the world. The transformation of China, and the impact its Belt and Road Initiative has had on the world, is the most vivid example of how universal ideas change history. 

It is long past the time for those ideas to directly shape the policies of this nation. The urgent, first step in doing that is the exoneration of the name and the ideas of Lyndon LaRouche. We are currently circulating an exoneration petition. And, we will soon be issuing a pamphlet entitled, “The World Needs the Exoneration of Lyndon LaRouche” to further that fight.  

The Schiller Institute invitation to the memorial concludes: “Now, in 2019, when the United States and the world, could finally move beyond the childhood of the human race, abandoning the fratricidal wars of self-destruction, the true ideas of Lyndon LaRouche must be remembered, in words and in music. That is the purpose of this memorial.” 

Please join us in honoring Lyndon LaRouche and in dedicating ourselves to the fulfillment of his vision.

​LaRouchePAC Washington DC
http://action.larouchepac.com/
 
I voted for the exoneration of Lyndon LaRouche and hope you do likewise.

3. Also forwarded is the letter by Joe Lombardo of the United National Antiwar Coalition.  UNAC has initiated to petition to Attorney General William Barr demanding that the charges against Julian Assange be dropped and that Chelsea Manning be freed.  The petition is here:
 https://unac.notowar.net/petition-in-support-of-julian-assange-ad-chelsea-manning/
 Please sign the petition and share it with others.

I did sign and added my comment: The persecution of Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange reminds me that of former Soviet dissidents. But where is the Soviet Union? Does the USA want to go the same way?

4. Take a look at the article below
UN Torture Report: ‘Demonized’ Assange Has Faced ‘Psychological Torture’. By Joe Lauria. May 31, 2019 

The UN special rapporteur on torture has blasted four nations for imposing psychological torture on Julian Assange. ‘A Relentless and Unrestrained Campaign of Public Mobbing, Intimidation and Defamation’.  Warns of ‘Criminalization of Journalism’. Special to https://consortiumnews.com/2019/05/31/un-torture-report-demonized-assange-has-faced-psychological-torture/
​
5. Meanwhile, Russia-Insider reports that  NSA Gave Israel Access to All US Citizens' Communications Data, Leaked Documents Show. US also cooperated with helping Israelis conduct targeted assassinations against Hezbollah…The Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU), the NSA's counterpart in Tel Aviv, convinced the Americans to circumvent the legal prohibition on providing surveillance data for targeted assassinations during Israel's 2006 war with Lebanon, according to the newest revelation from the archives obtained by whistleblower Edward Snowden... Almost no strings were attached to this bonanza – the Israelis could even release the identities of Americans whose information had been scooped up in the dragnet…Read more https://russia-insider.com/en/nsa-gave-israel-access-all-us-citizens-communications-data-leaked-documents-show/ri27167
​
6. Below is an article by Jean Ranc, an American admirer of the Russian dissident writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I met Jean at Northern Vermont University during Solzhenitsyn’s Centennial Conference in September 2018. As it turned out, she is a former Dartmouth-clinically-trained-UNC Dept. of Psychiatry psychologist, and her article has to do as much with psychology (if not psychiatry) as politics. https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/04/13/russophobia-wmd-weapon-mass-deception/

7. Martin Geddes
Published on Sep 9, 2018
"Where We Go One We Go All" was inscribed on the bell on JFK's boat. It is a rallying cry for unity, and now headlines an extraordinary set of events.
I wrote this article in early July, and it caught the attention of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) patriots and supporters. It also explains the context and purpose of the QAnon operation.
The original article is here: https://medium.com/@martingeddes/wwg1....

At over 100,000 views it is easily the most read article I have produced in 15 years, so it clearly has hit the zeitgeist!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEuAG0I88io 

8. A time like no other in history
Having applied all of my integrity, intellect and insight to researching the matter, my belief is that we are witnessing right now one of the greatest communications events in history. Indeed, it is arguably the singularly greatest. So, what is this event, and why does it deserves this extraordinary description? The answers are to be found in how the (Western) mass media has been trapped by the most exquisitely constructed double bind.
http://www.martingeddes.com/wwg1wga-the-greatest-communications-event-in-history/

9. As a result, since 2018, the Doomsday Clock marks two-minutes till midnight, something not seen since 1947.
“I think that it’s genuinely a call to recognize – and this has been somewhat missing in the media coverage of the issues – that the risks of nuclear war are particularly high now,” the expert added.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/risk-nuclear-war-now-highest-since-world-war-2-un/5678292
Risk of Nuclear War Now Highest Since World War 2: UN
By Telesur
Global Research, May 23, 2019
teleSUR 21 May 2019

......This restructure of nuclear agreements is partly due to strategic competition between China and the U.S, and a new “arms race” between the North American nation and Russia. With disarmament talks stalemated for the past two decades, 122 countries have signed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, expect states with the weaponized material.

By Stephen F. Cohen
​
Now in its third year, Russiagate is the worst, most corrosive, and most fraudulent political scandal in modern American history. It rests on two related core allegations: that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an “attack on American democracy” during the 2016 presidential campaign in order to put Donald Trump in the White House, and that Trump and his associates willfully colluded, or conspired, in this Kremlin “attack.” 
https://www.thenation.com/article/russiagate-zealotry-continues-to-endanger-american-national-security/

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/may/8/crosstalk-whats-to-be-done-about-the-dire-state-of/

...For many in Washington, capitalist Russia is much worse than the communist USSR, with Russiagate having become an important weapon in internal partisan squabbles in the United States. Despite the fact that special counsel Robert Mueller found no trace of Trump-Putin collusion, Republicans and Democrats continue to accuse each other of conspiring with the Kremlin. As Tucker Carlson of Fox News correctly stated: “The Russia story cannot die. CNN, The Washington Post, the Democratic Party, many others have too much invested in that story. The fact it’s been proven to be untrue is irrelevant to them.”

Faced with a Justice Department investigation of the Obama’s administration’s “worse than Watergate” scandal, the Democrats will do everything they can to keep the Russia scare intact.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/may/8/crosstalk-whats-to-be-done-about-the-dire-state-of/

11. The Duran
June 1, 2019
The popularity of Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin provides continuity and stability.
By George Callaghan
[https://theduran.com/the-popularity-of-putin/]

What explains the exceptional and enduring popularity of President Putin? I am a day one opponent and vociferous critic of Vladimir Putin. However, as a fair-minded person I am obliged to acknowledge that he commands the approval of a high majority of Russian people. How can this be accounted for? Having first visited Russia in 1994 the transformation over quarter of a century has been remarkable.

In the early 1990s the nation was on the skids. The people were without hope. Dejection was etched on every face. Once proud war veterans were reduced to selling their metals for bread. Society was in freefall. In 1991 the USSR dissolved. Within two years there was open fighting on the streets of Moscow and hundreds of people were killed in the constitutional crisis October 1993. The Russian Government could not even control its own capital. Gangsterism was rife and there seemed no way out of the impasse. Hyperinflation played havoc with the economy. There was mass unemployment. Even those who had a job were not paid for months. The police were wont to shake people down since they had no other way to keep body and soul together. The country was embroiled in a grueling Chechen conflict. Drug abuse and religious cults spread like wildfire. Many assets were bought by vulture capitalists. Moscow was infested with a flock of foreign speculators whose ignorance was matched only by their arrogance. Russia's nose was rubbed in the dirt. Nothing was secure and everything was uncertain. Refugees from other former Soviet republics flooded into Russia and could not be provided for. The country was in turmoil.  Confidence in public organs was at an all-time low. Many feared that the Russian Federation would become a failed state.

Now a mighty nation is back on its feet. Upheaval is over. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin provides continuity and stability. His vigorous and virile leadership is appreciated by the masses. His style is decisive and he has often achieved impressive results.

The economy has grown almost every years since 1997. Unemployment is low. Wages are paid on time and they are much higher than in the 1990s. The state executes its functions efficiently. People are no longer gulled by Chaucerian chancers. Inflation is low. People have faith in their institutions. The Armed Fores are paid on time and are very well equipped.

The Chechen Conflict is long over. Ramazan Kadyrov maintains very strict order in his homeland.

Russia has become such an alluring place to live that economic migrants are pouring in from across the globe. Tourism is also blossoming. The economy is diversifying. Staging the Winter Olympics and the World Cup were both coups.

Education is flourishing. Many people are now fluent in English. Others are mastering Chinese.

There are few beggars to be seen. Even the poorest live decently.

Infrastructure has improved dramatically. Things are in a good state of repair. The national projects promise to upgrade transport links. There will be renovation of buildings and other networks.

The population is growing slowly. In the 1990s people had no faith in the future and most chose not to have children.

The situation is imperfect. Economic growth should be higher. Confrontations with the West have led to sanctions. Corruption has not been completely rooted out. The government interprets 'extremism' too broadly. People grumble that state pensions are niggardly.

For good or ill Russia is making its presence felt on the world stage. The Russian mission Syria is greatly valued by the long suffering people there. They regard Russia as battling to defend the values of the enlightenment against barbarian obscurantism.

President Putin enjoys favourable press coverage wall to wall. This certainly boosts his ratings. However, despite the press corps deference there is no doubt that he is genuinely popular. He does not have a 100% approval rating. I have to be realistic. Even when people are disappointed with the prime minister or other ministers this does not mean that blame attaches to the head of state. He will be  a hard act to follow.  

12. Dr. Leo Semashko, GHA Founder and Honorary President &
All Global Peace Leaders;
Greetings from GHA India

GHA Message to the World Citizens and Peace Leaders
“World Environment Day 2019” 5th June 2019

World Environment Day is the United Nations day for encouraging
worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. It is the
biggest annual event in the world to mark the environmental thinking
among the people for protection of our planet.

Protecting Earth Planet, Promoting Peace, & Beat Air Pollution,”
World Environment Day 5 June of the United Nations:
https://www.un.org/en/events/environmentday  

Dear All: I would like to share this network on its 50th anniversary with you.  Best wishes, Lana

​Dear Friend,
A recent global report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warns of the unprecedented destruction of nature and the decline of species around the world. The report is an alarming wake-up call that each one of us must take bold action to save our planet. To get there will require radical economic, social, political and technological transformations in order to avoid the worst impacts of the current biodiversity crisis we are facing. This week provides several opportunities to address these issues while raising awareness and taking action!

Today— World Environment Day and the International Day for the fight against Illegal Unreported Unregulated (IUU) Fishing—we are asking you to take bold action to help save our planet and protect our species! With so many animals fighting for their very existence, every action is essential to create the shifts necessary to protect our planet from an environmental catastrophe. 
​
 ACT NOW TO PROTECT OUR SPECIES!

By Jan Ranc,  April 13, 2019

We’ve become trapped in a contrived “reality” promulgated by neo-conservative warriors under cover of neo-liberal “democracy-spreading-humanitarian-interventionists” to justify an American Empire promoting itself as the indispensable “Liberal World Order”.
​
Resume: Russophobia, as psycho-social-political pathology, is diagnosed as a disorder in The West since before the 1000-year-old Roman-Orthodox religious schism and most recently manifested with a vengeance in the course of the 2013-14 with Edward Snowden’s revelations of mass surveillance by the US and its covert activities leading to the Ukraine coup with Russophobia used thereafter as a weapon of mass deception to inflame this latent pathology in the public. Read more: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/04/13/russophobia-wmd-weapon-mass-deception/

Jean Ranc - a psychologist retired from the University of North Carolina Department of Psychiatry, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

13. Russiagate Zealotry Continues to Endanger American National Security. If Venezuela becomes a Cuban Missile–like Crisis, will Trump be free to resolve it peacefully? By Stephen F. Cohen, MAY 8, 2019

Now in its third year, Russiagate is the worst, most corrosive, and most fraudulent political scandal in modern American history. It rests on two related core allegations: that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an “attack on American democracy” during the 2016 presidential campaign in order to put Donald Trump in the White House, and that Trump and his associates willfully colluded, or conspired, in this Kremlin “attack.”  Read more https://www.thenation.com/article/russiagate-zealotry-continues-to-endanger-american-national-security/
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14. What's to be done about the dire state of U.S.-Russia relations? By Edward Lozansky - - Wednesday, May 8, 2019.
The way things between U.S. and Russia are going, we are quickly approaching a repeat of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, which was a pivotal moment of the last century. Back then, both nations stood “eyeball to eyeball” in a way that could have resulted in a nuclear exchange, the deaths of 100 million people on each side and a doubtful future for the planet. Read More https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/may/8/crosstalk-whats-to-be-done-about-the-dire-state-of/

15. Risk of Nuclear War Now Highest Since World War 2: UN
By Telesur. Global Research, May 23, 2019
… since 2018, the Doomsday Clock marks two-minutes till midnight, something not seen since 1947. “I think that it’s genuinely a call to recognize – and this has been somewhat missing in the media coverage of the issues – that the risks of nuclear war are particularly high now,” the expert added. ......This restructure of nuclear agreements is partly due to strategic competition between China and the U.S, and a new “arms race” between the North American nation and Russia. With disarmament talks stalemated for the past two decades, 122 countries have signed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, expect states with the weaponized material.... https://www.globalresearch.ca/risk-nuclear-war-now-highest-since-world-war-2-un/5678292
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16. The Duran’s George Callaghan reports from Russia on June 1, 2019 that “The popularity of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin provides continuity and stability.”
https://theduran.com/the-popularity-of-putin/
In the early 1990s the nation was on the skids. The people were without hope. Dejection was etched on every face. Once proud war veterans were reduced to selling their metals for bread. Society was in freefall. In 1991 the USSR dissolved. Within two years there was open fighting on the streets of Moscow and hundreds of people were killed in the constitutional crisis October 1993. The Russian Government could not even control its own capital. Gangsterism was rife and there seemed no way out of the impasse. Hyperinflation played havoc with the economy. There was mass unemployment. Even those who had a job were not paid for months. The police were wont to shake people down since they had no other way to keep body and soul together….President Putin enjoys favourable press coverage wall to wall. This certainly boosts his ratings. However, despite the press corps deference there is no doubt that he is genuinely popular. He does not have a 100% approval rating. I have to be realistic. Even when people are disappointed with the prime minister or other ministers this does not mean that blame attaches to the head of state. He will be  a hard act to follow.  
 
17. Also from Russia Dr. Leo Semashko, former Marxist philosopher, but now the Founder and Honorary President of Global Harmony Association sends
GHA Message to the World Citizens and Peace Leaders
“World Environment Day 2019” 5th June 2019
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World Environment Day is the United Nations day for encouraging
worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. It is the
biggest annual event in the world to mark the environmental thinking
among the people for protection of our planet.

Protecting Earth Planet, Promoting Peace, & Beating Air Pollution,”
World Environment Day 5 June of the United Nations:
https://www.un.org/en/events/environmentday  

Manifesto of Survival
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May 19, 2019 "Information Clearing House" -  We have come such a long way since time immemorial, since we were hunters and gatherers living in caves and bundled in hides, trying to invent fire.
Now we have TV and iPhone, we drive cars and fly planes. We can talk to and see each other from the opposite sides of the world.
Our civilization has reached amazing heights of scientific and technical development, but we still have not learnt to see a human being in each other. And a friend. We are still throwing sticks and stones at one another, except they have become so much bigger and heavier. Too heavy even for our planet.
And now we are facing the question of whether anyone will be around tomorrow to greet the sunrise.
Yet, we still have a chance to save our Mother Planet from and for ourselves, and continue meeting sunsets and sunrises with her. And with our friend, in humanity and in spirit.
Who is he, or her, this friend? Why do we like or hate him? How can we understand and forgive him? Learn to see yourself in her. And your own reflection. After all, we all learn from each other.
How can we learn to love truth and peace, and do no harm to each other, and respect others in ourselves?
Our time in this Universe is not unlimited, and we still have so much to discover.
To help our planet heal from the wounds caused by us and time. To protect and save our disappearing siblings, sharing with us this magnificent ecosphere. To slow down, or at least not exacerbate with emissions and pollution, the ominous warming of our shared environment. It is truly, in the prophetic words of Chris Hedges, “The Last Battle.”
As for the modern sticks and stones, they will be of no use to us. About the only thing we can do to save ourselves from them now is remove all the fast fingers from the proverbial button.

By Anna Tolstoyevskaya
I found myself so much in agreement with the Manifesto, that I immediately translated it to Russian. Please click!
 
Манифест Выживания

19 мая 2019 г. «Информационный центр» - "Information Clearing House"
Мы прошли долгий путь с незапамятных времен, когда мы были ещё охотниками и собирателями, населяли пещеры и грелись под шкурами, пытались подчинить себе огонь.
Теперь у нас есть телевизор и iPhone, мы ездим на машинах и летаем на самолетах. Мы можем поговорить и даже увидеть друг друга в любой точке Земного Шара.
Наша цивилизация достигла удивительных высот научно-технического прогресса, но мы до сих пор не научились видеть человека друг в друге, и Друга в Человеке. Мы все еще готовы бросать камни друг в друга. Правда, «камни» теперь стали очень большими и тяжёлыми.  Даже слишком тяжелым для блага Нашей Планеты.
И теперь мы стоим перед вопросом: Доживёт ли кто-нибудь из нас до Завтра, чтобы приветствовать Восход Солнца?
И всё-таки у нас есть ещё шанс спасти нашу Мать Планету от себя и для себя, чтобы продолжать встречать закаты и восходы солнца вместе с Ней. И с нашим другом по человечности.
Кто он или она, этот друг? Почему мы его любим или ненавидим? Как мы можем понять и простить его? Учитесь видеть себя в другом человеке. И видеть в нём своё собственное отражение. Ведь мы всегда учимся - друг у друга.
Как мы можем научиться любить истину и мир, не причиняя друг другу вреда и уважая других в себе?
Наше время во Вселенной не безгранично, и нам еще многое предстоит открыть.
Мы должны помочь Нашей Планете исцелиться от ран, нанесенных нами и временем. Чтобы защитить и спасти исчезающие виды животных и растений, наших сожителей во нашей общей великолепной экосфере. Чтобы уменьшить или, по крайней мере, не увеличить объёмы выбросов и загрязнений, замедлить зловещее потепление нашей общей окружающей среды. Это действительно «Последняя битва» (“The Last Battle”), как пророчески написал Крис Хеджес.
Что касается нынешних «палок и камней», то они нам не нужны. Единственное, что мы можем сделать, чтобы избавиться от них сейчас, это не дать блудливым и нервным  пальчикам дотянуться до Кнопки.
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The author: Anna Tolstoyevskaya (Анна Толстоевская)

​15. For those who would like to hear my May 30, 2019 interview in Russian about my recent trip to the USA, please click on the shaded line below to retrieve it from the archive. It is a 50 minute discussion with the independent Russian Orthodox Radio "RADONEZH" which broadcasts globally. Or just read the Radio introduction of the author below.

Антонина Арендаренко продолжает серию бесед с В.Г. Красновым, писателем, ученым, главой общества российско-американской дружбы «Добрая воля» www.Raga.org.. Он только что вернулся из поездки по США.
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О собеседнике: В.Г. Краснов - президент и основатель RAGA.org. Когда СССР обвалился в конце 1991 года, обвалились и все официальные советские и просоветские «общества дружбы», в том числе Национальный совет Американо-советской дружбы (NCASF),он решил заполнить этот вакуум не политикой, не идеологией, но чувством Доброй Воли, каковым Бог щедро наделил как россиян, так и американцев. В очередной поездке по США В.Г. Краснов побывал в Библиотеке Конгресса, Монтерейском Институте международных исследований, На Западном побережье 31 марта ему посчастливилось попасть на воскресную службу и на трапезу в Церкви Иконы Казанской Божьей Матери в Сан-Франциско. Настоятель храма здесь Отец Ювеналий, чистокровный американец и даже потомок президента Авраама Линкольна. Будучи молодым, он так увлёкся трагической судьбой Романовых, что выучил русский язык, закончил Православную семинарию и теперь ведёт службу на церковно-славянском языке.

16. Finally, the psychologist Jean Ranc’s poem about a dead-end gender war. In spite of our boasting of progress and sophistication, we have hardly advanced at all since the time when Adam threw at Eve the terrible accusation and still…
 
 
Going Nowhere
 
Pity the hollow men who only know
how to say No!
After creating false gods and
phallic weapons in the image of
themselves they defend their world
to death
against the Woman who dares
to weave a new world of Peace.
They smash her loom
turn her shuttles into guns
censor her Word
crush her Love and kill
her children.
So how can we save ourselves from
these men who only know
how to turn the earth
into money and debate
who has
the biggest and
most powerful weapon
for protecting
his riches
even at the risk
of destroying us all
in their nuclear war?

- By Jean Ranc | A psychologist retired from the University of North Carolina Department of Psychiatry, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA                        

Sincerely,
W George Krasnow (http://wiki-org.ru/wiki/Краснов,_Владислав_Георгиевич)
President, RAGA
www.raga.org
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Peace and Justice to the World. 
миру мир и благоволение в сердцах

 From RAGA site:
"We are an association of Americans who believe it is in the U.S. national interests to foster friendship with Russia on the basis of mutual Good Will and non-interference in each other's affairs. RAGA is a gathering of people who share common interests in Russia's history, culture, religion, economy, politics and the way of life. We feel that Russian people have made outstanding contributions to humankind and are capable of greater achievements. We envision Russia as a strong, independent, proud and free nation and as a partner in achieving peace in the world."

​All statements in this report are an opinion of the author. Act at your own risk. Russia & America Goodwill Association (RAGA) is not responsible for the content of the article. Any views or opinions presented in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RAGA. Any liability in respect to this communication remain with the author.

RAGA News
www.RAGA.org​