RUSSIA vs ISIS - WHAT NEXT? Important Security Forecast!
​By Dmitry Tamoikin

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.

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So many good folks in America, Europe, even the world over are wondering what's going on out there in the Middle East, and particularly, in Syria?

The most concise and accurate answer is that it is a mess, semi-officially described as controlled chaos.

There is an obvious catch though. There is chaos all right, but what about control? The 'elephant in the room' question is whether there is any control at all, at least on the USA's behalf? The next obvious question to ask is how some degree of order can be established there, assuming that this is even America's objective?

Washington's canned response to such questions are well known: “Let's help the moderate opposition topple President Assad's secular regime and everything will be fine and dandy. Freedom, democracy, human rights, reform”, and more such feel good buzz-phrases without a doubt.

This may seem to be a reasonable strategy, were it not for America's past record.

We helped Iraq's opposition hang Saddam Hussein. Result: Years of internecine strife and an astounding rise in terrorism, culminating in the emergence of an entire terrorist quasi-state known today as ISIS.

We then helped our moderate Libyan opposition allies to lynch another dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, and what do we have now? Two competing regimes at each other's throats and countless fanatical terrorist hordes spreading terror toward neighboring countries like Egypt.

With such hindsight it can safely be assumed that the victories of armed opposition groups, whether moderate or fanatical, will not bring any semblance of order to the Middle East. America now finds itself in the schizophrenic position of wanting to oust Assad and siding with ISIS, whom we are supposed to eradicate, to achieve this.

It's a shambles, without any doubt.

One of this unholy muddle's most ghastly abominations is the conception of the so-called “moderate opposition”. The notion of an armed, moderate opposition is surely an oxymoron. What can be moderate about taking up arms against a legitimately elected president and government? Especially with funding, weaponry and personnel being supplied from outside the country, by states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and some 80 other countries?

Some wag said that a difference between moderate and immoderate opposition exists - the former cuts throats from right to left whilst the latter does it from left to right. Or vice versa.

Our administration casually denotes terrorist groups it intends (or claims) to want to eradicate as “moderate”, simply because these groups temporarily serve its interests by, for example, removing a legitimate foreign leader it dislikes. Would Bin Laden qualify for “moderate” status today? Quite possibly.

Sadly, this “moderate” opposition business is clearly a sham and the conclusion is obvious. Let’s stop racking our brains for ways to dislodge Assad. Fighting ISIS, that fountain-head of a terrorist pandemic, is a far more pressing priority. ISIS are driving hundreds of thousands of refugees toward  Europe and who can tell how many of them are trained terrorists? Who knows how many of them will eventually disembark in America?

To crush ISIS we need allies on the ground, and it looks like our search for them is becoming rather  desperate. Sure, the Kurds could make a staunch and reliable ally for wiping out ISIS, except for one more complication to the already convoluted mess out there, namely: Turkey. Turkey, a NATO member and thus supposedly on our side, is using the fight against ISIS as a pretext for bombing the hell out of the Kurds. Who needs enemies with friends like that?

Turkey can not be much of an ally if we are to be earnest in our desire to defeat ISIS.

However, we do have a strong potential ally - and you know who I mean - an ally who is willing to join forces with us to defeat an obvious, absolute evil. The obvious question is, why not? Why the hell not shake the proffered hand?

There are problems, of course. This ally has a poor democracy record. Their leader has a displeasing tendency to occasionally claim that his own country's interests do not quite mesh with those of the USA. He is definitely not a Washington yes-man.

Within the framework of this cruel world's realpolitik, it would inadvisable to cite democratic values at every turn because, if this were done, fingers will instantly point at US allies and partners such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, both countries where people are regularly stoned to death or have limbs publicly severed for committing legal transgressions.

Against this backdrop, we would do well to recall that Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill (no angels themselves - Ed.) had no hesitation in sitting down at a round table to discuss weighty matters with Stalin, a man with rather imperfect democratic credentials who nevertheless played a prodigious role in crushing Nazism and Japanese imperialism.

Obama has now been afforded an opportunity to salvage his legacy by forging a similar alliance with Russia to destroy ISIS and other Islamist radicals. Pressing issues such as the illicit trade in nuclear materials, drugs, climate change and other similar challenges facing the world today could also be discussed.
​
Should Obama fail to take this vital step, the only legacy he will be remembered by is this:
For the first time in history a Nobel Peace Prize winner - Obama - has had to apologize for bombing another Peace Prize Laureate - Médecins Sans Frontières. An unenviable distinction to be remembered by.

© Edward Lozansky

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.

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​The major influential western print media are engaged in a prolonged, large-scale effort to demonize Russian President Putin, his politics and persona. There is an article (or several articles) every day in which he is personally stigmatized as a dictator, authoritarian, czar, ‘former KGB operative’ and Soviet-style ruler; anything but the repeatedly elected President of Russia.

He is accused of hijacking Russia from the ‘road to democracy’, as pursued by his grotesquely corrupt predecessor Boris Yeltsin; of directing the bloody repression of the ‘freedom loving Chechens’; of jailing innocent, independent and critical oligarchs and robber barons; of fomenting an uprising in the ‘democratic, newly pro-Western’ Ukraine and seizing control of Crimea; of backing a ‘bloody tyrant’ in Syria (elected President Bashar Assad) in a civil war against ISIS terrorists; of running the Russian economy into the ground; and of militarily threatening the Baltic and Eastern European NATO member countries.

In a word, the media have propagated an image of an ‘out-of-control autocrat’, who makes a mockery of ‘democratic’ norms and ‘Western values’, and who seeks to revive the ‘Soviet (aka Evil) Empire’.

The corollary is that ‘Western powers’, despite their peace-loving propensities and fraternal attempts to bring Russia into the democratic ‘fold’, have been ‘forced’ to now surround Russia with NATO military bases and missiles; to finance a violent coup in the Ukraine (on Russia’s frontier) and arm the Ukrainian putsch government and neo-fascist militias to ‘restore democracy’ and violently suppress ethnic Russian ‘separatists’ in Eastern Ukraine. We are told that US and EU sanctions against Russia were carefully crafted ‘diplomatic’ measures designed to punish the Moscow ‘aggressor’.

In reality, the Western media has relentlessly demonized Vladimir Putin in a campaign to further NATO military expansion and undermine the Russian economy and its national security. The goal is ultimately to force a ‘regime change’, restoring the neo-liberal elites who had pillaged Russia’s economy during the 1990’s and whose brutal economic policies led to the premature death of over 6 million Russians due to deprivation and the collapse of the healthcare system.

The Western media has backed every oligarch, gangster and fraudster who has gone on trial and been convicted during Putin’s term in office. The propagandists tell us the reason for this affinity between the Western media and the gangster-oligarchs is that these convicted felons, who claim to be ‘political dissidents’ and critics of Putin’s rule, have been dispossessed, and jailed for upholding ‘Western values’.

The Western media conveniently ignore the well-documented studies on the source of the gangster-oligarchs’ wealth: The violent and illegal seizure of multi-billion dollars-worth of natural resources (aluminum, oil and gas), banks, factories, pension funds and real estate. During the Yeltsin period the oligarchs controlled thousands of armed gangsters and engaged in internal warfare during which thousands were killed, including top government regulators, police officials and journalists who dared to oppose or expose their pillage and property grabs.

Putin’s prosecution of a mere fraction of the most notorious oligarch-gangsters has won the support of the vast majority of Russian citizens because it represents a return to law and order and the return of stolen public wealth.

Only the Western media has dared to refer to these convicted felons as ‘political victims and reformers’. They did so because the oligarchs had become the most loyal and submissive assets in the US and EU governments’ efforts to convert Russia into an irreversibly weak vassal state.

The Western media constantly refer to President Putin as the ‘authoritarian ruler’, despite the fact that he has been repeatedly elected by large majorities in competitive elections against Western backed and funded candidates. His popularity is attested to by opinion polls conducted by Western agencies.

In 2015, President Putin’s support soared to over 85%. The pro-Western Russian neo-liberal politicians scored in the low single digits according to the same independent polls.

Clearly the Russian public does not want to return to the poverty and chaos of the Western-backed gangster politics of the 1990’s.

Whatever reservations working and middle class Russians have over President Putin’s style of decision-making, they clearly value his crackdown on gangster-controlled elections, Chechen terrorism, and his restoration of Russian military defense of its frontiers, including the annexation of Crimea, following the US-engineered coup in Ukraine.

Every day, the Western media recycle reports of the ‘decline and demise’ of the Russian economy, blaming ‘statist’ mismanagement of the economy by Putin. They claim ‘declining living standards’, the ‘negative growth’ of the economy and the ‘growing isolation’ of an ‘expansionist’ Russia in the face of Western sanctions.

These media claims are laughable. Readily available data demonstrate that living standards of the vast majority of Russian citizens have significantly increased under President Putin’s administration, especially after the utter collapse under the free marketers of the1990’s. Russian workers receive their pay, pensioners their pensions, enterprises their loans – on time. During the ‘free market’ days of Boris Yeltsin, workers went up to a year without pay, pensioners were selling their heirlooms in the street to survive and enterprises paid extortionate interest rates to oligarch-gangster controlled banks! Comparative data, easily obtained, are deliberately ignored by the mass media because it doesn’t fit the demonological narrative.

The mass media present the neo-liberal ‘opposition’ and ‘liberal critics’ as Russian democrats defending ‘Western values’. They forget to mention that these ‘liberal critics’ have been directly funded by Western foundations (National Endowment for Democracy, Soros Foundation, etc.) and Russian non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) with longstanding ties to US and EU governments, intelligence agencies and exiled Russian billionaires. The so-called ‘Russian’ democratic opposition revealed their abject servility to Western interests when they openly supported the Ukrainian coup and Kiev’s bloody assault on ethnic Russian-Ukrainians in the eastern ‘Donbas’ regions of Donetsk, Luhansk and Odessa. Whatever shreds of respectability and credibility the ‘democratic opposition’ retained with the Russian public, up to that point, was lost. They were seen for what they are: propaganda arms of Western imperialism and mouth-pieces for neo-fascists.

The Western mass media charge Putin’s government with the same crimes that their own governments commit. After the US State Department’s Victoria Nuland admitted to channeling $5 billion to fund the 2014 coup in Ukraine and after the Polish regime boasted of training far right street fighters, whose mob violence served as a pretext for the coup, and after neo-fascist coalition partners in Odessa of burned alive four dozen ethnic Russian-Ukrainian citizens opposed to the coup, the Western mass media accused Putin of ‘intervening’ in Ukraine. This was because Russia had convoked a referendum in Crimea, in which over 80% of the electorate voted to secede from the illegitimate Ukrainian coup regime and rejoin Russia.

In truth, the Putin government is a victim of the Western power grab in the Ukraine, with Russia having to absorbed hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russian refugees driven out of the Donbas, yet the Western media portray Putin as the executioner. Meanwhile the Western coup-makers and their far-right allies are depicted as victims… forced to bomb and decimate the Donbas region.

The charade continued. The Western media portray the subsequent punitive, economic sanctions imposed by the expansionist US and EU on Russia as a result of Putin’s ‘aggression’, referring to Russia’s defense of Crimea’s self-determination and the rights of the millions of bilingual ethnic Russian citizens of Ukraine.

The absurdity and convoluted nature of Western demonological propaganda has reached new even more bizarre heights with their hysteria against Russia’s military support of the secular Syrian government against ISIS and other jihadi terrorists.

The Western mass media have launched a global campaign charging that the Russian air force bombs ‘non-ISIS military bases’, presumably the bases of Western-backed ‘friendly’ jihadi terrorists. This ridiculous ‘reportage’ and its accompanying ‘photos’ were published before the Russian air strikes even took place!!

Apparently timing doesn’t matter in Washington’s ‘alternative universe of lies’!

NATO passed its political line to the media that Russian support for the legitimate regime of President Assad must be discredited; that the Russian presence is ‘provocative’ and responsible for ‘creating tensions’ in the region – after years of Western-sponsored jihadi terrorism against Syria!

Obedient to its masters, the Western media breathlessly ‘reported’ that the Russians were ‘really’ engaged in Syria in order destroy the pro-Western ‘fighters’ leaving ISIS alone.

No credible evidence for this propaganda was ever presented. They trotted out aerial photos of wreckage, which had likely been lifted from previous US bombings.
​
The media’s clumsy execution of the Pentagon’s line managed to embarrass even the US Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter, who backed off of such claims and called for an explanation from Russia. Even Secretary Kerry, who now seeks to secure Putin’s military support for the US against ISIS while withdrawing Russia’s political backing of President Assad, has cautioned the media to modify its line, now that the US favors ‘greater coordination’ with Russia – but under US leadership. The media has recently conformed to this line, although it has not managed to explain how Washington could now work with the demonic President Putin.

Western media is engaged in an intense long-term propaganda campaign to demonize President Putin. Its role is to convince world public opinion and world leaders to blindly follow the US and EU, as well as their ‘allies’ and vassal states, in a campaign to degrade and undermine Russia, and consolidate a unipolar empire under US tutelage.

The Western mass media is important; but it must be remembered that the media is an instrument of imperial state power. Its lies and fabrications, its demonization of leaders, like President Putin, are one part of a global military offensive to establish dominance and to destroy adversaries.

The more intense the imperial campaign, the riskier the power grab, the greater the need to demonize the victims.

This explains how the escalation of the rabid anti-Putin propaganda campaign coincides with the single biggest Western power grab – the Ukraine coup (‘regime change’) – since West Germany annexed East Germany, and NATO and the EU incorporated the Baltic States, Eastern Europe and the Balkans into the West’s strategic alliance. The West’s bloody break-up of the Yugoslav federation was part of this strategic program.

The problem with the Western demonization of adversaries, whether it is Russia, Iran and China today, or earlier Cuba, Libya and Yemen in the past, is that Washington and the EU face severe economic crises at home and military defeats abroad by armed Islamic and nationalist resistance movements.

The US had invested hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up a shaky puppet regime in US-occupied Iraq, yet the US-trained and supplied Iraqi Army fled as the Baathist-Islamist ‘ISIS’ quickly over-ran half the country.

US troops have occupied Afghanistan for fourteen years, losing tens of thousands of lives and limbs and yet the nationalist-Islamist Taliban can easily take over Afghanistan’s third largest city, Kunduz (population 300,000), and occupies three quarters of the rest of the countryside.

Libya and Somalia are a disaster. And still Washington allocates a half billion dollars to train pro-Western mercenaries to overthrow Syria’s President Assad – mercenaries who give up their arms or join ISIS the moment they cross the border from Jordan or Turkey. The US trained mercenaries have handed over untold millions of dollars worth of heavy and light weapons and armored carriers to ISIS and Al Qaeda. The EU and the US face the dismal reality that Libya, Somalia and Syria are over-run by anti-Western Islamic fighters.
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In Asia, China is demonized in the Western media, portrayed as being on the verge of collapse, facing a hard landing, even as China grows at 7%. The Western media wring their collective hands over the crisis in China while Beijing finances two new international development banks for $100 billion, raises its contribution to the IMF and brings 50 countries, including most of the EU but minus the US and Japan, into a new infrastructure lending institution.

Why do the Western media launch a campaign of demonization that doesn’t correspond to reality? What is the goal of such demonization, which objectively undermines the possibility of forming tactical alliances to end the US’ military losses, political defeats and diplomatic isolation? The US needs Russia to defeat ISIS.

For Moscow, the fight against ISIS is crucial to Russian national security: Thousands of Chechen terrorists (some trained by the US) are fighting with ISIS and threaten to return to the Caucuses and terrorize Russia. Unlike the US public’s opposition to Washington’s role in forcing ‘regime change’ in Syria, the Russian public supports Moscow’s military support for the Syrian government because the Chechens’ campaign of terror within Russia, especially the 2004 massacre of hundreds of school children, teachers and parents in Beslan, is seared into their memory – a fact conveniently ignored by Western media when it ‘sympathizes’ with Chechen ‘freedom fighters’.

In reality, Washington should have a common interest to ally with Russia in the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. However Obama is committed to ousting Assad (Russia’s ally) to expand US dominance in the Middle East in partnership with Israel and Saudi Arabia. Clearly there are insurmountable contradictions between short-term military objectives (fighting ISIS) and strategic imperial political imperatives (consolidating US-Israeli hegemony over the Middle East and Iran).

Washington has moved to end its isolation in Latin America by re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba. Meanwhile, Washington retains the economic blockade of Cuba and its huge US military base in Guantanamo. Cuba is seen as a tactical political ally in ‘moderating’ the leftist government of Venezuela and pressuring the Colombian FARC to disarm, even as Washington deepens its military presence in the continent.

Obama signed off on a nuclear agreement with Iran (but the crippling sanctions and blockade remain in place) in order to secure Tehran’s support for the war against ISIS in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Temporarily, the Western mass media has ‘toned-down’ its demonological reporting on Iran and Cuba, for tactical purposes.

The Obama regime has adopted a ‘good cop/bad cop’ (or schizophrenic) posture with Russia on Syria – Secretary of State John Kerry speaks of joint co-operation with Moscow while Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter proposes to militarily confront ‘Russian aggression’. The media hasn’t made the switch because they don’t know which orders to obey or which line to ‘parrot’.
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In the meantime, the domestic economic crisis deepens, ISIS advances, the Taliban approaches Kabul, the Russians are arming and defending President Assad and millions of refugees, fleeing the war zones, have over- run Europe. European border wars are raging. And Obama wrings his hands in impotence. Demonology offers no allies, no solutions and no positive path to peace and co-existence.

© James Petras
​
James Petras is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, TempsModerne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet. 

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.

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"The US-Russia relationship has been defined by rivalry more than cooperation over past decades. With the two powers slugging it out over international affairs, an atmosphere of mutual disrespect has developed. How can the relationship move away from the winner-takes-all mentality, and can the world of boxing help bridge these differences? Oksana is joined by champion boxer Roy Jones Jr to tackle these issues." RT.com

Source and copyrights: 
https://www.rt.com/shows/worlds-apart-oksana-boyko/313591-us-russian-relationship-disrespect

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.

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Tensions are dramatically increasing in the Middle East, as the American and Russian militaries are each conducting airstrikes in Syria. This faceoff is worse than most situations that occurred in the Cold War.   This superpower standoff just strengthens my belief that high ranking U.S/Russian dialogue is necessary very quickly.  The Pentagon is scheduled to meet with their Russian colleagues this week to work on avoiding the competing air forces colliding. More comprehensive talks are needed immediately to avoid this potential head on train collision. A  Summit on Syria, the Ukraine and other potential problem areas between the United States and Russia should be undertaken as soon as possible.

     Putin’s moving of Russian military resources into Syria to help stabilize the Assad regime is a master foreign policy power play but at the same time very dangerous. He has put himself in a great negotiating position by thrusting Russia into a situation in Syria which the United States doesn’t want him.  It gives Russia the leverage to minimize U.S. and NATO pressure in the Ukraine.  In addition, it also may allow Russia to get out from under the Western imposed economic sanctions.  At the same time, it creates a situation where too many major military powers are operating in too small an area.  This makes it very easy for a possible major military standoff to occur; which may have just happened due to NATO member Turkey’s shoot down of a Russian fighter jet.  

     The military powers operating in Syrian airspace include the United States and many of its NATO allies.  Various Arab allied nations, the Israeli air force, and now Russia.  By any standard of military conduct it is a situation which is a tinderbox.  In theory, is Putin wrong for being there? No.  Syria has been a long time military client state and their strategy to stop ISIS and return Syria to a pre-war situation or negotiated settlement would certainly be preferable to the current situation.  It may be able to stop the migration millions of refugees.  The overthrowing of dictators like Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Honsi Mubarak and possibly Assad is understandable but not necessarily realistic or better for their people.  Those dictators are horrible but the extremists who have stepped into the voids they leave are arguably worse.

     The United States obviously has made the largest mistakes in the region in terms of regime change but they have also made mistakes when it concerns Russia in the region.  During the George H.W. Bush Presidency the United States worked with Russia in the Middle East. It was very sensible to do so since Russia has always had allies in the region.  In fact, James Baker, Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush, basically asked permission from Russia before the First Gulf War to throw Iraq out of Kuwait.  Russia gave its quiet support.  During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the United States convinced Russia not to send two paratroop divisions to Cairo and Damascus to potentially fight the Israelis.  Since George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the United States has been pulled to a militaristic, hegemonic, neo-con extreme right wing foreign policy strategy. The United States has been willing to go it alone if necessary to push their aims and has not even attempted to include Russia into the equation. This has been a recipe for disaster in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. Even more scary is the fact that many extreme foreign policy hawks in the United States believe they can dictate term to Moscow and anything less is appeasement.  They are living in a dream world.  They have convinced some Americans that Russia can be defeated in a war.  Obviously, Russia cannot be defeated and war would lead to a nuclear holocaust. 

    It is time for the United States to engage Russia. It shouldn’t be difficult since the United States was willing to work with Iran on a nuclear agreement. Remember Russia was helpful with that agreement because they don’t want Muslim extremists to possibly be able to get nuclear material.  Russia also has the same issues we have with citizens heading to the Middle East to fight with ISIS and then possibly returning home.  There are many issues these two nations can work on and come up with common ground.  The past rivalry shouldn’t matter and the world needs these two nuclear superpowers to work together.

© Chip Hodgkins

Chip Hodgkins is a graduate of Boston University's College of Communications with a B.S. in Print Journalism with emphasis on Foreign/War Coverage. He is especially proud of a paper he wrote  "NATO vs the Warsaw Pact" from his Soviet Military Policy class. He is currently President and C.O.O of WBRK-AM/FM radio stations in Pittsfield Ma. He was a member of the Rotary Club of Pittsfield for 15 years. He has won the statewide Presidents Award from Gun Owners Action League. He has been a board member of the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association. In 2010 he was sworn in as a Berkshire County Deputy Sheriff under Sheriff Carmen Massimiano. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Hillcrest Educational Centers. He has covered and interviewed many famous national and international political figures. In addition to others including actors and famous sports figures.

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.

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

From July 4th Independence to September 7th Labor Day: Congrats again! 
​
Our Russian friends have their own holidays: since Peter the Great, September 1st has been the national Knowledge Day when everybody goes to school, from first grade to university. Also in September Moscow turned 868 years old.

Tied to the beginning of school, the ceasefire in East Ukraine is tenuously holding up. Alas, world news now have switched to the rift, and fight, between pro-Maidan forces, both in West Ukraine and in Kiev. The jinn of anarchy released from the Maidan in Kiev on February 21, 2014, now reigns supreme. It will not be easy for President Poroshenko to put the jinn back into the bottle of disunited nation. Even with the help of President Obama.

1. This is the argument by my former colleague at the Monterey Institute of International Studies professor Nicolai Petro who was last year a Fulbright scholar in Odessa, Ukraine. 

<<The violent ouster of the Yanukovych government ended this delicate balance, and the civil war came. ...the conflict in Ukraine can now have one of only two possible outcomes. The first is the separation of Ukraine into two territories corresponding to their predominant cultural identity. The second is the subjugation of one cultural identity by the other.>>
Read Petro's article  "Bringing Ukraine Back Into Focus: How to End the New Cold War and Provide EffectivePolitical Assistance to Ukraine".

2. Edward Lozansky offers a very pro-European and pro-USA option in The Washington Times.

<<The Ukrainian crisis can be resolved immediately if Washington and Brussels put pressure on Kiev to accept the two pretty modest demands of the separatists: the country’s federalization and acknowledging Russian as the second language. Last time I checked, Canada is a federation with two official languages, while Switzerland is a federation with four. Incidentally, isn’t the United States a federation as well? And while Spanish is not the official language de-jure, it definitely is so de-facto.>>
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/24/edward-lozansky-russian-search-western-values/?page=all#pagebreak

The word compromise is very seldom used in regard to Ukraine. Not that it is absent from Russian or Ukrainian language. In Russian it iskompromiss, in Ukrainian--kompromis. Yet, the connotation of this word, fostered by 73 years of Communist indoctrination, was and still is close to "unprincipled cop-out" and even "treacherous surrender". I suspect the Ukrainian maidan leaders are still guided by the Bolshevik mentality of kto-kogo (who beats whom) and corresponding connotation, regardless of what a dictionary denotation might now say. As EdLozansky points out, US leaders are not in the position to teach Western values to either Russia or Ukraine because they gave up on those values the moment they opted for unipolar world domination under the pretence of wishing to spread ideas of fee-market and democracy, thus replacing the USSR with its inflammatory rhetoric of proletarian world revolution.

3. Such Cold War politicians as President Carter, President Gorbachev and Henry Kissinger are now aghast at the new neo-con inspired US leaders' inability to stop the world from sliding down to a precipice. Jack Hanick of The Observer asks "Can the United States Stop a War With Russia?" and says "Both sides need to try to see the other's point of view"

<<America is heading for war with Russia. Some call the current situation  “an increase of hostility” or “Cold War II.” There are two sides to this story. I believe that American journalists from all political persuasions are not offering critical analysis. Understanding the Russian side and taking their arguments seriously can help prevent serious consequences.

Americans believe that Russians are fed propaganda by the state-controlled media. If Russians only could hear the truth, the thinking goes, they would welcome the US position. This is not so. There are more than 300 TV stations available in Moscow. Only 6 are state-controlled. The truth is that Russians prefer hearing the news from the state rather than the Internet or other sources. This is different from almost any other country. It is not North Korea where the news is censored. Each night during the Crimea crisis, anyone could watch CNN or the BBC bash Russia.

     With regard to Ukraine, Russia has drawn a red line: It will never allow Ukraine to be part of NATO. Russia sees the US as the aggressor, surrounding Russia with military bases in Eastern Europe at every opportunity since the collapse of the Soviet Union...>>

Read more: http://observer.com/2015/08/can-the-united-states-stop-a-war-with-russia/

There are many ways to stigmatize Russia and thus justify US meddling in Russia's periphery. One of them is the "ubiquitous Russian corruption" allegedly presided by Putin. Another: post-Communist Russia is reverting back to Stalinism. 

4. Jerome Israel, a former senior executive at NSA and the FBI, dealt with the first question, in his article, pointedly titled "Is the U.S. less corrupt than Russia?" 

<<Last year, University of Miami professor Karen Dawisha authored the book "Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?" She traces the rise of Vladimir Putin and chronicles his rule. Her thesis is this: After a major political change — in this case, the breakup of the Soviet Union — most countries go through a period of instability and corruption but gradually bring lawlessness under control. In Russia, however, the exact opposite has happened: Russia has developed corruption into a fine art.

 .... Our system is rife with abuses of power, conflicts of interest, and paybacks to the rich through sole-source contracts, tax preferences or beneficial regulations. These "pay-to-play" schemes are endemic to corruption, making it hard to understand how our politicians are any better than Russia's, whom they are quick to condemn. Of course, many will point out that at least we don't assassinate or jail opposition voices.

... On my last trip to Russia, I had the opportunity to speak to a Russian Federal Security Service agent. I asked him, "What are you guys doing about corruption?" He said they were pursuing what they could, but that corruption was hard to prosecute.That sounded about right, in both our countries>>, concludes the former FBI and NSA official.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-russian-corruption-20150804-story.html

5. As to the charge of Stalinism, <<The government of Russia has announced a sweeping new policy commemorating the victims of past repressions during the era of the Soviet Union. The ‘State Policy on Commemorating the Memory of Victims of Political Repression’ was signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on August 15 and published on the government’s website on August 18. The announcement by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation is here in English  and is reproduced below. The policy was developed by order of President Vladimir Putin, the presidential administration and the Human Rights Council. The HRC requested its formulation in a meeting with the president last October.>>
http://russia-insider.com/en/russia-redouble-efforts-commemorate-victims-stalinism/ri9422?utm_source=Russia+Insider+Daily+Headlines&utm_campaign=4723a113e8-Russia_Insider_Daily_Headlines11_21_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c626db089c-4723a113e8-178949765&ct=t(Russia_Insider_Daily_Headlines11_21_2014)

6. There are some politics-related Sports News| Aug 20, 2015 6. U.S. boxer Roy Jones Jr. applies for Russian passport. Legendary U.S. boxer has filed for Russian citizenship, a day after the multiple champion met President Vladimir Putin and said he wanted to build bridges between Russia and the United States.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/20/us-russia-putin-roy-jones-idUSKCN0QP1W320150820
And he GOT IT! One might say that Roy outscored Barack Obama 1:0, and he did it from Crimea, of all places.

7. Meanwhile, from New York, Lev Alburt, Grandmaster and at times chess champion of the USSR, Ukraine, and the USA, delieved a resounding checkmate to Washington, certainly, in respect to its anti-Russia, anti-Putin policy. Here are quotes from his article

"Vladimir Putin, America’s Reluctant Foe" in a professional chess site http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19343

<<American elites are united in their disdain for Russia and their hatred for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Such unanimity is highly unusual; for instance, when President Carter imposed on the USSR the grain embargo, that action was sharply criticized from both left and right.>> That is, the USA today is more anti-Russian than it ever was anti-Communist. As a result,

<<Russians of all stripes had been shocked by the rapid dismemberment of Yugoslavia, applauded, even facilitated, by “The West”; by America’s treatment of Serbs , Russia’s (and America’s) truest allies in both World Wars. Not surprisingly, by 2000 the majority of Russians viewed America unfavorably.>> Then Alburt gives Putin credit that Washington stubbornly denies

<<Putin’s patience with US anti-Russian policies – NATO expansion toward the East, despite all assurance that this would never happen; America’s support for every country, every politician able to portray itself as an enemy and would-be victim of Russia – began to run thin. No more double standards, he said.>>  22.06.2015, http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19343

I am especially delighted to hear Mr. Alburt speak up because he is a bone fide Soviet defector and is listed as such in my book, Soviet Defectors: The KGB Wanted List. Neither Mr. Alburt nor myself hold against President Putin his KGB background.

8. Russia got good news from Vladivostok too. <<Despite U.S. sanctions slapped on Russia, the Canadian-American actress Pamela Anderson reportedly visited the East Economic Forum in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok to discuss environmental issues and sold a buoy from the TV series Baywatch at a charitable auction. Anderson was quoted by Russian News Service as saying that U.S. sanctions slapped on Russia last year over Ukraine did not stop her from accepting the invitation.>>
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/pamela-anderson-visits-russia-raises-820055

9. Mikhail Gorbachev called 'US Military an 'Insurmountable Obstacle to a Nuclear-Free World'". See his interview with Interview JoachimMohr and Matthias Schepp.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/gorbachev-calls-for-nuclear-free-world-on-hiroshima-day-a-1046900.html

10. Veterans for Peace, a national organization which I joined when the USA started bombing of Yugoslavia, just announced that Yoko Ono and Masahide Ota Join VFP Advisory Board, 

Yoko Ono is a multimedia artist, singer and peace activist who is also known for her work in avant-garde art, music, and filmmaking. She is the widow and second wife of John Lennon.

Masahide Ota is a Ryukyuan academic and politician who served as governor of Okinawa prefecture in the 1990s. Ota was educated atWaseda University, Tokyo, and Syracuse University, New York.

11. To welcome the two new members, I am happy to forward the VFP Board appeal:
Call Out To VFP Members to Take Action On International Peace Day, Sep 21

12. Here is an initiative on which USA, Russia, EU and everybody else can work together.

We, the undersigned, call upon all political powers: beyond all questions of political affiliation, and in the true spirit of human solidarity and decency, to categorize the crimes being committed by ISIS and other Takfiri terrorists against Christians, Twelver Shiites, Ismailis, Alawis, Sufis, traditional Sunnis, and others, as acts of religious, cultural, and ethnic genocide.

Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here's the link:
 
http://www.change.org/p/all-political-players-the-genocide-initiative

13. Chip Hodgkins just joined RAGA as a new team member. Below is the conclusion of his new article:

<<This is why the United States should now be looking at what we have in common with Russia: because they do many things we should love. They can be an ally, fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. 

They are potentially the best ally we could have.  Most importantly, they are like our favorite sports teams: able to come back against impossible odds, and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.  They demonstrated this in World War II, and, in fact, even earlier against Napoleon, who many historians call the greatest military genius of all time.  Don’t believe me?  Well, maybe I’ll tell you that story someday, 

too.>>

14. Finally, Dr. Gilbert Doctorow, another RAGA associate, just published a new book with the title, Does Russia Have A Future? Please read Dr. Vlad Sobell's expert review of this intriguing new book in Russia Insider. Just about a year ago Gilbert announced his intention to re-create the American Committee for East-West Accord and now it is already in place. The same goes for Charles Bausman's Russia-Insider. The ACEWA and RI are now essential sources of information and opinion in regard to Russia.
donate@russia-insider.com

15. As before, Professor of Tulane University William Brumsfield supplies us with views of historical Russia. ---In 1275, Mozhaisk was inherited by Prince Fyodor Rostislavich Chyorny (1233?-99), a fascinating figure who was befriended by the Mongol Golden Horde and married the daughter of Khan Mengu-Timur. The strange biography of Prince Fyodor is emblematic of the chaos of 13th-century Rus, wracked by incessant infighting among feudal princes and raids by Mongol (Tatar) forces. Indeed, Prince Fyodor himself sacked Mozhaiskin 1293 as part of a large campaign led by Dyuden, one of the sons of Khan Mengu-Timur.
- http://rbth.com/arts/2015/09/04/mozhaisk_city_under_seige_but_protected_by_st_nicholas_49009.html)

Lastly don't forget to relax on Labor Day and enjoy this fine pictorial-musical review of the contribution the Russians in diaspora made to US and world culture. The composer is John Sokoloff ~ Coronado Terrace - YouTube

Malice to None. Good Will  to All. 
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."

Sincerely,
W George Krasnow (=Vladislav Krasnov)
President, RAGA

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.

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