
Happy Halloween! My Labor Day RAGA Antidote 37 dealt with natural and political hurricanes that hit the USA. I warned against the divisiveness of Vietnam war era coming back to haunt us.
--Now, A new poll co-sponsored by The Washington Post found that seven in 10 Americans say the nation’s political divisions are at least as big as during the Vietnam War, while nearly 6 in 10 said the Trump presidency is making the U.S. political system more dysfunctional.
--Meanwhile, in Russia, October 30 was declared a Day of Sorrow for all victims of Communist repression under Soviet rule. President Vladimir Putin, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin laid flowers to the Wall of Sorrow, a monument just erected in Moscow for the victims of Communist repression. http://tass.com/society/973243
Western media like to talk about Putin's KGB background but fail to mention that he befriended Alexander Solzhenitsyn to whom the US gave refuge for the long 1973-1994 years. Previously Putin laid a wreath to the monument to the prisoners of GULAG and he frequently quotes Solzhenitsyn on the essential issues of today. One might say that US mass media hostility toward New Russia is totally misplaced because, unlike the USSR, Russia of today is more similar to the USA economically and politically-- for better or worse--than ever before. All it wants is sovereignty that is the ability to run its affairs without paternalistic shouts much less threats from across the Ocean.
--For greater objectivity, I yield the pulpit to Patrick Armstrong of Canada, a former diplomat and now a keen Russia watcher. Patrick elucidates such events as Saudi Arabia King's visit to Moscow, Russia completing chemical disarmament, and the New Maidan in Kiev in which Yulia Timoshenko and US Georgia friend Mikhel Saakashvili try to dislodge president Poroshenko, another US client. https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2017/10/19/russian-federation-sitrep-19-october-2017/
--Al Jazeera English. Published on Oct 4, 2017
Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry hailed this week's visit of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to Moscow as "historic".
Riyadh and Moscow have been at odds for decades. The two oil superpowers produce almost half of the world's crude - and fiercely compete for market shares. Moscow's efforts that propped up Syrian President Bashar Assad's government have pitted Russia against Saudis and other Sunni Arab states.
Yet, in the past year, an unexpected rapprochement between the two countries has been in the making amid Moscow's deteriorating ties with Washington and US President Donald Trump's unpredictable policy shifts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OseolgoOBUw
--John R. Bradley (UK, Spectator): How Putin came to rule the Middle East
Syria and Libya are just two examples of how the Russian leader has been running rings around the West.
The dismal failure turned out to be our cynical effort to install a Sunni regime in Damascus by adopting the Afghanistan playbook from the 1980s. We would train, fund and arm jihadis, foreign and domestic, in partnership with the Gulf Arab despots. This way we would rob Russia of its only warm-water naval base, Tartus, on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. In the process we would create a buffer between Iran and its Lebanon-based proxy, Hezbollah...
...For while the consequences of Netanyahu beating the war drums over Iran used to be non-existent, now Moscow could give the green light to battle–hardened Iran, Syria and Hezbollah to unleash hellfire against the Jewish state. It is easy to understand why Netanyahu is quaking in his boots, but should Europe be alarmed at Putin’s Middle East triumph? Not unduly so.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/10/how-putin-came-to-rule-the-middle-east/
John R. Bradley is the author of books on Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Arab Spring, and has been covering the Middle East for two decades.
--Not only US friend Saudi Arabia woos the Kremlin, but also President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović who was educated in the USA and used to be a high NATO official.
<<At the talks, particular attention was paid to the energy industry, a traditional area of bilateral cooperation. Croatia is a major importer of Russian oil products. It bought 350,000 tonnes of oil from us last year. In addition, 2.3 million tonnes of Russia oil were delivered through Croatia’s ports and pipes for customers in southeast Europe... Russia’s Gazprom, for its part, supplies Croatia with almost half of the natural gas it consumes. It signed a long-term contract for gas supplies to 2027 with its Croatian partners in September....Putin thanked Croatia for unveiling monuments to Alexander Pushkin, Yury Gagarin and Sergei Yesenin in Zagreb in 2016–17. Russia, in turn, is considering installing a monument to Croatian philosopher and theologian Juraj Krizanic, whose life was closely tied to Russia.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/55872
I have already reported about my own visit to Dubrovnic, Croatia, April 2017, and I see no reason why the two Slavic countries should not be even greater friends.
Dubrovnik, the Pearl of Civilization at Peace By Vladislav Krasnov
RAGA eschews partisan politics. RAGA looks for a sound mind, and once we find it, we want it to shine. Here is Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, a strong anti-Communist magazine I used to read when the oppression of human rights in the USSR was rife. Now I let Rich cast some light of US hysteria about Russia's alleged current meddling.
--Rich Lowry: The Facebook Farce Oct 27, 2017
<<It’s unlikely that Russia’s Facebook ad buys had a significant impact on the 2016 election. The Kremlin knows a bargain when it sees it. We are supposed to believe that it bought the American presidential election last year with $100,000 in Facebook ads and some other digital activity. Frankly, if American democracy can be purchased this cheap — a tiny fraction of the $7.2 million William Seward paid to buy Alaska from the Russians back in 1867 — it’s probably not worth having.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/453023/russian-facebook-ad-buys-did-they-really-affect-election Rich can be reached via email: comments.lowry@nationalreview.com.
--Alex Krainer in his book “The Killing of William Browder” deconstructs Browder’s narrative. Krainer gave an interview to Ed Lozansky for the Strategic Culture Foundation (SC) .
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/10/15/interview-magnitsky-act-comes-to-canada.html
--After reading diverse and objective analytical articles about Russia, another American, Robert Bridge, came to a serendipity idea: Why Vladimir Putin deserves a Nobel Peace Prize (seriously) By ROBERT BRIDGE Oct 28,2017
The reality is that the Russian leader has done more to promote the cause of global peace and security than any other Western leader in recent times. Given Vladimir Putin’s extraordinary efforts to bring about the conditions of peace both in Ukraine and in Syria, it would seem that he is the most fitting candidate to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Of course, the Western capitals would never see things that way, which only highlights the great schism that now separates Russia from the West, which has lost its ability to judge right from wrong, truth from deception.
http://russiafeed.com/why-vladimir-putin-deserves-a-nobel-peace-prize-seriously/
Speaking of PEACE, I am happy to report about my participation in a GHA project which aims at reforming UN in a way that it frees itself from the US paternalistic and selfish embrace in order to mature into a truly independent global association of all countries seeking PEACE though domestic HARMONY. Below is the letter of GHA founder Leo Semashko of Russia.
Dear GHA (Global Harmony Association) members, friends, peacemakers:
I am happy to report on the responses (below) of two Nobel Peace Laureates: Ms Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland and prof. John Avery from Denmark, with support for UN reform in the GHA 57th project (http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=769), but in different ways, in varying degrees and forms...
Please read more about Peace-makers of the World
Prof. John Scales Avery
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (shared 1995 award),
Chairman of the Danish Peace Academy,
Copenhagen, Denmark
http://www.fredsakademiet.dk
http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=672
Mairead Maguire
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1976
Stopped the terror in Belfast, Northern Ireland
Community for Peace People
http://www.peacepeople.com/MaireadCMaguire.htm/
http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=678
One of the founders and coauthors of Global Peace Science:
http://peacefromharmony.org/docs/global-peace-science-2016.pdf
"armed groups, militarism and war do not solve
our problems but aggravate them challenges us to use new ways and that is
why we need to teach the science of peace at every level of society"
In quest for PEACE, we should be open to uniqueness of each culture of the world as it contributes to universal harmony. My colleague William Brumfield, Professor of Russian Studies, Tulane Unversity, does the utmost by photographing ancient Russian church architecture that conveys the message of spiritual harmony. Of course, Russians are grateful that the Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky Collection was preserved in the USA because Soviet leaders, in the wake of the October Revolution 100 years ago, did not really care about the glory of pre-Communist Russian culture.
Trinity Cathedral at Ipatiev Monastery: https://www.rbth.com/travel/326471-trinity-cathedral-at-ipatiev-monastery / Juxtaposition of early 20th-century photographs from the Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky Collection (Library of Congress) with photos from William C. Brumfield Collection (National Gallery of Art, Dept. of Image Collections). 182-nd article in "Discovering Russia" series for "Russia Beyond"
General link:
https://www.rbth.com/special-discovering-russia
Same in Russian - Свято-Троицкий собор Ипатьевского монастыря:
https://www.rbth.com/travel/326471-trinity-cathedral-at-ipatiev-monastery
Sincerely,
W George Krasnow (http://wiki-org.ru/wiki/Краснов,_Владислав_Георгиевич)
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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