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CURRENT ANTI-RUSSIAN HYSTERIA

What is the future of relations between the United States and Russia? Right now, America is in the state of anti-Russian hysteria. So let's examine what has happened. Have the Russians attacked us? No. Have they bombed Chicago? No. The heart of the problem is a series of accusations which are very poorly documented by the U.S. intelligence organizations. These are accusations that the Russians supposedly hacked embarrassing material from key Democratic leaders and published it. In other words, that the Russians exposed corruption in the Democratic Party. Now part of the problem is that the security at the Democratic National Committee was so bad that even a child could probably have hacked them.

U.S. HYPOCRISY IN DEALING WITH RUSSIA

We are not in a place to verify whether these accusations against Russia are true or not. However, even if they are true, the reaction of the U.S. government represents a breathtaking level of hypocrisy. Since 1991, America has been doing everything possible to interfere with Russia and to interfere with internal Russian politics. This has not only been through organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy, but there has been interference from a whole network of NGOs, the CIA, and so on and so forth to interfere in Russian politics.

And this isn't just limited to Russia either. The CIA has been interfering with the elections of other countries for around sixty years now. One of the most infamous examples was the 1953 Iranian Coup. (The Washington Post, 10-13-16).

BROKEN PROMISES TO RUSSIA

Not only has America been interfering with Russia and its internal politics since the end of the Cold War, but America has also double-crossed and completely betrayed a solemn promise made to the Russians. The U.S. betrayed a promise that NATO would not be expanded after the reunification of Germany. This was a solemn promise that was violated, and now even the Baltic states have been incorporated into NATO, bringing NATO military forces within a few hours of St. Petersburg. During the Cold War there was only one direct border between Russia itself and the NATO alliance (other than a small slip of land in northern Norway) and that border was Turkey. By contrast the new borders of NATO bring NATO up to some of the most sensitive parts of Russia.

It needs to be understood that Russia has been invaded from the east twice during the last century, which has resulted in the deaths of millions of Russians. For Russians, this is an extremely sensitive issue.

So our point is that American policy toward Russia, since the end of the Cold War, has been anything but neutral, and anything but friendly. That's the background that we need to look at. (NATO Lies about Eastward Expansion)

HOSTILE U.S. ACTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA

Now the most recent conflict between the U.S. and Russia concerns the Ukraine. Western forces backed a violent overthrow of a legally elected government in Ukraine, which Western leaders claimed was repressive. Maybe this government was repressive, maybe it wasn't, but it was a legally elected government nevertheless. And the government that has now come to power in Ukraine is a corrupt mess filled with neo-Nazis.

Very troubling questions emerge here as to whether the CIA has been sending weapons or aid to neo-Nazi groups in the Ukraine. That needs to be investigated, along with whether the CIA has been sending weapons to ISIS in Syria for that matter.

The hostile statements of former CIA Chief Michael Morell have not helped. While the corporate media has portrayed him as some kind of so-called "expert," he has said things like we should start assassinating Russians and killing them (The Intercept, 8-9-16). This would be an act of direct war. Mr. Morell is a very troubled individual and a previous supporter of torture and other unsavory things (Common Dreams, 8-5-16). So we need to avoid listening to nut cases like Morell. We need to avoid listening to warmongers like Lindsey Graham screaming at the top of his lungs that he wants to throw rocks at Russia (The Washington Post, 1-5-17). Graham, McCain and other neoconservatives have produced one disaster after another in their policies, disasters such as Iraq, Syria, Libya or Yemen. So these people have very little credibility.

To add to these tensions, America has recently presided over the installation of anti-ballistic missiles (also known as a Ballistic Missile Defense system) in Romania, and has plans to put a similar system in Poland in 2018. Now America has defended this decision with claims that these missiles are protecting against the "Iranian nuclear threat." But Putin has responded, "What Iranian nuclear threat?" Given the agreement that Obama has recently made with Iran, the possibility of Iran being a "nuclear threat" has gone down to zero.

And the most recent action of U.S. leaders against Russia has been President Obama's increased sanctions in retalliation for the supposed election hack. President Barack Obama issued a press release on December 29th using the DHS-FBI report on the hacking to justify increasing sanctions against Russia. Even if Russia did perpetrate these hacks (which is not entirely clear), releasing information about corruption on wikileaks is not an act of war. Yet sanctions, however, are definitely an act of war.

So what needs to be done is move toward a reevaluation of U.S. and Russian relations.

WHAT COULD IMPROVE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE U.S. AND RUSSA?

DE-ESCALATING THE SITUATION IN THE UKRAINE

Now because of the so-called hacking situation, there has been a huge level of hysteria in Washington. There has been pressure in Washington to react to all of this. We can think of few things that would be more dangerous. What everybody needs to do is to take a step back. We need to realize that we as a country need to stop having an aggressive, imperialist policy toward Russia. We need to focus on de-escalating the situation in Ukraine. In Ukraine, the Russians had a very good reason to distrust the extreme right wing government that was brought to power by a violent revolt (supported by America). And the Russians had a very good reason to protect their security interest in Crimea. Crimea contains Russia's only warm water naval base: the naval base at Sevastopol. Without this base, Russia would have no way of extending force through the Mediterranean. Without Crimea, Russia would be severely crippled as a military power.

Furthermore, Crimea has been a part of Russia for a majority of its history. It was part of Russia until it was given to Ukraine in 1954 for political reasons. And over 90% of the Crimean people voted to join Russia in an election. The whole idea that Crimea is even a part of Ukraine is a ludicrous absurdity left over from the Soviet era. So the issue of Crimea rejoining Russia should not have been an issue where the West imposed sanctions.

Howls and screams in Washington about the Russian hack being an act of war are ludicrous. America has already been involved in a series of acts of war against Russia. Sanctions, for example, are an act of war. So we need an overall de-escalation of tensions on both sides. We should be focused on resolving the Ukraine situation. That's the focal point of where we ought to be going. And some politicians, such as neoconservatives like Lindsey Graham and John McCain, want to go the opposite way. They want to whip up tensions and give the government of Ukraine all sorts of assurances that the U.S. is backing them. Well here's the problem: are we willing to go to war over Ukraine, which is not even a member of NATO? We are threatening direct Russian security interests. That's the fact we need to understand.

Read our Ukraine Report here

WE PROPOSE AN INDEPENDENT JOINT COMMISSION TO REVIEW U.S. RUSSIAN RELATIONS

What we propose is an independent joint commission to review U.S. Russian relations covering all aspects of the situation. Then we can find out whether there really was or was not hacking. But the hacking issue is a byproduct of media hysteria and political B.S. Russia hacks the U.S. all the time and we hack them as well. And there is no evidence that Russia interfered with actual voting machines. So saying that they "interfered" with U.S. elections is a very dangerous, and false statement to make. The main issue is that America and Russia have nuclear arsenals that can destroy each other. How do we get to a better relationship between the two countries? A joint commission to look at the overall picture of U.S. Russian relations is one solution.

WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS COMMISSION?

We're not going to pretend to have all the answers. However, we believe that this commission should be a bipartisan group that represents all points of view on the matter of Russian and U.S. relations. Therefore, on one hand, we would suggest having neoconservatives like Senator John McCain (R-Ariz). Yet we would also suggest having voices from non-interventionists as well, people like Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky), along with Stephen F. Cohen, a professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton University, and a contributing editor to The Nation.


READ OUR REPORTS

Our Priorities For Stopping a New Cold War

In certain unique situations we make grants to other non-profit organizations. Such organizations must be compatible with our main goals as defined on this web site.

One of our top priorities is to stop the escalation of a new Cold War between Russia and the United States.

If you are part of an organization that is working toward this goal, be sure to check out our grants.

New Cold War

Russia is unlike any other country on the planet. They are the one country that has enough nuclear weapons to wipe the United States off the face of the Earth in 45 minutes.

Can the United States afford to continue with its aggressive stance toward Russia? We think not.

Apocalypse on Hair Trigger

When the Cold War ended in 1991, many people around the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. It seemed that the possibility of nuclear annihilation had been averted.

But today the threat looms closer than many people think.

Ukraine Crisis

We call on all reasonable people to support an internationally supervised plebiscite in Ukraine to help the different provinces to decide their own future.

We have both Ukrainian and Russian friends. We need a road to a peaceful future for all.

Dangerous Ukraine Bills

A list of passed U.S. bills granting aid and weapons to Ukraine.

Broken Anglo-American Promises to Russia in World War II (put this into report)

Back in World War II, America broke its promise to Russia to open a second front to aid in the fight against the Nazis.

As a result, many Russian lives were lost, and there has been a deep distrust against the West ever since.

NATO Lies about Eastward Expansion

What exactly was Moscow promised in 1990 by the West? This has been the subject of much dispute.

There should be no dispute.  There is not a shadow of doubt that Russia was very specifically promised that NATO would not expand by both America and Germany.