The two leaders met on the sidelines of the two-day Asian-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) on Saturday. Putin said he has accepted an invitation to take part in events related to the implementation of Silk Road Economic Belt project, a large-scale initiative unveiled by Xi in 2013 that envisages the integration of trade and investment in Eurasia. 

“You invited me to come to China in May for events related to the implementation of your Silk Road – the One Belt, One Road – initiative ... We checked the schedules and look forward to acting on the invitation,”Putin told Xi at the meeting.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/367536-apec-putin-xi-meeting/

We all can hope that Trump's election to President of the USA is going to foster peace for the Middle East and the rest of the planet, despite his loading of advisors on the hawkish side of history... The toon at top is not a reality. It is only a Gus mightmare... I trust the Russians knew that.

Hillary Clinton’s loss was a shock to the purveyors of U.S. military hegemony, who saw in her an easier path to keep the Syria conflict going. Secretary of State Clinton was instrumental in the early days of Syria intervention, in 2010 making a series of demands for Syria to get in line behind the U.S. vision for the Middle East.

When Bashar al-Assad refused to roll over, regime change became the talking point of Washington think tanks and mainstream media echo chambers. Clinton promised during her campaign to ramp up action in Syria, to the delight of the same neocons who brought the Iraq invasion. She acknowledged that many civilians would die if the U.S. set up a no-fly zone.

Establishment of a no-fly zone is the next crucial step toward full-scale war. It would mean Syrian planes could not fly in their own airspace and would bring the disturbing prospect of U.S. planes shooting down Russian planes — which are operating there on invitation from Syria to help battle ISIS.

Soon after the presidential election, key warmongers in Congress began formulating plans to make increased conflict a near certainty, complete with the kind of propaganda peddled before the Iraq attack. While everyone was distracted by the election of Trump, six representatives took advantage of the lame-duck session and suspended “normal rules” to bring us H.R. 5732.

The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2016 includes Section 303, titled: Assessment of potential effectiveness of and requirements for the establishment of safe zones or a no-fly zone in Syria.

As reported by Consortium News:

“Late in the day, on Nov. 15, one week after the U.S. elections, the lame-duck Congress convened in special session with normal rules suspended so the House could pass House Resolution 5732, the “Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act” calling for intensifying the already harsh sanctions on Syria, assessing the imposition of a “no fly zone” inside Syria (to prevent the Syrian government from flying) and escalating efforts to press criminal charges against Syrian officials…

Most strikingly, the resolution calls for evaluating and developing plans for the United States to impose a “no fly zone” inside Syria, a sovereign nation, an act of war that also would violate international law as an act of aggression. It also could put the U.S. military in the position of shooting down Russian aircraft.”

The suspension of rules procedure is supposed to be used for “non-controversial” bills such as naming Post Offices, but this small group of lawmakers used it to pass a drastically important bill. The blatant abuse of power shows the desperation in the neocon ranks.

Donald Trump has spoken out against regime change, but considering his unpredictable behavior, the actual position of his coming administration is anybody’s guess. Trump’s pick of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser is not a good portent.

Earlier this month, Flynn strongly supported Turkish President Erdogan in an op-ed at The Hill, suggesting he is under siege by “radical Islam” and desperately needs our help. Flynn seemed to dismiss Erdogan’s crackdown on political dissidents and the dubious circumstances of the attempted coup which allowed Erdogan to solidify his power.

It may be no coincidence that just days ago, Turkey — a NATO ally — urged to U.S. to move forward with a no-fly zone in Syria.  Incidentally, no one seems to have paid attention to a damning investigative report finding that the “Turkish government under President Erdogan is covertly providing direct military, financial and logistical support to ISIS, even while claiming to fight the terror network.”

While both Russian and U.S. bombings have resulted in civilian deaths, completely missing in the Western narrative on Syria is how U.S. intervention in the interest of regime change was the catalyst for today’s hellish conditions in that country, and the resulting flood of Syrian refugees.

As we have reported before, the Pentagon nurtured the Salafist sect in eastern Syria — to help the U.S. and its allies achieve regime change – and these extremists went on to become the violent terror group called ISIS.

In order to keep the American public ignorant of reality in Syria, and to maintain the specter of terrorism in order to justify massive military spending, politicians’ propaganda must be so complete they believe it themselves.

This was demonstrated during the 40-minute “debate” session among the six lawmakers who pushed the bill through.

They claimed the Obama administration has been “sitting back and doing nothing” as violence worsens, and Assad is “killing millions of his citizens.” All of this is, of course, false.

read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2016/11/28/media-silent-as-lame-duck-congress-p...

see also: 

nutsos...

See toon at top

The overseers of the U.S. intelligence community have not embraced a CIA assessment that Russian cyber attacks were aimed at helping Republican President-elect Donald Trump win the 2016 election, three American officials said on Monday.

While the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) does not dispute the CIA’s analysis of Russian hacking operations, it has not endorsed their assessment because of a lack of conclusive evidence that Moscow intended to boost Trump over Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, said the officials, who declined to be named.

The position of the ODNI, which oversees the 17 agency-strong U.S. intelligence community, could give Trump fresh ammunition to dispute the CIA assessment, which he rejected as “ridiculous” in weekend remarks, and press his assertion that no evidence implicates Russia in the cyber attacks.

Trump’s rejection of the CIA’s judgment marks the latest in a string of disputes over Russia’s international conduct that have erupted between the president-elect and the intelligence community he will soon command.

read more:

http://nypost.com/2016/12/13/top-spy-agency-isnt-convinced-russia-wanted...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/world/europe/russia-trump-election-cia-fbi.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

See toon at top...

I have watched incredulous as the CIA’s blatant lie has grown and grown as a media story – blatant because the CIA has made no attempt whatsoever to substantiate it. There is no Russian involvement in the leaks of emails showing Clinton’s corruption. Yes this rubbish has been the lead today in the Washington Post in the US and the Guardian here, and was the lead item on the BBC main news. I suspect it is leading the American broadcasts also.

A little simple logic demolishes the CIA’s claims. The CIA claim they “know the individuals” involved. Yet under Obama the USA has been absolutely ruthless in its persecution of whistleblowers, and its pursuit of foreign hackers through extradition. We are supposed to believe that in the most vital instance imaginable, an attempt by a foreign power to destabilise a US election, even though the CIA knows who the individuals are, nobody is going to be arrested or extradited, or (if in Russia) made subject to yet more banking and other restrictions against Russian individuals? Plainly it stinks. The anonymous source claims of “We know who it was, it was the Russians” are beneath contempt.

As Julian Assange has made crystal clear, the leaks did not come from the Russians. As I have explained countless times, they are not hacks, they are insider leaks – there is a major difference between the two. And it should be said again and again, that if Hillary Clinton had not connived with the DNC to fix the primary schedule to disadvantage Bernie, if she had not received advance notice of live debate questions to use against Bernie, if she had not accepted massive donations to the Clinton foundation and family members in return for foreign policy influence, if she had not failed to distance herself from some very weird and troubling people, then none of this would have happened.

read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2016/12/13/the-cias-absence-of-conviction/

In a 2013 documentary on Julian Assange, the death of Wikileaks was imminent, like the next day... It appears that even being dead, irrelevant, moribund and in exile in an Ecuador embassy, Wikileaks (which is mostly Julian Assange by himself and a computer, Assange who to say the least has been betrayed by some of his "lieutenants") has been claimed to have managed to change the course of history by getting Trump elected instead of Clinton. Well done, Julian. But this woud not have happened unless the DNC twiddled their books in the first place to sleep with the corporates instead of supporting the people. Ninety-nine per cent of information released by Assange come from whistleblowers from WITHIN organisations. The CIA caper is a smokescreen. In fact, should "hackers" had infiltrated the CIA, the FBI and other agencies, they would have a trove of other sensitive information which the USA would be in total panic mode about. 

Do you see panic, apart from Clinton not having been elected? Nupe. The CIA is all huff and puff in the last throws of the Obama administration because it may not have played ball with Trump in the past — and Trump knows that but so far he seems not to care till the time he will.

Now, outrage over the tainted election past can’t be the whole of opposition politics. It will also be crucial to maintain the heat over actual policies. Everything we’ve seen so far says that Mr. Trump is going to utterly betray the interests of the white working-class voters who were his most enthusiastic supporters, stripping them of health care and retirement security, and this betrayal should be highlighted.

But we ought to be able to look both forward and back, to criticize both the way Mr. Trump gained power and the way he uses it. Personally, I’m still figuring out how to keep my anger simmering — letting it boil over won’t do any good, but it shouldn’t be allowed to cool. This election was an outrage, and we should never forget it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/opinion/the-tainted-election.html

Get a life, Paul... There was no interference to speak of and Clinton lost it. Simple as that. And please note I am not in the Trump fan club either.

Hugh Hewitt hosts a nationally syndicated radio show and is author of the forthcoming “The Fourth Way: The Conservative Playbook for a Lasting GOP Majority.”

What if Trump is playing Russia like he played the media?

Is it better to be thought a lightweight and dismissed by rivals if you are in fact talented, ambitious and ready to strike? To be thought clueless when in fact you have a plan?

Now for the stretch on your part — and mine: What if President-elect Donald Trump is playing the Russians and Vladimir Putin as effectively as he played the U.S. media throughout 2015 and 2016? 

What if the incoming president has a strategic vision that views China, Iran and radical Sunni Islamists as far greater threats to U.S. national security than Russia is? Even if Russia is rightly understood, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) put it after President Obama’s imposition of sanctions, as “not our friend,” and is “guilty, guilty, guilty” of interfering in our election and harassing our diplomats, as I and most conservatives believe? 

I know the guffaws that just erupted. I have firsthand knowledge that the new president is not — or at least was not — educated in matters such as the nuclear triad or the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah. The collective, deep, probably unbendable assumption is that he just doesn’t know much about many aspects of national security. From that assumption it is an easy, and dangerous, leap to “he’s clueless, cannot learn and has no interest in learning.” 

That might be true. Or it might be that Trump is, first and foremost, a developer, who will bring a developer’s habits and strengths to the presidency. 

I’ve worked for real estate developers on huge projects for three decades. My law practice was built on helping them figure out and comply with complex statutory and regulatory regimes and knowing how the Environmental Protection Agency, Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked. 

“How and when do I get the permit, and what is it going to cost me?” are the questions most natural-resource lawyers hear from their land-owning clients, any one of whom could have certainly learned the details but didn’t need or want to. They wanted to get on with their project. They wanted it built yesterday.

READ MORE:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-if-trump-is-playing-russia-...

See toon at top... Two things:

a) Trump "did not" play the media. The MMMM liberal media tried to discredit him ad infinitum. The only media that "supported him" was the Murdoch media (FOX, the NYP and an array of small "influential" publications. Not to be sneezed at mind you.

b) see toon at top. Like the rest of America, Putin was in a bind. He is clever and can stay straight faced while the others deal whatever crooked cards. Putin knows where the aces are.

Donald Trump said that he trusted Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin, but his confidence in the two leaders might not last long.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — US President-elect Donald Trump said that he trusted German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin, but his confidence in the two leaders might not last long, media reported Monday. "Well, I start off trusting both [Putin and Merkel] — but let’s see how long that lasts. It may not last long at all," Trump said, as quoted by the Times newspaper.

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/politics/201701161049623543-trump-putin-merkel-trust/

See toon at top...

Moscow is being forced to readjust its expectations of a closer relationship with the US just four months after Donald Trump was elected President.

• Trump and Putin, what's going on?
• Revisiting Moscow, 15 years on
• The business of selling Trump souvenirs in Moscow (coming Monday)
• Could Russian hacking play a role in European elections? (coming Monday)
• Why has Russia decriminalised domestic violence? (coming Tuesday)
• What happens when you oppose Vladimir Putin? (coming midweek)
• Who do Russians blame for tough economic times? (coming Saturday)

There had been celebrations in Russia at the thought of a White House that did not involve Hillary Clinton, with hopes it would end years of fractious diplomacy.

Donald Trump was given blanket coverage on state media and souvenir matryoshka dolls (at $AU45) and coffee mugs (slightly less at $10) imprinted with Mr Trump's face were snapped up by Russians and tourists.

But that heady excitement has now dissipated and the tone has changed in Russia.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-26/donald-trump-post-victory-euphoria...

Moscow never had expectations... SEE TOON AT TOP... THE MUGS WERE TO REPRESENT THE MUG OF LE DONALD... Actually, the West has been so anti-Russia for so long, it does not know how to think otherwise... ALL the press and the establishment have cornered Trump in his attempt to defuse this gross hate towards the Russians — and the more he's going to try the more hate against the Russians he's going to generate. For the public RUSSIA interfered with the Presidential elections and that's enough for them to hate Putin beyond hate. Let's be clear: RUSSIA DID NOT interfere with the US presidential elections.

Now only one person can sort out this mess... Donald Trump with some clever props from Uncle Rupe should Uncle Rupe be prepared to EXPOSE THE CON from the CIA, the FBI and other agencies. Big ask that no-one in their right mind would take on. Thus Uncle Rupe has to discreetly stir, with some clever manipulations that won't damage the spy agencies but help to instil a crescending bit of "détente" with the Russians. He can do it and save the world, though Soros allied with the liberal press will fight him in the dark alleys, on the airwaves and the beaches...

Finian Cunningham

Western politicians, military leaders and corporate news media increasingly blame Russia for all manner of perceived transgressions. Whether it is alleged interference in national elections or alleged aggressive military maneuvers, the unremitting demonizing of Russia is astonishing.

It is all the more astounding because the anti-Russia accusations are leveled with such high-handedness and yet with so little evidence to support.

This week saw outlandish claims in British media of Russia sponsoring a coup in the Balkan state of Montenegro and of trying to assassinate the country’s prime minister. No evidence provided. Just sensational, irresponsible innuendo. The gravity of this slander is enough to start a war, and yet it is spouted with reckless abandon. Only a few weeks ago, US media were also calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “killer”.

Then we have American lawmakers intensifying investigationsinto unfounded allegations of Russian hacking of the US presidential election and of “treasonous” contacts with the new Trump administration. Rabid US politicians have even labelled the alleged Russian misconduct an “act of war”.

That has in turn led to British, French and German claims that Russia is interfering in their elections. Similar fears of Russian hacking and “influence campaigns” have been issued for elections in the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and Estonia, among other places.

Sometimes, reality intrudes on fantasy, when for example German state intelligence concluded recently that there was actually no evidence that Russia was involved in any kind of subversive hacking.

Most of the time, however, the impetuous accusations and feverish speculation continue unbridled.

Britain’s Independent this week ran the headline: “Clear evidence Russia interfered in 2015 UK election, says former minister”.

But on reading the article, there is no “clear evidence” presented to back up the tendentious anti-Russian claims. Indeed, no evidence at all. The whole allegation was based on claims made by anonymous “security sources” and reference to other unproven stories, such as the alleged hacking of the US election.

This kind of fake, unethical journalism that has become a staple in Western media with regard to Russia. Whether it is allegations of Russia probing electoral processes or probing territorial air space and waters, the entire thrust of the Western media relies on innuendo, prejudice and disinformation. All told in a relentless, unquestioning fashion by the gamut of Western mainstream media outlets.

In plain language, this is nothing but anti-Russian propaganda disguised as public information.

When such propaganda becomes a systematic form of public discourse then it can be said that the mindset has moved dangerously beyond a condition of reprehensible Russophobia, to one of collective psychosis.

And this affliction among Western states seems to be worsening. The appointment by US President Donald Trump this week of Lt General HR McMaster as his National Security Adviser was greeted with applause among hawkish lawmakers in Congress.

The cause for their celebration is because McMaster is seen as having staunch “anti-Russian views” – unlike his ousted predecessor, Michael Flynn, who reportedly wanted to restore friendly relations with Moscow.

McMaster’s appointment marks a “100 per cent threat to Russia,” said Franz Klintsevich, the First Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security.

Klintsevich added that “Washington’s Russophobia is increasing, not weakening.”

Not surprisingly given the relentless anti-Russian “news” saturating Western media, a new Gallup poll found that favorability among ordinary Americans towards Russia has plummeted. Four years ago, some 50 per cent of Americans had a friendly view of Russia. Now, the figure is down to 28 per cent.

This is a clear example of “perception management”, whereby a constant flow of negative, fear-mongering information results in a diminished view of Russia. This is exactly how a propaganda system is supposed to work.

Again, all the allegations against Russia are either baseless or completely fabricated. For instance, Russia did not invade Ukraine, as claimed. It was the US-led NATO alliance that orchestrated the violent overthrow of an elected government in 2014. The Western-backed regime that seized power in Kiev has been waging a genocidal war of aggression on ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine ever since. Yet Western media and governments upturn reality and accuse Russia of “destabilizing Ukraine”.

When people are so prone to powers of persuasion against all reason and reality then that is proof of brainwashing.

When a Russian communications naval vessel in international waters off America’s east coast is hysterically portrayed as sinister, yet US warships are daily patrolling Russia’s Black Sea without a hint of disquiet among Western media then, again, the dissonance should raise skepticism.

Or when Russia is constantly accused of electoral interference in Western countries and of broadcasting “fake news” yet Western media themselves pump out fake news on Iraq, Syria, Libya, Iran and much more, and don’t even ponder that the United States is documented to have illegally interfered in the elections of over 80 nations – then we should at least suspect there is something wrong with this informational picture.

Russophobia has become such a pathological condition in Western discourse it’s not even recognized.

This week, the London-based rights group Amnesty International published its annual report. It deplored “powerful narratives of blame, fear and scapegoating” spreading across the globe. And it attributed rising political populism across the West as being responsible for all sorts of ills, mentioning “Islamophobia, racism, sexism, xenophobia and misogyny”.

Amazingly, perhaps the single most dangerous “powerful narrative of blame, fear and scapegoating” operating in the world is Russophobia – and it is not even mentioned by Amnesty. Of course, being a pro-Western lobby group no doubt conditions the rights organization to being blind to or indeed complicit in the mindset of Russophobia. That it could ignore such a destructive, insidious phobia shows how effective the Western propaganda system is.

ontained in Russophobia is demonization and aggression towards the planet’s second-biggest nuclear power. Also contained is an induced acquiescence among Western public to accept this recklessly provocative mindset as somehow normal.

Granted, there are many people within Western states who dissent from the systematic slander of Russia. Many of these people are no doubt switching off traditional Western news programming (sic) and turning on Russian alternatives – despite Western disparagement of Russian outlets.

Nevertheless, what we have are entire Western states, their governments and media ranting day in, day out about alleged Russian malfeasance around the globe. Defeating Western-backed terror groups in Syria is traduced to become “supporting a tyrant dictator”. Helping oppressed ethnic Russians in Donbas is twisted into “destabilizing Ukraine”. Protecting Russian sovereign territory against aggressive NATO escalation on its borders is inverted to become “threatening Europe”.

Not even the most authoritarian regime imaginable could invent such an efficacious propaganda system, ironically managed by an information market that declares itself “free and independent news”.

Western Russophobia has become psychotic because the fake news and lies are not even recognized as such. Indeed they are believed to be the “truth”. Instead of setting free, this “truth” is enslavement into accepting anything – even a nuclear war.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201702221050945413-western-russophobi...

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - President Donald Trump said he wanted the United States to have good ties with Russia but suggested Moscow preferred dealing with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

"We want to get along with Russia, but Russia is looking out and saying, 'Man, I wish she [Clinton] won'," he claimed at a rally in Duluth, Minnesota.

The president has been criticized internationally for ordering the separation of migrant children from their parents jailed after they crossed illegally the southern US border.

He signed an executive order on Wednesday canceling the practice.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/us/201806211065608738-trump-russia-relations-cli...

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