This article from Wayne Merry at the Kennan Institute interests me, since it presents a more even-handed analysis of what’s occurring with both Russia and the U.S. during the pre 2016 elections. I have secretly longed to see the Kennan Institute again become the wise and sane middle ground in helping ferret out the complicated US-Russia challenges as did its founder. I’d about lost faith it could happen, but Merry’s piece gives me a modicum of hope that it can if individuals there choose to emulate Kennan.

Thanks Wayne Merry, it’s so tiring to read everyday’s countless numbers of articles that make it clear that fair analysis isn’t of interest any longer––only bashing Russia is. You have done your forerunner proud with this one.

Sharon Tennison

Note: Bolding is mine.

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The Russia File – a Kennan Institute Blog
August 1, 2016

In DNC’s Russia Controversy, Finger-pointing Trumps Analysis

By E. Wayne Merry
Senior Fellow for Europe & Eurasia at American Foreign Policy Council

Many foreign countries sent diplomatic observers to our presidential nominating conventions. Russia did not, but a Russian image hovered over the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, from start to finish.

Presumably, the last thing Hillary Clinton wanted to initiate her political triumph in Philadelphia was public confirmation that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had functioned effectively as an extension of her own campaign rather than as a neutral party secretariat. The confirmation via WikiLeaks of suspicions about the DNC greatly hampered Senator Bernie Sanders in his efforts to convince his ardent supporters to transfer their loyalty to Clinton in the final contest with Donald Trump.

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Friends, it is telling how many people and organizations are beginning to weigh in on the issue of “No First Strike” and No Nuclear War.

This issue wasn’t mentioned  a few months ago––now it is frequent.  Clearly those in the know are feeling the need to speak out and warn the public of this possibility.

Sharon

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The National Interest

America Would Never Be the First to Use Nukes. So Why Say We Might?

Obama should declare a No First Use policy—and go even further.

Tom Z. Collina
July 28, 2016

President Barack Obama is reportedly considering changing U.S. policy to say that the United States would never be the first nation to use nuclear weapons. Good idea. The United States has nothing to lose from this new policy, and everything to gain.

No sane U.S. leader would ever—ever—initiate the first use of nuclear weapons. So why keep the option open?

Most Americans will be surprised to learn that current U.S. policy allows the first use of nuclear weapons and horrified that we would even consider it. Given our vast advantage in conventional weapons and the devastating consequences of nuclear war for both the United States and its allies, using nuclear weapons first would be a military and diplomatic blunder of historic proportions.

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Consortium News

The Western media’s Russia-bashing has become epidemic, creating a dangerous dynamic as the world plunges into a new Cold War, with even sports becoming a propaganda arena, as Rick Sterling explains.

By Rick Sterling

With the Rio Summer Olympics starting on Aug. 5, there is a huge controversy about Russian participation. On the basis of a report by Canadian lawyer Richard Mclaren (the “Mclaren Report”), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has recommended the banning of all Russian athletes from the Rio Games.

Before his report was even issued, Mclaren influenced the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) in their decision to ban all Russian athletes from track and field events, including those who never failed any doping tests, in Russia or elsewhere.

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Dear CCI Friends,

Why don’t the two largest nuclear powers on the globe embrace a more radical proposal – one that Moscow has repeatedly suggested to Washington, starting back in the Soviet days and continuing in the form of overtures from the Russian leaders – which is the idea to refrain from the use of nuclear weapons in a first strike or even to refuse to use them at all against each other? Would it not add to the strategic stability of the entire planet, if all of the five “legal” nuclear powers (the nuclear “club”), as well as the “unofficial” nuclear-weapon states that are not party to the NPT, followed in the footsteps of Russia and the US?

Unfortunately, the many years that have passed without action on this initiative have shown that America’s military and political leaders still resolutely refuse to implement this simple, straightforward idea to which many nations of the world subscribe.

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Oriental Review
July 28, 2016

Three Steps To Reverse A “Doomsday” Clock

By Vladimir KOZIN (Russia)
Prof. Vladimir Kozin is the leading Russian expert on disarmament and strategic stability issues.

The recent book review “A Stark Nuclear Warning” by Jerry Brown, in which he has shared views on William J. Perry’s memoirs “My Journey at the Nuclear Brink”, raises a lot of questions and concerns.

Jerry Brown unequivocally describes Perry, who held many important positions in the past, including the U.S. Secretary of Defense in 1994-1997, as a double-hated man.

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Russia Insider

Theodore McIntire

A Charlie Rose by any other name would smell as sweet

On Thursday 21 July 2016 longtime newscaster Charlie Rose was nominated for an Emmy award as the correspondent for Outstanding Interview with Vladimir Putin.  Rose conducted a 100 minute conversation with President Putin at the official residence of the President of Russia outside of Moscow.  The subject interview was broadcast in the United States of American on the evening of 27 September 2015 on the CBS news magazine television program 60 Minutes.  In addition to the CBS broadcast, the full interview (in two parts) can be found on the Charlie Rose  website here and here. Multiple important topics of interest including Syria, terrorism, and Russia‘s place in the world were addressed in the interview.

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