Bringing Russian and American citizens together in Peace since 1983.
Dear CCI Readers,
It will be interesting to see how President Putin’s exposure to COVID-19 turns out. If he is positive, he should do well by current metrics even though he is over 60 years. He eats healthily, exercises and swims daily, maintains low weight and uses alcohol only for toasts. The most at risk patients are older persons who are smokers, alcohol users, those with heart and kidney disease and obese persons.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Simone Weil Center
By Paul Grenier
April 1, 2020
Sharon Tennison, director of the Center for Citizen Initiatives, has called for an end to the U.S. policy of sanctions against dozens of nations during a deadly global pandemic. We urge everyone to read her appeal, sign on to it, and distribute it further. *
CCI’s statement notes the foolishness of a policy which “affects the ability of [other] countries to contain the [COVID-19] outbreak, leading in turn to more infections” and the likelihood that the virus will then spread beyond those nations’ borders, restarting the global outbreak
CCI’s appeal draws attention to the obvious inhumanity of the United States’ actions against Iran in particular, a country whose economy was already in shambles thanks to the so-called ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions regime imposed by the Trump administration in 2017 after Washington unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal. The resulting economic crunch and blow to the country’s medical system had already, before the pandemic, precipitated a humanitarian crisis in Iran. It is worth adding that, according to a recent prognosis from researchers at the Sharif University of Technology in Iran, the coronavirus death toll in Iran could ultimately end up numbering in the millions.[1]
Although even U.S. allies such as the UK have now called on the United States to remove its sanctions against Iran, the Trump administration has, to the contrary, tightened them further. At a recent press conference on the subject, President Trump can be heard repeating, “They know what to do” even as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserts that food and medications are exempt from the sanctions.
Hi all CCI followers,
We just received an article written by a CCI traveler in 2019. Tom Egan, an attorney from Florida, gives a really interesting account of his perspectives on Moscow, St. Petersburg and Krasnodar. Tom was anything but an excited traveler. He was a typical lawyer, asking tough and sometimes brusque questions and insisting on doing this trip to Russia his way.
I wasn’t aware he was taking notes or that he would consider writing an article. I’m impressed and delighted to get this piece in which he carefully outlines many aspects of today’s Russia. Enjoy!
Great job, Tom!!!
The Duran
By Edgars Palladis
March 28,2020
According to the official Bundestag representative, the the U.S.-led multinational Exercise «Defender Europe 20» has been cancelled.
At the meeting of the Defense Committee, Inspector General Zorn and Bernd Schütt, Head of the Strategy and Deployment Department at the Federal Ministry of Defense commented on the manoeuvre:
«All the exercises in Poland, Lithuania and Germany have been cancelled. The US soldiers and the equipment currently in Poland are to be transferred back to Germany «at some point». The US personnel and equipment currently in Germany are to be transferred back by the summer, if Corona allows it.»
Dear CCI Friends and Recent 2020 Trip Inquirers,
The same week the Coronavirus began flooding the news … we had planned to send CCI’s 2020 Trip announcement to you!
Ambassador Jack Matlock, who plans to Co-Lead this trip, was the first to caution, “We need to hold off on the trip’s September date. It may be later before travel can be contemplated.”
We still don’t have a travel date, but we want to plant the seed for the coming trip in your mind! It may not be safe before June 2021. We are waiting to learn what the experts say. However, this trip to Russia, the most extensive ever, will definitely happen!
We are sending you CCI’s 2020 Trip PR piece (see below). Why? To whet your interest in our next unique trip to Russia. Also, below is our CCI 2020 Application. Feel free to fill it in and send back to us. You will be under no obligation to travel if it doesn’t seem right for you when we set the final date. Currently we have 25 persons who have requested to travel when our expert voices give the “Go” signal. We will begin sending out educational materials along the way.