Center for Citizen Initiatives

Bringing Russian and American citizens together in Peace since 1983.

Russia is Not the Enemy!

The Largest and Most Extensive American Citizen Diplomacy Delegation to Russia Completed its Work Today! 

Fifty American citizens investigated more than 20 Russian cities and peoples between September 1 – 17. Thus giving all of us “eyes and ears” into the life and the thinking of Russian people from Moscow to Yakutia in the Far East and from St.Petersburg south to Krasnodar and Simferopol, Yalta and Sebastopol in Crimea. Other cities visited were Perm, Kungur, Novosibirsk, Barnaul, Irkutsk, Orenburg, Ufa, Torzhok, Sergiev Posad, Kaliningrad, Petrozavodsk, Tver, Kazan & Nizhny Novgorod. We sent our U.S. delegates in one’s, two’s and three’s out to these 21 cities with a list of 24 questions to be delved into while in these far-from Moscow cities and towns.

What did they find?

Among other important things, they found that Russia is not our Enemy.

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CCI’s September 2019 Delegation Arrived Moscow Sept 2

Dear CCI Friends and Subscribers,

A belated note to you. The rigors of getting our large CCI delegation to Moscow on September 2, plus starting Expert meetings less that 24 hours later (for a total of 10 such meetings) plus a visit to the new Gulag Museum, didn’t allow time to inform you until now.  Today we finished our meetings in Moscow and flew to our regional cities across Russia.

Here is the recap:  The four days in Moscow unfolded with speakers on the international, domestic, political, security and economic environments in Russia today.  We had two-hour Q&A sessions with independent TV journalist Vladimir Pozner; strategic and nuclear weapons analyst Vladimir Kozin; political analyst Peter Kortunov, standing in for Andrey Kortunov of the Russian International Affairs Council; Pavel Velikhov, son of Evgeny Velikhov, Gorbachev’s partner in building peristroika and glasnost; Richard Sobel, U.S. businessman in Moscow for 30 years; Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro Advisory and former chief strategist at Sberbank, Russia’s largest state bank; Dr. Vera Lyalina and Dr. Igor Borshenko, on Russia’s private and public medical care; Dmitri Babich, TV journalist; Alexander Korobko, documentary filmmaker and two young persons from Donbass.  President Gorbachev’s health prevented him from speaking to the group this year, but his trusted translator Pavel Palazhchenko spoke with us. In addition we had the opportunity to speak to numerous young Moscovites from a number of professions arranged by a Moscow friend of CCI.  All of this in four days!

The quick take-aways from our discussions:

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Russia redux: we got a little problem

Today we had a frightening “walk-through” the Nuclear Era which we find ourselves in. Ambassador Jack Matlock said in 2015 that “nothing will change until we find a way to awaken American citizens to stand collectively against this situation.” So far we haven’t found the way.

One of our citizen diplomats, Mike Metz, gives us a synopsis of Dr. Vladimir Kozin’s speech on the the need for dialogue about the dangerous buildup of nuclear weapons in the US and Russia. Dr. Kozin wants to talk and nobody in the US wants to listen. Please send this message below to as many persons as possible!

Sharon (signature)

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

September 3, 2019
By M. Metz

Ok so we have many problems, enough to worry anyone who’s paying attention, but quietly lurking in the background is one so big it could ruin an otherwise-normal, problem-filled day. That would be thousands of US and Russian nuclear bombs on planes, missiles, and subs ready to go at a moment’s notice. We heard about those today.

Dr. Vladimir Kozin, of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, (“Harvard of Russia”—Kissinger) calls it Cold War 2.0. He’s been working on this since the days of Gorbachev and Reagan when the total number of nukes was hugely reduced. But now he’s worried and thinks we should be too. Why? Here’s the deal from his perspective:

– NATO has increased by 5x troops on Russia’s borders
– Offensive and defensive weapons are merging
– There’s way too much “regime change” action going on
– DoD has lowered the threshold for acceptable use of nukes, with a new class, (wait for it) “humanitarian” tactical nukes
– Reagan and Gorbachev’s treaties are dying like flies
– A new arms race is on, with hypersonic missiles, underwater nuclear drones, long-range battlefield lasers
– NATO is running 7x24x365 SAC bombers on Russia’s borders, ready for trouble, and
– 38% of Russians expect the US to start a nuclear war

What could possibly go wrong?

Feels like itchy trigger fingers. Could just ruin your day. This is not good.

56% OF AMERICANS THINK IT WOULD BE BETTER TO HAVE RUSSIA AS A FRIEND THAN A FOE

Natylie’s Place
September 3, 2019
By Natalie S. Baldwin


Oksana Boyko Interviews Prof. Mark Galeotti on Worlds Apart

A few years ago, when I would occasionally read Mark Galeotti’s commentary and analysis of Russia, I’d often disagree with his take, preferring professors Richard Sakwa and Dominic Lieven as the best British experts on Russia. However, Galeotti actually gives a more nuanced and interesting analysis during this interview with Russian journalist Oksana Boyko on Worlds Apart. A lot of what makes this an interesting discussion is Boyko’s pushback on some of the assumptions that Galeotti rolls out about Russia and Putin, which forces Galeotti to backtrack on some of the things he starts to say that, in my opinion, reflect lazy and stereotypical thinking. I think Galeotti knows better, but he’s so used to providing the group think assessment of Russia that the Anglo-American establishment demands that it’s a conditioned response.

Having a more reasonable sounding view of Russia suddenly seems to be gaining popularity. After last week’s G7 meeting – the mutual admiration society of the western liberal democracies – French president Macron made comments acknowledging that western hegemony in its recent iteration since the end of the Cold War is declining. He also acknowledged that western nations needed to change their current attitude toward Russia or risk dangerous and unnecessary strategic errors that are not in the west’s long-term interests, like a Russian partnership with China. Macron also wants to position France as a key arbiter of relations within Europe, filling the void that will be left by Britain’s exit from the EU and Merkel’s declining influence on behalf of Germany.

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Putin’s Comments re Washington’s Recent Test of Missile That Violated INF Treaty

PUTIN’S COMMENTS TO RUSSIA’S SECURITY COUNCIL RE WASHINGTON’S RECENT TEST OF MISSILE THAT VIOLATED INF TREATY; RUSSIA’S DEPUTY AMBASSADOR TO UN SAYS US STARTING “UNCONTROLLED ARMS RACE”; SCOTT RITTER EXPLAINS HOW US INTEL COMMUNITY & MSM GOT RECENT EXPLOSION IN NORTHERN RUSSIA WRONG

Natylie’s Place
August 29, 2019
By Natalie S. Baldwin

Below is the video with English subtitles of Putin’s remarks prior to an August 23rd special meeting with his security council about the implications of Washington’s recent testing of a missile off the coast of California that violates the recently dissolved INF Treaty.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, and Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin.

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