Dear CCI Friends,

I have my own perspective on Mikhail Gorbachev and “Who Destroyed the USSR” as do many others. I cringe when Russians and Americans assume that Gorbachev should have known how or what to do to regarding the break up of the USSR with its 286,000,000 peoples across 11 time zones.

There was no person around who could even think seriously how to break up the Soviet Union, there had never been such a huge, overarching, dictatorial country on the planet. The average Russian or the other 159 nationalities living in the 11 time zones were at the mercy of whoever was in power. Of all others available, Mikhail Gorbachev was probably the most sensitive and kind-hearted. Rumor has it that he was mentored secretly in the basement of the U.S.-Canada Institute by Georgi Arbatov, the closet innovator among the other Communists.

Gorbachev welcomed President Reagan with open arms, he trusted that Americans would be truthful with him regarding NATO, not moving farther than East Germany. During a coup attempt, his beloved wife sustained a stroke from which she never recovered. His greatest nemesis, Yeltsin, was voted in as president of the new Russia December 1991 and made a horrible mess of the next nine years. The 1990’s were devastating years for the whole population except for the young oligarchs. Yeltsin left office a sick and excessive man and Gorbachev has lived out his life as a figure respected by most Americans and disrespected by most Russians … which must be heart-breaking for him. He has my deep respect for trying to be retrospective throughout these ensuing years and for still having passion for today’s Russia and the world.

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Dear CCI Friends,

During a quite busy time here at CCI, Natylie Baldwin will allow us to reprint some of her excellent communications going forward. Natylie found CCI years ago and got in touch for an appointment. She was considering making the switch back to foreign policy writing from fiction, this time with a focus in the U.S.-Russia field. We met numerous times for long dinners at Delancey’s on the bay of San Francisco.

I finally invited Natylie to travel with me to Crimea. That was the beginning of her now engrossment in the history and current day outcomes of U.S.-Russia relations. Her recently published book, The View from Moscow, with subtitle Understanding Russia and US-Russia Relations is serious. It has 40 pages of endnotes from known experts from the last century.  I urge you to read this book if you aren’t completely familiar with US-Russia history..

Meanwhile, enjoy Natylie’s coming articles which will explain what is going on today in this tortuous relationship between Russia/China and the West.

More to follow from Natylie and from me … as time permits!

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Dear CCI Colleagues,

“We Have to Fight Lies and Fake News Virtually on a Daily Basis,”reports Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s Ambassador to the United States when he addressed The National Interests’ editor Jacob Heilbrunn.
Do Russians have to fight lies and fake news from us on a daily basis?

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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Dear CCI Viewers,

The article below looks like a legitimate role for the U.S. military … one of intervening when natural disasters occur, as they will increasingly in the coming months and years ahead … it is predictable. Let’s train our military to do these tasks in advance. Let them hold “Natural Disaster Games” instead of “War Games around Russia”. Let them train our young people how to clean out our forests, trim and remove trees before the coming fires start.

During the 1930s, my young uncles were involved in a government program … the CCC’s, I believe they were called.  They worked for months at a time doing tasks to prevent future disasters. Why don’t we start CCC’s again? It was the perfect place for youngsters to be paid a bit, given food and shelter and have a chance to become productive on behalf of their country. My uncles felt good about their contributions.

Author William Astore below, is one of my favorite writers. A military man who, once he woke up, has been thinking clearly about how to change America’s mindset about war, save trillions USD and build a totally different kind of security for ourselves and the world. Please read his latest and forward this entire message to your friends and colleagues. They will recognize common sense when they read it!

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Discredited Book ‘Putin’s People’ Exposes Everything
Wrong with Western Reporting on Moscow

August 2, 2021
Natylie’s Place: Understanding Russia
By Natylie Baldwin

Having pored over former Financial Times reporter Catherine Belton’s book, ‘Putin’s People’, it’s hard to be surprised it is now causing her legal problems. More surprising is that it was published like this in the first place.

Despite being picked up by a major American publishing house, the Rupert Murdoch-owned HarperCollins, Belton displayed a profound lack of journalistic judgement in how she conducted the research behind her explosive claims. And that’s coming back to bite her.

In one lawsuit brought by Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven, the Russian founders of one of Moscow’s largest financial institutions, Alfa Bank, a settlement was reached last week. HarperCollins agreed to amend and edit parts of the book asserting that the pair of businessmen essentially had sponsorship from the KGB when they embarked on their entrepreneurial careers. According to the agreement, the publishers admitted the claims made in the book were unsubstantiated.

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