Dear CCI Readers,

Each day brings new complications and changes. Anatol Lieven, Quincy Institutes new Russia specialist and ACURA (American Committee for US Russia Accord) board member, again takes us to the front lines of accusations and sanctions. We need serious professionals to understand these terms and act judiciously.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Responsible Statecraft

Why Biden’s new Russian sanctions are shortsighted, and dangerous

April 15, 2021
By Anatol Lieven

The Biden administration’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan is a wise and morally courageous one. It refuses to inherit and continue a disastrous American tradition in foreign and security policy: the obsession with defending meaningless U.S. “credibility” (aka prestige), irrespective of real national interests and of the cost in American lives and money.

Previous U.S. “strategy” in Afghanistan was a kind of zombie policy: in reality dead, but still walking around because nobody in Washington could bring themselves to bury it.

The obsession with mortal threats from Russia is a zombie dating back to the Cold War, and should have been buried when that struggle ended. It is a terrible pity that Biden cannot break with this obsession, and also with a bipartisan belief in sanctions as a way to bludgeon other countries into subservience to America’s will, instead of getting them to compromise on shared vital interests.

Biden has stated that the new sanctions against Russia announced today have been imposed for three reasons  — and all three of them are wrong.

[Continue Reading]

Dear CCI Friends,

Dmitri Trenin is the most senior Russian/U.S. interlocutor reporting on USSR/Russia/U.S. relations since the 1980s. So well known is he that his name alone comes first in the title of his comments. He has consistently strived, or so it seems to me, to present both sides of whatever issue is plaguing the two countries. And as you know there have been continuous issues due to an almost total opposite manner in which the two peoples’ (Americans and Russians) have been enculturated. I don’t always agree with Trenin, but I respect him greatly.

Note that he divides his comments into: Drivers, Behaviors, Results and Prospects. Read carefully for the ‘lessons learned’  hidden in each category.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

[Continue Reading]

Dear CCI Followers,

The U.S.-Russia head-on clash in Ukraine is producing more articles and soundbites than we can send to you. Natylie Baldwin, author of “A View from Moscow,” gives permission for CCI to use her short-hand analysis of the events taking place on ground in the past couple of days.

We will keep you informed as the situation comes to a head … which could be anything from an all-out war between the United States and Russia, or a sensible retreat by the Biden administration, which won’t go down well with his overlords, the U.S. military industrial complex … or some quiet diplomacy about which we may never know the back story. Let’s hope and pray for sensible solutions for all sides.

More to follow later in the day.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

[Continue Reading]

The Biden administration appears willing to get us into a fight we’re not ready for.

The American Conservative
April 12, 2021
By Douglas Macgregor

Conflict with Russia may be inevitable. Kiev’s strident threats to resolve the crisis in Eastern Ukraine with force of arms, combined with Washington’s refusal to acknowledge that Moscow actually has legitimate national security interests in Eastern Ukraine, makes it so. Equally troubling, the president sees no particular reason why he should explain to the American people why Washington’s readiness to support Kiev’s use of force against Russia makes strategic sense for America.

In 1937, when the Imperial Japanese government expressed sincere regret for attacking and sinking the U.S.S. Panay, an American gunboat that had been patrolling China’s Yangtze River, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew was not satisfied. He warned the Japanese Foreign Ministry that “Facts mean more than Statements.”

Grew was right. A Biden-Harris guarantee of support for the Ukrainian government’s plan to reconquer its lost territories, including Luhansk, Donetsk, or Crimea, is about as meaningless as the British government’s 1939 guarantee of assistance to the Poles in the event of a German attack on Poland.

[Continue Reading]

Dear CCI Friends,

The Ukraine situation is  moving speedily to a place where World War III could be the end result! These events are not being mentioned in our mainstream print media or TV.

Why Not???

Democrat Tulsi Gabbard speaking on Fox News with Tucker Carlson,  April 12, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iywKH60NUGg

Ukraine’s Importance to Russia and the United States
Ukraine was one of the largest USSR republics and the most important at the fall of the USSR. It held peoples from half a dozen different countries. Ukraine had two distinct districts: western Ukraine and eastern Ukraine. The former was the breadbasket of the union; the latter was the manufacturing base due to deep beds of coal and rich iron deposits. Russians predominate in the Donbass region.

The United States has spent unlimited USD and personnel to bring the new Ukraine into the U.S. orbit with hopes Ukraine would join NATO. This would put NATO right next to Russia’s border. This is a burning issue for Russia. Ukraine, rife with oligarchs and corruption, is among the most poorly-managed nations in the world despite (or due to U.S. dollars?).

Biden, et al, began to put NATO war games around Ukraine last week. They are comprised of tens of thousands of troops, tanks, missiles, etc. and could easily become an invading force. Russia responded symmetrically with troops, tanks, bombers and missiles.

Is This a “Surprise War Waiting to Happen”?

None of this build-up has been mentioned in U.S. news or television! Bizarre? Yes!

Is the U.S. preparing for war … with American people not being informed???

If so, it could go Nuclear immediately if one missile is fired. It would become WWIII!
Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard  broke the silence on Fox News last evening.

Please read, digest and send comments to your friends, colleagues and Congress members!

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

See more:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9466707/Biden-warns-Putin-act-firmly-defense-Ukraine.html?ito=push-notification&ci=126924&si=26794963&ai=9466707