Dear CCI Friends,

The best informed and recent “Paul Revere-like national crier,” is Professor Stephen F. Cohen, a world-renown U.S. – Soviet/Russia historian. Once again Cohen amasses the facts available regarding the pseudo-fake news that blames Russia for every ill that Democrats and most Republicans have leveled at Vladimir Putin.

All of this in order to cover their own bad judgments and covert actions. If you have time to only scan the first five paragraphs, please do so; better yet, read it all. It is vitally important that as many Americans as possible understand what is going on.

All the best,

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Consortium News

The Scary Void Inside Russia-gate

Despite a lack of evidence at its core – and the risk of nuclear conflagration as its by-product – Russia-gate remains the go-to accusation for “getting” the Trump administration, explains Russia scholar Stephen F. Cohen.

By Stephen F. Cohen  December 15, 2017

The foundational accusation of Russia-gate was, and remains, charges that Russian President Putin ordered the hacking of Democratic National Committee e-mails and their public dissemination through WikiLeaks in order to benefit Donald Trump and undermine Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, and that Trump and/or his associates colluded with the Kremlin in this “attack on American democracy.”

As no actual evidence for these allegations has been produced after nearly a year and a half of media and government investigations, we are left with Russia-gate without Russia. (An apt formulation perhaps first coined in an e-mail exchange by Nation writer James Carden.) Special counsel Mueller has produced four indictments: against retired Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s short-lived national-security adviser, and George Papadopolous, a lowly and inconsequential Trump “adviser,” for lying to the FBI; and against Paul Manafort and his partner Rick Gates for financial improprieties. None of these charges has anything to do with improper collusion with Russia, except for the wrongful insinuations against Flynn.

Instead, the several investigations, desperate to find actual evidence of collusion, have spread to “contacts with Russia” — political, financial, social, etc. — on the part of a growing number of people, often going back many years before anyone imagined Trump as a presidential candidate. The resulting implication is that these “contacts” were criminal or potentially so. [Continue Reading]

Dear Friends,

Professor Stephen F. Cohen, America’s leading scholar of Russian history––both the Soviet era and today’s emerging Russia––brings to bear in this 25-minute video, his knowledge and thinking about Vladimir Putin as a leader at home and abroad.

Cohen’s perspectives are very different from the routine demonization of Putin that we encounter so often in our U.S. political-media establishment.  His “Rethinking of Putin” may help all of us to think more clearly about U.S.-Russian relations since 2000 and, of course, today.

https://www.thenation.com/article/rethinking-putin-a-talk-by-professor-stephen-f-cohen/

I’m interested, given what has been gleaned by other sources about Putin, how does this analysis fit in for you?

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Dear CCI Friends,

I suggested that you get on the JRL list, which some of you report that you have! Thanks!!

I’ve also had a number of respondents ask for sites or lists that cover what the mainstream media is not covering. So I have another list for you.

This is the American Committee for East-West Accord, ACEWA. This site was created to delve into U.S. – Russia issues that don’t appear in the mainstream media. ACEWA was initiated by Professor Stephen F. Cohen of Princeton and New York University who is recognized as one of the eminent world historians and scholars on Russia. You might check the ACEWA website for their Board of Directors, most of whom are names known to the American public …. with only one exception – I am the only citizen activist on the board.

Look up ACEWA at eastwestaccord.com and get on their list. They usually post up to five articles a week.

Let me know if you find their points of view congruent with your interests.

All the best,

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Dear CCI Friends,

These times are so perilous and most of our U.S. population is so unaware, that we, who are a bit better informed, need to keep up with “real news” often. We need several points of view, not just those from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and CNN – institutions that always agree with each other.

I recommend *Johnson’s Russia List (JRL)*, which can be scanned daily or when possible. JRL carries multiple points of view in brief, easy-to-absorb, small blocks of text. David Johnson has felt so strongly about this type of news coverage that he has provided this service essentially pro bono for over two decades. It’s free for the asking! Once a year he sends out a note asking for small contributions, but no one is taken off the list, unless requested. He is a real public servant in our midst.

Email David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net and request this essentially free information! Try it for a month or two and see if you would like to become a continuous receiver.

All the best,

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives