Dear CCI Friends,

Much misinformation is circulating about U.S.-Russia relations these days. Feast your eyes and mind on this article written by Peter Loukianoff, a board member of CCI who has unique insights and considerable experience in Russia – certainly more than most pundits opining on this subject today.

His article provides useful historical context for events and actions affecting U.S.-Russia relations to this day and argues why there’s hope for the future with the new generation of Russians – the kind we’ll be bringing to the U.S. as part of our Russians Meet Middle America (RMMA) program.

Peter is a first-generation American from an immigrant family. He earned an engineering degree and MBA from UC Berkeley and is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Since 1990, Peter has worked on various ventures and diplomatic efforts related to Russia. He was part of a group that hosted the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in Silicon Valley and worked on the Gore/Chernomyrdin Commission.

Please resend this article to as many of your friends and colleagues as possible. Perhaps it will open their minds to points of view larger than what is in our mainstream media today. Follow The Center for Citizens Initiative on Facebook.

Warmly,

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

EastWest.ngo
December 14, 2017

Re-imagining Russian-American Relations: A Pragmatic Business Perspective

BY: P.N. LOUKIANOFF

This year represents the centennial of the communist takeover of Russia, which indelibly marked the transition from Tsarist Empire to the Soviet Union. The U.S.S.R. was a menace not only to the free world, but also to its own people. Despite its collapse and Russia’s independence over 25 years ago, many in Washington still cannot allow themselves to imagine, let alone manifest, a productive relationship with Russia.

Prior to 1917, Russia was the only major power in the world with which the United States had neither a war, nor serious diplomatic dispute. It even supported and defended America during its formative and most vulnerable years—the American Revolution1 and Civil War. Thus, President Jefferson declared, “Russia is the most cordially friendly to us of any power on earth” and President Lincoln’s Secretary of State stated, “[Russia] has our friendship, in preference to any other European power.”2 Notwithstanding constitutional differences between the Russian monarchy and American democracy, their relationship blossomed.

In our current political climate, each nation blames the other for meddling in domestic and international affairs. Foreign malfeasance cannot be tolerated, but should the United States not seek bona fide deals with Russia for the sake of America’s national interests? Meanwhile, recurring sanctions against Russia have forced it to align with China versus the United States. Continued hostilities only increase the chances of direct confrontations—be they political, economic, cyber or nuclear. Arguably, America has more at stake in these scenarios long-term.

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Dear Friends,

The hype on television yesterday about “13 Russians Indictment” was like a flash bomb on both CNN and Fox news channels.

Please note that voices of wisdom are quickly speaking up. This one is by Peter Van Buren, a highly respected former U.S. foreign service officer. Van Buren spoke out prior to the Iraq war and has since disengaged himself from failed intelligence and policies. I suspect we will see a wealth of pushback to yesterday’s hype in the coming days.

More to follow,

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Institute for Public Accuracy
February 16, 2018

“13 Russian” Indictment

PETER VAN BUREN, info at wemeantwell.com, @WeMeantWell Available for a limited number of interviews, Peter Van Buren is a former State Department foreign service officer who spent time in Iraq. Now in Washington, he writes at his blog, We Meant Well. His first book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People.

He said today: “Just did a quick read of the ’13 Russian’ indictment. Missing are a) any connections between the 13 and the Russian government and/or Trump campaign; b) any discussion of the impact (if any) their social media efforts had. It describes them buying Facebook ads, but nothing about if it affected votes; c) no connection shown between any of this and DNC, Wikileaks, hacking of emails; d) no discussion of motive; e) assumption that anything anti-Clinton was defacto pro-Bernie and/or pro-Trump. And all indicted persons are Russians, and outside the U.S., so highly unlikely this is going anywhere further legally.

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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]