Hundreds of US diplomats must leave Russia by 1 September

Ninian · Jul 30, 2017

Draco said: ↑

It is frustrating how quiet the media is on this.

Sorry to go on a tangent, but Musk is putting himself and his technology on a higher level than any government on the planet. I personally think it is an awesome examples of the GOOD that big companies do in taking the next steps forward!
Click to expand...

I suppose progress and peaceful achievements are not as good for media ratings as conflict.

And no, you're not supposed to be saying you hate Russia. The honest competition that consists of competing efforts instead of competing assaults is not an act of hatred. It's a progress.

And hell, this rocket's footage actually looks impressive.

Ninian · Jul 30, 2017

Hawkeye nc said: ↑

Don't see much here that makes sense. Try this, he usually does.

http://readersupportednews.org/opin...us-what-does-russiagate-look-like-to-russians

Russian president Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. (photo: Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/Anadolu Agency/Getty)

What Does Russiagate Look Like to Russians?

By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
21 July 17

Russia isn't as strong as we think, but they do have nukes – which is why beating the war drum is a mistake

Last Wednesday, former adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton Paul Begala stepped out of his usual milquetoast centrist costume and made a chest-thumping pronouncement on CNN.

"We were and are under attack by a hostile foreign power," he said. "We should be debating how many sanctions we should place on Russia, or whether we should blow up the KGB."

Begala's is the latest in a string of comments from prominent pols and pundits suggesting we are (or should be) in a state of war with nuclear-armed Russia.

Former DNC chair Donna Brazile tweeting this week, "The Communists are dictating the terms of the debate" – and not bothering to delete the error – is another weird example of what feels like intense longing in the Beltway to reignite the Cold War. (Begala wanting to blow up the long-dead KGB is another.)

James Clapper this spring saying Russians are "genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor" also recalled the Sovietology era, when Russians were cast as evil, emotionless manipulators, cold as their icy homeland. CNN reporter Michael Weiss casting suspicion on people with Russian spouses is another creepy recent example.

For journalists like me who have backgrounds either working or living in Russia, the new Red Scare has been an ongoing freakout. A lot of veteran Russia reporters who may have disagreed with each other over other issues in the past now find themselves in like-minded bewilderment over the increasingly aggressive rhetoric.

Many of us were early Putin critics who now find ourselves in the awkward position of having to try to argue Americans off the ledge, or at least off the path to war, when it comes to dealing with the Putin regime.

There's a lot of history that's being glossed over in the rush to restore Russia to an archenemy role.

For one, long before the DNC hack, we meddled in their elections. This was especially annoying to Russians because we were ostensibly teaching them the virtues of democracy at the time. We even made a Hollywood movie on the topic (Spinning Boris, starring Jeff Goldblum and Anthony LaPaglia!).

After Boris Yeltsin won re-election in 1996, Time magazine ran a gloating cover story – YANKS TO THE RESCUE! – about three American advisers sent to help the pickling autocrat Yeltsin devise campaign strategy. Picture Putin sending envoys to work out of the White House to help coordinate Trump's re-election campaign, and you can imagine how this played in Russia.

Former Yeltsin administration chief Sergei Filatov denied that the three advisers did anything of value for Yeltsin. But even if Filatov is right, American interference throughout the Nineties was extensive.

For one thing, the privatization effort under Yeltsin, much of which was coordinated by Americans, helped lead to a little-understood devil's bargain that sealed Yeltsin's electoral victory.

Essentially, Yeltsin agreed to privatize the jewels of Russian industry into the hands of a few insiders – we call them oligarchs now – in return for their overwhelming financial and media support in the '96 race against surging communist Gennady Zyuganov. The likes of Vladimir Potanin, Boris Berezovsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky were gifted huge fortunes before bankrolling Yeltsin's re-election bid.

How much of a hand we had in that infamous trade has never been explained. But Americans surely helped usher in the oligarch era by guiding Russia through its warped privatization process. In some expat circles back then, you found Americans who believed that by creating a cadre of super-wealthy Russians, we would create a social class that would be pre-motivated to beat back a communist revival.

This may have prevented a backslide into communism, but a by-product was accelerating a descent into gangsterism and oligarchy.

The West also aided Yeltsin during that election season by providing a $10.2 billion IMF loan that just happened to almost exactly match the cost of Yeltsin's vicious and idiotic invasion of Chechnya. (Yeltsin had been under fire for the cash crunch caused by the war.) Le Monde called the timely giganto-loan "an implicit vote in favor of candidate Yeltsin."

What most Americans don't understand is that the Putin regime at least in part was a reaction to exactly this kind of Western meddling.

The Yeltsin regime, which incidentally also saw wide-scale assassinations of journalists and other human rights abuses, was widely understood to be a pseudo-puppet state, beholden to the West.

The conceit of the Putin regime, on the other hand, was that while Putin was a gangster, he was at least the Russians' own gangster.

It's debatable how much success Putin really had at arresting the flight of Russian capital abroad that began in the Yeltsin years. But the legend that he would at least try to keep Russia's wealth in Russia was a key reason for his initial popularity.

Russians also have an opposite take on their "aggression" in Ukraine and Crimea, one that is colored by a history few in America know or understand.

When asked about the roots of the current Russian-American divide, former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman, the author of excellent books like Whistleblower in the CIA and Failure of Intelligence, points to a 1990 deal struck between Secretary of State James Baker and Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze.

The two men brokered a quid pro quo: The Soviets wouldn't oppose a re-united Germany, if the Americans promised not to "leapfrog" East Germany into the Russians' former sphere of influence.

Goodman later interviewed both men, who confirmed the key details. "They both used the word 'leapfrog,'" he says. "The Russians think we broke that deal."

Russia believes the U.S. reneged on the "leapfrog" deal by seeking to add the Baltics, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Georgia and even Ukraine to the NATO alliance.

To Russia, American denunciations of Russian adventurism in Crimea and eastern Ukraine seem absurd, when all they see is NATO leapfrogging its way ever-closer to their borders.

This is not to say that the Russians were right to move into Crimea or Eastern Ukraine. But it's easy to see why Russians would be frosty about America trying to put border states under the umbrella of NATO, or wigged out by Americans conducting war games in places like Latvia. Imagine, for instance, the response here in the States if the Russians conducted amphibious military exercises in the Baja Peninsula after promising to honor the Monroe doctrine.

As Goodman and others have pointed out, failing to predict the Soviet collapse was probably the biggest intelligence failure in our history.

While Ronald Reagan and his cronies politicized intelligence and overhyped the Soviets as a mighty and monolithic force, the on-the-ground reality was that the Soviet Union was a crumbling third-world state besotted with crippling economic and infrastructural problems.

We missed countless opportunities for easier, safer and cheaper relations with the Russians by consistently mistaking their disintegrating Potemkin Empire for an ascendant threat.

It's not exactly the same story now, but it's close. Putin's Russia certainly has global ambitions, just as the Soviets did. But the game now is much more about connections and hot money than about geopolitics or territory. There's evidence that the Russians have tried to burrow their way into America's commercial and political establishment, but by most accounts the main route of entry has been financial.

If indeed Trump was a target of Russian efforts, we'll likely discover that this was not something that was exclusive to Trump but rather just one data point amid a broad, holistic strategy to curry favor and make connections across the American political class.

Still, these efforts are probably far more limited in scope than we've been led to imagine. DNC hack or no DNC hack, Russia is still a comparatively weak country with limited power to influence a nation like the U.S., especially since it's still dogged internally by those same massive economic and infrastructural problems it's always had. Putin's political grip on power at home is also far less sure than our pundits and politicians are letting on.

The generalized plan to create chaos in other industrialized states by seeding/spreading corruption and political confusion – which many in the intelligence community believe is an aim of Russian intelligence efforts – is revealing in itself.

It's the strategy of a weak and unstable third-world state looking for a cheap way to stay in the game (and bolster its profile) versus more powerful industrial rivals. Hyping Russia as an all-powerful menace actually plays into this strategy.

But the Russians still have nukes, which is why we have to be very careful about letting rhetoric get too hot, especially with the president we now have.

For all the fears about Trump being a Manchurian Candidate bent on destroying America from within, the far more likely nightmare endgame involves our political establishment egging the moron Trump into a shooting war as a means of proving his not-puppetness.

This already almost happened once, when Trump fired missiles into Syria with Russian troops on the ground, seemingly as a means of derailing a Russiagate furor that was really spiraling that particular week. That episode proved that the absolute worst time to bang the war drum under Trump is when he's feeling vulnerable on Russia – which he clearly is now.

Rising anti-Russian hysteria and a nuclear button-holder in the White House who acts before he thinks is a very bad combination. We should try to chill while we still can, especially since the Russians, once again, probably aren't as powerful as we think.
Click to expand...

And material like some of presented there reminds me of Soviet Union. Weird looking on it from the outside, unravelling in other country. Weird and concerning, disturbing and disgusting. Then again, practical example shows that what politicians yapp is not necessarily reflects will of people, as well as that sooner or later will of people prevails over uncontrolled bureaucrats - I only hope it will not result in any armed, violent collision among USA citizens. No matter what politicians say - these people deserve better than to be stepping on the same rake we hit our foreheads on.

Being seriously - rhetoric in USA parlament and media does reminds of USSR. And main bane of USSR, I remind, was not communist ideology of planned economy - it was divide between government and people. Seeing government of USA taking similar steps is concerning. Sincerely, and honestly. It is. Without pretence. Seriously.

I really hope that can be understood and not mistaken for some sort of "propaganda", for once.

Eadora · Jul 30, 2017

Excellent Analysis - though I don't agree 100% - Time for yet another another REVIEW:

Hawkeye nc said: ↑

Don't see much here that makes sense. Try this, he usually does.
http://readersupportednews.org/opin...us-what-does-russiagate-look-like-to-russians

What Does Russiagate Look Like to Russians?
By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone - 21 July 17

Russia isn't as strong as we think, but they do have nukes – which is why beating
the war drum is a mistake

Last Wednesday, former adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton Paul Begala stepped out
of his usual milquetoast centrist costume and made a chest-thumping pronouncement
on CNN.

"We were and are under attack by a hostile foreign power," he said. "We should
be debating how many sanctions we should place on Russia, or whether we should
blow up the KGB."

Begala's is the latest in a string of comments from prominent pols and pundits
suggesting we are (or should be) in a state of war with nuclear-armed Russia.

Former DNC chair Donna Brazile tweeting this week, "The Communists are dictating
theterms of the debate" – and not bothering to delete the error – is another weird
example of what feels like intense longing in the Beltway to reignite the Cold War.
(Begala wanting to blow up the long-dead KGB is another.)

James Clapper this spring saying Russians are "genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate,
gain favor" also recalled the Sovietology era, when Russians were cast as evil,
emotionless manipulators, cold as their icy homeland. CNN reporter Michael Weiss
casting suspicion
on people with Russian spouses is another creepy recent example.

For journalists like me who have backgrounds either working or living in Russia,
the new Red Scare has been an ongoing freakout. A lot of veteran Russia reporters
who may have disagreed with each other over other issues in the past now find
themselves in like-minded bewilderment over the increasingly aggressive rhetoric.

Many of us were early Putin critics who now find ourselves in the awkward position
of having to try to argue Americans off the ledge, or at least off the path to war,
when it comes to dealing with the Putin regime.

There's a lot of history that's being glossed over in the rush to restore Russia to
an archenemy role.

For one, long before the DNC hack, we meddled in their elections. This was
especially annoying to Russians because we were ostensibly teaching them the
virtues of democracy at the time. We even made a Hollywood movie on the topic
(Spinning Boris, starring Jeff Goldblum and Anthony LaPaglia!).

After Boris Yeltsin won re-election in 1996, Time magazine ran a gloating cover
story – YANKS TO THE RESCUE! – about three American advisers sent to
help the pickling autocrat Yeltsin devise campaign strategy. Picture Putinsending
envoys to work out of the White House to help coordinate Trump's re-election
campaign, and you can imagine how this played in Russia.

Former Yeltsin administration chief Sergei Filatov denied that the three advisers
did anything of value for Yeltsin. But even if Filatov is right, American interference
throughout the Nineties was extensive.

For one thing, the privatization effort under Yeltsin, much of which was
coordinated by Americans, helped lead to a little-understood devil's bargain
that sealed Yeltsin's electoral victory.

Essentially, Yeltsin agreed to privatize the jewels of Russian industry into the
hands of a few insiders – we call them oligarchs now – in return for their
overwhelming financial and media support in the '96 race against surging communist
Gennady Zyuganov. The likes of Vladimir Potanin, Boris Berezovsky
and Mikhail Khodorkovsky were gifted huge fortunes before bankrolling Yeltsin's
re-election bid.

How much of a hand we had in that infamous trade has never been explained.
But Americans surely helped usher in the oligarch era by guiding Russia through
its warped privatization process. In some expat circles back then, you found
Americans who believed that by creating a cadre of super-wealthy Russians,
we would create a social class that would be pre-motivated to beat back a
communist revival.

This may have prevented a backslide into communism, but a by-product was
accelerating a descent into gangsterism and oligarchy.

The West also aided Yeltsin during that election season by providing a $10.2
billion IMF loan that just happened to almost exactly match the cost of Yeltsin's
vicious and idiotic invasion of Chechnya. (Yeltsin had been under fire for the
cash crunch caused by the war.) Le Monde called the timely giganto-loan "an
implicit vote in favor of candidate Yeltsin."

What most Americans don't understand is that the Putin regime at least in part
was a reaction to exactly this kind of Western meddling.

The Yeltsin regime, which incidentally also saw wide-scale assassinations of
journalists and other human rights abuses, was widely understood to be a
pseudo-puppet state, beholden to the West.

The conceit of the Putin regime, on the other hand, was that while Putin was
a gangster, he was at least the Russians' own gangster.

It's debatable how much success Putin really had at arresting the flight of
Russian capital abroad that began in the Yeltsin years. But the legend that
he would at least try to keep Russia's wealth in Russia was a key reason
for his initial popularity.

Russians also have an opposite take on their "aggression" in Ukraine and
Crimea, one that is colored by a history few in America know or understand.

When asked about the roots of the current Russian-American divide, former
CIA analyst Melvin Goodman, the author of excellent books like Whistleblower
in the CIA and Failure of Intelligence, points to a 1990 deal struck between
Secretary of State James Bakerand Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze.

The two men brokered a quid pro quo: The Soviets wouldn't oppose a re-united
Germany, if the Americans promised not to "leapfrog" East Germany into the
Russians' former sphere
of influence.

Goodman later interviewed both men, who confirmed the key details. "They
both used the word 'leapfrog,'" he says. "The Russians think we broke that deal."

Russia believes the U.S. reneged on the "leapfrog" deal by seeking to add
the Baltics, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Georgia and even Ukraine
to the NATO alliance.

To Russia, American denunciations of Russian adventurism in Crimea and
eastern
Ukraine seem absurd, when all they see is NATO leapfrogging its way ever-closer
to their borders.

This is not to say that the Russians were right to move into Crimea or Eastern Ukraine.
But it's easy to see why Russians would be frosty about America trying to put border
states under the umbrella of NATO, or wigged out by Americans conducting war games
in places like Latvia. Imagine, for instance, the response here in the States if the Russians
conducted amphibious military exercises in the Baja Peninsula after promising to honor
the Monroe doctrine.

As Goodman and others have pointed out, failing to predict the Soviet collapse
was probably the biggest intelligence failure in our history.

While Ronald Reagan and his cronies politicized intelligence and overhyped
the Soviets as a mighty and monolithic force, the on-the-ground reality was
that the Soviet Union was a crumbling third-world state besotted with crippling
economic and infrastructural problems.

We missed countless opportunities for easier, safer and cheaper relations with
the Russians by consistently mistaking their disintegrating Potemkin Empire
for an ascendant threat.

It's not exactly the same story now, but it's close. Putin's Russia certainly has
global ambitions, just as the Soviets did. But the game now is much more
about connections and hot money than about geopolitics or territory. There's
evidence that the Russians have tried to burrow their way into America's
commercial and political establishment, but by most accounts the main route
of entry has been financial.

If indeed Trump was a target of Russian efforts, we'll likely discover that this
was not something that was exclusive to Trump but rather just one data point
amid a broad, holistic strategy to curry favor and make connections across
the American political class.

Still, these efforts are probably far more limited in scope than we've been
led to imagine. DNC hack or no DNC hack, Russia is still a comparatively weak
country with limited power to influence a nation like the U.S., especially since it's
still dogged internally by those same massive economic and infrastructural
problems it's always had. Putin's political grip on power at home is also far
less sure than our pundits and politicians are letting on.

The generalized plan to create chaos in other industrialized states by
seeding/spreading corruption and political confusion – which many in
the intelligence community believe is
an aim of Russian intelligence efforts – is revealing in itself.

It's the strategy of a weak and unstable third-world state looking for
a cheap way to stay in the game (and bolster its profile) versus more
powerful industrial rivals. Hyping Russia as an all-powerful menace
actually plays into this strategy.

But the Russians still have nukes, which is why we have to be very
careful about letting rhetoric get too hot, especially with the president
we now have.

For all the fears about Trump being a Manchurian Candidate bent on
destroying America from within, the far more likely nightmare endgame
involves our political establishment egging the moron Trump into a shooting
war as a means of proving his not-puppetness.

This already almost happened once, when Trump fired missiles into
Syria with Russian troops on the ground, seemingly as a means of
derailing a Russiagate furor that was really spiraling that particular week.
That episode proved that the absolute worst time to bang the war drum
under Trump is when he's feeling vulnerable on Russia – which he
clearly is now.

Rising anti-Russian hysteria and a nuclear button-holder in the White
House who acts before he thinks is a very bad combination. We should
try to chill while we still can, especially since the Russians, once again,
probably aren't as powerful as we think.
Click to expand...

.

Guno · Jul 30, 2017

cerberus said: ↑

The western media isn't any better, the difference being that it's elitist controlled.
Click to expand...

And the billionaire Putin and the oligarchs who stole the people property aren't elitist? lol

Moi621 · Jul 30, 2017

MrFirst said: ↑

Russia seizes American property in Moscow and cuts US diplomatic staff in retaliation to fresh sanctions

Embassy staff must leave the country by 1 September

Russia has ordered America to cut the number of diplomatic staff it has in the country and has seized a dacha compound and warehouse used by US officials in retaliation for new sanctions against Moscow.

Embassy staff must leave the country by 1 September, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The number of American diplomats will fall to 455 under the plan, the Foreign Ministry added.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...ctions-putin-trump-kremlin-nato-a7864346.html
Click to expand...

How many of these American diplomats are CIA or similar?
Will Mr. Putin's actions put a serious dent in American intelligence gathering on Russia?

Moi

r > g

Russia's Polar Partner
Across an immense, unguarded, ethereal border, Canadians, cool and unsympathetic,
regard our America with envious eyes and slowly and surely draw their plans against us.

Eadora · Jul 30, 2017

double

Eadora · Jul 30, 2017

MMC said: ↑

Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to sanctions Friday by ordering the .....
Click to expand...

BS
This retaliation was not for the Sanctions - That retaliation will come in due time
The present retaliation that we are dealing with here is for similar constraints
put on Russki Diplomats, and the confiscation of Russian properties in the USA

Ninian · Jul 30, 2017

Guno said: ↑

And the billionaire Putin and the oligarchs who stole the people property aren't elitist? lol
Click to expand...

And that negates you having a problem of group of people dictating your media to adjust information?

Can you people stop hiding behind the Stalin, Putin and whoever else you bring in when pointed at having problems? PROBLEMS DON'T GET SOLVED BY THAT.

Eadora · Jul 30, 2017

Ninian said: ↑

..................... PROBLEMS DON'T GET SOLVED BY THAT.
Click to expand...

GOOD "Ninian" - these people are NOT interested in solving problems
......................................They are interested in creating them

Jeannette · Jul 30, 2017

Draco said: ↑

After the massive new sanctions put on the board this is one of Putin's best an only non aggressive options left to go with.

No shock here really
Click to expand...

Vladimir Putin has been patient for 7 months hoping that relations could get better, but now they have lost hope for that, so kicking out 750 diplomats is the first step. This gives the US the same amount of diplomats in Russia as the Russians have in the US.

In the discussions for the return of the property that Obama stole, the US had set preconditions. They wanted permission to establish a greater presence in Saint Petersburg, so in response to the hutzpah, Putin instead of giving them a greater presence, took away much of what they already had.

What a bunch of fools. It reminds me of when Crimea joined Russia and Washington thought Putin was bluffing. I wondered if these people were for real.

And here's the latest one. Tillerson said that Americans want to better relations with countries, that's why they impose sanctions. In other words the only way we can better relations, is by bullying others into submission.

Frankly I don't know what's going to happen, but Putin said he's going to cut down Washington's arrogance. Since the sanctions are on the Russian economy, there will be be some kind of attack, probably on the American dollar.

Destroyer of illusions · Jul 31, 2017

tecoyah said: ↑

....Uh.....Yeah....then there's this.

Click to expand...

It was really funny.

Destroyer of illusions · Jul 31, 2017

Moi621 said: ↑

How many of these American diplomats are CIA or similar?
Will Mr. Putin's actions put a serious dent in American intelligence gathering on Russia?

Moi

r > g

View attachment 56208
Russia's Polar Partner
Across an immense, unguarded, ethereal border, Canadians, cool and unsympathetic,
regard our America with envious eyes and slowly and surely draw their plans against us.
Click to expand...

All expelled diplomats are employees of special services. Not only the CIA, but also military intelligence and other secret services. All 755 expelled "diplomats" are spies.

Destroyer of illusions · Jul 31, 2017

MrFirst said: ↑

Have you already got your own Tesla?
Click to expand...

They have a brainless McCain.

cerberus · Jul 31, 2017

Guno said: ↑

And the billionaire Putin and the oligarchs who stole the people property aren't elitist? lol
Click to expand...

I don't know anything about that; could you give me a source so I can find out where I've got things wrong please? Thanks.

cerberus · Jul 31, 2017

So let's see if I've got this right: The US expels Russian diplomats from Washington on unsubstantiated and certainly unproven claims of 'hacking' ; the Kremlin retaliates in like fashion, and for having the temerity to do so is then accused of 'reopening the cold war'? And as if that isn't weird enough, now the dimwitted jobsworths of the EU have put in their anti-Russian two penn'orth . . .

"The European Union has also threatened to respond to the new sanctions, saying they would harm the bloc's energy security by targeting projects including a planned new pipeline to bring Russian natural gas to northern Europe.

A European Commission spokesman said: "We will be watching how this process unfolds and then of course we will be watching equally attentively how this law, if and when it enters into force, will be applied in practice."

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world...ia-election-hacking-cold-war-diplomats-moscow

Washington just keeps on digging doesn't it, but hopefully the POTUS will tell Congress exactly where to put its renewed sanctions policy before all hell kicks off.

osbornterry · Jul 31, 2017

Jeannette said: ↑

Vladimir Putin has been patient for 7 months hoping that relations could get better, but now they have lost hope for that, so kicking out 750 diplomats is the first step. This gives the US the same amount of diplomats in Russia as the Russians have in the US.

In the discussions for the return of the property that Obama stole, the US had set preconditions. They wanted permission to establish a greater presence in Saint Petersburg, so in response to the hutzpah, Putin instead of giving them a greater presence, took away much of what they already had.

What a bunch of fools. It reminds me of when Crimea joined Russia and Washington thought Putin was bluffing. I wondered if these people were for real.

And here's the latest one. Tillerson said that Americans want to better relations with countries, that's why they impose sanctions. In other words the only way we can better relations, is by bullying others into submission.

Frankly I don't know what's going to happen, but Putin said he's going to cut down Washington's arrogance. Since the sanctions are on the Russian economy, there will be be some kind of attack, probably on the American dollar.
Click to expand...

You left out the part about Crimea and the Ukraine. That is my favorite.

Andrew Jackson · Jul 31, 2017

You must admit, it is pretty funny.

Congress putting the grease on the marionette strings of Putin's puppet (Trump).

Now, Putin retaliates because he can't control Howdy Doody.

cerberus · Jul 31, 2017

In the general sense I love Americans, but I'm beginning to hope something will happen to make them know what 'humility' is! At the moment it obviously isn't anywhere in the lexicon.

Bear513 · Jul 31, 2017

Andrew Jackson said: ↑

You must admit, it is pretty funny.

Congress putting the grease on the marionette strings of Putin's puppet (Trump).

Now, Putin retaliates because he can't control Howdy Doody.
Click to expand...

Nah, what's amusing is the left wants to push us into WWIII because they are butt hurt that Russia told the American public over the DNC and Hillary shenanigans...

Ok..

.

Ninian · Jul 31, 2017

Destroyer of illusions said: ↑

It was really funny.
Click to expand...

Why? I find it being actually a good breakthrough. Give credit where credit is earned - for once it's something good that people worked for, after all.

ChrisL · Jul 31, 2017

But, I thought Trump was colluding with the Russians? How could this be? They are the ones who set him up as their president by "rigging" the election (although that was actually the democrats), right?

MMC · Jul 31, 2017

Eadora said: ↑

BS
This retaliation was not for the Sanctions - That retaliation will come in due time
The present retaliation that we are dealing with here is for similar constraints
put on Russki Diplomats, and the confiscation of Russian properties in the USA
Click to expand...

Well that's what the MS Media called it when BO peep kicked out some Russians and seized a couple of properties. Sanctions.

So you can see why they would call what Putin is doing.....Putting sanctions on the US.

Yeah the present retaliation. Tit for tat.

zoom_copter66 · Jul 31, 2017

goody said: ↑

He axed how long HAVE you LIVED there... Not if you DO live there...

Regards,

Lil Drake...
Click to expand...

Never lived there.

Jeannette · Jul 31, 2017

MMC said: ↑

Well that's what the MS Media called it when BO peep kicked out some Russians and seized a couple of properties. Sanctions.

So you can see why they would call what Putin is doing.....Putting sanctions on the US.

Yeah the present retaliation. Tit for tat.
Click to expand...

This is from the Duran:

Russia’s expulsion of 755 personnel from US diplomatic missions in Russia is of an unprecedented scale in modern history and could deal a devastating blow to US intelligence and ‘democracy promotion’ operations in Russia.

That this is a heavy blow to the US is highlighted by one interesting fact. It turns out that the number of personnel working at US embassies and consulates in Russia was almost three times greater than the number of personnel working at Russian embassies and consulates in the US.

That begs the question of what all these extra US personnel were doing there? Perhaps US embassies and consulates are less efficient than Russian ones. However I suspect that the Russians believe that many if not most of these extra people were actually engaged in intelligence gathering and (liberal) “democracy promotion” activities. If so then these have now suffered a heavy blow as a result of the Russian action, which explains Tefft’s concern.

As I stated, Washington had set preconditions for the return of the stolen property. From what I gathered it was to pressure Russia to give authorization so the US could establish an even greater presence in Saint Petersburg.

What a bunch of fools. By making demands to get more CIA regime change freaks in Russia, they gave Vladimir Putin the excuse he needed to get rid of the ones they already had. Now let's wait and see what Russia's retaliation for the economic sanctions will be? I'm worried for my family, because it will be on our economy. Of course if something does happen, the media will cover up Congress' doing, and blame Trump.

Jeannette · Jul 31, 2017

osbornterry said: ↑

You left out the part about Crimea and the Ukraine. That is my favorite.
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You're right! But the overthrow of the legal government in Kiev by Under Secretary of State Nuland, and putting in a mafia and Nazi junta taught Russia a lesson. Putin kicked out all of Soros' and the CIA's NGO's from Russia, and Russia is also helping neighboring countries, especially in the Central Asian States to thwart them as well. No one wants to end up like Ukraine.

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Hundreds of US diplomats must leave Russia by 1 September

Ninian Banned

Ninian Banned

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Eadora Well-Known Member

Eadora Well-Known Member

Ninian Banned

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Jeannette Well-Known Member Past Donor

Destroyer of illusions Banned

Destroyer of illusions Banned

Destroyer of illusions Banned

cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

osbornterry Well-Known Member

Andrew Jackson Well-Known Member

cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

Bear513 Banned

Ninian Banned

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zoom_copter66 Well-Known Member

Jeannette Well-Known Member Past Donor

Jeannette Well-Known Member Past Donor

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Hundreds of US diplomats must leave Russia by 1 September

Ninian Banned

Ninian Banned

Eadora Well-Known Member

Guno Well-Known Member Past Donor

Moi621 Well-Known Member Past Donor

Eadora Well-Known Member

Eadora Well-Known Member

Ninian Banned

Eadora Well-Known Member

Jeannette Well-Known Member Past Donor

Destroyer of illusions Banned

Destroyer of illusions Banned

Destroyer of illusions Banned

cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

osbornterry Well-Known Member

Andrew Jackson Well-Known Member

cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

Bear513 Banned

Ninian Banned

ChrisL Well-Known Member

MMC Well-Known Member

zoom_copter66 Well-Known Member

Jeannette Well-Known Member Past Donor

Jeannette Well-Known Member Past Donor

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