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Deplorable US Hostility Toward Russia |
| By
Stephen Lendman |
| Despite good faith Russian efforts to improve bilateral relations, US
hostility remains unrelenting. Bipartisan neocons infesting Washington intend
keeping things this way. Nothing significantly positive between both countries happened since the Reagan/Gorbachev era. Obama’s brief reset was head-fake deception. No meaningful US outreach followed. In January, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev blasted Obama, saying bilateral Russia/US relations “completely fell apart” during his second term. The imperial “interests of the United States” come at the expense of other countries. Calling US actions contemptuous and arrogant, Medvedev stressed how sanctions and other provocations “reduced (bilateral) cooperation to zero.” “The Obama administration has destroyed relations between the United States and Russia, which are at their lowest point in decades. This is its key foreign policy mistake which will be remembered by history." Things deteriorated further under Trump following baseless accusations of Russian US election hacking - a disgraceful Big Lie, a pretext to take bilateral relations to its lowest point since the depths of the Cold War. In her weekly briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the deplorable state of bilateral relations. Recent State Department press briefings “displayed incomprehensible audacity,” she explained. Most leaks on the issue of Washington’s illegal seizure of Russian diplomatic property in America it wants returned “were a far cry from the truth.” The Obama administration left unresolved issues “for the current one” - numerous problems and irritants “it created in relations with Russia, up to and including the abduction of Russian citizens in third countries and the acquittal of Americans who were guilty of the death of their adopted Russian children.” Zakharova also stressed the unresolved issue of outrageously expelling 35 Russian diplomats months earlier. Property illegally seized “is protected by diplomatic immunity.” Neither issue was resolved. Instead, Washington “refus(es) to issue visas” for other Russian diplomats chosen by Moscow to replace the ones expelled - an unacceptable affront. If progress isn’t made on rectifying this situation, Moscow will take reciprocal actions. The Trump administration has been warned through diplomatic channels. “The numerical strength of the US Embassy in Moscow far exceeds the number of our employees in the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC,” Zakharova explained. An easy option “is to even out the personnel, apart from a symmetrical expulsion of Americans.” “This is all the more urgent since there are too many employees of the CIA and the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency under the cover of the US diplomatic mission, whose activities are glaringly at variance with their status.” All US embassies worldwide are nests of spies, masquerading as diplomats. Blocking Russian embassy personnel from access to its US embassy and consulates flagrantly violates the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. It also breaches the 1979 Russia/US bilateral agreement, granting America’s embassy in Moscow two plots of land - for a summer house and storage facility. “(W)e would not like to go to extremes,” Zakharova stressed. “We never rush on such matters.” Patience has its limits. They’re nearing an end on dealing with the above issues and others. Russia wants good relations with all nations. Unrelenting US hostility makes improving bilateral ties unattainable. VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. |