RAGA is affiliated with a number of people diplomacy organizations whose peace-promoting goals are ours. One of them is Global Harmony Association founded by Dr. Leo Semashko of St. Petersburg, RUSSIA. Let us hear him. Dear peacemakers, friends, Today I sent President Putin a shortened (1 page) version of our "Great Peace Charter 21" as a proposed version of the radical peace resolution for the US-Russia summit on July 16 . Comparing the summit adopted Resolution on July 16 with the proposed world civil society will show us the degree of peacemaking readiness of the two leaders and the two leading nuclear powers to prevent a global nuclear catastrophe and put an end to the war. What do you think: are they ready for this or are they not ready? And if they are not ready, then why and when will they be ready? These are questions for a new discussion after July 16. Thanks for the responses. The best wishes of peace from harmony, Dr. Leo Semashko Now let's hear from Ed Lozansky's RussiaHouse.org of Washington, DC, USA Ed Lozansky is our friend in Washington DC, USA Dear Friends, You are invited to take part in the discussion of the results of the Trump - Putin Helsinki summit and the role of public diplomacy in the process of improving US - Russia relations. The event takes place Wednesday, July 18 at 18.00 at the Golden Ring hotel Smolenskaya 5, Moscow To register please visit www.RussiaHouse.org/wrf.php Introduction to this event is here: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/10/trump-putin-summit-helsinki-triumph-common-sense/ Trump-Putin Summit in Helsinki: The Triumph of Common Sense By Edward Lozansky, James Jatras and Gilbert Doctorow - Tuesday, July 10, 2018 ANALYSIS/OPINION: The upcoming Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki is a triumph of common sense over bitterly anti-Russia politics in Washington and some European capitals. Prepared by National Security Advisor John Bolton, the summit is the culmination of President Trump’s efforts to reestablish lines of communication with the world’s other nuclear superpower that Barack Obama foolishly severed following the ideological agenda of the State Department and intelligence agencies. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/10/trump-putin-summit-helsinki-triumph-common-sense Matthew Rojansky of Washington and Andrey Kortunov of Moscow discuss. the Benefits of a U.S.-Russia Summit. June 21, 2018 The predominant mood is that the U.S. president remains a hostage to the unanimously anti-Russian Washington establishment and that any agreement with him can be overruled by the U.S. Congress or even by his own administration. Yet what should be in the forefront of the minds of both presidents is the dangerous state of U.S.-Russia relations, and its consequences for the interests of both countries and for global security. ...An especially worrying new dimension to the nuclear risk is the possibility that cyber attacks by states or non-state actors could lead either party to raise its nuclear alert level, thus triggering a matching response from the other side, and possibly touching off a dangerous escalatory cycle.... http://nationalinterest.org/feature/these-are-the-benefits-us-russia-summit-26371 Schiller Institute Topic: Can US-Russia Cooperation Be Developed? Watch Interview With Vladimir Morovoz, Russian International Affairs Council Program Coordinator from Moscow at Schiller Conference in Germany by Harley Schlanger Update: Harley Schlanger of the Schiller Institute interviews Vladimir Morozov, Program Coordinator, Russian International Affairs Council, Moscow, at the Schiller Institute conference near Frankfurt, Germany on June 30, 2018. Mr. Morozov addresses whether trust can be built between the US and Russia with the upcoming Trump/Putin summit, and the possibility for US-Russia-China cooperation to stabilize and rebuild Syria, creating the basis to solve the refugee crisis, not just manage it. Watch the first panel of the Schiller Institute Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4SlJ... Watch the interview here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cMi1WO6A_U&feature=youtu.be In the past year, Russian programmers have become famous (or rather infamous) for “hacking” the US elections. But they’d been topping international competitions for many years before that. How do they do it? Just do IT: Why Russians dominate cyberland SCIENCE & TECH JULY 06 2018 SVETLANA ARKHANGELSKAYA https://www.rbth.com/science-and-tech/328694-why-russians-win-it-cyber ICPC prizewinners from Russia include students from ITMO University, St. Petersburg State University, Moscow State University, and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). For many years, they have got the better of teams from Oxford, Berkeley, MIT, Harvard, Caltech, and others. The secret of Russia’s success is the effective training system developed by Moscow Workshops ICPC under the auspices of MIPT. https://www.rbth.com/science-and-tech/328694-why-russians-win-it-cyber https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2018/07/05/russian-federation-sitrep-5-july-2018/ WORLD CUP. A triumph. Russia has gained enormously I think. Money well spent. One Brit: “The British media should be ashamed of themselves for their clear propaganda against the Russian people. Absolutely class country.” Millions of people who were there or who had friends who were and told them what they saw will form a mighty bulwark against more anti-Russia lies. This video by an English father-son team has 90K views so far. Casual Russophobia will be harder to sell and the credibility of Western media has taken another hit. Rumors of Edward Snowden being considered a bargaining chip in upcoming Trump-Putin summit The fate of the NSA whistleblower appears to remain secure with him safely in Russia by Seraphim HanischSERAPHIM HANISCH. June 30, 2018, 11:49 http://theduran.com/edward-snowden-fate-not-considered-a-bargaining-chip-in-upcoming-trump-putin-summit/?mc_cid=ac381fb7de&mc_eid=50350f8d0f https://eastwestaccord.com/gov-jerry-brown-george-shultz-and-william-perry-warn-against-low-yield-nuclear-weapons/ May 22, 2018 The Honorable Mitch McConnell Majority Leader United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 Dear Majority Leader McConnell, We write to respectfully request that Congress reject the Trump administration’s request for new, more usable, “low-yield” nuclear warheads for Trident missiles. There is no need for such weapons and building them would make the United States less safe. These so-called “low-yield” weapons are a gateway to nuclear catastrophe and should not be pursued. To justify this dangerous proposal, the Trump administration is promoting a false narrative that the United States has a “gap” in its ability to deter the use of nuclear weapons by Russia. The Hon. Edmund G. Brown Jr. Governor of California The Hon. George P. Shultz Former U.S. Secretary of State The Hon. William J. Perry Former U.S. Secretary of Defense The Hon. Richard G. Lugar United States Senator (Ret.) Former Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee and several more signed. https://eastwestaccord.com/gov-jerry-brown-george-shultz-and-william-perry-warn-against-low-yield-nuclear-weapons/ Putin Visits Lavishly Restored, Strikingly Beautiful Monastery Outside Moscow - Great Photo Essay, Video A unique monastery--Russia's own Holy Land, founded by the controversial Patriarch Nikon in 1656--has finally been rebuilt in Moscow Michael Tare, Sun, Jun 17, 2018 https://russia-insider.com/en/politics/putin-visits-lavishly-restored-strikingly-beautiful-monastery-outside-moscow-great-photo?ct=t(Russia_Insider_Daily_Headlines11_21_2014)&mc_cid=b13d02b33e&mc_eid=73f16282b9 Professor N. Petro: Thought you might enjoy my latest piece, “Are We Reading Russia Right?” which will appear in The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, vol. 42, No. 2 (Summer 2018). Putin couldn’t resist pointing out that Washington’s allies were finding out for themselves what happens when Washington does whatever it wants; as he had warned in Munich years ago would happen, Washington was “spreading its national jurisdiction to other countries” and Europe and Canada are now tasting the results. ...UKRAINE. Freedom House notices what has been in plain sight for years: “Far-right extremism represents a threat to the democratic development of Ukrainian society.” Does this signify anything? Who knows? Propagandists don’t often change their line. But still: both Amnesty and Freedom House committing crimethink! Maybe something is changing. “Are We Reading Russia Right?” Andrei Kortunov: http://russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/a-letter-to-john-where-are-u-s-russia-relations-headed/ <<We have role models to whom we can look up. Our generation still remembers brilliant intellectuals of the bygone years—among them, George Kennan and Yevgeny Primakov, William Fulbright and Georgy Arbatov, Marshall Shulman and Anatoly Dobrynin. They taught us ethics of responsibility. These people were thinking in terms of eras and generations rather than election cycles and bureaucratic squabbles. Now these people are no longer with us; some left us sooner, others later.>> http://russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/a-letter-to-john-where-are-u-s-russia-relations-headed/ CHRISTIANS, IT’S TIME FOR A FRANK, LOVING DIALOGUE WITH OUR JEWISH FRIENDS Vince Dhimos/ 5/13/2018 Recently, Charles Bausman, editor-in-chief of Russia Insider, wrote a landmark commentary titled “It's time to drop the Jew taboo.” It was to many a shockingly frank commentary on the so-called “Jewish question,” focusing on the grievous misdeeds of a people that, at least since the Holocaust, no one had dared to criticize publicly for fear of being called anti-Semitic, being banned from social media, being ostracized, not being elected to public office, even losing one’s job. http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/news--analysis/christians-its-time-for-a-frank-loving-dialogue-with-our-jewish-friends See Bausman's article in both English and Russian here http://www.raga.org/novosti/drop-the-jew-taboo Trump-Bibi ‘win-win’ alliance may bring the one-state solution to its political dissolution Côme Carpentier De Gourdon, May 19, 2018, 5:16 PM One has to give credit to the Israeli cunning and doggedness which have enabled it to maintain a vice-like grip on the US government, but more far-sighted Jews are worried about the writing on the wall. https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/world/trump-bibi-win-win-alliance-may-bring-one-state-solution-political-dissolution Netanyahu Regime Cuts Off Funds to Palestinians By Stephen Lendman, July 06, 2018 In view of the fact that the pro-Israel lobby and the neocons continue to exert enormous influence on US policy under President Trump I recommend you read Ambassador Chas Freeman's perceptive 2016 article "U.S. Policy and the Geopolitical Dynamics of the Middle East" - Chas Freeman http://www.raga.org/news/us-policy-and-the-geopolitical-dynamics-of-the-middle-east-chas-freeman Ambassador Jack Matlock: Amid ‘Russiagate’ Hysteria, What Are the Facts? THE NATION June 4, 2018 “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” ..It is a fact that many senior Russian officials (though not all, by any means) expressed a preference for Trump’s candidacy. After all, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had compared President Putin to Hitler and had urged more active US military intervention abroad, while Trump had said it would be better to cooperate with Russia than to treat it as an enemy. https://www.thenation.com/article/amid-russiagate-hysteria-what-are-the-facts/ A video introducing Russian Faith David Curry. Published on Oct 21, 2017 Bringing Christian issues into the secular media cycle www.russian-faith.com/support Sincerely, W George Krasnow (http://wiki-org.ru/wiki/Краснов,_Владислав_Георгиевич) President, RAGA www.raga.org Facebook Peace and Justice to the World. миру мир и благоволение в сердцах From RAGA site: "We are an association of Americans who believe it is in the U.S. national interests to foster friendship with Russia on the basis of mutual Good Will and non-interference in each other's affairs. RAGA is a gathering of people who share common interests in Russia's history, culture, religion, economy, politics and the way of life. We feel that Russian people have made outstanding contributions to humankind and are capable of greater achievements. We envision Russia as a strong, independent, proud and free nation and as a partner in achieving peace in the world."