Dear friends of the Russia & America Good Will Association (www.raga.org) and antiwar colleagues! Let me start by congratulating Vladimir Putin on being re-elected for another 6-year presidential term and wishing him that he carries out all the promises he made to his electorate. He got over 76% of the vote in a contested election. Clearly, the russophobic anti-Putin propaganda campaign that US mega media has conducted in the hope to drive a wedge among Russians by issuing hurtful sanctions back-fired. Putin's share actually increased considerably, at the cost of pro-Western liberal opposition. Putin's numbers were the highest in the Crimea. Let me start by congratulating Vladimir Putin on being re-elected for another 6-year presidential term and wishing him that he carries out all the promises he made to his electorate. He got over 76% of the vote in a contested election. Clearly, the russophobic anti-Putin propaganda campaign that US mega media has conducted in the hope to drive a wedge among Russians by issuing hurtful sanctions back-fired. Putin's share actually increased considerably, at the cost of pro-Western liberal opposition. Putin's numbers were the highest in the Crimea. Sending congratulations is a matter of courtesy, not politics. RAGA has sent Open Letter to Obama and congratulated Trump (http://www.raga.org/news/raga-newsletter-antidote-31-merry-christmas-donald-trump-open-letter-to-obama-obamas-response-and-krasnovs-rebuttal-happy-holidays-william-brumfields-photographs). Later, RAGA carried an open letter to President Trump written by Professor of Religious Studies Rudolf Siebert http://www.raga.org/news/open-letter-to-president-trump. Our mission remains the same, PEACE. Now take a look what RAGA friends and associates, mostly Americans, have to say about the dangerously rising tensions between the super powers (1) Russia is Not the Soviet Union/ By Charles G. Mills, March 2, 2018 The Soviet Union was a dogmatically atheist regime. Today’s Russia, in contrast, is a Christian country. Vladimir Putin is a faithful Russian Orthodox Christian with a personal confessor. Charles is a lawyer of the conservative Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation in DC, dedicated to the preservation of Western civilization. I am proud to be FGF contributor. In previous Antidote letters I have pointed out a rapid rise of Christian and other religious values in Former Soviet Union. For comparison with the negative dynamic in the US, take a look at the two "boxers" on RAGA's front page. http://www.raga.org/ If that is not enough, read: (2) Resurgence of Christianity in Russia as new Orthodox churches open across the nation. 24 new churches opened in Moscow in 2017 with another 21 set to be opened this year, as Russia rebuilds and strengthens its Christian foundations. By Seraphim Hanisch Russia is known throughout the world for the Russian Orthodox Church, and its beauty, its music, and its unique architecture, especially that of its ancient churches. In the years right before the Communist Revolution, there were nearly 86,000 churches and chapels, and more than one thousand monasteries throughout the Russian Empire. Under Communism, almost all of these were destroyed, with the number of churches falling to fewer than 500. Between 14 and 22 million Christians perished in the most horrific Christian persecution in recorded history. Of course, Russia remains a secular country with freedom of religion and conscience for all, including Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Atheists. All the more, it's a shame that the two most-powerful nuclear-armedChristiancountries cannot figure out how to get along with each other--for the sake of Mother Earth! (3) About the Skripal poisoning affair read The Washington Times By Edward Lozansky - - Tuesday, March 20, 2018 So, Vladimir Putin did it again or did he? <<I leave it to legal and linguistic professionals to decide whether “highly likely” terminology is acceptable in any independent court of law, but many politicians and experts, including those in the know, express serious doubts that it was Mr. Putin’s handiwork.>> www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/20/crosstalk-how-prevent-british-drama-turning-traged/ What about Putin’s presentation of Russia’s new weapons systems during his Address to the Federal Assembly on 1 March? Listen to his explanation to Megyn Kelly: (4) ‘Why would we want a world without Russia?’ Putin on Moscow’s nuclear doctrine Published time: 7 Mar, 2018 14:05 ... Putin told NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today” that a new arms race has been started by Washington when it decided to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) back in 2002. The US then proceeded with a massive arms build-up right on Russia’s doorstep. In the following years, the US has virtually encircled Russia with its missile defense installations, in particular by stationing them in Romania and Poland. It also, for the first time, deployed a battery of Patriot long-range anti-aircraft systems to Lithuania for war games. (5) Israel Shamir, a former Soviet dissident and my friend. Israel became Zionist,emigrated to Israel, turned against Zionism and converted to Christianity. He contributes to The Unz Review: ISRAEL SHAMIR • MARCH 11, 2018 Putin’s Missiles: Deterring an American Attack? Putin’s March 1st presentation of new Russian weapons has been greatly misunderstood as a declaration of strategic parity or triumphalism. There was a much more urgent need, namely, to prevent an imminent strike. This danger is not over yet, for a week later, on March, 7, President Putin emphasized his readiness to employ the nuclear weapons for retaliation purposes. “Certainly, it would be a global disaster for humanity; a disaster for the entire world,” Putin said, “but, as a citizen of Russia and the head of the Russian state I must ask myself: Why would we want a world without Russia?” (6) Shamir was seconded by Mary Dejevsky of UK/ Putin's speech wasn’t aggressive – it was a plea to the US to start talking again The military half of Putin’s address was not only – or perhaps even primarily – directed at the Russian audience. This message of new, and world-beating, defence prowess surely had another intended recipient: the United States/ By Mary Dejevsky Thursday 1 March 2018 (7) Dr. Gilbert Doctorow, a pre-eminent US Russia scholar, based in Brussels, thinks that "U.S. Raises the White Flag, Calls for Talks with Russia over the New Arms Race" One can say with certainty that it has elicited the desired response from its target audience in Washington, D.C. (8) The US establishment's Washington Post, let Karen DeYoung elaborate: It may still be far from the depths of the Cold War, but Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Thursday speech, outlining new, “invincible” weapons to overcome U.S. defenses, lowered the already chilly temperature of the relationship by several degrees. Few experts on either side believe that the new weapons, assuming they actually exist and are ever deployed, would change the balance of power between two nations that already have the ability to destroy each other many times over. At the same time, there is widespread agreement that the rhetorical attacks, stalled diplomacy and military escalation that increasingly characterize U.S.-Russia relations are counterproductive to global security. “The tension level is high, higher now than it was several months ago, in part because the Russians have gotten past the phase where they thought with President Trump they would be able to move the relationship in a different direction,” said Thomas Graham, senior director for Russia on the George W. Bush National Security Council staff and now managing director at Kissinger Associates Inc. (9) PATRICK LAWRENCE of the liberal SALON magazine assesses the overall situation: Washington can’t adjust to losing its role as global sheriff, and the entire world must bear the consequences If the first few weeks of 2018 are any guide, it is going to be a tumultuous, confrontational year for America’s foreign relations...To say what we are likely to see is going to be unpretty is to put the point far too mildly....Finally, and related to the above, the “sole superpower” phase of the post–Cold War era is slipping with accumulating momentum into the past. Maintaining unipolarity, to put the point another way, becomes an ever more forlorn endeavor. It cannot hold, and one mourns Washington’s inability to grasp this reality. The recent appointment of John Bolton as Trump's National Security Adviser bodes no good. Even George Will, a Washington Postobserver denounces "the second most dangerous man". (10) Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor of Veterans Today, a site where I am a contributor, says "Bolton’s record is beyond horrible on where he stood on policy and his total inability to acknowledge what a disaster Iraq was." Tillerson Out, Neocons In! <<I mean, when neocon Jews and their shills lie, we’re not really upset, and nobody bats an eye.>> His reference to "neocon Jews" is pointed because Bolton was among the 1997 founders of the PNAC, the Project for the New American Century, originally designed to encourage Israel to dominate the Middle East and then re-designed for the US to take the burden of world domination. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clean_Break:_A_New_Strategy_for_Securing_the_Realm) Several of the founders were former Trotskiytes used to think in terms of global domination. https://www.proudprimate.com/Resources/PNAC%20Background.htm (12) James George Jatras, a former Congressional operative, admirer of Solzhenitsyn and my friend, thinks We're Sliding Towards a Nuclear 1914 - Can We Save Ourselves? He sees The spooky similarities between 1914 and today What was unthinkable in the old Cold War has become all-too-thinkable in the new one between the US and Russia. As described by veteran arms control inspector Scott Ritter, in analyzing a draft of the 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), the US threshold for the use of nuclear weapons has become dangerously low Let now the best known statesman of the 1990s speak up about the current downturn in US-Russia relations (13) Mikhail Gorbachev: The U.S. and Russia Must Stop the Race to Nuclear War We must remind the leaders of all nuclear powers of their commitment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to negotiate reductions and eventually the elimination of nuclear weapons. Their predecessors signed that obligation, and it was ratified by the highest levels of their government. A world without nuclear weapons: There can be no other final goal. However dismal the current situation, however depressing and hopeless the atmosphere may seem, we must act to prevent the ultimate catastrophe. What we need is not the race to the abyss but a common victory over the demons of war. Finally, two articles on the topic of Jew Taboo that dominated the previous issue RAGA antidote 41. http://www.raga.org/news/raga-antiwar-antidote-41-bausman-solzhenitsyn-karl-marx-putin-karlin-doctorow-makow-tennison-ira-helfand-brett-abrams-tsar-michael-ii-roulston (14) First is Dmitry Orlov's article "Never, Ever Listen to What American Jews Have to Say About Russia" Orlov is as contentious as Charles Bausman who brought up the Jew Taboo issue. But he deserves to be heard. First, Orlov is one of the better-known thinkers The New Yorker has dubbed 'The Dystopians', along with James Howard Kunstler, another RI contributor.These theorists believe that modern society is headed for a jarring and painful crack-up. Second, Orlov came to the USA in a massive Soviet Jewish immigration during the 1970s and 1980s. It was a deal worked out by Kissinger and Brezhnev to let Soviet Jews immigrate to Israel for "family re-unification", but the majority (over 300,000) chose the USA. For Soviet authorities the deal was useful as they wanted to get rid of dissidents as well criminals. A popular Soviet joke then was in the form of Radio Moscow "You ask/We answer" session. A listener asks: "What does the word Jewish mean, ethnicity or religion?" Radio Moscow answers: "Neither. After doing research across the USSR, we found out that the word Jewish is most frequently used to designate the surest method of immigration to the USA". Soon the news of "Russian mafia" came to dominate Brighton Beach and other places where the immigrants were settled, usually on welfare. The Congress of Russian Americans (CRA), of which I was a board member, protested the defamation of ethnic Russian community, usually assimilated,Christian and patriotic US citizens. We suggested that these criminals be called "former Soviet Jews". Nobody listened, until Robert Friedman wrote a book "Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America". Of course, the criminals spoke Russian and some of them may have been ethnic Russians, but at least Friedman tied the crime to its Soviet origin, even though the Jew Taboo was still observed. (15) In the wake of Bausman's article,The SPLC Attacks Russia Insider, Gilbert Doctorow Responds I will not go into the other numerous confused attempts by Reid Ross to pigeon-hole me either as facilitator of Right-Left coalitions or as a rightist, pure and simple. He willfully misses the point. My political and authorial activities have had only one purpose: to facilitate public discussion of the reckless and ignorant foreign policy originating in Washington and followed slavishly in Europe which is leading us to nuclear Armageddon. Diverse News: Russia's Biggest Bank Is 2nd Most Valuable in Europe After HSBC (Sberbank) With 127 million retail customers and 16,000 branches, it also is one of the largest financial players in many Eastern European markets. Investors also see it as a way to get exposure to the growing Russian economy and growing Russian middle class. Every empire needs a scary external threat, led by a singular menacing villain, to justify its massive military expenditures, consolidation of authoritarian powers, and endless wars. Robert Parry, a great journalist and RAGA contributer, passed away. Please read This Deeply Held Commitment: A Meditation On The Death Of Robert Parry. 02/02/2018.By Caitlin Johnstone We’re going to have to start feeling the fact that an unelected plutocracy controls the most powerful government in the world which is naturally incentivized to maintain economic injustice in a system where money equals political power..The world doesn’t need more dissociated pseudo-intellectuals and overeducated, emotionally dead idealists. It needs more Robert Parrys. Invitation of Papers for the 42nd International Course on the The Future of Religion: The Dialectic of Secularization, Dubrovnik, Croatia, April 23-28, 2018 The Church of St. John Korovniki in Yaroslavl: Masterwork of Dramatic Arts TRAVEL FEB 23, 2018 WILLIAM BRUMFIELD Named for its pastoral location, the ensemble is a medieval masterpiece. Sincerely, W George Krasnow (http://wiki-org.ru/wiki/Краснов,_Владислав_Георгиевич) President, RAGA www.raga.org ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Vladislav Krasnov <president92@gmail.com> Date: Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 12:27 PM Subject: Antiwar1: RAGA Antidote 41: Bausman, Solzhenitsyn, Karl Marx, Putin, Karlin, Doctorow, Makow, Tennison, Ira Helfand, Brett Abrams, Tsar Michael II, Roulston To: Vladislav Krasnov <president@raga.org>, Vladislav Krasnov <president92@gmail.com>, Marina George <MAGRussian@aol.com>, Morgan Cris <cris.morgan01@gmail.com>, David Roulston2 <droulston@btinternet.com> Dear friends of the Russia & America Good Will Association (www.raga.org) and antiwar colleagues! Many things happened since the last RAGA Antidote 40 newsletter of December 2017. Christmas and New Year holidays last longer in Russia because the Russians tend to celebrate both twice, first according the Gregorian calendar, like us, then Julian which the Russian Orthodox Christians, whose numbers have been swelling since 1991, follow. The government too provides for more Winter days-off. Well, let's plunge into the Year of the Yellow Dog by following what president Vladimir Putin did on the day of Epiphany"Thursday January 18 Vladimir Putin Plunges in Frozen Lake to Mark Orthodox Christian Epiphany Ritual (VIDEO) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-epiphany-putin/russias-putin-takes-dip-in-icy-lake-to-mark-orthodox-epiphany-idUSKBN1F80J0 VladimirPutin’s ice bath ritual perplexes American journalists.Example ofreinforced ignorance about Russian leader’s Christian faith shows howdisconnected American press is from reality. President Vladimir Putin marked the celebration of Theophany (sometimes called“Epiphany” in the West) in the usual way – by immersing himself in freezing coldwater in Lake Seliger at a monastery near Tver, some 200 miles north of Moscow. http://russiafeed.com/vladimir-putins-ice-bath-ritual-perplexes-american-journalists/ Now, having cooled off, prepare for the really hot bath provided by Charles Bausman, the founder and editor of Russia Insider whom many Russia watchers have appreciated for its efforts to explain Russia and diffuse US-Russia tensions in a quest for global peace. I briefly met Charles in September 2014 at Ed Lozansky's Moscow forum when he announced this venture in public diplomacy. Soon Russia Insider went online. On January 16, RI surprised many readers, including myself, by publishing It's Time to Drop the Jew Taboo It's making serious discussion of Russian geopolitics and history next to impossible. Most people know about, but few are willing to condemn, the strict taboo in the media, of criticizing Jews as a group, using that term. One cannot even criticize a small subsection of Jews, a miniscule percentage of the Jewish population, even when they richly deserve it. http://russia-insider.com/en/its-time-drop-jew-taboo/ri22186 Bausman's initiative is both bold and controversial, so much so that I quickly posted my Russian translation on both Perevodika.ru and the RAGA site where it could be switched between English and Russian. http://www.raga.org/news/drop-the-jew-taboo Why court possible hostility from the Jews? Well, many Jews, at least, since Karl Marx's 1844 article "On The Jewish Question" (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/jewish-question/) have been aware of, and deeply deplored, the tendency of their kin to be attracted to shady financial dealings. Of course, Marx's article was unavailable in the country built in his name. In fact, I had to escape from the USSR in order to be able to read freely not just him, but foreign and Russian religious philosophers whose books were expelled from the country of their origin. One might even say that Marx preceded Bausman in lifting the taboo. I believe that lifting the taboo on naming Jews involved in finance and, especially, in MSM anti-Russian hysteria would be healthy for both Russia and the USA, for both Jews (remember how the banker Bernie Madoff robbed everyone, even Jewish charities! https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/dec/23/bernard-madoff-jewish-charities) and Gentiles alike. After all, Bausman proposes to call spade a spade, nothing more or less. In fact, in my 2016 Open 2016 Letter to Obama I demanded something similar: |
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