While President Biden quickly reached an agreement with Moscow to extend the vital New START nuclear arms treaty, the rhetoric from the new US administration towards Russia has been extremely hostile.
In a foreign policy address on Thursday, Biden said the US “will not hesitate to raise the cost to Russia and defend our vital interests.” On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Biden’s comments as “aggressive, unconstructive rhetoric.”
One issue the US is threatening action over is the jailing of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition figure who the US alleges was poisoned by Moscow. Biden demanded that Russia release Navalny “without condition.”
Washington’s European allies are also calling for Navalny’s release. Russia announced on Friday that it expelled diplomats from Sweden, Germany, and Poland, who Moscow said attended pro-Navalny demonstrations on January 23rd.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is reviewing sanctions on Russia over Navalny and other issues. Some of the allegations against Russia mentioned by the Biden administration are entirely unsubstantiated, like the claim that Russia paid bounties to the Taliban to kill US troops in Afghanistan.
The bounty allegation first appeared in a thinly-sourced story from The New York Times in June 2020. After the Times report, it was slowly revealed that no US intelligence agencies stood behind the assessment, and US military leaders have said there is no intelligence that corroborates the claim.
These guys say one thing to the amen corner of western media and take a different tone when they’re actually confronted by Putin.
The neocons have delivered the Crimea and the Middle East to Russia, gift wrapped. What oh what will they do for an encore under Sleepy Joe?
90% of what comes out from Biden is “thinly sourced”. The U.S. media gives him a pass but don’t expect others to.
The arrogance of the USA knows no bounds. Julian Assange is in a UK prison awaiting the US call to extradite him for daring to tell the truth about US war crimes, while the Biden administration interferes in a Russian case of a lowly fraudster lying about “novichok” , so you believe that? just like Bill Browder and the “Magnitsky” case?
There have never been any proof, not to mention substantive proof, in any allegations against Russia. From allegations on forcing Crimea to vote to return to Russia rule, to accusations on downing a plane over Ukraine or chemical weapons in Syria, or bombing hospitals in Syria, or poisoning Skripals who then disappeared, to Navalny poisoning, to Afghanistan booty, to meddling in elections, hacking DNC servers, and the latest software malfunction quickly attributed to Russia. And on and on it will go, as anything goes. Same now goes for China. Nothing new.
In the meantime, epidemics has been “mishandled”, just as the same will continue under Biden. Only it will not be called mishandling.
If the establishment wanted to control the epidemics, we would have had the economy opened in less then 90 days, and keep up control measures.
Nothing complicated. Infected people should have been quarantined, all services provided to them, including health monitoring. Hospitals should have been immediately segregated to prevent infected patients sharing hospital facilities with other patients. Immediately. Why not? Why let half a million people die?
Until today, infected people, now in vast numbers, are walking around our neighborhoods, living in same buildings as healthy population, and often in the same households.
Heavy, not so subtle propaganda has been unleashed to view any restrictions as distinctly un-Amercan. Good boys and girls that we are, we bought the line, allowing infected to spread infection.
Our economy thus has been shut down for reasons we do not understand. As if waiting for miracle big pharmaceutical solution, the one that will cost billions, and will BREAK standards in medicine safety, creating a precedent to unleash other experimentation,
Thus, these vaccines, contrary to any common sense and dismal track record — will be declared a success, and path opened to future dangerous experimentation.
For all bleeding hearts liberals and those that see Nazis everywhere — here is something to get exercised about.
First, Nuremberg laws became part of US legal system. Those laws PROHIBIT experimentation on human beings, therefore all medical trials must first be conducted on animals. Both US vaccines skipped that requirement.
Second, both vaccines are using medical science and technology never before approved for ANY medication, except experimental cancer medicine, and other incurable diseases. None of them resulted in any breakthroughs. Claims of “prolonging” life have been used callously, as such measurements are extremely subjective.
As of now we know that neither of the vaccines provides IMMUNITY. Not for any period of time. Vaccinated person thus is given the same old “promise” of probably, very likely — but not guaranteed — have a milder version of COVID.
And that is not all — discussions on issuing vaccination passports are raising this to ludicrous levels! You may become second rate citizen if you do not accept this experimental vaccine — and forcing you is against the law, even though you will NOT acquire immunity! You will still need COVID test to prove you are not infected before traveling.
And because you do not have immunity — you must still wear mask, socially distance, etc,
What happened to laws? Tossed away for the sake of mega profits? While all along we could have dealt with the epidemic by century old methods that work, and avoid economic disaster. What gives?
Anyone for another Cuban missile type of Nuclear Crisis!
This time if that happens,Cuban missile crisis would be piece of cake.
EU’s Josef Borrell humiliated by Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The privilege to have been the proverbial fly on the fall listening to the Lavrov-Borrell conversation. Alexander is reading aloud from articles or second-hand pieces for which he doesn’t attribute. Regardless, an aura of Russian attitude adjustment toward the West seems to indicate they’ll brook no small talk–if they have any meaningful conversations at all.
A lesson probably learned from wasting time with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was said– I’m paraphrasing the sentiment– not to have wasted his time with Borrell.