With US-Russia relations at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War, Moscow fears the tensions between powers could lead to a “dangerous” confrontation. Russian officials discussed the potential catastrophe at a Foreign Ministry meeting on Wednesday led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“It was noted during the discussion that bilateral relations had approached a dangerous confrontational threshold through the fault of Washington, who have provoked an unprecedented escalation between our states over the recent years,” the ministry said in a statement, as reported by Newsweek.
The statement added: “Russia is subjected to unprecedented pressure that the US pulls its allies into, introducing a strong ideological component to the standoff with Moscow. This line by Washington, which blatantly violates international law, will continue to come up against unwavering opposition as far as protecting Russia’s legitimate interests goes.”
The bleak assessment from Moscow comes as the US and NATO are stepping up military activity in the Black Sea, a potential flashpoint for a conflict with Russia. The Western powers held two large naval exercises in the waters this month after a British warship sailed 12 miles off the coast of Crimea, a reckless provocation that Russia responded to by firing warning shots.
There was hope for US-Russia relations after President Biden met with Vladimir Putin in Geneva on June 16th. The summit appeared to go well, but only a few days later, the US was again threatening Russia with sanctions.
I am sure the Russians have NOT forgotten that they have always been invided from the WEST !!
I don’t think it is “ideological.”
The US and NATO are quite happy to ally with people very like Putin, or worse. Putin’s ” system” is incoherent anyway, not something that could be opposed for ideology.
In fact the US opposition is for exactly Putin’s sort of thinking, for boasting and bragging rights, and power seeking anywhere it might find an opening. Nothing else explains the criminals and warlords promoted by the US where it occupies nations, in the Balkans to Afghanistan, and not forgetting whatever the US promotes in its area of Monroe Doctrine claims.
Putin is actually far less aggressive in the sense of initiating conflicts, though he does not shrink from them, and he might be more aggressive if he had the power to do it. He’s not unlike the US, but again that does not make the fight one of ideology.
Not in the former sense, the cold war sense, Capitalism vs Communism; but it is ideological. Neoliberalism envisions a world system that can’t tolerate the old idea of nation state. Not a system of sovereign equals, like the UN; but a hierarchy … with Washington at the summit unchallenged in its privileged claim to the markets and resources of the globe. Not just Russia, but the entire globe is required to submit to the dollar and the Pentagon, … or according to their own formulation, “the international rules of order”.
If you study his words and actions you will find that Pres. Putin actually speaks the truth, unlike some others we know!
“….a British warship sailed 12 miles off the coast of Crimea, a reckless provocation that Russia responded to by firing warning shots.” I was following until I read the word “reckless,” which hit me like a sledgehammer. It was “reckless” as it endangered the entire world, but they were not “reckless” in their pursuit of war. That was a premeditated and exquisitely timed move to kill any chance for détente with Russia by the British regime. Every time there could have been a chance for peace, they ruthlessly squashed it before it took hold. They were a relatively small island nation that divided and concurred the whole world for a century and then led us in to not one but two devastating world wars back to back. They even wanted a third world war since then. The British regime should receive the title of best warmongers ever. Trust me, the math works out much better if you simply replace the word “reckless” with “evil.”
Is their any reason the US wouldn’t fear a confrontation with Russia, Dave?
It all goes back to Obama’s violent bloody coup in Ukraine. RussiaGate was a con job to hide the events in Ukraine.
Washington had chosen to spearhead Neo-Nazi’s into positions of authority. Under a “regime of indirect rule”, however Ukraine take their orders on crucial military and foreign policy issues including the deployment of troops directed against the Russian federation, from the the US State Department, the Pentagon and NATO. From fabricating an “invasion,” to the claims of “threatened” lives, to the labeling of Russians as “subhuman,” Obama recited fully the script of Nazism used to justify its various historical crimes against humanity.
For example take the latest Russia aggression, biggest con job ever………Here is what is really going on………….Zelensky signs off on decree 117/2021 which is the De-occupation and Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol. This is a declaration of war.
Ukraine then moved weapons and troops to the front line and started shelling civilians in the Donbass. Russia as a response has moved 2 armies and 3 paratroop divisions to their border with Ukraine. The Putin administration has warned the US/NATO to back off and let Russia deal with Kiev.
There are over 500,000 Russian citizens, passport holders, in the Donbass hence the shelling of the Donbass is a threat to Russia and a provocation for war. Apart from the war crimes that Ukraine/US/NATO are committing these are just further crimes against humanity which is the standard MO of US/NATO.
OK take Putin is a killer……….President Lukashenko has stated that Biden gave the order to kill him in a coup organized by the CIA. According to the Russians, a joint operation of the (Belorussian) KGB and the Russian FSB has uncovered the plot early on and the Russians monitored the full operation until they had enough evidence to arrest all the plotters. The Kremlin confirmed that Putin and Biden discussed this topic during their telephone conference. No wonder Putin wont meet Biden for a summit.
It was the Russians who saved Erdogan from a US-backed coup which was also supposed to include Erdogan’s murder. It was the Russians who saved Yanukovych from the neo Nazi mobs that the US administration set loose in the Maidan which was suppose to include Yanukovych’s murder.
Dumb uneducated racist Americans who know better are allowing the Oligarchy to destroy the country from within. But hey you go on blaming Russia/China for your stupidity, you just keep fiddling while America burns. you Just keep telling your naked emperors they look great.
Why do they call Ukrainian forces Banderites? In 1943 Stepan Bandera’s followers massacred 70,000 Poles the majority of whom were unarmed men, women, and children. This mass killing took place in Volyn, Western Ukraine. In the spring and summer of 1943 peasants of Volyn under the leadership of the Galician intelligentsia using bullets, axes and other improvised means assassinated tens of thousands of Poles living in the villages and towns of the region. The political leadership of the OUN had suddenly realised that the Germans might lose the war. So because of the presence of the Polish population the political leadership had simply decided to get rid of that population to prevent Poland’s claim to Volyn. By 1945 the OUN had, in Eastern Galicia, killed 130,000. Many people had their eyes gouged out and were then hacked to death. After WWII the OUN kept fighting against the forces of the USSR and People’s Poland until 1949.
“To initiate a war of aggression,” said the Nuremberg Tribunal judges in 1946, “is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”
From the historical reference in Volyn we can clearly see that Obama (the black Hitler)/Biden (the White Hitler) in Ukraine were using the supreme international crime as a means of preventing Russia’s claims to the Donbass. And Poroshenko as one of Obama’s missives gives a speech where for the first time in history a Western leader boasts about targeting woman and children. Poroshenko stated….“We will have our jobs, they will not. We will have our pensions, they will not. We will have care for children, for people and retirees, they will not. Our children will go to schools and kindergartens… theirs will hole up in the basements. Because they are not able to do a thing. This is exactly how we will win this war!” Keep in mind he is talking about Ukrainians, his fellow countrymen. He openly flouts international law, his militia’s use cluster and phospherous munitions against all conventions. He terrorises civilian populations. This was Obama’s/Biden’s strategy to win this civil war, ethnic cleansing and genocide.
In spite of what Western media tells you the Maidan demonstrations, also called the “revolution of dignity” was an armed coup, extremely violent and spearheaded by Right Sector militants, who willingly placed the US appointed Yatsenyuk into power along with the US supported Neo-Nazi political front Svoboda.
What followed were fraudulent elections where ethnic cleansing and genocide predictably yielded a pro US and pro EU client regime. One can perhaps understand why many Russian speakers in the eastern Ukraine took up arms in 2014 when they saw the flags of the OUN (Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists) proudly displayed in Kiev after the violent overthrow of the elected government.
After the Maidan the leaders of two right wing neo-Nazi organisations were rewarded with control of four ministries. For example, Andriy Parubiy, co-founder of the fascist Social National Party (SNPU), which later changed its name to Svoboda, became the new top commander of the National Defense and Security Council. (covering the military, police, courts and intelligence apparatus). The CIA renamed the organisation to “Svoboda,” meaning “Freedom,” to make it more acceptable to Americans.
Dmytro Yarosh, Right Sector commander, was second-in-command of the National Defense and Security Council. This is the man who organized and ran Ukraine’s February 22nd Coup in Kiev, and the May 2nd Massacre of Its Opponents in Odessa, for Barack Obama. Yarosh’s teams carry out the most violent operations for the CIA in Ukraine. They are responsible for the atrocities committed in the Donbass, for the crimes against humanity.
Oleh Tyahnybok, co founder of the SNPU and currently the party leader of Svoboda, A self confessed neo-Nazi. He opposed the introduction of the Russian language as the second official state language; called for the lustration of former communist officials. He also proposed recognition of the fighting role of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army during World War II.
Wow…. Tour D’force comment…!!!! Makes me realize how my lack of historical perspective make me an accomplish to the U.S. tyranny of not just the Ukrainians but other countries too, They (WE) the U.S. are out to destroy any state that doesn’t bow to out power and vision: “Full Spectrum Dominance”
What happened to Gadaffi..??? The evil Hillary Clinton,Vicky Nuland and hateful others, believers in “what we do is right” no matter how many we injur, kill or evict. American Foreign Policy is becum a smash and grab operation…!!! Why are we in Syria, aiding the theft of their oil… ???? What did they ever do to us? They even assisted Bush in the WMD scam to attack Iraq and Afghanistsn.. Have we become a country bereft of any human empathy, honesty, morals or good old goodness. If so it is an pterrible indictment of America its self…. Thank Antiwar.c-m for guys like Justin Raimondo and Major Danny to name only a few of their wonderful truthtellers.