Thread: Donald Trump winning over Russians, Moscow-run media in U.S. presidential race

Originally Posted by Captainron

Judy, you probably don't agree, but I think the US did wrong in the rush to 'westernize' the Russian federation, after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. I have a book by Matt Brezinski (yes, Zbigniew's son) titled "Casino Moscow" about how many soviets did not know how to handle a departure from state control, and lost money (i.e. savings) to unscrupulous capitalists or ill conceived investment strategies.

Gorbachev was unique in that he came from a highly religious family, and so truly sought what was in the best interests of his people. But the rapid changes humiliated the soviets, as they saw their influence crumbling. That is why they got rid of the best liasion we have had with their culture, Gorbachev. But it's been a drastic pendulum swing. But the upshot was that the influence of the Russian Orthodox church grew rapidly. And since the Russians had struggled for centuries with restive Muslim populations they could find some refuge in their religious traditions.

Reagan and Gorbachev demonstrated that two very different peoples could find some common ground. I think the US under GHW Bush in particular stepped up to the plate, as the dissolution of Soviet control led to a lot of weapons risk; we never knew what former soviet military officials were going to resort to in keeping their salaries---a lot of dangerous, shady deals.

I don't disagree. I've posted many times that the Russians have a very different situation and history than we do which requires different government than ours. Many in our country don't understand how those differences impact what type of government they need to hold the control together to maintain some sort of peaceful safe semblance of order.

The Russians are an amazing people because they never complain, they never whine, they are very proud and have endured hardship in so many ways for centuries, yet they are proud, cultural, intelligent, well-educated, sophisticated and very talented.

They are an important country that we should be friends with and should have been friends with all these years. It's been our loss not to have maintained good relations with Russia. And I hope Donald Trump wins the election and one of the many great things he will do is establish a positive, friendly relationship with Russia.

France sells military helicopters to Kuwait in €1 billion deal

FRANCE 24-Aug 9, 2016
France will supply 30 military helicopters to Kuwait in a deal worth over ... in the fight against Daesh in Iraq and Syria," Le Drian said in a statement, ... but they are also fitted with machine guns allowing them to offer ground ...

S. Arabia Supplies Terrorists in Syria with New French Heavy Machine Guns


Saudi Arabia increasing weapon supplies to Syrian rebels following ...

https://www.rt.com/news/318123-saudi-weapons-syria-russia/
RT
Oct 9, 2015 - Saudi Arabia has stepped up its weapon supplies to three different rebel ... campaign in Syria on September 30, targeting military equipment, ...

THIS IS HOW MUCH RUSSIANS HATE AMERICA…

In Russia, shopping malls are putting out American flag doormats

Michael Snyder | End Of The American Dream - DECEMBER 30, 2014

In Russia, shopping malls are putting out American flag doormats for people to wipe their feet on, and there are stores that are selling toilet paper with the American flag imprinted on it. Surveys show that Russian attitudes toward the U.S. are now even worse than they were during the end of the Cold War, and ordinary Russians are blaming America for everything from the overthrow of the Ukrainian government to the collapse of the ruble. The Russian government has just authorized a new military doctrine which identifies the United States as a top threat, and commentators on Russian television are using extremely strong language to condemn the United States. In fact, one of the most prominent Russian commentators has referred to the United States as “the kingdom of the Antichrist“. To the Russians, a new Cold War has erupted, and they very clearly view the United States as enemy number one.

But in the U.S., things are completely different. Most Americans feel absolutely no animosity toward Russians or their government. And most Americans do not consider Russia to be a “threat” whatsoever. In this country, “the Cold War” is a relic from the past, and our relationship with Russia is very low on the list of political issues. Most people seem to feel that the current tension between the U.S. and Russia is a temporary thing that will fade away eventually. Nobody is making Russian flag doormats or selling toilet paper with Russian flags on it.

So most Americans have a really hard time grasping what is going on inside Russia right now. Even if they have heard about how much Russians hate us, they don’t really understand how this could be possible.

And most Americans have no idea that the Russians even have a special derogatory word for us now. The following is an excerpt from a recent New York Observer article…

If you talk to a Russian about the international political situation, sooner or later you will be informed that there is a country in North America that you never heard of. Its name is ‘Pindosia,’ ‘Pindostan’ or, more officially, ‘United States of Pindostan,’ and you will be told that one part of it, called Alaska , used to belong to Russia . Part of the word – ‘stan’ – stands for underdeveloped state, as in ‘ Pakistan ’, ‘ Kazakhstan ’ or ‘ Uzbekistan.’ The citizens of this country in plural form are called ‘pindoses’, in singular – ‘pindos’.

So exactly what is a “pindos”? Personally, I found the definition to be quite surprising…

The word ‘pindos’ in Russian is highly offensive, and defines a helpless creature that is a product of a very bad educational system, one who can survive in this world only with the help of different gadgets.

The animosity that Russians have for the United States runs very deep, and it has been growing over time.

In fact, back in the 1990s, 80 percent of Russians actually had a positive attitude toward America…

Today, according to the respected Moscow ‘Levada Center,’ which measures political sentiment in Russian society, 74% of Russians have negative feelings towards the USA . It hasn’t always been like this – in the 1990s, 80% had positive attitude toward America.
Right now 76% of Russians hate Obama personally and only meager 2% like him. In 2009 only 12 % of Russians had extremely negative feelings towards Obama.

What a difference a couple of decades makes.

Today, anti-American sentiment is everywhere. This is especially true in Moscow. As I mentioned above, you can now find American flag doormats outside of shopping malls and business establishments…

Russian business owners are using American flags as doormats as resentment over U.S. economic sanctions puts the squeeze on traders.

Customers have been filmed wiping their feet on the fabled stars and stripes as they enter and exit stores across Moscow, as struggling retailers take a hopeless swipe at their Cold War adversaries.

Posted below is video footage that shows one example of this phenomenon…

<font color="#404040"><span style="font-family: proxima-nova"><font color="#5B5C5E"><font color="#000000"><span style="font-family: proxima-nova">

And as economic conditions get even worse in Russia, this anti-American sentiment will continue to grow. At this point it doesn’t even matter if Americans are really to blame for something or not. If something goes wrong, the finger will be pointed at the United States.

This includes the staggering decline in the price of oil. Many Russians are firmly convinced that a U.S./Saudi conspiracy is behind it. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be buying into this line of thinking…

“We all see the lowering of oil prices. There’s lots of talk about what’s causing it. Could it be an agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to punish Iran and affect the economies of Russia and Venezuela? It could.”

And of course it isn’t just the Russians that are thinking this way. As Mike Whitney recently pointed out, other prominent world leaders are also blaming the U.S. and Saudi Arabia for the oil price crash…

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro seems to think so. In a recent interview that appeared in Reuters, Maduro said he thought the United States and Saudi Arabia wanted to drive down oil prices “to harm Russia.”

Bolivian President Evo Morales agrees with Maduro and told journalists at RT that: “The reduction in oil prices was provoked by the US as an attack on the economies of Venezuela and Russia. In the face of such economic and political attacks, the nations must be united.”

Most Americans simply do not understand that anti-American sentiment is running extremely high all over the globe right now.

A few decades ago, the United States was one of the most loved nations on the entire planet.
Now it is one of the most hated.

When it comes to foreign policy, Barack Obama has made mistake after mistake and he has been alienating lots of people.

And as far as the Russians are concerned, the era of “friendship” with the United States is long gone. The trust that had been established between the two governments is totally broken, and they now consider us to be their number one strategic enemy.

So what does this mean for our future?

http://www.infowars.com/this-is-how-much-russians-hate-america/

12 Countries That Love To Hate America

Shondell 10.29.15 Most Influential

Excerpt:

1. Russia

The U.S. Global Leadership Project reports that 82% of Russians don’t approve of the job the United States is doing in leadership. This is the strongest disapproval rating of any other country in the world. Many Russians feel that the United States has made things worse in their country by trying to get involved in Russia’s affairs. Even though most Russians don’t like America, those who live in other countries have a high disapproval rating of Russia as well. Russia is the only country in which the median disapproval rating of Russian leadership was more than the median approval rating. The fact that the United States has recently led Western sanctions on Russia hasn’t made the approval rating any better.

http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/most-influential/12-countries-that-love-to-hate-america/

Yeah, that doesn't surprise me in 2014. Too many antagonistic inappropriate threats and statements made against Russia by this Administration. They're laughing at US because we're acting like a third world Banana Republic. High unemployment and poverty caused by our own stupidity. Letting our trade, jobs, capital and money supply all flow out at many times the rate that it flows in, so of course we're a "stan" to them at this point. We're a "stan" by our own measures. And that's all before we get to these stupid wars we can't win by any long-standing measure and things are so bad we can't even keep illegal alien invaders out of country or protect our own borders.

Of course, they think they can wipe their butts with US and walk all over US. Everyone else is. Attitudes towards the US right now are exactly what Trump says they are. He's a businessman, he's in these countries over the years talking to all types of business people and government officials who tell him the truth in private conversations about what they think of our country. That's very different than what diplomats say to each other beating on their chests at each other through "diplomacy", then they walk away and start laughing their asses off at how stupid and incompetent we are.

It's a tragedy of monumental proportions. But nothing that can't be fixed at this point.

That's why we need Donald J Trump for President of the United States to fix it before it's too late to do so.

Strength isn't talk. It's numbers. It's financial and economic success and security. It's strong people with good jobs and incomes, strong futures with savings and retirement. It's balanced budgets with surpluses, low debt, solid infrastructure, technology, manufacturing, education, sophistication, culture, confidence, intelligence, common sense and pride.

Trump knows it, he's the ONLY ONE who's got this, he's the answer and our ONLY HOPE at this point.

You know the term "kangaroo court", well, what we have here in the US now is a "kangaroo media", that is operating exactly like a state-sponsored media we would find in a country like say ..... uuummmm ..... Russia! So isn't it IRONIC that they want to wail about "freedom of the press", when they're controlled by Obama, Clinton and the Democratic Party, just like any party in power in any socialist/communist Banana Republic.

Millennials, you better wake up fast. You, too Ladies. You, too, black Americans. You, too, Latinos. You, too, Asians. Or some of you will be waking up one MORNING to something you or your parents thought you fled.

SAVE AMERICA!!

VOTE FOR DONALD J TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!

Russian Military Forces Staging
Near Ukraine

EUCOM: ‘Extremely concerned’ by regional tensions

Russian T-80 tanks take part in a tactical military exercise in Armenia / A

BY: Bill Gertz
August 17, 2016 5:00 am

The Pentagon has identified eight staging areas in Russia where large numbers of military forces appear to be preparing for incursions into Ukraine, according to U.S. defense officials.

As many as 40,000 Russian troops, including tanks, armored vehicles, and air force units, are now arrayed along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia.

Additionally, large numbers of Russian military forces will conduct exercises in the coming days that Pentagon officials say could be used as cover for an attack on Ukraine.

“Russian units will likely practice reinforcing the [Crimean] peninsula through such activities as amphibious landings and air defense exercises, and this may involve the change out of equipment and long convoys of military vehicles,” one defense official said.

The military exercises are an ominous sign. Similar large-scale Russian exercises were conducted near Ukraine a month before Moscow carried out the covert military operation to take over the strategic Black Sea peninsula in March 2014.

Navy Capt. Danny Hernandez, a spokesman for the U.S. European Command, told the Washington Free Beacon that the upcoming Russian exercises are being closely monitored.

“We are extremely concerned about the increased tensions near the administrative boundary between Crimea and the rest of Ukraine,” Hernandez said. “We urge both sides to avoid provocative steps or rhetoric that could escalate the situation.”

Russian forces do not appear to be building up inside the occupied Crimean Peninsula along the border with Ukraine, he said.

However, over the past several months large numbers of Russian troops and tanks have been moving into eight bases stretching from Yelnya, near Smolensk and northeast of Ukraine, southward through Rostov—a city located very close to eastern Ukraine.

Defense officials said it is not clear whether the massing of forces is saber rattling by Moscow designed to coerce Ukraine into accepting the takeover of Crimea or preparations for further conflict. “Regardless of the reason, the warning time for Russian action has been greatly reduced” by the staging of forces near Ukraine, a second defense official said.

Russian military forces were identified by the officials at eight locations near the Ukrainian border: Yelnya, Klintsy, Valuyki, Boguchar, Millerovo, Persianovskiy, and bases called Rostov-1 and Rostov-2.

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Russia is continuing aggression and threats against the rest of Ukraine after invading Crimea.

“This is unacceptable and will only serve to further instability in the region,” Pompeo said. “Unfortunately, President Obama is once again ‘leading from behind’ and is doing nearly nothing to buttress the Ukrainian people. Mr. Putin must respect the sovereignty of other nations. This is a non-negotiable lesson most countries learned long ago.”

Wire service reports and online blogs have revealed satellite photos of the Russian military buildup at the eight locations.

Reuters reported in June on the deployment of troops to Klintsy, and the website InformNapalm reported July 30 that armored units of the 28th Motorized Rifle Brigade were moved to a base near Valuyki, and at Rostov.

A Russian military training camp reportedly was set up at Persianovskiy, located about 28 miles north of Rostov, according to a report by the online news outlet Bellingcat.

Troops and aircraft at Millerovo also have been identified in satellite photos since 2015.

Reuters reported in September that a Russian military base was being set up near Boguchar, and the blog Russian Military Analysis reported that a motorized rifle brigade was deployed last year to Yelnya.

Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon official, said the troop movements are worrying signs that Moscow may be preparing for war with Ukraine.

“There is lot of press in the last week about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine including massing of troops,” said Schneider, now with the National Institute for Public Policy.

Russia has denied reports that Moscow is considering breaking diplomatic relations with Ukraine. Ukraine’s government has ordered troops mobilized and placed on alert.

Russia last week accused Ukraine of conducting covert sabotage operations against infrastructure inside Crimea, charges the Kiev government denied. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian forces in Crimea would be fortified as a result of the attempted sabotage. Putin is expected to visit Crimea later this week, Reuters reported from Moscow.

Schneider said another troubling sign of possible Russian military action was the recent firing of Putin’s chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov, a former official of the KGB and FSB intelligence services. “Ivanov’s firing could be related to Putin’s desire not to have a powerful KGB/FSB general running the Kremlin when he is going to do something risky,” he said.

Phillip Karber, a former U.S. arms control official who has traveled extensively in Ukraine war zones, identified several new military units at the eight locations, including up to two brigades of the newly established Russian First Guards Tank Army at Yelnya and Klintsy in the north, elements of the 20th Army located to the south of those units, and forces from the 49th Army deployed further south near Rostov.

“The fact that a full scale Russian invasion is still a plausible scenario after 30 months of conflict is an abject repudiation of an American policy of ‘leading from behind’ and West European fetish for trying to find ‘off-ramps’ that Putin hasn’t the slightest interest in taking,” said Karber, now head of the Potomac Foundation.

Karber believes Russian military action against Ukraine could take place and that Moscow’s trumped-up claims of a recent Ukrainian “terrorist” attack in Crimea could be used as a pretext.

Russia appears to be shoring up forces in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, he said. The upcoming military exercises will likely be conducted from areas that could facilitate an attack, using Russian forces deployed in Moldova’s Transnistria region and marine units on ships in the Black Sea, Karber said.

“For the next month the terrain is perfect for armor moving cross-country and the skies are clear for air,” Karber said.

“The 24th of August is Ukraine’s Independence Day, which is when the Russians attacked in 2014. A successful campaign, with U.S. and NATO doing nothing but verbiage, re-establishes Russia as a major European Power that has to be dealt with and increases Putin’s popularity at home.”
Karber said a full-scale Russian military offensive likely would aim to seize key military-industrial areas such as the tank plant at Kharkiv, the missile factory at Dnepropetrovsk, the shipyard at Mykolyev, and the port of Odessa.

Russian forces also could drive into Ukraine from the northeast to the outskirts of Kiev and place the capital within artillery range in a bid to force a change of government.

“Loss of that much population, around 14 million people, and territory would effectively end Ukraine as a viable state,” Karber said, adding that the action would involve full-scale war, large numbers of refugees, and heavy casualties. It could also trigger anti-Russian guerrilla warfare.

Still, Russia does not appear to have all the forces in place for a major military operation, he said.

“The more aggressive and ambitious the attack, the further and longer it will isolate Russia from Western Europe, and it would gravely embarrass Putin’s favorite American presidential candidate and make his pro-Russian statements look naive and foolish at best, or worse, an apologist for the aggressor,” Karber said, referring to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

http://freebeacon.com/national-secur...-near-ukraine/

Strikes from Iranian air base show Russia’s expanding footprint in the Middle East

Russian bombers use airbase in Iran to strike targets in Syria
Play Video0:
The Russian Defense Ministry has said long-range Russian TU-22M3 bombers based in Iran have struck a number of targets inside Syria.(Reuters)

By Erin Cunningham and Karen DeYoung August 16 at 5:59 PM

ISTANBUL — Russian bombers flying from an Iranian air base struck rebel targets across Syria on Tuesday, Russian and Iranian officials said, dramatically underscoring the two countries’ growing military ties and highlighting Russia’s ambitions for greater influence in a turbulent Middle East.

The long-range Tu-22 bombers took off from a base near Hamadan in western Iran and launched raids in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Deir al-Zour and Idlib, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. The ministry said the bombers were accompanied by Russian fighter jets based in Syria.

Both countries are staunch allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but the flights marked the first time Russia has launched strikes from Iranian territory.

Iran has long banned foreign militaries from establishing bases on its soil. But the raids appeared to signal a budding alliance that would expand Russia’s military footprint in the region.

Iran and Russia “enjoy strategic cooperation in the fight against terrorism in Syria, and share their facilities and capacities to this end,” Iran’s National Security Council chief, Ali Shamkhani, said Tuesday, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner called the flights “unfortunate, but not surprising or unexpected.” Like other Russian strikes in Syria, he said, the Russian bombers predominantly targeted moderate opposition forces fighting against Assad, rather than the Islamic State or other terrorist groups.

“It only makes more difficult what is already a complex, contentious and difficult situation,” Toner said, adding that it was “unclear” whether Russia planned to continue using the Iranian base, or the operation was a “one-off.”

Secretary of State John F. Kerry raised the flights in a Tuesday telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Toner said.

Under the terms of a U.S.-Russia agreement to “deconflict” their flights over Syria, the U.S. military was notified in advance that the bombers would pass across Iraqi airspace and through Syria, according to Col. Christopher Garver, the Baghdad-based spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

“It was not a lot of time, but it was enough,” Garver said of the notice given. He said the Russian aircraft “did not impact coalition operations in either Iraq or Syria,” where coalition planes are in the air virtually around the clock.

Although several countries in the region have flirted with strengthened ties to Russia, Moscow has made little headway in fulfilling its ambitions for greater Middle East sway. Syria has long been an exception, historically purchasing Russian arms and hosting a Russian naval facility on the Mediterranean.

Tehran, in addition to their joint support for Assad, has seen strategic advantage in relations with post-Soviet Russia, sharing a desire to counter U.S. influence with increased trade and energy cooperation. The Iran nuclear deal allowed Russia to fulfill a years-old agreement to sell Iran its powerful S-300 air-defense missile system.Last year, Russia and Iran signed a military cooperation deal focused on training and on fighting terrorism. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top Middle East envoy arrived in Tehran to discuss bilateral relations. Russia has also requested the use of Iranian airspace to fire cruise missiles at rebel targets in Syria.

[Syrian extremist group splits from al-Qaeda and changes its name]

Shiite-led Iran has sent thousands of troops and fighters, including members of its Revolutionary Guard Corps, to Syria to bolster Assad — who is from the Shiite minority Alawite sect — against largely Sunni rebels. For Tehran, losing a longtime ally to a majority-Sunni uprising would undermine its own influence in the region.

Iranian proxies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and an array of Shiite Iraqi militias have also fought for the Syrian regime. And last year, Russia began its own operations in Syria, committing tanks, artillery and combat aircraft to the fight. It also built a new air base in Latakia province in the Alawite heartland.

Russian intervention marked a turning point in the fate of the Assad regime, which had been losing ground to rebel forces.

But until now, Russia’s long-range bombers, which require longer airstrips, had to be launched from Russian territory more than 1,200 miles away. Now, those same bombers need to fly only about 400 miles from Iran to Syria, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported Tuesday. The shorter distance, using less fuel and allowing a bigger payload, will allow Russia to intensify its air campaign against rebel-held areas.

Syrian government troops and opposition fighters are now locked in a battle for the strategic city of Aleppo, where residents face a growing humanitarian crisis. Russia has carried out strikes in support of government troops there, activists say.

[Battle for Aleppo may be the most crucial in Syria’s civil war]

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its long-range bombers struck targets linked to the Islamic State and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, a group that formally split from al-Qaeda last month and changed its name from Jabhat al-Nusra. The strikes destroyed five major ammunition depots, training camps and three command posts, the ministry said.

But rights groups have criticized both Russia and the Syrian regime for repeated strikes on civilian targets, including homes, schools and hospitals. Russian and Syrian officials have denied those reports.

On Tuesday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said Syrian and Russian troops have used banned incendiary weapons in civilian areas.

“These weapons inflict horrible injuries and excruciating pain,” Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “The disgraceful incendiary weapon attacks in Syria show an abject failure to adhere to international law.”

[Obama’s overture to Russia on Syria]

Iran is also deeply involved in conflicts in Yemen and Iraq, where it holds particular influence.

Iran was quick to provide military supplies to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad as Islamic State militants made their land grab in the summer of 2014, pushing toward the capital.

In recent years, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, has made regular appearances on the battlefield in both Iraq and Syria, becoming the public face of Iran’s growing military power.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...3f5_story.html