Restoring Trust in Russia - West Relations - Google Search: Russia could repair relations with West if it helps calm unrest in Ukraine, Kerry says

trust meaning - Google Search

1 Share

  • trust
    trəst/
    noun
    noun: trust
    1. 1.
      firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.
      "relations have to be built on trust"
      synonyms:confidencebelieffaithcertaintyassuranceconvictioncredence; 
      "good relationships are built on trust"
      antonyms:distrustmistrustdoubt
      • acceptance of the truth of a statement without evidence or investigation.
        "I used only primary sources, taking nothing on trust"
      • the state of being responsible for someone or something.
        "a man in a position of trust"
        synonyms:responsibilitydutyobligation
        "a position of trust"
      • literary
        a person or duty for which one has responsibility.
        plural noun: trusts
        "rulership is a trust from God"
      • literary
        a hope or expectation.
        "all the great trusts of womanhood"
    2. 2.
      Law
      confidence placed in a person by making that person the nominal owner of property to be held or used for the benefit of one or more others.
      • an arrangement whereby property is held in a trust.
        "a trust was set up"
        synonyms:safekeepingprotectionchargecarecustody; 
        trusteeship
        "the money is held in trust for his son"
    3. 3.
      a body of trustees.
      • an organization or company managed by trustees.
        "a charitable trust"
      • USdated
        a large company that has or attempts to gain monopolistic control of a market.
    4. 4.
      West Indianarchaic
      commercial credit.
      "my master lived on trust at an alehouse"
    verb
    verb: trust; 3rd person present: trusts; past tense: trusted; past participle: trusted; gerund or present participle: trusting
    1. 1.
      believe in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of.
      "I should never have trusted her"
      synonyms:rely on, depend on, bank on, count on, be sure of
      "he can be trusted to carry out an impartial investigation"
      • allow someone to have, use, or look after (someone or something of importance or value) with confidence.
        "I'd trust you with my life"
        synonyms:entrustconsigncommitgivehand over, turn over, assign
        "they don't like to trust their money to anyone outside the family"
      • commit (someone or something) to the safekeeping of.
        "they don't like to trust their money to anyone outside the family"
      • have confidence; hope (used as a polite formula in conversation).
        "I trust that you have enjoyed this book"
        synonyms:hopeexpecttake it, assumepresumesuppose
        "I trust we shall meet again"
      • have faith or confidence.
        "she trusted in the powers of justice"
        synonyms:put one's trust in, have faith in, have (every) confidence in, believe in, pin one's hopes/faith on,confide in
        "I should never have trusted her"
        antonyms:distrustmistrustdoubt
      • place reliance on (luck, fate, or something else over which one has little control).
        "trusting to the cover of night, I ventured out"
    2. 2.
      archaic
      allow credit to (a customer).
    Origin
    Middle English: from Old Norse traust, from traustr ‘strong’; the verb from Old Norse treysta, assimilated to the noun.
    Translate trust to
    Use over time for: trust
    Translations, word origin, and more definitions
    Show less


  • Trust | Define Trust at Dictionary.com

    dictionary.reference.com/browse/trust
    <a href="http://Dictionary.com" rel="nofollow">Dictionary.com</a>
    Loading...
    a fiduciary relationship in which one person (the trustee) holds the title to property (the trust estate ortrust property) for the benefit of another (the beneficiary).
    Trustworthy - ‎Distrust - ‎Trustee - ‎Trust busting
  • Trust - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster ...

    <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/" rel="nofollow">www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/</a>trust
    Merriam‑Webster
    Loading...
    Full Definition of TRUST. 1 a : assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. b : one in which confidence is placed. 2
  • trust - definition of trust by The Free Dictionary

    <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/" rel="nofollow">www.thefreedictionary.com/</a>trust
    a. Firm belief in the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing; confidence or reliance: trying to gain our clients' trust; taking it on trust that our friend is ...
    Trust - ‎Entrust - ‎Intrust - ‎Antitrust
  • trust - definition of trust in English from the Oxford dictionary

    <a href="http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/" rel="nofollow">www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/</a>definition/.../tru...
    <a href="http://OxfordDictionaries.com" rel="nofollow">OxfordDictionaries.com</a>
    Loading...
    Meaning, pronunciation and example sentences, English to English reference ... have to be built ontrust they have been able to win the trust of the others.
  • Trust dictionary definition | trust defined - YourDictionary

    <a href="http://www.yourdictionary.com/" rel="nofollow">www.yourdictionary.com/</a>trust
    <a href="http://yourDictionary.com" rel="nofollow">yourDictionary.com</a>
    Loading...
    Trust is confidence in the honesty or integrity of a person or thing. An example of trust is the belief that someone is being truthful. An example of trust is the hope ...
  • trust definition, meaning - what is trust in the British English ...

    dictionary.cambridge.org/.../tr...
    Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
    Loading...
    trust - definition, meaning, audio pronunciation, synonyms and more. What is trust? to believe that someone is good and honest and will not harm you, or that ...
  • What is Trust? - Changing Minds

    <a href="http://changingminds.org" rel="nofollow">changingminds.org</a> › Explanations › Trust
    Definition 1: Trust means being able to predict what other people will do and what situations will occur. If we can surround ourselves with people we trust, then  ...
  • trust definitions and thesaurus | Macmillan Dictionary

    <a href="http://www.macmillandictionary.com/.../" rel="nofollow">www.macmillandictionary.com/.../</a>trust_1
    Macmillan English Dictionaries
    Loading...
    Define trust. What is trust? trust meaning, pronunciation and more by Macmillan Dictionary.
  • Urban Dictionary: TRUST

    <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=" rel="nofollow">www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=</a>TRUST
    Urban Dictionary
    Loading...
    Top DefinitionTRUSTTRUST is what you expect from people close to you, give everyone you know a lighter , now cover yourself in gasoline... Do you TRUST  ...
  • Trust Definition | Investopedia

    <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/" rel="nofollow">www.investopedia.com/terms/t/</a>trust.asp
    Investopedia
    Loading...
    DEFINITION of 'Trust'. A fiduciary relationship in which one party, known as a trustor, gives another party, the trustee, the right to hold title to property or assets for ...
  • Read the whole story

    · · · · · · ·

    Importance of Trust in International Relations - Google Search

    1 Share

  • Trust and Mistrust in International Relations. - Princeton ...

    press.princeton.edu/chapters/s8091.html
    Princeton University Press
    Loading...
    by AH Kydd - ‎Cited by 294 - ‎Related articles
    This book is about the role of trust and mistrust in international relations and the Cold War. I definetrust as a belief that the other side is trustworthy, that is, willing  ...
  • [PDF]A Conceptualization of Trust in International Relations

    <a href="http://www.aaronmhoffman.com/uploads/1/9/.../conceptualization_of_" rel="nofollow">www.aaronmhoffman.com/uploads/1/9/.../conceptualization_of_</a>trust.pdf
    by AM HOFFMAN - ‎Cited by 108 - ‎Related articles
    relationships assumes that trust is a necessary condition for cooperation. Yet, ..... Although there is widespread support for the importance of expectations.
  • Trust in International Cooperation International Security ...

    <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/" rel="nofollow">www.cambridge.org/</a>...international-relations/...
    Cambridge University Press
    Loading...
    Challenges conventional wisdoms concerning the role of trust in the origins of international cooperation ... Part of Cambridge Studies in International Relations.
  • [PDF]Trust-Building in International Relations - Women in Security ...

    <a href="http://www.wiscomp.org/pp-v4-n2/nick%20wheeler.pdf" rel="nofollow">www.wiscomp.org/pp-v4-n2/nick%20wheeler.pdf</a>
    by NJ Wheeler - ‎Cited by 4 - ‎Related articles
    Nicholas J. Wheeler: Trust-Building in International Relations ... International Relations and to discuss the importance of interpersonal communicative dynamics.
  • Does Cooperation at the International Level Require Trust?

    <a href="http://www.e-ir.info/.../does-cooperation-at-the-" rel="nofollow">www.e-ir.info/.../does-cooperation-at-the-</a>intern...
    e‑International Relations
    Loading...
    by WO Say - ‎Related articles
    Apr 29, 2012 - It exposes the mutually assuming relation between cooperation and trust and ... [1] Aiming at cooperation, trust is of lesser importance to Barak.
  • Trust and Mistrust in International Relations - Book Review

    <a href="http://www.researchsea.com/.../" rel="nofollow">www.researchsea.com/.../</a>trust_and_mistrust_in_international_relations_-...
    Jan 7, 2007 - The book of Andrew Kydd is about the role of trust and mistrust in international relations and the Cold War. Its basic assumption is that when  ...
  • From Distrust to Trust in Adversarial Relationships | Institute ...

    iccs.blog.com/2014/06/10/trust/
    Jun 10, 2014 - Some trust research scholars in the field of International Relations have recognized the importance of trust in leading actors to initiate  ...
  • The Role of Trust in International Relations | Global Asia

    <a href="http://www.globalasia.org/article/the-" rel="nofollow">www.globalasia.org/article/the-</a>role-of-trust-in-international-relations/
    Sep 16, 2013 - Trust also has a wider application to international relations than is ... mute on the subject, however, perhaps because they downplay the role of ...
  • OAS :: Press Releases :: E-025/15

    <a href="http://www.oas.org/en/.../press_release.asp?" rel="nofollow">www.oas.org/en/.../press_release.asp?</a>...
    Organization of American States
    Loading...
    Feb 4, 2015 - OAS Secretary General Stresses the Importance of Trust in International Relations at the Opening of the Meeting "Global Ties 2015: The Latin  ...
  • [PDF]Conference Report - Woodrow Wilson International Center ...

    <a href="http://www.wilsoncenter.or" rel="nofollow">www.wilsoncenter.or</a>...
    Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
    Loading...
    It drew on the role of trust both as an object of historical analysis and as an ... international relationsduring the Cold War both between and within the blocs.
  • Read the whole story

    · · ·

    Rebuilding the Obama-Putin Trust | Consortiumnews

    1 Share
    Exclusive: Heading into the last quarter of his presidency, Barack Obama must decide whether he will let the neocons keep pulling his strings or finally break loose and pursue a realistic foreign policy seeking practical solutions to world problems, including the crisis with Russia over Ukraine, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
    By Ray McGovern
    The year 2015 will surely mark a watershed in relations between the United States and Russia, one way or the other. However, whether tensions increase – to war-by-proxy in Ukraine or an even wider war – or whether they subside depends mostly on President Barack Obama.
    Key to answering this question is a second one: Is Obama smart enough and strong enough to rein in Secretary of State John Kerry, the neocons and “liberal interventionists” running the State Department and to stand up to the chicken hawks in Congress, most of whom feel free to flirt with war because they know nothing of it.
    Russian President Vladimir Putin, by contrast, experienced the effects of war at an early age. He was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) eight years after the vicious siege by the German army ended. Michael Walzer, in his War Against Civilians, notes, “More people died in the 900-day siege of Leningrad than in the infernos of Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki taken together.”
    Putin’s elder brother Viktor died during the siege. The experience of Putin’s youth is, of course, embedded in his consciousness. This may help to account for why he tends to be short on the kind of daredevil bluster regularly heard from senior Western officials these days – many of whom are ignorant both of suffering from war and the complicated history of Ukraine.
    This time last year, few Americans could point out Ukraine on a map. And malnourished as they are on “mainstream media,” most have little idea of its internal political tensions, a schism between a western Ukraine oriented toward Europe and an eastern Ukraine with strong ties to Russia.
    Let’s start with a brief mention of the most salient points of this history before addressing its recent detritus — and making a few recommendations as the New Year begins. Less than three weeks after the Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9. 1989, President George H.W. Bush invited Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev to a summit in Malta where they cut an historic deal: Moscow would refrain from using force to re-impose control over Eastern Europe; Washington would not “take advantage” of the upheaval and uncertainty there.
    That deal was fleshed out just two months later, when Bush’s Secretary of State James Baker persuaded Gorbachev to swallow the bitter pill of a reunited Germany in NATO in return for a promise that NATO would not “leapfrog” eastward over Germany. Former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Jack Matlock, who was witness to all this, told me in an email, “I don’t see how anybody could view the subsequent expansion of NATO as anything but ‘taking advantage.’”
    This consummate diplomat, who took part in the critical bilateral talks in early 1990, added that the mutual pledge was not set down in writing. Nonetheless, reneging on a promise – written or not – can put a significant dent in trust.
    Why No Written Deal
    Last year I asked Matlock and also Viktor Borisovich Kuvaldin, one of Gorbachev’s advisers from 1989 to 1991, why the Baker-Gorbachev understanding was not committed to paper. Matlock replied:
    “There was no agreement then. Both Baker and West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher were putting forth ideas for Gorbachev to consider. He did not give an answer but just said he would think about them. … The formal agreements had to involve others, and they did, in the two-plus-four agreement, which was concluded only in late 1990.”
    Fair enough.
    In an email to me last fall, Kuvaldin corroborated what Matlock told me. But he led off by pointing out “the pledge of no eastward expansion of NATO was made to Gorbachev on consecutive days when he met first with Baker and then with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl [on Feb. 9 and 10, 1990].” As to why this pledge was not written down, Kuvaldin explained:
    “Such a request would have sounded a little bit strange at that time. The Warsaw Pact was alive; Soviet military personnel were stationed all over central Europe; and NATO had nowhere to go. At the beginning of February 1990 hardly anybody could foresee the turn of events in the 1990s.”
    Again, fair enough. But when I met Kuvaldin a few months earlier in Moscow and asked him out of the blue why there is no record of the promises given to his boss Gorbachev, his reply was more spontaneous – and visceral. He tilted his head, looked me straight in the eye, and said, “We trusted you.”
    Written down or not, it was a matter of trust – and of not “taking advantage.” Kuvaldin’s boss Gorbachev opted to trust not only the U.S. Secretary of State, but also the West German government in Bonn. According to a report in Der Spiegel quoting West German foreign ministry documents released just five years ago:
    “On Feb. 10, 1990, between 4 and 6:30 p.m., Genscher spoke with [Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard] Shevardnadze. And, according to the German record of the conversation, Genscher said: ‘We are aware that NATO membership for a unified Germany raises complicated questions. For us, however, one thing is certain: NATO will not expand to the east.’ And because the conversation revolved mainly around East Germany, Genscher added explicitly: ‘As far as the non-expansion of NATO is concerned, this also applies in general.’”
    NATO’s Growth Spurt
    Some of us – though a distinct minority – know the rest of the story. Generally overlooked in Western media, it nevertheless sets the historical stage as background for the upheaval in Ukraine last year. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 – and the break-up of the Warsaw Pact – Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2004. Albania and Croatia joined in 2009. And the Kremlin’s leaders could do little more than look on impotently – and seethe.
    One can hardly fault those countries, most of which had lots of painful experience at Soviet hands. It is no mystery why they would want to crowd under the NATO umbrella against any foul weather coming from the East. But, as George Kennan and others noted at the time, it was a regrettable lack of imagination and statesmanship that no serious alternatives were devised to address the concerns of countries to the east of Germany other than membership in NATO.
    The more so, inasmuch as there were so few teeth left, at the time, in the mouth of the Russian bear. And – not least of all – a promise is a promise.
    As NATO expansion drew in countries closer to Russia’s borders, the Kremlin drew a red line when, despite very strong warnings from Moscow, an April 3, 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest declared: “NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.” Both countries, former Soviet states, press up upon Russia’s soft southern underbelly.
    Often forgotten – in the West, but not in Russia – is the impulsive reaction this NATO statement gave rise to on the part of Georgia’s then-President Mikheil Saakashvili, who felt his oats even before the NATO umbrella could be opened. Less than five months after Georgia was put in queue for NATO membership, Saakashvili ordered Georgian forces to attack the city of Tskhinvali in South Ossetia. No one should have been surprised when Russia retaliated sharply, giving Georgian forces a very bloody nose in battles that lasted just five days.
    Ultimately, Saakashvili’s cheerleaders of the George W. Bush administration and then-Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who had been egging Saakashvili on, were powerless to protect him. Instead of drawing appropriate lessons from this failed experiment, however, the neocons running the foreign policy of Bush – and remaining inside the Obama administration – set their sights on Ukraine.
    One Regime Change Too Many
    It is becoming harder to hide the truth that Washington’s ultimate objective to satisfy Ukraine’s “Western aspirations” and incorporate it, ultimately, into NATO was what led the U.S. to mount the coup of Feb. 22, 2014, in Kiev. While it may be true that, as is said, revolutions “will not be televised,” coups d’état can be YouTubed.
    And three weeks before the putsch in Kiev, U.S. State Department planning to orchestrate the removal of the Ukraine’s duly elected President Viktor Yanukovych and select new leaders for Ukraine was placed – chapter and verse – on YouTube in the form of a four-minute intercepted telephone conversation between Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and the yes-ma’am U.S. Ambassador in Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt.
    Hearing is believing. And for those in a hurry, here is a very short transcribed excerpt:
    Nuland: What do you think?
    Pyatt: I think we’re in play. The Klitschko [Vitaly Klitschko, one of three main opposition leaders] piece is obviously the complicated electron here. … I think that’s the next phone call you want to set up, is exactly the one you made to Yats [Arseniy Yatseniuk, another opposition leader]. And I’m glad you sort of put him on the spot on where he fits in this scenario. And I’m very glad that he said what he said in response.
    Nuland: Good. I don’t think Klitsch should go into the government. I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t think it’s a good idea.
    Pyatt: Yeah. I guess … just let him stay out and do his political homework and stuff. … We want to keep the moderate democrats together. The problem is going to be Tyahnybok [Oleh Tyahnybok, the other main opposition leader, head of the far-right Svoboda party] and his guys …
    Nuland: [Breaks in] I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience. He’s the … what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know. …
    And so, surprise, surprise: “Yats” turned out to be Nuland’s guy just three weeks later, being named prime minister right after the putsch on Feb. 22. And he still is. Talk about luck!
    However transparent the dark arts of the “Maidan Marionettes” (the title Russian translators gave the images accompanying their version of the conversation on YouTube), these particular heroics are rarely mentioned in “mainstream” U.S. media (MSM). Instead, pride of place is given to Moscow’s “aggression” in annexing Crimea, a move that followed Crimea’s voters overwhelmingly choosing to bail out on the coup-imposed regime in Kiev and seek to rejoin Russia.
    Seeing No Nazis
    In the major U.S. media, the violent coup on Feb. 22 – spearheaded by well-organized neo-Nazi militias who killed police and seized government buildings – was whitewashed from what the American people got to see and hear. In the preferred U.S. narrative, Yanukovych and his officials simply decided to leave town because of the moral force from the white-hatted peaceful protesters in the Maidan.
    So it came as a welcome surprise when an Establishment notable like George Friedman, during a Dec. 19 interview with the Russian magazine Kommersant, described the February overthrow of the Ukrainian government as “the most blatant coup in history.” Friedman is head of STRATFOR, a think tank often described as a “shadow CIA.”
    However, in the mainstream U.S. media’s narrative – as well as others like the BBC where I have had personal experience with the ticklish issue of Ukraine – the story of the Ukraine crisis starts with the annexation of Crimea, which is sometimes termed a Russian “invasion” although Russian troops were already stationed inside Crimea at the Russian naval base at Sevastopol. In the MSM, there is “just not enough time, regrettably” to mention NATO’s eastward expansion or even the coup in Kiev.
    The other favored part of the MSM’s narrative is that Putin instigated the Ukraine crisis because he was eager to seize back land lost in the break-up of the Soviet Union. But there is not one scintilla of evidence that the Russians would have taken back Crimea, were it not for the coup engineered by Nuland and implemented by various thugs including openly fascist groups waving banners with Nazi symbols.
    Years ago, Nuland fell in with some very seedy companions. The list is long; suffice it to mention here that she served as Principal Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney’s in his shadow national security council during the “dark-side” years from 2003 to 2005.
    There Nuland reportedly worked on “democracy promotion” in Iraq and did such a terrific job at it that she was promoted, under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to State Department spokesperson and then to Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, giving her the Ukraine account. Nuland is also married to neocon theorist Robert Kagan, whose Project for the New American Century pushed for the invasion of Iraq as early as 1998. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Obama’s True Foreign Policy ‘Weakness.’”]
    By December 2013, Nuland was so confident of her control over U.S. policy toward Ukraine that she publicly reminded Ukrainian business leaders that, to help Ukraine achieve “its European aspirations, we have invested more than $5 billion.” She even waded into the Maidan protests to pass out cookies and urge the demonstrators on.
    In keeping her in the State Department and promoting her, Obama and his two secretaries of state Hillary Clinton and John Kerry created a human bridge to the neocons’ dark-side years. Nuland also seems to have infected impressionable Obama administration officials with the kind approach to reality attributed by author Ron Suskind to one senior Bush administration official: “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”
    This may be the nostrum used by Nuland and Kerry to whom Obama has mostly deferred to run U.S. policy vis-à-vis Russia. Ambassador Matlock will find it small solace, but it may help him understand what seems to be going on in policy toward Ukraine.
    Writing early last year on the burgeoning crisis there, Matlock said: “I cannot understand how he [Obama] could fail to recognize that confronting President Putin publicly on an issue that is so central to Russian national pride and honor, not only tends to have the opposite effect on the issue at hand, but actually strengthens tendencies in Russia that we should wish to discourage. It is as if he, along with his advisers, is living in some alternate ideological and psychological universe.”
    Putin: Little Tolerance for Other Reality
    Before finishing with a few recommendations, let’s apply the proven tools of media analysis to see if we can discern how Russian President Putin is reacting to all this. (Hint: He is not going to yield to pressure on the issue of Ukraine.)
    At a press conference ten days after the coup in Kiev, Putin complained about “our Western partners” continuing to interfere in Ukraine. “I sometimes get the feeling,” he said, “that somewhere across that huge puddle, in America, people sit in a lab and conduct experiments, as if with rats, without actually understanding the consequences of what they are doing. Why do they need to do this?”
    And in a speech two weeks later, Putin said:
    “Our colleagues in the West … have lied to us many times, made decisions behind our backs, placed before us an accomplished fact. This happened with NATO’s expansion to the east, as well as the deployment of military infrastructure at our borders. … It happened with the deployment of a missile defense system. …
    “They are constantly trying to sweep us into a corner. … But there is a limit to everything. And with Ukraine, our Western partners have crossed the line. … If you compress the spring all the way to its limit, it will snap back hard. … Today, it is imperative to end this hysteria and refute the rhetoric of the cold war. … Russia has its own national interests that need to be taken into account and respected.”
    On Sept. 8, 2013, when Secretary Kerry swore Nuland in as Assistant Secretary of State, he gushed over “Toria’s” accomplishments, with a panegyric fully deserving of the adjective fulsome. It was a huge hint that Kerry would give her free rein in crafting policy toward Russia, Ukraine, et al.
    Fortunately, Nuland was not able to sabotage the behind-the-scenes dialogue between Obama and Putin that enabled Putin to dissuade Obama from attacking Syria in September 2013 by convincing him the Syrians were about to agree to destroy all their chemical weapons. Obama had cut Kerry out of those sensitive talks, but left on his own Kerry continued to try to drum up international support for military action against Syria.
    That Kerry was blindsided by the extraordinary agreement worked out by Obama and Putin with Syria, became embarrassingly obvious when Kerry, at a press conference in London on Sept. 9, 2013, dismissed any likelihood that Syria would ever agree to let its chemical arsenal be destroyed. Later that same day the agreement to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons was announced.
    Sadly, to some significant degree, the U.S. mischief in Ukraine can be regarded as payback from Kerry, his Senate buddy John McCain, and of course Nuland for Russia’s dashing their hopes for a major U.S. military bombing campaign against the Syrian government.
    Putin: Kerry “Knows He Is Lying”
    It is rare that a head of state will call the head diplomat of a rival state a “liar.” But that’s what Putin did six days after Obama overruled Kerry and stopped the attack on Syria. On Sept. 5, 2013, as Obama arrived in St. Petersburg for the G-20 summit, Putin referred openly to Kerry’s congressional testimony on Syria a few days earlier in which Kerry greatly exaggerated the strength of the “moderate” rebels in Syria.
    Kerry had also repeated highly dubious claim (made 35 times at an Aug. 30 State Department press conference) that the Assad government was behind the chemical attacks near Damascus on Aug. 21, that he had thus had crossed the “red line” Obama had set, and that Syria needed to be admonished by military attack.
    About Kerry, Putin took the gloves off: “This was very unpleasant and surprising for me. We talk to them [the Americans], and we assume they are decent people, but he is lying and he knows that he is lying. This is sad.”
    Putin’s stern words about Kerry and the behind-the-scenes Obama-Putin collaboration that defused the Syrian crisis of 2013 appear to have awakened the neocons to the need to shatter that cooperation – and the Ukraine coup became the perfect device to do so.
    New Year’s Resolutions
    Five things for Obama to do for a fresh start to the New Year:
    1 – Fire Kerry and Nuland.
    2 – Read the New York Times op-ed by Putin on Sept. 11, 2013, just after cooperation with Obama had yielded the extraordinary result of the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.
    3 – Stop the foolish talk about the U.S. being “the one indispensable nation.” (The President said this so many times last year that some suspect he is beginning to believe his own rhetoric. This is how Putin chose to address this feel-good, but noxious, triumphalism in ending his op-ed:
    “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”
    4 – Lean on the Quislings in Kiev to stop their foolishness. One golden opportunity to do that would be to participate in the international summit called for by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Jan. 15 in Kazakhstan, where Putin and the leaders of Germany and France are also expected to take part.
    5 – Finally, pick a different ending this year for your speeches. How about: “God bless the United States of America and the rest of the world, too.”
    Ray McGovern now works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. During his 27 years as a CIA analyst, he served as chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch, chair of several National Intelligence Estimates, and preparer and White House briefer of the President’s Daily Brief.  He now serves on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
    Read the whole story

    · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

    Russia could repair relations with West if it helps calm unrest in Ukraine, Kerry says

    1 Share
    Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
    Secretary of State John Kerry says that Russia can repair its relations with the West if it helps calm turbulence in Ukraine. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
    BASEL, Switzerland — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that Russia could rebuild its relations with the West “if it simply helps to calm turbulent waters” on its border with eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists are fighting with Kiev forces.
    Kerry spoke at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which includes both the United States and Russia as partners. He met briefly — and separately — with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Georgian Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili.
    OSCE has sought to help broker an enduring cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, where it’s believed Moscow is supporting the separatists with weapons and troops in their quest to secede from Ukraine’s central government.
    Kerry called it a “very turbulent year” and noted that when the 57-state OSCE met last year, Ukraine protesters were in the throes of demanding a new government in Kiev.
    “They were warmed by a simple desire — to live in a country with an honest government,” Kerry said at the start of the OSCE meeting. Over the last year, however, the fledgling leadership in Kiev has been beset by separatists in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, and has seen the Crimea region vote to secede.
    Kerry said Kiev has been “tested by external aggression” yet still is “casting off the shackles of repression and opening a new and promising chapter in their nation’s history.”
    He called on Moscow to uphold an earlier cease-fire agreement, which calls for withdrawing its support for the separatists and persuading them to release hostages. The U.S. and European Union have imposed sanctions on some Russians and separatists as punishment for their actions.
    “The U.S. and countries that support Ukraine’s sovereignty and rights do not seek confrontation,” Kerry said. “It is not our design or desire that we see a Russia isolated through its own actions.”
    “No one gains from this confrontation,” Kerry said.
    In his annual state-of-the-nation address Thursday in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin defended the annexation of Crimea, describing it as Russia’s spiritual ground. But he offered no insight into what Russia’s next actions in eastern Ukraine could be.
    In Switzerland, Ukraine’s Klimkin said, “We’re still working on a real, sustainable cease-fire.” He added that Kiev had delivered on “all the points” from the cease-fire agreement, and said, “Now it’s about Russia.”
    Read the whole story

    · · ·

    restoring trust in russia - west relations - Google Search

    1 Share

  • Gorbachev: Russia, US, EU should hold summits to 'defrost ...

    rt.com/news/213007-gorbachev-russia-usa-defrost/
    RT
    Loading...
    Dec 10, 2014 - "We must urgently defrost relations," he said in an article published by ... Restoring trust was one of the strategic issues Gorbachev proposed for ... “Now the West is almost curtailing interaction with Russia in these areas.
  • Kerry: Russia could rebuild trust with west by easing ...

    <a href="http://www.theguardian.com" rel="nofollow">www.theguardian.com</a> › US News › John Kerry
    The Guardian
    Loading...
    Dec 4, 2014 - Secretary of state John Kerry said on Thursday that Russia could rebuild its relationswith the west “if it simply helps to calm turbulent waters” on  ...
  • Gorbachev: The West and Russia must defrost relations ...

    rbth.com/.../gorbachev_the_west_and_russia_must_defrost_relations_bef...
    Dec 11, 2014 - Gorbachev: The West and Russia must defrost relations before it is too late ...Secondly, there is the strategic objective: to restore trust.
  • Gorbachev and Lavrov on US Russian Relations : Indybay

    <a href="https://www.indybay" rel="nofollow">https://www.indybay</a>....
    San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center
    Loading...
    Dec 10, 2014 - Restoring trust and good relations requires "decid(ing) together by ... "(T)he West West is almost curtailing interaction with Russia in these  ...
  • Ukraine – Russia – West: Love Hate Relationship ...

    <a href="http://www.europeanukraine.org/home/.../" rel="nofollow">www.europeanukraine.org/home/.../</a>russia-ukraine-love-hate-relationship...
    Jan 15, 2015 - Putin has lost for Russia the trust and friendship of the Ukrainian people. Forever? Maybe ... Perhaps a Navalny could restore good relations.
  • Russia could repair relations with West if it helps calm ... - PBS

    <a href="http://www.pbs.org/.../" rel="nofollow">www.pbs.org/.../</a>russia-repair-relations-west-helps-calm-unrest-ukrai...
    PBS
    Loading...
    Dec 4, 2014 - Russia could repair relations with West if it helps calm unrest in Ukraine, Kerry ...events of the day with insights from the journalists you trust.
  • Rebuilding the Obama-Putin Trust | Consortiumnews

    <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/.../" rel="nofollow">https://consortiumnews.com/.../</a>re...
    Consortium for Independent Journalism
    Loading...
    Jan 3, 2015 - The year 2015 will surely mark a watershed in relations between the United .... Often forgotten – in the West, but not in Russia – is the impulsive  ...
  • Lonely Power: Why Russia Has Failed to Become the West and ...

    <a href="https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0870032984" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0870032984</a>
    Lilia Shevtsova - 2010 - ‎History
    Why Russia Has Failed to Become the West and the West Is Weary of Russia Lilia ... the Russianleadership has a stake in improved U.S.-Russian relations. ... interests would help restore trustbetween America and Russia were forced to  ...
  • Putin to Legislators: West Wants to Weaken Russia

    <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/" rel="nofollow">www.voanews.com/content/</a>russias.../2545475.html
    Voice of America
    Loading...
    Dec 4, 2014 - However, despite the anti-Western rhetoric, Putin said Russia would ... we are convinced that Moscow could rebuild trust and relationships if it  ...
  • Hungary Keeps Visit by Putin Low-Key as It Seeks to Repair ...

    <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/.../hungary-keeps-visit-by-putin-lo" rel="nofollow">www.nytimes.com/.../hungary-keeps-visit-by-putin-lo</a>...
    The New York Times
    Loading...
    Feb 17, 2015 - A trip to Hungary by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was a far cry from the ... woes and Mr. Orban's desire to repair relations with the West made this latest stop in Mr. Putin's ....Maureen Dowd: Jeb Bush's Brainless Trust  ...
  • Read the whole story

    · · ·

    Comments

    Popular posts from this blog

    New questions arise about House Democratic caucus’s loyalty to Obama | » Democrats Stymie Obama on Trade 12/06/15 22:13 from WSJ.com: World News - World News Review

    Немецкий историк: Запад был наивен, надеясь, что Россия станет партнёром - Военное обозрение

    8:45 AM 11/9/2017 - Putin Is Hoping He And Trump Can Patch Things Up At Meeting In Vietnam

    Review: ‘The Great War of Our Time’ by Michael Morell with Bill Harlow | FBI File Shows Whitney Houston Blackmailed Over Lesbian Affair | Schiff, King call on Obama to be aggressive in cyberwar, after purported China hacking | The Iraqi Army No Longer Exists | Hacking Linked to China Exposes Millions of U.S. Workers | Was China Behind the Latest Hack Attack? I Don’t Think So - U.S. National Security and Military News Review - Cyberwarfare, Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity - News Review

    10:37 AM 11/2/2017 - RECENT POSTS: Russian propagandists sought to influence LGBT voters with a "Buff Bernie" ad

    3:49 AM 11/7/2017 - Recent Posts

    » Suddenly, Russia Is Confident No Longer - NPR 20/12/14 11:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks | Russia invites North Korean leader to Moscow for May visit - Reuters | Belarus Refuses to Trade With Russia in Roubles - Newsweek | F.B.I. Evidence Is Often Mishandled, an Internal Inquiry Finds - NYT | Ukraine crisis: Russia defies fresh Western sanctions - BBC News | Website Critical Of Uzbek Government Ceases Operation | North Korea calls for joint inquiry into Sony Pictures hacking case | Turkey's Erdogan 'closely following' legal case against rival cleric | Dozens arrested in Milwaukee police violence protest