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Russia has become a major source of global instability that is threatening the world order and the U.S. As the Wagner Group’s Evgeny Prigozhin failed in his bizarre coup this past weekend, the Kremlin is simultaneously waging war against Ukraine. But in fact, the U.S. Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaims Ukraine to merely be a puppet of “the West”, denying its right to exist. Putin claims Russia is in an existential battle for survival against the U.S.-led NATO. The severity of Moscow’s delusions and the length of this conflict means it has no inhibitions about using every instrument of force and violence in its wars against Kyiv and Washington.
Thus, Moscow’s in May 2023 published list of 500 prominent Americans added to its persona non-grata list, bringing the total number of restricted Americans to 1844. The Kremlin published the prior sanction lists in May 2022, September 2022, and in February 2023.
This is much more than a spiteful retaliation against Western sanctions. It is a part of a massive intimidation campaign that ranges from the threats of a nuclear war to harassment of American diplomats by the Russian intelligence in Europe, to intimidation of the leading American policy makers and experts: the brains and the arms of the U.S. Russian policy. This list of the sanctioned leading members of the US political establishment exposes how closely the Russian intelligence service and Foreign Ministry monitor U.S. and Western policy leaders, strategists, and analytical centers that focus on Russia.
The sanctions list reflects the Kremlin’s view of who policy makers towards Russia are, and, most dangerously, is a standing provocation and threat directed against them. The list includes President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, Vice-President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Clearly, the list came from the top, i.e., Putin and those closest to him, like Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council.This Russian sanction list includes leading political figures and allegedly anti-Russia celebrities, e.g., Morgan Freeman, and politicians like Governor Sarah Huckabee (R-AR) and Wes Moore (D-MD) – both brand new. The list included deceased politicians like former Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.); Sen. Harry Reid, (D-Nev.), indicating it was likely prepared long in advance in line with Moscow’s views on the Ukrainian conflict.
There is a bipartisan hodgepodge of Senators and Representatives, chosen to inflame America’s domestic partisan divide. The list includes Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (who was likely framed after a video dishonestly edited of him appearing to celebrate the death of Russians began circulating), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
Prominent media personalities like late night TV talk show host Stephen Colbert, Bret Stephens of the New York Times and George Stephanopoulos of ABC News also appear. The list also targets those who prosecute the January 6, 2022, insurrectionists – a full-throated Russian show of support of those who tried to overthrow the U.S. Government.
Scott Blanchard of General Dynamics Mission Systems and Vivek Lall, of General Atomics are among captains of the industry who the Kremlin targets.
The list also named leading members of U.S. think tanks who actively influence the domestic debate and policy formulation on Russia. The list includes a RAND corporation’s Barry Pavel and Michael Weitzenfeld, The Atlantic Council Chairman of the Board John F.W. Rogers, Executive Vice Chair Alexander Mirtchev, and the CEO Fred Kempe; the Brookings Institute’s renowned Russia experts Angela Stent and Fiona Hill, as well as Luke Coffey from the Hudson Institute, Andrew Weiss of Carnegie Endowment Freedom House, Miriam Lanskoy from the National Endowment for Democracy and many more. These are people who stand for the values of democracy, human rights, and rules based international order, the values that the Russian leadership despises and hates.
The eight significant treaties Moscow broke to invade Ukraine display its cynical attitude towards international law. Beyond this, Russia uses provocations, harassment, intimidations, and murder, even if its critics are abroad. Such actions display Moscow’s modus operandi abroad and require more from the West than merely financial and military support for Ukraine. The goal is simple: frighten and intimidate.
This wide-ranging list of targets in and out of government encompasses the decision-making and thought-leadership centers of U.S. policy. Simultaneously, the Russian government purged its own from the list of advisors of the National Security Council. Prominent experts on arms control who have decades of contact with Americans like Alexei Arbatov and Sergei Rogov were sacrificed by Putin to break off arms control talks.
These measures are not just signs of hostility to Washington and the West, but attempts at escalation, harassment, sabotage, and intimidation of leading Western figures and their Russian counterparts who wanted to continue contacts and dialogue, wholly consistent with the Russian State’s contemporary outlaw nature.
America cannot stay mum. Apart from more thorough measures against the assets of the Russian elite, we need to wage a much stronger global information war exposing the regime’s utter corruption, criminality, and abuses of the Russian people, especially with direct messaging in Russian to the Russian population, and in the Global South. The West needs to shut down the networks of so-called “ghost ships” furnishing Russia with weapons, energy sales opportunities, which allow it to continue prosecuting this war.
The Prigozhin coup may have failed, but the cracks in Putin’s edifice are now for all to see. The elites are disoriented and are losing faith in Putin. The next rebellion may succeed where the current one failed.
Russia’s war against the West is intrinsic to his regime’s survival and brings about its darkest impulses. We must learn from the French proverb “a la guerre comme a la guerre,” –“in war like in a war.” Maybe it is time for the US to take its gloves off and make the Russian regime feel the heat.
Almost everything outlined in this article about Russia, America has been doing the same thing to other countries for many years including Russia. So what else is new.
Do your research for the truth about the conflict in the Ukraine. Who really started the conflict? Go back to 1991 starting with President Bush and the verbal agreement not to expand NATO eastward when Russia disbanded the Warsaw Pact, withdrew all their troops from Eastern Europe and allowed all those countries to go free. There are many events that took place from 1991 to 2022. Take a few months to find the truth. Form you own opinion.
The US has never declared it wished destroy a culture and a nation.
There was no “verbal agreement”.
When Bush and Gorbachev had their 1990 summit, President Gorbachev accepted the idea of German unification within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, based on the principle that every country should freely choose its own alliances.
Robert Zoellick, former Under Secretary of State, said:
“I was in those meetings, and Gorbachev has [also] said there was no promise not to enlarge NATO,” He also stated that Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, concurred, he says. Nor does the treaty on Germany’s unification include a limit on NATO enlargement.
White House transcripts revealed that in 1997, Bill Clinton refused to commit to Boris Yeltsin’s offer of a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ that no former Soviet Republics would enter NATO:
“I can’t make commitments on behalf of NATO, and I’m not going to be in the position myself of vetoing NATO expansion with respect to any country, much less letting you or anyone else do so…NATO operates by consensus.”
In 2014 Gorbachev stated:
“The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility. Not a single Eastern European country raised the issue, not even after the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist in 1991. Western leaders didn’t bring it up, either.”Russia had no choice but to pull its troops out. They did not have the strength to resist the liberation movements of the former Soviet Block nations.
Russia signed the NATO-Russia Founding Act and pledged to uphold “respect for sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all states and their inherent right to choose the means to ensure their own security. Russia has violated the UN charter, the Helsinki Final Act, the NATO Russia Founding, the Budapest Agreement and violated numerous other treaties and International agreements.
NATO didn’t invade Georgia; NATO didn’t invade Ukraine. Russia did. If Ukraine lays down their arms the Ukraine ceases to exist a sovereign nation. If Russia lays down its arms the war is over. Unless you disagree that every sovereign nation has the right to choose its own security arrangements Russia is fully culpable for the war, not Ukraine, the US or NATO.
I suggest you take the time to find the truth.
The US has never declared it wished destroy a culture and a nation.
Nope. Smat enough to NOT tip hands before they figure out its too late. We don’t declare our int4entions openly, we just make it happen. In MY short lifetime I have watched as WE never declared any intentions toward another nation, but we just went in and “fixed” things…. cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Chile, Veneuela, /argentina, Ecuador, Haiti, Mexico, Japan, Korea, VietNam, Cambodia, Burma, Turkey, Cypress, the Sudan, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Samoa, more specifically and lately the Ukraine (to wit: the 2014 coup arrnged by our own Victoria Newlnd and then kinyun understudy Joey Biden. We stoood quietly nd idly by as other nations partitioned, sliced and diced, recombined, etc, the nations surviving the Secind German War, allowing n
“nations” with below zero possibioity of ever reaching anything resembling stability and harmony (a carefully developed process known as “balkanisation”)
We never openly declared our intention to rattle Putin we just gradually turned up the heat, pushing NATO ever closer to his borders, with the nukes we promsed would never come but did anyway. How stupid/lazy do ya think ol’Vlad is, anyway? He took his cues from our own response to Russian missiles deployed in Cuba…..
Secretary of State James Baker verbally promised Gorbachev that “NATO would not expand one inch to the east.” I don’t know were you got your information from. I have copies of numerous articles dealing with this issue.
Here is one article based on declassified documents by two authors. Go to http://:www.global.research.com dated January 14, 2022 titled ‘NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard.’
As for what President Clinton said in 1997, it is not usual for the U.S. government to go back on their word on verbal or written agreements that previous Presidents have made.
As for the other issues you mention, I have articles that tell a different story.
Have a nice day.
Reply to Will Said
Correction to my reply to you regarding the website I mention. It should be ca, not com. My mistake.
Correct website: http://www.globalresearch.ca. The rest to where to read the article is correct.
Right. The author apparently doesn’t know the difference between Russia today, and the USSR of yesteryear.
“ those who tried to overthrow the US government”
You took a wrong turn somewhere. Go back to a fake news site.
Perhaps you have been living under a rock?
Article fail.
January 6th was a riot by unarmed people (some of which were invited in or allowed in by Capitol Police). One unarmed person (Ashley Babbitt) was shot dead by a Capitol Policeman. None of the unarmed people took over the government or claimed they were doing so. And both Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell (despite ample warnings about the need to increase security prior to this protest) did so (deliberately in my view so that they could a false impression of an “insurrection”). Nice try Mr or Mrs. (or he/him or she/her) liberal commentator in the comments here but January 6th (while a protest that turned into a riot that got out of control) , it was not and never will be an “insurrection” no matter how many times the media and politicians lie about it.
A riot? It looked more like a picnic. Let’s be realistic here and state the facts as they occurred.
If you want to call it an insurrection, then prove it was an insurrection. A protest is not an insurrection. Even if you want to stretch things and call it a riot, that is still not an insurrection.
So, prove your statement.
To this point, have only observed the following types that believe it was an insurrection: those people who know they have illegitimate power and are terrified they’ll be discovered, those people that lack thinking skills, and, I paid FBI disinformation comment trolls.
Indeed. “Flag-carrying grannies taking selfies in the capitol have overthrown many a great nation,” said no one, ever.
To not embarrass yourself further I suggest you go look up the meaning of insurrection as you obviously have no idea. If you are looking for a real insurrection then the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax was a much more determined attempt to overthrow a government than the unarmed people who rebelled against police bombarding them with, flashbangs, pepper spray and tear-gas for no reason on Jan 6th was.
Yes, I caught that too. Shocking to find it in a site as reality-based as FPM, but editors are only human and occasionally make mistakes.
The January 6 rioters did not try to overthrow the U.S. government. They did not even overthrow the velvet ropes in the Capital lobby.
This is complete fantasy and wishful thinking
It wasn’t an attempted Coup except in the West ..it was more of a protest march by a mercenary leader unhappy with the wise restraint that Putin is using ..be very careful what you wish for as a more traditional Russian leader would already have Nuked the West for their insane provocations
They were owed money and supplies! You don’t hire the Mob to do a job for you and then NOT PAY THEM!
I will file this absurd article under the “accuse your enemies of doing to you, what you are doing to them” heading. The U.S and the West are not only waging war on Russia, but they are also waging war on their own citizens.
What a crazy, out of touch article.
It was the US that prompted all of this by stating to Russia that we were going to bring Ukraine into NATO.
Any 1st year diplomat would know the outcome of doing so – it would provoke Russia to attack. Why?
[a] It would enable Ukraine to finally end its 8 year civil war by crushing the ethnic Russian separatist republics with NATO forces. (For a similar experience in the US, see the Mexican-American war.)
[b] It would enable the West to place an army + nukes right on Russia’s doorstep – an existential threat.
[c] It would provide the West an easy way to infiltrate and facilitate destabilizing activity in Russia.
So, what did Russia do? It did exactly what it said it would do – purge the Nazis, cripple the AFU and ensure Ukraine never enters NATO.
If we punch someone in the face and get surprised they punch back, then we are idiots. To also complain it about on top of that, makes us look like a bunch of spoiled, crybaby sissies who have gotten too used to having our own way.
And, with regard to the “coup” by Prigozhin, it looks more and more like Prigozhin duped the West, specifically showcasing the incompetence of the CIA and State Department. Of course nobody will really know for sure until we see how long Prigozhin lives. If he happens to fall out of a window in the next few weeks then Prigozhin was a real threat to Russia. If not, then it is highly likely he was working for the Russians all along.
Yes, and now Russia has Priggy’s guys in Belarus a hop skip and a jump from Kiev.
I seem to recall reading that Prighozin himself did not refer to his blunder as a “coup.” That term has been put in use by American MSM since it fulfills their preferred narrative of civil war in Russia and Putin weak! The biggest threat is the American State Department and what its next move will be when “it takes it gloves off.”
A ridicuous article. Comments above have explained why.
Who is our REAL enemy? Putin or Biden?
Yes. Also Zelenskyy, Roberts, McCarthy, Schumer, Harris, and Xi.
Putin is a dictator and a power-happy war monger. Bottom line. He’ll do
what he can get away with to expand his Russian empire. His baloney
about “Russia is in an existential battle for survival against U.S.-led NATO
forces” belies the glaring fact that the American government is primarily
interested in destroying its own country and people. It is totally uninterested
in making America great again – whether through domination of Russia or
anything else. Corruptocrat Biden has already sold us out to Communist
China.
Reading this article was upsetting and certainly not because of who is on
Putin’s supposedly terrifying list. I couldn’t care less about most of them.
It was upsetting because of Stephen Blank’s choice of words: 1). The Jan
6th protestors did NOT try to overthrow the U.S. government 2) the J6
occurrence took place in 2021 and not in 2022 as Blank wrote. 3). “The
U.S. Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaims . . . “. WTH does that even
mean?
So the current US government stands for “human rights, democracy and ‘rules based order’?” What about the human and civil rights of the ethnic Russians of Donbas and Krim whom the Banderovets regime in Kiev sought to exterminate? What manner of “democracy” is Kiev that outlaws all political parties representing the interests of its ethnic Russian citizens and whose SBU goons persecute the ancient Ukrainian Orthodox Church and who ‘disappeared’ those Ukrainians who accepted food and other humanitarian supplies from Russian troops early in the war? What sort of “rules based order” allows the criminal Biden to bomb and destroy Germany’s Nordstream pipeline, which was an act of state terrorism? For shame!
Nobody in Ukraine has civil rights under Zelenskyy. He just said there would be no general election until the war was “won.” He shut down the opposition party, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the free press. Some freedom fighter.
Russia gets aid from the Unted Nations WEF CFR and the Globalists as well
Please take this NEOCON crap and use your money to buy some kevlar and an M4 then fly you ignorant A** to Ukraine and put yourself on the line. You jackasses have never had the cajones to get into the action, you just want to start wars and watch war movies. You thought Vietnam was a great idea, Iraq one of your best plans and the destruction of Syria great sport. This is simple storing up bad karma for the USA and it will come home to roost.
This article is beneath FPN’s usual standards of truth and integrity. Why no mention of the US inspired Coup in 2014 which replaced a democratically elected leader with a US puppet, who immediately started to discriminate and harm Russian speaking Ukrainians in the eastern part. Also, I guess if it is ok for Nato to accept Ukraine and then put missiles there on Russia’s border, then the US will have no issue with Russia putting missiles in Cuba, right? Oh, wait, They actually tried and we almost had a Nuclear war over it, but for the wisdom and courage of JFK.
Courageous JFK cut a secret deal to remove IRBMs from Turkey to get the missiles out of Cuba. And now the US is encouraging a nation bordering Russia to become a NATO member. Truly the US government is a ship of fools.
Prigozhin wasn’t going after Putin. He was going after the Red Army command that was so ineffective in pursuing attacks against Ukraine. Of this there can be no doubt. Putin is more in jeopardy from the FSB than from the Wagner brigade.
There are some similarities between the aftermath of the failed coup in Russia to the aftermath of the failed coup in 1944 Germany. There was a lot of support for the coup in the German military and there was a purge of supporters of the coup.
This Russophobic article is historically illiterate. I despair of FPM now almost as much as i do of the rest of the legacy media, In the war with Ukrtaine, the US and NATO are the aggressor, NOT Russia.
Putin has made it clear repeatedly at thye Valdai Conferences for over a decade now that NATO’s ringing post-communist Russia with “hostile and aggressive” bases, and putting out the welcome mat to Ukraine also to join NATO,, is seen by Russia as an unacceptable threat to national se4curity.
I said abov e that the arfticle is hiostortically illiterate. Yes, and tyhat includes the bleating by so many pathetic Westyern journalists about Crtimea – which was NEVER part either of historical Kievan Rus, or of the Russian republic itself, until 1954 when Khrushchev transferred it to Ukraine for geographic convenience when the USSR – ONE COUNTRY – was building a huge hydro dam to supply water and power to the southern Ukraine and Crimea. Crimea has never spoken Russian; and when the Soviet omelet was unexpectedly unscrambled in 1991, the Russian Federation found the HQ of its own Black Sea fleet in another country! – unacceptable to national security, all the more so since the West was using Ukraine as a proxy to fight Russia.
If FPM publishes any more stupidly Russophobic articlesa like this – and doesn’t concede that it was a massive mistake by the West to pass up the opportunity to build productiove friendly relations with post-communist Russia – then I will unsubscribe.
For the record: I teach the history of all the Russian lands over more than a thousand years. I know the area very well and speak Russian – though I am 100% Anglo-Australian.