SophieCo
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Russia wouldn’t endanger spy swap system with West by attacking Skripal - ex-Soviet mole in CIA
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Israelis and Palestinians alone will find solution, not let others do it – 20th IDF head
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‘Putin is a long-distance runner in politics’ – German journalist Hubert Seipel
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‘Japan should leave US nuclear umbrella’ - Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki discusses the nuclear deterrence
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‘Football beyond politics - shame some politicians don’t get that’ - Russia 2018 World Cup Chief on attempts to undermine the tournament
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‘Cowards fighting cowards behind computer screens’ – ex-drone operator Brandon Bryant on US drone strikes.
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‘US taking other nations hostage over Iran sanctions' – Ex EU-Commissioner Guenter Verheugen
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Spanish ex-Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos talks on Catalonia's bid for independence & future of the EU
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Former Italian PM Matteo Renzi talks on populists rise in Europe, referendum defeat and migrant crisis
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‘George Soros would like to invite millions of migrants to Europe’ – Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto
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‘Breaking up with the US won’t hurt Pakistan’ – ex-Pakistan PM Shaukat Aziz
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‘The UK shouldn’t pretend it is a superpower’ – Lord Peter Truscott
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‘Dangerous for US experts to be too sympathetic to Russia’ – ex-US Defense Department analyst
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‘Secure and stable Africa is in very few people’s interests’ – Eeben Barlow, the mercenary leader
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‘American unilateralism challenges transatlantic relations’ – ex-French PM
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‘No gentlemen in football when the World Cup is at stake’ - Christian Karembeu
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‘Cybercrime is bigger than arms & drugs’ – cybercrime fighter
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Fmr. Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki on the impact of Arab Spring
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‘Basically, we didn’t lose anything’ - Billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, Putin’s closest friend, on Western sanctions.
‘Dangerous for US experts to be too sympathetic to Russia’ – ex-US Defense Department analyst
Is it possible to mend the troubled relations between Moscow and Washington? Robert English, a former policy analyst at the US Defense Department and international relations scholar, weighed in on what has gone wrong between the two countries and whether it can change for the better.
It’s “reciprocal” and “almost psychological” for the US and Russia to see each other as perfect enemies. The two powers easily “fell back into the old tropes and patterns” of the Cold War, English said. However, “even in the worst days of the Cold War, there were certain lines that we didn’t cross.”
“The atmosphere right now is so Russophobic that people are trimming their sails. I wouldn’t say it’s some McCarthyist atmosphere, but it’s a very toxic one,” English went on. “It’s dangerous to be too sympathetic to Russia. Even when you have a good argument and can back it with facts,” English added.
Despite some officials describing Russia as the US’ biggest geopolitical threat, “Defense Department people, Navy people… are all looking at China.” English said it is “convenient” to make a bogeyman out of Moscow to “get the money for new weapons and ships.”
Although President Donald Trump had “a good core idea” about building a relationship with Russia, he is “not the best messenger of a coherent policy,” English said.