Vladimir Putin

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2016 U.S. Presidential election, Crimea, Crimes Against Humanity, Donald Trump, elections, human rights, internal supporters of human rights, International Law, Russia, sanctions, State Department, U.N. Charter, Ukraine, use of force, Vladimir Putin, war crimes May 11, 2017

High crimes and misdemeanors: Flynn, Comey, and Russians in the Oval Office

After Comey’s firing, it was learned that subpoenas have been issued to Michael Flynn to produce all papers and records related to his contacts and business dealings with the Russians.

Flynn has apparently commited acts which might constitute serious crimes. If prosecuted and convicted, he could spend many years in prison. His earlier efforts to gain immunity in exchange for his testimony before Congressional committees failed.

Flynn’s testimony could be explosive. It may be the key to blowing open the conspiracy involving collusion with the Russians, if there is one. If he talks, he could bring the whole Trump charade on Russia crashing down.

Hopefully he is under very good security protection.
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Russia’s “Trump card”

Putin’s “Trump card” is already paying off. While the focus in he U.S. media has been on whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians intervening in the U.S. election, less attention has been paid to the reasons for Trump’s pro-Russian positions and failure to criticize Putin.

The strongest hypothesis for this behavior is that Trump has been compromised by the Russians. This will remain the strongest hypothesis until an alternative, more persuasive explanation is presented.

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2016 U.S. Presidential election, Crimea, Crimes Against Humanity, Donald Trump, elections, France, International Law, Russia, State Department, State Department Legal Adviser, syria, U.N. Charter, U.N. Security Council, U.S. Intervention, U.S. Military, Ukraine, United Nations, United States, use of force, Vladimir Putin, war crimes April 12, 2017

After Tillerson’s trip to Moscow, will Trump lift sanctions against Russia, or ever criticize Putin?

Rex Tillerson met Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin for two hours, in addition to his over three hours of meetings with foreign minister Sergey…

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2016 U.S. Presidential election, Dictatorship, European Union, France, NATO, Russia, sanctions, State Department, Ukraine, United States, Vladimir Putin March 26, 2017

Putin threatens life of leading opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, then arrrests him and others at demonstrations in Russia — Meanwhile, Tillerson is racing to Moscow

When the life of the leading opposition figure in Russia is directly threatened, we may safely assume that the action did not occur without the knowledge and direction of Russia’s all-powerful dictator, Vladimir Putin.

On March 19, 2017, Alexsei Navalny, that opposition leader, was attacked with a green chemical that turned ut to be benign. Following the recent assassination in Malaysia of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, by having a deadly chemical smeared on him, the threat and the lesson for Navalny could not have been clearer: Next time it could be a deadly chemical. Putin in the past has demonstrated that Russia has great mastery and experience in this area.

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2016 U.S. Presidential election, Culture and Communication, Dictatorship, Donald Trump, human rights, propaganda, Russia, sanctions, State Department, syria, U.N. Charter, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin March 11, 2017

The level-of-analysis problem in assessing and reacting to Trump’s assault on American democracy

The outlines and methods of President Donald Trump’s asault on the institutions of American democracy and their underling traditions and values are now clear.

First, he has conducted an all-out assault on the very concept of the truth.
Third, Trump not only lies about everything all of the time, but also engages in defamation of the leading news media in the United States on a daily basis, having labeled them “the opposition party” and “the enemy of the people.”
We face a dramatic situation.

We have a president who lies about everything all of the time.

We have a presdient and administration which reject the concept of accountability, dismissing criticism will lies and charges of “fake news”. The president openly defies the requirements of the Enmoluments Clause of the constitution…
We have a president who is under strong suspicion of colluding with the Russians in their intervention into the November 2016 elections in the United States, who has not criticized Putin or Russia directly in any significant way…
Given Trump’s ongoing assaults on the pillars of American democracy, and the values which underlie them, Democrats, Independents and Republicans need to start thinking, with great urgency, about how Trump and Bannon can be removed from office–at an early date.