ERIC ZUESSE—The problem in America isn’t either Obama or Trump; it’s neither merely the Democratic Party, nor merely the Republican Party; it is instead both; it is the Deep State. That’s the reality; and the process that got us here started on 26 July 1945 and secretly continued on the American side even after the Soviet Union ended and Russia promptly ended its side of the Cold War.
"Russia Desk"
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GEORGES SIMENON ANNIVERSARY — INSPECTOR MAIGRET MEETS THE SINCERE, LYING LADY FROM THE CIA’S RUSSIA OFFICE, ANDREA KENDALL-TAYLOR
30 minutes readJOHN HELMER—Kendall-Taylor is also Ritter’s source for his assessment of Ciaramella’s training and expertise. “As a junior analyst, the whistleblower worked alongside colleagues such as Andrea Kendall-Taylor, who joined OREA [Office of Russian and European Analysis] about the same time after graduating from UCLA in 2008 with a PhD is Slavic and Eurasian studies. A prolific writer, Kendall-Taylor wrote extensively on autocratic leaders and Putin in particular. Her work was in high demand at both the CIA and NSC, which under the Obama administration had undergone a massive expansion intended to better facilitate policy coordination among the various departments that comprised the NSC.”
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Russian Defense Minister — The West Cannot Be Trusted
24 minutes readSERGEY SHOIGU—We long failed to understand the essential nature of what was going on around us. If the West had continued to behave as it began behaving in Gorbachev’s time – if it had kept all its promises, not moved NATO ever closer to our borders, not expanded its influence in our near abroad, not gotten involved in the internal affairs of our country – then it seems to me that the West would ultimately have succeeded in everything.
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GREG MAYBURY—This book furthers our understanding of the practice of propaganda with a specific focus on the RussiaGate case. RussiaGate is a discourse about alleged Russian “meddling” in US elections, and this book argues that it functions as disinformation or distraction. The book provides a framework for better understanding of ongoing developments of RussiaGate, linking these to macro considerations that rarely enter mainstream accounts. It demonstrates the considerable weaknesses of many of the charges that have been made against Russia by US investigators, and argues that this discourse fails to take account of broader non-transparent persuasion campaigns operating in the election-information environment that are strengthened by social media manipulation.
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DANIELLE RYAN—In this rendition of history, the US almost unwittingly “allowed” itself to become an “accomplice” to plunder against its better nature. Foer writes of the era that it was a risky time when “Russian values” might be allowed to “infect” and weaken the “moral defense systems” of American politics and business. With such a corrupting influence, the US could never emerge “untainted.”