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Past summit locations suggest that the US could host the next summit between the Russian and American leaders. Such meetings have alternated between their two countries and some others. As I correctly surmised, the aftermath of the last Putin-Trump meeting in Helsinki, saw top heavy anti-Russian and anti-Putin theatrics, which stand in the way of improved relations. That mindset will be even more evident at a US hosted Putin-Trump summit, that (via media) was presented by the US president for this coming autumn.
It comes as no surprise that Trump has walked back his call to host that meeting. Since the announcement of that proposed summit, there’ve been a series of heavy handed measures taken against Putin and Russia by the US political establishment. From his vantage point, Putin has no good reason to encourage an ensuing freak show against his country and himself. Following the back and forth on a US based Putin-Trump summit, the Russian president has offered to host a meeting between him and his American counterpart.
Meantime, Trump’s excessively obnoxious (if not bigoted) UN ambassador Nikki Haley, carries on with singling out Russia as a country that the US can never be friends with – never minding that:
– Germany and Britain each fought two major wars against the US
– with Japan having carried out the surprise Pearl Harbor attack.
In contrast, US-Russian relations have had better instances throughout the course of history. All this gets downplayed by a US mass media, which continues to subconsciously influence many Americans to have a negatively misguided view about Russia. With other interests to consider, most Americans don’t go the extra yard to fully get hold of and ponder the counter views aired by such non-mainstream media sources like the Real News Network, where the likes of Michael Isikoff get challenged, much unlike his US mass media puff appearances.
Following the Trump proposed US venue for the next US-Russia summit, the heads of the US Senate and House of Representatives (both Republicans) went out of their way to say that Putin wouldn’t be welcome. For his part, Trump said that Russia will be pushing for the Democrats in the upcoming fall midterm election. Russia continues to be a convenient punching bag for the US political elites.
One of the absurdities involves the coverage of Putin’s proposal to cooperate with the Robert Mueller led FBI investigation on the supposed Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. At the Helsinki press conference, Putin reasonably offered a reciprocal arrangement wherein US authorities could question the 12 indicted (by Mueller) Russians in Russia (Russian law prohibits that country from turning them over to a foreign country), with the Russian government having a similar arrangement with Michael McFaul and Bill Browder.
The US mass media coverage of Browder has been appallingly lame. Likewise, McFaul has inaccurately presented Putin’s proposal, with US mass media support. A July 19 aired CNN segment highlighted a McFaul tweet, saying that the Stalin era Soviet government had never attempted to arrest Americans – something that I later found to be untrue. The obvious intent of that communication was to cast the otherwise erroneous image of the Stalin era USSR with contemporary Russia.
Can anyone imagine the USSR of that period hosting a major event like the World Cup, with rave reviews from thousands of attending foreigners? Did Stalin, ever face the kind of live critical questioning which Putin has faced? As a follow-up to that rhetorical question, McFaul and the US mass media hosts who deal with him are regularly shielded from high profile constructive criticism, much unlike Putin.
Does McFaul have something to hide? The Russian government hasn’t indicted him, while indicating a willingness to question the Stanford academic in the US.
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Michael Averko is a New York based independent foreign policy analyst and media critic.
Featured image is from the author.
