Alex Christoforou
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the recent New York Times editorial board which is calling on US President Trump to court Russian President Vladimir Putin away from his flourishing cooperation with Xi and China.
Journalist George Szamuely sums it up in this tweet:
“Having demonized Russia and blamed it for every problem besetting US, having built up armed forces on its borders, having imposed wave after wave of sanctions, having expelled diplomats & walked out on arms control treaties, US expects Russia to be its ally against China.”
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The New York Times’ editorial board, fresh from peddling anti-Russia conspiracies for two years, has made a remarkable about-turn. Now the paper wants closer relations with the Kremlin, all to thwart China’s ambitions.
‘Russiagate’ has maintained an iron grip on American political discourse for two years now, even after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report cleared President Donald Trump of conspiring with the Kremlin to steal the 2016 US election. In the media, the public has been treated to nightly conspiracy theories and bizarre connect-the-dots articles claiming to prove collusion; and lawmakers have crafted ever more draconian sanctions bills against Russia and have slotted opposition to Russia into their campaign messages.
Meanwhile, Moscow and Beijing have looked to each other, holding joint military exercises and upping their trade volume to more than $100 billion in 2018. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently announced plans to build a new, 2,000km-long highway linking Europe and China, while President Vladimir Putin has been mulling connecting Russia’s Northern Sea Route with China’s Maritime Silk Road, an ambitious global trade route linking China with ports in Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
The idea of closer Moscow/Beijing cooperation clearly worries the New York Times’ editorial board. In an op-ed published on Sunday, the board wrote that “President Trump is correct to try to establish a sounder relationship with Russia and peel it away from China” – itself a remarkable compliment from a paper that ran op-eds titled “Donald Trump Hates America,” and “Trump is Racist to the Bone” in the last five days.
The board then suggested that the US could strengthen its cooperation with Russia in space exploration and Arctic cleanup – areas untainted by ‘Russiagate’. In addition, new arms control treaties could be a step towards geopolitical cooperation between the two rival superpowers.
All valid and worthy points, but from the New York Times? Yes, we’re talking about the same newspaper that last year called Trump a “treasonous traitor” ahead of his meeting with Putin in Helsinki. Instead of seeking rapprochement then, the paper argued that Trump should “be directing all resources at his disposal to punish Russia.”
We’re talking about the same New York Times that dubbed Trump “Putin’s Lackey” and released a mocking video detailing a ‘love story’ between Trump and Putin, laden with homoerotic overtones and culminating in a tongue-locking kiss between the two leaders. It’s funny because they’re gay, see?
The piece surprised many, like pundit George Szamuely, who wrote that Washington has “demonized Russia and blamed it for every problem besetting [the] US,” while the Times “has for years berated Trump for advocating this perfectly sensible policy, at times suggesting that he was doing so only because he was Putin’s agent and a traitor to the United States.”
After peddling Russiagate and Russophobia for years, NOW NYT wants to lure Russia away from China? While still cling onto Russiagate? Genius! https://t.co/VBjNOmGJ9y
— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) July 22, 2019
No Title
Having demonized Russia and blamed it for every problem besetting US, having built up armed forces on its borders, having imposed wave after wave of sanctions, having expelled diplomats & walked out on arms control treaties, US expects Russia to be its ally against China. https://t.co/BwuPryhrZ1
Bear in mind that the Times’ editorial board does not hold the same opinions as its revolving cast of op-ed writers. Still, for a newspaper whose writers almost unanimously despise the US president, Sunday’s op-ed represents a shocking repudiation of two years of anti-Russia, anti-Trump static.
Perhaps the outlet that often voiced the ideas of the American establishment has finally realized that the ‘Russiagate’ horse is too long dead for another flogging? Or maybe the Times saw it’s time for a new kind of politics: the politics of Detente. Either way, the change is a surprising one.
Graham Dockery, RT
Graham Dockery is an Irish journalist working for RT since March 2018
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Oh so Putin will leave his friendship with China and form a friendship with the psychopaths in Yankyland. Yeh why not?
Right. Putin is really stupid…. I don’t think!
it’s the essential pompous ubermensch nature of the USA that doomed any possibility of persuading Russia from drifting towards China – regardless of insight by any individual president.
A political elite drawn from the dregs of intellect. Some ubermensch.
One of your best! “NeoCons @ Neo Liberals lose all wars, except in Washington.” BRILLIANT! Much more to say also on your breakdown of the Russia “collusion” which forced their alignment with China. What were these Brezenski types smoking? I want some!
Your fair analysis of Clinton, Albright (sic), and Rice/Powers team, their pensions should be cancelled & void..
The US made several attempts to drive a wedge (in the form of carrots) between Russia and China over the past few years. This is a great example of the US flogging a dead horse, shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted. Yes, that ship has sailed. Past the point of return. Done. What reason has the US ever given China or Russia to trust it?
The US is inept, in both war and peace. All future world developments should begin with that premise.
Only after the dump and his elitist shit-turds perform their Walk to Canossa, will Russia and China CONSIDER trusting the seppos. Nothing can convince Russia or China that the us or the dump could be trusted to piss in a toilet.
The NYT needs to do better. Nobody has faith in Washington anymore to uphold accords. Even the European slaves of the Yanks are having second thoughts and are trying to hedge behind closed doors.
After all the insults, lies, aggressions and treacheries the Yanks talk about sweet talking the Russians away from China. Yanks attention spam is truly short…worse than fish.
Salmon can remember exactly from whence they came. Not true at all for America.
So is their intelligence…
NYT and WaPo – the soapbox and folly pulpit of true idiot_logues.
Whatever their positions, believe and do the opposite and you’ll never go astray.
Absurd notion to the bone. China is an economic juggernaut still on the rise. America is teetering on bankruptcy and undermining its influence in world affairs with every new ‘project’ it concocts. Now that this notion of ‘benevolent interventionism aka world meddling’ has shown itself to be a farce and a trojan horse, what exactly does America have to offer, beyond Biden-style carpetbagging in a vapid wilderness?