generalspeaking

All Is Sweetness and Light ... All's Right With the World

"My impression is that the president is set to restore Russian-American relations, contacts, to jointly resolve issues that are of mutual interest to us."
"For our part, we have repeatedly said that we would also like to restore full-format relations."
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin

"We agreed on the importance of restoring channels of communications that had recently been frozen."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

"I'm here today because President Trump is committed to improving this relationship."
"It's not destined that we're adversaries on every issue."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sochi, Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, pose for a photo prior to their talks in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, southern Russia, Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Pompeo arrived in Russia for talks that are expected to focus on an array of issues including arms control and Iran. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)

Disagreements? Miscommunication, perhaps. Everything is negotiable. In the interests of diplomatic relations.

The cynical among us might think it less than negotiable much less diplomatic for Russia to continue regarding its near-abroad neighbours as ripe for invasion with the claims that their ethnic Russian brethren are not well treated as citizens of Ukraine, of Georgia, of Estonia of Belarus, for example. And deciding that the Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula really is part of the Russian Federation as Russia's interior affairs, that biting sanctions represent an unprovoked declaration of hostile intent, an unhealthy impasse ready for a solution whose time has come....

Not that the Kremlin will be prepared any time soon to surrender the Crimea back to Ukraine, of course; it was just settling an old score. And will continue to 'negotiate' for the accession of east Ukraine because Ukraine is, after all, Russia's affair, no business of the international community, none at all. And it's about time the U.S. has returned to its senses. And after that, then there's Venezuela which may be in the American geographical sphere, but then what's the U.S. doing in eastern Europe, Russia's sphere?

And to think that Russia would sink so low as to meddle in American elections? What for! They've enough to preoccupy themselves, with their own political rivalries. After all, Russia has no interest in imprisoning any leaders of U.S. political parties hostile to the Federation; again, it is busy looking after their own. If not sharpshooting them to death in the public square, then sequestering them as a message, for a prison stay. Perhaps not very subtle, but the message must be delivered for much depends on it....

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, during their talks in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, southern Russia, Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Pompeo arrived in Russia for talks that are expected to focus on an array of issues including arms control and Iran. Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is third on the right. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Speaking of messages, America has its own to deliver. Say, for example, an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers expedited to the Middle East. Oh yes, Iran is one of the items key to the U.S.-Russia agenda in the greater interests of planning a memorandum of understanding. Demarcating lines of interests that should really not be crossed, else the twain will find themselves once again at odds. The Islamic Republic listens to no outside agency, however. And this is one alliance that the Kremlin would do well to hold at arm's length.

Particularly in view of U.S. intelligence warning of American interests potentially threatened. The symbolic and very real symptoms are there. The audacious "sabotage" of four marine vessels off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, for one; the warning issued by the U.S. to sailors of the potential for commercial sea traffic attacks, courtesy -- or lack of -- the Islamic Republic of Iran's malicious intentions. The oil pipeline attacks in Saudi Arabia; all Iran acting out to indicate how serious it is in drawing attention to its commanding presence.

So in the Black Sea resort town, Lavrov agreed with Pompeo that some kind of compromise agreement on Iran is conceivable between Russia and the U.S. And when Russian President Putin met with Pompeo he affirmed his commitment to improved relations with America; after all, Special Counsel Robert Mueller reported a "demonstrated absence of any kind of traces, of any kind of collusion" between Moscow and the presidential campaign bringing Donald Trump to the presidency.

What collusion would have been needed?! The U.S. populist movement responded to one of their own. And he's done a most creditable job proving he's up to the challenge of representing their interests internally, and restoring America's vaunted commanding presence abroad. And also, it would seem incidentally, mending fences.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shake hands after their joint news conference following the talks in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, southern Russia, Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Pompeo's first trip to Russia starts Tuesday in Sochi, where he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are sitting down for talks and then having a joint meeting with President Vladimir Putin. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool)

Labels: Mike Pompeo, Reconciliation, Russia, United States, Vladimir Putin

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, May 16, 2019