Stephen Lendman

US/Russia relations are deplorable, things worsening, not improving.

Nothing in prospect suggests positive change. Russia’s future is East, not West. Its good faith efforts for normalized bilateral relations are consistently rebuffed.

US hostility remains unrelenting. Bipartisan neocons infesting Washington intend keeping things this way.

Nothing significantly positive between both countries happened since the Reagan/Gorbachev era. Obama’s brief reset was head-fake deception. No meaningful US outreach followed.

Hoped for improved ties when Trump entered office failed to materialize. Reckless Russia bashing persists.

Putin’s latest call for “predictable, constructive, mutually beneficial cooperation” with Washington will prove no more successful than earlier attempts to improve relations.

Nor will urging “strict adherence to the principles of equality, respect for national interests and noninterference in (Russia’s) internal affairs” budge Washington to turn a new leaf.

Its new ambassador to Russia won’t improve things. On Tuesday, Putin received his credentials. Former Utah governor/US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman is a committed Russophobe.

During his Senate confirmation hearing, he lied, saying “(t)here is no question - underline no question - that the Russian government interfered in the US election last year, and Moscow continues to meddle in the democratic processes of our friends and allies.”

He brings that baggage with him to Moscow, arriving as an adversary, for sure no ambassador of good will.

The Huntsman Corporation chairman’s public career dates from the Reagan Administration as a White House staff assistant – later appointed Deputy Assistant Commerce Secretary and US ambassador to Singapore by GHW Bush, Deputy Trade Representative for GW Bush, and ambassador to China for Obama.

He served as Utah governor from January 2005 – August 2009 before joining the Obama administration. In 2012, his presidential campaign was short-lived, announced in mid-2011, ended after finishing third in the New Hampshire primary.

He calls himself a center-right conservative. Others consider him hardline. His Atlantic Council chairmanship raises concerns, a hawkish Russophobic think tank.

Kremlin hopes for improved bilateral ties with him as US ambassador reflect wishful thinking going nowhere.

Russia has a blind spot thinking normalized relations with Washington are possible - not for the past 100 years with few interregnum softening periods.

Maybe they’ll continue the same way for another century, unless nuclear war settles things, destroying both countries and humanity with them.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
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