Trump, Putin Speak on Telephone

After a rancorous presidential campaign in which the Hillary Clinton team actually accused President-elect Donald Trump of being a Russian agent, a new tone is being set by the next US president. Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone this afternoon with the incoming Republican and both men agreed to work toward “constructive cooperation” between the US and Russia. According to the Kremlin website, the two agreed to “return to pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation, which would address the interests of both countries as well as stability and safety the world over.”

It would not be unrealistic to see the removal of some US sanctions on Russia (and Russian counter-sanctions) as one of the early acts of President Trump.

Has the “Cold War II” crowd been silence by this surprise move toward a thaw in US/Russian relations? We can only hope that this surprise move has put a monkey wrench in their plans. For the neocons, who have few actual salable skills, survival and prosperity depends on them finding and promoting the next “Hitler” of the day. They had their Saddam, Gaddafi, Assad, etc. But turning the US against Russia and Putin should have kept them on easy street for many years to come.

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Yellow warning light, however: Rumors continue to persist that President-elect Trump is fishing in the neocon pond as he looks to fill the all-important Secretary of State position. Leading candidates like former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton have hewed strongly to the neocon line on Russia and US interventionism. Would such a Secretary of State undermine any move toward rapprochement with Russia? It is certainly possible.

Meanwhile, that sound you are hearing is the neocons gnashing their teeth from within their Beltway think tank offices.

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