Russia Is Not Now, Nor Has It Ever Been, The United States’ “Friend”

Recently, in response to posts of the images herein, some made remarks pursuant to Americans’ involvement in Russian matters. More specifically, they concerned visits by retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn’s December 2015 visit to Russia in December, and Rex Tillerson’s 2013 award by Vladimir Putin.

A: “But not from made up stories…..”

In 2013, Vadimir Putin (LEFT) personally awarded Rex Tillerson (RIGHT) with Russia’s Order of Friendship medal, which is the highest honor Russia bestows on foreign citizens, and is given to foreigners whom the Russian government believes have helped Russia and its people.

Me: “The image of United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Putin is from Putin’s award to him with Russia’s Order of Friendship medal in 2013.

“Here’s another goodie!

“Michael Flynn and Vladimir Putin at a 2015 dinner for the RT news channel in Moscow. RT is Russia’s propaganda “news” agency, along with “Sputnik.” Photograph: Michael Klimentyev/ Sputnik/Kremlin/EPA”

A: “You can also find where Obama and his cronies met with Russians too”

Me: When President Obama met with Putin at the G8 and G20 summits, it was in his official capacity as President and world leader.

“When Mike Flynn met with Putin December 10, 2015, he did so as a private citizen/civilian, because he retired from the Army in April 2014 after he had been fired from his position as Director of Defense Intelligence Agency because, which as Colin Powell had been told by Defense Intelligence Agency director Vincent R. Stewart, was because Flynn was “abusive with staff, didn’t listen, worked against policy, bad management, etc.”

Michael Flynn (seated LEFT, holding device to ear) and Vladimir Putin (seated RIGHT) at a December 10, 2015 dinner for the RT news channel in Moscow. RT is Russia’s propaganda “news” agency, along with “Sputnik.” Photograph: Michael Klimentyev/ Sputnik/Kremlin/EPA

“After he retired from the Army, Flynn went to work for RT, which is the Russian government-supported propaganda agency. Flynn is also a Registered Foreign Agent with the Justice Department.

“In their January 2017 report “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections,” America’s intelligence agencies reported that RT was “The Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet” and that RT America is set up as an autonomous nonprofit organization “to avoid the Foreign Agents Registration Act.”

“Same thing for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson – who has never held public office or trust – he was a private citizen when Putin awarded him Russia’s Order of Friendship medal.

“And let me tell you something and make it EXPLICITLY CLEAR:
Anyone friendly to Russia is my ENEMY!

“Just because Russia is “not Communist” anymore does NOT mean that they’re our friend.

“Russia has ALWAYS been our enemy, from the times of the Czars, and even now.”

B: “Same thing for McCain and Graham. Except private global business or citizens are allowed to meet and or contract with any private global business or citizen . it si not against any law. Obviously NOT being in the government they were not conducting any government business. How do you explain clinton foundation all over the global receiving payments and donations from foreign governments and citizens since Bill left office and while Hillary was not sworn public servant. IF Trump or associates are “guilty” of anything then so are the rest.

“Strange Russia always being our global UN Ally in war huh? such an enemy.except ones we start with Russia or a Russian trade partner.”

Me: “The matter hardly as simplistic as you make it seem. And the adage that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is in fact, a fallacy.

“Following the Soviet invasion of Finland December 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt publicly condemned the Soviet Union as a “dictatorship as absolute as any other dictatorship in the world,” and imposed a “moral embargo” on the export of certain products to them.

“At that time, there were at least two – and likely more – global enemies, Hitler’s Nazi Germany, and Josef Stalin’s Soviet Russia, and while the former posed a greater threat than the latter, Russia’s self-interests where threatened by Nazi Germany.

“Strategically, Roosevelt confidentially said that, if necessary to defeat Hitler’s global threat, he “would hold hands with the devil.”

“In July 1940, United States Under-Secretary of State Sumner Welles and Soviet Ambassador Constantine Oumansky began a series of negotiations in which Welles refused to accede to Soviet demands to recognize “new borders” of the Soviet Union which would include Finland, Poland, Romania, and the reincorporation of the Baltic Republics in August 1940, and further refused to lift the embargo, though it was relented in January 1941.

“Secretary Welles warned Ambassador Oumansky March 1941 that Nazi Germany was determined to attack the Soviet Union, and during Congressional debate on the Lend-Lease bill, Roosevelt blocked attempts to exclude the Soviet Union from receiving U.S. assistance, which initiated a pathway for collaboration against Germany. Though the Soviets were leery, in June following German invasion, they entered into a strategic alliance with the United States to defeat Nazi Germany.

“When President Roosevelt immediately dispatched his trusted aide Harry Lloyd Hopkins to Moscow to assess Russia’s military, the War Department warned that Russia could not withstand more than six weeks attack, Hopkins urged Roosevelt to assist the Soviets. So by October’s end, the first Lend-Lease assistance to the Russian Soviet Union was underway. And by late 1941 when the United States entered WWII as a belligerent, it was directly coordinating with Great Britain and the Soviets to eradicate the evil face of Hitler’s German Nazis.

“America’s tenuous relationship with Soviet Russia wasn’t easy, and it was fraught with difficulties which included the Soviet’s refusal to abide the Polish Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising August 1944, which in turn led American and British officials to exclude the Soviet Russians from secret negotiations with German officers March 1945 in an effort to secure the surrender of Nazi German troops in Italy.

“One of the most perilous moments in the strategic relationship came when Stalin’s Soviet troops were struggling to hold the Eastern front against Nazi forces, whereupon Soviets plead for a British invasion of France in tactical retaliation following Nazi German invasion in 1941. One year later, Roosevelt promised that Allies (not including Soviet Russia) would open a second front in the autumn, though it was postponed until 1943, which caused Stalin great consternation, and his frustration reached the tipping point when it was postponed until May 1944, and in retaliation, withdrew Russian ambassadors from London and Washington, which raised fears that the Russian Soviet Union might seek a separate peace pact with Nazi Germany.

“Following American and British invasion of France in 1944, the Allies finally accomplished what they had hoped, which was to drain Nazi Germany of strength by fighting on two fronts. In conjunction with America’s atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki pursuant to Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack, Soviet Russia withdrew their Japanese neutrality pact and invaded Manchuria, which in turn led to the war’s end in the Pacific.

“Roosevelt and Stalin met at Tehran and Yalta, whereupon Roosevelt secured concessions from Stalin to participate in the United Nations, which participation he hoped would moderate their totalitarianism.”