In 2012, I voted not so much FOR you as AGAINST Mitt Romney, because he participated in the plunder of Russia and undermining the health of young Russians. Do you not believe me? Then read what two American journalists wrote about Romney’s, and other Americans’ role in Russian reforms: “It was part of a free-for-all that involved wholesale looting of major industries, as Western technocrats helped facilitate the transfer of Russia’s wealth into the hands of a few oligarchs. That set in motion a populist backlash that helped sweep Vladimir Putin into power, giving the Kremlin dominance over a country Romney has lately called our ‘number one geopolitical enemy.’”[16]

There were early alarm signals from US diplomats as well. Writes E. Wayne Merry, Chief Political Analyst at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from 1990-1994:  “we created a virtual open shop for thievery at a national level and for capital flight in terms of hundreds of billions of dollars, and the raping of natural resources and industries on a scale which I doubt has ever taken place in human history.”

As to the claim that the U.S. has the mission to promote democracy throughout the world, Merry tells otherwise:  “I think the election of December 1993 was a clear and legitimate expression of Russian popular will and a rejection of the economic policies that Washington and the Treasury Department and the IMF had pushed on Russia. And when faced with popular rejection, the choice was to ignore popular will and to press on with the policy, and I think there was a huge cost on the long-term development of rule of law and constitutional government in Russia for making that choice.”[17] 

I also recommend Janine Wedel’s excellent book Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe. An anthropologist, Wedel argues that the collision between two groups of people, Russian reformers and their American advisers, whose cultural patterns and mentality were too different, was inevitable. Instead of meaningful open cooperation, the collision degenerated into collusion between the least conscientious on both sides. Contrary to US rules that require competitive bidding, says Wedel, the now defunct Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) got the exclusive contract for reforms in Russia because the rules were suspended “for foreign policy considerations”. By the way, Ukraine too suffered from US meddling then. Janine’s book won the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.

Dealing with Russia, one must always keep in mind that in the 20th century it endured 73 years of totalitarian rule, including the suppression and humiliation of all religions, especially Christianity. Many Americans know about that through the writings of Alexander Solzhenitsyn whose refuge in Vermont proved to be a blessing not only for Russia but also for the United States. The corporate media likes to portray Putin as former KGB officer in East Germany who regards the collapse of the USSR as a tragedy and feels a nostalgia for Soviet times.

What they leave out is that Putin was a witness to the tragedy of the Russian people in the 1990s, the scope of which can hardly be understood by Americans unless they have lived through the Great Depression.  It is not for nothing that Putin has befriended Solzhenitsyn and his widow Natalya and regularly shows up at a Russian church. Most importantly, upon assuming the presidency, Putin’s first item on the agenda was to restore Russia’s SOVEREIGNTY. That is why his popular support is so strong.

As it happens, this year I celebrate two anniversaries. One is the 40 years since I became US citizen in Dallas, Texas, in October of 1976. The other is the 50th anniversary since I set foot on American soil in 1966 when I was invited as a fellow of Slavic Area Studies at the University of Chicago. Coming to America ended my career in Sweden to which I defected in October 1962. I am and always will be grateful to the United States for giving me - along with hundreds of other Soviet dissidents and defectors - a refuge, hospitality, security, opportunity for education, and freedom for research, teaching and writing.

Alas, the changes in this country during in the post-Cold war years were not always for the better. Tom Pauken, a Dallas lawyer and friend of mine, who later became a member of President Reagan’s administration, secured my US citizenship in 1976. In his 2010 book, Bringing America Home, Tom bemoans, “What became of an American culture that once was guided by the principles of Christianity?” “Bringing America Home not only explains how we lost our way,” says its jacket, “but shows how our founding principles can help us find our way back”. I agree that America desperately needs to find her way.

 I also agree with the thrust of Ambassador Jack Matlock’s book “Superpower Illusions: How Myths and False Ideologies Led America Astray--And How to Return to Reality.” Matlock is right that “during the Clinton and particularly the Bush-Cheney administrations, the belief that the United States had defeated the Soviet Union led to a conviction that it did not need allies, international organizations, or diplomacy, but could dominate and change the world by using its military power unilaterally”. Both Pauken’s and Matlock’s books were published under your watch, Mr. President. You should have taken a cue, but you did not. Such inattention doomed you to follow in Bush’s and Clinton’s footsteps.

A former student of mine at the Monterey Institute of International Studies just sent me a link to Margaret Kimberley’s November 6, 2016, article titled “Russophobia: War Party Propaganda”.[18] It is right on target: “The corporate media, led by newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post, are front and center in pushing tales of Russian villainy. Human Rights Watch and other organizations who care nothing about abuses committed by the United States and its allies are also playing their usual role of choosing the next regime change victim.”

The current tensions with Russia are so severe as to threaten the survival of Planet Earth. Therefore, I take it as my civic duty to give you my recommendations as to how you could salvage the hope that made the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to you possible. You might use the remaining days in office by setting up a peace-loving agenda that your successor could not refuse:

First, no POTUS can act wisely unless there is access to reliable information. You have denied yourself such access when you, for instance, failed to fight for Chas Freeman as chair of the National Intelligence Council. Make sure that the next administration is not spoon-fed by the Neo-Cons and their allies in the academic establishment and the corporate media. It is them whom my friend Israel Shamir calls the Masters of Discource.

Start the legislative process for breaking up the corporate media conglomerates and, at least, make the current anti-monopoly laws stick in pursuit of the violators. Brother Nathanael Kapner, a New York Jew who converted to Russian Christianity, goes as far as to propose nationalization of the media.[19] In the very least, a national debate on media abuses is in order.

As the most powerful nation in the world, the USA should work jointly with other powerful nations such as Russia, China, India, and the EU - always under the auspices of the UN - as honest brokers aiming for a compromise between the warring parties.

This especially applies to the conflict in Ukraine. The US should encourage  the Ukrainian government to try to resolve its inter-ethnic conflict between Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians in the same civilized and patient Western way as is done between Flemish and Wallons in Belgium, Catalans and Basques in Spain, Scots, Welsh and Irish in the UK, Quebec in Canada, etc.. Let Switzerland serve as a model to emulate. After all, the Ukrainians and Russians are considerably closer to each other linguistically and culturally than the conflicting groups in any of the above countries. Ukraine’s prospective integration with the EU should not lead to severing economic, cultural, and political ties with Russia.

The Middle East cannot be healed until a peace agreement is reached between Israel and Palestine (both on the West Bank and in Gaza). Both the the Quartet (the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations) and the Arab Peace Initiative should be revived ASAP and put to work. You said it yourself on June 9, 2009: “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. It is time for these settlements to stop.” Before your term expires, make sure that your successor immediately carries out what you were prevented from doing.

We should admit to ourselves that ISIL (Daesh) would not have emerged without Iraq’s destruction by US bombardment, invasion and occupation. Likewise, the Western attack of Muammar Gadhafi’s Libya created a lot more problems than it solved. Therefore, tell your successor that the regime change strategy belongs to the past.

The US should undertake the initiative of either eliminating or limiting and regulating the use of drones for killing suspected terrorists not only for human rights considerations but also because “collateral” damage from such attacks produces an endless string of suicide avengers. Calling for an international forum, under the aegis of the United Nations, is the first order of things.

Stop supplying weapons to regions and countries where there is civil strife threatening to escalate to civil and international war;

I just met a fellow Veteran for Peace member, Captain (Ret.) Ron Fisher. Learning that I have been in correspondence with you, he asked me to send you his greetings, as well as a series of proposals to secure a peaceful, prosperous, and just life on Planet Earth. You can find it at http://www.wethepeoplenow.org/plan_sdg.htm. Ron is a Naval Academy graduate who served on four nuclear submarines including as Executive Officer of both a nuclear attack and a ballistic missile submarine. He also was trained in the use of both tactical and strategic nuclear weapons. He made nine ballistic missile submarine patrols and six special operations on nuclear attack submarines. His awards include the Legion of Merit, two Navy Commendation Medals, the Navy Achievement Medal, the Navy Expeditionary Medal and the Vietnam Service Medal.

Last, but not the least, I would like to ask you, Mr. President, for something that you can do single-handedly. Please use, before the end of your term, your presidential prerogatives and pardon Edward Snowden. Let him return to the United States, a country that he loves and that has already benefitted[20] from his perhaps illegal deed, committed, I believe, in quest for higher conscience for humankind. I had to wait almost twenty-nine years before the Soviet authorities decided to “rehabilitate” me, for lack of corpus delict, in not returning from Sweden. Every government that fails to integrate dissent as an essential ingredient of public welfare runs the risk of defections and death by brain drain.[21]

As I conclude this letter, I cannot help looking for wise men to guide both of us as they indeed have guided my RAGA project.

“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.” - George Washington

“True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity, before it is entitled to the appellation.” - George Washington

“I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together”. - Edmund Burke

So help us God!

Sincerely,

W George Krasnow, Ph.D. (aka Vladislav Krasnov)

President, RAGA.org

P. S. On February 11, 2012, I mailed you a letter I had written on behalf of some people of my native town of Perm. In spite of the unfortunate incident at the airport,[22] I know many Permians were delighted by your visit there as part of your job as Senator. A photograph was enclosed. I never got an acknowledgement, but I want you to know that my invitation to you and Michelle to visit Perm still stands.

(Concluded)

Notes

1] https://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/obama-s-perestroika-challenge-us-russia-0 W. GEORGE KRASNOW 7 January 2009

2] http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/06/clinton-goofs-russian-translation-tells-diplomat-wants-overcharge-ties.html

3] U.S. Policy and the Geopolitical Dynamics of the Middle East, Chas Freeman, June 9, 2016

http://www.raga.org/news/us-policy-and-the-geopolitical-dynamics-of-the-middle-east-chas-freeman

4] The Neoconservative Movement is Trotskyism. By Jonas E. Alexis on January 22, 2013

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/01/22/the-neoconservative-movement-is-trotskyism/

5] World Russia Forum 2011: Is “Reset” Enough? By Dr. George Krasnow on April 8, 2011. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/04/08/world-russia-forum-2011-is-%E2%80%9Creset%E2%80%9D-enough/

6] More https://consortiumnews.com/2016/10/02/obama-warned-to-defuse-tensions-with-russia/ of October 2, 2016 ALERT MEMORANDUM  FOR: The President/FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

7] http://www.veteranstoday.com.metacomment.io/2011/02/18/vets-for-peace-demands-apology-from-hillary-clinton/ Vets for Peace Demands Apology from Hilliary Clinton. By Dr. George Krasnow on February 18, 2011

McGOVERN, VET, CIA RETIREE, BLOODIED BY DC COPS. VETERANS’ GROUP DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM SECRETARY OF STATE. HILLARY CLINTON WATCHES AS POLICE MANHANDLE PEACEFUL PROTESTER at George Washington University, Washington D.C., February 15, 2011.

8] https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/feb/07/eu-us-diplomat-victoria-nuland-phonecall-leaked-video

9] http://www.raga.org/news/the-folly-of-the-new-cold-war-by-vladislav-krasnov

10] W. George Krasnow, “What the West Missed About Ukraine”, 4/29/2014  http://www.raga.org/news/what-the-west-missed-about-ukraine

11] U.S. Policy and the Geopolitical Dynamics of the Middle East. By Chas Freeman, June 9, 2016

http://www.raga.org/news/us-policy-and-the-geopolitical-dynamics-of-the-middle-east-chas-freeman

12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_Syria%27s_chemical_weapons

13] Mark Landler, «For President, Two Full Terms of Fighting Wars: An Unexpected Legacy”, The New York Times, May 15, 2016

14] W. George Krasnow, “Open Letter on the Russian Crisis”, http://russialist.org/archives/3094.html##8

15] http://www.russialist.org/archives/3112.html##5

16] Jason Cherkis and Zack Carter, “Mitt Romney’s Bain Made Millions On Big Tobacco In U.S., Russia”, The Huffington Post, 10/09/2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/mitt-romney-bain-tobacco_n_1949812.html.  Their article became the main source of my own article about Romney, Bain, and Russia, published in Russian magazine Predstavitel’naia vlast’, 2012 ?5, 6 (116, 117) http://www.pvlast.ru/archive/index.899.php

17] See Mr. E. Wayne Merry’s interview on PBS Frontline, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/yeltsin/interviews/merry.html

18] Margaret Kimberley’s November 06, 2016, article titled “Russophobia: War Party Propaganda”, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45793.htm

19] Nathanael Kapner, “If I Were President”, http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=1058

20 Three Largest Rights Groups in US Call on Obama for a Pardon. By Alex Emmons, The Intercept, Sep 19, 2016

http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/snowden-opens-three-largest-rights-groups-us-call-obama-pardon/ri16506

21] “To Defect or To Integrate? Edward Snowden’s Dilemma”. By W. George Krasnow, fitzgerald griffin foundation

http://www.fgfbooks.com/Krasnow-W.George/2013/Krasnow130905.html

22] http://www.politforums.net/eng/usa/1440759339.html