Henry Kissinger has 'advised Donald Trump to accept' Crimea as part of Russia

[johen]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/pe...-a7497646.html

"Is the veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger working to secure a rapprochement between the US and Moscow by pushing for an end to sanctions in exchange for the removal of Russian troops from eastern Ukraine?

A flurry of reports suggest the 93-year-old diplomat is positioning himself as a intermediary between Vladimir Putin and President-elect Donald Trump. He has publicly praised Mr Trump, and traveled to Trump Tower in New York to offer his counsel built on decades of lobbying and diplomacy.

A report in the German tabloid Der Bild headlined ‘Kissinger to prevent new Cold War’, claimed the former envoy was working towards a new relationship with Russia.

This would involve the US accepting that Crimea, a Ukrainian territory that Russia seized in March 2014, now belongs to Moscow. In exchange, Russia would remove troops and military supplies to rebels in eastern Ukraine which have fighting a war against the Ukrainian government.

The report did not provide details, but claimed that “sources” said that Mr Kissinger was drawing up a “master plan” for Ukraine.

Last week, Politico said Mr Kissinger was one of the few Americans to meet frequently with Mr Putin, along with movie star Steven Seagal and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, Mr Trump’s pick for the next secretary of state.

“The 93-year-old Kissinger is positioning himself as a potential intermediary - meeting with the president-elect in private and flattering him in public,” it said.

“Like Trump, Kissinger has also cast doubt on intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia sought to sway the election in Trump's favor, telling a recent interviewer ‘They were hacking, but the use they allegedly made of this hacking eludes me’.”

Mr Trump’s views on Russia’s annexation of Crimea appeared to change during the course of the election campaign - reportedly as a result of the influence of former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has worked for Ukraine’s deposed pro-Russian president. Inquiries to Mr Kissinger's lobbying firm in New York were not immediately answered on Tueday.

After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Mr Trump voiced opposition and said it “should never have happened.”

However, in August he told one US interviewer: “The people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.”

Politico said that Mr Kissinger, who levied as secretary of state to presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, has long argued that promoting a greater balance of power between the US and Russia would improve global stability.

Yet skeptics fear Mr Kissinger, who was behind the massive, secret US bombing campaigns in Indo-China in the late 1960s and 1970s, risks rewarding Russia despite its controversial role in events such as the Syrian civil war, where Mr Putin has sided with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.[/quote]

[N1019]

Ever since Russia started actively helping Assad and the US went into the Ukraine I've been saying that some sort of American-Russian deal, possibly secret, involving the bargaining chips of the Ukraine and Syria, is on the cards. If it happens, the two powers may walk away relatively happy, but the collateral damage could be severe.

I'm pretty sure Russia needs a deal more than the US. It has put on a brave face and kept fighting through difficult times, but its finances are not in a good way.

[Mingle]

Ever since Russia started actively helping Assad and the US went into the Ukraine I've been saying that some sort of American-Russian deal, possibly secret, involving the bargaining chips of the Ukraine and Syria, is on the cards. If it happens, the two powers may walk away relatively happy, but the trouble with continue for those caught up in its consequences.

Do you think USA will recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia's separation from Georgia?

[N1019]

Do you think USA will recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia's separation from Georgia?

I don't know. Have there been any recent developments on that front? I haven't been following it.

To be honest, I wish the US would stay out of former Soviet territory, but they have been incrementally encroaching on the former Warsaw Pact and beyond ever since the fall of the USSR. Unfortunately, it seems that once Putin decided to get behind Assad in a big way, the US felt threatened enough to move into the Ukraine. Now, they both have bargaining chips and they will surely try to use them to extract concessions from each other. The way I see it, the Middle East is far more important to the US than former USSR territory, and they want Russia to stay out of their way in that region.

[Mingle]

I don't know. Have there been any recent developments on that front? I haven't been following it.

To be honest, I wish the US would stay out of former Soviet territory. Unfortunately, it seems that once Putin decided to get behind Assad in a big way, the US felt threatened enough to move into the Ukraine.

I haven't heard anything on it either. Trump likely doesn't even know Abkhazia and South Ossetia even exist as of now, so the question was just pure speculation. Based on Trump's attitude towards Ukraine-Russia, I think he will try to recognize them when the issue comes up but I was wondering if there were any reasons why he wouldn't.

[N1019]

I haven't heard anything on it either. Trump likely doesn't even know Abkhazia and South Ossetia even exist as of now, so the question was just pure speculation. Based on Trump's attitude towards Ukraine-Russia, I think he will try to recognize them when the issue comes up but I was wondering if there were any reasons why he wouldn't.

Rex Tillerson, Trump's Secretary of State and Chief Executive of ExxonMobil apparently has a good knowledge of and relationship with the Russians. This only adds weight to the theory that some sort of handshake is in the pipeline. But when world powers shake hands and walk away happy, that doesn't mean everyone else will be fine - they just avoid war with each other. It is very likely that third parties will get screwed in the wake of a Russian-American deal. I'm putting my money (just a few shillings) on Syria and Iran.

The Ukraine and sanctions are more important to Russia than Syria... maybe... although either of the proposed pipelines through Syria are a big problem for Russia.

Syria/Iran are more important to the US than the Ukraine.


Rhetoric is rhetoric, and it's hard to sort the bullshit from the serious stuff. At the moment we have Trump saying all sorts of things, like:

We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments. …In our dealings with other countries we will seek shared interests wherever possible…”

You might look at that and think, "oh, it looks like Trump will turn over a new leaf for US foreign policy and there won't be more war", but I think that would be a mistake of confirmation bias. Those words are what people want to hear. They are the stuff of fantasy. And they fit the gameplan perfectly. Even George W. Bush said broadly similar things as a presidential candidate, but like Trump's appears to be, his was a regime of the military and oil industrial complexes and things changed after he assumed office.

Looking at the big names of Trump's incoming administration, their words are rather different to his quoted above.

“I believe that Iran represents a clear and present danger to the region, and eventually to the world…” and, “…regime change in Tehran is the best way to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program.”

- Michael Flynn, Lt Gen (ret), Trump's National Security Advisor

“The Iranian regime is intent on the destruction of our country. Why the President does not understand is unfathomable.”

- Mike Pompeo, incoming Director of the CIA, attacking Obama's approach to Iran

“The Iranian regime in my mind is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.

- James Mattis, Gen (ret), incoming Secretary of Defense