[Tintin Storm]

Russia will respond to the US sanctions imposed in connection to the poisoning of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the United Kingdom in a pragmatic manner and on a reciprocal basis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview released on Tuesday.
"For our part, we will continue to act in a calm and pragmatical manner, responding to all the attacks according to the principle of reciprocity," Lavrov told Slovakia's Pravda newspaper.
The minister once again reiterated that it was futile to use the language of ultimatums with respect to Russia.
Sergey Lavrov said in an interview that after the Helsinki summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump the two countries have been elaborating concrete steps to ensure the effective cooperation between Moscow and Washington.
Lavrov recalled that during July's summit Putin and Trump agreed to overcome existing differences in order to preserve strategic stability, fight international terrorism and other modern challenges and deal with regional crises.
"Currently concrete steps are being elaborated in order to ensure effective interaction on various fronts," the Russian foreign minister told Slovakia's Pravda newspaper.
Lavrov, at the same time, stressed that the main challenge was the US internal political conjuncture, which opposed vigorously any attempts to improve relations with Moscow.
According to the minister, the strained relations between Russia and the United States have adverse effect on the both countries.
"It is evident that the negative dynamic of relations is counterproductive for the both countries and creates additional risks for the entire international security architecture," Lavrov stressed.
Sergey Lavrov also commented on the Russian Internet Research Agency suspected by Washington of attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election is currently challenging these allegations in the US courts.
"Speaking about the St.Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency mentioned by you, it is contesting in the US courts the charges brought against businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin and his employees at the beginning of the year," Lavrov told Slovakia's Pravda newspaper when asked to comment on the charges brought against the agency.
Lavrov also recalled that as early as 20 years ago Russia initiated the discussion of the information security issues under the aegis of the United Nations and recently called on the international community to adopt a resolution establishing rules for the countries' conduct in the information space at the upcoming UN General Assembly.
The United States has repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller's team has been investigating allegations of collusion between Russia and the US President Donald Trump's campaign. Trump and top Russian officials have repeatedly refuted the allegations.
On August 8, the US administration announced new sanctions against Russia, consisting of two packages, due to its alleged use of chemical weapons in the poisoning of the Skripals in the UK city of Salisbury in March.
According to media reports, the second round of sanctions, which might be imposed in November, might include scaling back diplomatic relations between the two countries, suspending flights of Russian airline Aeroflot to the United States and almost complete cessation of US exports to the country. According to the US State Department, Russia could avoid the second round of sanctions by assuring it would not use chemical weapons in the future.
Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in the Skripals case, stressing that London has neither provided evidence nor cooperated with Moscow in investigating the incident.

[Tintin Storm]

Veteran German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger is calling the influence of US President Donald Trump on the world stage a prime mover in directing the attention of Germany away from Washington and toward China and Russia.
The more Trump is allowed to wield his increasingly implausible foreign policy decisions, the more likely it becomes that Germany will seek to strengthen its alliances with Russia and China, Ischinger noted in a conversation with Reuters prior to the publication of a new book.
The current chairman of the Munich Security Conference and a former German ambassador to the US, Ischinger called attention to Trump's powerfully destabilizing influence as leader of the wealthiest nation in the world.
In only one and a half years, Trump has removed the US from the landmark 2016 Paris climate accord, ditched America's participation in the hard-fought 2015 JCPOA Iran nuclear deal, and is now threatening to withdraw from the intergovernmental World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The strikingly unpopular US leader has consistently complained that Germany's trade surplus and defense spending are an affront to US economic health and national security.
"The longer Trump remains in office, the harder it will be to stand up to those in this country and elsewhere in Europe who have been arguing since the Vietnam war that we need to cut the cord with America the bully," Ischinger observed, cited by Reuters.
Speaking of the longstanding post-World War II ties Berlin has enjoyed with Washington, Ischinger commented: "It would become much harder for the German government to stay the course and defend this relationship," adding, "a closer relationship with countries like Russia or China might be emboldened."
Recent surveys in Germany have shown that citizens of Europe's wealthiest nation have a remarkably low opinion of the US president, and that a clear majority view Trump as a larger foreign policy issue than authoritarian governments in Turkey, the Philippines or the DPRK.
The German diplomat noted foreign policy decrees of the current White House — consisting primarily of sanctions — and the capricious way that Trump, a former reality TV producer, has threatened to economically punish German and other companies working with Russia to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
"If US sanctions are applied to prevent Nord Stream 2, the repercussions will be poisonous for the transatlantic relationship," he said, cited by Reuters.
"Even if you have doubts about the wisdom of Nord Stream 2, it is hard not to see this as a serious violation, as an instance of the US forcing its views on the Europeans."
Ischinger's new book, World in Danger, seeks to empower Germans to keep faith in the US as a democratic society while recommending Berlin now take a larger role on the world stage, moving beyond Europe and the EU.

[Soldmann]

Germany has no alliances with China or Russia and at least as long as Merkel is Chancellor it will remain a vassal state of the USA. Only exception I noticed was the treaty with Iran to prevent them getting nuclear weapons. They really try to sabotage Trump's politic in this. If Trump seriously attempts to prevent North Stream 2 by using sanctions against Germany, Merkel could threaten to drop the sanctions vs Russia to compensate for the loss. So I doubt this will happen. It's true though that Trump seems very strange from the point of view of a German.

[Baff]

Germany spends sod all on defence.
With 4 Eurofighters and 96 (shared) tanks. They can't even support a force of 2,500 troops abroad.

Like China, Russia spends bundles on defence. Is actively rearming and refitting.
They have an active military of 6.5 million and a further 30 mill in reserve.

During the oil boom Putin spent that money of refitting his military. Just as China has.
China now has the world's greatest Navy, Russia still have the world's greatest army and nuclear force.

And America is declining militarily. It's NATO allies have declined to the point of being 100% redundant as fighting forces. Able to offer zero mutual defence.

So what's occurring is instead of favouring it's allies and spending it's money of building allied defences Germany is funding the expansion of NATO's enemies and defunding NATO's defences.

With friends like this....who needs enemies?

Trump is not pushing this.
Germans are simply trying to have it both ways.

Not to spend their own money on defence.
To buy the cheapest goods.
And still to be members of a defence pact without making any commitment to it.

And they won't recognise themselves in this. And will argue the case and paint themselves the abused victim.

So off to Russia and China. Jog on Germany. Do one.
Enjoy your sanctions, you have earned them. If you are not willing to be part of the West, go join the East.
There is no cage here to keep you.

You don't like what Trump is telling you. Boo hoo.
Off you go.

[Soldmann]

With friends like this....who needs enemies?

Henry Kissinger — ‘America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests’

Not to spend their own money on defence.
To buy the cheapest goods.
And still to be members of a defence pact without making any commitment to it.

Exactly. I'd say this is a correct analysis.

So off to Russia and China. Jog on Germany. Do one.
Enjoy your sanctions, you have earned them. If you are not willing to be part of the West, go join the East.
There is no cage here to keep you.

Since when is the NATO the West? Austria our neighbor is also not in the NATO. In fact being kicked from the NATO would make things easier for Germany. At least I don't see that Austria has any disadvantages from it.

[Baff]

The West vs the East, NATO vs Russia and China.

I think most NATO members are to the Wast of them geographically.
As far as I 'm aware the the term "The West" was coined before I was born.

The USSR was often called the Eastern Bloc.

[Tintin Storm]

US President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that Russia has expressed a desire to receive economic assistance from the United States and also commended his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I had a great meeting with Vladimir Putin, great meeting. I talked about everything, we will do great. And don't forget — Russia wants our help economically. We have created such wealth. I have done a really good job – $11.7 trillion. Russia wants us to be involved. Everybody wants our help,” Trump said at a rally in the US state of Illinois.
Following Trump's January 2017 inauguration, the US president has met with Putin several times on the sidelines of various international events. Putin and Trump met for their first full-fledged summit in Helsinki on July 16 of this year. The two presidents had a one-on-one private conversation followed by an expanded meeting. Putin and Trump discussed the Syrian refugee crisis, the situation in Ukraine and nuclear proliferation, among other issues.
Trump faced overwhelming criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for his remarks at a post-summit press conference in which the US president accepted Russian denials that Moscow had meddled in the 2016 presidential election. US authorities have been investigating the allegations about Trump's campaign team potentially colluding with Russia, and claimed that Moscow meddled in the election process to help Trump win against then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Russian authorities have repeatedly refuted all allegations of election meddling.
Relations between the United States and Russia worsened following the two countries’ disagreement over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. The United States imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia after Crimea held a referendum in 2014 in which a vast majority of residents chose to reunify with Russia.
Meanwhile, according to a survey carried out by the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia in April, most US companies remain positive about their work in Russia, despite sanctions imposed by Washington. In particular, the survey revealed that almost 70 percent of US businesses intended to start new projects in Russia in 2019, and almost 90 percent planned to either increase their investment in Russia or at least maintain them.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Wednesday that prospects for the development of the Russia-US economic relations were better than they appear.
I want to confirm the continued interest of business circles in both countries to expand cooperation and at least continue in-depth interaction […] Including start-ups, the aviation industry, and pharmaceuticals," Ryabkov told Russia's Channel One broadcaster.
"The sanctions hinder, but life is taking over, the US delegation is the most numerous at the SPIEF for the second year in a row […] I think that the prospects are better in the economy than it seems,” he said.
In August, the Fitch ratings agency said that Russia's economy has coped easily with the April round of measures announced by the US Treasury Department.
The ratings agency projected Russia's GDP growth to reach 1.8 percent in 2018, before slowing to 1.5 percent in 2019.

[Potemkin]

"Sanctions? What sanctions?"