Fox News Interviews Vladimir Putin
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Host Chris Wallace interviewed Russia’s president in Helsinki after July 16 summit talks with Trump - both leaders unfairly scathed for meeting face-to-face to discuss vital issues at length.
That’s what diplomacy is all about, the only way nations can get along, notably when major issues separate them, especially when a nation like Russia and its president are unfairly maligned by the country operating as its main adversary.
Putin said he and Trump agreed on the importance of combatting terrorism, knowing he opposes the scourge Trump and rogue elements in his regime support.
Putin want the New START Treaty extended before its 2021 expiration. Russia is compliant, not Washington, making any agreements with the US likely to be breached by whatever right-wing of its duopoly rule is in power.
Putin wants the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran preserved. Trump disgracefully pulled out, wanting it undermined altogether.
His mid-June summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un already is beginning to unravel over unacceptable US demands. Can Russia hope to fare better in dealings with Washington? Not likely!
Putin claiming “a lot of things changed for the better” after summit talks with Trump amounted to little more than putting a brave face on an intractable situation - other than explaining US-led Western efforts to isolate Russia failed.
He again straightforwardly stressed that “Russia…never interfered with the internal affairs of the United States, let alone its elections,” adding:
“(D)o you really believe that someone acting from the Russian territory could have influenced the United States and influenced the choice of millions of Americans?” The notion is “utterly ridiculous.”
Believe him. It’s true. No evidence refutes him. If it existed, it would have been publicly revealed long ago. It never was because there’s nothing to reveal except Big Lies.
Putin explained he and Trump met in Helsinki “to try to find a way for improving our relationship and not aggravate it or destroy it completely” - a near impossible objective to achieve, he failed to explain regardless of how much he and Trump want differences resolved.
Powerful forces in America want adversarial relations maintained. That’s the key obstacle preventing improved relations - no closer to achieving now than before summit talks.
Were they a waste of time? When two leaders talk, relations between their countries can benefit, providing their political establishments seek this outcome.
Russia’s does, not dark forces running America. On Syria, Putin blamed ISIS and other terrorists, along with US terror-bombing of Raqqa and elsewhere, causing mass slaughter and destruction - not Russian aerial operations or Syrian forces, fighting to liberate the country from terrorists infesting it.
Wallace made spurious accusations against Moscow and Damascus regarding the ongoing war. Putin responded, saying “(y)ou are completely deceived, and I am very sorry that you do not know the real situation in…Syria.”
He compared US terror-bombing of Raqqa to Nazi Germany’s Stalingrad campaign, responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Wallace is like other media scoundrels, blaming victims and others for US high crimes against them, supporting imperial lawlessness instead of condemning it.
Putin put down the false Crimea annexation Big Lie, explaining Crimeans overwhelmingly chose to rejoin Russia by national referendum, judged open, free and fair by international observers.
Russia deplores an arms race, Putin explained. It occurred “as a response to the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the ABM treaty” - a flagrant Bush/Cheney breach of an important agreement.
Putin denounced the notion that Russia had anything to do with the Skripal incident in London, explaining not a shred of evidence backs the false accusation.
He was overwhelmingly elected and reelected Russia’s president, a democratic process shaming America’s money-controlled sham system.
He’s no autocrat, strongman or dictator as falsely claimed by extremists in America and the West.
No Western country has leadership matching his stature, notably his support for world peace and stability, strongly opposing endless wars of aggression - how America, NATO and their rogue allies operate, not Russia.
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