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Moscow accused the United States of hysteria today after reports that Russian nuclear submarines were patrolling off the East Coast of America. Russian officials responded vehemently to accusations that they were dabbling in Cold War-style cat-and-mouse manoeuvring but did not deny that two vessels had entered international waters just 200 miles of the US coast. “Activities of Russian submarines in the world’s oceans outside their own waters do not violate international maritime law and are within normal practice,” a military-diplomatic source told the Russian state media. US defence and intelligence officials told the New York Times that two Akula class...

Obama Regresses to Cold War Mythology … and Switches Sides Oleg Atbashian, a writer and graphic artist from Ukraine, currently lives in New York. He is the creator of ThePeoplesCube.com, a satirical website where he writes under the name of Red Square.     The world needs post-Cold War thinking. But Obama is stuck in a world of parochial clichés. (This is Part 1 of a series.) http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obama-regresses-to-cold-war-mythology-and-switches-sides/ Why is this president always doing the opposite of what needs to be done?Instead of supporting Iranian protesters, he snubs them. Instead of snubbing the ousted Honduran would-be dictator, he invites him to...

MOSCOW – A top Russian general says two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines that have been spotted off the U.S. East Coast are part of regular patrols. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff of Russia's armed forces, says the patrols are not newsworthy.

You know what this calls for? An Obama speech in Red Square about the common humanity that unites us in a struggle for blah blah blah blah. But the collapse of the Soviet Union all but eliminated the ability of the Russian Navy to operate far from home ports, making the current submarine patrols thousands of miles from Russia even more surprising for military officials and defense policy experts. “I don’t think they’ve put two first-line nuclear subs off the U.S. coast in about 15 years,” said Norman Polmar, a naval historian and expert on submarine warfare… The submarine patrols...

Defense officials say two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines have been patrolling in international waters off the East Coast for several days. The officials tell The Associated Press that while they haven't seen such unusual activity since the Cold War, the military is not overly concerned. They say the Russians have a right to conduct naval exercises and are operating according to international law. U.S. Northern Command would not comment on any details of the Russian submarines movement.

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense officials say two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines have been patrolling in international waters off the East Coast for several days.</p>

WASHINGTON — A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States over recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military.

WASHINGTON — A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States over recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military. The episode has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war. But the collapse of the Soviet Union all but eliminated the ability of the...

"U.S. Defense Department official said Georgia was not ready for weapons acquisition, the issue pushed by President Saakashvili before the Vice President Biden’s visit to Tbilisi. Celeste A. Wallander, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, however, also told a congressional panel on July 28, that the issue was “not off the table” in the future. She made the remarks at the hearing of U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe after she was asked to comment about President Saakashvili’s statement made in an interview with The Washington Post asking the U.S. to provide Georgia with defensive...

Vice President Joe Biden recently claimed that, because Russia’s economy is “withering,” Moscow will have to bend to the West, specifically on issues relating to the former Soviet republics and the reduction of its nuclear arsenal. But what Mr. Biden seems to be forgetting is the important role that Russia can play in the war in Afghanistan – after all, the road to Kabul runs through Moscow. Russia has no obligation to bend one way or the other. The country still exerts strong influence over most Central Asian states, including those directly bordering Afghanistan. In fact, Russia recently allowed—after nearly...

The Obama administration is not ruling out the possibility of Russian membership in NATO. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday that the United States would consider Russian membership in the military alliance that was founded to protect Europe from Soviet aggression. Gordon said NATO should be open to European democracies. He added that "if Russia meets the criteria and can contribute to common security, and there is a consensus in the alliance, it shouldn't be excluded." NATO is often vilified in Russia, which has objected to NATO's expansion to include Russia's neighbors. But the Obama administration,...

MOSCOW -- An interview U.S. Vice President Joe Biden gave to an American newspaper was front-page news Monday in Moscow, where his characterization of Russia as a weakened nation hit a raw nerve. Biden said Russia's economic difficulties are likely to make the Kremlin more willing to cooperate with the United States on a range of national security issues. "I think we vastly underestimate the hand that we hold," he said in an interview to The Wall Street Journal published Saturday. Biden's comments appeared to catch the Kremlin by surprise, coming less than three weeks after President Barack Obama said...

"Shut it, Joe! For a start, for “separatists”, read “terrorists” and if Joseph Biden supports Chechen terrorists it speaks volumes about his integrity as a politician, as a man and his competence as a member of the White House team. 95% of the Chechen people voted to remain inside Russian Federation in a free and fair democratic election. His “separatists” are criminals who control the drugs trafficking, human trafficking and arms trafficking trades and always have done. The Vice President of the United States of America is therefore pig-ignorant. One would have thought that after 9/11 an American citizen would...

Watching this President and Vice President is like turning on late night comedy... Oh...Chaiman of the Foreign Relations Committee, so smart on foreign policy... David Gergan: "It is damaging to international relations" Vice President Joe Biden says Russia will bend to U.S. demands on numerous national security issues due to a host of problems the country is currently experiencing. The vice president made the remarks in a Wall Street interview published Saturday. Biden tells the WSJ: "Russia has to make some very difficult, calculated decisions. They have a shrinking population base, they have a withering economy, they have a banking...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration considered Russia a "great power" and wanted it to be a strong and prosperous country, in an apparent effort to reassure Moscow that the White House remains committed to efforts to "reset" bilateral relations. Mrs. Clinton made the remarks in response to a question about Vice President Joe Biden's suggestion... that Russia's weakening economy was likely to make it more amenable to cooperate with the West on national security issues. Hillary Clinton said, "We view Russia as a great power." "We view Russia as a great power," Mrs. Clinton said on...

Clinton calls Russia a 'great power' after Biden's earlier, harsher remarks The secretary of State seeks to calm Moscow after Vice President Biden's recent comments that the country is badly damaged economically and its leadership is clinging to the past. Paul Richter July 26, 2009 Reporting from Washington -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today that the Obama administration viewed Russia as a "great power," despite Vice President Biden's observations that the former rival nation was saddled with deepening economic problems and backward-looking leadership. Clinton, seeking to take the edge off Biden's recent remarks, acknowledged that the longtime adversaries...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Russia's economy is withering and Moscow will be forced to make compromises with the West on a range of issues, US Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview. Biden told The Wall Street Journal these included national security issues, including loosening Moscow's grip on former Soviet republics and shrinking its vast nuclear arsenal. "All of sudden, did they have an epiphany and say: 'Hey man, we don't want to threaten our neighbors?' No," Biden said. "They can't sustain it." ... The geographical proximity of the emerging nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea is also likely...

MOSCOW — Just weeks after a summit meeting intended to show a thawing in relations between the United States and Russia, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. made blistering references to Russia’s failing economy, loss of face and a leadership that is “clinging to something in the past” in an interview published on Saturday. Speaking on the heels of his trip to Georgia and Ukraine, Mr. Biden said flatly that the Obama administration would make no deals and accept no compromises with the Kremlin in exchange for better relations. Russia itself, he said, should find it in its own interest...

Vice President Joe Biden is optimistic that Russia will warm to the West, given that its economy is "withering," he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. The country's economic problems could force it to open up to the West on a range of issues, including loosening its grip on former Soviet bloc nations and reducing its stockpile of nuclear weapons, Biden said in pointed remarks to the newspaper following his trip to the region.

Georgia's president is expected to ask U.S. Vice President Joe Biden for advanced weaponry and U.S. observers to monitor a cease-fire along the boundaries of two Moscow-backed breakaway regions. Biden is on a four-day trip to Ukraine and Georgia. The two former Soviet states fear U.S. isolation after President Barack Obama visited Moscow earlier this month to reset ties with Russia. Biden has said that the Western-leaning democracies won't be sacrificed to appease Moscow. Ukraine and Georgia want to join NATO, a move Biden supports.

Biden: Kiev has most beautiful women @ 11:57 am by Eric Zimmermann Kiev, Ukraine has the most beautiful women in the world, according to Joe Biden. The Vice President, who's visiting Ukraine and Georgia this week, made that observation while chatting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. The two had just finished a visit to a memorial commemorating Ukrainians who had perished in Stalin-era famines. According to a pool report, the two stopped in a local pub in Kiev to chat and relax. "I cannot believe that a Frenchman visiting Kiev went back home and told his colleagues he discovered something...

Edwin Meese III, former U.S. attorney general and adviser to President Ronald Reagan, says he disagrees with President Barack Obama's recent explanation of the way the Cold War ended. In his address at the New Economic School in Moscow earlier this month, Obama told students that the war had not been won by either side. “Make no mistake: this change did not come from any one nation alone,” he said. “The Cold War reached a conclusion because of the actions of many nations over many years, and because the people of Russia and Eastern Europe stood up and decided that...

I would argue that the Kremlin’s biggest failure in the Caucasus is one it doesn’t even recognize as a problem — namely the total inability to prosecute its own war crimes. Human Rights Watch has just condemned Russia’s policy of allowing its military forces to set fire to civilian homes in retaliation for acts of separatist violence, placing the lives of innocent children at risk. Only truly epic failure would cause a regime that claims U.N. Security Council membership to authorize polices this barbaric. Indeed, Russia has been repeatedly convicted for state-sponsored murder in the European Court for Human Rights,...

What The Media Didn’t Report: Russians Refused To Shake Obama’s Hand In the last news cycle there were a lot of stories written about Obama’s visit to Russia. But one story that didn’t appear anywhere in the American media (that I saw) was about the Russian leaders refusing to shake Obama’s hand.

This is incredible video. Obama extends his hands to shake and is snubbed by Russian diplomats. And look at his reaction. Like a child who had his kickball taken by a bully. Amazing that this was never reported by the mainstream media. What you heard from the American media was how much the Russians loved Barack. The truth is out there.

I know that the Russians have characteristically been less than hospitable to American Presidents, but I don't recall them ever openly disrespecting (yeah, I KNOW it's a made-up word) a US President like this before... or maybe it's just that previous presidents have been savvy enough not to put themselves in such a position. Who knows? Maybe I'll figure it out when I stop laughing.

Obama supporters definitely can't claim that this is a still shot from a video that is being blown out of proportion and context. While in Russia President Obama is totally snubbed in a receiving line by a group of individuals who refuse to shake his hand, but gladly shake the hand of Russian President Medvedev.

MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has successfully test-launched a Sineva sea-based ballistic missile, a source in the Defense Ministry confirmed on Tuesday. "The launch was conducted on Monday from a Delta IV class strategic nuclear-powered submarine in service with Russia's Northern Fleet," the source said. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that Russia had successfully test-launched a ballistic missile from a strategic submarine, but did not specify the type of missile or the name of the submarine. "The target was hit and the pieces of the missile landed in the designated area," the president said at a...

The signing ceremony in Moscow was a grand affair. For Barack Obama, foreign policy neophyte and “reset” man, the arms reduction agreement had a Kissingerian air. A fine feather in his cap. And our president likes his plumage. Unfortunately for the United States, the country Obama represents, the prospective treaty is useless at best, detrimental at worst. Useless because the level of offensive nuclear weaponry, the subject of the U.S.-Russia “Joint Understanding,” is an irrelevance. We could today terminate all such negotiations, invite the Russians to build as many warheads as they want, and profitably watch them spend themselves into...

When the US President is openly being compared to Miikhail Gorbachev, it's time to reevaluate national policy toward historic enemies. Russia may now have a parliament, an elected President, and a free-market economy, but its global aspirations remain the same. President Obama's response in the face of Russia's saber rattling is to offer unilateral strategic concessions. Let's review recent events: o Russia invades Georgia with no compelling American response. o Russia threatens nuclear war with Poland due to the inclusion of Poland in the new US missile defense shield. o Russia cuts off Ukraine's electricity as penalty for Ukrainian support...

Here is video from President Obama's trip to Russia last week where it appears there were several Russian officials who refused to shake hands with Obama. In the video, you see Obama extending his hand without most of the officials being willing to shake hands with him. I have heard nothing on this story. It would be interesting to hear Obama be asked a question about this. . . . . (Watch Video)

Wait a minute, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, ABC, CBS, NBC never reported this! But surely, they would afford George W. Bush the same courtesy. Oh wait…

See the video.

The signing ceremony in Moscow was a grand affair. For Barack Obama, foreign policy neophyte and "reset" man, the arms reduction agreement had a Kissingerian air. A fine feather in his cap. And our president likes his plumage. Unfortunately for the United States, the country Obama represents, the prospective treaty is useless at best, detrimental at worst. Useless because the level of offensive nuclear weaponry, the subject of the U.S.-Russia "Joint Understanding," is an irrelevance. We could today terminate all such negotiations, invite the Russians to build as many warheads as they want, and profitably watch them spend themselves into...

In his visit to Moscow late last week, President Obama tried to satisfy all sides, and accomplished nothing other than sounding good in the moment and feeling good about himself. Americans have seen this sort of personality type before. In his immortal "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King explained that he felt people he referred to as "white moderates" were a bigger threat to black civil rights than the membership of the KKK. Violent racists are clearly identifiable, and they are an external threat that the valiant King was sure he could confront and defeat. But, echoing Barry Goldwater's...

Pulled from Youtube.

The press, true to form, is hailing Obama's trip to Russia as statesmanlike. Reality, as usual, is different. When Obama took a pass on missile defense and agreed with Russia's Medvedev to reduce our nuclear arsenal by one-third, he accomplished worse than nothing. He sold out our Eastern European allies, dumping a desperately needed missile defense plan for Poland. As he did so, he revised history, claiming we did not win the cold war. Obama said, "We don't have to diminish other people in order to recognize our role in that history." Yes, he said that. And it gets worse....

The recent representation of America at the Moscow summit delivered a mutually agreed-to target for the removal of some nuclear warheads and launchers. Almost. The relationship was neither improved nor set back, and America achieved little beyond being dealt a little embarrassment at the hands of Putin. The mainstream media (MSM) is applauding the event as a job well done. What meeting could it possibly be writing about with such approval and commendation? Getting rid of antiquated and cumbersome warheads, 2,200 down to 1,500 or so, and trimming delivery rockets from 1,600 to around 1,000, is a good thing, if...

Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov says he enjoyed getting to meet Barack Obama along with other members of the Russian opposition this week and even saw eye-to-eye with the U.S. president on a few things. Interfax reports via Johnson's Russia List: "I said that I had thoroughly studied the U.S. president's anti-crisis program, that I liked it, as well as that it is socially oriented and primarily aimed at supporting poor people and enhancing the state's role. I said all this to President Obama," he said. Somehow I don't think you'll be seeing that endorsement on Whitehouse.gov.

L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned the United States Friday that if it did not reach agreement with Russia on plans for missile defense systems, Moscow would deploy rockets in an enclave near Poland. In sharp contrast to his positive words during President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow earlier this week when the two reached broad agreement on nuclear arms cuts, Medvedev used a news conference at the G8 summit to return to Russia's earlier tough rhetoric on arms control. Medvedev also appeared to change his tone on the missile defense shield itself. During Obama's visit he...

AMONG the benefits from President Obama's effort to "reset" relations with Russia, we're told, is that the Kremlin will join us in pressuring rogue nations from seeking to build nuclear weapons. But even as Obama was making nice in Moscow this week, Russian diplomats in New York have been stonewalling an effort to slap Pyongyang over its weapons proliferation. A UN committee has struggled for a month now to meet this weekend's deadline for drawing up a sanctions list on North Korea. The list is supposed to put the teeth in last month's Security Council resolution to punish Pyongyang for...

Heard Gordon just mention he is having Garry on during the 11am EST hour...Garry met with the BHO earlier this week in Russia.

... In his Moscow speech, Obama delivered what is by now familiar as his trademark mix of historical omissions and revisions, sweeping statements about the "arc of history" and phrases of hope, change and moral equivalency. He brought up, yet again, America's "imperfections," dismissed as outdated the brand of American moral certitude and leadership that brought victory in World War II and called for collaboration, convergence and partnerships forged on common ground and progress toward a shared future. Call it Brotherhood 2.0. ... But missing from Obama's philosophy is the immense role played by the U.S. America stood for decades...

Can this possibly be true? An anti-Obama website, The Obama File, posts a photograph purporting to show President Obama putting his hand over his heart during the playing of the Russian national anthem, during his visit to Moscow. How can it possibly be a genuine photograph, when we know that the President didn't put his hand over his heart during the playing of the American national anthem, as demonstrated in this now-infamous photograph taken during the campaign? Please, let the purported Moscow photograph be a fake. Or, even better, someone point me to the time when President Obama noted that...

Russia's top tycoons on Tuesday expressed hope that US President Barack Obama's visit to Russia would help boost lacklustre business ties as Moscow and Washington seek to warm up diplomatic relations. A host of Russian and US companies are aiming to capitalise on a "reset" of political ties expected from Obama's two-day meetings with Russian leaders at a parallel business forum. Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire tycoon and head of the Renova group, said at the forum that while there were some positive examples in Russia-US business relations, that cooperation has not become systematic yet. "We are going around in circles...

Talk about luxury in the woods! Michelle Obama showed off her more expensive taste in fashion by carrying a $5,950 VBH black alligator manila clutch while strolling the wooded landscape

Here is audio of Sen. Jon Kyl yesterday on the Bill Bennett Radio Show saying he believes President Obama on his trip to Russia was more concerned with making a deal than he was concerned about protecting the United States. Kyl believes Obama is willing to lower our stockpile of nuclear weapons to levels that will put the nation in danger. . . . . (Hear Audio)

When McNamara -- the "Whiz Kid" from Ford -- was first named defense secretary, in December 1960, Time magazine gushed that he "reads widely and well (current choices: The Phenomenon of Man, W.W. Rostow's The Stages of Growth). . . . His mind, says a friend who has seen him in Ann Arbor discussions, 'is a beautiful instrument, free from leanings and adhesions, calm and analytical.'" Nearly 50 years later, the Associated Press would lead its obituary by describing McNamara as "the cerebral secretary of defense." In between, David Halberstam -- who was for the Vietnam War before he was...

While delivering the keynote address at the New Economic School in Moscow, President Obama claimed he met his wife while he was attending school. "I dont know if anybody else will meet their future wife or husband in class like I did, but I'm sure that you're all going to have wonderful careers," Obama said. Obama actually met his wife at a law firm. POLITICO: Barack Obama proves to be mortal husband

Let other capitals go all weak-kneed when President Obama visits. Moscow has greeted Mr. Obama, who on Tuesday night concluded a two-day Russian-American summit meeting, as if he were just another dignitary passing through. Crowds did not clamor for a glimpse of him. Headlines offered only glancing or flippant notice of his activities. Television programming was uninterrupted; devotees of the Russian Judge Judy had nothing to fear. Even many students and alumni of the Western-oriented business school where Mr. Obama gave the graduation address on Tuesday seemed merely respectful, but hardly enthralled. “We don’t really understand why Obama is such...