Posted on 07/13/2007 5:17:42 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
NOVO-OGARYOVO (Moscow Region), July 13 (RIA Novosti) - A group of Russian and U.S. dignitaries gathered Friday at the presidential residence near Moscow behind closed doors in a bid to repair shattered ties.
The panel called "Russia-USA: A Look Into the Future," led by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, declined to comment on the first Moscow session, but said it was a successful beginning to a series of high-level meetings.
"We discussed many issues. Our goal was not to get media coverage, score public relations points, or press home any propaganda messages. We came here to solve problems," Primakov said.
"We agreed to hold the next meeting in mid-December in Washington, D.C.," where the panelists will meet with President George W. Bush, he added.
Kissinger thanked Putin for his hospitality and praised the Russian leader for his realistic and open approach.
"We appreciate the time that President Putin gave us and the frank manner in which he explained his point of view," he said.
When asked whether U.S. unilateral interventionism was on the agenda, Kissinger said that "nuclear proliferation" and "nuclear threats," rather than U.S. policies, are the biggest danger to world peace.
"I do not think that [U.S.] expansion is a problem of the period. The problem of the period is how to avoid nuclear conflict and in this case we believe that Russia and America should have common objectives."
Addressing the panel's first meeting, Putin thanked its participants for their quick response to the idea to set up such a high-level group, first aired during his April meeting with Kissinger and Primakov, and urged them to keep the debate as close to the ground as possible.
"[Your findings] should not be brought to our foreign ministries to gather dust there. They should be treated as something of practical use," he said.
He stressed that the idea was to set up a broad panel that would be open-minded when discussing issues.
"We cannot afford having a Russia-U.S. relationship that depends on the current political situation inside both our countries. We cannot allow our relationship to serve such narrow issues, as, for example, election campaigns in Russia or the U.S.," Putin said.
Apart from Kissinger, the U.S. team includes former Secretary of State George Schultz; former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin; former Special Representative for Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr.; former Senator Sam Nunn; and Chevron Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David O'Reilly.
Apart from Primakov, the Russian team includes Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov; former Ambassador to the U.S. Yuly Vorontsov; Deputy Board Chairman of UES Russia Leonid Drachevsky; UC Rusal Deputy Chief Executive Officer Alexander Livshits, and former Soviet Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mikhail Moiseyev.
Wow. We’ve regressed 35 years.
We are repeating history before it is even history.
A group of Russian and U.S. dignitaries
dignitaries.......takes me back to [it depends on what your definition of “is” is.....]
I guess “dignitaries” depends on what your definition of trench-rat is, is....
And some folks think it's the Presidents and Congress who run the country (and the world)...
Dignitaries:
It’s a word the CFR, and Trilateralists like to hide behind. The leaders of the world all have the same goals in mind. They just get together to be sure they are all on the same page.
like that Oxford/Rhodes Scholar “common property of mankind” crap
Kissinger: Always strangely sinister and creepy.
You will want to read this one............
It’s a necessity to be on the same page when major economic & military jolts are about to shock the world. After all tyrant Putin is already cognizant he has a green light from those in control.
bump
>>>like that Oxford/Rhodes Scholar “common property of mankind” crap
More like, “occupational property” of the ‘official class’.
Page 129 of The Naked Communist:
Stalin Creates a New Class
(snip)
Once Stalin had skirted the brink of political disaster he immediately determined to consolidate his power by the innovation of a Communist spoils system. Prior to this time, the Communist leaders had recognized only two classes - the workers and the peasants. Stalin now decided to give recognition to a new class - the Communist bureaucracy or official class. He bestowed special favors on them by allowing them to shop in ‘closed’ distribution centers. These centers had great quantities of items which were never distributed to the workers. And Stalin arranged it so that his party appointees received other favors - dwellings, luxuries, special holidays, special educational opportunities for their children. This was Stalin’s way of building a new Communist Party with members who owed absolute allegiance to him.
He likewise protected them in the new constitution which he presented to the Congress of Soviets in 1936. It provided for the protection of “occupational property”. Thus the official class could not be deprived of wages, articles of consumption, housing nor savings. It even provided that this “occupational property” could be bequeathed. Substantial estates could, therefore, be accumlated by the official class and passed on to a selected beneficiary. These gifts of inheritance (which Communist propaganda had denounced with vehemence) could also be given to non-relations and in any amount without restrictions.
To further illustrate the whole change in Stalin’s attitude, he adopted a series of “reforms” which were purely capitalistic in nature. These included payment of interest on savings, the issuing of bond to which premiums were attached and the legalizing of a wider disparity in wages. A laborer, for example, might receive only on hundred rubles a month while a member of the official class could now get as high as six thousand rubles a month!
(snip)
bump
>like that Oxford/Rhodes Scholar “common property of mankind” crap<
I’m not sure I get your drift, but don’t let the sand get in your eyes. ;)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.