Trump courts the enemy. Why?

Congressman Adam Schiff at today's National Press Club briefing/Photo by Patricia Leslie


Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has a few thoughts on Trump's courtship of despotic rulers which he delivered today at a briefing at the National Press Club.

The president makes "common cause" with despots, Schiff said, creating "a great and grave threat to the United States." 

Today's world is "a challenge to democracy," and "a dangerous time" he said more than once.

He cited autocratic rulers in Turkey, Egypt, Hungary, the Philippines, and Brazil with growing evidence that France, Germany, Austria, and others are headed in the direction to elect despots. 

The world is trending towards "authoritarianism."

Members of Congress, including Congressman Schiff, believe Trump's actions are driven by financial gain for himself and his family which explains their relationship with Saudi Arabia and Moscow where the Trump tower would have landed Trump the "most lucrative deal" probably of his lifetime.

While campaigning for the presidency in 2016 and extolling the virtues of Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Trump denied working with the Russians to seal his tower deal but then later admitted to it: "'It's not a crime,'" Cong. Schiff quoted Trump:  "'If I lost the election, I would have lost the deal.'"

When later questioned by a member of the audience about the committee's attention to the Moscow tower deal, Schiff answered:  "Where does it lead?"  What other deals is Trump cooking up with different nations?  Russia has shown "how easy" it is to establish a relationship with Trump and his family.  

The financial connection to North Korea ("irrational and dangerous") is unknown, Schiff said, but Trump is "desperate to get a deal done with North Korea which he can say is the greatest deal since 'sliced bread.'" 

Who would have ever dreamed the president of the United States would say he admires the North Korean dictator? Schiff asked.

While Congress seeks to protect the interests of the American people, Trump seeks to protect his own interests. 

In the question and answer session which followed Schiff's remarks, he said Trump "projects his own lack of ethics" on everyone else.  "'Everyone does it,'" Schiff quoted Trump whose unethical practices are acceptable to the president and his team.

Trump's message to the Russians seems to be: "Russia, if you are listening and want to intervene in our elections, come on over and participate, but only if you're nice to me."

The Kremlin, Schiff said, tried to cover up its dealings with Trump.

What's scarier than Russian sabotaging U.S. elections, is "deepfake" technology which, Schiff said, "I am most fearful of."

That's when creators make fake videos and make them appear real as in the case of the slow video released last month of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi which tried to make her appear drunk.  

It takes a while to analyze and determine legitimacy of "deepfakes." (Samsung's was developed at its Moscow center.)

What happens if a "deepfake" candidate emerges days or weeks before an election, and there's no time to find if it is real? Although viewers may quickly learn it is "fake," it is still difficult to divorce oneself from the visuals, Schiff said. 

"Deepfakes" are inherently more disruptive than "hacking and dumping," he said several times. "A.I. [artificial intelligence] is good enough to fool us." There's "a lion's dividend for those who lie."


"We have a president that claims the Access Hollywood tape is fake" (when Trump was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women's genitalia) but Trump says the slow video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appearing drunk is real.

His staff touts "alternative facts" and "'truth isn't truth.'"

Some "immediate threats on the horizon," Schiff said, involve Iran and its aggressive posture. Most assuredly it is Iran attacking ships, actions which "our allies" have been predicting for two years.

Trump attacks our allies so where are our allies when we need them?  Nowhere to be found.  

"We can't be going this [way] alone," Schiff said. The situation presents "incredible risks to our servicemen [sic] in the region." 

He said "serious mental gymnastics" are necessary to figure out what the administration's shuffling stance on Iran means.

While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticizes Iran for threatening to abandon tenets of the nuclear treaty, Trump gave up the treaty a year ago.  While Pompeo makes overtures to meet with Iran, National Security Advisor John Bolton arranges new sanctions against it.


Trump's Iranian policy is "incoherent." Schiff compared it to Mutt and Jeff since no one knows what anybody else is doing. "It's simply incoherence because that's been the pattern of this administration."

Schiff said he and others believe China is meant as a distraction from talk about all things Russian.

He called China's citizen watch to control its population with ubiquitous cameras and other means, "digital totalitarianism."  Many younger Chinese do not know anything about Tiananmen Square.

Schiff described two revolutions that are happening now:
The change in the global economy and the increasing anxiety people feel about their economic futures.

Adding to the anxiety is fear and anger which race across social media.

On other subjects:  the "second most dangerous" person in the U.S. is Attorney General Bill Barr. Robert Mueller will testify before Congress either voluntarily or by subpoena, Schiff said.

The congressman was smartly dressed as he always is: white shirt, coat and tie. He spoke eloquently during the hour-long session without notes, without looking down at the podium.  

I don't believe he ever used the words "president" and "Trump" together, and he seldom used the word, "Trump." He always said "United States" and not "U.S." 

Although NPC President Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak asked at the start of the program that all cell phones be silenced or turned off, about three went off during the presentation which started and ended on time. About 75 attended.

"Impeachment" never came up.

patricialesli@gmail.com

At the think tanks: Russia's political prisoners, a talk

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 Izabella Tabarovsky, the moderator, and Sergey Davidis at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C., April 23, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 At the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on Tuesday afternoon, the head of Russia's Political Prisoners Support Program said the nation has 263 "political" persons in jail, arrested on vague charges stemming from Russia's Criminal Code. 

It is an “incomplete number,” said Sergey Davidis, also a member of the Council at the Memorial Human Rights Center in Moscow. Since “we are conservative in our approach,” the actual number is probably two or three times 263, he said.


The prisoners support group determined the number 263 by researching official documents and other materials.

Among those jailed are two journalists and many persons from Ukraine.  One prisoner, Mr. Davidis said, has been sentenced to 20 to 22 years for participating in the "Chechen war." (Wikipedia identifies two Chechen wars: 1994-1996 and 1999-2006.)

Another prisoner, a “random person,” was sentenced to eight to ten years.  Researchers have identified four others on the list who are jailed for “random” reasons. Some have lawyers.

Of the 263, 186 have been identified as religious minorities; 60 are affiliated with Jehovah's Witnesses. So far, the maximum prison sentence has been 24 years.

None of the prisoners condone violence, often mentioned in the Russian Federation Criminal Code as a reason for arrest. The prisoners have expressed “no signs of violence.” They practice opposition peacefully, Mr. Davidis said, when they disagree with authorities.

“The aim of the state is scare the society …and frighten people,” he said. “It’s important for the state to send [the people] a signal.” Persecution in the Russian Federation is “rather uneven.”

Izabella Tabarovsky, the moderator, and Sergey Davidis at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C., April 23, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

He cited several articles from the Criminal Code which are used to arrest political prisoners: Article 212.1 is related to punishment for those engaged in “mass riots,” and Article 318, for violence against an officer.

Article 354 ("Public Appeal to Unleash An Aggressive War”) is "seldom used" to arrest anyone, but still it is “obviously dangerous” and can be used to arrest those who attempt to incite the public.

Articles 280 and 282 (“not widely cited”) concern extremist activity, behavior, and freedom of expression. Article 205 describes acts of terrorism, punishment and recruiting others to commit terrorist activities. 

Questions from the audience were invited near the close of the one hour session. One person asked if Russia has prisoner quotas and Mr. Davidis answered that several factors are involved but sometimes, yes, there are “real quotas” which “vary from region to region.”

Another questioner asked about prisoner exchanges between Russia and Turkey. Mr. Davidis confirmed that Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan had exchanged two Russian criminals jailed in Istanbul for murdering four Chechens, for two Tatars jailed for religious beliefs, an uneven exchange the questioner noted.

The Kennan website states: Mr. Davidis was educated in sociology at Moscow State University and in law at Moscow State Law Academy. For many years, he was a participant and one of the organizers of the democratic opposition movement. His research interests are closely related to activities to support political prisoners in Russia, and he studies the sociological and legal aspects of politically motivated deprivation of liberty, in particular, in the context of world practice and international norms.

patricialesli@gmail.com

At the think tanks: the Russian Ambassador to the United States

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov at the Stimson Center, March 4, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

He came not to brandish a sword but to bring peace and understanding.

He came not to praise so much as to complain.

"We are in crisis," said Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov at the President's Forum at the Stimson Center Monday afternoon, speaking of arms control and nuclear disarmament.  

They were his favorite topics of the day (and the subject of his dissertation), but the moderator and the audience had other ideas.

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov at the Stimson Center, March 4, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

(What's this new chapter in U.S-Russia relations? Have the Russians decided that talk is better than social media?)

We are waiting, waiting, waiting on the U.S. to make decisions, Ambassador Antonov, age 64, said.

Can't we just talk? He invited discussion.  He wants discussion. 
  
The ambassador said talking can achieve much progress between the U.S. and the Russian Federation (calling it always, the "Russian Federation" and the U.S., the "United States").

His message was a constant refrain: "Please, I just want to talk this through" and stop this lover's quarrel between my nation and yours.  Can't we advance cultural understanding?

Talking with help soothe frayed nerves, he seemed to say, and simplify the task of getting things like visas.

Russian artists, academicians, "our sportsmen"... "cannot come" to the U.S. because they can't get visas, he moaned. Can't you do something about it? 

"What is more important than just only dialogue between the United States and Russia?" I ask you! And urge you to "relax the tension," at least, in this sphere which can help solve problems in other areas.

Rather than the bullying personality he receives at Wikipedia, Mr. Antonov was personable and inviting (part of his negotiating skills), willing to sit down and iron out arms control, a subject he strove to accentuate the entire hour, but Stimson president and moderator Brian Finlay and audience members would have little of it.

Early in the session Mr. Finlay tried to steer the ambassador's history lesson on post-World War II and the U.N. Security Council back to the future, but, the ambassador would not give up his quest.  

He said he was "very upset when the United States decided to withdraw" from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the "Iran deal." Iran has followed all the rules and regulations required in the agreement, he said. 

Mr. Antonov quoted a Japanese proverb: "It's very easy to destroy a castle but it will need three years to erect a new one," and he hopes the U.S. will reconsider. (The U.S. Department of State's website has not been updated for more than three years (!), failing to show Trump's withdrawal from the deal, perhaps because no one is left at the State Department to change it.  Go to Wikipedia for current information.)


Maps?  if anyone needed map clarification, the ambassador  brought colored ones made by a Russian Federation defense agency (where he went to school) to show how much of Europe (all of it) and Russia would be susceptible to missiles shot from...the U.S.?

When pushed obliquely to criticize the "Hanoi Summit," all Mr. Antonov would say was "North Korea is our neighbor," and "we are in favor of peaceful solutions for all problems we face today in that region," but "that's not so easy." 

He mentioned Trump's name only twice without criticism. Or praise. (My count of "Putin" utterances was four; nothing worth writing home about.) 

The ambassador complained about the Russian prisoner Konstantin Yaroshenko held in a "Kentucky" (sounds like Connecticut) prison for eight years (he said nine), badly needing medical treatment.  

Help! I've lost my teeth, and I cannot eat, the ambassador quoted the convicted.  I am not asking that he get out of jail free, the ambassador said (paraphrasing), but can't you people please get this man some medical treatment? Some medicine? Can't you reach out to the authorities and request aid? In the name of human decency (like what's practiced in the Motherland), I call on human rights activists to provide medical assistance!  

(Obviously, the ambassador is not familiar with U.S. medical treatment. This is not Russia, Mr. Ambassador, where a doctor comes to your house on the first day you report a cold. For teeth, the waiting period in the U.S. is eight plus years!)

(Mr. Yaroshenko is serving a 20-year sentence in a Connecticut prison, not CONtucky which Ambassador Antonov said twice, actually pronouncing it correctly.  However, he may know something we don't know, and may have revealed a top state secret.

Mr. Yaroshenko was caught in a drug bust in Africa in 2010. Wave if you've heard this one:  His arrest was "set-up.") 
 
The two nations do agree on one topic, the ambassador said:  Syria (with little discussion).


After about 45 minutes of ambassadorial talk, Mr. Finlay invited questions from the audience which came from reporters from ABC News, the Guardian, and the Washington Post.

The ABC News reporter asked if the "Kentucky prisoner" could be a possible swap or "gotchas" with Americans presently held in Russian prisons: businessman Michael Calvey and former marine, Paul Whelan.

The ambassador said there was really no comparison since Mr. Whelan's case was still being investigated, and his innocence or guilt has not been determined, so, no, a trade or swap is out of the question. (Maria Butina's name never came up.)

At the end of the talk, Mr. Finlay asked Mr. Antonov to please identify missing topics from the afternoon discussion, and the ambassador said simply: "Afghanistan" (without elaboration).

He offered to visit any group and answer any questions.  
He smiled often and seemed quite at ease, making the audience laugh on several occasions.

 Ambassador Antonov said he had been "lazy" and visited the University Club near the Russian D.C. residence where he was surprised, during the World Cup, to find Americans watching the competition and supporting the Russians. (During the afternoon, our Washington Capitals championship hockey team, many whose stars are imported Russians, never came up, possibly because the Washington Post's coverage of them is quite lame, and the ambassador might be unaware of Russian heroes in the District of Columbia.)

Mr. Antonov said it appeared the audience was all journalists (there were several empty seats), save one woman shaking her head and waving an object (a white feather?) in the air, but she was not called upon for a question.
  
Neither was I who wanted to ask him to name, please, the Russian preferred U.S. presidential candidate(s) for 2020.

He said Russians have recently blocked three million U.S. attempts to hack into its I.P. addresses, but do we hear about those? 

Can't say that we do!  Welcome, Mr. Ambassador, to global exchange and trade!

For video and precise language of the session, see C Span.

P.S. My first draft of this carried a Tass link on Mr. Yaroshenko, but my computer went haywire after a while, flashing messages of concern, and the security system required immediate attention, so I deleted the Tass connection, thinking that might be the cause, and inserted instead (now that my computer likely has a "Russian virus"), a link to Mr. Yaroshenko from ABC News. Things have settled down.  It's almost like getting a new set of teeth.
  
patricialesli@gmail.com

An apple orchard grows in Yekaterinburg

An apple orchard hundreds of years old grows in the heart of Yekaterinburg with a kind resemblance to Monet's garden/Photo by Patricia Leslie

In the heart of Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth largest city, grows an apple orchard hundreds of years old.

This unique place (unknown in any large American city) has different names: "Museum of the Middle Urals Fruit Gardening,"   "Fruit Gardens Museum of Central Ural Mountains," or what the label on the side of the house in the orchard, says:  "The Museum of the History of Fruit Horticulture in the Middle Urals."

You get the picture: It's got fruit...and beauty, besides!

An apple orchard in the heart of Yekaterinburg. My guide and the curator/Photo by Patricia Leslie

This is the identification on the outside of the Kazantsev Manor house which I believe says the owner, Mr. Kazantsev (1875-1942) lived here from 1913-1942/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Whatever the name, it's an oasis in the middle of a bustling, industrial city (not far from the new Boris Yeltsin Center), and there are plans to uproot the very old trees, plants and farmhouse.

It seems that the owner, the government, plans to sell the property for more lucrative use (shades of the western world!).  It's a controversial topic which the curator (pictured) has been fighting probably the whole nine years he's been curator. He was a energetic fellow who talked non-stop to my guide (and I may have been lucky that I do not understand Russian).

Inside the Kazantsev Manor house/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Inside the Kazantsev Manor house/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Inside the Kazantsev Manor house. Note the record player!  I bought a marvelous CD here which I'll photograph the cover and upload.  True Russian music!/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Some of the delicacies offered tourists at the History of Fruit Horticulture, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Being a preservationist, I do hope the government leaves the property alone for entering the grounds takes you on a trip to another world, an earlier century where the greens and soothing environment can calm down almost anyone.  It reminded me of Monet's garden which I've never visited, but I've seen his work, and perhaps Monet came to Yekaterinburg to paint.  

I had wondered (and so did my guide) why my tour company would take me to an apple orchard, but when my expectations are low, I have learned, they are always exceeded, and they were!  

This is another world not to miss in modern-day Russia.

 patricialesli@gmail.com