100 signatures reached
To: Congress
Stop Baiting Russia
Petition Text
PETITION TEXT: Congress needs to support President-elect Trump when he takes office and attempts to improve US relations with Russia. Congress should support the Trump Administration whenever it acts to end sanctions, attempts to cooperate with Russia to solve problems of terror and instability in the world or acts to lower tensions by easing US military presence in areas near Russia's borders.
Why is this important?
Russia dissolved the Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union in the 1990s, largely voluntarily. Such acts of good faith and confidence building have not been reciprocated by the US or NATO.
Instead, the US has acted provocatively, through the CIA and US government funded NGOs such as NED and IRI, to foment anti-Russian "color revolutions" in Russia's near abroad and even in Russia itself. George Friedman, the founder and CEO of Stratfor, the ‘Shadow CIA’ firm, called the fascist-led coup in Ukraine “...the most blatant coup in history.” Also, the US encouraged the Georgian leader, Mikheil Saakashvili, to attack South Ossetia and Russian peace-keepers there.
Russia has responded to these provocations with restraint. In 2008, Russia could have occupied Tblisi, the capital of Georgia, and arrested Saakashvili, but they chose not to, instead being satisfied to restore the status quo ante. The Crimean vote to rejoin Russia is quite similar to the Kosovar decision to leave Serbia in the 1990s, except that there had been no previous Russian-inspired coup in Serbia. Russia attempted to accommodate US interests regarding several cease fire agreements in Syria, but the US was unable or unwilling to fulfill its obligations under those agreements.
Regarding the CIA report alleging Russian hacking, there is no evidence presented, and there is a disclaimer at the top of the report essentially disclaiming any confidence in the report. All countries perform signals intelligence, including the US. Furthermore, the report does not even allege that any data gathered through the alleged hacks was ever provided to Wikileaks. Julian Assange has stated that the source of the leaks was not a state actor, and Craig Murray, a former top ranking British diplomat, has said he knows the source, which was an insider in the Democratic Party itself, disgusted with what he/she had seen.
The US and Russia have enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other several times over. A strategic exchange could well extinct all terrestrial vertebrates. High levels of tension between the US and Russia increase the likelihood of war through intelligence error. The US government should be working to reduce tensions and restart arms limitation/disarmament negotiations as required by the Non-proliferation Treaty, rather than playing a dangerous game of chicken.