CIA agents operate most everywhere. They don't promote friendly relations. They're up to no good. Some pose as diplomats.

Russian condemnation of Israeli air strikes preceded Kerry's arrival. Moscow's Foreign Ministry called them "a threat to regional stability."

By Bill Van Auken - WSWS

If ever there was a case of the pot calling the kettle black, the Obama administration’s indicting of Moscow for human rights violations is it.

In 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin sharply criticized US foreign policy. He pulled no punches. He called it: "very dangerous (in its) uncontained hyper-use of force - military force - in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts." US imperialism, he stressed, "overstepped its national borders in every way."

A stunning Ministry of Foreign Affairs report on Prime Minister Medvedev’s agenda at the World Economic Forum this week states that Russia will warn President Obama that the “time has come” for the world to know the truth about aliens, and if the United States won’t participate in the announcement, the Kremlin will do so on its own.

By Clara Weiss - 18 January 2013

Against a background of growing social tensions, the Russian government is stepping up its anti-immigrant measures in close collaboration with fascist groups. The opposition parties, whether liberal, nationalist or pseudo-left, have also joined the calls for tightening immigration controls.

Cold War politics have returned. Vladimir Putin is prime target.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stresses that neither side can prevail in armed conflict. Unless resolved peacefully, the Syrian conflict will continue long-term.

By DIANA JOHNSTONE - Counterpunch

Since the end of the Cold War, the work of Amnesty International has become more complicated and more difficult...This has brought an organization whose core is Anglo-American under conflicting pressures...In the case of U.S.-backed “color revolutions”, human rights organizations such as AI and Human Rights Watch are enlisted...to denounce general abuses which may or may not be seriously documented. The United States has increasingly managed to take control of AI for its own foreign policy campaigns.

By Clara Weiss - 25 August 2012

[Pussy Riot's] sentencing...clearly reveals the authoritarian nature of the Russian state. The prosecution of the group is an attack on basic democratic rights, which must be rejected...The support given to the three women by leading western imperialist politicians, however, serves a different purpose. Their statements of support are cynical to the core...They are all quite prepared to ride roughshod over democratic principles when it serves their reactionary policy objectives.

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS - August 17-19, 2012

The morons who rule the American sheeple are not only dumb and blind, they are deaf as well. The ears of the American “superpower” only work when the Israeli prime minister, the crazed Netanyahu, speaks. Then Washington hears everything and rushes to comply...Israel is a tiny insignificant state, created by the careless British and the stupid Americans. It has no power except what its American protector provides.

Since re-elected in March, Putin and Obama met for the first time on Monday at the Los Cabos, Mexico G20 meeting. Discussions focused on major geopolitical and economic issues. Differences on Syria remain unresolved.

Russia is Washington's main military rival. Each nation has powerful nuclear arsenals and delivery systems able to destroy the other.

One leader supports peace and stability. The other thrives on violence and wages imperial wars.

By Andrea Peters and Clara Weiss - 26 May 2012

Since reoccupying the office of the presidency on May 7, Vladimir Putin has initiated a crackdown on political opposition as his government prepares to implement a right-wing agenda...[T]he Russian state has responded to anti-Kremlin demonstrations in recent weeks with brute force. A May 6 protest of 20,000 people on the eve of Putin’s inauguration ended with violent clashes between security forces and the crowds, with upwards of 400 people arrested.