The very positive development of a new US/Russia cooperation to address climate change has Washington think tanks stewing in their Russophobic juices. In the coming weeks, it’s possible we will see renewed collaboration between Washington and Moscow, but not for the brilliant detente. Instead, a world in an unprecedented emergency forces the most prominent players together unless I miss my guess.
The news that US climate envoy John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have expressed hope that climate change talks can act as a springboard to help reduce escalating tensions bring new hope to those of us not brainwashed by the liberal world order. The former US Secretary of State met with Russia’s Lavrov as part of his four-day visit to Moscow.
Lavrov said Kerry’s Moscow visit sends “an important and a positive signal for the Russian side.” And President Biden’s envoy said this climate cooperation might enable both countries to “open up some better opportunities on other issues.” Both the Russian and American sides agreed that the climate issue is of paramount importance to all humanity, not just the individual countries they represent.
Sadly, western media is attempting to reframe these positive signals by insisting the US and Russia are at loggerheads over recent ransomware attacks. The west has ceremoniously tried to blame the so-called REvil hackers who have been blackmailing businesses and celebrities these last few weeks. President Biden and President Putin discussed this issue in Geneva. The latter indicated he would look into who might be responsible for the damaging attacks on meat supplier JBS and customers of tech provider Kaseya.
Now, Forbes and other media outlets say REvil extortionists have retreated farther back into the dark web. This has led some experts to say that Putin put people on the case, scaring off the hackers. Some sources claim these hackers live inside Russia, while others suggest they reside somewhere inside the CIS or Eastern Europe. Their apparent disappearance is thought to be because investigators are getting close. As for this new spirit of cooperation, something changed after the Geneva summit. Before the meetup, Biden viewed Russia as an adversary.
On the other side of this, a Brookings Institute assessment of the recent summit by senior fellow Angela Stent reveals how the policy geniuses are spinning US/Russia moves. Stent, who sells books that perpetuate old Cold War realities forever, says Biden only met with Putin so America could tackle her most crucial foe, China. According to her, the US president made a deal with President Putin to lay off the US long enough for Washington to beat up on Beijing. At least, this is the gist of her “assessment” of the current situation. She states the obvious, as most big brains on think tank row do these days. What she did not predict was that the climate issue might bring broader cooperation.
As if on cue and with a drumroll, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came in just before the summit with the same assessment the think tank people handed the world. Only Clinton, who was appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” had to add how she was always strict with Putin.
Typically, the Atlantic Council and other vested analysts portrayed the Biden-Putin meetup as a call-out on red lines when the highlights coming out are more favorable. That said, it’s no secret there are those in the west who want anything but a US/Russia detente normalization, to say nothing of a fundamental reset. It’s fitting that the situation in the world may finally force the west and the east to act peacefully.
Climate scientists in Russia are warning that the Yakutia region may suffer long-term effects. Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu made a statement on Tuesday saying, “The fire risk has seriously flared up across practically the entire country because of the abnormal heatwave.” And finally, the Siberian fires may ultimately melt the permafrost and peatlands, which will release vast amounts of carbon long stored in the frozen tundra. And this is of significant concern for Americans and the rest of the world. And in Canada and the US, the heatwaves are fueling massive destruction. What if survival ended up being the one thing that brought about peace?
Let’s hope fewer and fewer people listen to think tanks in the weeks and months to come.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
