Russia

Shortly after Russia's deputy foreign minister Ryabkov snubbed the US, cancelling a meeting with the Under Secretary of State Thomas A. Shannon, Jr., in retaliation to the Trump administration's announcement on Tuesday that it has imposed sanctions on 38 Russian individuals while a parallel bill of Russian sanctions is making its way through Congress, the US State Department issued a statement on US-Russian relations.

Statement from @statedeptspox on U.S.-#Russia relations: pic.twitter.com/UoMnydnuJC

After recruiting Trump, the KGB and Moscow have clearly also managed to make all House Republicans their puppets, because the Senate bill that passed last week and slapped new sanctions on Russia (but really was meant to block the production on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia and which Germany, Austria and France all said is a provocation by the US and would prompt retaliation) just hit a major stumbling block in the House.

At least that's our interpretation of tomorrow's CNN "hot take."

A couple of weeks ago we expressed some level of 'amazement' at just how sophisticated, efficient and pervasive the 'Russian hacking' community had become after CNN reported that they had managed to hack into a Qatari News Agency and post a 'fake' news story all in an apparent attempt to drive a wedge between the U.S., Qatar and some of it's Gulf Arab neighbors.

Russia’s Monday decision to suspend a memorandum of cooperation with the US-led coalition in retaliation after a US jet shot down a Syrian Army plane has rattled some US allies, who fear escalating tensions between Russia and the coalition. In what it called a "precautionary measure," Australia became the first coalition member to suspend flights in Syria, claiming it's too dangerous for its planes to fly without the agreement, according to BBC.

Authored by Eric Zuesse via The Strategic Culture Foundation,