Russia

Just after Putin hosted trilateral talks on Syria and the Middle East in Sochi involving Russia, Iran, and Turkey, President Trump spent part of his Friday after Thanksgiving on the phone with Turkey's Erdogan. While the two discussed Syria and other regional issues, it appears they broached the delicate and contentious topic of US support to Syrian Kurdish fighters (namely, the Kurdish YPG, which forms the core of the Syrian Democratic Forces).

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times,

A pacified Syria is key to the economic integration of Eurasia through energy and transportation connections...

Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hassan Rouhani will hold a summit this Wednesday in Sochi to discuss Syria. Russia, Turkey and Iran are the three power players at the Astana negotiations – where multiple cease-fires, as hard to implement as they are, at least evolve, slowly but surely, towards the ultimate target – a political settlement.

Authored by Jan Oberg via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

OK, it’s from Russia Today so you should of course not trust it but somehow this video and text and the man in it seems quite factual, not fake and obviously not omitted.

http://www.rt.com/news/410444-google-alphabet-derank-rt/video/

Authored by Mike Shedlock via themaven.net/mishtalk,

In yet another mindless fake news story about fake news, NewsWeek explains how "Russia Controls the American Mind"  

NewsWeek embarrassed itself with this shoddy headline story WHY CLINTON LOST: WHAT RUSSIA DID TO CONTROL THE AMERICAN MIND AND PUT TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

The all caps shouting is theirs.

Be it a sudden surge in the effectiveness of Russia's international espionage and cyber warfare operations or a mere figment of the imaginations of a frightening group of politicians in the West who fear they're slowly losing control over the masses in their respective countries, one thing is certain, Russia is increasingly being blamed for some very serious "meddling" in foreign affairs.