Tag: Vladimir Putin

International Broadcasting, Public Diplomacy, Russia

Why U.S. Public Diplomacy No Longer Works and Can It Be Fixed?

Update: America.gov restored my comment.
TedLipien.com TedLipien.com, Truckee, California, December 27, 2010 — On the day the U.S. Senate voted to approve the new arms reduction treaty with Russia, I found an article on the State Depatment’s website, America.gov, which gave a long list of the START treaty’s benefits lauded by the Obama administration but failed to note any of the objections from some key Republican lawmakers and other critics. I posted a short comment that a website devoted to public diplomacy, with a name that implies that it represents the views of the entire American government and the American public, should try to present a more balanced perspective and mention some of the difficulties in getting the U.S.-Russian agreement approved by the Senate.

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Public Diplomacy, Russia

Putin’s signal to Congress on START – We don’t kill traitors in America

TedLipien.com TedLipien.com, Truckee, CA, December 17, 2010 — The START treaty must be very good for Russia if Prime Minister Putin felt it necessary to disavow a reported statement given earlier to the media by an unitentified Kremlin official who suggested that an assassin or assassins may have been dispatched to the U.S. to kill a former Russian spy suspected of betraying a group of sleeper Russian agents. The earlier story, although not reported widely by mainstream U.S.media, was not good public relations and public diplomacy since it implied the Kremlin’s intention to violate U.S. laws on American soil. He may have been advised to issue a denial to help win the approval for the START treaty in the U.S. Senate.

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Poland, Public Diplomacy, Russia

Media Disinformation Influenced U.S. Diplomatic Report from Russia

Opinia.USOpinia.US Truckee, CA, December 5, 2010 — A newly disclosed secret cable to the State Department in Washington shows that American diplomats in Moscow sometimes fall for Russian media disinformation and pass it on without questioning while adding their own pro-Kremlin commentary. Most diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, which have been released so far by WikiLeaks, seem, however, far more sceptical and critical of the Kremlin.

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Poland, Russia

Leaked Cables Reveal Putin’s Successful Attempt to Manipulate Gates and Obama

While U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates claims Russian Prime Minister Putin had told him Iran was Russia’s greater threat, in a meeting with American security experts, Evgeny Zudin of the Russian Ministry of Defense gave detailed presentations on the Russian assessment of the Iranian and North Korean missile programs, and the degree to which Russia believes these programs constitute threats requiring missile defense responses. Evgeny Zudin said that for Russia, the bottom line is that, in essence, neither program constitutes a threat at the moment or in the near future.

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Poland, Public Diplomacy, Russia

Leaked State Department Cables Show Obama and Gates Naive on Russia

by Ted Lipien

Opinia.USOpinia.US Truckee, CA, November 29, 2010 — Leaked secret State Department cables may help to resolve the mystery as to why President Obama chose September 17, 2009 to make his announcement on canceling President Bush’s missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The announcement pleased the Kremlin, which had been pushing for the cancellation of the planned system for years. But why the Obama White House made the announcement on September 17, the anniversary of the Soviet military invasion of Poland in 1939 under the secret terms of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, is still not clear.

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Poland, Public Diplomacy, Russia

Reposting from Sept. 16, 2009: September 17 could be a new date in US-Polish relations

On the 71 anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, we are republishing our Sept. 16, 2009 blog post, in which we asked the Obama Administration to consider the significance of the 1939 division of Poland by Hitler and Stalin before making the White House announcement on the cancelation of the ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Poland: “September 17 could be a new date in US-Polish relations

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Poland, Russia

Obama Plays Golf After Skipping Polish President’s Funeral

Obama’s Public Diplomacy Katabasis in Poland President Obama may very well kiss the Polish American vote good bye after committing yet another public diplomacy blunder which gave Vice President Biden, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Lee A. Feinstein and some Congressional Democrats plenty of reasons to be pulling their hair out in utter frustration over his insensitive behavior toward an important…

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Poland, Public Diplomacy, Russia

Did White House coordinate missile decision with Kremlin?

Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Bloggers and Russian experts in the US have been trying to find out whether the Obama White House coordinated with the Kremlin the timing of the missile shield decision that deeply offended people in Poland and produced biting commentaries in the US. Speculations abound that Russian diplomats, working on instructions from propaganda experts within the Kremlin,…

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Digital Journal, Featured, History, Poland, Russia

Was White House duped by Kremlin on timing of missile decision? | Digital Journal Op-Ed

By Ted Lipien Published October 2, 2009 by Digital Journal Speculations grow that Russian diplomats, working on instructions from propaganda experts, tricked White House and State Department officials to get President Obama to make his missile shield announcement on September 17, a bad day for Poland. Opinia.US, a bilingual Polish-English news website providing analysis of US-Polish relations, reports that bloggers…

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Poland, Public Diplomacy, Russia

Walesa on Obama’s Missile Diplomacy – American Diplomacy Failed Obama in Poland Update

“It wasn’t that the shield was that important, but it’s about the way, the way of treating us.”   –Lech Wałęsa, the former Polish president and Solidarity leader, regarding the US decision to drop the missile defense shield in Poland; John Brown’s Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, Version 2.0   Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day, Love Uncle Sam…

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Cold War, Digital Journal, Public Diplomacy, Russia

September 17, A Wrong Date for Obama White House to Snub Poland | Digital Journal Ted Lipien Op-Ed

The following is my op-ed for Digital Journal. Republishing is allowed. September 17, A Wrong Date for Obama White House to Snub Poland President Obama’s announcement on September 17 that the US is shelving its plans to build a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Central Europe is likely to raise painful historical memories in Poland. By making the announcement…

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Cold War, Public Diplomacy, Russia

September 17 could be a new date in US-Polish relations

Stratfor global intelligence analysis website reports that “rumors are flying late Sept. 16 that the United States could be shelving its plans to build a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Poland and Czech Republic. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reportedly will hold a news conference on the issue sometime Sept. 17 or Sept. 18, and U.S. security officials are…

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Digital Journal, Featured, Highlights, International Broadcasting, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA

Op-Ed From Russia with Censorship | Digital Journal

By Ted Lipien

Published September 16, 2009 by Digital Journal

Marine Gunny Sgt. Patrick Modriskey takes a break from his temporay duty in Moscow, Russia, to visit the 'Red Square' Oct. 30, 2006. Dept. of Defense photo by Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen (released)

FreeMediaOnline.org Logo. FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, Commentary by Ted Lipien, September 16, 2009

San Francisco — Censorship from Russia and China comes home to America in profit-oriented and staying-in-the-market-at-any-cost decisions by American businesses and sometimes even US government agencies, as FreeMediaOnline.org, a San Francisco-based media freedom nonprofit, has been documenting and reporting.

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