Report Russia

The US political and media establishment has rejected and even ridiculed President Putin’s offer to Congress of the transcripts of the meeting in the Oval Office between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US President Donald Trump.
The prevailing response to the offer is that it was not intended seriously.  The tone was set by BBC journalist who speaking on British television claimed that in making the offer Putin was having, and was just trolling the US, and that there is “no possibility” of the US accepting a transcript written on “Kremlin notepaper”.

Russian President Putin has weighed in to the furore surrounding the allegation that President Trump disclosed ‘highly classified information’ to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov during their meeting in the Oval Office.
Describing the allegation as nonsense, Putin has offered to make available to Congress the complete transcript of the conversation so that they can see for themselves that no ‘highly classified information’ and no secrets were discussed.

Russian officials have given a withering response over the course of the day to the Washington Post’s story that US President Donald Trump leaked “highly classified information” to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their recent meeting in the Oval Office.
I have discussed this story and explained why it is a cynical attempt to spin a standard diplomatic exchange into something sinister here.

The Washington Post story about President Trump’s supposed leak of highly classified intelligence information about ISIS to the Russians is a case study of the lengths to which the President’s enemies are prepared to go in order to discredit him and to stop any chance of a rapprochement with Russia.

Russia and Saudi Arabia – the two biggest oil producers alongside the US – announced today Monday that they had agreed to extend oil production cuts for a further 9 months to March 2018.
The decision was announced in the form of a statement issued by the Russian and Saudi Energy Ministers, Alexander Novak and Khalid al-Falih.  In their statement they said they would do “whatever it takes” to rebalance the oil market to eliminate the current supply overhang.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov over the course of his two day visit to Washington gave a lengthy news conference in which he provided some information concerning his talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US President Donald Trump.

The latest example of synthetic paranoia and conspiracy theorizing focusing on the meeting in the Oval Office between President Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov serves as a further example of how detached from reality the whole issue of Donald Trump’s alleged contacts with Russia has become/

Recently I wrote for The Duran an article that suggested that some sort of deal or understanding between the Kremlin and Trump administration had either been reached in relation to the conflict in Syria or was in the process of being reached.
This followed 2 weeks of intense diplomatic contacts between the Kremlin and the Trump administration, which went well beyond the level of such contacts achieved at any previous time since Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Russia has today submitted to the UN Security Council a draft Resolution making the memorandum on ‘de-escalation areas’ signed by Russia, Turkey and Iran a formal UN document.

Alongside the agreement in Astana between Russia, Turkey and Iran to set up ‘de-escalation areas’ in Syria, it is clear that diplomatic contacts between the US and Russia about Syria have intensified significantly in recent days, with the White House and the Kremlin engaging in the first positive interactions they have had since Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.