New US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Moscow this week, even though parties that oppose the normalization of international relations, including the American Congress, hoped this wouldn't happen. Maybe it's because of them that Tillerson was very dogmatic before the visit, saying that Russia should be either with the US or with Assad. But what about Moscow? Negotiations between Lavrov and Tillerson lasted for a long, long day. They spent 2 hours with President Putin, then they had a joint press conference. Everything's been said about it already. After watching this footage without any translation, we found an interesting twist.

Turns out that at times, the Ministers spoke so fast, that the simultaneous interpreters couldn't keep up. It happens. This is what Tillerson actually said about Ukraine. As for the Minsk agreements, we find them important. Russia can come to implement these agreements by de-escalating the violence, and withdrawing the rebel military forces and heavy arms so that OSCE could do their job. Of course, such statement will outrage many Donbass residents. They have a lot of issues with the OSCE, thinking they could do a better job as is. And what do they mean by withdrawing rebel military forces? Withdraw where? And what rebels? Yes, it wasn't exactly what you'd call a positive remark, however, there is a silver lining. Usually, in Washington they talk about Russian forces in Donbass. But Tillerson chose not to even imply it, being perfectly well aware of Moscow's reaction to such a statement. This is questionably positive, at best, but now what? For example, what do the ministers think of establishing a "working group to address small issues" in the Russian-American relationship? Let's listen to this part again in Russian a little more carefully and then the word-for-word translation.

The presidential commission was buried by President Obama. But we'll assign people who'll sit down and go over any issues we might have, where we don't see eye-to-eye, whether we're doing it right, and figure out how we can overcome these issues, especially those which were deliberately created. We've agreed to establish a working group to solve those smaller issues, that demand our immediate attention and make progress toward stabilizing the relationship, so that we can then address the more serious problems. Tillerson's thought on those smaller issues, which will be discussed by the working group, was not translated. It may be symbolic, since Americans haven't established the bigger issues either.





Just this week, President Trump did a full 180 several times. In spite of what he was saying during his election campaign, China isn't a currency rate manipulator anymore and NATO isn't outdated. About NATO. Before Tillerson, Britain's head of diplomacy, Boris Johnson was supposed to visit Moscow. But he canceled his visit to Moscow, yet he still made it to the G7 Ministerial Meeting on Foreign Affairs in Italy, he said that Tillerson should just represent the entire West in Moscow. Russian international analysts felt pity on Europe because of this. Pretty much half the West threw away any chance for independence. They are ready to follow the boss, as long as he says something, as long as he keeps giving the orders. This is a truly sad effect. This has never happened. In spite of everything, European countries played a role during the Cold War.

Today, Europe only watches what Uncle Sam does. This will definitely affect the Russian-European relationship in a positive way. Not everyone in Europe likes it, but that's the way it is. Europe is too busy with its own internal squabbles. It is gradually ceasing to be an international actor. America's role here is obviously significant. Tillerson, of course, attempted to represent NATO, no doubt about it. So, let's talk with the Americans. We're not only talking about the Shayrat Air Base strike, but also about our conclusion from last Saturday's program. This strike allowed the US to bring all their allies together. A week later, our conclusion is proven correct. The strike itself had one clear goal — to show who's boss. It's pretty clear — using force to show force. But no strategy comes out of it. It's unclear what they want from and in Syria. But really, what has the US prepared for Tillerson's visit to Moscow?

After we aired Saturday's episode, he went on the air on CBS and said that dealing with Assad will only be possible after ISIS is neutralized. But the next day, his employee, the US rep for the UN, Nikki Haley, said in her CNN interview that until Assad resigns, she sees no political solution for the conflict in Syria. So it's the same old mantra — Assad must go. Minister Lavrov obviously spoke of these contradictions in the US administration, when he said the following during their joint press conference: Today we talked about what we have in common, historically, but Rex said that he's a man of the times and that he prefers not to dig through history, but to deal with today's issues. However, the way the world works is — if we don't learn our lessons from the past, then we won't be able to succeed in the present.

Lavrov reminded everyone how Saddam Hussein was hanged in Iraq, and how Muammar Gaddafi was beaten to death in Libya. Did life in these countries and their neighbors get better? I don't know any positive examples when a dictator was taken down and everything just got better afterwards. So, just like President Putin said before, in Syria we're not betting on a specific person, whether it's President Assad or somebody else. We simply want them to sit down and talk things out.

On the same day that Lavrov and Tillerson met, Russian Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov responded to Haley's statement that Assad must go. He called her appeals to Russia to stay away from Assad both shortsighted and absurd. To state that Russia must stop supporting Assad, which means stop supporting his fight against ISIS, is absurd because, virtually, it's the same as appealing to let terrorists loose.

To be honest, Tillerson's words at the press conference about this were neither here nor there. He said that the reign of Assad and his family is coming to an end but Moscow should be the one to help him realize that fact. But here, Tillerson answered what his British colleague, Johnson appealed to at the G7 Ministerial Meeting in Italy. He wanted to expand anti-Russian sanctions, since it wasn't just the Syrian Air Forces that spread the chemicals, but Moscow knew about it.

Again, this is a more updated translation, revised from the simultaneous version, which hasn't been aired yet. With respect to Russia's part or knowledge of the chemical attack, we have no clear information, that would allow us to talk about the involvement of Russia and its forces with this attack. Here's what we know, and we have strong reasons for this conclusion, the attack was planned and executed by the directions of Bashar Al-Assad's regime. We won't repeat the counter-argument, which everybody heard by now. We'll say two things.

First, as the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky said, one of the results of Tillerson's visit was a failed prognosis of an ultimatum from the US. There were no ultimatums. Second, here is a new excerpt from what a Syrian parliament speaker said in her interview with Vesti about the chemical attack in Syria. They know very well that if they do send a team to find out the truth, it will be proven that these countries were the ones who organized the charade in Khan Shaykhun. They provided terrorists with chemical weapons through Turkey. This act was shown on TV all over the world. In reality, it's fabricated footage, full of lies.

At the very least, because if chemical weapons were used, experts wouldn't have been able to go there without masks and gloves. And now, something we have never shown on the air before. We'll show you excerpts not from the press conference, but from a declassified CIA memo on Syria. Here's the memo up close. Let's go page-by-page. Page 1. Up to this point, Assad has estimated the balance of power in this area correctly and came to the right conclusion that his neighbors aren't really against him. Page 3. Keep in mind that some of this has been redacted. You see? It's cut out. This part stays classified. Anyway, here's what it says on page 3. Turkey's overt thoughts on Syria, especially about the upcoming election. And page 4. Right here, at the end. This proposal talks to Syria in the language of real power and muscle. You know when this CIA memo is dated?

September 14, 1983. Back then it was Assad Sr. who ruled, not Bashar, but Hafez. So to a certain extent, nothing new is happening now. The Middle East is still the heart of the world. When Syria gets choked, that's when the heart attack begins. OK, so let's say that was poetry. But to paint a full picture for today, here's an expert opinion on the chemical attack. Considering all the facts, committing such a heinous act as dropping chemical bombs that nobody knew about, that killed dozens of civilians, including children, in a military sense, it's an insane operation, and in a political sense, it's suicide. But it's obvious that he's not crazy enough to do such a thing.

So, of course, this must be investigated. We're all well aware of the kind of information warfare that is taking place right now. We can even state that even if the OPCW does investigate some day and confirms the conclusions of Moscow and Damascus, the West will choose to ignore it. So let's set Syria aside for now and lay emphasis on the fact that some Russian-American dialogue finally took place. Yes, the dialogue wasn't about cooperation, it was about avoiding a collision. But that's important. I think there are plenty of sane people in Russia and in the US, who can pick the wheat from the chaff, who can still be guided by the fundamental, non-conjunctural interests of our people, our countries, and the entire international community. We just came from a productive meeting with President Putin. We frankly discussed the state of the American-Russian relationship. I expressed the view that our relations are at a low point.

The trust is at a low point as well. Two of the largest nuclear nations cannot have such a relationship. History has shown, that when Moscow and Washington work together, not just our countries win, but the entire world. To conclude this issue, another detail about the translation. The press conference began with Minister Lavrov saying, in Russian of course, that it was a long day. Those who speak English probably caught the reference, that this is, "a long day", as in "The Longest Day", the name of an Oscar-winning American movie about the Normandy landings in '44, when our partners responded to Moscow's pleas and finally opened a second front. It's possible that Sergey Lavrov, who spent years working in New York, subconsciously used this phrasing.

For now, let's not get our hopes up as there are a lot of issues between Moscow and Washington, to say the least. And the "managers", who took office in Washington, are still learning to catch on to these references. They still haven't quite gotten the hang of not using a hammer to solve every problem, but diplomacy as well. In this case, because of this attempt to demonstrate the use of force from their side, we can't offer any concessions. It's pointless, it won't solve anything, it will only inspire the applying of pressure in this manner later. And second, we have to be very prudent. We are dealing with partners who don't fully understand how the international system works.