Russian Diplomat: GOP Senators Are “Cold War Monsters”

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From Foreign Policy via Ink Spots, here’s a full-tilt tizzy between a high-ranking Russian official and two Republican senators:

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s ambassador to NATO, met with [Sens. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) yesterday in Washington—but they probably won’t be meeting again anytime soon…

“Today in the Senate, I met with Senators Jon Kyl and Mark Kirk. The meeting is very useful because it shows that the alternative to Barack Obama is a collapse of all the programs of cooperation with Russia,” he said. “Today, I had the impression that I was transported in a time machine back several decades, and in front of me sat two monsters of the Cold War, who looked at me not through pupils, but targeting sights.”

Rogozin was sauced because of the GOP’s longstanding opposition to US-Russia cooperation on nuclear weapons and missile defense, as evidenced by the party’s initial attacks on the new START treaty late last year. (As FP‘s Josh Rogin points out, it could also be because Russia doesn’t appreciate the US insistence on human rights reforms or its support for neighboring Georgia.) For his part, Kirk didn’t take the criticism so well:

“You could say that we’re just not that into him,” Kirk said. “In a potential missile combat scenario between NATO and Iran, Russia is thoroughly irrelevant. So Russian concerns about what we do and not do about the Iranian threat are interesting but largely irrelevant.”

Regarding Rogozin’s comment that Kirk and Kyl were “radicals” and “monsters of the Cold War,” Kirk said, “He should probably moderate his caffeine intake.”

As Ink Spots blogger Gulliver argues, calling one of the most-heavily armed nuclear powers in human history irrelevant to a missile war is pretty nutters. But then, Mark Kirk never was one for getting military matters right.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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