Moscow

The mother, Ekaterina Pavlovna, who at one time had been handsome, but now, asthmatic, depressed, vague, and over-feeble for her years, tried to entertain me with conversation about painting. Having heard from her daughter that I might come to Shelkovka, she had hurriedly recalled two or three of my landscapes which she had seen in exhibitions in Moscow, and now asked what I meant to express by them.

I was inclined to accept Yeltsin's invitation to go to Russia, but Tony Lake said Moscow shouldn't be my first foreign stop, and the rest of my team said it would divert attention from our domestic agenda.

An IAF representative told an Indian parliamentary committee that due to the Ukraine war a “major delivery” from Moscow “is not going to take place.”

Moscow doubtless wants to make trouble for the Western Powers so far as she can without losing their recognition or encouraging actual hostility. She wants peace and trade and an opportunity for internal economic reconstruction above everything just now. It seems doubtful whether she expects to Bolshevize China, though she wants China fully independent of Western imperialism and friendly to her.

I could not agree with the tactics or approach of those who, like Chiang Kai-shek in a speech on July 3, 1950, wanted the U.N. to charge the Russians with the full responsibility for this Korean conflict and to demand that Moscow put an end to it. This kind of bluster is certain to lead into an impossible dilemma. If these suggestions had been followed and the Soviets had ignored the order, as in all likelihood they would have done, either the United Nations would have stood convicted of weakness or World War III would have been on.

The translation of Khrushchev's letter reached me later that day, and I read it with care and with growing disappointment. It seemed designed for propaganda purposes rather than serious diplomacy. Khrushchev roundly denounced "colonizers" and "imperialism" as the major causes of past wars. Of course, he did not mention the Soviet Union's attack on Finland, the obliteration of the Baltic states, or the "colonization" of Eastern Europe by Moscow after World War II.

Moscow said "Nyet!"

Yet, a few US newscasters will go on the air at 6 pm or later and say, "Moscow said tonight.["] ... A careful writer would make his script read, "Moscow said today. ..."

In addition, Moscow argued that Georgia had violated international law by introducing its forces into South Ossetia, a move Moscow said Tbilisi had committed itself not to do under the earlier CIS-sponsored peacekeeping arrangements.

Their government says Moscow is funneling undocumented migrants to the border between the two countries to orchestrate an influx of immigration.