larry johnson, former cia,  was in moscow and comes back with these thoughts and experiences;

Why was I in Moscow? It was not a secret mission. Let’s call it a mission of peace. I was invited to speak at a round table on multi-polarity and the future of Russian/American relations by the International Russophile Movement. The IRM or “MIR” (in French), is a recently formed organization. Pepe Escobar wrote about the inaugural meeting, which took place in March 2023 (you can read about that here.)

This was a much smaller gathering and I was fortunate to be invited to share the company and listen to the words of podcast luminaries like Dmitri Simes Sr., Pepe Escobar, Alastair Crooke, Alexander Dugin and Eva Bartlett. It is alway humbling to be in the presence of greatness, and I was surely surrounded by such company.

The only negative about the event was its relative brevity. But we packed a lot into the time allotted and carried on discussions long after the official meeting terminated. I was particularly pleased to catch up with Dmitri Simes.

Twenty two years ago Dmitri held a senior position with the Nixon Center in Washington, DC and hosted round tables like this one. I vividly recall a previous experience with Dmitri. We sat in a conference room at the Nixon Center in January 2003 with former CIA Director James Schlesinger, Charles Krauthammer, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Col. Patrick Lang, and Marc Sageman to discuss the impending war in Iraq. Dmitri moderated the discussion. I would note that Joe Wilson did not say a word at that event about his secret mission to Niger. Nor did he mention that he was married to my old friend, Valerie Plame (I learned about that months later after she was outed by the Bush Administration in July 2003). Joe was still under the illusion that George W. Bush was an honorable man and that he would listen to reason. Joe learned the hard way that he was wrong.........more.........