As the drumbeats of war are sounding loud and the warmongering rhetoric has gotten shrill, a group of Russian and American activists assembled in downtown Moscow to replant once again the symbolic US-Russia friendship birch tree that was initially planted nine years ago but had to be replaced several times due to their inability to survive. Some say it is due to the severe weather, and some, with a sense of humor, believe it is due to the toxic atmosphere in the relations between the two countries when the tree, as a living organism, feels it.
The first tree was planted on April 24, 2015, on the eve of the 70th Anniversary of the historical “Elbe River” meeting of the American and Soviet military, which became a symbolic event of their joint victory over Nazi Germany. The ceremony took place with the active participation of the US Embassy in Moscow. Then Ambassador John F. Tefft was a diplomat of the old “search for compromise” school, which had since been replaced by “rules-based international order” diplomacy, meaning U.S. world leadership, another word for “hegemony.”
Continue reading “Struggling Peace Tree: In Russia and America”
