At the risk of being called cold or harsh, let me begin by saying every American has a right to his/her opinion on just about any issue. Including guns.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let me add this: the people playing partisan politics on the graves of the 17 innocent dead people from Douglas High School are despicable. I don't care what age they are.

Over the last couple of weeks, a variety of conservative voices have gotten in trouble for insinuating that the anti-gun protesters coming out of Douglas High School seem far too practiced to simply be grieving students.

Benjamin Kelly, a district secretary for Florida GOP Rep. Shawn Harrison, was fired after wondering if the anti-gun students were actually just "crisis actors." Yes, Kelly went too far. Yes, he spoke to soon about a subject that was far too raw, and he should have known better. But in his defense, the anti-gun student leaders simply seemed too prepared to respond to such a horrible disaster.

Once the students were proven to not be "crisis actors," others began to wonder if they had someone training them.

'Of course not,' we were told.

The students were "born online," so they're better able to handle the media spotlight, and Douglas High School simply has an excellent debate program, which helped prepare these kids to speak in public about important issues. I kid you not. The Miami Herald seemed to actually believe that a school debate program could prepare grieving children to speak on international television in such a calm and direct fashion as to make everyone wonder if they'd done this before.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday dismissed as "propaganda" claims that Russia and the West have entered a new "cold war."

In an interview with NBC's Megyn Kelly in Moscow, Putin said his earlier comments that Russian ballistic missiles could penetrate any missile defense systems on the planet were not a declaration of a new "cold war" as some defense analysts suggested.

National Grid's first "gas deficit warning" for eight years has been withdrawn after supplies increased.

The network operator issued the warning on Thursday, saying it might not have enough gas to meet demand due to the current cold snap gripping the UK.

The warning was a call to the market to boost supplies.

"It is essential to provide conditions for creative labor and economic growth at a pace that would put an end to the division of the world into permanent winners and permanent losers. The rules of the game should give the developing economies at least a chance to catch up with those we know as developed economies. We should work to level out the pace of economic development, and brace up backward countries and regions so as to make the fruit of economic growth and technological progress accessible to all. Particularly, this would help to put an end to poverty, one of the worst contemporary problems."

-- Vladimir Putin, President Russian Federation, Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club

Putin wants to end poverty? Putin wants to stimulate economic growth in developing countries? Putin wants to change the system that divides the world into "permanent winners and losers"? But, how can that be, after all, Putin is bad, Putin is a "KGB thug", Putin is the "new Hitler"?

American liberals would be surprised to know that Putin actually supports many of the same social issues that they support. For example, the Russian President is not only committed to lifting living standards and ending poverty, he's also a big believer in universal healthcare which is free under the current Russian Constitution. Naturally, the Russian system has its shortcomings, but there has been significant progress under Putin who has dramatically increased the budget, improved treatment and widened accessibility. Putin believes that healthcare should be a universal human right. Here's what he said at the annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club:

"Another priority is global healthcare.... All people in the world, not only the elite, should have the right to healthy, long and full lives. This is a noble goal. In short, we should build the foundation for the future world today by investing in all priority areas of human development." (Vladimir Putin, President Russian Federation, Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club)

Russian president Vladimir Putin today delivered a landmark address to the Russian Federal Assembly - a joint session of the two chambers of the Russian Parliament - in what is the Russian equivalent of an annual 'State of the Union' speech.

Despite its name, the audience of the address is not limited to Russian legislators. Members of the cabinet, senior civil servants and important public figures are also invited. There were so many people invited this year that the event was moved from its traditional venue at the Georgievsky reception hall in the Grand Palace of the Kremlin to the larger venue at Moscow's Manege.

Taking advantage of the new venue's better multimedia capabilities, Putin announced that Russia has developed a number of advanced weapons systems, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile which render all US capabilities aimed at undermining the Russian nuclear deterrent - including its anti-missile systems - obsolete.

Over the last four years, all commentators have underlined the impossibility for Russia to deploy ground troops against the jihadists in Syria at the risk of reliving their defeat in Afghanistan. But what is true if Moscow confronts Washington by proxy is false if the two great powers agree not only on the future of Syria, but the whole region. Thierry Meyssan was the first journalist in the world to announce the arrival of the Russian army in Syria in 2015. He is today the first to announce the deployment of its infantry.

Washington has decided to relegate its project for the destruction of states and societies in the Greater Middle East to second place in its preoccupations, and to concentrate its forces on opposing the Chinese project for the Silk Road. This has apparently been implemented by President Donald Trump and the Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull (representing the British), on 24 February at the White House.

This is not just the traditional conflict between the Anglo-Saxon maritime Empire on one side and the land-based Chinese project on the other. It also concerns the potential threat that Chinese industry represents for the whole of the developed world. To put it simply, while in Antiquity, Europeans were eager to obtain Chinese silks, today, all the Western powers fear having to the compete with Chinese cars.

Since Beijing has abandoned the project of re-opening the Silk Road along its historic route through Mosul and Palmyra, the United States have nothing to gain by sponsoring jihadists to create a Caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria.

Days after Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi was imprisoned for slapping an Israeli soldier in her hometown of Nabi Saleh, members of her extended family living in Deir Nitham were threatened by an Israeli captain during a raid: "The day will come when you wish you are not a Tamimi." In early January, the Tamimis from Deir Nitham buried 16 year old Musaab al-Tamimi after he was shot on the neck during clashes with Israeli soldiers. Musaab was the first Palestinian killed by the Israeli Defense Forces in 2018.

The long-term resistance of Tamimi family to the Israeli occupation is becoming something of an obsession for Israeli authorities. In some cases, they are losing their grip on reality. Two years ago, Knesset member and former ambassador to the US Michael Oren initiated a parliamentary committee investigation to find out if the Tamimis were "not a real family... not genuine, and was specially put together for propaganda" purposes by the Palestinians, in which case this would represent "exploitation of children". Unsurprisingly, this conspiracy theory "didn't reach unequivocal conclusions."

Contrary to Oren's show of concern for the Tamimi children, the IDF has targeted members of the family irrespective of their age or innocence. On the 26th of February at 3 a.m., the Israeli military raided Nabi Saleh and arrested ten members of the Tamimi family for no apparent reason. Half of them are minors, including Ahed's cousin Mohammed. The arrests were carried out after collectively punishing the neighbourhood by spraying it with 'skunk water', a putrid substance normally used to disperse crowds:

"When one sees him, a ruler must be a paragon of mercy, loyalty, humanness, integrity and scrupulousness. Indeed, there's nothing more important than appearing to have this last quality, for the common people are impressed by appearances and results."

Niccolò Machiavelli

Remember when rival political parties would dig up dirt on each other? Anything would do: this guy once took a train journey and never paid for it; this one threw a candy bar wrapper on the street; this one once said women love it when he grabs them by the pussy; you know, silly stuff.

For the longest time, the public have always needed those involved with running their countries to be squeaky clean. People need that ideal to project onto, because they know they themselves are not perfect. Yet regardless of how great the leader in question might have seemed, 'ordinary' people really knew deep down that the leader wasn't perfect, but so long as their sins were kept under the rug, it didn't matter.

On February 27, US Army General Joseph Votel blamed Russia for "playing both arsonist and firefighter, fueling tensions among all parties in Syria... then serving as an arbitrator, to resolve disputes, attempting to undermine and weaken each party's bargaining positions."

The United States has always introduced itself as a Messiah with the responsibility to protect. But has anyone invited Washington to demonstrate its destructive... oops, defensive strategy? So, here's a blast from the past with Sputnik's special selection of four countries where Washington had taken on the roles of "arsonist and firefighter," fanning the flames and then trying to extinguish them (not so much).

Afghanistan

In 2001, in response to the horrifying 9/11 attacks in the United States, then-president George Bush announced the Global War on terrorism and the beginning of the operation, codenamed Enduring Freedom, to target al-Qaeda and the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. Washington has been mired in the never-ending war for over sixteen years, and despite its initial advances during the campaign, today the Taliban controls about one-third of Afghanistan, "more territory than at any point since the US-led invasion." But has the plight changed a bit since the launch of Enduring Freedom?

Update: US Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE). a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement regarding President Trump's comments today on due process and the Second Amendment:

"Strong leaders don't automatically agree with the last thing that was said to them. We have the Second and due process of low for a reason. We're not ditching any Constitutional protections simply because the last person the President talked to today doesn't like them."

President Trump told a group of lawmakers that they must do something to keep guns away from mentally ill individuals - even if that means raising the minimum age for rifle ownership to 21, Bloomberg reports.

His remarks appeared to contradict a CNN report from earlier in the week, which quoted anonymous White House aides saying Trump would soon walk back his support for raising the age limit.

But on Wednesday, in what the New York Times characterized as a "shocking" break with his Republican Congressional allies,Trump told lawmakers during a televised meeting in the Cabinet Room that easing gun owners' ability to carry concealed weapons across state lines, a provision of the House-passed gun bill and the NRA's top legislative priority, should be part of a separate bill, a strategy favored by Democrats.