But, while Pence sought to calm a wimpy and corrupt group of European leaders, who rely on American blood money to keep their lavish lifestyles in tact, Pence did hint at Russian détente ever so slightly...

"Know this: The United States will continue to hold Russia accountable, even as we search for new common ground which as you know President Trump believes can be found."

Two weeks ago, German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble confirmed Donald Trump's charge that the Euro is far "too low" for Germany, but said he is unable to do anything about it and instead blamed Mario Draghi. "The euro exchange rate is, strictly speaking, too low for the German economy's competitive position," he told Tagesspiegel on February 5. "When ECB chief Mario Draghi embarked on the expansive monetary policy, I told him he would drive up Germany's export surplus . . . I promised then not to publicly criticize this [policy] course. But then I don't want to be criticized for the consequences of this policy."

Then, on Saturday, his boss German Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed her finance minister, and also admitted that the euro is indeed "too low" for Germany, but once again made clear that Berlin had no power to address this "problem" because monetary policy was set by the independent European Central Bank.

Merkel also confirmed that Germany benefits from not having the Deutsche Mark, whose value would be far higher, and instead piggybacks on the weakness of other European nations, implicitly confirming recurring allegations that Germany benefits from the misery of Europe's periphery.

"The ECB has a monetary policy that is not geared to Germany, rather it is tailored (to countries) from Portugal to Slovenia or Slovakia. If we still had the (German) D-Mark it would surely have a different value than the euro does at the moment. But this is an independent monetary policy over which I have no influence as German chancellor."

And so, not one but two strong hints by Germany's most powerful politicians that Trump should take his fight against the "grossly undervalued" euro away from Berlin, and focus on Frankfurt and the ECB, and specifically Mario Draghi.

Will Trump's inevitable focus on the European Central Bank - and its massive balance sheet change the dynamics of European monetary policy, and prompt an even faster taper of Draghi's asset purchases? We don't know. We do know, however, that we will pay good money for a solid, decent twitter fight between @realDonaldTrump and the @ECB, in other USD or EUR.

Representatives of the Normandy Four did not discuss Moscow's decision during a meeting on the sidelines of the security conference in Munich, Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Germany.

"I don't think that anyone sees any change in [Moscow's] position" towards the Donbass region, the minister said.

The decree also states it "based on the norms of international humanitarian law."

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko slammed the decision, calling it "another proof of Russian occupation." After having spoken with the US Vice President Mike Pence on the fringes of the Munich conference, the Ukrainian leader accused Moscow of "violating international law" with its latest decree.

This is a translation from the Russian original, which appeared Saturday, Christmas day, (Russian calendar) on Ms. Simonyan's personal blog.

The author is the head of the Russian global news network RT.com, sometimes referred to by its old name, 'Russia Today', and of the Russian global news agency, 'Sputnik'.

Dear CIA,

You get a total F for this thing you wrote.

You don't cover the subject in enough detail, some sources are un-named, and those you do name are either out of date, or simply untrue. The whole thing reads like something a schoolboy would write for a homework assignment.

At my KGB high school, you would have been flogged with a birch switch for this kind of incompetence, which, incidentally, is rather painful.

I'm going to have to step in here and give you a little friendly mentoring as you work to correct your mistakes. Let's start with a few basic facts. These facts are indisputable and heavily documented.

Your assignment is to write out each fact legibly three times in neat handwriting with no mistakes, and not using an eraser.

After the holidays the teacher himself will grade your work!

------

In 2001 at the age of 21 I covered the elections in Crimea. Then, as always, actually, there existed a very strong pro-Russian mood. Ever since that two-week assignment, it never subsided. These facts are indisputable.

My former very serious boyfriend whom I was living with, Andrei Blagodyrenko, runs the Sputnik news agencies in the countries of the former USSR. I offered him the job after we broke up. Under his leadership, Sputnik has become a market leader in those countries. What we have here is scientific proof that Russian propaganda spreads through body fluids. These facts are indisputable.

I met several times with Julian Assange. You can confirm this by checking the security cameras at the Ecuadorean embassy, or even just by reading my rather careless tweets about it. The meetings took place in London. London iz ze kepital aff Grait Breettun. These facts are indisputable.

RT was the first global news channel to get a billion views on Youtube, already in 2013. It is blindingly obvious, therefore, that Russia hacked every Youtube user, because it is not blindingly obvious how else this many peeps could be gorging themselves on Russian propaganda without at least the benefit of horseradish and mustard. These facts are indisputable.

Alexei Gromov is indeed my contact in the Kremlin. Our meetings are not infrequent and sometimes involve adult beverages. I prefer German beer, while he is fond of Russian vodka. These facts are indisputable.

Once, Alexei, returning home from mushroom hunting in the forest, stopped by my home and left a basket of porcinis. You can confirm this by checking the security cameras of my village. Shortly after, an employee of the US Department of State visited me. You can check the same cameras to confirm this. I served fried porcinis to my guest, craftily claiming they are a traditional Russian delicacy. These facts are indisputable.

One year ago we made a video showing how after retiring, Obama and Kerry will end up watching RT at home, sobbing. You can see this video as it is public on an information network known as the internet. To reach it, you have to type the address into your browser, or click, that is, press on the button of your mouse on these words right here. These facts are indisputable.

And last but not least. At the age of 15, having neither contacts nor money, I studied in the US on a school exchange program paid for by US taxpayers. At that time, Donald Trump was already a significant taxpayer.

Draw your own conclusions.