“Russiagate continues to survive like a science fiction monster, resilient to bullets,” writes former CIA analyst Ray McGovern in a piece on Consortium News, noting the longevity and usefulness of the conspiracy in continuing to stoke hostility towards Moscow among the American public.

“The mainstream media has been incredibly adept at suppressing all this stuff,” McGovern noted on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program. “No matter what we write in Consortium News or other outlets – it's on antiwar .com now, too – or however much you and I share this information, we're fighting an uphill battle.”

“And all kinds of other things have been blamed on the Russians to the point where if these not very emotionally stable people in the White House decide to go after the Russians in Ukraine or even get involved against the Russians in Syria or elsewhere in the Middle East, most of the American people say, ‘oh yeah, those damn Russians, didn't they give us Donald Trump?’”

“Japan has been a one-party state since that period. And so, to casually dismiss that is nonsense. But, what it does show is that they do need a scapegoat. Japan's economy is crashing. It's going the way of Germany or the UK. And so, they need a scapegoat,” said peace activist, writer, and teacher, K.J. Noh who joined Sputnik's The Critical Hour on Wednesday.

“And then on top of that, when the US forced Japan, as a member of the G7, to stop importing oil and natural gas from Russia, that put an even greater impact on an already ailing economy. And so, they need a scapegoat for this economic collapse. And so, Kishida is on his way out,” Noh added. “He's going to fall on his sword and they're going to put in somebody who's essentially a clone.”