Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow earlier this month. Michael Klimentyev/Kremlin/RIA Novosti/Reuters

Is US Bent On Bringing Down Russia? Some In Kremlin Say Yes. -- Fred Weir, CSM

Many leading foreign policy advisers to Putin say that Ukraine is merely an excuse for US-led sanctions, and that Washington is bent on 'regime change' in Russia.

Moscow — There are at least two schools of thought in the Kremlin about what Russia can do in the face of a US-led "sanctions attack," which is only growing deeper with each passing week.

One school, tactically embraced by President Vladimir Putin himself yesterday, is that conciliatory rhetoric, signals of non-aggression toward Ukraine, and massaging the divergent economic interests between European countries and the US, may succeed in blunting further sanctions, if not rolling back the ones already imposed.

But another point of view, held by many leading foreign policy advisers, is far more pessimistic, and even fatalistic. This perspective argues that Russia's schism with the US will keep on widening no matter what happens in Ukraine.

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Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials -- July 23, 2014

Sanctions finally find Russia’s Achilles heel -- William E. Pomeranz, Reuters

MH17 plane crash: Can Russia be blamed for Ukraine rebels? -- Joe Boyle, BBC News

Will MH17 air crash damage Russia's Putin? -- Dmitri Trenin, BBC

Vladimir Putin’s Truth Problem: Five Holes in the Russian President's Story -- Bill Powell, Newsweek

Obsessing About Gaza, Ignoring Syria (And Most Everything Else) -- Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic

Gaza crisis: Arab divisions over Hamas making Kerry's job even tougher -- Howard LaFranchi, CSM

Israeli Airline With Missile Defenses Goes to Israel When US Carriers Won’t -- Lee Ferran, ABC News

Iraq's 'Islamic State' is quite happy to rule by terror -- Dan Murphy, CSM

Life in Capital of a Caliphate: Harsh Rule, but a Level of Order -- New York Times

The farce continues in the latest Iran nuke talks -- Amir Taheri, New York Post

Leopoldo Lopez’s jailing is a symptom of a sick Venezuela -- Lilian Tintori, Washington Post

Is Mexico’s Drug War Finally Over? -- Jan-Albert Hootsen, Vocativ

The World Is Returning to Normal -- Michael Leeden, PJ Media