Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, in an Oct. 14 op-ed published in RT, blasts the State Department’s Marshall Billingslea’s posturing on arms control talks with Russia, which he assumes is being done on behalf of Trump, as “dangerous delusions.” Billingslea’s portrayal of his talks with the Russians in an optimistic light, despite “getting the door slammed in his face” by the Russians side “at best, represented an unrealistic interpretation of actual events and, at worst, outright fabrication,” Ritter writes. Billingslea, of course, blamed the Russians. “I am hopeful that sort of gentleman’s agreement – that arrangement we believe has been reached at the highest levels – will ultimately need to percolate down through their system so that my counterpart hopefully will be authorized to negotiate,” Billingslea said at the Heritage Foundation on Oct. 12. “We’re ready to strike this deal. We could strike it tomorrow, in fact, but Moscow’s going to have to show the political will to do so as well.”