If Putin Wants Discord in the West, Trump Is His Man
Old piece worth a repost.
SPLIT, Croatia — When the news broke last week that it was all but certain that the U.S. Democratic National Committee’s email had been hacked by Russia, it was surprising to me that anyone was remotely skeptical that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime would do such a thing. Putin has been heavily investing in and aggressively using propaganda and intelligence forces for years.
Then came the response from the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, who was already coming under fire for his affinity for Putin and for having a staff sprinkled with people with Kremlin connections. Trump gleefully boasted that his “friends“ were helping him with the DNC hack and then called on the hackers to carry on by turning their attention to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails.
As outrage mounted, Trump tried to pass off his treasonous appeal as a joke, convincing only his most devoted fans. What is no joke at all is how Trump doubled down on his admiration for Putin and continues to entertain policies that come straight off the Kremlin’s wish list, like lifting U.S. sanctions on Russia and recognizing Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.
The media is also hot on the trail of Trump’s financial connections to Russia. He attempted damage control by proclaiming he had no investments in Russia, but of course this isn’t the point at all. The question is how much Putin and his oligarchs have invested in Trump — and what sort of returns they hope to gain on this investment.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/garry-kasparov/putin-trump-west_b_11263110.html