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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNYT: Putins Bet on Trump Backfires Spectacularly
July 31, 2017 at 7:03 am EDTBy Taegan Goddard18 Comments
A little more than a year after the Russian effort to interfere in the American presidential election came to light, the diplomatic fallout an unraveling of the relationship between Moscow and Washington on a scale not seen in decades is taking its toll, the New York Times reports.
President Vladimir V. Putin bet that Donald J. Trump, who had spoken fondly of Russia and its authoritarian leader for years, would treat his nation as Mr. Putin has longed to have it treated by the West. That is, as the superpower it once was, or at least a major force to be reckoned with, from Syria to Europe, and boasting a military revived after two decades of neglect. That bet has now backfired, spectacularly. If the sanctions overwhelmingly passed by Congress last week sent any message to Moscow, it was that Mr. Trumps hands are now tied in dealing with Moscow, probably for years to come.
It is unclear how much the announcement will affect day-to-day relations. While the Russian news media said 755 diplomats would be barred from working, and presumably expelled, there do not appear to be anything close to 755 American diplomats working in Russia.
https://politicalwire.com/2017/07/31/putins-bet-trump-backfires-spectacularly/
tanyev
(42,278 posts)I don't know why his kids are still hanging in there. I wonder if he constantly pits them against each other?
kentuck
(110,916 posts)Richard Engel explained it in his special last night on MSNBC.
Phoenix61
(16,926 posts)idiot as Putin thought he would be. It's all about the oil and it doesn't look like those sanctions will be lifted anytime soon.
GeorgeGist
(25,293 posts)seems to be working.
Gothmog
(143,654 posts)Adrahil
(13,340 posts)I think Putin already achieved all his primary objectives. He's sown chaos in US politics, he's destroyed the US as the leader of the Western World, he's undermined the Western alliances.
Anything now is gravy.
He could not be happier.
Here's the thing... the Russians never really had a detailed "collusion" plan, I think....
They intended to enable to Trump to destroy us from the inside, being fully aware he required no direction to do so.
But don't get me wrong.... I think they have all kinds of kompromat on him. It makes him hesitate and vacillate, and ultimately further undermines American leadership.
Not to mention, now many GrOPer "patriots" suddenly think Russian oligarchs are our friends.
I hate to say it, but it's been a phenomenally successful intelligence campaign by the Russians.
brush
(53,331 posts)Adrahil
(13,340 posts)I heard somewhere that the Russians are shocked about how easy it was to achieve their goals. They're apparently never really met the American right.
Limbaugh and his ilk have been prepping the battlefield for years. The American right doesn't need any sticking facts to cheer the destruction of American Democracy.
brush
(53,331 posts)for trump to lift the sanctions that would allow Putin to exploit the half a trillion dollar oil deal that trump himself was promised a piece of.
Installing oil exec Tillerson as SOS was all part of the plan but trump's ineptness at managing/steering our system towards Russian-favoring compliance with the deal has blown it up.
Now because of his ineffectiveness, trump can't not sign the new, even more restrictive sanctions bill just passed by the Congress, least he look even more like a Putin tool.
Oh, Putin has sown disorder and confusion in out government all right but trump himself has multiplied that ten-fold with his chaotic management style of dissing his own people and pitting them against each other. More accurately, it's a lack of actual management.
trump has not been able to hold up his end of the bargain and Putin now knows it, thus his expulsion of 700 some US diplomatic personnel from Russia.
So Putin can't quite get everything he would like, but let's face it....
Russia is economically weak. Their economy is smaller than Italy's, but yet they wield outsized power.
Their target remains, IMO, the former Soviet states in Eastern Europe. Putin wants as much of them back as he can.
Not to mention, poking the US in the eye helps his standing at home, where he seeks to consolidate his power.
Cosmocat
(14,535 posts)Everyone on this planet except the jackass republicans in this country saw him he for the double dealing, money laundering scumbag con man he is.
What we have now is EXACTLY what Russia wanted. Our country in chaos and our moral standing, very likely, permanently destroyed.
The sanctions are gravy - he will get them sooner or later.
But, by helping 45 get POTUS, he retroactively went back in time to win the Cold War.
This is EXACTLY what he wanted.
Cosmocat
(14,535 posts)The cold war was literally over.
Fat Lady had sung.
And, on November 8th this country decided, in all of its obliviousness, to say, hey, Vlad, here is the Super Bowl Trophy, we didn't want it ...
The election of 45 has, very possibly permanently, eradicated the US's position, earned through the blood of our parent's parents, as the moral force in the world.