Dana Milbank: As Trump prepares his kissy face for Putin, a glimpse into the dictator's soul
As Trump prepares his kissy face for Putin, a glimpse into the dictators soul
By Dana Milbank Opinion writer
@Milbank
http://www.facebook.com/danamilbank
December 27 at 12:32 PM
Spare us the kissy-face. ... It was June 2001 and I was covering President George W. Bushs trip to Slovenia, where he had just met Vladimir Putin for the first time. I and others were struck by Bushs praise for the Russian leader as trustworthy. Said Bush: I was able to get a sense of his soul. ... But back in Washington, my editor had no interest in such talk. He rewrote my lede with other news a tidbit about missile defense and he moved the kissy-face stuff about Putins soul down to Paragraph 18. ... Now its Donald Trumps turn for kissy-face, and the president-elect is practically groping the Russian dictator. After Putin gloated Friday that Democrats need to learn to lose with dignity, Trump tweeted Putin a sloppy kiss: So true! he said of Putins comments.
....
{I}t would be useful for Americans to have at least a cursory sense of the man our new president proposes to embrace. Heres a quick glimpse into Putins soul to get us started:
Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was killed outside the Kremlin as he walked home one night last year. Putins regime blames Chechens, but Nemtsovs is one of a dozen high-profile murders of opponents widely thought to have been sanctioned by Putins government.
Another Putin opponent, Alexander Litvinenko, was killed in London by polonium poisoning in 2006. The British government said Putin probably approved the hit. That same year, opposition journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot and killed outside her apartment.
In 2009, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in prison after being denied medical care. Others working on his investigation of corrupt Russian politicians also died suspiciously.
Among the many business leaders imprisoned or ousted under Putin are Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was head of the oil giant Yukos, and associate Platon Lebedev. The Russian human rights group Memorial says there are 102 people held in Russian prisons for their political or religious beliefs.
....
This, Mr. President-elect, is the man you are embracing. Please spare us the kissy-face.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Ronald Reagan is rolling in his grave as he senses the Latter Day Republicans selling out America to the "Evil Empire" as he called Russia.
Why do Republicans now hate Ronald Reagan (R) ?
Girard442
(6,070 posts)Unlike Trump, Putin chooses his words carefully. Using the incorrect "His Excellency" is not a message to Trump, but to us, the American people, saying that Putin knows that Trump is a shallow and needy little man who can easily be led around by the nose with cheap flattery and that he (Putin) plans to do exactly that.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/world/read-the-letter-russian-president-vladimir-putin-sent-to-president-elect-donald-trump/2257/
murielm99
(30,735 posts)After Jan. 20, he will be Mr. President.
We don't have royalty here. Trump and his family of blonde Kardashians are trash, Pure D trash.
hedda_foil
(16,373 posts)Cha
(297,154 posts)Dana did some research on the object of dump's affection.