Putin's puppet

[Legion Troll]

Trump’s inner circle is populated with advisers and operatives who have long careers advancing the interests of the Kremlin.​

Putin has a plan for destroying the West—and that plan looks a lot like Donald Trump.

Over the past decade, Russia has boosted right-wing populists across Europe.

It loaned money to Marine Le Pen in France, well-documented transfusions of cash to keep her presidential campaign alive.

Such largesse also wended its way to the Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, who profited “personally and handsomely” from Russian energy deals. Berlusconi also shared a 240-year-old bottle of Crimean wine with Putin and apparently makes ample use of a bed gifted to him by the Russian president.

There’s a clear pattern: Putin runs stealth efforts on behalf of politicians who rail against the European Union and want to push away from NATO. He’s been a patron of Golden Dawn in Greece, Ataka in Bulgaria, and Jobbik in Hungary.

Brexit was a campaign Russia’s many propaganda organs bombastically promoted.

Trump is like the Kremlin’s favored candidates, only more so. He celebrated the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU. He denounces NATO with feeling.

He is also a great admirer of Vladimir Putin. Trump’s statements of praise amount to slavish devotion. In 2007, he praised Putin for “rebuilding Russia.” A year later he added, “He does his work well. Much better than our Bush.”

When Putin ripped American exceptionalism in a New York Times op-ed, Trump called it “a masterpiece.”

Despite ample evidence, Trump denies that Putin assassinated opponents, “In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that. At least he’s a leader. I will tell you that, in terms of leadership, he’s getting an A.”

That’s a highly abridged sampling of Trump’s odes to Putin.

Russian propaganda has gone full throttle for Trump, using its Russia Today apparatus to hail Trump’s foreign policy. (Sample headline: “Trump Sparks NATO Debate: Obsolete, Could Lead to World War III. ”)

Russian intelligence services hacked the Democratic National Committee’s servers, purloining its opposition research files on Trump.




http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/07/vladimir_putin_has_a_plan_for_destroying_the_west_and_it_looks_a_lot_like.html

 

[anatta]

Trump would be a Russian reset.

 

[Legion Troll]

Trump would be a Russian reset.

Think so?

Five separate times Trump attempted Russian projects, hotels, apartments, and retail on the grandest scale. In one iteration, he promised an ice rink, a “members club,” and a spa, for “the finest residences in Moscow.” Another project he described as “the largest hotel in the world.”

His gaudy style appealed to Russian nouveau riche, and he knew it. “The Russian market is attracted to me,” he once boasted. He registered his name as a trademark in Moscow and even licensed it to a liquor company, which sold Trump Super Premium Vodka.

General-turned-politician Alexander Lebed told him, “If Trump goes to Moscow, I think America will follow.”

Trump never could quite simultaneously align all the elements—investment, approval—to actually break ground. Yet his foray into Russia should be considered a smashing success; Trump set himself up for triumph even as he failed. With each doomed real estate project, he lavished praise on the key constituency that blesses deals, namely Russian politicians.

In front of a pack of reporters he told Lebed, “We’ve been reading a lot of great things about this gentleman and his country.” The praise encouraged Russian officials to keep inviting Trump back for big potential deals. Each time he traveled to Moscow for a high profile visit, he attracted press attention and his stature increased. After one trip, he bragged about a meeting where “almost all of the oligarchs were in the room.”



http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/07/vladimir_putin_has_a_plan_for_destroying_the_west_and_it_looks_a_lot_like.html

 

[anatta]

the goal is a Russian reset. Obviously that hasn't worked. Just giving FM Lavrov a hand button like Clinton did isn't going to do it.
But there is no reason to not engage -where we are now with nobody talking even at lower levels; and Putin buzzing US Navy/AF

It requires some understandings between the US/NATO & Russia.

Putin's nationalism has got him this far, but his economy is a wreck; so everybody has an incentive to better relations,

 

[Legion Troll]

Trumpski has incentives to bend the knee.

Vlad has files on him going back decades.

 

[anatta]

Trumpski has incentives to bend the knee.
Vlad has files on him going back decades.

doesn't mean a damn thing one way or the other.
Realpolitik would mean both countries ( blocks) would look to advance their interests thru common interests
and cooperation where possible.

 

[Legion Troll]

doesn't mean a damn thing one way or the other.
Realpolitik would mean both countries ( blocks) would look to advance their interests thru common interests
and cooperation where possible.

You think Trump can afford to have those files leaked?

 

[Legion Troll]

Speculation is ramping up that Trump is a Manchurian candidate.


Trump has chosen this week to unmask himself as a de facto agent of Putin, a KGB-trained dictator who seeks to rebuild the Soviet empire by undermining the free nations of Europe, marginalizing NATO, and ending America’s reign as the world’s sole superpower.

His campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was for many years on the payroll of the Putin-backed former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.

Trump’s understanding of America’s role in the world aligns with Russia’s geostrategic interests; that his critique of American democracy is in accord with the Kremlin’s critique of American democracy; and that he shares numerous ideological and dispositional proclivities with Putin—for one thing, an obsession with the sort of “strength” often associated with dictators.

Trump is making it clear that, as president, he would allow Russia to advance its hegemonic interests across Europe and the Middle East.



http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/07/clinton-trump-putin-nato/492332/