Putin has found his perfect ‘useful idiots’

[EvilCat Breath]

Happy Birthday Mr. President.

Vladimir Putin gets puppy for his birthday - CNN

Why didn't you save us from obama when you had the chance?

you are a traitor, and its a crime ....

Report me, I'll wait.

 

[Litwin]

"
Don’t Be Putin’s Useful Idiot
In Donald Trump, the Kremlin sees not a fellow dealmaker, but an easy mark. Trump shouldn’t be fooled.


When Donald Trump looks at the man running the Kremlin, he sees a kindred spirit, a cold-blooded pragmatist who is just itching to sit across the table from the new leader of the free world and cut some deals. “I think I would get along very well with Vladimir Putin,” Trump said during the campaign, and he’s giving every indication that he meant it.

And since Trump’s stunning election victory, which electrified Russia’s political class, the country’s leaders have been signaling that the feeling is mutual. Alexei Pushkov, a deputy of the Federation Council — Russia’s equivalent of the U.S. Senate — and, until a month ago, chairman of the Duma Committee on International Affairs, tweeted on Nov. 10 that Trump “isn’t an ideologue, but a realist,” and expressed his hope that U.S.-Russia relations will blossom.


Never mind that Pushkov, before being rewarded by the Kremlin with a Duma seat in 2011, spent the previous 13 years hosting one of Russia’s most viciously anti-American and conspiratorial TV shows. It’s a new dawn, and his comments are part of a broader effort to persuade the incoming U.S. president to deal with Moscow by papering over Russia’s past and current policies — and to pave the way for a possible summit meeting shortly after Trump’s inauguration. The message: I’m a realist, you’re a realist, let’s talk.

In the Kremlin’s narrative, America’s inability to consider Russia’s national interests and traditional sensitivities— under Republican and Democratic administrations alike — is the problem. As soon as these deficiencies are corrected, presumably by Trump, Putin will deliver a more accommodating Russia, which will be ready to “work fast to repair relations with Washington,” as Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov recently put it.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Putin is the most ideological Russian leader since Stalin, and his foreign policy is profoundly influenced by unshakable convictions about Russia’s destiny, its relations with the West and his own historic mission.

An ardent Soviet patriot, Putin has called the end of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century” — and he absolutely believes it. He has dedicated his life to correcting what he sees as a monstrously unjust turn of events, caused, in his eyes, by the West. His overarching agenda is to recover geopolitical assets lost in the Soviet collapse and to take revenge on Western powers, first and foremost the United States, for the perceived humiliation and misery that followed.

Putin’s favorite philosopher, Ivan Ilyn, whose book Наши задачи (Our Tasks) the Russian president assigned to regional governors to read during the 2014 Christmas break, believed that confrontation with the West is Russia’s fate because of the West’s relentless and perennial desire to destroy the Motherland. “Western nations don’t understand and don’t tolerate Russian identity,” Ilyin wrote. “They are going to divide the united Russian ‘broom’ into twigs to break those twigs one by one and rekindle with them the fading light of their own civilization.”

Putin views the entire post-Cold War order as profoundly inequitable, unfair to Russia and therefore “unacceptable,” as he put it in his speech during the 2007 Munich Conference on Security Policy. The main culprit, again, was the United States, which had “overstepped its national borders in every way.”

Seven years later, in the most important speech of his life, the March 18, 2014, address to the joint session of both houses of the Federal Assembly on the occasion of the annexation of Crimea, Putin accused the West of “ruling by the gun,” “wishing to drive Russia into a corner,” and, since at least the 18th century, constantly “deceiving” Russia and dealing “behind its back.” In the same vein, Putin saw the revolution in Ukraine as a CIA plot against Russia. In his December 2014 nationally televised news conference, he asserted that pro-Western Ukraine was “NATO’s Foreign Legion.” A year later, in the annual address to the Federal Assembly, he called Europe “neutered and barren.”

By contrast, Russia was a vibrant, multinational, and “unique” society, blessed by ethnic Russians, whose “great mission” was to “unite and bind this civilization.” As to Putin’s role in Russian history, his deputy chief of staff, undoubtedly with the boss’ permission, avowed, “If there is no Putin, there is no Russia.”

Directed from the Kremlin, the media propaganda campaign on national television has plunged Russia into anti-American hysteria and war paranoia, unseen since Stalin’s days. According to polls, most Russians believe that Russia is already engaged in a proxy war with the United States and a direct confrontation is possible, potentially resulting in World War III. But not to worry: Putin had his spokesman declare the boss “the defender of Russians wherever they live.”

As befits so grandiose a mission, during his 16 years in power, Putin has taken on a mythic public persona celebrated in the state-controlled Russian media. Scuba-diving in the Black Sea, he happens to find two sixth-century Greek amphorae. Playing hockey on his 63rd birthday last year, he scores all seven goals for his team. On a wildlife expedition in Siberia, he saves a camera crew from a tiger attack.

Americans laugh at these and other staged feats of Russian bravado, like the famous photos of a shirtless Putin on horseback. Even President Barack Obama, explaining last week why he didn’t do more to stop Kremlin-directed hacks of U.S. political institutions, mocked Russia as a sad, declining power. “They are a smaller country, they are a weaker country, their economy doesn't produce anything that anybody wants to buy except oil and gas and arms,” he said. “They don’t innovate.”

But if this condescension was meant to assuage our fears, it has failed. There is nothing pitiful or funny about a country led by an unchallenged autocrat, in possession of more than 1,500 strategic nuclear weapons and in pursuit of a self-imposed personal historical mission to avenge perceived historical wrongs. The millions living in former Soviet states who view Russian revanchism as an existential threat — and fear the United States will abandon them — aren’t laughing.

In short, Trump should be wary of his new pal Vladimir Vladimirovich, whose determination to cement and extend the gains of the past few years is unyielding — be it in annexed Crimea and other former parts of Ukraine or the ruins of Aleppo, or in the unprecedented media and cyber attacks aimed at crippling Western democracies and scuttling the post-Cold War European security order.

Putin is not a deal maker. He is not a realist. He is a man driven by a set of beliefs he has consistently articulated for almost a decade, and a set of goals he is now poised to realize — unless Trump understands who he is up against."Don’t Be Putin’s Useful Idiot

 

[Norman]

great story, my question is why we still call Putin´s ‘useful idiots’ for ‘useful idiots’? but not the TRAITORS? , WHO THEY clearly ARE ...?

"
You cannot make this stuff up. “Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he would be willing to provide the U.S. Congress a record of President Trump’s meeting with top Russian envoys, possibly offering new details on the disclosures of reportedly highly classified intelligence information,” The Post reports. “The remarkable offer for the Kremlin to share evidence with U.S. oversight committees came with the caveat that the request for the transcript would have to come from the Trump administration.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), reacting on CNN to Putin’s offer, said, “The idea that we would accept any evidence from President Putin is absurd.” Yes, it would be almost as absurd as the Russians, who interfered with our election for the purpose of putting Trump into office and with whom the Trump campaign is alleged to have colluded, getting invited into the Oval Office to yuk it up with the president. Turning to Russia for “help” in determining whether Trump imparted to them highly classified information we obtained from Israel (which put an Israeli agent in peril) truly is going through the looking glass. If Putin’s aim was to destroy the credibility of the American political system, he has found a perfect partner in Trump, the quintessential “useful idiot” who carries the Russian propaganda line and literally gives him access to the Oval Office.

Where were the complaints from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) about letting the Russians into the Oval Office — and denying U.S. press access? Was it really sufficient for the Senate majority leader to pass off the news of the president’s disclosure of intelligence to the Russians as mere “drama”? Putin’s “offer” is as much a slap at Trump as it is at GOP lawmakers who have let things get to this stage without raising red flags.

We should not forget, as we seemingly begin to barrel toward a full-blown investigation of potential obstruction of justice by the president (and possibly by the attorney general, not to mention the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who urged Trump to fire Comey), that the root of this debacle began with Trump’s willingness to be flattered, cajoled and manipulated by Russians and a flock of advisers with troubling connections to Russian oligarchs. Trump may or may not have financial ties to Russia. He may or may not seek to emulate Putin’s thuggishness — although he does not seem bright enough to be a “fellow traveler.” He nevertheless is dim enough and narcissistic enough to be used by enemies of the United States. Republicans who continue to defend him would do well to remember that, even before Trump began leaning on the FBI, he endangered our democracy."

Opinion | Putin has found his perfect ‘useful idiots’

^^ I wonder if this guy is delusional, or whether he is being paid to shovel bullcrap.

 

[Litwin]

great story, my question is why we still call Putin´s ‘useful idiots’ for ‘useful idiots’? but not the TRAITORS? , WHO THEY clearly ARE ...?

"
You cannot make this stuff up. “Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he would be willing to provide the U.S. Congress a record of President Trump’s meeting with top Russian envoys, possibly offering new details on the disclosures of reportedly highly classified intelligence information,” The Post reports. “The remarkable offer for the Kremlin to share evidence with U.S. oversight committees came with the caveat that the request for the transcript would have to come from the Trump administration.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), reacting on CNN to Putin’s offer, said, “The idea that we would accept any evidence from President Putin is absurd.” Yes, it would be almost as absurd as the Russians, who interfered with our election for the purpose of putting Trump into office and with whom the Trump campaign is alleged to have colluded, getting invited into the Oval Office to yuk it up with the president. Turning to Russia for “help” in determining whether Trump imparted to them highly classified information we obtained from Israel (which put an Israeli agent in peril) truly is going through the looking glass. If Putin’s aim was to destroy the credibility of the American political system, he has found a perfect partner in Trump, the quintessential “useful idiot” who carries the Russian propaganda line and literally gives him access to the Oval Office.

Where were the complaints from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) about letting the Russians into the Oval Office — and denying U.S. press access? Was it really sufficient for the Senate majority leader to pass off the news of the president’s disclosure of intelligence to the Russians as mere “drama”? Putin’s “offer” is as much a slap at Trump as it is at GOP lawmakers who have let things get to this stage without raising red flags.

We should not forget, as we seemingly begin to barrel toward a full-blown investigation of potential obstruction of justice by the president (and possibly by the attorney general, not to mention the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who urged Trump to fire Comey), that the root of this debacle began with Trump’s willingness to be flattered, cajoled and manipulated by Russians and a flock of advisers with troubling connections to Russian oligarchs. Trump may or may not have financial ties to Russia. He may or may not seek to emulate Putin’s thuggishness — although he does not seem bright enough to be a “fellow traveler.” He nevertheless is dim enough and narcissistic enough to be used by enemies of the United States. Republicans who continue to defend him would do well to remember that, even before Trump began leaning on the FBI, he endangered our democracy."

Opinion | Putin has found his perfect ‘useful idiots’

^^ I wonder if this guy is delusional, or whether he is being paid to shovel bullcrap.

a good question, tell me about Rosneft story?

"
The Rosneft transaction also purportedly sent a $500 million dollar brokerage fee to Carter Page, or perhaps the Trump Organization.

The Trump Campaign would’ve been extremely familiar with Rosneft, since top surrogate Rudy Giuliani listed the Russian oil giant as one of his law clients at Bracewell & Giuliani, LLP in 2014 according to Bloomberg."

Trump Russia Dossier Decoded: Yes, There Really Was A Massive Oil Deal (UPDATED)