Indeed, it has reached the stage where many popular media outlets see the Kremlin’s hidden hand everywhere. To paraphrase Percy Bysshe Shelley,
“Putin’s here, Putin’s there, Putin’s busy everywhere.”
But in reality, he’s not. Because, even if it had the will,
Russia simply does not have the resources and capability to interfere in elections across the western world. Sure, Moscow might be able to influence one or two, if it seriously targeted them, but the notion that the Kremlin is playing puppet master in countries as disparate as Bulgaria, Italy, France, Germany and the US is pure hokum.
Despite this, we have the sad spectacle of some
Hillary Clinton supporters trying to explain away her failure in the recent Presidential election on Russian meddling. We have seen them blame Moscow for Wikileaks’ exposure of
how her own party rigged its primary to ensure her candidacy. Naturally, the fact that these things actually happened seems to be an aside point.
There’s also
a schizophrenia at play here, or “Russophrenia” to use a term I coined some time ago. American elites, almost simultaneously, ascribe super powers to Russia and then claim the country is dying.
Russophrenia: Western elites ignore their own citizens’ anger and blame Russia instead
