Putin gets his puppet

It appears that Vladimir Putin has successfully coopted the U.S. government from within with the help of the American voters. I hope that you are happy, comrades.

Russia worked hard to help  elect Donald Trump, and it’s delighted with the outcome: “The Russian leadership appeared mostly heartened by Clinton’s defeat. The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, greeted the news of Trump’s victory with an ovation.”

Steve Benen reports, Russian official claims pre-election contacts with Trump camp:

Putin-Trump-Kiss[T]he FBI concluded that Russia was intervening in the American presidential election, taking unprecedented steps to boost Donald Trump’s candidacy, but Comey didn’t want to share this with the public – because he said it was too close to the election to share the findings.

Of course, now that the election is over, and Russia’s favorite candidate prevailed, there’s apparently no point in hiding Team Trump’s relationship with Moscow. Bloomberg Politics reported this morning:

Russia said it was in contact with President-elect Donald Trump’s team during the U.S. election campaign, despite repeated denials by the Republican candidate’s advisers that any links existed.

“There were contacts” before the election, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday, according to the Interfax news service. “We continue this work of course,” he said, without giving details of what the contacts were.

The same report added that Russia’s Foreign Ministry requested meetings with Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which refused to have pre-election discussions, but members of Trump’s campaign accepted meetings with Russian officials.

As the Washington Post added, Ryabkov also told Russia’s state-run news agency that “quite a few” members of Trump’s team “have been staying in touch with Russian representatives” ahead of the American election.

Mr. Comey, if you’re reading this, it seems like the kind of detail U.S. voters probably should’ve known before casting their ballots.

Keep in mind, there are at least two angles to a controversy like this one. The first is that Trump, who has a nasty habit of dishonesty, denied during the campaign that his team was in contact with Russian officials. According to Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, the president-elect’s denials weren’t true.

The second is that the alleged behind-the-scenes contacts between Moscow and an American presidential campaign raise all kinds of questions about what, if anything, Trump’s team may have promised Russian officials while Russia apparently took steps to undermine Trump’s political opponent.

We may be looking at the first scandal of the Trump/Pence administration.

You and I both know that if a Democratic candidate for any office had been in contact with the Russians, the Tea-Publicans would be screaming “treason!” and demanding the prosecution of this commie simp. But these old red-baiters now say “IOKIYAR.”  Поздравляю! (Congratulations!)

8 thoughts on “Putin gets his puppet”

    • That “evidence” is extremely tenuous and makes the Hillary email and Clinton Foundation evidence look like cables from the support structure of the George Washington Bridge.

      Beyond that, the evidence amazingly jumps from communication to “coordination,” which suggests it is both tenuous and biased.

      And while were are looking for a “broader set of observations,” remember that AzBM’s referenced source said that the Russians claim to have been communicating with the Clinton campaign also. Was there Russian-Clinton coordination? I think that is also very unlikely.

      • Better get yourself some new specs to see better, or take a reading comprehension course. It’s right there in the article just above the fold. “The same report added that Russia’s Foreign Ministry requested meetings with Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which refused to have pre-election discussions…”

        • That is not surprising given that Hillary indicated by all of her speeches that she intended to make Russia the focal point for her “bad guy” list in foreign policy matters. Given that one man rules Russia, that might not have been a good idea…

  1. On the third hand, it could simply be that the Russians knew what a pain in the butt Hillary would be to work with on the international stage. Especially after all of her anti-Russian rhetoric during the election. Then again, it could be the Russian didn’t trust Hillary. Sort of like half the American population that bothered to vote.

  2. Nothing but an allegation based upon one Russian official’s statement, who could just be playing the US press.

    Plus AzBM’s source, Bloomberg Politics, also reports alleged multiple contacts between Russian officials and Clinton’s team in the same article alleging Trump team contact, which AzBM conveniently failed to report!! AzBM looses all credibility, even though he had none.

    The FBI found no evidence of any contacts.

    This isn’t even smoke. It’s just more AzBM post-election pus.

    • Better get yourself some new specs to see better, or take a reading comprehension course. It’s right there in the article just above the fold. “The same report added that Russia’s Foreign Ministry requested meetings with Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which refused to have pre-election discussions…”

      And what is your source for saying the FBI found no evidence of contacts — because there were — and it is still under FBI investigation the last I read. The FBI has not issued any statement as to its conclusions.

      The NY Times added, Russian Officials Were in Contact With Trump Allies, Diplomat Sayshttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/world/europe/trump-campaign-russia.html

      “There were contacts,” Sergei A. Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. “We continue to do this and have been doing this work during the election campaign,” he said.

      Mr. Ryabkov said officials in the Russian Foreign Ministry were familiar with many of the people he described as Mr. Trump’s entourage. “I cannot say that all, but a number of them maintained contacts with Russian representatives,” Mr. Ryabkov said.

      Later, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said Mr. Ryabkov had been referring to American politicians and supporters of Mr. Trump, not members of his campaign staff. The contacts were carried out through the Russian ambassador in Washington, who reached out to the senators and other political allies to get a better sense of Mr. Trump’s positions on various issues involving Russia.

      [L]aw enforcement officials [does not say the FBI] said that their investigations found no direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government in the hacking of the Democrats’ computers. They also found no conclusive evidence of financial connections between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russian financial institutions.

      Still, some advisers to Mr. Trump have had contact with the Russian government. Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, a retired intelligence officer and an adviser to Trump on security issues, was seated next to Mr. Putin during an anniversary dinner in Moscow for the English-language satellite television network, RT, in December 2015. And Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, had previously been a paid consultant to former President Viktor F. Yanukovych of Ukraine, a Kremlin ally before he was ousted in a civic uprising.

      On Thursday, Mr. Rybakov sought to play down the perception that Moscow was thrilled by Mr. Trump’s victory — though members of the state Duma, or Parliament, did burst into applause at the news.

  3. No, no, no. You are mistaken! Using an email sever for convenience is treason! Guliani will soon explain this when Attorney General. This was mearly foreign relations. After all, the FBI does not see it as a problem.

    Now you know why the US intelligence agencies are a little anxious about having to share with President Elect Trump now.

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