While the 24-hour news channels are devoting 23.5 hours to someone’s underpants, there are other issues worth discussion.
Not since the beginning of the Cold War has a U.S. politician been as fervently pro-Russian as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Just four years after his predecessor Mitt Romney declared Russia to be Washington’s greatest geopolitical threat, Trump has praised President Vladimir Putin as a real leader, “unlike what we have in this country.” Trump has also dismissed reports that Putin has murdered political enemies (“Our country does plenty of killing also,” he told MSNBC), suggested that he would “look into” recognizing Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and questioned whether the United States should defend NATO allies who don’t pay their way. When Russian hackers stole a cache of emails in July from the Democratic National Committee’s servers, as security analysts have shown, Trump called on “Russia, if you’re listening,” to hack some more.
Paul Manafort—who spent five years actively shilling the pro-Russia position in Ukraine and possibly took $12 million under the table while definitely arranging anti-American riots that interfered with US military policy and paved the way for Putin’s entry into Crimea—may have finally received a cordial farewell from his position at the top of Donald Trump’s campaign. But even without Manafort forming a direct conduit from Kremlin to campaign, that doesn’t mean that Trump is any less Putin's pawn in this game.
It’s easy to see why Putin views Trump’s ascendancy as a godsend—and why he mobilized his cyberspies and media assets to his aid, according to security analysts. “Trump advocates isolationist policies and an abdication of U.S. leadership in the world. He cares little about promoting democracy and human rights,” continues McFaul. “A U.S. retreat from global affairs fits precisely with Putin’s international interests.”
At best, Donald Trump passively holds a position that upends decades of US-Russia policy and places both the Middle East and Eastern Europe at risk of further Russian incursions. At worst, Trump is actively working to bring about this transformation, because of his own deep and complex ties to Russia and Putin.
Which, at least, you would think might merit a few minutes. Between the underwear reports.
More details from the Newsweek report indicate that Russia’s intrusion into the 2016 presidential election is far from over.
What’s more, it’s increasingly clear that after the DNC hack the Kremlin is relishing, even quietly flaunting, its newfound role as a meddler in U.S. politics. After years of U.S. influence over Russian affairs, especially in the chaotic 1990s, it is sweet revenge for the Kremlin to be cast once again as global puppet master.