Putin, the US Presidential elections, and Ukraine

Christopher Massie and Andrew Kaczynski (left) report that,

Trump called [Putin's] Invasion of Ukraine “So Smart” in 2014

"“Well, he’s done an amazing job of taking the mantle,” Trump said of Russian president Vladimir Putin in an interview with Fox News’ Eric Bolling. “And he’s taken it away from the president, and you look at what he’s doing. And so smart. When you see the riots in a country because they’re hurting the Russians, okay, ‘We’ll go and take it [Ukrainian Crimea] over.’ And he really goes step by step by step, and you have to give him a lot of credit.” (BuzzFeed News : Aug. 1, 2016) (my emphasis)

 

Fast forward from 2014 to 2016 and we have Trump categorically stating that,

“He’s [Putin's] not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down. You can take it anywhere you want,” Trump said." (Elizabeth McLaughlin: ABC News : Aug 1, 2016) (my emphasis)

But let the CNN interview below speak for itself.

Even more disconcerting we have Paul Manafort a Putin and Yanukovich admirer, and one of Trump's senior strategists, on the CBS 'Face The Nation' interview desperately trying to extricate Trump from his remark that,

" ..... He’s [Putin's] not going to go into Ukraine, all right?"  (ibid  Elizabeth McLaughlin)

even though Putin himself has told the whole world that he invaded and annexed Ukrainian Crimea, and the whole world knows that there are up to 10,000 Russian soldiers currently waging war against Ukraine in the Donbas even as I write.

It is rather interesting that Manafort tries to make the interviewer focus on Hilary Clinton's emails, without daring to mention the recent and sudden publishing by Julian Assange of WikiLeaks of the emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee.

As Peter Stone, David Smith, Ben Jacobs, Alec Luhn and Rupert Neate report,

"Thousands of Democratic National Committee emails, meanwhile, were hacked and published by WikiLeaks on the eve of the party’s convention in Philadelphia this week.

...

The FBI is investigating, with all signs pointing to Russian involvement, though Moscow rejects this but experts argue Vladimir Putin has attempted in the past to damage western democracy, saying Russian security agencies have made cyberattacks on French, Greek, Italian and Latvian targets during elections. " (The Guardian : Saturday 30 July 2016) (my emphasis)

It is known that Julian Assange hopes to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency.

As Charlie Savage reports,

"Mr. Assange told a British television host, Robert Peston (left) of the ITV network, that his organization had obtained “emails related to Hillary Clinton which are pending publication,” which he pronounced “great.” He also suggested that he not only opposed her candidacy on policy grounds, but also saw her as a personal foe." (New York Times : July 26, 2016) (my emphasis)

  

It is also reported that,

"Analysts suggest three primary motivations for the WikiLeaks email dump, quite probably overlapping: 

• doing harm to the US political process to undermine its credibility;
• doing harm to Clinton (WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is no friend);
• and boosting Trump, who has heaped praise on Putin ..."(ibid Peter Stone, David Smith, Ben Jacobs, Alec Luhn and Rupert Neate)

No-one could have forseen that EuroMaidan, which began on the night of 21 November 2013, and which gave Putin the excuse to invade and annex Ukrainian Crimea, and then start the Ukrainian-Russian war by invading Ukrainian Donbas, now also has centre stage in the 2016 US Presidential elections.

And this is all thanks to none other than Donald Trump himself, an admirer and "friend" of Putin.

And then there are the links between one of Trump's senior advisers, Paul Manafort, and Yanukovich and three top Ukrainian oligarchs, some of them with ties to organised crime.

"For his part, Paul Manafort has been closely tied to Ukraine over the past decade, making millions from consulting work. He worked for Rinat Akhmetov, Dmitry Firtash and Oleg Deripaska, three major pro-Russia oligarchs, as an adviser.

Much of Manafort’s relationship with Firtash was exposed in a 2011 racketeering lawsuit that was later dismissed. It described Manafort as aiding the mogul in moving his wealth out of Ukraine and into overseas assets. Firtash is now under indictment in the US, and Deripaska is banned from entering the country due to ties with organised crime." (ibid Peter Stone, David Smith, Ben Jacobs, Alec Luhn and Rupert Neate) (my emphasis)

(top) Manafort and Deripaska (bottom) Akhmetov and Firtash

 

 

We can expect Trump's connection to Putin to continue to unravel, as will those of BOTH of his senior advisers, Paul Manafort and Carter Page, the investment banker with close links to Gazprom, and who has long been an outspoken supporter of Putin.

And to Putin's dismay, these connections between himself and the Trump camp will continue to ensure that his war with Ukraine, and his invasion and annexation of Ukrainian Crimea, remains centre stage during the US Presidential elections.


(to be continued)