Putin, Steve Bannon, and Ukraine

Who is really in charge of Trump's White House? In the EU, and for Ukraine in particular, this has become a critical question.

In the US, Steve Bannon (left) is viewed as 'the brain of Trump', the Rasputin whispering in the ear of Trump. 

So who is Steve Bannon? Steve Bannon is a man who says that 'darkness is good'.

He refers to himself as an 'economic nationalist', and someone who wants to 'de-construct the administrative state'.

Steve Bannon, and his ideas of 'economic nationalism', unerringly mirrors both his pivotal position in  the White House as well as the economic philosophy of Herman Goering, Hitler's second-in-command.

Bannon's 'economic nationalism' is no more nor no less than the economic philosophy of 'autarky', the economic philosophy of self-sufficiency, the four-year economic plan implemented by the total novice, Herman Goering.

 
But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Bannon is his admiration for some of the beliefs of Putin's Rasputin, Alexander Dugin, and his philosophy of Eurasianism.

As Erasmus of the Economist reported,

"Mr Bannon said:

When Vladimir Putin, when you really look at some of the underpinnings of some of his beliefs today, a lot of those come from what I call Eurasianism; he's got an adviser [Alexander Dugin] who harkens back to Julius Evola and different writers of the 20th century who are really supporters of the traditionalist movement which really eventually metastasised into Italian fascism...

We, the Judeo-Christian West, really have to look at what [Putin] is talking about as far as traditionalism goes, particularly the sense of where it supports the underpinnings of nationalism..." (The Economist : Nov 20th 2016) (my emphasis)

Recall that this is the same Alexander Dugin (right) who told BBC News in 2014 that,

"....war between Russia and Ukraine "is inevitable" and has called on President Vladimir Putin to intervene militarily in eastern Ukraine "to save Russia's moral authority". (Dina Newman : BBC News : 10 July 2014) (my emphasis)

Furthermore, that,

"He has been labelled the brains behind President Putin's wildly popular annexation of Crimea." (ibid Dina Newman) (my emphasis)

 It is therefore no co-incidence that it was the US State Department who yesterday,

"....condemned an incident in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian rebels held civilian monitors at gunpoint.

The OSCE said on Friday that the rebels had surrounded one of its teams near Donetsk, opening fire and seizing a drone they were trying to launch.

The US statement called on Russia and the separatists to observe a fragile six-day-old ceasefire." (BBC News : 26 February 2017) (my emphasis)

From the White House there was a 'deafening silence' about this serious breach of the recent ceasefire sponsored, in part, by non other than that dyed-in-the-wool Soviet foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

This 'deafening silence' from the White House about Putin's rebel proxies in eastern Ukraine (Donbas) holding civilian monitors of the current and fragile ceasefire at gunpoint yet, again, illustrates that the links between senior members of the Trump administration and both Putin and his Kremlin 'siloviki' remains intact.

Which brings us back to my initial question, "Who is really in charge of Trump's White House?"

Donald Trump or Steve Bannon?

(to be continued)