Are Trump and his lawyers taking a leaf out of Putin's past?

The scarlet thread of Maidan is once more emerging as a critical factor as the Trump-Putin collusion during the 2016 US presidential elections continues to emerge into the light of day.
 

And as much as members of the Republican Party in both the US Senate and the US Congress continue to bury their heads in the sand over the Trump-Putin collusion issue, and of Trump obstructing justice, in the hope that this will protect their re-election chances during the 2018 November elections Trump, in his infinite wisdom, continues to incriminate himself.

As McDonnell of MSNBC reports in the above video, even Trump's lawyers are 'digging his impeachment grave'.

As also reported by  Jack Holmes,

"The "President cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution's Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case,"Dowd (left) [Trump's lawyer] claims." ( Esquire : 4 December, 2017) (my emphasis)

The ludicrousness of Trump's lawyers' statement really signifies that they are beginning to invent 'legal fictions' to mollify Trump.

But it is not only Trump who is now banging his head against a wall.

Even as Putin continues to command his Russian soldiers and proxies in the Donbas to increase their attacks against Ukrainian forces, serious cracks are beginning to appear between Putin's proxy security forces in the Donbas and his Russian FSB.

As reported by UNIAN,

"Russia's hybrid military forces attacked Ukrainian army positions in Donbas 21 times in the past 24 hours, with three Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action (WIA), according to the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) Headquarters." (UNIAN : 5.12.2017) (my emphasis)

At the same time,

"Under the pretext of searching for and termination of the so-called members of a 'Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group' in Luhansk, Russia’s FSB operatives together with representatives of the so-called 'minister of state security of the LPR' are identifying and arresting people from the entourage of the “LPR”'s former leadership. Such arrests are also carried out among representatives of the 'LPR law enforcement bodies' and the leaders of the so-called '2nd Army Corps'," he told a Kyiv briefing November 29." (UNIAN : 5.12.2017) (my emphasis)

Does this conflict also signify a growing rift between Putin's Kremlin 'siloviki' and his FSB? (cf also: UK Business Insider)

112 UA now also reports that,

"The probability of the fail[ure] of the mission of Kurt Volker, the US Special Envoy to Ukraine is pretty high. (right: Surkov and Volker)

Aleksey Chesnakov, the Director of Russia Center for Political Environment that is close to Vladislav Surkov, the affiliate of Vladimir Putin reported to TASS.

The expert commented on the contradictions between Volker and Surkov. According to Chesnakov, they lie in the conditions of the deployment of the UN peacekeepers in Donbas." (112 UA : 4 December 2017) (my emphasis)

Putin was never going to allow UN forces to patrol throughout the Russian-occupied Donbas and, even more significantly, to allow UN forces to patrol the border between Ukraine and Russia that Putin's Russian soldiers and proxy forces now control.

We therefore have to ask,

"Of what real value would a fourth round of talks between Volker and Putin-surrogate Surkov really be?"

As reported by UNIAN,

"Noting that the parties will meet next week, [Ambassador to Russia, Jon] Huntsman (left) recalled that the previous three rounds of negotiations had been unproductive. 

However, according to the U.S. envoy [Volker], the very fact that the negotiation process is underway inspires confidence. Huntsman expressed hope that the fourth round of talks would yield some progress and that the U.S. and Russia would be moving away from the lowest point in their relations. 

The two countries still need to overcome the existing contradictions to this end, Huntsman believes." (UNIAN : 05.12.2017) (my emphasis)

The fact that Trump is now simply lashing out with his tweets as evidence of the collusion between himself and Putin during the 2016 US presidential elections rather undermines anything that either Volker or Huntsman may hope for in Volker's meeting next week with Putin-surrogate Surkov.

There is also a rather interesting $64 question. 

Are Trump and his lawyers taking a leaf out of Putin's past?

(to be continued)