America host Ed Schultz tweeted a video rant against President Obama on Thursday for his criticism of Donald Trump’s appearance on Schultz’s Kremlin-backed network, charging that Obama himself had done three sit-down interviews on “Russian television”. Putin has returned the favor by strongly endorsing Trump. He failed to disavow his claim to know more about ISIS than US generals, whom he wants to fire.
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It’s also worth pointing out that Trump praised Putin’s “control” of his country, not his foreign policy.
Just as US governments used to portray armed leftist revolutions against autocratic USA allies as part of a Soviet plot, some on the US left embrace an equally simplistic view that more recent popular liberal uprisings against autocratic Russian allies were somehow the responsibility of the United States.
Known for making racist and inflammatory statements – in 1996 Zhirinovsky said Russian Federation and the United States should deport their Jews in order “to survive”, and in 2008 he suggested dropping nuclear bombs in the Atlantic Ocean to flood the United Kingdom – Zhirinovsky and his Liberal Democratic Party enjoy considerable popularity in Russian Federation, where he finished fourth in the 2012 presidential election and third in the 1991 vote. It seems to me that in many ways, Trump’s fans pine for their own muscular ruling class.
The Russian media doesn’t dare cross Putin. Journalists critical of the regime have been beaten and murdered; the Kremlin, of course, denies any connection and Trump brushes off questions on the subject. Like those who have rationalized similar attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza and Saudi forces in Yemen, these war crimes are depicted as “legal and effective” military actions against “terrorists”.
The love affair between the U.S. presidential candidate and the Russian leader has showed no signs of slowing down as the race to clinch the White House rumbles on.
“Saddam Hussein had a 90% poll rating!”
“Clearly, the Kremlin has little appetite for relaxing its wholesale control over Russia’s political system”, the Carnegie Moscow Centre think tank wrote.
Putin’s weakened Russian Federation no longer poses the same threat the Soviet Union did during the Cold War.
The U.S. reportedly had negligible intelligence capabilities during the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the subsequent Russian invasion of Ukraine, its intervention in Syria, and sustained cyber manipulation efforts throughout Europe. “In a climate like this, where insane, Rusophobic, Cold War speculation is rampant, that’s all Trump would have to do”.
In an interview this week with CNN, McMullin asserts that his friends in intelligence have told him that Trump’s previous business activities in Russian Federation could have implications that jeopardize his candidacy. It’s more personal than that.
Donald Trump is a birther. Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns-which all other major party nominees have done for over forty years-has raised speculation that it might reveal embarrassing details of Kremlin-related financial deals.
I’m a history buff and I was alive when Ronald Reagan ran against incumbent president Jimmy Carter and I don’t recall him ever expressing admiration of Leonid Brezhnev over Carter.
Trump previously said he favors better relations with Russian Federation and has described Putin as a “strong” leader. America is better than Trump and his ilk, and we deserve better in a president. Polls suggest he would get 10 percent if elections were held now, in part because of a campaign strategy in which Zhirinovsky promised to work to restore Russia’s greatness during its imperial days, before communism.
Trump likes Putin because he is a strongman.
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Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics and coordinator of Middle Eastern studies at the University of San Francisco.
