Russia’s Foreign Policy Strategy Is Bigger Than Trump

As the whole “Russian connection” drama plays out in Washington, D.C., we might want to take a step back and look at the larger picture. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, Russia has adopted a new foreign policy strategy that is far less reliant on military aggression and far more about covert, subversive activities. The new tools of Russian expansionism are computer hackers, powerful, wealthy oligarchs aligned with Putin and alliances with western alt-right media outlets and politicians.

Of course, you can hardly keep track of the Trump administration players whose Russian connections have been exposed, but the Russian strategy is bearing fruit in Europe, as well. Just today, we learned that French far-right leader Marine Le Pen met with Russian diplomats in Moscow just months before the French presidential election. Russian agents and oligarchs are clearly stoking the flames of nationalism and assisting far-right politicians in their quest for power.

And Russia’s tactics aren’t always highly sophisticated. Good old fashioned blackmail still works, and there are hints and leaks that western politicians, including Donald Trump, have been caught in very compromising situations while guests of the Motherland. Little sets Putin’s government apart from an organized crime ring, as evidenced by political critics and Trump enemies experiencing tragic “accidents” before they are able to spill the beans.

Like every organized crime web, the threads all lead to money. Rachel Maddow has done an exemplary job of putting together the pieces of the Trump/Russia money connections that have stretched back years, and Moscow is today funneling money to nationalist candidates and organizations throughout Europe and the U.S. Media organizations like Breitbart and Alex Jones’ Info Wars are being investigated by the FBI for their possible relationships with Russian agents.

What is Russia’s end game in all of this? It doesn’t take a PhD in international affairs to see that helping countries elect leaders sympathetic to Putin is in the best interest of Russia. Having Western politicians in your pocket is like having money in the bank. There are, however, also great risks to this strategy. Trump is a dangerously unhinged character and a destabilizing force in America. Russia managed to get it’s man into the White House, but he is such a loose cannon that the possibility of this presidency crashing and burning have become very real, and this would not be in Putin’s best interests.

Look In The Mirror America And The Reflection Is Trump

It has come to this. In the historical blink of an eye, the United States government will be run by a pack of delusional, reactionary sycophants who will gladly grovel before a modern-day coke-snorting Caligula, who himself lusts after a pouting barbaric strongman. Imagining they will ride grizzlies shirtless together over endless fields of supine serfs, Trump dreams of Putin, armies of Orcs and an all-seeing eye finding and destroying his pathetic, weak enemies.

America is now in the clutches of a soulless narcissist with daddy issues, a Dickensian monster who would gladly provide gruel for school lunches and send children to work in coal mines if it enhanced profits. Trump is the ultimate capitalist writ large, an amoral huckster always searching for the deal, whether he’s working the C-suite office or the Oval Office. Capitalism has no soul, no morals, no impetus to do good. The bottom line is all that counts, and that is the genetic soup out of which Donald Trump slithered.

Centuries of historical whitewashing, nationalistic cheer leading and media propaganda have led us to this moment in history. Trump is the monster that western capitalism created. He is the ultimate icon of the greed, racism and classism that this country was built on, which no one is willing to acknowledge. Trump is America, the all too real face of genocide, racism, nationalism and Christian extremism. Trump is the last great white hope and he will fail. The only question is how much damage he will cause before he meets his destiny.

W.W.A.D. (What Would America Do?)

If there were major riots and political instability in Mexico City, would we send troops into Tijuana? What if the rioters were leftists and communists trying to install a socialist president? Seem like legitimate questions. I mean, we have invaded countries on false pretenses in the past, why wouldn’t we do it again, especially under those conditions?

I’m not suggesting that what Russia has done in Ukraine is justified, and I don’t believe it is, but the sanctimonious protestations by our government lack a certain grounding in reality and self-reflection. The world should be outraged by Putin’s invasion of another country, and it should have been equally as outraged when we invaded Iraq under false pretenses.

What is Putin’s end game? He seems poised to dive deeper into Ukraine, which will be a mistake for many reasons. If he does, none of the options left to the rest of the world look very good.