Evidence Continues to Mount That Trump Is on Putin's Side

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page

31 December 16

oday the Obama administration struck back at Russia and Vladimir Putin for trying to influence the 2016 election -- ejecting 35 Russian spies from the United States who were posing as diplomats, imposing sanctions on Russia’s two leading intelligence services, and closing of two Russian facilities (one in New York, another in Maryland) that it said were used for Russian intelligence activities. The U.S. also released samples of malware and other indicators of Russian cyberactivity, including network addresses of computers commonly used by the Russians to launch attacks.

Trump can undo the sanctions, of course, but he’ll have to do it in the midst of a likely congressional investigation of Putin’s interference in the 2016 election.

Evidence continues to mount that Trump is on Putin’s side:

1. Last week, after Putin claimed that Democrats fabricated the charge of Russian meddling in the election, Trump praised Putin’s statement.


2. Trump has close business ties to Russian oligarchs, friends of Putin, who have financed his projects. In 2008, his son, Donald Jr., told a real estate conference “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” and “we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”


3. During the campaign Trump said he admired Putin, questioned whether the U.S. should continue to support NATO, and said Putin was “not going into Ukraine” (a bizarre assertion two years after Russian troops entered eastern Ukraine and took over Crimea).


4. Several of Trump’s key campaign aides were close to Putin – including his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, a longtime consultant to Viktor Yanukovich, the Russian-backed president of Ukraine who was overthrown in 2014 and who has done multi-million-dollar business deals with Russian oligarchs.


5. Trump’s foreign policy advisor, Michael Flynn, flew to Moscow last year to attend a gala banquet celebrating Russia Today, the Kremlin’s propaganda channel, and was even seated at the head table near Putin.


6. Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, is also close to Putin. In 2013, Putin awarded Tillerson the Order of Friendship, one of the highest honors Russia gives to foreign citizens. Tillerson came up through the ranks at Exxon by managing the company’s Russia account. After becoming CEO, Exxon bet billions on Russia’s vast oil resources through a partnership with Russian oil giant Rosneft, owned partly by the Kremlin. Putin himself attended the 2011 signing ceremony for the deal. Russia has already indicated it would welcome Tillerson being named America’s top diplomat.

What do you think?