I’d like to take a few minutes of your valuable time to hopefully try to put some perspective on all of the events surrounding Trump, Russia, Ukraine, and even Brexit and the UK election, because they’re all connected, and it’s important to understand how. We focus so much on the specifics of what happened with Trump and Russia/Ukraine that the bigger picture gets lost.
First we’ll start with some history.
In 2011, Putin decided to run in Russia’s presidential elections, essentially just swapping places with Medvedev for Prime Minister, continuing their grasp on power. There was a rigged election in Duma that sparked the massive Bolotnaya protests in Moscow, and drew criticism from Hillary Clinton, who was Secretary of State at the time. Putin was worried about revolution, and of course cracked down on dissent, detaining nearly 1000 people, formally charging more than 30, and crushed the protest movement. Shortly after this, a real revolution, known as the Revolution of Dignity, broke out in Ukraine, and resulted in the overthrow of the Ukrainian government and the ouster of the corrupt Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych is in exile in Russia and still wanted by Ukraine for high treason. The Revolution of Dignity could have been a role model for Russians unhappy with the status quo, so Putin quickly launched a campaign of political manipulation, ensuring negative coverage of Ukraine on Russian state media at all times.
Crimea, transferred by the Soviet leadership from Russia to Ukraine in 1954, is populated by Russian speaking citizens who were frightened by the possibility of coming under the rule of extreme nationalists. The Revolution of Dignity was a legitimate uprising against a corrupt government, but it also had an ultra-nationalist component which was prominent for all to see, and was exacerbated by the constant push of Putin’s media campaign. A whole floor in the revolutionary HQ was occupied by Right Sector ultra-nationalists, and flags and symbols associated with Ukrainian Nazi collaborators in the World War II were flown in Maidan square. All of this was seen as a threat by Crimeans and influenced them to turn their backs on the revolution in favor of Putin. Following the Revolution of Dignity, Putin launched the Russo-Ukrainan war where they annexed Crimea.
Putin sold the invasion and eventual annexation of Crimea, which was a clear violation of international law, as an act of salvation, and saved himself from the threat of revolution.
After Russia annexed Crimea, Obama placed sanctions on Russian individuals associated with the invasion, and pushed European leaders to take a firm stand against Putin. I’m sure Putin was not a fan of this, which leads to everything that has happened since.
With the United States and Europe in strong opposition to Putin’s advances in Ukraine, Russia would not be able to further extend its invasion. This was untenable for Putin, so he orchestrated a massive campaign to destabilize his enemies. He started with targeting the upcoming US elections (remember, the Mueller report detailed that the intelligence operation began in 2014). Since Clinton as Secretary of State had been so vocally opposed to Putin’s actions, the operation targeted her campaign with the intent to undermine it. Russia, using a wide variety of methods, including infiltrating the NRA using spies, and funneling money to conservative groups through the NRA, using intermediaries such as Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to make campaign donations, oligarchs funneling money to conservative political causes, trading favors with Mitch McConnell, and much more.
Trump was already indebted to Russia for bailing out his various failed business efforts since the late 1980’s, and had been vocally supportive of them during his campaign. There’s even video of Maria Butina, the Russian spy, asking Trump questions about Russia during a rally. Russia couldn’t count on anyone else to be as friendly to their agenda as Trump, so they worked tirelessly to get him elected. We know what has happened from there, and I don’t think it’s necessary to review the Mueller and Ukraine investigations here.
Russia’s other effort, interfering in the Brexit referendum, also started in 2014. For those of you who have not been following Brexit closely, it’s a disastrous decision of the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union. It was sold to the citizens without explaining what the impacts would be, and was largely pushed on the same racist lies that Trump used to stir ultra-nationalism in his base (immigrants are the causes of all of society's ills, etc). Russian continued the interference all the way through the most recent election that saw Boris Johnson, the champion of Brexit, elected.
So, how is all of this connected? The Russian interference campaign has resulted in a weakened United States, a weakened Europe, weakened NATO, lifted Russian sanctions, decreased ability of Ukraine to defend itself and its independence, and an upswing in Putin’s popularity among Republicans in the US. Putin was a senior foreign intelligence officer in the KGB, and has masterfully manipulated the world stage to his advantage. It’s important to remember that as bad as Trump’s actions have been, they’re only a small part of Putin’s agenda. If Putin gets his way, he’s going to continue his expansion into Ukraine, which is incredibly dangerous for the rest of Europe, and the free world in general.
Many Republicans are complicit in this effort, or are complicit in covering it up. It’s critically important to hold Trump and his administration accountable for what he has done so that we, as a country, can take a strong stand against Russia, help protect our allies in Europe, and ensure that we can have free and fair elections, which gives us the ability to self-determine the future of our country.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
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