Russia is a Threat

And MAGA Republicans are supporting Putin's agenda.

After the long, drawn-out Cold War, the USSR was defeated. It lost the space race, global influence, and its military, which was inferior to America’s. Soviet republics declared their separation, saying the USSR was no more. What was left became Russia.

Some Russians never got over the loss of power and territory. Vladimir Putin is one of them. Putin dreams of rebuilding the USSR and regaining the power and status on the world stage that the Soviet Union once had. However, the United States and our NATO allies are a major roadblock to Putin’s desire.

Russia can’t compete with the US in an all-out war. The only chance would be to use nuclear weapons, which would cause total destruction on both sides. So Putin approached the problem differently, attempting to pull America apart from the inside.

This is where Trump enters the picture.

We may never know whether Putin has some form of kompromat on Trump or whether Trump was simply an opportunistic play. My guess is that Trump is too involved with his self-grandeur to care what the motives are of those who will grant him power, making him more than willing to take assistance from Russia no matter the consequences for our nation.

What we do know is that the Mueller Report, the Durham Report, and even a report by Senate Republicans confirmed Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, and we know Russia interfered again in 2020, although less successfully. They will attempt to interfere this year as well.

While Russia has attempted direct attacks such as hacking both voting machines and political parties, the US has largely thwarted its efforts and improved protocols after 2016. What Russia has had more success with was influencing Americans through social media, particularly in 2016. 

Trump’s campaign, and even his son, met with Russian agents leading up to the 2016 election in hopes of exchanging information. Paul Manafort chaired Trump’s campaign and is now serving a lengthy prison term for conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Michael Flynn, Trump’s National Security Advisor, had been communicating and working with Russia before receiving his appointment and later received a Presidential Pardon from Trump.

Despite the number of people in Trump’s circle that were found guilty, despite the Mueller Report and Durham Report confirming that Trump’s campaign attempted to collude with Russia and obstructed justice. And regardless of the Senate Republican report confirming Russia’s election interference, somehow Bill Barr and Trump succeeded in spreading the narrative that the Russia claims were all a hoax, “Russia, Russia, Russia,” as Trump put it.

The media seemed to be all too willing to give up on the story of Russian interference to avoid the constant MAGA attacks and insults. We now hear only the occasional small reminder that any of it even happened from time to time.

It was bad enough that Trump publicly asked Russia to find dirt on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election and that he attempted to pressure Ukraine into creating dirt on Biden before the 2020 election. Now, Trump has publicly told Russia that he wouldn’t intervene as President if Russia attacked our NATO allies. Something Russia has said many times that it wants to do.

NATO was even the reason why Russia finally launched a full invasion of Ukraine after years of trying to annex Crimea and attempting to declare separation of other smaller regions. Russia’s aggression made Ukraine want to join NATO. If that happened, Russia wouldn’t be able to attack Ukraine without triggering an automatic war with all of NATO. A war Russia would quickly lose.

The irony of Putin’s plan is that the invasion of Ukraine spurred other nations near Russia to join NATO and NATO allies to increase their defense spending in preparation for possible attack. Finland and Sweden are now NATO members. Ukraine still wants to join. Georgia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, have said they are interested in joining too.

So why didn’t Putin simply invade Ukraine while Trump was in office? Trump was overall aligned with Putin.

Trump was antagonistic to Ukraine and even voiced support for Russia to keep Crimea. Trump was vocal about his disdain for NATO and his curiosity about abandoning the alliance altogether, points he has continued to make since he was voted out of office. Trump even shared classified intelligence with Russian diplomats inside the White House and let one of the diplomats sit at the Resolute Desk while Trump stood behind him smiling for a photo.

Putin has patience and can play the long game. If Trump had won reelection, there was a real chance Putin would have been able to expand his agenda without a costly war and without risking US aggression in response. But that tone changed once Biden was elected. Putin ran out of time and had to make his move before Ukraine became a NATO member.

It has been theorized by many that the main reason Putin has continued his war despite the devastating losses his military has suffered, the lack of progress that has been made, and the struggling Russian economy is due to the hope of Trump being reelected. 

Worse still has been the MAGA politicians who have been stalling proper Ukraine aid, allowing Russia to maintain a foothold and continue their attacks.

If the US had given proper aid from the start, and enough of it, the war would be in a very different place, or potentially even over. Instead, the US is lagging behind Europe in aid, both as a total dollar amount and even more so as a measure of GDP. The latest round of US aid has been delayed for months as Republicans make excuses such as needing to have it tied to a US border bill, only to kill the combined bill, and then with the House continuing to take recess after recess without addressing aid for Ukraine.

Some Republican members of Congress, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, have directly repeated and even reposted Russian propaganda. Rand Paul, who traveled to Russia to hand deliver a note from Trump to Putin during Trump’s presidency and who invited Russian officials to come to DC to hang out with Republican members of Congress, claimed it was ridiculous to suggest that Republicans against Ukraine aid were pro-Putin. 

Even after the recent 60 Minutes piece, in which their five-year investigation into the Havana syndrome that has been plaguing top US diplomats and officials for years presented compelling evidence that it is likely the work of the Russian intelligence agency known as GRU, Republican Senator J.D. Vance was quick to dismiss the piece as propaganda before backtracking and saying maybe it could be true after receiving criticism online.

There is little doubt that MAGA politicians see alliances with Russian interests as a path to power. The Republican House Oversight Committee impeachment inquiry into President Biden came from a conspiracy manufactured by Giuliani at the behest of Trump, and the false information was provided by Russian agents. Republican Senators investigated these claims years ago and found no wrongdoing by Joe Biden, but that didn’t stop MAGA House Republicans who are desperate to minimize Trump’s serious impeachments by attempting to impeach Biden and Democrats from pursuing it further. 

James Comer and Jim Jordan continued the impeachment inquiry when their hearings proved nothing. Their witnesses said Joe Biden did nothing wrong, and now the informant who was central to their inquiry has been exposed as yet another Russian asset who lied about everything.

Even as Republicans dub China, Iran, North Korea and Russia as the “New Axis of Evil”, they attempt to downplay the Russian threat. They try to say Ukraine is merely a territorial dispute while ignoring Russia’s war crimes and Putin’s ambitions. 

The fact that Iran is providing thousands of drones for Russian attacks and North Korea is supplying both missiles and artillery shells, over three million artillery shells in the last six months alone, doesn’t change their narrative. Nor does the fact that China is propping up Russia’s economy by purchasing over half of Russia’s oil exports now that the oil has been sanctioned by the US and Europe.

Why call China the greatest threat facing the United States, advocate for direct military attacks on Iran while calling it a terrorist nation, and acknowledge the nuclear threat that North Korea presents but downplay Russia is connected to all of it?

Trump and MAGA Republicans hope Russia will continue to help them win elections and help them stay in power. As a result, Republicans will continue to support Russia slowly tearing our nation apart from within, just as Putin planned all along.

Who needs military superiority when you have willing participants within the highest levels of the government of your enemy?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-russia-vladimir-putin-crimea-nato/

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/albertonardelli/trump-russia-crimea