... many segments of American society to his ends without their knowledge that it was a masterful orchestral performance and that Putin was a legendary conductor. This (First) Russo-American Cyberwar will be studied for generations, for centuries, as a brilliant ... ... itself.
This is part of a larger Russian war against the West that is becoming increasingly brazen: until this year, Syria and Ukraine were the most glaring centerpieces in Russia’s disinformation campaigns; then, Russian disinformation caused a faux ...
... faced with his whole house of cards collapsing in on itself in the face of popular resistance, and with a government hostile to him and his intentions once again in place after a decade of effort designed to restore and maintain Russian hegemony over Ukraine, Putin went to Plan B: the dismemberment of Ukraine and war.
Which is exactly where the situation is today (and, of course, gas is in the middle of the conflict).
Criminal Scheme #3: Trump Manhattan SoHo Deal
At the same time this was all going ...
... support for NATO and has calling it “obsolete,” while the weakening of NATO is a chief aim of Putin.
*****
But ties to Russia in the Trump campaign don’t end with Trump and his family.
How Paul Manafort, Agent of Despots, Gave Ukraine to Putin, & Manafort's Other Russian Ties: There’s Something Going On!
The Daily Beast
Trump’s Campaign Chairman, Paul Manafort, is a notorious spin doctor for Third World dictators, a leader of the “torturer’s lobby” ...
... to its cave, with the memory of much pain coming from the places against which it lashes out. Apart from Islamic terrorism coming up from the Caucuses, there are still some alive who remember the Nazi assault that very much came through the plains of Ukraine. It is not a mistake that Putin chose to highlight a real but tiny fringe neo-Nazi movement that forms a significant part of Svoboda, one small, far-right Ukrainian political party, when he was framing Russian involvement there. These are very real fears among Russians even if ...
... energetically. The EU thought the Eastern Partnership offered a win-win; that Russia would be happy to have prosperous, stable neighbours with strong institutions, rule of law and political pluralism. Europe failed to realise that this prospect, particularly in Ukraine, posed an existential threat to the Putin regime and that it would stop at nothing to derail it.
The US is reluctantly waking up to the fact that European security is not a done deal. It is perplexed by Putin's foreign policy: why doesn’t he concentrate on fixing his country ...
... Ukraine by Russia would be a disaster. But federalisation could be no less: if such a federation is as loose as Putin wants it to be, and a number of regions are controlled by Russian puppets, it will not only amount to the ‘finlandisation’ of Ukraine — Putin’s goal — but to complete governmental paralysis, and perhaps sustained separatism. And not only Ukraine will suffer.
Europe will suffer, because instability, unpredictability and authoritarianism in its neighbourhood make cooperation ...
... of East Central Europe. The Crimean adventure, seasoned with a large amount of the usual disinformation, has occasioned a huge rise in Putin’s popularity — much like the last time in Georgia. He now has the recipe.
But the situation in Ukraine is bound to escalate. It will not come to a Cold War — but it looks like Putin is dead set on testing the limits.
Follow me on Twitter @radnotiandras
... launch an agenda of economic reform and a fight against corruption, and set the country on the course of European integration. This would have proven Russia’s and his weakness. It could have had a spillover effect in Russia — a nightmare for Putin ever since Ukraine’s Orange revolution. By annexing Crimea, he shows that turning your back to Russia cannot go unpunished. He shows that Russia can still defend its interests in its ‘near abroad’.
Even if it is against all its interests.
...
