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Putin’s Republican Cronies*
Republican claims that a weak President Biden is to blame for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, that Trump was tough on Russia, that Putin would never have invaded Ukraine had Trump been in office, display an extreme form of projection. After years of witting and unwitting Russian appeasement and being played by Putin, Trump and certain Trump Republicans continue heaping praise on the Russian monster and war criminal. Their praise loops on Russian state media.
In January 2016, Vladimir Putin personally authorized a spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. A “Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them ‘social turmoil’ in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position.” Putin picks Trump as best alternative to achieve Moscow’s strategic objectives
In the leadup to the 2016 Republican Convention, Paul Manafort, the fixer for Russian backed leadership in Ukraine, was Trump’s volunteer campaign manager. His team was poring over the latest draft of the Platform. Under the Section America Resurgent, Renewing the European Alliance, the Platform read:
“We will not accept any territorial change in Eastern Europe imposed by force, in Ukraine, Georgia, or elsewhere, and will use all appropriate constitutional measures to bring to justice the…