I do think Democrats should retain skepticism about the allegations that Russia has compromising material on Trump, in the form of his sexual escapades on camera. The Russians would indeed have tried to gather that material, but remember this is unsubstantiated and emerged as opposition research. Sure, it’s poetic justice that a man who trafficked in rumors about President Obama’s birthplace is now subjected to rumors that Russia compromised him, but these may not be any more true than the ones about Obama.
Russian Hacking Report Complicates Donald Trump’s View of World Order
Intelligence findings make it harder to warm to Moscow as a way to challenge Beijing
.. while it’s hard to read the enigmatic Mr. Trump, it also appears his vision of how to prosper in that world is to develop friendly ties with Russia on the one hand, thereby improving the American strategic position to challenge China on the other.
.. the report also said this about the intentions of Russian President Vladimir Putin: “We assess Russian intelligence services will continue to develop capabilities to provide Putin with options to use against the United States, judging from past practice and current efforts. Immediately after Election Day, we assess Russian intelligence began a spearphishing campaign targeting U.S. Government employees” and others, referring to a type of cyberattack. “This campaign could provide material for future influence efforts as well as foreign intelligence collection on the incoming administration’s goals and plans.”In other words, the intelligence community has just warned the incoming president that his team is the next target.
.. Playing the Russians off against the Chinese was long a standard move in the American strategic handbook. The two Communist giants despised each other and worried about the balance of power tilting the wrong way if the other moved too close to the U.S. In that environment, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said that the American goal was to maintain closer ties with both Moscow and Beijing than the two did with each other.
.. Mr. Trump will take office clearly intending to challenge China more directly on trade and military activity in the South China Sea, but with less freedom to pursue an offsetting warming of relations with the Russians than seemed likely just a few weeks ago.
.. The best way to deal with that strategic reality, Mr. Sestanovich argues, is to use strong ties with America’s networks of allies, in Europe and Asia, to temper any Russian or Chinese efforts to misbehave.
.. The Chinese seek to challenge the U.S., on both economic and security fronts. At the same time, Mr. Carter said, there is in Beijing “a recognition that, in order for them to have the prosperity that they need for their people and for political stability, they can’t be picking fights and they can’t be ruining the system that is working for them.”
What Does Trump Know About Russia?
The president-elect has his doubts about Russian hacking. What are his motives?
The most innocent reading of these comments is that Mr. Trump is seeking to flatter his Russian counterpart into a cooperative relationship, much as George W. Bush and Mr. Obama sought to do in the early days of their presidencies... they raise the possibility that his desire for a better relationship is shaping his attitude toward the intelligence.. This is called politicizing intelligence, and it’s reprehensible whether done in the service of starting a war or passing a treaty... It isn’t a secret that the Trump Organization has long been entwined with Russian business interests: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of our assets,” Donald Trump Jr. told a real-estate conference in 2008. It isn’t a secret that Mr. Trump’s campaign was curiously studded by figures with deep business ties to Russian or pro-Russian figures, including Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and Carter Page. It isn’t a secret that businessmen from Russia and other former Soviet states have been major investorsin marquee projects such as the Trump Soho in New York and the Trump hotel in Toronto... he can begin by telling us what he knows about his Russia ties that the rest of us still don’t.
Kissinger, a longtime Putin confidant, sidles up to Trump
Back in the 1990s, Henry Kissinger, the legendary former U.S. secretary of state-turned-global consultant, encountered an intriguing young Russian and proceeded to ask him a litany of questions about his background.
“I worked in intelligence,” Vladimir Putin finally told him, according to “First Person,” a 2000 autobiography cobbled together from hours of interviews with the then-unfamiliar Russian leader. To which Kissinger replied: “All decent people got their start in intelligence. I did, too.”
.. As Putin climbed the ranks in the Kremlin, eventually becoming the autocratic president he is today, he and Kissinger kept up a warm rapport even as the United States and Russia grew further apart. Kissinger is one of the few Americans to meet frequently with Putin, one former U.S. ambassador recently recalled — along with movie star Steven Seagal and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, the likely next secretary of state... Some have expressed surprise that the urbane, cerebral former top diplomat would have any affinity for the brash, shoot-from-the-lip Trump. But seasoned Kissinger watchers say it’s vintage behavior for a foreign policy realist who has cozied up to all sorts of kings and presidents for decades. And in fact, Trump may wind up an ideal vessel for Kissinger — the architect of detente with the Soviets in the 1970s — to realize his longstanding goal of warmer ties between the two Cold War adversaries... “He’s a realist. The most important thing for him is international equilibrium, and there’s no talk of human rights or democracy.”.. the Manhattan real estate mogul is fascinated by Kissinger as well as other Republican elder statesmen, such as Robert Gates and Condoleezza Rice, to whom he has turned for advice on policy and staffing... The president-elect, the person said, “admires the reputation and the gravitas but isn’t necessarily persuaded by the Kissingerian worldview.”.. “The long-term interests of both countries call for a world that transforms the contemporary turbulence and flux into a new equilibrium which is increasingly multi-polar and globalized,” he said. “Russia should be perceived as an essential element of any new global equilibrium, not primarily as a threat to the United States.”.. The president-elect’s pick for defense secretary is James Mattis, a retired Marine general who views Moscow as a major threat... “If we’re prepared to accept what they’re doing in Syria, Crimea, and Eastern Ukraine, we can have a better relationship, but we’ve sacrificed other interests and it’s not clear what we get for that.”.. “He is a man with a great sense of connection, an inward connection, to Russian history as he sees it,”