Britain's Russia Collusion Scandal
June 23, 2018 at 7:23 am
(This post was last modified: June 23, 2018 at 7:23 am by Silver.)
Quote:The most important thing to understand about the Russia scandal is that it perfectly fits a clear pattern of behavior. What Vladimir Putin is accused of doing to help Donald Trump win the presidency is essentially identical to what he is either accused of or proven to have done to help many other right-wing candidates in many other countries. As the plot in the United States is slowly exposed, a remarkably similar one in the United Kingdom is quickly surfacing.
Months before the United States narrowly elected Trump, the United Kingdom narrowly elected to withdraw from the European Union. Both votes advanced Russian foreign policy goals — in the latter case, by splitting up the Western alliance. (Trump has energetically pursuedthis strategy, too.) Russia employed many of the same tools to influence both elections. It deployed social-media bots and trolls to spread its message. It recruited friendly candidates who gave voice to previously marginal Russophile positions. And, as the newly surfaced evidence suggests, it indirectly financed the campaign.
The unfolding scandal in Britain contains many of the hallmarks of Russian covert influence elsewhere. The Russians are not manufacturing an issue out of whole cloth — nationalism clearly has an authentic popular basis — but instead use their influence to magnify it. They cloak their influence behind undisclosed meetings and hidden financial transfers. And when their partners’ lies about their contacts are exposed, they insist they lied for no apparent reason and have nothing else to hide.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/201...rumps.html
