Opinion Believe it or not, Trump’s following a familiar script on Russia \-- "US, Ukraine quietly try to pierce Putin’s propaganda bubble [...] By COLLEEN LONG, AMANDA SEITZ and NOMAAN MERCHANT today WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and Ukraine have knocked back Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to falsely frame the narrative of his brutal war, but they are struggling to get a more accurate view of the Kremlin’s invasion in front of the Russian people. [...] The question is no longer “what we do to stop disinformation,” former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said, it’s how to promote information inside Russia. “Very hard question,” he added. P - Among the most important steps, he said, is to “fund Russian independent media working outside of Russia.”" --
By Robert Kagan Contributing columnist August 7, 2018 at 6:59 p.m. EDT
VIDEO - Opinion | If Putin wanted a U.S. president to do his bidding, it would look exactly like this 1:59 President Trump's news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a disastrous capitulation, says Democracy Post editor Christian Caryl. (Video: Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)
If the edifice of the liberal world order is in danger of collapse today — and it is — when did the pillars begin to weaken? Many date the problems to President Trump’s election. But while Trump’s “America First” approach to the world has significantly widened the cracks in the order, perhaps making them irreparable, they appeared long before he did. Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates
Ten years ago .. https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/13/world/europe/2008-georgia-russia-conflict/index.html .. this week, Vladimir Putin struck one of the first major blows when he sent Russian forces into South Ossetia in neighboring Georgia in support of Russian-backed separatists. The Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, fearing a full-blown invasion, ordered his troops to attack, thus springing Putin’s trap. Using the Georgian attack as a pretext, Putin launched that full-blown invasion .. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/world/europe/11georgia.html , with tens of thousands of troops, fighter aircraft and elements of the Black Sea Fleet all pre-positioned and ready to move the instant Saakashvili acted.
VIDEO - Opinion | Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with the Russians was a lot of things. Legal isn’t one of them. 2:22 Despite President Trump’s tweets, meeting with a foreign power to get ‘dirt’ is not opposition research, argues deputy editorial page editor Ruth Marcus. (Video: Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)
The Russo-Georgian war established a modus operandi that Putin would employ against Ukraine .. https://www.vox.com/cards/ukraine-everything-you-need-to-know/is-russia-going-to-invade-eastern-ukraine .. almost exactly six years later. In both cases, the Russian attack was preceded and accompanied by extensive cyberwarfare and “fake news.” In both cases, Russian forces moved in surreptitiously before the main attack. Both invasions were cloaked in ambiguity and confusion, leading many in the West to blame the victims. In both cases, Moscow claimed to be defending pro-Russian populations from alleged mistreatment. But the real purpose was to restore Russian hegemony over former Soviet republics seeking to integrate into the liberal world order — in Ukraine’s case by negotiating a trade deal .. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/28/world/europe/ukraine-signs-trade-agreement-with-european-union.html .. with the European Union.
The Russian attack on Georgia also displayed the effectiveness of Putin’s narrative of grievance. Although Russia committed the aggression, many in the West blamed others — Saakashvili, Bush, NATO — for “forcing” Putin’s hand. Today, “realists” and the left blame the United States and the West for provoking Putin in Ukraine. Russia should have its sphere of interest, they argue. The enlargement of NATO made Putin and the Russians feel insecure. The West pushed too far.
[i[]Insert: must admit i fell into that trap myself for a time.]
It is one of Putin’s greatest triumphs that this narrative is widely accepted today in the American academy and by large segments of both political parties. As McFaul explains .. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544716248/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=washpost-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0544716248&linkId=4b298cdeb6a2c0a8f24345d2ba84bbbf, however, it is mostly a myth, designed by Putin to justify his increasingly autocratic and personalistic rule to his own people. American and European actions after the Cold War did not prevent cooperation with Russia during the 1990s, after 9/11 or during the first two years of the Obama administration. The United States and Europe provided billions of dollars in aid to Russia and sought to help integrate Russia into the world economy. The United States created post-Cold War security and economic arrangements such as the NATO-Russia Council .. https://www.nato.int/cps/ic/natohq/topics_50091.htm , the Group of Eight and the expanded Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe .. https://www.osce.org/ .. to strengthen ties with Moscow and give it a greater say in global councils. The two powers negotiated and ratified arms control agreements and cooperated on Afghanistan and Iran.
Trump’s outreach to Putin is not really such a departure, therefore. He may have his own special reasons for seeking a “reset” with Russia, and he certainly shares common aims with Putin unlike any past American president. But he is also following a familiar script. Ten years on, the real lessons of Russian aggression still escape us.
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