Blog: Either Way, Russia Wins
By Tommy Sears
Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his admiration for a strongman who ruthlessly suppresses dissent in his own country and foments uprisings elsewhere (Georgia and Ukraine, including the Russian annexation of Crimea). Trump has suggested a possible United States break with NATO, the alliance formed to counter Soviet Russia and still stridently opposed today by Putin. Trump installed as campaign manager a former foreign agent who supported the Putin-backed Ukrainians. And at the 11th hour of platform committee work at the RNC, after showing little to no interest on other issues (apart from the U.S.-Mexico border wall), the Manafort-led Trump convention forces watered down platform language to support Ukraine in fighting Russia-backed rebels.
Hillary Clinton presided over the “Russian reset” that saw Putin roll through Ukraine to annex the Crimea region and perpetuate the ongoing conflict in that country. Trump has now famously called for the Russians to release Hillary’s missing 30,000 emails (those deleted from the now also-famous “home brew” server), an invitation which assumes less-than-vigilant custody of U.S. secrets by the former Secretary of State.
And most damningly, she and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, through their non-profit foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, received donations and exorbitant speaking fees from Russian interests behind a venture known as Uranium One, which resulted in the acquisition of uranium rights (a core component for nuclear energy, and ominously, nuclear weapons) by those interests. The deal, requiring State Department approval, again, transpired during the tenure of Secretary Clinton.
