Putin has a plan for destroying the West—and that plan looks a lot like Donald Trump

[DonViejo]

Putin’s Puppet

If the Russian president could design a candidate to undermine American interests—and advance his own—he’d look a lot like Donald Trump.

By Franklin Foer

Vladimir Putin has a plan for destroying the West—and that plan looks a lot like Donald Trump. Over the past decade, Russia has boosted right-wing populists across Europe. It loaned money to Marine Le Pen in France, well-documented transfusions of cash to keep her presidential campaign alive. Such largesse also wended its way to the former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, who profited “personally and handsomely” from Russian energy deals, as an American ambassador to Rome once put it. (Berlusconi also shared a 240-year-old bottle of Crimean wine with Putin and apparently makes ample use of a bed gifted to him by the Russian president.)

There’s a clear pattern: Putin runs stealth efforts on behalf of politicians who rail against the European Union and want to push away from NATO. He’s been a patron of Golden Dawn in Greece, Ataka in Bulgaria, and Jobbik in Hungary. Joe Biden warned about this effort last year in a speech at the Brookings Institution: “President Putin sees such political forces as useful tools to be manipulated, to create cracks in the European body politic which he can then exploit.” Ruptures that will likely multiply after Brexit—a campaign Russia’s many propaganda organs bombastically promoted.

The destruction of Europe is a grandiose objective; so is the weakening of the United States. Until recently, Putin has only focused glancing attention on American elections. Then along came the presumptive Republican nominee.

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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/07/vladimir_putin_has_a_plan_for_destroying_the_west_and_it_looks_a_lot_like.html

[monmouth4]

1. I think I read earlier here on DU today, that Putin sent Obama good wishes for July 4th and thought

that both countries should renew their previous ties. Am I going crazy or what?...LOL..

[cosmicone]

2. Putin may be a fascist

but he is no Donald -- to be Donald takes ignorance, ineptitude and incompetence.

[Lord Magus]

5. That's exactly why Putin would love to have tRump win.

He'd love to have an idiot as POTUS.

[uhnope]

3. good summary of Putin's program supporting fascism & anti-democracy in Europe. nt

[CK_John]

4. Putin should start paying attention to his own backyard, Asia wants

to regain control of Siberia east of the Urals. China is building 8 nuclear power ice breakers, to help them be a force in the new open water in the Arctic Sea.