The team of the president-elect Donald Trump takes shape, confirming the strong ties of his entourage with the Kremlin. But it is also something else to peep in Washington, something we can call the “Russian method.”
When, a few days ago, the CIA said it had evidence that Russian hackers gave WikiLeaks emails hacked to Hillary Clinton, Trump replied with strong argument: “I don’t believe it” he told Fox News. And he repeated the concept to Time.
Let us reflect. The US intelligence services, requested by President Obama, draw up a report after over a month of cyber investigations that point the finger at Russian hackers linked to the Kremlin, and he just doesn’t believe it. Trump, the president-elect of the United States, does not believe his own intelligence. And this, according to him, is enough to discard a survey report.
And here it is the “Russian method” grafted to the White House. Deny all evidence, respond to committees, experts, investigators, independent bodies, reporters with conspiracy theories. Nothing different from what Russia regularly does on doping scandal, on the bombings in Syria, on its servicemen in Ukraine, on the dawning of Malaysia flight MH17, just to name a few.
All Trump’s “Russians”
Perhaps this is the aspect that needs to be feared the most. It is not clear if more symptom or cause of a president-elect in love with Russia and an entourage that shares the same passion.
Trump and his sympathy (warmly reciprocated) for Putin is well known. According to McClatchy, Putin is the foreign leader with whom Trump had more contacts than anyone else, ever.
An empathy evident from the days of the election campaign and that is now reverberating in the formation of the presidential administration.
Beginning with his former spin-doctor, Paul Manafort, a man who can boast in its customer portfolio the Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, the Philippines tyrant Ferdinand Marcos, and former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. Having resigned from office on charges of having taken money under the table by the then Ukrainian President, when he worked to keep Ukraine in the orbit of Moscow, Manafort is now back on the frontpages of American newspapers. According to CNN he is a player in the fight to shape the new administration; he denies and says he merely observe.
The American siloviki
The team, meanwhile, can already boast Michael Flynn as appointed Presidential advisor for the National Security. A former shadow adviser for international affairs during the election campaign, Flynn is a retired general and former military intelligence chief from 2012 to 2014 who makes cooperation with Russia his mantra. He’s often guest of the Russian state channel in English RT and, after having resigned from the secret services a year before the end of his term without explanation, was pictured in Moscow at the same table with Putin at a banquet celebrating 10 years of RT..
With his role, Flynn will have a huge influence on the Pentagon, the CIA and the State Department. The three nerve centers of the security of the US.
And then there is the latest arrival: Rex Tillerson, the Exxon CEO, shareholder of Russia’s oil giant Rosneft, awarded in 2013 the Order of Friendship by Putin himself and chosen for the office of Secretary of State. Tillerson, who has repeatedly spoken out against sanctions on Russia, would be the real link between American and Russian oil economic interests.
The best comment on Trumps’ administration came from his former foreign policy adviser during the campaign, Carter Page. “This is a dream team for US-Russia relations. These future senior officials represent a veritable American siloviki”. Exactly what the world needed.
@daniloeliatweet
The team of the president-elect Donald Trump takes shape, confirming the strong ties of his entourage with the Kremlin. But it is also something else to peep in Washington, something we can call the “Russian method.”
