This is a long, a very long, article in the New Yorker. It was written by Evan Osnos, David Remnick, and Joshua Yaffa. David Remnick is the editor-in-chief of the New Yorker and a Russian specialist. The article is a history of the past twenty years of relations between the United States and Russia. It gives an in-depth explication of Vladimir Putin. It explains the origins of the new cold war. It explains the long history of cyberwarfare between our nations. You should set aside about 30-45 minutes to read it.
There is another article that is worth your while. It was written by Masha Geffen, and it is shorter that the New Yorker article.
Masha Gessen is a Russian-American writer who has been publishing articles in the New York Times and the New York Review of Books, among other outlets.
In this article that appeared in the New York Review of Books, Gessen describes the life of certain dissidents. Russia is not a normal country. Putin is not a normal leader. Dissidents are suddenly killed and/or poisoned.
Thus, when Trump talks about his admiration for Putin, you can be sure that he knows nothing about the events portrayed here. Or maybe doesn’t care.
Marsha Gessen wrote another article in the New York Review of Books, warning that our obsession with the Russian conspiracy will
Ultimately prove fruitless because there will never be a smoking gun. In the meanwhile, too little attention is paid to Trump’s determination to “deconstruct the administrative state,” as Steve Bannon put it. To destroy public education, reduce healthcare insurance, cut taxes for elites, impose religious discrimination, and harm the most vulnerable among us.
However, if a foreign power–any foreign power–interfered in our national elections, that is an unprecedented threat to our democracy. Many Americans, including me, find it hard to believe that this mendacious and hate-filled clown won the election.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Old news. Glenn Greenwald wrote a response ages ago: https://theintercept.com/2017/02/28/the-new-yorkers-big-cover-story-reveals-five-uncomfortable-truths-about-u-s-and-russia/ I particularly like how he points out the phallic imagery of St. Basil’s Cathedral penetrating the White House.
Dienne,
I am happy to have a defender of Putin on this blog. It keeps the conversation interesting.
The malignant narcissist that won the election had help from more than Putin.
He had help from the FBI’s director, alternate internet media sites that focus on alternate facts (lies and misinformation), millions of want-to-be-fooled voters, and voter suppression in some states controlled totally by the GOP.
It also didn’t help that the traditional U.S. media messed up big time by giving Trump too much free coverage for his Twitter rants while doing a lousy job revealing just how many times he lies and who he really is based on more than 50-years of his business history and groping women while cheating not only on his wives but his girlfriends/mistresses.
What did I miss?
“The malignant narcissist that won the election had help from more than Putin.”
Indeed he did. Hillary Clinton and the entire DNC. And at the rate they’re going, they’re going to help Trump’s successor into office the same way.
Dienne,
I have the sense that Trump’s election pleased you. And the worse, the better, as the Marxists used to say. You take too much pleasure in Trump’s victory. Sad. So sad.
Correctamundo Dienne! It’s gonna be a long eight years.
It could be a long 8 months too.
Dmitri, my Russian control agent, insists that I mention, for the sake of logic and reasoning, that there’s a very big difference between pointing out the fatal flaws and mistakes of Hillary Clinton as a candidate, and being gratified by Trump’s election, just as there is a big difference between being skeptical of unproven “assessments” by intelligence agencies with long histories (indeed, with professional obligations to do so) of lying to the American public, and supporting Putin.
Opposing a new, opportunistic and politically-fatal-for-the-Democrats Cold War and smear campaign does not equal support for the Orange One or the Shirtless Guy on the Horse, no matter how often Rachel Maddow tries to tell us otherwise.
The more Democrats double down on this nonsense, the longer Trump maintains support – notice how months of this has done nothing to diminish his support among those who voted for him – and the more state governments will be controlled by the Republicans.
Keep it up, Dims: the Repugs are just a few states short of being able to call for a Constitutional Convention, where you’ll be swept away once and for all.
The Democratic Party, held in a death-grip of political and moral bankruptcy, is fatally trapped in its meritocratic/”creative class” delusions and pretensions, and seems hell-bent on bringing that about.
Or is it that the current Obama/Clinton/Neoliberal leadership of the Party would rather go down in flames, taking us with them, rather than risk losing control?
Don’t hold you’re breath there buddy, at the rate the Dems are going, its definitely gonna be years not months.
Well skeptics, if there is nothing to see here, than let there be Independent investigations of all of these allegations.
It is hard to accept that someone who will not even divest his interests nor reveal his tax returns is not hiding something.
So simply let the sunshine in. Not a prayer, he is guilty as sin. By the way Hillary and Barrack can go to hell,for all I care along with at least a half of Democrats in the house and Senate .
This is about a deranged authoritarian with an ultra right agenda screwing the American working class (the bottom 80% ). He was elected by colluding with a hostile foreign nation, to alter the results of our most sacred institution, the democratic selection of our representatives. My or your definition of hostile don’t count , the sanctions applied to Russia were all that counts we have 1 elected government at a time.
Yes, there should be an investigation, rather than sourceless leaks.
After all, aren’t we talking about treason here? If treason has been committed, why doesn’t someone in the “intelligence community” take a stand and present the evidence?
Michael,
Don’t expect the intelligence agencies to step forward and present evidence unless there is an investigation.
Why not, Diane? After all, we’re talking about treason here, of conspiracies to undermine our political process, no?
If there is even the slightest possibility that these allegations of treason are true, then where are the leaks pointing investigators in the right direction? Surely, leaks pointing investigators in the right direction could be made, without compromising the sources or technology.
Or could it just be possible – excuse my apostasy – that there’s no there there, and that hopeless, clueless Democrats would sooner use the intelligence agencies to try and overturn an election, rather than reflect upon and change their guaranteed-to-lose politics?
For the record, I don’t doubt that Russian intelligence agencies and propaganda are active here (as ours are there), but US democracy is suffering from Stage IV metastatic cancer, yet the Democrats want us to run around as if our hair is on fire because there might be elevated levels of radon in the basement.
Michael,
Are you saying that the Trump-selected director of national intelligence will come forward and accuse the Russians of treason?
Don’t hold your breath.
The issue is critical enough so that there should be an independent investigation. Or do you think that no investigation is needed and the whole matter should be quietly forgotten?
As an older undergraduate in the early 1990s, I took a course of study in Russian and Eurasian studies. I was particularly interested in the authoritarian political movements in Russia centered around Vladimir Zhirinovsky and abetted by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. My unfortunately callow and forgettable honors thesis at Hampshire College endeavored to trace the origins of these movements and forecast their influence in the then-collapsing Soviet Union. I believed then that liberal democracy–you know, replete with an independent judiciary, representative legislative institutions, and a robust free press–faced an uncertain future at best in Russia.
I guess I hadn’t seen anything. But I never could have imagined the right wing of the Republican Party, among whom one found in my youth and young adulthood the most ardent, aggressive and outspoken cold warriors, could somehow make common cause with someone like Vladimir Putin. I guess if you’re an oligarchic tyrant you’re among friends in the Republican Party, but not if you’re a Marxist tyrant. In my book, naive as I may be, tyranny is tyranny, regardless of its ideological origins or impetus.
Kudos to Masha Gessen for her courageous work covering this story. She, of anyone, would appreciate the danger she’s in by doing this. Those who follow events in Russia remember the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya (and Natalya Estemirova and Boris Nemstov–this is a depressingly long list) and wish Ms. Gessen godspeed. Anyone who wants to read the superlative account of the end of the Soviet Union might consider taking a look at David Remnick’s “Lenin’s Tomb.” Mr. Remnick is an excellent stylist, and his book contains a number of signposts about where Russia might be headed as the Soviet Union dissolved–and it is in any case one hell of a read.
Even Masha Gessen warns us not to get too mired in the Russia conspiracy theories: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/03/06/trump-russia-conspiracy-trap/
dienne77
What other campaign has had at a minimal 6 very high level campaign officials with multiple contacts with any other foreign entity. I would venture a guess that not even the Israelis who are considered to be the most influential foreign lobby in DC, ostensibly allies has had that level of contact with any campaign in history.
What other foreign nationals have they met with and to what degree.
You would not like to take a wager on the answer to that one would you. I haven’t heard them mention anyone have you . We are talking private conversations not being in the same room with dozens of people.
By the way China is a far greater economic power and an equal military power to Russia, anybody meet with them. How about the Saudi’s !! , The Brits ,Germany , Argentina , …. …. …..
Get the gallows ready
Dienne, have you even taken the time to read the article you have repeatedly provided links for? If you have, complete the sentence please.
It would read something like: Even Masha Gessen warns us not to get too mired in the Russia conspiracy theories, not because they are not true, but because there is an total assault on the very notion of government taking place. Russian interests would like nothing more than having people focus on them while the dismantling of the federal government takes place. Should it be successful, it will have fulfilled anything beyond Vladimir Putin’s dreams. So keep your eyes on both issues. The attacks taking place by the supposed heads of the agencies who are trying to destroy them accomplishes Russia’s goals.
The very notion that Masha Gessen would want us to ignore Russian infiltration into our government is absurd. Read anything, ANYTHING that that she has written or listen to anything she has said on this topic.
Then again if you were writing, it would probably read: Even Masha Gessen warns us not to get too mired in the Russia conspiracy theories because Hillary Clinton would have been much, much worse.
I have also wondered why the Obama administration didn’t insist upon getting a strong message out at the time, and why it didn’t explain fake news.
… “But what if Barack Obama had gone to the Oval Office, or the East Room of the White House, and said, ‘I’m speaking to you tonight to inform you that the United States is under attack. The Russian government at the highest levels is trying to influence our most precious asset, our democracy, and I’m not going to let it happen.’
YES
Marsha Gessen’s article offers a good account of the rewards and hazards of obsessively attending to Putin and Russia. I hope that Rachel Maddow and others will consider the case that she is making.
My concern with Gessen’s article is that she seems not to care whether Putin did or did not influence our elections. I think we should find out as much as is possible with an independent prosecutor.
YES
The only way we have to attempt to stop his destructive agenda is to de-legitimize him and his agenda . It would be a reprehensible tactic except that it is a legitimate concern, unlike the birther movement and the Benghazi bullshit on the right.
Reverse the situation and pretend this were a Democratic President. There would have been calls for impeachment a month ago. Armed militias would be marching in the streets.
Do not be so sure you will not find a smoking gun. These people are not that smart, other than Putin eliminating most of the players . Daily another dirt bag is implicated.
Here we are a little over a month into office and daily the evidence is pilling up . Sixty seven percent now want a thorough investigation . Convictions may be more difficult under circumstantial evidence . But circumstantial evidence is all one needs for a conviction. The notion that there has to a smoking gun is wrong . Sooner or later shit happens.
” Then in July 1973, Alexander Butterfield, the deputy chief of staff, stunningly revealed (!!!!!!!) that Nixon had installed a secret taping system in the White House, in his Executive Office Building suite and at Camp David.”
The hearings had begun in early May.
I just finished listening to a pod cast on Russian-American relations. Very interesting background info that might help when trying to figure out what matters in stories about Russian connections, and what may not. If you haven’t heard of this series, I recommend it, from what I’ve heard so far: “Pod Save the World”
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pod-save-america/id1192761536?mt=2
I am confused after reading a November 19 article in the NYT by Rod Nordland. There seems to be a lot of excitement in the media about Flynn having been a lobbyist for Turkey…..”Ankara has paid far more attention to General Flynn’s full-throated support for Mr. Erdogan’s government, and especially its wish to extradite the Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen from his sanctuary in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.
General Flynn wrote an article published in The Hill on Election Day calling on the United States to be more sympathetic to the concerns of Turkey, a NATO ally, and embracing Mr. Erdogan’s position that Mr. Gulen is an extremist who was behind the failed July coup against his government.
Mr. Gulen and his supporters deny that, and depict him as a moderate more concerned with building thousands of schools than with toppling Turkey’s government. Mr. Gulen was once an ally of Mr. Erdogan, but they had a falling out. more concerned with building thousands of schools more concerned with building thousands of schools more concerned with building thousands of schools
General Flynn’s article, as Politico reported, did not disclose that he was a paid lobbyist for a consultancy founded by a Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin, who is also the head of the Turkish-American Business Council.
no secret about Flynn(who is gone)…..I am a little bit concerned about Gulen’s plans to build thousands of schools.
oops..forgot… https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/world/europe/turkey-flynn-erdogan-gulen.html
Gulen’s plans to build “thousands of schools”…exactly where?
If we are not going to let Gulen go back to kill enough people to take over Turkey, the least we can do is make it easier for him to build more charter schools. Profits from160 of them just is not enough to live on these days.
Gulen has about 150 charter schools in the US…Magnolia in LA (run by Caprice Yound who was head of CCSA), Harmony in Texas, and about 2,000 madrassas world wide. He makes approximately $500,000,000 a year on our tax money from his American charter schools plus all his adjunct businesses which keeps them supplied (food,curriculum and accoutrements, supplies, etc.). He has imported about 2,800 Middle Eastern men on Green cards to run these schools…and many have been absorbed into the greater American society…speaking of illegal immigrants. Yet each president since Bill Clinton has welcomed and protected him.
All this info can be found online.
typo…Clarice Young
Thanks, Ellen. I am searching for information about any conflicts between Bill Gates and Obama regarding Gulen and Erdogan, and the Trump cabinet. Were they more protective of Gulen than they should have been. For all I know, Gates could have regarded Gulen as someone he wished was not part of the Charter movement……”General Flynn’s full-throated support for Mr. Erdogan’s government, and especially its wish to extradite the Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen”…..I am one who holds Obama to blame for bad decisions related to education, so I am not very confident that anything which puts Obama in a bad light would not be pursued by those who a lot of skepticism for Trump and his people….who wouldn’t….but if there has been an impact on the direction of education and privatization, it needs to be explored.
Trump admin orders all remaining US attorneys out, including Preet Bharara who had been asked and agreed to stay on!
Impeachment looming? Paranoia? Effective defense? Is something big about to blow?
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-administration-tells-remaining-u-s-attorneys-resign-n732151
Rachel Maddow tonight offered that Jon Huntsman who is appointed as the new Ambassador to Russia, is Trump’s stick in the eye to the other Mormon Trump considered for the Cabinet (‘NOT’…just another twisted soap opera bit)… Mitt Romney.