Millions of words have been written about whether Putin interfered in the2016 election to help Trump. The matter will be debated for years to come, and I do not think the definitive answer has been revealed. Trump’s behavior while in office supported the belief that he was indebted to Putin. He was obsequious to Putin whenever they met. He always spoke admiringly about him and implied that they had a special friendship, akin to his “love affair” with the North Korean tyrant.
This article appeared in The Guardian in July 2021.
It begins:
Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents.
The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present.
They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them “social turmoil” in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position.
Russia’s three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin’s signature.
By this point Trump was the frontrunner in the Republican party’s nomination race. A report prepared by Putin’s expert department recommended Moscow use “all possible force” to ensure a Trump victory.
Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of the documents for some months and to have carefully examined them. The papers, seen by the Guardian, seem to represent a serious and highly unusual leak from within the Kremlin…
The report – “No 32-04 \ vd” – is classified as secret. It says Trump is the “most promising candidate” from the Kremlin’s point of view. The word in Russian is perspektivny.
There is a brief psychological assessment of Trump, who is described as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”.
There is also apparent confirmation that the Kremlin possesses kompromat,or potentially compromising material, on the future president, collected – the document says – from Trump’s earlier “non-official visits to Russian Federation territory”.
The paper refers to “certain events” that happened during Trump’s trips to Moscow. Security council members are invited to find details in appendix five, at paragraph five, the document states. It is unclear what the appendix contains.
There is more to read. It’s impossible to know whether these documents are truthful. Yet Trump’s lapdog attitude toward Putin and the dissension he caused as President, as well as his outright hostility towards NATO and our allies support the veracity of the document. The analysis of his character is spot on. Even recently, as Putin invaded Ukraine, Trump continued to praise him.
Someday historians will resolve the question. But not yet.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
No matter what the future decides about Putin helping Trump win the 2016 election, a puddle of vomit is still more trustworthy than Traitor Trump.
So what is the big deal? So Putin did something the Yanx have been doing for a long time: interfere in a country’s election. Good for the goose but not for the gander?
Wait a minute. Because the U.S. has committed some terrible wrongs, we are not to call out the obvious wrongs of others? Do you hear how warped that sounds? I must remain mute because my own country has done some atrocious things as well? Just how do we progress beyond the basest of behavior if we are not allowed to call it out when we recognize it for whatever reason.
Agreed. We must remain silent as Putin rains bombs and missiles on a civilian population, by this pro-Putin perspective.
My view: the UN should enforce a no-fly zone and send in a large number of peacekeepers to protect civilians. Putin is waging a criminal war on the Ukraine people.
Taking note of U.S. hypocrisy is worthy of mention. The U.S. government is the moral superior of no others. None.
You don’t need to be morally superior to denounce the indiscriminate murder of men, women, and children by Russia. You don’t need to be morally superior to oppose bombing of residences, schools, hospitals.
I suppose you think the US should not have opposed Hitler because we were not “morally superior.”
Did you know that the UN General Assembly denounced Putin’s invasion of Ukraine?
Only 5 countries voted to support Russia: Russia, Belarus, Syria, Eritrea, and North Korea.
These five must be the “morally superior” countries in your eyes.
Didn’t you know, Diane, that we must precede any expression moral indignation or outrage with the appropriate amount of self flagellation?
cx: of moral indignation…
The U.S./the west has as much business criticizing others for election interference as Jeffrey Dahmer has criticizing others’ eating habits. Pure gross hypocrisy. If you oppose election interference, start at home and criticize your own government.
Dienne, are you saying that no one should criticize Putin because every other nation, but especially our own, has dirty hands? Do you think we should not side with Ukraine? Should we side with Putin?
What is with the false Jeffrey Dahmer analogy?
What dienne77 means is that no one who has ever littered or parked illegally better criticize Jeffrey Dahmer.
That’s the proper analogy.
Instead she says America is Jeffrey Dahmer and Putin is just someone with bad eating manners!
Once again, diebne77 says Putin has bad eating manners, but the US is a really evil murderous serial killer.
Isn’t it long past time to understand that this person is a Russian troll who cannot and will not ever say that Putin is anything worse than someone with bad manners at the dinner table?
Dienne77– “If you oppose election interference, start at home and criticize your own government.”
Indeed, I AM criticizing my own government for all the fake “election security” measures being proposed and passed at the county, Arizona state, and federal levels; also when our government meddles in foreign elections.
And I DO have the right and will continue to protest election interference anywhere in the world. We are millions of individuals, and many of us never supported those objectionable actions of our government.
The big deal is that Putin is attacking civilians, schools, hospitals, and homes. Do you have a heart?
Hey, I have an idea! Why don’t we march into Canada and liberate them from the tyranny of Toronto? After all, before we became a country, we were both colonies of Great Britain. I’m sure they would welcome us as brothers with open arms.
speduktr
You may take your idea if it isn’t a joke and you are serious and shove it up your “where the sun doesn’t shine”.
Lloyd, it’s a joke.
I would be offended if I was somebody, but since I’m not, I will try to remember to put a snark alert on my more outrageous attempts at humor. I guess my own hubris got the better of me; I assumed that I had commented enough over the years not to be taken as a troll.
I know who you are.
And I appreciate that.
speduktr,
I thought your snark was obvious! Maybe because I have read your other thoughtful posts and was 100% certain that you didn’t endorse liberating Canada from “the tyranny of Toronto” (which made me laugh – thank you!)
Thanks, NYCPSP. Sometimes my mouth and my brain don’t agree.
“There is a brief psychological assessment of Trump, who is described as an ‘impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex.’”
Now THAT’s rich, coming from Putin. (I can see our Peskyvera troll is back.) CBK
Peskyvera adores Putin. He can do no wrong. In her eyes.
Putin’s attack, invasion and partial occupation of parts of Ukraine are a crime against humanity. The war is being fought on Ukrainian soil, Russia has not been attacked or bombed. Russian babies are not dying in their homes. It’s hideous and horrific beyond words what this one despot is doing to Ukraine. The videos coming out of Ukraine are heart-wrenching. What if this monster accidentally on purpose bombs a nuclear power plant, which almost happened. All of Europe will be affected by multiple Chernobyls.
I don’t have any answers or solutions except to continue with the sanctions and arming the Ukrainians.
The U.N. General Assembly needs to invoke Resolution 377, aka the “Uniting for Peace” Resolution,” which allows that body to override a Security Council determination in a circumstance in which the Security Council has been unable to come to a decision resulting in a peaceful resolution of a crisis. Based upon this, it needs to establish a U.N. no-fly zone above Ukraine and send into Ukraine an overwhelming peacekeeping force.
The U.N. needs to act, and act now, not the U.S., not NATO, the U.N. Putin’s criminal war threatens the security of the entire world.
Exactly …
Don’t forget that Bill Clinton interfered in Russia’s election by giving Boris Yeltsin a 10 Billion dollar loan and a team of consultants to win his election in 1996. After that Yeltsin went from last to first place. It was during Yeltsin’s term that criminal oligarchs took over the Russia. Putin was Yeltsin’s chosen successor when he was pressured to resign in 1999. Putin is credited with taking some of the power away from the oligarchs, which is why he has been quite popular with the Russian people. (According to public opinion surveys conducted by NGO Levada Center, Putin’s approval rating was 60% in July 2020. Putin’s popularity rose from 31% in August 1999 to 80% in November 1999, never dropping below 65% during his first presidency.) I believe that corporate control of Governments throughout the world is the major factor responsible for the rise right wing populism.
That dramatic rise in Putin’s popularity in 1999 over a few months coincides with Putin’s decision to destroy Grozny, reduce it to rubble, and disperse the Chechnyan people. This turned many Chechnyans into terrorists. Putin’s assault on Chechnya probably foreshadows what he will do to Kiev. He utterly and completely destroyed Grozny.
Let’s hope & pray that doesn’t happen to Ukraine Diane!
So now, after prostrating himself to Putin when Trump was president, he accuses Biden of being weak. Same MO over and over. Accuse others of what you are guilty of. Call protesting racism, racist. Call antidemocratic legislation, protecting democracy. For Putin, call territory grabbing invasion of a democratically-elected government with a Jewish president, anti-fascist.
It completely blows me away that we are still debating whether Trump was and is a Russian asset. This is so obviously the case. That he was not long ago tried and convicted as a traitor to his country has to be the single greatest intelligence (in more senses than one) failure in history.
This!
I hope that every reader of this blog will take the time to read this superb backgrounder on Trump and Russia from The New Republic:
https://newrepublic.com/article/165553/donald-trump-everything-vladimir-putin-wished-russian-asset