Standing Up or Not to Russia
Terry H. Schwadron
Feb. 26, 2024
There are a million ways to distinguish what Donald Trump and Republicans believe from what Joe Biden and Democrats stand for, but none is so clear at the moment as the schism in response to Russia and leader Vladimir Putin over what appears to be the state-sponsored death of Putin critic Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison.
Biden has been all but exploding in rage over Navalny’s gulag sentence and death, moving to unleash a strong package of 500 economic and diplomatic sanctions. This week, he has embraced Yulia Navalnaya, the widow, who vows to carry on the anti-Putin work of her late husband. And Biden has tied many of the sanctions against companies aiding Russia’s military adventurism against Ukraine,
Together it not only seems a slap to Putin’s Russia. to renewal of would-be election interference in this year’s U.S. elections and to democracy futures globally, but a direct challenge to Trump and the House Republican leadership that is silent on Navalny while stalling in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
We have watched agape as Trump brazenly and weirdly has compared his own legal issues — the result of his own indictable actions and uncivil behaviors — to Navalny’s bravery in confronting the Russian autocracy,
It is so bizarre a self-perceiving cover for Trump that even Republican opponent Nikki Haley thinks Trump looney for his failure to condemn Putin. For her, it is a departure from her general policy alignment with the former president.
With another in a string of early primary victories, Trump now seems guaranteed to be Biden’s opponent in November, and even those trying to avoid the race need to start toting up what each is saying.
Russia, Russia, Russia
The split on Russia today is all too reminiscent of the myriad contacts between Trump, his previous election campaigns, and his family business ventures with cooperating Russian operatives, as outlined extensively in the final reports by then Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III a couple of years ago.
Worse, Trump is clear in wanting to force Ukraine to give up and cede land and control to Russia, and to invite Russian aggression against a NATO alliance that he talks of abandoning.
Just what is the attraction to Putin for Trump — other than the kind of strongman love that television commentators insist on describing at great length.
Indeed, the more Trump tries to distance himself from some kind of fealty, kinship, or business friendship with Putin, the more suspect he looks. Though still largely circumstantial, the sheer number of contacts over the years, the deference to Putin on matters of style and substance, the number of disturbing overlaps with Putin-helpful military and actual hand-offs of intelligence all stoke the idea that Trump owes Putin or that Putin has an unusual degree of power over Trump.
In a word, this alone makes Trump a danger to consider if he is returned to the White House.
Television critics are re-rolling footage of Trump saying he believes Putin over his own intelligence services, explaining away giving intelligence away in the White House to the Russian ambassador, and rewriting the Mueller report in ways that Trump thinks exonerates himself from election cooperation with an avowed American enemy.
If you’re somehow not persuaded that running a coup attempt planned and carried out over months is not reason enough to oppose Trump, you might consider what must go through the Trump mind to think that assassinating a political rival with full immunity is something deserving of admiration.
Oh wait, that is exactly what Trump is claiming in his own criminal trials on 91 separate indictable offenses.
The Biden Package
Biden administration officials obviously believe that the announced sanctions will matter, even in the short run.
The new sanctions, joined by British and European sanctions, target Russian companies, individuals and firms in other countries that supply Russia’s military and industrial production, according to a Treasury Department spokeswoman. The sanctions aim to tighten an existing Western “price cap” that requires purchasers to buy Russian oil at a discounted rate or face severe financial penalties.
They look to limit Russia’s access to advanced manufacturing and technology, robotics, industrial automation, software, and lasers important to weapons from firms abroad.
Still, there have been financial sanctions before, and Russia is weathering them, according to news reports. Countries like India continue to buy oil, and other nations are circumventing the rules to supply Russian needs.
The Washington Post noted that sanctions have failed to deter Putin from carrying out the war in Ukraine, and the announcement of new measures may raise questions about why the United States had not previously targeted these firms.
Still, there is no question about where Biden stands. For that matter, there is little question about where Trump stands — but it is certainly in a place that is much more helpful to Putin and Russian aggression. House Republicans stand only for following Trump and avoiding doing anything that might make it look as if Biden is doing his job.
On this score alone, we as voters should know how to respond.
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