The likely next President of The United States might want to check in with journalists who were beaten by the Putin regime, such as Yuriy Yatsenko, who testified before the US Helsinki Commission. Trump is a great businessman and can certainly make great business deals, but national security and his awareness of how much of a psychopath Putin is might be his weak points — especially the latter.
On the economy, he also might be too little, too late, come 2017. If you’re wondering when the economy is going to crash and want to play the “estimate a date” game, try 2008. America has been in free-fall ever since. It’s only when you hit bottom that the fun beings. Having said that, one can only hope he can handle the tasks ahead of him, because no matter who gets in, they’ll likely preside over the worst era in America’s entire history — maybe world history due to the magnitude of the incoming crisis. As the adage goes: It’s not a matter of if, but when. The Obama administration is kicking the economic can down the road for the next President, and likely leaving a few poison pills behind to hinder the next President’s ability to act.
If what’s in the article regarding the attacks in Russia interests you, then more on Putin, Yeltsin and the KGB’s (FSB) links to the deliberate apartment bombings in Moscow (and three other cities) can be found under the following previous post:
Donald Trump should heed seven red flags when considering how to respond Vladimir Putin’s flattery. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
Vladimir Putin’s praise of Donald Trump as “a very outstanding man, unquestionably talented” has been reciprocated by Trump’s calling Putin “a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond” that they “would get along very well.” Trump has shrugged off warnings of Putin’s perfidy by citing lack of proof that Putin “kills journalists, political opponents and …invades countries.” Only the naïve would know there will be no such proof when the Kremlin controls prosecution, justice and the secret police. Putin’s hybrid warfare and its plausible deniability complicates proof of crimes against the international order, despite obvious Russian military engagement in Georgia and Ukraine.
(Disclosure: I am on the foreign policy advising committee for Dr. Ben Carson, but the opinion in this post are mine and do not necessarily correspond to those of Dr. Carson.)
Killing journalists and political opponents is only one reason for Trump to be leery of Putin. Trump should heed seven red flags when considering how to respond Putin’s flattery:
First, Trump must know that Putin ordered the hybrid war against Ukraine that has, according to conservative United Nations estimates, killed more than 9,000 and wounded nearly 21,000. Combatants and civilians are being killed daily despite a so-called truce brokered by Russia. More than one and a half million people have been displaced and almost four million are living under desperate circumstances.
Second, Trump must know that Putin has consistently declared the United States as enemy number one since his February 2007 speech in Munich. In Putin’s world, the United States and its NATO allies are intent on surrounding and dismembering Russia. Any aggressive actions of Russia – Georgia, Crimea, Ukraine – are therefore purely defensive in nature designed to protect Mother Russia from the world’s main source of evil. How will Trump “get along very well” with a negotiating partner, whose regime’s very existence requires that the U.S. play the role of Russia’s major enemy?
Third, Trump must heed the classic scholarly work of noted historian John Dunlop: “The Moscow Apartment Bombings of September 1999.” Dunlop uses the various commission and investigative reports that were prepared in that lost time of relative press and political freedom to present convincing evidence that Putin, the FSB (which Putin headed) and the Yeltsin regime deliberately blew up apartment buildings in three Russian cities, including Moscow. More than 300 were killed and 1,700 wounded. The bombings paved the way for the Second Chechen war, on the basis of which Putin was elected president in 2000. Prior to the bombings and the war, Putin had a minuscule favorability rating and stood little chance of being elected.
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A savvy negotiator must be able to size up his opponents and decide with whom to associate.
If Trump fails to dismiss Putin’s quasi-endorsement, he runs the risk of playing the dupe as did former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany (Putin’s stooge on Gazprom’s board), George W. Bush (looked into his soul), and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (Russian reset). Trump surely does not wish to join this group.
Full article: Seven Warnings To Donald Trump About Vladimir Putin (Forbes)
Global Geopolitics 