Sumantra Maitra asks Federalist readers to pay attention to changes in the narrative surrounding President Trump and Russian “collusion.”
This is fascinating. Ever since Trump won the election, there has been a sustained assertion in liberal sophisticate circles about active collusion between his campaign and the Russian FSB. …
… From neocons who fled the Soviet Union and have an instinctive aversion to anything Russian, to British grifters and failed politicians, to PR agents of Georgian and Ukrainian government masquerading as information warfare experts, to social science academics looking to make a quick buck monetizing this hysteria, everyone sold the same narrative. That, eventually, slowly morphed into a new narrative that Russians were just “sowing confusion.” Now the final narrative is taking hold. It has nothing to do with Russia, and everything to do with Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigating corruption in the Trump campaign and administration.
Fair enough. The second point actually makes sense. Russians are not a friendly, allied power, and they never will be. Russia, like any other great power, even though it is materially declining, has a set of interests that will automatically, forever clash with those of the United Sates. That, added to the Russian sense of victimhood and betrayal, compels them to lash out and sow distrust.
