Column: Trump and Ukraine: Putin's got skin in this game, too

[MissMillie]

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-27/


WASHINGTON - It's only a little over a month since an intelligence community whistleblower turned the Trump administration on its side; It may seem like more. At first the story seemed straightforward: The informant charged that President Trump had pressured Ukraine's new president to investigate Joe Biden's son and blocked U.S. military aid to force the Ukrainian leader to do his bidding.

But the story has become more complicated along the way. Trump wasn’t asking only for an inquiry into the Bidens; he also wanted Ukraine to look for evidence that might exonerate Russia from responsibility for the 2016 cyberattacks against the Democratic Party. He dispatched Atty. Gen. William Barr around the world to seek evidence that the Obama administration’s investigation of his campaign was politically motivated. He said he still wants someone to find the Democratic Party’s “missing” computer server, which isn’t missing, and Hillary Clinton’s lost emails, which no longer exist.

Here’s one mystery in the case: How did poor, embattled Ukraine land in the middle of so many Trumpworld conspiracy theories about what happened in 2016?

Well, Ukraine is next to Russia — and Vladimir Putin has never fully accepted Kyiv’s desire to escape from Moscow’s sphere of influence. Regaining sway there is arguably the Russian president’s No. 1 foreign policy goal.

“I believe that Russians and Ukrainians are actually one people,” Putin told filmmaker Oliver Stone in June. “One nation, in fact…. We have many things in common; we can use this as our competitive advantage during some form of integration.”
Trump does not have a long history of dealing with Ukraine, but he does have a long record of admiration for Putin. In 2014, as he prepared his campaign, the future president praised the Russian’s decision to seize Crimea, which has been part of Ukraine since 1954.







I was thinking this just the other day, and while at my Dad's house I expressed my thoughts on it to my Dad. A few moments later I opened up his copy of the local paper and found this editorial which had been reprinted. (I was pretty surprised it was in the local paper, as the paper is decidedly a conservative publication.)

[empedocles]

1. little man putin, needs compensate to liddle conqueror

[MBS]

2. There's no doubt that the Ukraine story is the same as the Russian story

It's all one story: Trump betraying our country – both our founding values and our national security (not to mention our economy) – and capitulating to Putin's desire to regain and expand his empire. Syria fits into this saga, too.

Three or four years into this nightmare (and even though I correctly assessed the sordidness of the situation from Day 1), I continue to be shocked.

[KPN]

4. Well said and spot on.

[lagomorph777]

5. Nothing new in that editorial, but it may be news to many readers...

especially if it's appearing in conservative papers.

[MBS]

7. yes, good point.

The more people the information reaches, the better.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. "Too" ?!? This whole mess was his creation, from the very beginning ! nt

[lagomorph777]

6. I know, right?!?

But apparently that comes as a surprise to some.