It is time to ask the question, should President Trump dump strange bedfellow, Vladimir Putin? If he does not, when Putin is up for reelection in 2018, it would quash election tampering by the Russian opposition and support Exxon Mobil’s joint ventures with Russian state oil.
The mainstream press has unleashed a salvo of calumnies to question President Trump’s favor with Russian leadership. Even during the presidential campaign, Vladimir Putin, who used his own state controlled press to approve our own representative men was vociferously accused of hacking the results of the election when iconoclast, Trump, took the GOP and then, the country. At the height of it, with more of a compliment than he has offered to any of his colleagues, Donald Trump, during the Foreign Policy Debate predicted Syria would turn in favor of the Russians.
The left and certain factions of the right and center have implored the American president that the reason this will not work is because Putin is megalomaniacal, murderous and conniving.
They have reportedly downed drones, hacked election results, and been caught flying over Alaskan airspace. They have been suspect of kompromat over Utah Republican Representative, Jason Chafetz, and his decision not to seek reelection; and Trump campaign advisor, Carter Page, according to The Daily Caller.
Fox news first reported that two Russian TU-95 Bear bombers were intercepted off the Alaskan coast by two US F-22 Raptors, on Monday, the Pentagon confirmed. United States military officials passed the incident off as “nothing out of the ordinary” and “not dissimilar from what we’ve seen in the past with respect to Russian long-range aviation.” It is unknown whether the pilots were related to the Kremlin’s recent oil fracking venture in the Arctic. Putin ordered PAO Rosneft to start drilling at its northern most oil well, reported the Financial Times. If all goes successfully, the fuel will fill up to 30% of Russia’s energy demands through the year 2050. Exxon Mobil applied to the Treasury Department for a “waiver from…sanctions” to resume its joint venture with Russian state oil, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, United States jets also intercepted of Russian aircraft off the coast of California in July 2015. That incident featured cockpit-to-cockpit communication in which the Russian pilots relayed the message: “Good morning, American pilots. We are here to greet you on your Fourth of July Independence Day.” Back in February, the USS Porter was sailing in the Black Sea when it encountered Russian aircraft three times.
So why was Trump on Putin’s side to begin with? Russian military support of the Baathist Regime finds them on the side of Iran, and whatever asinine behavior which such regime is guilty of perpetrating. Nonetheless, G7 countries failed to sanction the Kremlin for its support of the Assad regime.
On the one hand, Russia is acting like a lawnmower to cut down the enemy – Islamic State in Syria, (and not to mention al-Nusra Front and the al-Qaeda, among others)—each side vying for control of Aleppo and other strongholds, like gamblers playing juggle with bayonets. But recently, President Donald Trump, rescinded his remarks about the United States’ alliance with the Putin regime in Russia. “Right now, we’re not getting along with Russia at all. Right now were at an all-time low.” he said at a press conference. But later he took to his Twitter account declaring: “Things will work out fine between the U.S.A. and Russia… At the right time everyone will come to their senses & there will be lasting peace!”
It was largely Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s alleged early-April chemical attack on his own civilians that caused President Trump to strike a Syrian airfield with Tomahawk missiles, setting thereby a rupture of geopolitical ties with Russia in Syria and somewhat offset by the biggest move to date which was the dropping of MOABs to buttress a ground offense on NATO in Afghanistan.
But before he makes any swift action, the president must take into account what the Russian opposition hold in store for the war on ISIS and other matters. The main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been guilty of embezzlement and interference. However, if anyone is altering election results it is him. Russian factions plan to investigate American media outlets to find out whether and how Parliamentary elections in 2016 were influenced when the Putin-backed United Russia party won. Putin will be up for re-election in 2018 and it will be up to the United States to say what side shall fill the Kremlin, is it quid pro quo between Putin and Trump or is it time for change?
