This Is Why Vladimir Putin Wants Trump in the Oval Office

https://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/07/27/Why-Vladimir-Putin-Wants-Trump-Oval-Office

By Rob Garver
July 27, 2016

The body of evidence suggesting that Russian government-backed hackers were responsible for penetrating the email servers of the Democratic National Committee and arranging the transfer of nearly 20,000 internal emails to WikiLeaks has been built up to the point where few people outside the Kremlin challenge it anymore.

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There is a clear case to be made that Vladimir Putin’s interests would be better served by having Donald Trump as president than Hillary Clinton,” said Susan Hennessey, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and the managing editor of its Lawfare blog.

Trump’s suggestion that the US might reduce its commitment to NATO, and his warning that he might ignore the mutual defense agreement that is the alliance’s cornerstone if he felt other countries hadn’t contributed enough money, said Hennessey, is “pro-Russian in a way that is not only unprecedented but was inconceivable” before Trump came on the scene.

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Another reason why Putin might prefer to see Trump in the White House is that he and his inner circle in the Kremlin are quite familiar with the alternative.

“They really, really hate Hillary Clinton,” said Hennessey. “Certainly in their minds, he is the lesser evil.”

That’s because, during her time as secretary of state, Clinton developed a reputation for pushing back hard against Russian provocations and has so far given every indication that she would be a more aggressive opponent of Russian adventurism in Syria and elsewhere than the Obama administration has been.

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