There’s Nothing Generous About Putin’s Coronavirus Aid to US

https://news.yahoo.com/nothing-generous-putin-coronavirus-aid-155235463.html

Julia Davis
,The Daily Beast•April 3, 2020

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State media outlet RIA Novosti reported that Putin dispatched a planeload of “disinfectants, glasses, respirators, masks and equipment.” Kremlin-funded RT (formerly Russia Today) described it as “a gift from the Kremlin to its coronavirus-stricken rival.”

Not quite. The U.S. Department of State said that this “gift” was actually a purchase of “needed medical supplies, including ventilators and personal protection equipment, from Russia.” Maria Zakharova, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, specified that the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) paid for half of the shipment.

The semi-generous gesture is indeed somewhat of an investment, providing a possible excuse to Trump if he moves to lift U.S. sanctions against Russia, imposed for its unlawful annexation of Crimea, covert military activities in Ukraine, attempted poisoning of Sergei Skripal, the downing of the Malaysian aircraft MH-17, and U.S. election interference.

The ventilators provided by Russia, as it happens, were manufactured by a subsidiary of a company that is currently under U.S. sanctions. Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies is a holding company within the Russian state-owned Rostec group.

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What the Russians want their people to believe is that they have a handle on the pandemic, and they’re going to emerge as the great victors when the COVID-19 crisis eventually subsides.

Thus they portray America’s failure to contain the disease as the collapse of the entire democratic system of government.

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