My opinion only, but it destroys Putin’s narrative that the west (US) is trying to isolate Russia (and her people), versus containing the Kremlin and mob. The closer this fuckery gets to Putin, in combination with the oligarchic corruption and theft of the people exposed by people like Navalny, the more it might enrage some of the Russian people, who have viewed Russia (not the Kremlin and associated oligarchs) as victims of the US.

Now, he insists on rogue actors, or Israeli/Russian dual citizenry as the actors. Bibi’s stance and escalation on Iran with notes on Syria, at AIPAC, might have caused a falling out on that new bromance as well. Best to point fingers outward. For all we know, Netanyahu and Putin were in cahoots in the effort. Neither wanted Clinton/Obama policies. It’s clear that the hard right Israeli government is getting all of its wishes come true under the Trump/Kushner policy. But Putin doesn’t abide with Netanyahu’s plan in the middle east. He wants to maintain his geopolitical standing in re Syria and Iran. The Russian people have soured on their military presence in Syria. The fact that the Kremlin hid mercenary forces from them there was another blow. Putin is trying to look pristine and innocent going into the election. Another outsider against Russian interests might rally support again toward these efforts.

The Ukrainian actors comment strikes me as obvious, as does the American-paid actors, because it promotes the ever present propaganda of US deep state as the only nefarious operators in the world. Plus Putin is nothing if not a goddam troll.

OT, but if you want to see a portrait of Putin at his spooky best, check out “Icarus,” which just won the Oscar for best documentary.  [It’s on Netflix.]  Starts out with the story of a guy who bikes for recreation and decides to prove that the screening system for drugs is so weak that even HE, an amateur,  could get through it.  About half way through he realizes that the guy he’s Skyping with in Russia is the head of their doping + evade-the-testing system.

The whistle-blower’s fear as he attempts to get out of Russia, plus watching Putin’s cold, bold-faced lying will resurrect any Cold War fears you may have slumbering inside.

I’m wondering if he’s anticipating a British finding that the recent poisonings trace back to Russia.

So a preemptive strike?  Applicable to almost anything?

The man is so full of SH!T his eyes are turning brown. We know that much of the interference in our election originated from military and government organizations within russia. We know that Putin personally met with Trumpski and several other US politicians like Jill Stein, and with Michael Flynn. We have photos of them dining at the same table. I find it personally insulting that the man commits acts of war against the USA and then stands there denying them, is he too much of a coward to admit his crimes against you and I?

Even if it were mere lawless persons he detests and is now singling out for pogroms and scapegoating, always the mark of a fascist, he better F’ing care what goes on inside his borders because these are acts of war and will at the very least mean a new cold war. At this point it is very hard to tell which is the biggest liar, Trumpski or Tsar Vladimir. But since the first clearly works for the second I suppose it just does not matter. What does matter is there are 30-35 million Americans that are OKAY with this vassal state arrangement in which the USA is now controlled by a hostile power.

You cannot try that many people for treason, but we can get their ringleader and put the rest on notice that their citizenship is in jeopardy if they attempt to stop it.

Re Trump, Flood and Haberman:

Maggie Haberman seems to have found the least probable reason Donald Trump is not telling all or any of his attorneys that he is talking to the famously competent Emmet Flood about joining his legal team: so as not “to inflame people who know a lot about his case”.  Emmet Flood, you might have read, represented Bill Clinton through his impeachment troubles.

Haberman’s rationale – that Trump cared more about his lawyers’ egos than his own – is why some observers do not find her reporting credible.

All of Donald’s attorneys are subject to client confidentiality rules, even in the absence of the NDAs that accompany Trump like rain in the Amazon.  They are unlikely to reveal what Trump says, unless it is as part of an agreed strategy.  If they’re working for Donald, they have their egos in check (around Donald) and insist that their retainers are big and paid in advance.

Among the more likely reasons Trump would not tell one of his attorneys about talking to another is because he is stupid and arrogant.  Stove piping information given to different attorneys is the fastest way to veer off the road of any legal strategy.

Among the more likely reasons for Trump’s stove piping is that he’s afraid he might be giving his existing lawyers an excuse to bail: “I’ve fully protected my client, I’ve done my part of the work, it’s time to pass the hot potato baton.”  Nobody puts Donald in a corner, or walks away without being told to go.

The most likely reason for Donald’s behavior is that he is lying to one or more of his lawyers (and himself) and imagines he’s getting away with it.  Clients for high-powered lawyers try to lie to them all the time – big clients, with big egos and bigger wallets, who have done a lot of things the DoJ might be interested in.

These lawyers expect that you might be lying to them.  When they hear about this sort of behavior from Donald, they know it.  They know it for the same reason a medical doctor knows that the three most likely things her client will lie to them about are how much he eats, how much he drinks, and how often he has sex.  It is the client rationalizing away their mortality and their vulnerability.

Trump must hope that he can keep any one of his lawyers from knowing all his secrets.  The less you know, the less leverage you have, the less you can tell.  That might work for a mob boss.  It might work in the surreal world of billion dollar family real estate companies where only family know where all the bodies are buried.

As president – with Bob Mueller probably looking at every Trump secret on and off the books, with the FBI and other resources at his disposal – it might not work so well.  In fact, it is hard to imagine a better way to perform the kind of impossibly acrobatic sex act that Dick Cheney was renowned for telling his congressional opponents to go do.

I would suggest that Putin’s motive, like that of Trump, is to distract.

These guys seem to me to be playing for time. As Trump gets more and more control over the national security apparatus, and that apparatus becomes empowered, it becomes more difficult to retaliate against Russia. This is true, even if Trump resigns, is impeached, or dies. Also, our strongest defense against foreign meddling–democracy–becomes increasingly damaged, with more ideologues inserted into the judiciary, more loopy laws, and crippling deficits. And this is true throughout the West.

Russia and China enter the power vacuum created by a flailing, failing United States. They have their own development bank. China is aggressively colonizing the South China Sea. Democracy is failing in a number of US dependencies, such as the Philippines and Thailand. And Europe is splintering, with the south in economic decline and Britain exiting.

Trump and Putin imagine that if they can only weaken the US enough, an authoritarian structure can take hold. The problem is that the authoritarians of today are grossly incompetent and will be totally unable to deal with problems that require cooperation, like global warming, infectious diseases, and foodstuff production. The chances of nuclear war have not been higher since the early 1960s.

If Putin and Trump win, everyone loses. Somehow, they–and Xi-jinping need to be pried from power and real democracy allowed to function if we are to save this world.

Regarding Mueller producing indictments for the DNC or Podesta hacking: How would he need to assess the actual evidence the intelligence agencies have? Would he need a reasonable (colloquially or legally speaking) belief it was good enough to try at criminal standard? Obviously he would need much more than the Crowdstrike conclusions or that of the unclassified intel findings, both of which are garbage in terms of evidence for attribution, but I’m wondering if he would independently assess the IC’s assessments in a more legalistic light.

Maybe it’s disinformation for its own sake. Putin’s aware that US media (“useful idiots” comes to mind) hang on his every word. True to who and what he is, keeping the world off-balance is, to him, like breathing. Or, for all we know, he and Sechin are communicating to other oligarchs that their positions remain subject to Kremlin whims, as in, stay on-side or your chances of coming off the SDN list are zero … or we might even extradite you. As for the prejudices, they remain fertile ground for audiences everywhere. They, too, come naturally to Putin and many of his fellow Russians. It’s doubtful that a lot of prep-work went into his interview with Kelly, as that would signal a respect that he simply doesn’t have.

Well, here’s Felix Sater talking about how he had “Jew” listed as his nationality in his USSR passport. (Buzzfeed got access to his HPSCI statement.)

(reply in comment not working)

Evangelista, I guess the world is waiting for Mueller, he’s got all the cards… as Ruger9 just asked… what will force his hand? I’d guess he’d be extremely cautious, especially in light of the fact that any bombshells are likely to cause a severe reckoning in America.

Curious, are you of the Robert Parry or Peter Schweizer school of thought when it comes to collusion. And, if no collusion with the Trump campaign… do you believe that Putin directly, or via sponsored actors interfered in the 2016 election?