Scrutable

Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents.

Chris Preston wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:49 am

If you were wanting to take your competitor out of the game, this is exactly the sort of thing you would do. It worked better than Putin could have hoped, helped by the fact that Trump fawned over autocrats. There was no chance that this would backfire on Putin, by Trump meddling in anywhere Putin was interested in increasing his influence.

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:44 pm

It's interesting, this "Putin supported Trump to destroy the USA" thing, because Trump also had a huge amount of support from powerful, wealthy US citizens who would presumably prefer the USA not to be destroyed.

Similarly there's a lot of speculation that some of his properties may be owned by Russians, giving them leverage, but a lot of them are definitely owned by Wall Street funds managing capital for the likes of the Kochs.

Do US and Russian oligarchs have similar goals, or did they disagree on the threat Trump posed to the country?

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:44 pm

It's interesting, this "Putin supported Trump to destroy the USA" thing, because Trump also had a huge amount of support from powerful, wealthy US citizens who would presumably prefer the USA not to be destroyed.

Similarly there's a lot of speculation that some of his properties may be owned by Russians, giving them leverage, but a lot of them are definitely owned by Wall Street funds managing capital for the likes of the Kochs.

Do US and Russian oligarchs have similar goals, or did they disagree on the threat Trump posed to the country?

tom p wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 15, 2021 3:18 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:44 pm

It's interesting, this "Putin supported Trump to destroy the USA" thing, because Trump also had a huge amount of support from powerful, wealthy US citizens who would presumably prefer the USA not to be destroyed.

Similarly there's a lot of speculation that some of his properties may be owned by Russians, giving them leverage, but a lot of them are definitely owned by Wall Street funds managing capital for the likes of the Kochs.

Do US and Russian oligarchs have similar goals, or did they disagree on the threat Trump posed to the country?

Not necessarily "destroy"; but weaken or damage.
US oligarchs want the US government to be just weak enough to not be able to touch them, while still strong enough to suppress the masses.
Putin wants the US government to be as weak as possible internationally; but he presumably would rather it didn't really become a failed state because of the turmoil that would cause

tom p wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 15, 2021 3:18 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:44 pm

It's interesting, this "Putin supported Trump to destroy the USA" thing, because Trump also had a huge amount of support from powerful, wealthy US citizens who would presumably prefer the USA not to be destroyed.

Similarly there's a lot of speculation that some of his properties may be owned by Russians, giving them leverage, but a lot of them are definitely owned by Wall Street funds managing capital for the likes of the Kochs.

Do US and Russian oligarchs have similar goals, or did they disagree on the threat Trump posed to the country?

Not necessarily "destroy"; but weaken or damage.
US oligarchs want the US government to be just weak enough to not be able to touch them, while still strong enough to suppress the masses.
Putin wants the US government to be as weak as possible internationally; but he presumably would rather it didn't really become a failed state because of the turmoil that would cause