During the Cold War it was perfectly clear the Russians were the bad guys. Only twisted-brain lefties like Noam Chomsky thought we were. When the USSR fell in 1991, there was a window when it looked like Russia would come in from the cold. But then ex-KGB agent Putin took over.
He has mounted a gigantic propaganda offensive. Unlike Soviet Communists, Putin has no pretensions of leading a worldwide ideological movement. Instead, it’s all about strengthening and expanding his raw power. Thus the cynical effort to delegitimize democracy and liberal Western culture as decadent and corrupt in contrast to a Russia that’s strong and moral. Putin knows the USSR fell partly because its inhabitants realized its system stank compared to ours. That’s what he’s trying to combat.
And not only are Russians falling for it – many in the West also buy the notion that there’s something more admirable in Putinism than in our own societies. Trump compares the Russian tyrant favorably against Obama. Reportedly, 37% of Republicans now admire Putin. They see him as a “strong leader.” America’s alt-right in particular embraces Putin as a kind of cult hero, the antithesis of our own culture going squishy soft.
This is deeply sick. Putin is a thug who rules by theft, lies, repression, silencing and jailing critics, and, in a lot of cases, murdering them. Russia is not admirable or moral. Putin runs it like Al Capone ran Chicago.
His invasion of Ukraine and Crimea – propelled by a huge propaganda blitz of disinformation and lies – was aimed mainly at stoking Russian nationalism, to distract his people from his regime’s criminality and the economic dysfunction resulting therefrom. (Aggravated by Western sanctions.) Putin gambled that guns would trump butter in Russians’ eyes, and seems to be right. But he’d like impunity for his military aggressions, and to that end has been meddling in European and U.S. politics.
Trump has made noises about removing sanctions, and getting along better with Russia, which really means going along with Russia. And more broadly, the Kremlin would prefer a blundering ignoramus leading its chief adversary nation. Plenty of reasons why Putin sought a Trump victory.
Now we see yet another one. While the Kremlin tried to smear Hillary Clinton, it was never credible to imagine they had no dirt on Trump who is, after all, orders of magnitude filthier. That they were holding it back makes perfect sense – not only because they wanted him to win, but also to blackmail him afterwards. Trump’s denials are about as credible as his denial that he was ever a pussy grabber. His bashing intelligence agencies for leaking this new information is also phony, because in fact it was leaked by private organizations, not any intelligence services. Meanwhile, some authoritative analysts are saying the details are totally consistent with the way the Russians operate.
Putin’s meddling to help Trump may actually have been the most successful such covert scheme in history. For all his ludicrous talk of an “historic landslide,” Trump won only thanks to razor-thin margins in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It’s hardly far-fetched to think the Russians harmed Clinton’s campaign at least enough to flip those three. The most serious attack upon our democracy ever.
The Russians have used disinformation for a long time. Our healthy body politic had an immune system that resisted the virus. 
This time that immune system didn’t kick in – our immune system against not only Kremlin foul play but against every other bad thing Pussy Grabber embodies. That we elected such a vile creep, exactly as Russia wanted – and most Americans just shrug their shoulders – shows that America today is one sick puppy.
The Rational Optimist 
January 13, 2017 at 7:08 pm
I have to disagree; the neoliberal west IS corrupt; The Uk, for example has been degraded hugely since 1997- much of the infamous Frankfurt School agenda of Marcuse and others has been embedded in our society; multiculturalism has been foisted on us with no mandate to do so. We are in spiral of decline, morally.
January 13, 2017 at 8:38 pm
As usual the RO has the more convincing argument in that it makes sense though still much based on conjecture. The sweeping statements from “david” smack of some underlying personal grievance best dealt with privately. I would say that multiculturalism as it has developed in the UK is actually a sign of moral progress along with other changes that have liberated women and people identifying themselves within the LGBT community. All generations complain about morality disappearing and it never does, but values and customs keep changing which some mistake as creeping decadence.
January 13, 2017 at 9:59 pm
We have seen the attack on the traditional family, the assault on the Christian faith, the the loss of morality with the ever wider spread of (tolerated) pornography, the arrival of alcohol consumption on a truly industrial scale, and indeed the implementation of the main goals of the Frankfurt School as below, the attack on nationalism and the aim of removing sovereignty of nation states… Further evidence of the abrasive implementation of “New Normal” is evidenced by the almost “overnight” legalisation of same sex marriage across the globe after literal centuries during which it was disqualified. Right now, on the heels of that we are witnessing the emergence of a very large push on “gender identity” massively out of scale to the actual incidence of dysphoria ( acknowledged as around 3:100,000 of population). This,of course is another example of the drive of the tyranny of the minorities over the traditional norms accepted by the agreement of the democratic majority. Already the rumblings of “normal” are arising in the area of paedophilia which is gaining traction with “expert voices” as simply another “stop on the range of human sexuality”. Yes, degenerate and debased programmes are emerging. There is also the UN-EU attack on (western) national identity/nationalism in favour of Bloc arrangements and ultimately full globalisation. But do check for yourself how many of those main goals I refer to above have taken effect:
The creation of racism offences.
Continual change to create confusion
The teaching of sex and homosexuality to children
The undermining of schools’ and teachers’ authority
Huge immigration to destroy identity.
The promotion of excessive drinking
Emptying of churches
An unreliable legal system with bias against victims of crime
Dependency on the state or state benefits
Control and dumbing-down of media
Encouraging the breakdown of the family
January 14, 2017 at 10:38 am
Many of the trends David cites are viewed as positive developments by many people, including me.
January 14, 2017 at 12:28 pm
Too shy to specify?
January 14, 2017 at 12:36 pm
The RO view also omits a very important and relevant situation report that immediately followed the breakup of the Soviet Union and the breakdown of services to the people. What quite quickly emerged were some minds of quite liberal view who had planned to move to a social democratic platform but before they could gain strength Wall Street rapidly appeared with its plan to impose super-capitalism on the wreck of a country. That absurd plan allowed rip off and rip out of state assets to fast moving wealthy Russians who quickly became more wealthy while the old Stalinist bread queues returned leaving people in no doubt they had littel faith in Western style democracy. In short order the nationalist aims returned ( not unreasonably) since when they have moslty warmed to Putin since he is a Nationalist who puts his country first and resists the globalism goals of the Western neoliberals.