Putin: The Puppet Master

Putin surveyed his opponents.  Clinton (Slick Willy) looked Teflon coated.  He could go to Moscow, have the Russians pay him a half a million for a 30-minute speech, yet stir up very little controversy.  He had the media in his hip pocket.  But, his two terms were up.  Putin would now face new American contenders.

Hillary at first glance seemed much the same as her husband.  She got America to slip him 20% of their uranium reserves via a Canadian cutout.  And, again, she managed  this with minimal hullabaloo in the American media.  But, Putin saw something ruthless in her manner and felt she might not be such a great president from a Russian point of view.  Reducing her chances for the presidency proved easy.  Her arrogance made her blind to Russian cyber capabilities.  She observed no caution and disregarded proper cyber practices leaving vulnerable her emails and her server.  For Putin she proved to be an easy mark.

With Obama, Putin could take a nap.  Obama was a nothing.  He led from behind in Libya.  He hobbled his military in Syria and Iraq.  He gave the store away to Iran.  Putin figured, let Obama do what Obama does best; namely, alienate his country's true allies and reward America's enemies.

Trump was a puzzle.  At first glance, Trump looked like some kind of nut.  The far left would have been best for him, thought Putin.  They would have hollowed out the US economically.  But, this weird new guy seemed to have managed to build an important following.  Who could guess that he would become the next president?  But, was he going to be good for Russia?  Trump's initial remarks suggested that he might work out fairly well for Russia.

But then things happened.  It was not what Trump said, but rather what happened in real time.  First there were the guys Trump picked to head the military.  Putin had a thick dossier on Gen. Mattis.  From a Russian point of view, it didn't read well.  Second, when Bashar Assad, the man Russia decided to make one of their own, dropped poison gas on his people, Trump's people fired rockets on the air field from which Assad had launched those attacks.  Trump had never mentioned "red lines," except in a nebulous sort of way.  But, here he was, pounding his Russian buddy's air field.  And, then when forces allied with Russia's moved eastward in a direction that would soon have them confronting American backed forces, Trump's planes blasted the crap out of Russia's friends.  It stopped them dead in their tracks.  It was becoming clear that this guy, Trump, was likely to become a much bigger headache than Putin had anticipated.  It was time to put some moves on Trump.

Lack of experience in the Trump political camp made this easier than it should have been.  Putin got one of his agents, a Russian lawyer admitted into the U.S. by the Obama administration, to set up a meeting with Bannon and the Trump kids.  The purpose of the meeting was to share some dirt with the Trump people about the Democrats.  Putin's agent had no intention of doing this.  The whole thing was set up simply to create bad optics for Trump.  Americans would now see Trump people colluding with the Russians.  It went off like clockwork.  The Democrats and their friends in the press jumped on this "nothing" meeting and worked it for all it was worth.

Putin's gambit worked.  But it would also show Trump a thing or two.  First, Steve Bannon was, supposedly, a professional political operative.  He should never have let this meeting happen.  Then there's Donald Trump Jr., who is clearly wet behind the ears.  Expressing his glee at the possibilities of getting dirt on the Democrats in an email was childish.  Kushner got roped into this nonsense too.  But, unlike the others, he quickly saw what was happening and promptly left.

To sum up -- and you won't hear it from either the Democrats nor from the Trump camp -- this was a learning experience for the Trump camp.  A painful one, but one that did it no real harm.  They'll learn.