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01 JUN
By aligning himself with Trump, Putin may not be the genius everyone thinks he is
Vladimir Putin may well have played himself. By blatantly intervening in a US presidential election, he has greatly increased his notoriety, which is no small thing. In doing so, he might have awakened a sleeping giant.
Like the proverbial dog chasing after a car, Putin has long tried to interfere in the political life of rival countries whether by seeking to buy off politicians or by using clumsily designed disinformation campaigns to move the discourse in a more pro-Putin direction.
Though a victory by Donald Trump in 2016 might have seemed unlikely, Putin presumably thought it would be worth his while to take Hillary Clinton down a peg or two regardless of the outcome of the election. When Trump actually won, well, the dog finally caught the car. So, how well has Putin’s maneuvering worked out for him and for Russia?
To many, the answer is obvious: This has been an absurdly successful gambit. There is a widespread fear in Europe that the Trump presidency has already damaged NATO, which in turn has created an enormous opportunity for Putin’s Russia. This is not at all a ridiculous notion. As someone who has long believed that the US ought to increase its defense budget to counter the Russian threat, I take it very seriously.
But let’s consider the possibility that Putin has made a terrible mistake.
Just a few years ago, Mitt Romney was widely ridiculed for claiming that Russia was America’s chief geopolitical adversary. The notion that the US ought to redouble its efforts to counter Russian aggression and to shore up the NATO alliance was seen by many as an anachronism—a throwback to Cold War–era thinking that had no place in the 21st century.
Lamar Salter
During his first term as president, Barack Obama sought to “reset” relations with Putin’s Russia by, among other things, dropping plans to deploy a missile defense shield to protect US allies in Eastern Europe and agreeing to an arms control agreement that was frankly a much better deal for Russia than it was for the US.
At a summit in Seoul in March 2012, in an exchange not intended for public consumption, Obama assured his Russian counterpart, then-President Dmitry Medvedev, that he might be willing to go even further in accommodating Russia’s interests, but that he needed some breathing room as he ran for his second term.
“This is my last election,” Obama explained. “After my election, I have more flexibility.”
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Vladimir Putin may well have played himself. By blatantly intervening in a US presidential election, he has greatly increased his notoriety, which is no small thing. In doing so, he might have awakened a sleeping giant.
Lamar Salter
