Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 8 – Nina Khrushcheva,
the great-granddaughter of the Soviet leader who was ousted from power for his “hare-brained
schemes,” says that the affection for Putin incoming US president Donald Trump
and his associates feel “is not the result of brainwashing if one doesn’t
consider a love for money a form of that.”
But Khrushcheva, a scholar at the
New School in New York, says that what is likely to happen with the Trump
administration is likely to turn out “more unbelievable” than Hollywood films
like “The Manchurian Candidate” and to end even more badly than did that movie (news.join.ua/1001156-nina-hrushheva-kak-zakonchitsja-istorija-donalda-trampa/).
The “Kremlinphilia” of Trump and his
entourage is “obviously anti-American,” she says, as was the president elect’s
decision to condemn the American intelligence agencies and support Vladimir
Putin on the issue of Russian hacking. Indeed, such a preference is both “remarkable
and dangerous.” Trump’s pro-Moscow stance is one of the few thing he has been
constant about.
Trump’s selections of key aides
makes all this even more disturbing, Khrushcheva says. His candidate for secretary of state has been
much involved with Russia for many years, sought to undermine the US sanctions
regime imposed after Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine, and to this day “is
proud of his status as ‘Vladimir’s friend.’”
And his selection of Michael Flynn
as national security advisor is also worrisome. After he was dismissed by Barack
Obama as head of DIA for “incompetence,” Flynn “immediately began to develop
business ties with Russians, and Putin it appears was glad to provide [him]
with these contacts.”
Trump personally has had many
business dealings with Russia because for him “money doesn’t smell,” as the
Russians say, wherever it comes from.
And those dealings appear to be one of the reasons why he hasn’t, in
violation of US precedent, released his tax returns so that all this could be
confirmed.
But “Trump’s adoration of Russia –
or more precisely Russian wealth –“ Khrushcheva continues, “was obvious long
before the elections as was his habit of surrounding himself with advisors
supporting the very same views,” as the case of Paul Manafort shows, someone
Trump fired only when his corrupt dealings with a Putin agent became too
obvious for comfort.
According to Khrushcheva, Americans
should be asking “three important questions” before Trump takes the oath of
office on January 20th.
First, what should be done “if the FBI finds evidence of criminal behavior”
by the new president or if Trump tries to block investigations into the links
he and his people have with Russia?
Second, how close are the
relationships between Trump’s candidate for secretary of state and Russian
oligarchs like Igor Sechin and others close to Putin. And third – and this, Khrushcheva says, is “the
most important question,” are Americans “ready to accept a president who
condemns people who risk their lives in the defense of the US but praises and
defends Putin and his clique?”
At the end of “The Manchurian
Candidate,” the US-based Russian scholar
says, one character, played by Frank Sinatra, manages to “free himself from his
programming and disrupts the conspiracy of the communists.” That of course was Hollywood in the Cold War
where “the good guys won.”
Unfortunately, it isn’t likely that “a
frim about trump will have such an optimistic ending.”
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