Agent of Influence

22 August 2016

Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Manafort's Departure Doesn't Rid Trump Campaign of Russian Ties

Paul Manafort involuntarily resigned as the chairman of the Trump campaign Friday afternoon. He replaced Corey Lewandowski and was suppose to be the guy who got Mr. Trump on message and to behave in a more presidential fashion. Instead, his watch saw Mr. Trump's polls numbers decline, and insiders say Mr. Trump felt controlled by people who didn't know him. On Wednesday, propaganda site Breitbart's boss Stephen Bannon and long-time associate and Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway took on many of his responsibilities. Mr. Manafort's close relationship to Russia was cited as a pretext for his removal, but the fact is his sacking leaves behind a pro-Putin Republican nominee.

Mr. Manafort's ties to Russia go through Ukraine, where he help the pro-Moscow candidate and president Viktor Yanukovych, who was forced out of office and out of the country by street protests on a massive scale. Records show Mr. Manafort received more than $12 million in cash for his efforts. Whether he is still collecting funds from any source tied to Moscow is uncertain.

He served a very important function for Mr. Trump, managing the convention. This included the drafting and passage of the Republican Party's platform for 2016. Last month, the Washington Post reported "The Trump campaign worked behind the scenes last week to make sure the new Republican platform won't call for giving weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces, contradicting the view of almost all Republican foreign policy leaders in Washington."

Essentially, a Ted Cruz delegate offered an amendment on Ukraine that, according to the Post called for maintaining or increasing sanctions against Russia, increasing aid for Ukraine and "providing lethal defensive weapons" to the Ukrainian military. "Today, the post-Cold War ideal of a 'Europe whole and free' is being severely tested by Russia's ongoing military aggression in Ukraine," the amendment read. "The Ukrainian people deserve our admiration and support in their struggle."

Nothing remotely resembling weapons assistance survived the Trump campaign's amendments to the amendment. "This is another example of Trump being out of step with GOP leadership and the mainstream in a way that shows he would be dangerous for America and the world," said Rachel Hoff, another platform committee member who was in the room.

With Mr. Manafort gone, those who believe his pro-Russian views went with him are likely to be disappointed. Mr. Trump himself is pro-Putin, either deliberately or coincidentally. Julia Ioffe wrote in Politico, "For Putin, Trump is the gift that keeps on giving. Shunned and sanctioned by Western leaders for Russia's aggression in Ukraine, Putin now sees a future ally riding into view. The Kremlin and its right-wing supporters also enthusiastically applaud the isolationist they see in Trump, who has suggested he might curtail U.S. involvement in NATO and European affairs, and who derides the same political 'mainstream' that has deemed Putin a pariah."

Talking Points Memo points out what might lie at the roots of this. "At a minimum, Trump appears to have a deep financial dependence on Russian money from persons close to Putin. And this is matched to a conspicuous solicitousness to Russian foreign policy interests where they come into conflict with US policies which go back decades through administrations of both parties. There is also something between a non-trivial and a substantial amount of evidence suggesting Putin-backed financial support for Trump or a non-tacit alliance between the two men."

This journal believes that Russia needs to be brought in from the cold and woven into the fabric of Europe, but not so long as the nation is run by gangsters and ex-KGB men. Once a secret policeman, always a secret policeman. Mr. Trump remains pro-Putin, whether Mr. Manafort is part of the campaign or not. In the intelligence game, Mr. Trump is, be definition, an agent of influence benefitting Russia, or more specifically, benefitting Mr. Putin.

© Copyright 2016 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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