NYT The Russians Were Involved. But It Wasn’t About Collusion

[volsrock]

The evidence that has emerged from this meeting strongly suggests that this was not an effort to establish a secure back channel for collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign but an influence operation with one simple objective: to undermine the presidential election.

Sophisticated Russian intelligence tradecraft that was meant to be kept secret would not have permitted such an insecure opening gambit for establishing continuing communication with the Trump campaign. They would not have used something as insecure as email, or relied on liaison cutouts who could so easily be traced to the Kremlin. Instead, the Russians who attended the meeting had obvious Kremlin ties, including Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Moscow lawyer who has done work on behalf of the F.S.B.; Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist who served in the Soviet military; and Mr. Agalarov, whose father is a real estate titan close to Mr. Putin.

I can’t say how news of the meeting broke, but once it did, Mr. Putin achieved one of his goals: throwing the American government into greater turmoil amid the frenzied media coverage, escalating F.B.I. and congressional investigations and intensified political conflict. And with the revelation that Russia was behind the meddling, Mr. Putin achieved another objective: to allow Russia, despite its economic and military inferiority, to claim that it could rival the United States on the global playing field. He could do all this while denying, with a wink and a nod, any involvement.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/...ol-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-regi


Now that the spotlight has turned to GPS Fusion being paid by Democrats to collude with Russians against Trump, the NYT proclaims that “collusion” is so yesterday. Now that the trail of evidence of Russian collusion is pointing to the Democrats instead of President Trump, they want to drop the whole subject.

NYT is running for the reputation lifeboats. I think they finally realize this whole thing is going to explode and a lot of Democrats are headed toward the unemployment line if they don’t wind up in jail.

 

[Hawkeye10]

The evidence that has emerged from this meeting strongly suggests that this was not an effort to establish a secure back channel for collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign but an influence operation with one simple objective: to undermine the presidential election.

Sophisticated Russian intelligence tradecraft that was meant to be kept secret would not have permitted such an insecure opening gambit for establishing continuing communication with the Trump campaign. They would not have used something as insecure as email, or relied on liaison cutouts who could so easily be traced to the Kremlin. Instead, the Russians who attended the meeting had obvious Kremlin ties, including Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Moscow lawyer who has done work on behalf of the F.S.B.; Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist who served in the Soviet military; and Mr. Agalarov, whose father is a real estate titan close to Mr. Putin.

I can’t say how news of the meeting broke, but once it did, Mr. Putin achieved one of his goals: throwing the American government into greater turmoil amid the frenzied media coverage, escalating F.B.I. and congressional investigations and intensified political conflict. And with the revelation that Russia was behind the meddling, Mr. Putin achieved another objective: to allow Russia, despite its economic and military inferiority, to claim that it could rival the United States on the global playing field. He could do all this while denying, with a wink and a nod, any involvement.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/...ol-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-regi


Now that the spotlight has turned to GPS Fusion being paid by Democrats to collude with Russians against Trump, the NYT proclaims that “collusion” is so yesterday. Now that the trail of evidence of Russian collusion is pointing to the Democrats instead of President Trump, they want to drop the whole subject.

NYT is running for the reputation lifeboats. I think they finally realize this whole thing is going to explode and a lot of Democrats are headed toward the unemployment line if they don’t wind up in jail.

These idiots were told last Nov that the way to save themselves was to get back to journalism.

They went the other way.

Now they pay.

 

[Risky Thicket]

The evidence that has emerged from this meeting strongly suggests that this was not an effort to establish a secure back channel for collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign but an influence operation with one simple objective: to undermine the presidential election.

Sophisticated Russian intelligence tradecraft that was meant to be kept secret would not have permitted such an insecure opening gambit for establishing continuing communication with the Trump campaign. They would not have used something as insecure as email, or relied on liaison cutouts who could so easily be traced to the Kremlin. Instead, the Russians who attended the meeting had obvious Kremlin ties, including Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Moscow lawyer who has done work on behalf of the F.S.B.; Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist who served in the Soviet military; and Mr. Agalarov, whose father is a real estate titan close to Mr. Putin.

I can’t say how news of the meeting broke, but once it did, Mr. Putin achieved one of his goals: throwing the American government into greater turmoil amid the frenzied media coverage, escalating F.B.I. and congressional investigations and intensified political conflict. And with the revelation that Russia was behind the meddling, Mr. Putin achieved another objective: to allow Russia, despite its economic and military inferiority, to claim that it could rival the United States on the global playing field. He could do all this while denying, with a wink and a nod, any involvement.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/...ol-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-regi


Now that the spotlight has turned to GPS Fusion being paid by Democrats to collude with Russians against Trump, the NYT proclaims that “collusion” is so yesterday. Now that the trail of evidence of Russian collusion is pointing to the Democrats instead of President Trump, they want to drop the whole subject.

NYT is running for the reputation lifeboats. I think they finally realize this whole thing is going to explode and a lot of Democrats are headed toward the unemployment line if they don’t wind up in jail.

Your post is misleading. Most of the your OP is a quote, which you failed to indicate. In addition the article in the OP is an opinion piece. It is not a news story. Finally, the article in the OP did not draw any lines to GPS Fusion and "Democrats rather than President Trump."

It would not surprise me to find that the Kremlin also attempted and maybe even succeeded in reaching out to Democrats in an attempt to compromise them if needed.

Starry eyed partisans apparently cannot be objective. The very idea that somehow members of one party are genetically superior and morally and ethically exceptional is ridiculous.

Hopefully the Mueller investigation will remain fully supported and unfettered until truth is determined and reported. Who knows what will crawl out from under rocks uncovered? I suspect that it will be discovered that the Kremlin was and is an equal opportunity enemy.

Russia views the United States, their adversary, as a nation. It defies logic to assume that the Kremlin would attempt to be any less aggressive against Republicans than Democrats. Russia has/would/will follow the paths most productive and most available to them at any particular time.

Many US partisans on the other hand now view America not as a nation but as political factions. The Kremlin plays that to full advantage. They've done well with that game plan and it remains a distinct advantage for the Kremlin as it is a very effective wedge between partisan Democrats and Republicans.

 

[SonOfDaedalus]

Conservatives seem to forget that Putin hates Hillary Clinton. He would never help the Democrats because of his hatred for Hillary.

Why does he hate Hillary?

Hillary openly claimed that Putin's elections were rigged. The Russian opposition to Putin used Hillary's words in their campaign. Putin's power was in real peril because of Hillary's comments.

In December 2011, Vladimir Putin came closer than he's ever been to losing his hold on power. His decision that year to run for a third term as Russia’s President had inspired a massive protest movement against him. Demonstrations calling for him to resign were attracting hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Some of his closest allies had defected to the opposition, causing a split in the Kremlin elites, and Russian state media had begun to warn of a revolution in the making.

At a crisis meeting with his advisers on Dec. 8 of that year, the Russian leader chose to lay the blame on one meddling foreign diplomat: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"She set the tone for certain actors inside the country; she gave the signal," Putin said of Clinton at the time, accusing her of ordering the opposition movement into action like some kind of revolutionary sleeper cell. "They heard this signal and, with the support of the U.S. State Department, started actively doing their work."

Hillary Clinton: Why Vladimir Putin Has a Grudge Against Her | Time.com

I hope this puts this desperate conservative attempt to admit to collusion and then claim Democrats colluded too. There is no way in hell Putin would help Hillary. He hates her. He loves that he helped Trump and screwed over Hillary.

The other thing to keep in mind is Trump's extensive business connections with Russians BEFORE the election. Some of these connections may involve money laundering. Surely, any rational person Republican or Democrat, would at least investigate to see if Russians could have compromising information (Kompromat) about Trump's business dealings, right?

Let Mueller complete his investigation. If you love America you want to know the truth.

 

[Tanngrisnir]

The evidence that has emerged from this meeting strongly suggests that this was not an effort to establish a secure back channel for collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign but an influence operation with one simple objective: to undermine the presidential election.

Sophisticated Russian intelligence tradecraft that was meant to be kept secret would not have permitted such an insecure opening gambit for establishing continuing communication with the Trump campaign. They would not have used something as insecure as email, or relied on liaison cutouts who could so easily be traced to the Kremlin. Instead, the Russians who attended the meeting had obvious Kremlin ties, including Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Moscow lawyer who has done work on behalf of the F.S.B.; Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist who served in the Soviet military; and Mr. Agalarov, whose father is a real estate titan close to Mr. Putin.

I can’t say how news of the meeting broke, but once it did, Mr. Putin achieved one of his goals: throwing the American government into greater turmoil amid the frenzied media coverage, escalating F.B.I. and congressional investigations and intensified political conflict. And with the revelation that Russia was behind the meddling, Mr. Putin achieved another objective: to allow Russia, despite its economic and military inferiority, to claim that it could rival the United States on the global playing field. He could do all this while denying, with a wink and a nod, any involvement.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/...ol-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-regi


Now that the spotlight has turned to GPS Fusion being paid by Democrats to collude with Russians against Trump, the NYT proclaims that “collusion” is so yesterday. Now that the trail of evidence of Russian collusion is pointing to the Democrats instead of President Trump, they want to drop the whole subject.

NYT is running for the reputation lifeboats. I think they finally realize this whole thing is going to explode and a lot of Democrats are headed toward the unemployment line if they don’t wind up in jail.

Yawn. The only people running for the lifeboats are the numerous administration officials who are deserting Ship Trump like rats.

The NYT is doing just fine. That that fact frustrates you to no end is really rather delicious.