The Club of Like-Minded Thinkers

It so happens that in the current uneasy political climate, Donald Trump’s fate and place in history have turned out to be largely linked to Russia. Moreover, we can say without histrionics or exaggeration that whether the West’s hysteria progresses or declines depends on whether Trump will be able to stick it out in the fight against his many enemies.

The so-called deep state, which controls many levers of government and has the support of an overwhelming majority of the mainstream media, hasn’t halted its efforts to overthrow Trump and is using the factor of a mythical Russian threat to do so.

The level of the demonization of Russia has reached astronomical heights. It seems there aren’t any problems left in the world in which its hand isn’t found. And the trail in the latest grandiose scandal over the poisoning of the Skripals likewise leads to the Kremlin cabinet.

And even after the British laboratory at Porton Down was unable to determine where the nerve agent came from and the British Foreign Ministry stated it had decided on the basis of mere suspicions that Russia was supposedly guilty of poisoning the British intelligence agent and his daughter, the anti-Russian flywheel can’t be reversed.

Any sane person understands that under no circumstances would Putin give an order to do away with Skripal. Yet it’s useless to try to explain or prove anything to those who are whipping up the scandal. After all, their aim lies elsewhere – in adding this incident to the past list of fabricated and unproven allegations against Russia.

Even so, there are enough people in the U.S. who think like Trump. I intentionally avoid using the word “friends,” because in the current hypertoxic atmosphere, few will dare call themselves that. They’re the ones who voted for Trump because he promised to end Bush and Obama’s wars in the Middle East and to establish friendly and mutually beneficial relations with Moscow. These people also share the idea Trump expressed in one of his tweets that “only haters and fools” don’t understand that such relations are good for America.

But it’s clear that Trump isn’t Hercules, capable of moving mountains to reach his goals. He’s forced to make compromises and he makes mistakes. But it seems to me that he hasn’t yet given up on the idea of rapprochement with Russia.

Now the deep state, as well as The New York Times and The Washington Post which serve them, are indignant over the fact that Trump isn’t stooping to tough rhetoric and direct insults toward Vladimir Putin, and they’re demanding additional anti-Russian sanctions. For his part, the head of the White House continues to seek an opportunity for dialogue and openly speaks about it.

It would seem that his recent cabinet reshuffle contradicts these ideas, since National Security Advisor John Bolton, Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo, and NSA Director and Commander of U.S. Army Cyber Command Paul Nakasone are known for their sharply critical views of Russia.

But they’ve all already made statements to the effect that their former positions and views shouldn’t be taken into account because now their task is strictly to carry out the president’s orders.

As far as Russia is concerned, it may continue sending signals to Trump and to all Americans about its desire to find the quickest way out of this crisis situation with the help of sensible compromises and without infringing on the national interests of either country.

It’s clear that Trump and his enemies’ notions about national interests differ significantly, but after all, he won the election, and hence can rely on support from a significant part of his base. At the same time, the approval rating of Congress, the vast majority of which reflects the interests of the “Washington swamp,” has fallen to a record low of 15 percent.

In conclusion, I’ll take the liberty of expressing the idea that it would be better to hold the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin in Vienna rather than in Washington. As we all know, the young Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has taken a respectable and neutral position in the current conflict and would help create a calmer atmosphere for negotiations.