No, you missed my meaning. I could have inserted a reference to the US baseball season there rather than sanctions. What I was pointing out that trying to get anything coherent of Trump is close to impossible. Trying to translate that level of incoherence into Russian likely cause interpreters to have nervous breakdowns.
I never thought of it before but Putin may like the Magnitsky Act. It may help keep oligarchs’ assets in Russia.
While some sanctions are annoying Russia, the Nord Sea II in particular I think is a nasty pain in the butt, most of them are a bit like mosquito bites. The Russian agricultural industry prays nightly that Trump keeps the agricultural ones in place. They have done absolute wonders for the industry (and cost the EU billions in lost exports).
On the whole, US sanctions have the potential to aid Russia economically and diplomatically as much or more than they hurt Russia. I think I mentioned the Nord Sea II sanctions because they are really pissing a lot of Europeans, especially the Germans. Sergei Lavrov could have spent 10 years of hard diplomatic effort on Russia’s behalf without achieving what Trump managed with one signature.
Oh, no, Putin does not like the Magnitsky Act. Part of his retaliation was to end Americans adopting Russian babies. That is why Don Jr said his meeting with the Russians was about adoptions. Donald also said he and Putin talked about adoptions. It means they were talking about ending those sanctions.
Part of his retaliation was to end Americans adopting Russian babies.
Oh, of course. It would have nothing to do with a low birth rate in the Russian Federation plus the fact that Putin is a Russian nationalist and might not want to see Russian babies raised outside their country, culture and religion?
Donald also said he and Putin talked about adoptions. It means they were talking about ending those sanctions.
Well Donald lies automatically but saying he spoke about adoptions must mean he was talking about sanctions stretches my credulity. He could well have been trying to get Putin to stay in Trump Towers the next time he was in New York for a UN meeting.
Oh, and Don Jr. is so dumb he would believe anything or say anything if it was suggested to him.
Are you kidding? If there’s one thing that every Russia expert – pro- and anti-Putin – says has gotten under Putin’s skin, it’s the various Magnitsky laws (not only the U.S.'s). Browder is his number 1 enemy in the West for a reason, and the only reason he hasn’t killed him is because that would be too obvious even for the Shirtless Wonder.
Putin has firm control over his pet oligarchs already, what with his various gangster tactics (everything from confiscating their money and businesses domestically to polonium cocktails) if they displease him. He also doesn’t need their (really his regime’s) ability to buy foreign politicians and elections impeded by the West, and he knows the kleptocrats get restless if they can’t buy real estate and other goodies outside Russia.
If you’re talking about the halt to work on the Nord Stream II pipeline, it was almost complete when the sanctions went into place. So while it’s a small temporary annoyance for Putin (who knows it will be completed eventually), the trade-off is a wedge driven between the EU and the U.S. Russia will still get the natural gas income from Europe – they’ll just have to pay Ukraine and keep a lid on their expansionist shenanigans in Donbass for a few more years.
If Putin wants to realise Dugin’s dream of the self-sufficient russkiy mir, good for him. The EU will find other markets for its commodities, goods and services and will still gets its natural gas from , while Russian citizens will get to enjoy the Russian versions (world famous for their superior quality!).
I’m willing to see how that plays out. Even at the cost of a split between the EU and the U.S., they keep Russia economically and diplomatically isolated.
That’s the whole point: Lavrov didn’t have to put in that effort because his boss already had Il Douche in his pocket and because Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election helped* get him into the White House. To pretend that Putin is shocked and dismayed by Biff’s erratic behaviour is about as convincing as pretending that Putin likes Western sanctions – it’s almost insulting to the ex-KGB thug.
[* noted the word “helped”, indicating that I am not arguing that the hacking and the social media disinfo campaigns alone were responsible for the debacle]
It can be both. Putin ends up throwing red meat to his ultra-nationalist and religious fundie Know-Nothing followers at home while also causing pain for some Americans.
The ban on adoptions was almost explicitly a retaliatory move in response to the Magnitsky Act. It’s more of a stretch to say that the shady discussions about ending the Dima Yakovlev law were completely unrelated to lifting sanctions, but it wouldn’t be the only stretch you’ve made here.
Drump said he was jealous of the Gestapo’s cool outfits,
and Put-in said that if Drump was good, he’d get him what ever kind of “big boy” uniform he’d like.
Most likely, hemorrhoidal treatments that work.
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