The Russian Debate

[Goatseye]

McDonaldsGuy said:

ArnoldRimmer said:

I find that whole "Russia tried to influence the POTUS election!" completetly ridiculous.

Did the russian government prefer one POTUS candidate? Probably. And maybe they really tried to influence the POTUS election in order to improve the chances of their preferred candidate to win.

This was in 2012:

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sauntered into American presidential politics on Thursday, praising President Obama as “a very honest man” and chastising the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, for describing Russia as “without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe.”
- The New York Times September 2012 archive.is/IsUS9

Putin literally said he favored Obama over Romney and NY Times said Putin was "sauntering into American presidential politics."

In 2012, Democrats were basically saying Russia was our BFFs.

That was before we knew about Russia were preparing to weaponize fake news to discredit democratic institutions in the US.
Before using Wikileaks was used as an arm of the GRU to mine US relationship with their allies.
Before Magnistky Act was passed to squeeze Putin's pals money laundering schemes.