‘Too Big to Fail’: Russia-gate One Year After VIPS Showed a Leak, Not a Hack

gaiusmarius said:

thats why Trump admin has:

issued 213 different sanctions against Russia.
expelled 60 Russian diplomats.
closed Russian consulate in Seattle.
closed the Russian consulate in San Francisco.
cutting Russian diplomatic staff by 70%.
ran 150 military excersize in 1 year alone in Europe and right up to the Russian border.
supplied massive arms shipments to Ukraine multiple times.
supplied Arms to Georgia.
supplied another 200 million in cash to Ukraine. let alone getting the imf to keep paying despite it being against the imf rules to fund countries at war.
bombed and killed 150 Russian mercs in Syria while acting as terrorist air suport.
raced the Syrian government to occupy the oil in Syria when the Seige of Deir Ezzour against isis was finally broken by the SSA and Russian air power.
created a safe zone for separatists and terrorist in the 55km exclusion zone around US occupied al Tanf base.
acted as the air force of isis and al qaida against the SSA on a number of occasions killing hundreds of Syrian Arab Army soldiers.

leaving the abm and now inf treaty unilaterally.

thats just a part of all the negative steps the US has taken against Russia since Trump came to be president.

so why have we not seen the pee tape?

edited to add:

putting sanctions on China for buying Russian S-400
threatened Turkey with sanctions if the buy the Russian S-400
threatening India with sanctions for buying the S-400
threatening Saudi Arabia for ordering the S-400

all this stuff has really hurt Russia from every level. so what exactly has Trump done for Putin and Russia, oh yeah he said we should have better relations. great deal for Putin, lol. the guy pointing nukes at him from every direction and doing everything he can to hurt him, says, hey we should have better relations...

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Gry said:

It has long been said that DC is a place were unintentional accidents seldom happen.

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beta said:

Minus the Syria related stuff virtually everything you've mentioned was put in place or enacted by the Obama admin or Congress.

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gaiusmarius said:

sorry, thats not correct, that list is from since Trump. Obama didnt close any consulates, he didnt expel the 60 diplomats, thats from Skripal, the Ukranazi support is also recent. the sanctions orders are the ones implemented since Trump. which part of the list was under Obama? literally none of it. Obama had his own sanctions on Russia for Ukraine, he also expelled some few Russian diplomats and also supported Ukraine, but not with weapons. but the ones in my list do not include Obama era events.

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"The United States expelled 35 Russian diplomats and closed two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland in response to a campaign of harassment against American diplomats in Moscow, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

The move against the diplomats from the Russian embassy in Washington and consulate in San Francisco is part of a series of actions announced on Thursday to punish Russia for a campaign of intimidation of American diplomats in Moscow and interference in the U.S. election.

The Obama administration was also announcing on Thursday a series of retaliatory measures against Russia for hacking into U.S. political institutions and individuals and leaking information to help President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, two U.S. officials said.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called for better relations with Russia. It was not clear if he will be able to immediately overturn the measures announced on Thursday."

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"The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it intends to lift sanctions against the business empire of Oleg V. Deripaska, one of Russia’s most influential oligarchs"

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President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladi*mir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

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beta said:

Ok, guy.


Obama expels 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation for US election hacking

"Trump wants to ‘move on’ but says he will meet intelligence officials"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/29/barack-obama-sanctions-russia-election-hack

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Congress voted almost unanimously to pass a bill last year that punished Russia for its alleged meddling in the 2016 US election and aggression in east Ukraine.

Mr Trump, who wanted warmer ties with Moscow and had opposed the legislation as it worked its way through Congress, signed it reluctantly in August, branding the bill “seriously flawed”.

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beta said:

Ok, guy.


Obama expels 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation for US election hacking

"Trump wants to ‘move on’ but says he will meet intelligence officials"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/29/barack-obama-sanctions-russia-election-hack

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beta said:

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-bar...n-russian-hacking-donald-trump-hillary-536984

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beta said:

Trump Administration to Lift Sanctions on Russian Oligarch’s Companies



https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/sanctions-oleg-deripaska-russia-trump.html

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beta said:

Trump has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in administration


https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html

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beta said:

Trump refuses to impose new Russia sanctions despite law passed by US Congress over election hacking



https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...king-intervention-putin-kremlin-a8184866.html

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gaiusmarius said:

this is actually fake news, he didnt refuse to sign it, he just said he didnt think it was a good idea. he was trying to better relations again after all.

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The Trump administration shocked Washington when it refused to implement new, legally mandated sanctions against Russia in January. The White House claimed there was no need for new sanctions, because the law itself was already deterring those considering doing business with Russia. Yet, since then, not only did a U.S. grand jury indict 13 Russians for fraud and other charges, but the U.S. intelligence community unanimously told Congress that Russia hasn’t stopped interfering in American democracy. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats even testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that the “United States is under attack.” Despite this, the Trump administration continues to stick to its claim that the situation requires no additional sanctions. This is worse than doing nothing.

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President Trump won't be implementing Russia sanctions that Congress basically forced him to sign into law this year. It's unclear whether Trump is breaking the law in his decision, but legal experts say he'll probably never have to implement them if he doesn't want to. Congress doesn't have a lot of viable options to force the president's hand on foreign policy — other than incredibly confrontational ones such as suing or impeaching him.

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beta said:

The article does not say he refused to sign it, it says he refused to implement the sanctions, and that's a stone cold fact. Congress passed the sanctions with a veto proof majority, he had no choice but to sign. After he signed it, he refused to implement it.

Trump administration holds off on new Russia sanctions, despite law

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ew-russia-sanctions-despite-law-idUSKBN1FI2V7

Trump’s Attitude Toward Russia Sanctions Makes a Mockery of the United States



https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/0...nctions-makes-a-mockery-of-the-united-states/

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gaiusmarius said:

hm, the timing seems weird, hasn't the Trump admin implemented lots of new sanctions since those congressional ones? strange that he wouldn't implement some and declare others.

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gaiusmarius said:

the other point is that this isn't a new situations, both Obama and Bush in their time refused to implement congressional sanctions.

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I dare anyone to make an argument for how Trump's secrecy about his meetings with Putin serve American national security interests. Give it your best shot.

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beta said:

No, he has not. The Trump administration has not willingly enacted any sanctions against Russia.

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beta said:

No, they didn't.

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