“Aravot” newspaper interviewed well-known Russian journalist and publicist Ksenia Kirilova, who currently lives in San Francisco, on US Congress sanctions imposed on Russia, Iran and North Korea, Putin and Trump’s relationships and key issues of the US domestic politics.
–Ms. Kirilova in your opinion how would the new sanctions impact Russia?
–It should first of all be mentioned that these might be one of those sanctions that will seriously damage Kremlin’s economy. The majority of the experts unanimously claim that these sanctions can hinder the construction of “North Stream 2” and “Turkish Flow” gas pipelines. Besides, Russia is now actively engaged in oil production in Arctic and for that matter purchases the latest technologies from American and Canadian companies. The sanctions also imply a ban on the transfer of those technologies. Secondly: besides economic losses, the official Kremlin will also have “image” losses, as Russia appears in the same “evil axis” in which Iran and North Korea are. Thirdly: those sanctions show that several shifts have occurred in the US foreign policy that is the determination of American establishment to face Russian treat despite all of Trump’s attempts to get closer to Putin. We see that along with all of those attempts Trump had to sign that bill, though he did not even conceal his reluctance to do so, and called that law anti-constitutional. The US alliance against Russia is too obvious.
–The US lawmakers, as we know, are investigating the interference of Russia in the US presidential election. You communicate with the journalists, who do independent investigations. What can be said on that occasion?
– Kremlin really helped Trump with all its forces, it just becomes obvious when one looks at the correlation of benefits and losses of Russian authorities for Trump’s victory. For instance, the hacker attacks organized by Moscow were directed only against Democrats: Moscow propagandists even did nuclear blackmailing, stating that in case of Clinton’s victory a nuclear war would be inevitable. Russian propaganda also promoted Trump’s candidacy, and he, in his turn, actively perceived and accepted Russian help. He praised Putin every day, admired him, and led his agenda, even when it contradicted American interests. Let’s recall his appeal to Russian hackers to find Clinton’s “missing letters”. At that time the facts of negotiations between Russian authorities and Trump’s children and their teammates were not published, but the harmony of their actions was already evident. Immediately after the election, Trump criticized his own special services, denying their conclusions about Russian intervention in the US policy, and believing the hostile government more than his own investigation. That is, he was pushing Putin’s interests against his own country- against the US. It is an unprecedented event in the history of the United States. Then Trump’s wrath also reached the press: he called them “the enemies of the people.” Let me remind you that even Putin did not allow himself such kind of statements.
– Trump has repeatedly called fraudulent and humiliating the US-based investigation on the ties with Russia…
– However, his hysteria and personnel decisions are directly linked to certain phases of that investigation. Let us recall the dismissal of James Comey, the director of the FBI, from the office, the attempts to cease the investigation on Michael Flynn, the current mess in the White House. The influential American experts state that Trump’s attempts to get rid of the current Prosecutor General Seychelles are linked to the fact that after the publication of the fact of his negotiations with Russian ambassador, he undertook a commitment of not interfering in the investigation process. It is obvious that Trump needs someone who is able to interfere with the investigation which he so actively tries to hinder. But the main difference between the US and Russia is that here it is not that easy to break the independent law enforcement system and the free press. Despite Trump’s numerous threats against both the FBI and journalists, that investigation is in the process.
– Օnce Trump has written: “I have a great support, except for some of the Republican “leaders” …”. What is the real relationship between Trump and the Republicans?
– If we speak about the leaders, then I get some internal information from some of the Republican congressmen’ assistants or former assistants, according to which the leader himself actually “hates Trump more than he shows it”. They report that the party is in an intense battle over the issue of continuing to support to Trump. But, it is important to realize that despite their personal attitude towards the US president, the vast majority of the Republicans decided to use his demagogy in order to come to power and implement their own agenda, without refraining even from the enemy state help. However, as it often happens in history, the Republicans themselves have fallen into their own trap. Betting on Trump’s demagogy, they did not take into account that the situation can go beyond control. The thing is that Trump’s whole campaign is built on lies, on the constant misguidance of the reality (on so-called “alternative facts”), slandering any of his critics, insulting people, conspiracy theories, and making the opponent look like the beast, more precisely, is based on hatred. As a result, the “core” electorate of the Republicans currently accounts for 36-38% of the population, which has already gained immunity for any fact and protects Tramp, no matter what he does. The Republicans sometimes confess to me that even they do not what to do with those people. By the way, it reminds the Russian authorities’ confusion in 2014, when at a certain stage they were afraid that they would not be able to control the fanatical followers of Girkin and Motorslo. Let me emphasize that now this is not about all the people who voted for Tramp. Among them, there are also those who did it for economic reasons and are away from politics at the moment. I follow Pro-Democracy propaganda, those who defend and justify his current actions and regularly spread to Russian audiences slander against American institutions, investigation, law enforcement, courts, the media and individuals involved in the investigation. Moreover, such Trump supporters repeat the traditions of Russian propaganda: at the beginning, there goes the lie, the full rejection of the facts in the style “they are not here”.
And those who expose the lies, whether they are journalists, American special services or witnesses of actions of Trump and his surroundings, are a target to the slander. The propagators claim that this is all “fake-news” paid by Soros (compare with Russia, “paid by the CIA”), Democrats and Liberals, that is why they hate America, even though Trump critics are hidden Putin supporters. Then, under the weight of evidence, Trump and his associates have to admit that the accusations against them are justified, but that is none of their concern, and they do not apologize for any of their former accusations. This is again very similar to Russia, where the presence of Russian troops in Crimea was largely rejected, and then accepted as an obvious thing, and it did not cause any dissonance in the society. – And what motivates those who campaign in favor of Trump?- Trump supporters use all the types of slander that Russian propaganda uses as well. Those are the direct blackening of a person’s reputation and the unfounded charges against him. In a nutshell, a straight lie addressed to an individual. Typically, in the US people with real authority, such as James Comey and Robert Muller are being treated like that (by the way, these type of Republicans’ attacks on Comey and Muller occurred parallel with Russian media attacks and they were supported by Julian Assange).
It is both hatred and attribution of political views to people that they do not really pursue, such as the following: “Those who oppose Trump are leftists, they are socialists and so on, they are not patriots,” and so on. I see such low-level campaigners when they do not really like Trump, but share his hatred against the Democrats. Some of them knew very well about Trump and Russia’s connections, but they have deliberately gone against the truth in order to have the opportunity to humiliate and persecute only those who do not like it. Such people support Trump primarily because he has given them the chance to poison and slander the people whom they hate. Moreover, the slander is addressed to individuals as well as to all groups of society and to separate states. And again, this is very similar to the Russian unprincipled rule, “we are ready to kill others if it is beneficial to us.” Frankly speaking, it looks like a real betrayal to me. I have personal experience in refusing everything, everything I have achieved, which is dear and beloved to me because I could not go against the truth. For my own choice, I had to give up my own country, sacrifice even my own personal safety.
Meanwhile, Republicans, even those who realize what kind of damage Trump brings to the United States, are afraid to speak against Trump’s lie, even though they will not put their lives, their freedom or their possessions under the blow. They are not ready to give up Trump only for the sake of 36 percent of his followers, who created them themselves through their own propaganda. On the other hand, despite the fact that they are not ready to completely abandon Trump because they are afraid to lose support from his supporters, try to constrain Trump’s tricks. It is important to understand that even if the majority of the Republican elite supports Trump, the majority of the US citizens are against him. Consequently, they do not like the Republican Party, which brought Trump to power. That is why the fact of Putin fully supporting Trump, which is so obvious, primarily damages the Republicans. In the United States, the Republicans are already referred to as the “Putin’s Party”, “anti-American party,” “traitors,” and Trump, with his actions and expressions, always confirms those accusations. Most Republicans, though they do not like Trump, try to keep their face, show that they will not let another country interfere in their own country’s elections that are not actually bought by Putin. For them, this becomes a means of political survival. They do realize that the shade of Trump and Russia’s relationship falls on them. That is the reason why both the Republicans and the Democrats have a personal motive to punish Russia.
– And how will this situation affect the US domestic life?
– This situation in the United States is a fertile land for internal shakes. Struggling against the investigation on his ties with Russia, Trump tries to neutralize independent media, courts and the law enforcement system. The deceit and the hatred spread by him damages America not only by extremely dividing the American society but also by bringing the moral degradation of the “Trump Minority”, raising abnormal behavior in their eyes to the degree of normal. This problem may continue for decades. Of course, there is also a great deal of damage to the US national security and US rating on international platforms. As Yuri Feldshinsky correctly noticed, Trump has not said anything bad about Putin so far and has not even reacted to the fact that 700 diplomats left Russia by Putin’s decision. All that is happening is an unprecedented humiliation in the American history. On the other hand, in the context of the United States foreign policy, as Andrei Piontkovsky and Lilia Shevtsova point out, the Kremlin’s “victory” has led to a foreign political defeat, as I have already mentioned that both the Republicans and Democrats are personally opposed to Moscow. The Democrats are offended by Russia, as the latter brought their opponents Trump to power, and the Republicans hate Russia because it damages their image. Hence, they are trying to stay away from the fact that they are tied to Russia. This explains the shocking unity of the Congressmen, which they displayed when accepting sanctions against Russia. And, apparently, this will not be the only one from the measures being taken. Besides, it should not be forgotten that Pentagon is headed by General James Mattis, who is also against Moscow, which means that the US military cooperation with the post-Soviet countries, which are trying to get rid of the Russian influence, will develop. It is paradoxical, but it is possible that the inner-political difficult situation in the United States can positively affect some post-Soviet countries.
– Let’s go back to the investigation again. What do you think, will Russia’s intervention in the US be only limited to elections?
–Not at all. Russia continues to interfere with the US policy. It is wrong to think that Russia has intervened once and will stop there. I have some information that certain Russian oligarchs are threatening independent media or trying to get an agreement with them, demanding them to stop journalistic investigations. As I have stated, Russian and Trump’s propaganda are inline with each other, even to the point that during Moscow talk shows Russian orators announce that “they will not allow hurting Trump”, while during that period Russian “trolls” have intensified the pressure on the Republicans, demanding them to support Tramp. That is, Trump longs to hamper the investigation with all his strength, while Russian mafia tries to do the same. Let’s recall how many other unsolved, deadly cases are related to this investigation or to Trump’s dossier. It is dangerous to deal with that investigation even if one lives in the United States. So the new “cold war” has not ended, but, it can be said, has moved inside the borders of the United States. It is clear to everyone that Putin will intervene in the next, 2018, elections, and Trump will not hinder him. It is not yet clear how this confrontation will end.
Luiza SUKIASYAN
Evil Axis is an invention of the Bush administration to justifiy wars in middle east. One should be careful using this term, not even if a youngster want’s to make a journalistic career, many lives have been lost based on the lies around Millenium. Removing dictators only brought bad results, especially for Europe and not to forget all the US soldiers that have died.
When it comes to advantages it seems America is always like the (imperialistic) narcisstistc friend that plays nice and helpful, but don’t care what really happens after their actions. The destabilization of middle east in fact is the worst possible action one could have made, Europe is flooded with refugess that will not integrate, despite all efforts and Merkel’s moronic politics.
As America always has been the European Partner in trading, one must really overthink if it doens’t make sense to re-establish trading connections to Russia, even obstacles are high.
Last but not least, the Russian hacking is still a myth after all this month. Just like that I can claim, that there have been own sources within the DNC that stole the data and here are even some hard facts:
“New meta-analysis has emerged from a document published today by an independent researcher known as The Forensicator, which suggests that files eventually published by the Guccifer 2.0 persona were likely initially downloaded by a person with physical access to a computer possibly connected to the internal DNC network. The individual most likely used a USB drive to copy the information. The groundbreaking new analysis irrevocably destroys the Russian hacking narrative, and calls the actions of Crowdstrike and the DNC into question.”
(Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-10/new-research-shows-guccifer-20-files-were-copied-locally-dnc-not-hacked-russians)