Tatiana Stanovaya: “As impeachment proceedings loom over President Trump, some observers have speculated that Russia, actively enjoying sowing chaos in the United States, is delighted by the dysfunction tearing apart the U.S. government. Nineteen Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee signed a joint letter to the Wall Street Journal that was published on the paper’s op-ed page last month with the headline, ‘Impeachment Is What Vladimir Putin Wants.’ The GOP members of Congress wrote, ‘His goal, now and before the 2016 election, has been to pit Americans against one another and erode confidence in our democratic process.'”
“That might be true up to a point. But the impeachment investigation might be a bit too chaotic, even for Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
“There are many ways in which the Ukraine affair is terrifying the Kremlin, because it threatens to unwind what little progress Russia has made in recent years and undercuts its wider goals. Putin’s long-term goal is pretty clear: He wants the United States to conclude a ‘big deal’ that would revise the outcome of the Cold War and limit the strategic threat that he believes the West poses to Russia through its military expansion, double standards in foreign affairs and liberal values.”
