One meeting with the Russian diplomat can bury the career of American politician

In Washington, “New Scandal on the Old Topic”: Trump and Russia. The central stripes and the television prime time are devoted to the true and imaginary connections of the White House and the Kremlin administration. Trump's officials met with the Russian ambassador, but they were silent about their meetings to the last. Until they were exposed by the local media, which the president, in turn, called "the enemies of the American people."

New deception

Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak-66-year-old Russian ambassador in Washington acquired almost legendary status thanks to the American press. In the eyes of journalists, he became similar to the mythical sailboat “Flying Dutchman”, a meeting with which threatens the political death of the administration of Trump. Or another literary image:

Negotiations with a sour for Trump's people became a “black mark”.

Following General Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign from the post of presidential adviser on national security ( read the material “Partially Disinformaled the White House” ), the general prosecutor (aka US Minister of Justice) Jeff Seshns was accused of concealing his meetings with the Russian ambassador. In January, speaking at the Senate hearings on his approval, Sehns said that during Trump’s election campaign he did not meet with Russian representatives.

The American media found out that the prosecutor general lied. Yes, even under the oath. With the Ambassador Kislyak, he saw at least twice. Washington Post reported that the first meeting was held on the fields of the July National Convention of Republicans in Cleveland. The event “Global partners in diplomacy”, organized by the Washington Heritage Foundation and lasting 4 days, participated in ambassadors of about 50 countries. Seoshns could simply have forgotten that among the diplomats with whom he spoke separately, including Sergey Kislyak.

However, they also saw each other in September. And this second, private meeting with the eye of the eye is much more difficult to forget. The Russian ambassador visited the office of Senator Sehns at a time when the scandal was already rattled in Washington, associated with the accusations against Russia of interfering with the intervention of the American elections: in abduction by Russian hackers the documents of the National Committee of the Democratic Party and disguise the correspondence of the campaign headquarters, the “plum” of compromise in the publication like Wikileaks. The former speaker of the Congress Nancy Pelozi demanded that the prosecutor general, who, under the oath, deceiving his former colleagues, immediately resigned after General Flynn. Senator Schumer called for an independent investigation about Trump's alleged connections with Russia.

Jeff Sehns claims that he did not lie. The official representative of the US Ministry of Justice Sarah Iskur Flores explains: the question from Senator Ela Franken was dedicated to the relations of Russian officials with employees of Trump’s headquarters, and SehnS met with the Russian ambassador not as an adviser to the republican candidate, but in his then mortgage senator, a member of the Armed Forces Committee.

The video with Seshns’s answer to the question of a colleague scrolled all the leading US television channels many times: “I do not know anything about such contacts .... I did not communicate with the Russians.”

In addition, on January 17, the current Prosecutor General answered the written request of Senator Patrick Lih: whether he contacted any of the Russian officials on the election before and after the day they are held.

The Prosecutor General accused of lies said he was taking self -release and would not participate in an official investigation into the ties of the Trump administration with Russian officials. A public investigation, which is insisted by democrats, part of the Republican congressmen and public organizations of the United States can now be headed by an independent prosecutor. But Seshns refused to name some deadlines when it could begin and should end. The FBI conducts its investigation.

That's not all. The USA Today newspaper reported that two more advisers to Trump’s election headquarters - Jay Di Gordon and Carter Page, met and talked with the Russian ambassador in the fields of the Republican Convention in Cleveland. The same Page, who called for the lifting of sanctions, predicted the fast return of American companies to the Russian market and called the "mistake" the non -recognition of Crimea "Russian" official Washington. And who, according to the reports of the local media, talked with the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin and the manager of the State Duma, and in the past - deputy head of the administration of the Presidential Administration Igor Daveikin. The last reports of the secret December meetings of Page in Moscow (after his resignation from the post of adviser to the headquarters of Trump in September) called “stupid things and invented stories” that he does not comment. Page himself, speaking at the Moscow headquarters of the Russian Agency Today, denied his contacts with I. Sechin.

“Cherry on the Cake”-the New Yorker report that in December last year, after the election, the son-in-law of the president and his adviser Jared Kushner met in the New York tower of Trump. The White House said that Kushner was present at a meeting of the Russian ambassador with an adviser to Flinn.

On the day of the Obama Administration, sanctions against Russia are reported, the American media reported, and five telephone conversations of Flynn and Kislyak took place.

Such times

The fact that meetings with the Russian ambassador became for the Trump team “black tag” is explained by the specifics of the moment. Kislyak (like Lavrov, late Churkin, Karasin and other diplomats) worked at other times of Russian-American relations. The first business trip of the current ambassador of the Russian Federation to America fell on 1985-1989, when, according to CNN, "Mikhail Gorbachev tried to reform the Soviet Union and open it to the world." “Perestroika and publicity” opened the world and the new generation of Soviet and then Russian diplomats who replaced the generation “Mr. No” - A. A. Gromyko. Today, the Russian federal media call that historical era “surrender to the West”, contrasting it with the notorious “getting up from the knees”. As they say, new times dictate new songs. Including the diplomats - state people.

The American media these days write a lot about Russian after, give numerous reviews about it experts. The former ambassador in Moscow, one of the authors of the Obamovsky course “Reloading” Michael McFol called Kislyak the diplomat “effective and experienced”. And one more thing: "You will never confuse what country he represents."

Evelyn Farkas, a former assistant to the Minister of Defense, responsible for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia: "He has a reputation of a diplomat who can be sharp, firm and full of charm at the same time during one conversation." The vast majority of these experts were critical of CNN and some other media reports with reference to unnamed intelligence sources that a sour can be somehow connected with the exploration and recruitment of spies.

Grains from the chaff

In the stream of messages caused by the new turn of Trump and Russia, it is difficult to separate the truth and fake, objective information and following the trends that have already developed in the media. One thing is indisputable: in ordinary times, perhaps no one would have paid attention to the fact that members of the team of the American president meet with the ambassador of one of the leading countries of the world, if:

1. These contacts were not denied by the Trump administration at the highest level - up to the president;

2. Back in October, officially the US special services did not report attempts by Russia to intervene in the election.

The Obama Administration with the conclusions of intelligence agreed and before the New Year introduced the next sanctions against Russia, and also sent 35 diplomatic officers and closed the two cottages of the embassy. And President Putin unexpectedly for everyone (and even workers from Smolensk Square, who promised Washington a tough similar answer) ... called the children of American diplomats for a Christmas tree in the Kremlin.

What did people from the Trump team talk about with the Russian ambassador? The question is not one million dollars.

The local special services listening to the contacts of officials with official foreign persons can know more than what we know about today. Prosecutor General of Sehns, for example, today insists that they and the Russian ambassador spoke about the fight against terrorism, Ukraine and bilateral ties, but did not talk about the elections.

And what about Trump? This story outraged the president first of all by the fact that the Democrats-ex-speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer-also met with Russian officials, but they would not be anything for it. “I confirm the present,” the president wrote on Twitter, “I demand (start) the second investigation - about the close ties of Pelosi with Russia and about its lies.”

Nancy Pelozi, requiring the resignation of Prosecutor General Sehns, really stated that she did not meet with the current ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States. The local media immediately found the corresponding photo of the time of the presidency of Medvedev, where Pelosi and Kislyak are sitting opposite each other at the common negotiation table, and the representative of the Democrats had to make excuses: Pelozi, they say, had in mind a personal meeting, with an eye on the face. Trump dedicated the democrats to the exposure of three presidential “Twites”, called Senator Sumer “finished hypocrite” and published a long -standing photograph of the meeting with Putin, where the current leader of the democratic minority in the Senate was captured.

The Russian diplomatic mission in Washington does not comment on the scandal. But the largest editions of America write about him: from New York Times to Rolling Stone. The president has not yet disclosed his tax documents, information about income and business communications. In this story, this fact does not play in favor of Trump. What does he actually have with Russia: “nothing personal”, only politics today and the final of the contest of beauties in the past or, as the hero of the famous television series said, “skillful interest”?

One of the oldest magazines of America The Atlantic, in my opinion, grabbed the essence of the “new scandal on the old topic”:

“We will speak extremely clear from the very beginning: there is no evidence that Donald Trump or his people coordinated with Russia a hacking of electronic correspondence of the National Committee of the Democratic Party and Drill (Information) in WikiLeaks. There is no evidence that they are puppets of Vladimir Putin and that the Kremlin has compromising evidence for the president.

But there are suspicions (voiced by members of the Congress), leaked as leaks from the intelligence committee, supported by reporters of respected publications who are ready to invest a lot of money and time in the investigation. And there is anxiety of millions of Americans.

The current status quo is “very unhealthy” for American democracy. Either Trump is innocent, or we have a compromised president, and a possible constitutional crisis with the consequences that are difficult to predict is waiting for the country. ”

As the journalist of Washington Post Dane Milbank writes (the material is based on the quotes of Trump and his team):

“President Trump knows President Putin“ very good ”, but he“ does not know ”Putin. Putin “sent a gift to Trump in the past, and they talked”, but Trump did not have “no contacts” with Putin. Trump “has nothing to do in Russia”, but his son claimed that “Russians are making disproportionate (large) intersections with our assets, and money from Russia flows to us.” There were no “connections” between Russia and the Trump team during the elections and at the time of the transfer of power, except for the ... future adviser Trump for National Security, the Prosecutor General, the son of the president and two more advisers. ” The end of the quote. In full material, it will be set up with fifty directly opposite statements to Russia by officials from the new administration of the White House. Where is it true, and where is the "alternative news"?

One thing is clear: the media do not intend to stop, and while the special services are ready to cooperate with the “fourth power”. So far there is no official investigation of Trump's connections with Russia, but no one can stop a public investigation.

Washington