Liliya Shevtsova: "Trump Funnel"

“The matter seems to be simple - the American Congress, with the help of a sanctions package and a mechanism for monitoring its implementation, decided to respond to Trump’s attraction to Russia and punish Moscow for interfering in the internal affairs of the United States and playing dirty on the world stage. But in reality, everything is more complicated. Let’s list the key points new world situation,” writes political scientist Liliya Shevtsova in a column on the Radio Liberty website.

“Firstly, sanctions - and on a deafening scale - are an indicator of the turn that America is beginning in its foreign and domestic policies. The “Russian factor”, which made Donald Trump a threat to national security for the United States even in the eyes of part of his own Republican Party, turned out to be the impetus for "that sooner or later was bound to happen. Political America was dissatisfied with the way the White House responded to external challenges already during the Obama years. Trump's involvement with the Kremlin made it inevitable that Congress would limit the president's influence on US foreign policy and national security."

“Secondly, we are talking about the consensus of the two main American parties regarding the need to respond to a country that has encroached on the constitutional foundations of the United States. Those who believe that this is just a reaction to Trump’s “Russophilia” are mistaken. The “Russian factor” has chances to become a long-playing record, turning into a means of consolidating the American elite and reinforcing the ambitions of the American military-industrial complex. One can be sure that even after Trump leaves the White House, the “toxicity” of Russia will determine the vector of American foreign policy.”

“The current American sanctions package is a step towards removing Russia from the process of world globalization. And this means the following: the Russian system, which has survived for decades through anti-Western mobilization and the use of Western resources, is losing the opportunity to receive these resources with a complete inability to compensate for them with its own.”

“Russia once again has to pay for the unintended consequences of its actions: they wanted one thing, but got something completely different. We are already paying for Crimea. We will have to pay for the illusions regarding Trump and for the clumsy actions that the “Russian Factor” allowed to be created in the United States even more expensive."