Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. Ive been explaining @GOP's bogus "Biden scandal" & impact Trump behavior is having on Ukraine. Simply, for those there fighting corruption, we're now seen as another corrupt nation abusing Ukraine for self interest.

Now, the worst: This is crippling our national security...

@GOP 2...this is quite complex, and unfortunately requires a lot of understanding of Ukraine/Russia/the Black Sea/Energy/ and Western national interests. So I will have to cut this explanation to its basics. I urge people to do their own research on this, because these are intensely..

@GOP 3...important, irreparable, and will be driving American national security challenges through an upending of the geopolitical/geoeconomic circumstances throughout the Black Sea nations - Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, and by extension Moldava. The power that will...

@GOP 4...extend to northern Middle East. The shift to Russia is almost incomprehensible. This has been Russia's strategic goal dating back to Catherine the Great who - through the efforts of Prince Gregory Potemkin - was trying to accomplish what is now underway...

@GOP 5...start with one basic point: The Trump policy for these regions is nonexistent and those things that have been done through the outer reaches have been so incompetent as to raise concerns that it may have been a purposeful surrender of power to Russia.

Prior to Russia...

@GOP 6...seizing Crimea, it shared sovereignty with Ukraine over the Black Sea. However, after Crimea, Putin proclaimed Sevastopol as part of Russia, as well as Crimea & the Sea of Azov being inherently Russian. Yes, a lot of names, and you don't need to know them right now. But...

@GOP 7..in this snapshot description of the national security issue, accept that this is expanding Russian power dramatically. As Trump has sat by doing nothing, playing kissy-face with Putin, the intelligent one has been consolidating Russian power. Last year, Russia...

@GOP 8...completed a bridge over Kerch Strait, which was set at a low height for the purpose of blocking Ukrainian commercial ships. That has threatened the viability of Ukraine's ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk. Russian officials have also begun illegally boarding Ukrainian ships...

@GOP 9...essentially stopping Ukraine's ability to use Sea of Azov. Russia is flexing to Ukraine as Trump sits by and does nothing. It is basically a successful psy-op, with Russia attempting to persuade Ukraine that the US will refuse to help Ukraine fight this economic assault...

@GOP 10. 9..in fact, as every Ukranian involved in politics knows, Trump acted to *strengthen* Russia's hand in the Black Sea nations. This goes to the Iran deal.

The Southern Energy Corridor of EU, if it is to be successful in reducing Russian influence, requires gas that cannot...

@GOP 11...than Azerbaijan - the non-Russian access to the Caspian sea - can provide by itself to Europe. Under the Iran settlement, Iran was able to set up energy deals there. Now, with sanctions resumed, that's off. In other words....

@GOP 12...Russia could soon emerge as the only power that can meet all of this European demand for energy by way of the Caspian. The other access? Ukraine and other nations of the Black Sea, with their access through the much longer shipping journey through the sea....

@GOP 13..ok, yes, very complex. What is means, simply, is that Russia is moving to place a stranglehold that will give it power to exercise an energy blackmail against the west.

How does the entire Trump-GOP nonsense play into this? We are showing that we use Ukraine for our...

@GOP 14...personal political interests as well, that we are willing to cut off military support at any moment based on nonsensical "fight corruption" words when that is exactly what the government has been trying to do, in part by firing the corrupt Prosecutor General who was...

@GOP 15...blocking reform and who is now celebrated by Trump and the GOP as a hero - *solely* to advance a conspiracy theory against Biden. Americans may be too stupid of Ukraine's history to know what this means, but Ukrainians know there own country. We have told them...

@GOP 16...if they fail to attack Trump's political opponents, our support in their fight against Russia can drop away at any second. Would YOU want to be fighting Russia, with your troops out the ability to fight? And with Trump literally advancing Putin's stated goals....

@GOP 17...by telling Zelensky to his face at a public event that he should negotiate the deal Russia wants, we have made it very very clear where we are: On the side of Russia.

And they cannot assume this is just one wacky ignorant President, because the entire GOP is saying the....

@GOP 18...same thing. We are espousing "anti-corruption" - which in Ukraine means to stop prosecuting political opponents - while simultaneously telling them to prosecute political opponents.

We are - or perhaps already have - lost all credibility within Ukraine, we have made it...

@GOP 19...more likely to feel unable to withstand Russian influence and assault. We stayed silent when the Kerch Strait Bridge was put in place, probably because Trump didn't see it as anything that involved cheers for him or he was too stupid to understand the significance.....

@GOP 20...we were already seen as unwilling to respond to Russia's move toward the Black Sea. In fact, given where where we are now, Russia is able to entrench its position in the Black Sea at any moment. And we are not only completely unprepared, but we have left the Black Sea...

@GOP 21...nations - because of Trump's failure to act, by taking actions that harm the Black Sea nations by endangering Azerbaijan and access to the Sea of Azov, and by telling Ukraine in no uncertain terms that we are not reliable and we are corrupt - Putin is reaping the biggest...

@GOP 22...rewards he ever could have imagined by running a hacking/disinformation campaign against the United States. The damage is so extensive, and so hard to explain - you will never see it discussed on Fox News and scream-a-thons on other cable news are not capable of laying...

@GOP 23...this out - that Americans will remain blissfully ignorant of all of what is happening, all of the damage we are inflicting on our own national security by empowering Russia beyond anything it could have ever imagined - that when the consequences are undeniable, we will...

@GOP 24...resume our endlessly ignorant "who's to blame" garbage while the rest of the world doesn't give a damn who caused it, only that global security is now threatened.