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Eli Lake Profile picture
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10 Dec, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Ignatius is one of the greats, but even the greats can be wrong. This column attempts to blame Trump for Putin’s aggression at Ukraine’s border. It’s true that Trump’s rhetorical sycophancy towards Putin was awful. But his policies were strong. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
He armed Ukraine when Obama wouldn't. He enforced sanctions on Nordstream 2, when Biden doesn't. He appointed hawks to his nat sec cabinet. He shut down Russia's consulate/spy station in San Francisco. He withdrew from INF and recognized Juan Guaido.
What's more, Putin's reckless aggression was overlooked by US presidents long before Trump was a national political figure. He invaded Georgia in 2008. He first invaded Ukraine in 2014. This says nothing of the assassinations, cyber meddling and information warfare.
So yes, it's fair to criticize Trump's rhetoric as provocative and dangerous. But Biden is the president now. Putin's brinksmanship is challenging Biden. And Biden's response is to offer diplomatic concessions in exchange for de-escalation. bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

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More from @EliLake

Eli Lake Profile picture
26 Jul
Listen to this podcast from @bariweiss where she interviews @MaudMaron, a progressive lawyer who devoted her career to representing the most vulnerable New Yorkers. honestlypod.com/podcast/episod…
Maud was publicly smeared by her colleagues because she wanted merit based testing for selective NYC public high schools, and she was willing to fight for that on her local school board and run for city council. For this she was deemed a witch and duly hunted.
It's a chilling tale. Read it here from @bariweiss bariweiss.substack.com/p/a-witch-tria… But the interview was so honest and raw, it's worth the one hour listen. Maud is not a conservative. Her law school mentor was Kathleen Cleaver. She voted for Bernie in 2016.
Read 4 tweets
Eli Lake Profile picture
29 May 20
A few thoughts on the transcript. First off, it's important to remember that what's at stake is whether the calls indicated that Flynn was a Russian agent. That's what the FBI was investigating. The bureau was prepared to close that probe on Jan. 4, 2017.
So the call or calls was the reason Comey instructed Strzok to keep it open. So what does the transcript show? An incoming NSA asking the Russian ambassador not to get into a tit for tat. "We don't want to be tough guys."
It also shows Flynn is open to cooperating with Russia in Syria. My view is that was never going to work. But others disagreed, including John Kerry. Flynn's point here
Read 7 tweets
Eli Lake Profile picture
28 Feb 19
Brief note on NBC North Korea story on US dropping demand for full inventory of nuke and missile program. nbcnews.com/politics/white… In this speech from US special envoy Steve Biegun he addresses the inventory question. nbcnews.com/politics/white…
He says: "Before the process of denuclearization can be final, we must also have a complete understanding of the full extent of the North Korean weapons of mass destruction missile programs.”
US officials tell me this remains the US position. But that they do not expect for this inventory to be provided all at once.
Read 4 tweets

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