Thread by @kylenabecker

Democrats like @ericswalwell, @HillaryClinton & @JoeBiden act like they are strong opponents of Russia.

But the Democratic Party has a long history of aiding Russia, whether out of corruption or due to being 'useful idiots.'

Here is an overview [Mega-Thread]:🔻

In 1974, Senator Ted Kennedy had a four-hour long private meeting at the Kremlin. The results were a coup for Moscow.

Kennedy & Brezhnev "expressed the deep commitment of their two countries to maintain peace between them, to bring the arms race firmly under control”…

Kennedy wasn't done doing the USSR a much-needed favor as it struggled to keep pace in the arms race.

The 'liberal Lion of the Senate' would continuously collude with the Soviets to undermine his political opponents.

As Michael Reagan recounts: “When my father, Ronald Reagan, was president, Democrat politicians secretly connived with the Soviets in failed attempts to manipulate elections and defeat Ronald Reagan…”
newsmax.com/Reagan/democra…

“[A]s Kennedy was challenging Carter in the primaries, Tunney met with the KGB and urged the Soviets to sabotage Carter’s foreign policy... It’s amazing: Two high-ranking Democrats… sought Soviet help in undermining American foreign policy and manipulating an American election.”

In 1991, a Sunday Times journalist uncovered a KGB memo that Kennedy offered the Soviets a quid pro quo agreement to undermine sitting President Ronald Reagan.

"Kennedy’s proposal was simple: The senator would help Andropov in dealing with Reagan, if the Soviet Union would help the Democratic Party in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election."
timeline.com/teddy-kennedy-…

According to the memo, on his side of the bargain he would “arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA.”

'Nuclear disarmament' is a red flag for Moscow patsies.

As Schultz and Godson put in ‘Dezinformatsia’ (35): ‘[D]uring the entire twenty-year period examined herein, a consistent them of Soviet propaganda has been the unwillingness of the United States and NATO to ensure peace by disarming.”

Remember this theme. You will see it again.

In a famous 1983 speech, Reagan referred to the USSR as an “evil empire.” This earned him condemnation from the American left — including Democrats.

In 1984, Dem presidential candidate Mondale pledged he would tell Soviet premier Yuri Andropov,

"Let's sit down in Geneva this afternoon... and I would say... in the name of humanity can't we negotiate a verifiable nuclear freeze on nuclear weapons?"
nationalinterest.org/article/reagan…

“Some Reagan opponents went so far as to applaud the efforts of the British historian and anti-nuclear activist, E. P. Thompson, who argued that the United States was ‘more dangerous and provocative’ than the Soviet Union”…

After the fall of the Berlin Wall that Reagan famously told Gorbachev to “tear down” and the USSR formally dissolved in ‘velvet revolutions,’ the former Soviet Union pivoted to — climate change.

As a Time 'Heroes of the Environment' piece put it: "As Gorbachev realized that the fall of the Soviet system was imminent, he strove—and succeeded—to ensure that there was a peaceful, nonviolent transition of the closed and totalitarian Soviet society"
content.time.com/time/specials/…

“This is Gorbachev's historical achievement… Once the U.S.S.R. collapsed, Gorbachev used his authority and experience to launch Green Cross International in the wake of the 1992 U.N. Rio Conference on Environment and Development."

The USSR ‘transition’ period commenced under Clinton.

From ‘Russia’s Road to Corruption’: “Since 1993, U.S.-Russia policy has been administered by Vice President Al Gore, Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, and Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott.”
google.com/books/edition/…

Talbott would become Gore’s Russia mentor. Al Gore only appeared to have firsthand experience on Russia from his time touring it with known Soviet asset Armand Hammer, who had contributed $500,000 in Occidental Petroleum stock to the Gore family trust.
latimes.com/archives/la-xp…

Strobe Talbott had a long history as a Soviet apologist.

“Talbott accused Reagan of bearing the bulk of the responsibility for worsening U.S.-Soviet relations... Reagan's use of the bully pulpit to ‘bait’ the Soviet bear 'made a bad situation worse'."
nationalinterest.org/article/reagan…

“Talbott... sought to become the full-time manager of U.S.-Russia relations… He chaired the Former Soviet Union Policy Steering Group, which he said carried ‘a presidential mandate to coordinate all elements of administration policy toward the former Soviet Union’."

Strobe Talbott would ultimately oversee a 1994 plan to disarm Ukraine of nuclear weapons that the nation wanted to keep as a deterrent against future Russian invasion.
frederickbernas.com/2011/06/clinto…

“American officials eventually mediated an agreement in which the US would ‘pay for a transfer of Russian fuel rods to Ukraine in exchange for the withdrawal of the strategic nuclear warheads’.”

Meanwhile, Al Gore had just published his first book on environmental conservation in 1992, entitled, “Earth in the Balance.” He purportedly had first taken an interest on the subject in 1988. In the book, Gore proposed a “Global Marshall Plan.”
jstor.org/stable/24113121

In 1993, Gore pushes for “the implementation of a carbon tax to modify incentives to reduce fossil fuel consumption, which is partially implemented.”
theguardian.com/environment/20…

In 1997, Gore “helps broker the Kyoto protocol and pushes for the passage of the treaty, which calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.” (ibid.)

Al Gore would carry on from his 2000 presidential election loss to carry on his environmentalist crusade. He would produce the 2006 film, “An Inconvenient Truth.” He nonetheless was not enough of a true believer to observe his own climate millenarianism.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/Globa…

A fan of Gore’s work, however, was former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, who echoes his talking points in near pitch-perfect harmony.

“I’m sorry the United States has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol,” Gorbachev said in 2007. “But I see that the U.S. position is changing, that the U.S. is making serious proposals that will be important in the future.”
reuters.com/article/enviro…

Al Gore had famously put a “Doomsday Clock” on the US’s ‘need to act’ to avoid climate catastrophe in his film. Rush Limbaugh actually counted down the prophesized time to ‘climate doom’ and watched it expire. Nothing happened. But the grift kept on going.
nationalreview.com/2016/01/al-gor…

Climate change was not without real-world damage to the US economy & foreign policy, however. US oil production would decline from the late 1980s to around 2012, when it picked up and then boomed under Trump, making it a net exporter. The gains would begin to reverse under Biden.

As we see over and over again, there is a strong correlation between oil & gas prices and Russian aggression. The higher the prices, the stronger the probability Russia will invade a neighboring country.

In August 2008, Putin invaded Georgia. Oil prices had surged to over $120 per barrel. In February 2014, Putin made his move to annex Crimea. Oil was nearly $120 per barrel. In February 2022, Putin invaded Ukraine. Price was over $100 per barrel.

Russia relies on oil for its social safety net, military funding, and regional security. The higher the gas prices, the more emboldened Russia is. The lower the gas prices, the more insecure and risk averse Russia is. It’s really just that simple.

Despite accusations that Trump was a Russia colluder, the fundamental truth is that a ‘Putin asset’ would never work at cross-purposes with Russia’s energy objectives. Yet here is Trump telling NATO that Russian oil dependence is a threat to Europe. Watch:

https://twitter.com/JustinPulitzer/status/1496709662602932224

The U.S. would become a net oil exporter for the first time in 75 years under Donald Trump in 2018. America would export LNG to Europe, while using leverage on NATO contributions and diplomacy to coax Europeans to stop depending on Russian energy.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Nonetheless, this didn’t stop Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton from accusing Trump of being a “Russian asset.” But a closer look at Clinton’s track record as Sec. of State and through the 2016 campaign raise many more questions about her Russia affinity than about Donald Trump’s.

Clinton kicked off her time as Obama’s Sec. of State with a “reset” button that actually translated as “overcharge.” It was meant to symbolize a fresh slate for US-Russia relations. A mistake in judgment? Yes. But was it also an “inside joke”? Hmm.

In 2010, former President Bill Clinton received a $500,000 check from a Kremlin-linked bank for a speech. At the same time, Clinton would sign off on a Uranium One deal that gave Russia access to 20 percent of the U.S.'s deposits. No conflict of interest?
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5…

The FBI actually intercepted evidence of Russian agents of influence targeting Hillary Clinton but looked away on the Uranium One matter. Clinton later lied that she wasn’t a target for Russian active measures. A high-ranking FBI counter-intel official said that wasn’t the case.

Hillary Clinton would pivot to act like she was suddenly a staunch opponent of Russia, but as we shall see, she would come to rely on Russian disinformation during her 2016 presidential campaign against Donald Trump.

Obama’s admin. was punctuated by weakness and deference towards Russian foreign policy objectives. In April 2009, Obama announced his vision for a “nuclear-free world.” Then he announced intentions for a new START treaty & Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Music to Moscow’s ears.

On April 8th, 2010, the new START treaty was signed, which would entail a strategic drawdown in nuclear weapons stockpiles. While maintaining nuclear parity is not a bad thing on its face, the treat was 'hopelessly lopsided' and allowed Russia to 'cheat.'
heritage.org/europe/comment…

Furthermore, the START treaty did nothing about Russia’s 10:1 tactical nuke advantage or MIRVs. Russia has been a flagrant violator of IRNFT, as well as Chemical Weapons Convention, particularly when Putin certainly poisoned Litvinenko & Sergei Skripal.
thesun.ie/news/2267744/w…

In 2012, President Obama was caught on live mic telling then-President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia he would have “more flexibility” to negotiate on ballistic missile defense after the November election. This isn't exactly 'tough on Russia' optics.
nytimes.com/2012/03/27/us/…

In early 2014, in the aftermath of the Orange Revolution that saw Kremlin stooge Yanukovych flee the capital, Putin infamously sent in his “little green men” to take over the Crimean parliament.

“In March, Crimea voted overwhelmingly in favor of leaving Ukraine in a referendum that Europe and the United States said was illegal and triggered sanctions.”
cnbc.com/2022/01/27/how…

“On March 21, Putin signed legislation that completed the process of absorbing Crimea into Russia, defying Western leaders like then U.S. president, Barack Obama, who have since faced heavy criticism for being too soft with the Russian invasion.” Sound familiar?

Still in 2014, pro-Russian paramilitary forces in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine fired anti-aircraft missile that took down Flight 17.

The Obama admin. had denied Ukraine access to “radar jamming and detection equipment necessary to evade and counter [Russian] anti-aircraft systems” — like the system Putin’s cronies had used to shoot down Flight 17.

Obama did not arm Ukraine. Trump did.
nationalreview.com/corner/when-ob…

“The downing of Flight 17 is of a piece with Putin’s lawless aggression. Having already absorbed Crimea, he seeks to further dismember a European country... So far, he hasn’t paid enough of a concrete price, despite repeated warnings from President Obama.”

But Obama’s disarming of Ukraine extended back to before he was even president. As a Senator, he had actually taken a special interest in making sure that the country would be relatively defenseless against the Russian bear.

“As a U.S. senator, Barack Obama won $48 million in federal funding to help Ukraine destroy thousands of tons of guns and ammunition – weapons which are now unavailable to the Ukrainian army as it faces down Russian President Vladimir Putin....”
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2…

“In August 2005, just seven months after his swearing-in, Obama traveled to Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine with... Senator Dick Lugar, touring a conventional weapons site...

The two senators secured U.S. funding to help destroy the weapons instead of leaving them intact.”

The Russians would continually flaunt US foreign policy interests under Obama. Another glaring example is Putin’s support for Syrian strongman Assad, despite the latter’s flagrant violation of human rights. There was no “red line” when it came to Russia—or Syria for that matter.

In 2016, Obama proposed “a new agreement on Syria to the Russian government that would deepen military cooperation between the two countries against some terrorists in exchange for Russia getting the Assad regime to stop bombing U.S.-supported rebels.”
washingtonpost.com/opinions/globa…

“One big flaw is that it’s clear that the Russians have no intent to put heavy pressure on Assad,” said former U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford. “And in those instances when the Russians have put pressure on, they’ve gotten minimal results from the Syrians.”

The Russians also constantly worked at cross-purposes with the US on the issue of the Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr. But even as Moscow appeared on its face to agree to contain Iranian nuclear ambitions and halt weapons sales, the Russians continuously cheated.

In 2009, Moscow kicked off its relations with the US by playing hardball right out of the gate.
reuters.com/article/us-usa…

“Moscow, which plans to start up a nuclear reactor at Iran’s Bushehr plant by the end of the year, has used its veto in the United Nations Security Council on a number of occasions to water down or defeat U.S.-led efforts to impose tougher sanctions on Iran.”

NYT reported: “Obama had sent a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggesting he would back off deploying a system in eastern Europe to intercept & destroy missiles, a move Russia sees as a military threat, if Moscow helped stop Iran from developing long-range weapons.”

“As it sought support for international sanctions on Iran, the Obama administration gave Moscow two concessions: lifting American sanctions against the Russian military complex and agreeing not to ban the sale of Russian anti-aircraft batteries to Tehran.”
nytimes.com/2010/05/22/wor…

“The administration dropped sanctions... against the Russian state arms export agency and three other Russian entities previously found to have transferred sensitive technology or weapons to Iran."

This came just 3 days after the US & Russia agreed on UN sanctions against Iran.

The Russians would eventually cheat on this concession.

“Russia on Tuesday confirmed its decision to deliver S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran, but said it could not yet announce a date,” AFP reported in 2015.
defensenews.com/global/europe/…

In 2015, Asst. Sec. of State Victoria Nuland urged the Ukrainian Rada to pass a “special law” that would give greater autonomy to the pro-Russian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. Obama was accused of ‘selling out’ Ukraine to Putin.
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

“[A] member of Poroshenko's parliamentary faction, explained that the ‘special law’ might enable a future legislature to grant the rebellious, pro-Russian regions in eastern Ukraine powers amounting to legal secession.”

Prescient warning, wasn't it?

In November 2014, Russia had nonetheless agreed to build “up to eight nuclear reactors in Iran.” The reactors would use Russian-supplied fuel (though in 2021 Iran requested permission to use domestic fuel).
bbc.com/news/world-mid…

It was in the 2016 presidential campaign, however, that Democratic collaboration with the Russians to achieve domestic policy goals reached a new high. The most damning example of this was the Hillary Clinton campaign & DNC’s use of Russian disinformation to target Donald Trump.

The lynchpin of the Hillary Clinton campaign’s “Russia hoax” was the Steele dossier. The collection of ‘raw intelligence’ was assembled and packaged by former British spy Christopher Steele. He relied largely on a Russian primary source named Igor Danchenko.

"Danchenko [is] a Russian native based in the United States who worked at the Brookings Institution — a Washington think tank whose former president, Strobe Talbott, is a college friend of Bill Clinton’s who worked in the Clinton State Department."
nypost.com/2021/11/04/arr…

"At Brookings, Danchenko worked with Fiona Hill, later a member of President Trump’s National Security Council... It was through Hill that Danchenko became acquainted with Steele, who ran a London-based intelligence firm upon leaving MI-6, the British spy service."

"Fiona Hill... testified behind closed doors in October 2019 that Steele’s dossier 'very likely' contained Russian disinformation. Hill told the House Intelligence Committee in November 2019 that the Russians targeted both candidates in 2016."
msn.com/en-us/news/pol…

Asst FBI Director "Bill" Priestap to OIG: “We absolutely understood that the information in the so-called dossier could be inaccurate... We also understood that the information could have been provided by the Russians as part of a disinformation campaign.”
justice.gov/storage/120919…

“The Trump administration has declassified several footnotes from a report... hinting anew at the possibility that Russia may have sown disinformation in a dossier used to investigate a former Trump campaign aide.”
nytimes.com/2020/04/15/us/…

"The newly released inspector general report confirms that the FBI would not have been able to spy on former Trump aide Carter Page if it weren’t for Hillary Clinton-funded allegations."

Yes, the Steele dossier was used for FISA surveillance warrants.
thefederalist.com/2019/12/09/ig-…

“The dossier was a critical document to justify a FISA warrant against Mr. Page and this DOJ memo clearly indicates that the reliability of the dossier was completely destroyed after the interview with the primary sub-source in January 2017.”
judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/rele…

“You feel good about the sourcing here?” asked Glenn Simpson of the Clinton-connected firm Fusion GPS.
"Steele’s reply, Simpson later wrote, was 'elliptical but firm' — he was relying on a range of Russian officials and a Trump associate."
washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…

Danchenko would be indicted and charged with lying to the FBI on five separate counts. One of the key lies involved a purported Russian source named Sergein Millian, Hans Mahnke notes.

https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/status/1456370686428160001

“The fact that Danchenko lied to Steele about meeting Sergei Millian is the key to blowing everything up. Without it Steele would’ve never made Millian the ‘source’ for so many lies: the pee tape, the ‘well-developed conspiracy of cooperation’, Wikileaks and Alfa Bank."

Alarmingly, Olga Galkina, a Russian PR exec. who fed Danchenko info, believed she had been promised a job in the State Department had Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election. Galkina assessed Danchenko as a possible FSB asset. Yet, she wanted to do business with him anyway.

Hillary Clinton has also referred to Russia as one of the reasons that she would ultimately lose the 2016 election. Clinton argued that Russian interference played a deciding role and that Putin “helped elect Trump.”

Hillary Clinton, whether intentionally or unwittingly, therefore furthered Russian foreign policy's ultimate goal of undermining trust in U.S. elections and promoting social division. She was aware of Russia's aims, but made the distorted claims for losing the election anyway.

"The even-bigger motivation wasn't necessarily about Trump personally; it was about destabilizing the American system of government." Mission accomplished.
washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/w…

The Trump administration would see a cessation of naked Russian aggression. Its bad behavior never ceased, but it was much more reigned in than under the subsequent Biden administration.

A new poll shows most voters believe that Putin wouldn't have invaded Ukraine if Trump were still president.

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1497340903643566091

This is the meaning behind Trump recently saying Putin was “very smart” for invading Ukraine — while he is not president. A much weaker President Biden is currently presiding over a U.S. military and diplomatic response.

In January, one of the first actions Biden took was suspending the permit of the Keystone XL pipeline, which cost high-paying jobs and greater U.S. oil & gas production efficiency.
abcnews.go.com/International/…

Next, Biden suspended new leases for fracking and oil drilling on federal lands, signed a number of executive orders aimed at overturning Trump administration energy policies, and returned to the Paris climate accord. Russia couldn't have hoped for more.
news.yahoo.com/biden-halt-fra…

In May 2021, shortly after coming into office, Biden signaled weakness by dropping sanctions on the Nordstream 2 pipeline, which would be a gas transit route from Russia directly to Germany.
bbc.com/news/world-us-…

After one year of Biden’s policies, the U.S. is now expected to be a net oil *importer* in 2022.
oilprice-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/oilprice.c…

“Higher net crude oil imports are set to make the United States a net petroleum importer this year again, as in 2021, after a historic shift of being a net petroleum exporter in 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.”

Biden would reimpose Nordstream 2 sanctions — but only after it was too late to make a difference in deterring Russia from invading Ukraine.
foxbusiness.com/politics/biden…

Biden also targeted Putin, his family, and his inner circle with targeted financial sanctions. Unfortunately, these oligarchs certainly have the majority of their assets in undisclosed offshore accounts.
cnn.com/2022/02/23/pol…

Biden regardless had claimed that “no one expected” sanctions on Russia “to prevent anything from happening.”

https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1496970017128210433

Biden refused to use one of the most serious U.S. economic sanctions: Cutting the Russians off from the international SWIFT payments system.
thehill.com/policy/finance…

"It is always an option, but right now that's not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take,” Biden told reporters. In the face of Ukrainian criticism the sanctions were too weak to make a difference, he claimed they were more severe than cutting Russia off from SWIFT.

"The sanctions we imposed exceed SWIFT. The sanctions we imposed exceed anything that’s ever been done... They are profound sanctions. Let’s have a conversation in another month or so to see if they’re working,” Biden claimed.

The Biden administration also refused to hit the Russians where it hurts most: Its oil and gas sector.

https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1496979535824187401

This brings us back to a familiar refrain. Even while Russia was invading Ukraine, former Obama Sec. of State John Kerry was coaxing Vladimir Putin to cooperate with the ‘all-important’ agenda of climate change.

https://twitter.com/MEMRIReports/status/1496797619825352706

"But it could have a profound negative impact on the climate obviously. You have a war and obviously you’re going to have massive emissions consequences to the war..."

"And the people of Russia are at risk. And so I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate."

This isn't parody. It is an actual statement from Biden’s “climate czar.”The ideology that animates the Democratic Party is detached from reality. But if you shoot it through an international socialist prism, it makes a warped kind of sense. Russia isn't 'sticking to the script.'

Making matters worse, the Biden administration shared intelligence on Russia’s military maneuvers with known U.S. enemy China, which subsequently turned around and shared it with... Putin.
nytimes.com/2022/02/25/us/…

"Over three months, senior Biden administration officials held half a dozen urgent meetings with top Chinese officials in which the Americans presented intelligence showing Russia’s troop buildup around Ukraine and beseeched the Chinese to tell Russia not to invade"...

"After one diplomatic exchange... U.S. officials got intelligence showing Beijing had shared the information with Moscow, telling the Russians that the United States was trying to sow discord — and that China would not try to impede Russian plans and actions, the officials said."

Hillary Clinton is also back in the news playing her familiar role of sowing discord in America with misleading accusations against Donald Trump — while accusing her enemies of doing just that.
foxnews.com/media/hillary-…

"We have to also make sure that within our own country we are calling out those people who are giving aid and comfort to Vladimir Putin, who are talking about what a genius he is, what a smart move it is”...

Once again, Donald Trump was criticizing Biden’s weakness on Russia as the reason Putin was “very smart” for acting when he did. Four years had transpired on Trump’s watch with no such Russian action.

In sum, the Democratic Party has opportunistically colluded with Russia when it suited its domestic policy purposes, has been consistently weak on Russian affairs, and has undermined an America First policy that could maintain the ideal position of ‘peace through strength.’ /END