Russian to judgment

The Kremlin must be buzzing given all the news coming out of Washington these days. I can see it all now, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is feasting on Beluga caviar, drinking champagne, surrounded by balalaikas and high-stepping folk dancers, swirling like dervishes to the tune of the new U.S. media-inspired DC Two step. He must be laughing out loud watching the Democrats sharpen their 'shaskas' (the Cossacks' weapon of choice) in the hopes of mortally wounding the new Attorney General and anyone else in the Trump Administration that has ever talked with a U.S. immigrant Russian cab driver or read a Russian novel in college.

The Republicans are saying that this whole 'Russia thing' is a tempest in a samovar, that the Democrats are engaging in a modern-day Stalin-light purge that they hope will take the entire Trump Administration down. Were this whole hullabaloo not so serious (as it distracts from the important work that needs to be done by the new Administration), it could become a hit play on Broadway, a kind of updated version of one of Anton Chekhov's stories that revealed the seamier side of Russian life.

But it's not a play, nor is it a satire. It is, instead, a glaring example of what happens when a vanquished opponent vows to fight on and is ready to use anything at his disposal to strike a final blow at the victors. If I understand this melodrama correctly, the Democrats believe that the Trump campaign team actively colluded with the Russian government, through its apparatchiks, to insert themselves into our Presidential campaign and then attack and hack the computers of the Democratic National Committee and those of Hillary Clinton and her closest aides and confidants.     They did this on explicit orders from pro-Trump forces who are trying to maintain plausible deniability by 'forgetting' that some of them like the new Attorney General, Jeff Sessions and General Michael Flynn, had meetings with the Russian Ambassador.

It's all playing out like a Matryoshka doll (sometimes referred to as a 'Babushka' or grandmother doll). As one unscrews the head of the first doll it reveals another, smaller doll within it. And so it goes as yet another doll is uncovered. This is the 'drip, drip drip' that eventually killed off both the Nixon and Clinton Presidencies, and if left unchecked, it will weaken the current President's ability to govern even if there is no 'there' there. In order to achieve success and take down Mr. Trump, the Democrats will need to find a 'smoking gun' to prove a link, any link, other than a chance or misremembered meeting with the Russian Ambassador or just slurping a bowl of borscht at the Russian Tea Room in New York City.

So far, the FBI and the CIA are involved as are at least two committees in the Senate and the House. The Republicans hope that they can circle their wagons and avoid a special prosecutor and keep things 'in the family.' The last thing they want is to be backed into a corner and be subject to the same kind of endless hearings that Hillary Clinton endured with the Benghazi debacle or her email server. This could be disastrous to both Republicans AND Democrats as most Americans don't have the stomach for another 'Watergate.' The contentious Presidential primaries and general election  drained most of our strength and left some of us bleeding at the parapet. Even those on the winning side, don't have the patience for another round of 'Russian Roulette.'

We can only hope that any and all investigations will be undertaken, thoroughly, and impartially, and that the 'truth' will out. If it drags on, the only other alternative we have is to plop ourselves on the barcalounger in front of the tube with a huge bowl of popcorn and settle in for some binge watching of: "Doctor Zhivago, "The man who knew too little," "Gorky Park," and the "Hunt for Red October." It could be a long night at the dacha.

Stephan Helgesen is a retired U.S. diplomat, now author and political strategist. He has written over 600 articles and six books on politics, economics and social trends. He can be reached at stephan@stephanhelgesen.com