Vladimir Putin still safe from President Donald Trump’s ire
People leave the Russian mission to the United Nations on March 26, 2018, in Manhattan. In a coordinated response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in the United Kingdom, countries around the globe expelled dozens of Russian diplomats. Credit: Getty Images / Spencer Platt
Expelling 60 Russian intelligence agents and diplomats from the United States, as President Donald Trump ordered Monday, was the right thing to do. It was necessary, but not sufficient.
The expulsions paralleled similar actions by many of our allies — including Germany, France, Poland, Italy and Canada — to punish Russia for allegedly poisoning a former Russian spy in Britain. But this is all part of the Kabuki theater that is spycraft. The evictions were surely expected by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He surely will respond in a similar measure. Superpower spookdom surely will go on.
Telling spies posing as diplomats to go home is not the same as imposing tough sanctions. And the message to Americans is mixed when it follows Trump’s personal call to Putin to congratulate the Russian strongman on his victory in a sham election — and Trump’s general reluctance to condemn Russia for meddling in the 2016 election.
Congress expressed its concern over Trump’s inconsistent Russia policy by burying sanctions in the omnibus budget passed last week and signed by Trump. The new measures provide bite to Trump’s lack of bark. They include a ban on using federal funds in contracts or agreements with Russia and financial punishments for its annexation of Crimea. They follow sanctions earlier this month against 19 individuals and five organizations in Russia implicated in the election interference.
But it’s still not the same as going after Russian oligarchs and their money to put real pressure on Putin to change his behavior. And it’s not the same as an unequivocal condemnation from Trump, or even a discouraging word. The president has not said or tweeted anything about recent U.S. actions. When it comes to Russia, the real riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma is still Trump.
