From Russia with love

Jason Moore11/01/2017 00:00

So the Kremlin won the US presidential election, not Donald Trump. The latest allegations surrounding a "dodgy dossier" held by the Russian security services and a "hacking campaign" by Russian intelligence officials look more like a plot from a new Tom Clancy novel rather than modern-day US politics. If the allegations were not so serious it would be rather funny; the Russians help get a US president elected and then blackmail him thanks to a dodgy dossier. I suspect that the Russians must think that Christmas has come early this year. Reports that they managed to "rig" the election in Trump's favour clearly underline that they are a force to be reckoned with.

But it must be remembered that the US electorate voted for Trump in an election campaign which was rather unpleasant. I would say that Trump triumphed for two reasons: the Democrats fielded a poor candidate in the form of Hillary Clinton and Trump connected with the US electorate. Trump, like him or loathe him, won the election. Final. Did he have help from the Kremlin? Well I doubt it and if he did I sincerely doubt that he had any knowledge of the alleged Kremlin plot. Trump was never going to be a popular choice as president, but I think we must remember that the Russians are on a mission to make us much trouble as they can in the western nations, and the US is no exception. This is a classic Cold War case of "dirty tricks" and bluff.