What Putin Loves About American Politics

Enigmatic Statements from Russia’s Enigmatic Man

In a recent interview with Rossiya TV, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated he would like to work with Joe Biden because he and the Democratic party share similar Communist values. Putin also added that the constant criticism of Donald Trump from the Left works in Russia’s favor and also that Trump has been hard on Russia.

What this means, no one knows. It is fair that there are a lot of interpretations with such very basic statements. It could be interpreted as Pro-Biden or Pro-Trump. One thing we can be sure of though is that both sides would love to claim that Putin “backs” or “endorsees” the opposition. Every time Putin says something, pundits assume what is said is highly encrypted and mysterious and for days after, will attack any which direction to answer “what does he mean?”

American Divisiveness

The answer is simple, it is what Putin loves about American politics, and to find it, we have to take a very basic look at American foreign policy in recent memory.

When we look at American dialogue on foreign policy, especially around the War on Terror, we see a lot of back and forth both in accusations, but also where parties side.

For example, when George Bush ignited the War on Terror after 9/11, there was a huge amount of support, especially in getting retribution. When we figured out where our boys were going, however, the finger pointing started up again. A lot of people were against the war, and Bush and Republicans became the target for criticism of warmongering and finishing what Bush Senior had started in the Middle East. Why go to Afghanistan and Iraq? For oil and imperialism, critics said. There weren’t even WMD’s, they continued.

Anti-war sentiment for the Democrats was popular until Obama took office. Obama escalated the war on terrorism, actually, especially with the controversial use of drone strikes. However, despite major foreign policy failures such as Ukraine, Syria, and Iran — which is important to remember when we come back to Putin — the support for the War on Terror sort of remained from both sides of the American political aisle. After all, we had already invested so much money, time, and lives into it. The sentiment mellowed to wishing the wars in the Middle East would end, but that we supported our troops and believed in the mission. Bad to be at war, but good to kill terrorists. Simple.

Fast forward to President Trump’s tenure in office and the Left returns to the blame-game. Trump, actually focusing on bringing troops home and ending the “endless wars”, has taken criticism for being a radical-nationalist and American isolationist; working on taking us back to an American golden-age of leadership except without the prosperity and leadership. The Left sees Trump as a foreign policy flop in certain regards.

The truth? American foreign policy has been spineless for decades, and this is what Putin loves about American politics.

American Hands are Tied in Big Foreign Policy

Putin has amassed victories in Syria (by saving the Assad regime), Ukraine and Crimea, and now Belarus. Even now, as this piece is written, Russia sits behind the scenes brokering a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, likely rearming its Armenian comrades.

What Putin sees when he looks at the US, no matter who the leader is, is a nation that will not step into Russia’s backyard. This is where, from this mindset, we can interpret what Putin means when he says that he would love to work with Biden, but that Trump has been a good leader by being hard on Russia.

In Biden, Putin has an extremely advantageous mismatch.

In Trump, Putin has a clear image of what the next four years will look like.

Amidst the findings of Russian Active Measures influencing US elections and society in recent years, it isn’t hard to see why Putin would say such vague things with many avenues of interpretation. Putin simply means this; he can keep playing a realist, revisionist game until the US foreign policy stance toughens up and develops some serious strategies that serve long term goals.

Taking What You Can Get

With this in mind, why would Russia not stir the pot stateside? No one will encroach on Russian interests in the geopolitical space, and while sanctions hurt for a time, they clearly haven’t stopped Putin’s foreign policy — which seems to get more efficient at lower costs (looking at the Wagner Group).

It is clear that from Putin’s perspective, the US is in an extremely fragile position right now. Given the amount of domestic division and extreme lack of unity amongst political leaders, the US seems to be struggling to keep its attention on the “minor” missions abroad, such as Syria or Afghanistan. These minor missions, for Russia, are major, and Putin intends to take every advantage — now and in the future — to secure it’s historical interests in Russia’s perceived space.

So long as the US is divided, tense, and uneasy in its domestic space, Russia and other revisionist powers such as China or Iran, are free to push their agendas with soft scrutiny from the US and our Western allies.