[quote] Why do they meddle in our affairs so much?
Because the US and Russia have been engaging in a tit-for-tat chess-game for the past 100 years, that’s why, r44. The US recklessly kicked off this century-long cat-fight by INVADING Russia in 1918 - things went downhill ever since. The Russkies were pissed off that US troops invaded them and tried to meddle in their domestic affairs and quash their domestic revolution. But most US college kids are clueless about this - because Americans don’t bother studying their own foreign-policy history:
[quote] The Nation, March 6, 2019: “The Long History of US-Russian ‘Meddling’. The two governments have repeatedly interfered in each other’s domestic politics during the past 100 years
[quote] The word “meddle” is nebulous and could mean almost anything, but Russiagate zealots deploy it in the most ominous ways, as a war-like “attack on America,” a kind of “Pearl Harbor.” They also imply that such meddling is unprecedented when in fact both the United States and Russia have interfered repeatedly in the other’s internal politics, in one way or another, certainly since the 1917 Russian Revolution. For context, recall that such meddling is an integral part of Cold War and that there have been three Cold Wars between America and Russia during the past one hundred years. The first was from 1917…
[quote] In the period from 1917 to 1933, such interference was extreme on both sides. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson sent approximately 8,000 US troops to Siberia to FIGHT against the “Reds” [i.e. the US militarily backed the Russian "White" Tsarist group and started meddling] in the Russian Civil War. For its part, Moscow [then paid Woodrow Wilson back in kind via] the Communist International (Comintern) in 1919 and urged the American Communist Party to pursue revolutionary regime change in the United States, an historical analogue of the “democracy promotion” later pursued by Washington.
[quote] During the second Cold War, from 1948 to 1988, the “meddling” was expanded and institutionalized. At least until the McCarthyite attempted purge of such activities, the American Communist Party, now largely under the control of Moscow, was an active force in US politics […]
[quote] In the post-Soviet era since 1992, at least until Russiagate allegations began in mid-2016, almost all of the “meddling” has been committed by the United States. During the 1990s, under the banner of “democracy promotion,” there was a virtual American political invasion of Russia. Washington openly supported, politically and financially, the pro-American faction in Russian politics, as did American mainstream media coverage. US government and foundation funding went to desirable Russian NGOs. And the Clinton administration lent ample support, again political and financial, to President Boris Yeltsin’s desperate and ultimately successful reelection campaign in 1996 [US financial backing helped the incumbent, Yeltsin, win versus the other opposition parties]
[quote] Conversely, there was almost no Russian meddling in American politics in the 1990s, apart from the pro-Yeltsin lobby, largely made up of Americans, in Washington. As for Russia under Vladimir Putin, since 2000, again there was virtually no notable Russian “meddling” in American politics until the Russiagate allegations began [in 2016].
[quote] Not surprisingly, in light of the history of mutual “meddling,” Russian social media were active during the 2016 US election, but with no discernible impact … American meddling in Russia, on the other hand, continued apace, or tried to do so. Until more restrictive Russian laws were passed, US funding continued to go to Russian media and NGOs perceived to be in US interests. Hillary Clinton felt free in 2011 to publicly criticize Russian elections, and, the same year, then–Vice President Joseph Biden, while visiting Moscow, advised Putin not to return to the presidency. (Imagine Putin today advising Biden as to whether or not to seek the US presidency.)
