The suspicion of Russian interference in the U.S. elections to favour Trump has rendered any diplomacy between the two countries impossible.
This is clearly weakening the diplomatic potential of the Trump administration and is making international arena challenging for all.
What are the recent developments?
U.S. secretary of state Mr. Rex Tillerson recently got fired by President Trump, which is suspected to be because of his strong anti-Russia position.
This is in the backdrop of Mr. Tillerson censoring the Russian government for fostering an alleged attack on a former Russia defector, who is living in U.K.
Interestingly, the mainstream media till recently had been accusing Mr. Tillerson of being soft on Russia and even suspected that he owed his very appointment to Russia.
But the moment he got shunted out of office for seemingly taking a strong stand against Russia, he got hailed as hero who paid the price for boldness.
This episode has clearly exemplified that media frenzy has largely hijacked substantive aspects of the suspected electoral meddling.
How are investigations into Russian electoral meddling progressing?
Presently, there seems to be a bipartisan consensus on stern action against Russia and the Trump administration seems willing to oblige.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is already investigating allegations against Russia and he has till now filed documents indicting 13 people in court.
Charged against them are “information warfare” against the U.S. and “spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system.
Allegations - It is alleged that Russia has spent thousands of dollars every month, since 2014 in order to distort the 2016 elections.
Russian-linked entities placed ads and ran propaganda campaigns on social media and it is estimated that as much as 11.1 trillion posts were made.
Facebook vouched that 126 million people may have seen a post generated by Russian operatives or bots on its site, and 56% of them were after the election.
It is alleged that some Russians misrepresented their purpose and travelled to the U.S. to collect intelligence on the country’s political process.
Russian campaign seems have supported Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary and Mr. Trump during the presidential election.
Is Trump administration going soft on Russia?
Recently, U.S. released the National Security Strategy (NSS) and the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), both which declared Russia as a main adversary.
The documents placed Russia slightly above China in the order of U.S. enemies, and left little room open for reconciliation.
With U.S. also stressing on modernising its nuclear arsenal and upgrading its weapons delivery systems, a new cold war already seems to be brewing.
This is expected to cost significantly on the tax payers and stocks of American defence companies have also been doing exceptionally good currently.
Even after sacking Mr. Tillerson, the White House announced a new round of sanctions against Russia.
Hence, Trump administration is already following a strong and muscular policy towards Russia and the calls for more anti-Russia rhetoric is illogical.
What are the problems with sensationalising the meddling issue?
There is no practical way for journalists or citizens to independently verify whether the Trump campaign allegedly colluded with Russia.
Even if all the allegations are true, the current obsession of the American elite with Russia is still counterproductive and potentially dangerous.
Decrying Democracy - The episode seems to disputes voter intellect, and delegitimizes an established democratic process without concrete proof.
It also denies an obvious public outrage against the country’s socio - economic prospectus that saw the rise of Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders.
Notably, U.S.A is the only advanced country where life expectancy is falling, gun violence is rampant and drug abuse is strikingly very rampant.
Diplomatic cramp - The commentaries have also created the perception that any contact between a Trump official and a Russian is treason.
This has severely undermined a democratically elected President’s authority to pursue diplomacy, which has weakened the county’s international standing.
Hence, Russia-gate scandal has not merely bent perspective, but blinded vision in America, which might have even been deliberately done.
