But Putin was KGB when they owned Cuba. He knows what an advantage that was strategically for the Soviet Union when they owned the place. I was in Cuba in those days, and they DID own the place. They acted like it, too, and the normal population disliked them plenty for it--just as much as the elite liked them for it. I had been invited by the government (Cuban, not Soviet), so I got plenty of their point of view. These days, a toehold in Venezuela makes far more sense to Russia than Cuba anyway. Inviting troops in for security is EXACTLY the pretext used for their invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s. Don't look for those "security troops'" numbers to decrease in the near future.
I agree that subtle Russian influence over Republicans in Washington is far more pervasive than many realize. They have been working on this since the Soviet era, but used to be wedded to the hard sell. Igor Ignatieff (TACC chief in DC for a while) even tried to recruit my dad. When my dad told him, politely, to fuck off, Igor said, OK, sorry, he was required to try. I knew Igor slightly from my occasional visits to his office in DC, and he was a perfectly nice guy to chat with. I remember he was surprised that as a college student in Philadelphia, that I knew that the KGB had its own armed border patrol force. I said, Igor, everybody in America knows that! But he knew what his job was, and did it unhesitatingly. The Russians have always had the less subtle form of political seduction. The Chinese smile and quietly throw money at those most susceptible to accepting it. The Russians just say, "let's fuck," and have only slowly come around to understanding that there are better ways to persuading people to work for them. In the era of Manafort and Rohrbacher, I'd say they are catching on fast.
= new reply since forum marked as read
