Prior to Super Tuesday, the Kremlin allies of demagogic Russian asset Donald "Tovarich" Trump were reportedly looking forward to a contest between Sen. Bernie Sanders and their man Trump, and were allegedly interfering in the Dem primaries to boost Sen. Sanders over his competitors. For his part, Sanders bitterly rejected Russia's interference.
Now, with former VP Joe Biden surging and claiming front-runner status, the manipulators in the Kremlin are worried that their efforts to set up a favorable election for their interest have crashed. If Russian State media is any indication, the mood in the Kremlin, which was hoping their friend Trump would win a second term, has grown worried. Russian analyst Julia Davis reports:
"Reporting on the U.S. elections for Russian state TV channel Rossiya 24, Alyona Pivkina made a gesture of surprise and said: 'Suddenly, Biden surged ahead.' The revelation was followed by an awkward moment of silence between Pivkina and the seemingly stunned host of the news broadcast.The Kremlin was overjoyed after Trump escaped removal from office, confirming that their gamble in feeding concocted dirt on the Bidens had not done real damage to their ally Trump. Now with the threat of Biden overtaking their man, the Russian media are prepared to go all out in their attacks:
The pro-Kremlin newspaper Vzglyad complained that Biden 'rose from the ashes like a phoenix,' prevailing 'in spite of the corruption scandals' that have long been alleged and cultivated by the Russians—and the Republicans—concerning his son, Hunter, and his own activities in Ukraine." (our emphasis)
"Moscow's repeated pitch on Russian-language state media for domestic consumption and for the sizable community of Russian speakers in the United States is that Joe Biden is damaged goods and Donald Trump is inevitably going to be re-elected. But the messaging doesn't stop there. The Kremlin's English-language media aim to influence Americans on their home turf. RT actively promotes conspiracy theories targeting Biden while lauding Trump’s efforts to “investigate” his leading political opponent. RT predicted that Trump will win a second term, claimed that Biden is 'cognitively unraveling' and surmised that 'allegations of corruption… are doing real damage to his presidential bid.'” (our emphasis)Whether the Kremlin and their agents here will try to provoke civil unrest in Milwaukee between Biden and Sanders supporters during the Dem convention to weaken the Dems is always possible, if not likely. Where they secretively supported him in 2016 through hacking and social media, the Kremlin has even more incentive to keep Trump in the Oval Office for four more years.
(image: Time for a diaper change?)
