Joe Biden was fascinated with Putin. In an interview with the Rolling Stone, he talked about books he had read and recommended a book Mr. Putin in the following words: “Mr. Putin, by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy. Insightful. He’s an interesting man.”
By early 2016, Hillary Clinton was known as the designated successor to Obama. At that time, the security relations between the Obama administration and Putin administration were very good. One example of these cordial relationships was the Munich Security Conference, held on February 12-16, attended by ODNI Director James Clapper, State Secretary John Kerry, Senators McCain, Whitehouse, Corker, George Soros and even Dmitry Alperovitch of CrowdStrike. Russia was represented by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. They discussed sensitive security topics, including the relationship between the US and its NATO allies (panels Between Reassurance and Reengagement? The Future of NATO and Towards Further Euro-Atlantic Integration?). Another event exemplifying the amicable US-Russia security relationships was the little publicized visit of John Brennan to Moscow in March 2016, where he visited the FSB and met its chief, Alexander Bortnikov.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden was pressuring Ukraine to fire the prosecutor investigating corruption which heavily involved his son, Hunter Biden. Biden’s demands were made under the threat of withdrawing $1 Billion in aid. During the period of Feb. 19 – Mar. 29, prosecutor Viktor Shokin was dismissed. A few weeks later, the Obama administration started looking for “Russian interference”. They then attempted to tie the Trump campaign to Russia, and spied on the Trump campaign under the pretext of investigating Russian interference, which never happened. My previous guesstimate was that the Russian narrative came from EU. Now I wonder, did Biden’s misadventures play a role in the beginning of Spygate?
Originally published on 2019-09-29. Updated on 2019-10-11.