Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak has left the building
Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak was the Kremlin’s centerpiece in its plot to conspire with the Donald Trump campaign to rig the election. Kislyak secretly met with everyone from Jared Kushner to Jeff Sessions to Trump himself during the campaign. Kislyak was the Trump regime’s overseer both before and after election day. But now, in a harsh blow for Donald Trump at a vulnerable time, Sergey Kislyak has left the building.
Earlier this month the Kremlin announced that Kislyak was being recalled to Moscow, just before it leaked that Donald Trump Jr. colluded with the Russians. The Kremlin tried to pass off Kislyak’s sudden “retirement” as mere happenstance that had long been in the works, but that excuse was easily seen through. Russia doesn’t even have his planned permanent replacement Anatoly Antonov in place yet, instead relying on an interim figure for now, underlining how abrupt of a change of direction this was. And as of today, Kislyak is now officially heading back home in Russia (link). Most concerning for Donald Trump, Kislyak is leaving empty handed.
Vladimir Putin installed Donald Trump into the White House specifically to get U.S. sanctions lifted against Russia. Putin has a huge chunk of his personal net worth riding on those sanctions being eased. But six months later, Trump hasn’t been able to get anything done on sanctions. From the start he’s lacked the political capital to unilaterally pull it off. And now even his own party is about to officially make it so he can never lift those sanctions. Trump couldn’t even pull off the secondary goal of getting the espionage-tainted diplomatic compounds returned to Russian hands. And now either Kislyak has given up on Trump, or the Kremlin has given up on Kislyak’s ability to twist Trump’s arm.
So now we see what Putin does next. Is he sending a more vicious arm-twister like Antonov in Kislyak’s place in order to really put the screws to Trump and his family? Or does Putin not bother to pressure Trump any further, which would essentially be a signal that he’s given up on Trump already. But whatever is about to happen next, Trump is now in huge trouble with Russia at a time when he’s already historically vulnerable with his own country.
