We wonder how many people who keep asserting that the Russians “meddled” in the 2016 presidential election know the meaning of the word. The Russians unquestionably "meddled," but they did not do anything that materially changed votes or the outcome anywhere. As noted above – there is no doubt that the Russians “meddled.” Its connotation is far more of a “sticking in one’s nose where it doesn’t belong” pestiness than of a dark, wicked evil form of manipulation or altering the outcome. The latter type of actions require a much stronger form of interference than mere “meddling.”
Interestingly, the same people who downplayed the threat of the Soviet Union thirty years ago are today about ready to begin some form of hostilities against Russia for “meddling” in our election. Hold on – not only thirty years ago – the same people who mocked Mitt Romney in 2012 for claiming that Russian was a threat – remember “the 1980s called. They want their foreign policy back”? – and who ignored, downplayed, explained away or empathized just about every action that Russia took during the eight years of the Obama Administration, are today up in arms because they do not think President Trump is sufficiently up in arms over the Russian meddling.
But – if the point of Russian meddling is valid – what would happen if the Russians spent millions? Well, we know, because it has happened, and continues to happen. Russian support for anti-fracking campaigns stopped shale-gas exploration in Bulgaria in 2012, and, guess what? When Bulgaria listened to all those earnest environmentalists and banned fracking, Russia stepped in and, at a 20% discount, the Bulgarians signed an agreement to purchase Russian gas for the next ten years. After all, they need that gas from somewhere, and if they won’t produce their own. . .and, according to The National Review, “Romania fell victim to a similar campaign.” Yes, the Russians oppose fracking, because they want to keep European countries dependent on – you guessed it – Russian gas. In 2014, NATO Secretary-General Fogh Anders Rasmussen said, “Russia. . .engaged actively with . . . . environmental organizations working against shale gas. . .to maintain dependence on imported Russian gas.”
You don’t believe the NATO Secretary-General? Well, how about this, from a former American official who in 2016 said, “We were up against phony environmental groups. . .funded by the Russians to stand up against ‘that pipeline’, ‘that fracking’ and a lot of that money supporting that effort was coming from Russia.” That former official was Hillary Rodham Clinton, former US Secretary of State.
Russian Television – you know, that channel that is said to have altered the course of the US election even though nobody watches it – ran over 60 anti-fracking stories in 2015. The Russians have spent millions of dollars on “environmental” causes – hijacking those groups just as they attempted to hijack civil liberties groups in earlier decades; according to Congressmen Lamar Smith and Randy Weber, through the Sea Change Foundation, money was “dispersed as grants [to] be used to execute a political agenda driven by Russian entities.”
Here is the point: while the mainstream media, the anti-Trump Republicans, and the Democrat party are venting their anger over some inconsequential Russian “meddling” in the 2016 election, they are ignoring the millions of dollars the Russians have employed to great effect around the world to curtail energy production through pipeline and anti-fracking protests. We could go back even farther, and look into how much Russian money was behind the “nuclear freeze” and “liberation theology” campaign of the 1980s, the “Peace movement,” various anti-Israel protests, the campaign against “the neutron bomb” and probably dozens of other political and anti-capitalist movements over the past sixty years.
We hasten to add that we are not claiming that the proponents of those many causes are Russian agents, or even that those movements were wrong – only that the Russians were or are working toward the same goal. Pretty much the same charge made about their "support" for Mr. Trump in 2016. The environmentalists or peace advocates are acting out of a sincere idealism, the Russians are acting to create turmoil. There’s plenty of evidence for Russian support for scads of movements, and it is clearer evidence that the Russians are working on those campaigns than on the Trump campaign, and spent a lot more money on the former than on the latter. Yet, everyone is exercised about some possible “meddling” in the election but ignores the millions and millions of dollars the Russians have spent to influence and manipulate public opinion and to generate protests worldwide.
Despite the absence of any underlying crime, Robert Mueller is investigating Russian “collusion” with the Trump campaign, but why don’t we investigate to see the truth behind what the NATO Secretary-General and those Congressmen claim about Russian support for causes. What is it that the Matthew wrote about this phenomenon? Ah, yes – “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” If we are going to discuss meddling and interference, let’s discuss it all.