Anton Troianovski, writing for the Wall Street Journal on the 15th, indicated the tit-for-tat exchanges of expulsions of diplomats has returned to the new Cold War. Similar to what Canada did in April, Germany has been quietly expelling suspected spies, rather than announcing them publicly. He also mentions that Merkel and Putin had a 3-hour meeting during the G-20 conference last week, though many have indicated Putin was meeting with quite a few leaders, then found little sympathy or support and went home early.
It is not hard to remember this kind of thing happening, but along with it, Putin doubled down on increasing his presence on radars in Europe and the U.S. The Washington Post said his bombers penetrated coastal defenses 16 times in 10 days. His diplomatic style is the opposite of Obama's. He wants to be in your face, which is harder for guy 5'7". He has to adapt.
What we have been linking to these kind of events is the increase in hacking attributed to Russia, with both commercial and government targets The White House and State Department have finally discovered hacking at their door, though it has been around for a long time, 25 years at least. The difference is they are no longer "Eastern European" hackers; now they are Russians. The icing up of relations will likely expose a lot more the Russians have been up to. They have been doing it all along, but the press and the White House have finally decided to say who it really is. I'm wondering why they waited so long.
No comments:
Post a Comment