What America Needs to Know About Trump and Russia

In the United States, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security and director of National Intelligence have concluded that Russia hacked email accounts, selectively releasing messages, to help Donald Trump win the presidency. “The American public doesn't have access to the data the intelligence community – all 16 agencies combined –have on the Russian government, its banks and oligarchs, and their relationships with Trump's campaign, his business ventures, and the president-elect himself,” writes Evelyn Farkas for Politico. "That must change before January 20.” Russians operatives squash democratic yearnings and controls, aiding radical far-left and far-right parties in Europe and elsewhere that will do their bidding. Trump's critics question how much foreign money is involved in Trump’s businesses, who lends money and who provides collateral and otherwise consider policy decisions as suspect. Crtics express concern that a cozy US relationship with Russia is a threat, encouraging autocrats like Bashar al Assad in Syria, diminishing security arrangements like NATO and endangering top-secret technologies. Farkas concludes, “Nothing like this level of foreign interference in American democracy has even been imagined in modern political history.” – YaleGlobal