The Russians thrive on misinformation and disinformation.
Russia was dependent on China growing and driving the demand for its commodities: oil, gas and minerals. China was an alternative to Europe.
The whole purpose of Russian propaganda is to show that the U.S. and U.S. politics is filled with hubris and hypocrisy and to show it is not better than anyone else.
We've got ourselves into a situation where government service is somehow seen to be a political act rather than an act of civic duty or of public service.
We have politicized the issue of Russia to a point that we can't have a sensible conversation about it.
The people who run the giant companies and the government are all part of the same crowd.
There is a good supply of Russia experts out there - people who have lived there with lots of good experience - but the demand has just not been there from government.
The problem in Pankisi is an extension of broader problems throughout Georgia. The whole system is based on shady deals. The entire government is corrupt.
Everybody used to talk about Chechnya as a place, in the Russian imperial and Soviet periods, that was essentially governed by extended family and regional networks that substituted for older clan structures. But those networks have been destroyed.
So Putin is not the dictator that he's often accused of being. He has to be very sensitive to public opinion.
I applied to Oxford in the '80s and was invited to an interview. It was like a scene from 'Billy Elliot.' People were making fun of me for my accent and the way I was dressed. It was the most embarrassing, awful experience I had ever had in my life.
In the instance of Iran for Russia, Iran is a very important counterweight to the Sunni Muslim powers in the Gulf, but Russia's always been very concerned about potentially proselytizing and supporting groups inside of the Russian federation itself.
The Russians didn't invent partisan divides. The Russians haven't invented racism in the United States. But the Russians understand a lot of those divisions and they understand how to exploit them.
President Trump understands that President Putin does not like to be insulted. Putin takes it very personally. He harbors a grudge. He doesn't forget. And he will find some way of getting some degree of revenge as a result of that.
So with President Obama, he's a very different style. Very thoughtful, posed.
The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016.
President Putin and the Russian security services operate like a super PAC. They deploy millions of dollars to weaponize our own political opposition research and false narratives.
I can say with confidence that this country has offered for me opportunities I would never have had in England.
I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize an alternate narrative that the Ukrainian government is a U.S. adversary, and that Ukraine - not Russia - attacked us in 2016.
Because the more you engage with someone who is spreading untruths, the more validity you give to those untruths.
