Watching the Impeachment From Moscow: What Would Arkady Renko Say?

There is much to learn from Russia39s political experience It39s valuable in understanding the consequences of the coming acquittal of a president whose high crimes and misdemeanors are amply substantiated by evidence If he offered his ideas Renko39s insights into the abuse and corruption of power wouldn39t be philosophical they39d come from his experience on the job as an investigator for the Moscow city prosecutor Fictional or not they couldn39t be more relevant in Washington todayBecause of Smith39s masterful storytelling Renko knows all about the bribery graft and rot at the top of Russia39s nomenclatura amp8212 its Sovietturned Putinled kleptocratic elite amp8212 that permeates the organs of state power At one level crimes and corruption meld indistinguishably in his world Too much vodka an argument a handy knife Crimes du jour are crimes the maverick investigator might say They bring pain and suffering But corruption and political coverups at the highest level That takes a different tollRenko is a survivor who distinguishes himself because he refuses to succumb to the compliance of a corrupted bureaucracy or his society39s moral decay As for the other Russians he encounters some are his antagonists others find him a curiosity and a few of them help amp8212 sometimes at a price they would not have chosen to pay From the elected Republican ranks and Trump39s appointed sycophants to the professional diplomats and soldiers who testified on Capitol Hill the parallels revealed by the impeachment drama would be impossible for Renko to missSmith39s seasoned detective isn39t the only one who has something to say about political events and their Russian analogs Peter Pomerantsev a Russianborn journalist and TV producer can claim bragging rights for his prescience in laying out the Russian genesis of the public relations battle surrounding impeachment In Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible Pomerantsev39s 2014 memoircumanalysis of postSoviet Russia he explores the Kremlin39s manipulation of the media The analysis couldn39t be more germane to understanding Trump39s offensive against the press or Russia39s helpful continuing attack on American democracyToday Pomerantsev writes that the victory of Putin39s information war is clear In fact Trump all but surrendered two years ago when he asserted an equivalency between Russian and American political action abroad Meeting Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office in 2017 Trump said he was quotunconcerned about Russian interferencequot in the 2016 election because quotthe United States did the same in other countriesquot If that wasn39t enough to make Putin smile Trump has implicitly tipped his hat to Moscow39s information warriors The fabrications conspiracy theories and disinformation comprising his impeachment defense are straight from the playbook they perfected to control Russian media and help keep Putin in powerAmericans see their country as unique in history Indeed for many the United States is an exceptional nation The idea that others39 histories or political patterns as their democracies have eroded is relevant to the American experience remains foreign if not simply too hard to take To be sure that could change So far however the certain exoneration of a president contemptuous of the law and Constitution and his party39s failure in Congress in the face of the evidence to hold him to account suggest otherwiseAs Martin Cruz Smith wrote in Gorky Park Arkady Renko would say such ignorance is dangerous quotThere are not many road signs in Russiaamp8230quot He laughed quotIf you don39t know where the road goes you shouldn39t be on itquotClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Watching the Impeachment From Moscow: What Would Arkady Renko Say?

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Kent M. Harrington

FEMA and the Ad Council Encourage AANHPI Communities to Enhance Disaster Preparedness in New PSAs - Ad Council InSites

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Watching the Impeachment From Moscow: What Would Arkady Renko Say?

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Kent M. Harrington

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