Does Donald Trump Understand Russia?

Donald Trump spoke about his relationship with Putin during the debate. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

New York Times: Trump Reveals His Ignorance on Russia

Donald Trump finally said something true.

During the debate tonight, Hillary Clinton brought up the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russian hackers stole emails from the Democratic National Committee to influence the election to Trump’s benefit. Maybe, she said, that was because Trump has praised Putin so much.

“I don’t know Putin,” Trump said.

Then he added that nugget of truth. “I know nothing about Russia,” he said.

He quickly tried to correct himself: “I know about Russia, but I don’t know about the inner workings of Russia.”

Because, of course, our next president should be ignorant about the “inner workings” of one of the country’s most aggressive and dangerous adversaries. (As if to demonstrate his ignorance, Trump later said that Russia, Syria and Iran are aligned because of weak leadership by President Obama. Actually, they have been aligned for decades.)

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WNU Editor: The only American politician who understood Russia/the Soviet Union/the Eastern bloc/etc. was President Reagan. Period. This is why he was so despised and feared by many in the Kremlin at the time .... he knew who and what they were, and he knew how to articulate his views that resounded in the minds of many in the East (mine included). Flash forward to today .... over the past few decades I have lost count on the number of books/journals/policy forums/discussions/interviews/debates/news reports/etc. that I have read, heard, or seen on Russia from the U.S. .... and guess what .... most (if not all) have been proven consistently wrong when it came to explaining what is happening in Russia .... especially today. Donald Trump's admission that he is ignorant on the inner workings of Russia was a breath of fresh air to me .... he is admitting something that no one in Washington has the courage to admit .... which is that they are clueless when it comes to Russia ... Hillary Clinton included.