• plyth@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    4 days ago

    The US pushed Jelzin’s election which led to Putin with the intent to avoid a Communist victory which is keeping Russia stuck where it is now since then. What Russia did was at most par for the course. However I think the influence is hugely exagerated. The claim is that Putin managed to compensate a $2 billion budget

    Trump had a budget of $500 million.

    but

    , he received free media attention valued at about $5 billion.

    https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate?id=N00023864

    Those $5 billion are the elephant in the room. The election wasn’t won on the internet but by established media companies. Those 340 million shares aren’t worth that much.

    Voting machines, registration processes, weekday voting and gerrymandering - that all originated in the US. A Russian blogger who points that out is not to blame for the current mess.

    Russia was involved but that involvement is used to distract from who else was involved even more.