8 Jan, 2021 18:19

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FILE PHOTO © Sputnik / Alexey Nikolskii 

Vladimir Putin received “the biggest gift” from US President Donald Trump, who is a “complete tool” of the Russian leader and a useful idiot facilitating the Kremlin’s goal to “diminish the view of democracy in the world.”

No — you haven’t time-traveled back to 2017 — this is what Speaker of the US House Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday, one day after a group of radicalized Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington. After almost four years of a Trump presidency, the Democratic Party still believes the American head of state is in the Kremlin’s pocket.

Pelosi’s statement comes after a host of American pundits pointed the blame at Putin for the January 6 riots in Washington, DC, regardless of the fact the unrest was fermented by problems much closer to home. Despite a full term of an increasingly divided society and a narcissistic president who seems to be brainwashing his fanatical supporters with lies about vote-rigging and a stolen election, many Americans refuse to point the blame at themselves. Instead, they focus on Russia.

Writing on Twitter, ex-Barack Obama speechwriter Ben Rhodes claimed that Putin had been waiting for this day since 1990.

Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul called the Capitol storming a “gift to Putin.”

American TV anchor Lawrence O’Donnell dubbed the riot as “Putin’s wildest dream,” retweeting an article from Tel Aviv-based newspaper Haaretz claiming Trump was a Russian information warfare operation to sow chaos and undermine America.

The US state-run Voice of America even got in on the action, claiming that Russia is “enjoying the show.”

However, outside of US liberal elite circles, many Russia-focused experts noted that it is highly unlikely Putin would be happy about street riots and mobs storming government buildings.

Other Twitter users weren’t entirely buying the Putin narrative, with one comment noting that he has failed to influence electoral results in Russia’s near neighborhood, but somehow can control the “world’s greatest democracy.”

Whatever your take, one thing remains clear — no matter what, the American liberal elite will continue to point fingers at the Kremlin, for their own country’s failings, instead of conceding the issues are a home-grown phenomenon.