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CNN just absolutely exploded with Russophobia this week after Donald Trump's comments about Vladimir Putin in his Commander-in-Chief Forum interview with Matt Lauer. You had CNN prime time hosts like Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper falling all over themselves to analyze the whole Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin bromance angle, with Burnett even calling Putin "Trump's obsession."

And it wasn't just Burnett and Cooper — you had normally level-headed political analysts like Gloria Borger and John King suggesting that Trump's comments about Russia and Putin were traitorous, unpatriotic and treasonous. And you had the very diligent Manu Raju trying to track down just about every Republican he could find in Washington, in order to ask them what they thought about Trump's Putin comments at the Commander-in-Chief Forum — a segment that included Senator John McCain escaping into an elevator while calling Putin "a murderer and a thug."

There's just one problem with this. It's not unpatriotic or treasonous if you support better U.S.-Russian relations. It's not unpatriotic or treasonous to suggest that the U.S. president needs to talk with his Russian counterpart. And it's not unpatriotic or treasonous to suggest that Russia might become an equal partner of the United States in helping to defeat ISIS. This isn't the Cold War era all over again, even if that's the narrative that the mainstream media crowd wants to run with these days. Maybe the folks at CNN and NBC have been watching too many episodes of "The Americans."

Judging by the gaping mouths on CNN after the Commander-in-Chief Forum, the very idea that Trump might support better relations with Russia or a better working relationship with Vladimir Putin struck just about everyone at CNN as scandalous. And it's not just CNN. The Washington Post's article on Trump's praise of Putin has already picked up over 12,000 comments. Clinton is having a field day now, trotting out Trump's Putin comments as proof that he's about to hand over America to the Russkies.

Clinton, just like CNN, is suffering from a particularly nasty case of Russophobia. In simple terms, Russophobia is a kneejerk reaction to anything about Russia, immediately dismissing it as bad, evil, or just plain dangerous. CNN's Russophobia means that anyone who dares to articulate a Russian partnership idea is immediately dismissed as a "stooge" — or worse. That's because — according to those infected with Russophobia— Russia is a land of gangsters, cheaters, liars, mafia kingpins, Communist fanatics, murderers and just some really bad dudes. (Cue the Putin thug life video)


The suggestion on CNN was that Trump was somehow "being played" by Putin, who was deploying some advanced KGB mind jujitsu on Trump. Unfortunately, this is the same media shaming that Russian scholars like Stephen F. Cohen endure whenever they appear on TV. (and probably the same media shaming that this piece will receive, which will be added to the "basket of the deplorables.")

The sole Russia expert that CNN seemed to consult on the matter was Masha Gessen, who literally wrote the book about why Putin is the most evil guy in the world. (She called her book The Man Without a Face— so you can guess her view on the matter) Unfortunately, CNN's inability to convene a real panel discussion on U.S.-Russian relations means that any American politician even shaking the hand of Putin is going to cause apoplexy at CNN.

However, this intense demonization of Putin and Russia runs counter to everything we're seeing in geopolitics these days. For better or worse, Russia is a player these days on the world stage, and America's attempted isolation of Russia is slowly cracking.

Look at the G20 Summit — China was courting Russia and rolling out the red carpet for Putin at the same time that the Chinese didn't even roll out the airplane stairs for President Obama to disembark from Air Force One. Putin was a guest of honor at the same time that Obama and Putin got involved in an epic stare down that could easily be used as a promotional poster for a boxing fight.

And it's not just China. You have Japan specifically breaking the unwritten Western ban and meeting with Putin in Sochi — something that Washington expressly told Tokyo it couldn't do. But the Japanese are wary of China's heft in the region and aren't so sure whether the U.S. still has its back, so there's now a sense that Russia might be a good hedge just in case. You should see the way Shinzo Abe ran to shake Putin's hand:
(At least Trump didn't do this...)


You also have European leaders breaking ranks and meeting with Putin. It started with leaders in Eastern Europe and now the willingness to meet with Putin extends to France and Germany. Even the UK post-Brexit, under new Prime Minister Theresa May, is making overtures to Russia.

That's right, the same nation that seemed to be America's rival in who could make more Russophobic statements about Russia — the UK — actually decided to meet with Putin in China at the G20. Post-Brexit, the UK is suddenly realizing that it needs as many friends as it can find if continental Europe is going to give it the cold shoulder.

And then you have Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia willing to meet with Putin and shake his hand. And now even Israel— America's greatest ally outside of the UK — has been making the trip to Moscow, to meet personally with Putin about the Middle East.

And that takes us back to the Commander-in-Chief forum. The point that Trump made about Russia during the interview involved the Middle East — Russia's generals want to crush ISIS as much as America's generals want to. Ever since Chechnya, the Russians have played hardball with the terrorists. If involved in a cage match with Russia, the cowardly ISIS terrorists would probably tap out after the first round.

So the idea that Trump is somehow the only one "stooge" willing to do business with the Russians is just not true. You have (I repeat) — the UK, France, Germany, Japan, China, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran willing to do business with Putin. Not to mention Italy, Hungary and a few other nations in the EU.

The question really becomes: Is Trump a "stooge" who's "getting played" by the Russians? After all, according to CNN's Russophobic logic, Putin is praising Trump in order to tame him and lure him into a false sense of security. As soon as Trump is elected, the CNN thinking goes, Putin will run rampant in the Baltic States and start nibbling away at Ukraine, confident that Trump has got his back.

In short, Russophobia assumes that any overture from the Russians is just a ninja mind game trick. After all, Putin's plotting to rig our elections, just like some James Bond villain, right? Interestingly, George H.W. Bush ("41") had the equivalent title as Putin when he was the head of the CIA, but does any media narrative ever take this same approach — "meet George Bush, the evil American spymaster, playing mind games with his Soviet rivals?" It would seem ridiculous.

So this is where the Russophobia angle is so dangerous — it necessarily implies that any suggestion of better U.S.-Russian ties has to be stamped out, ridiculed and eradicated. It means defaming and shaming anyone who dares to open the Overton Window on Russia.

However, Trump, like it or not, is telling it like it is. In a great compilation video, the Washington Post offered a quick summary of Trump's thinking about Russia. Honestly, some of what Trump says makes a lot of sense — why do we want people in the world to hate us? Well, you can't get people to stop hating you if you don't talk to them.

So why is Trump so "obsessed" with Putin (as CNN claims)? There have been a handful of theories trotted out by the media. It could be a "bromance" between two alpha males. (For some reason, the Brokeback Mountain Putin-Trump meme has been popular, so there's that) It could be that Trump has plans to become an authoritarian leader and admires Putin's work (82 percent approval ratings, hello!). It could be that shady Russian business interests have propped up Trump's real estate empire, and Trump "owes them." It could just be that Trump's naïve — he's "getting played" and he's way out of his depth on this one.

Or... it could be the case that Trump's traveled to Eastern Europe and to Russia and realizes that, 25 years after the demise of the Soviet Union, Moscow is not such a scary place anymore. Trump wants to build hotels there. Remember, too, Trump's current wife is from Slovenia, formerly part of Yugoslavia, which once used to be behind the Iron Curtain.

Perhaps the best cure for Russophobia is actually spending some time in Russia, meeting the people on the street and not being afraid to find some common ground. (Walking down the streets of Moscow in broad daylight helps, as John Kerry can tell you) In contrast, you can almost imagine Clinton's foreign policy team hunkered down on the tarmac every time they arrive in Moscow, fearful for their very lives. For Trump, it's just a matter of doing another deal with a really tough negotiator.

This is not to say that Russia is a pushover, a little bear cub that America can train to perform amazing circus tricks. But consider some of the people that America does business with these days. The leader of Turkey just carried out a purge of his own government. The Saudis — they attacked us on 9/11. Do we complain? Nyet.

The world is a tough, scary place in which only the strong survive. Trump may be a bit of a loony tunes character sometimes, but he intuitively understands that life on the political stage can be nasty, brutish and short. People don't respect you if you're not willing to get down in the trenches and show them that you can take it just as well as you can dish it out.