mcfaul
Michael McFaul
Many people celebrated the Democratic Party's takeover over the House, on social media, but one person in particular couldn't help switching to the Russian language to celebrate, what he believes to be, a defeat of Vladimir Putin.

Michael McFaul, who served as Barack Obama's ambassador to Moscow and became an avid commentator on all things Russian after leaving office, is apparently overjoyed to see his favorite party back in control of the lower chamber of the US Congress. He cheered the result with a post in Russian saying: "Victory! Regards to VVP," using the initials of Russia's president, whose full name is Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Another post simply said "Yes!" in Russian in response to the expected victory.

The former diplomat, now an academician and author of a book about his tenure in Moscow and US-Russian relations, is apparently convinced that Putin would be upset with the results. This is because, as you know, he is the not-so-secret puppet master behind Donald Trump, blackmailing him into imposing anti-Russian sanctions, trying to take over Russia's share of the European energy market, forcing Russia to spend more money on nuclear weapons and doing other things that make Putin happy.

Another familiar voice declaring a triumph over the Russian president in the midterms is William Browder, a US-born British investor shark, who reimagined himself as a brave human rights crusader after being accused of financial crimes in Russia. Browder celebrated a victory in a "proxy war in Orange County", because "Putin minion" Dana Rohrabacher failed in his reelection bid there. It's really convenient when you can declare, with impunity, that people you disagree with are minions.

The US media have started preparing adherents of the Trump-Putin collusion theory for disappointment after valiant knight in shining armor, Robert Mueller, fails to produce a presidency-ending revelation once his investigation concludes.

'Russiagate' was virtually absent from the actual midterm campaigning, probably because Democrat voters didn't care about how the party establishment chose to deflect blame for their 2016 failures.