A hypothesis

I haven’t posted in a long time (too many fish, not enough barrels etc) but I thought I’d put this out there:

Putin is getting frustrated because, while Trump has delivered a lot of what Putin asked (weakening NATO, free hand in Syria, etc) he still hasn’t done enough to loosen sanctions on Russian oligarchs. But rather than throwing in the towel and releasing his abundant compromising material on Trump, he’s giving it one last shot by going directly to the Senate.

When seven senators and a rep suddenly visited Russia last week - on July 4 no less - I’m guessing Putin (or his people) outlined what the FSB knows in some detail. And they made it clear that it will all come out - permanently crippling a Republican president and the Republican Party with him - if they don’t move to lift sanctions. Fast. The “pee tape” is no doubt just a funny detail - the really damning stuff probably includes money laundering, election hacking, data theft, bribery, extortion, and more. Everything the FSB, via Manafort/Stone/Sater/Cohen er al, have been doing to advance the Trump family’s business and political interests going back 20+ years.

Sen Johnson’s recent comments isuggest that the warming made quite an impression. They’re scared. And they may only have four months left to do anything about it.

The next few weeks should be very interesting.