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Dr. Snyder - is it too dangerous for you to give us your ideas on what trump is gaining from his deep, weird relationship with Putin? I think we have all guessed at possibilities like Putin has some kind of leverage on trump with secrets. But that no longer seems plausible because it seems like no information about how corrupt or indecent trump is has stopped his trajectory. Everyday, while being furious, I’m dumbfounded and mystified by what trump is gaining. For sure, we’re the biggest losers.

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There have been recent articles quoting a former CIA Russian Specialist about Trump being recruited when he visited Russia in the 70's. T's code name Krasnov. How credible are these reports? What are the reasons T could have to cozy up to P now? We've heard T wants his legacy to be as a peacemaker - okay - but how does appeasing Russia serve that interest? As an historian, Prof Snyder, perhaps you can help us understand how we got to this point -- and how we can dial it back.

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Prof. Snyder has already told us how we got to this point, nearly 7 years ago in "The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America" (2018; updated Kindle ed. 2023). This little book is probably the best on the subject. When the first hardbound edition was published in 2018, he was way ahead of most scholars—so far ahead that many rejected its claims. Now it's considered to be the standard work on the subject. I've read it twice.

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You don’t need an intelligence expert on this, just a decent journalist like Wayne Barrett or a columnist like Charles Pierce. The connections go back to his father, back to the 1940s and machine politics in NYC. He wasn’t recruited; he was born into it.

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See above my reply

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