re: #109 Big Beautiful Door

Putin did what he set out to do - create chaos in the US by manipulating the media, political outcome, and low-information voters into picking the most ignorant and compromised candidate in the history of the nation.

The creation, like Frankenstein, is beyond his immediate control, or so he’d like people to think. But the chaos he’s inflicted inures benefits to him, where even “deteriorated US-Russia relations” means that Putin’s benefiting.

How?

Oil prices.

Conflict, or the threat of conflict, is a great way to boost oil prices, and Russia is heavily dependent on oil prices. Even Trump benefits from higher oil prices, since states that went for Trump rely disproportionately on oil and gas revenues to sustain their budgets, including the Dakotas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas among others. That too would put pressure on delivering more oil to market, and push for approval of pipelines that slice through sensitive areas, watersheds, and tribal lands.

Putin’s game in Syria is to maintain support for a client who continues buying weapons from Russia, and to maintain a base in the Med at Tartus. Putin also has interest in keeping Islamic State from overrunning Assad, but only just. Bogging down the West in conflict means Putin gets to continue his own power grab.