Sensing Chaos, Russia Takes A "Wait-And-See" Approach To Trump

Democracy Now
March 1, 2017


Despite ordering an "influence campaign" to help Donald Trump in last year's election, the Kremlin is scrambling to respond to a win it didn't expect.
New Yorker editor David Remnick and staff writer Evan Osnos tell "Fresh Air's" Terry Gross.

Remnick, who lived and worked in Moscow from 1988 to 1992 and Osnos say Trump's victory has created unintended consequences for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"This was like a bank heist that, instead of blowing the doors off the safe, they blew the safe up entirely," Osnos says.

Remnick adds that Russian state-controlled media, which was full of praise for Trump during the campaign, has changed it's outlook of late.
"We've now had a month of chaos, and they've decided to take much more of a wait-and-see attitude."

Osnos and Remnick collaborated with contributor Joshua Yaffa to report on Trump, Putin and the "new Cold War" for the current issue of The New Yorker.

The title of their article, "Active Measures," is a reference to the type of intelligence operation in which the goal is to take active measures to influence events and undermine a rival power.

Watch interview//Read transcript:
http://www.npr.org/2017/03/01/517921957/sensing-chaos-russia-takes-a-wait-and-see-approach-to-trump