Donald Trump's overtures to Russia are but one of the many unwelcome/questionable actions he has taken since he was re-elected President, but a discussion of them would, I feel, have derailed the dedicated Trump thread.  His motives for currying favour with Vladimir Putin & his apparent readiness to appease him are to me unfathomable.  That said, given that his politics has always been based on what he wants & who can give it to him (never mind the US national interest), maybe the full version of the oft-quoted Churchill aphorism about the enigma that is Russia goes some way towards explaining it:  "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key.  That key is Russian national interests.".  In other words, he recognises some kind of fellow traveller, one who is equally adept at feathering his own nest & whom no one apparently knows how to stop.  Could it, I wonder, be argued that, by saying what he has to Putin, he has given given every other dictator in the world the green light to turn a blind eye to established international law, trade agreements & human rights & to ignore time-honoured borders?

More broadly (hence this separate thread), I found this analysis on the BBC News web site uncomfortable reading.  One paragraph (among many!) gave me pause for (further) thought:

"The Russians", says the author and expert on Russia, Edward Lucas, "have probably already planted their underwater drones on the seabed, waiting for orders which may or may not come, to carry out an attack on cables and pipelines. Their surveillance ship, the Yantar [monitored by the Royal Navy in the North Sea/Channel a couple of times in recent months], has been doing God-knows-what on the seabed for years".

I shudder to think what Putin & his Neanderthal cronies in the Kremlin have planned for us in the (still relatively) civilised West in the not-too-distant future if Trump lets him prevail.