"The need to remove the neurosis": why in the US Senate declared the absence of "ties" of Trump with Moscow

The head of the White House, Donald Trump, welcomed the statement by the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, about the absence of facts proving a conspiracy by the current US president with Moscow.

“Senator Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, just announced that for almost two years, following more than two hundred witness interviews and analyzing thousands of documents, no collusion between Trump and Russia has been revealed! Is it really unexpected for someone? ”- wrote Trump on his Twitter.

It has been a great deal. NO COLLUSION BETWEEN TRUMP AND RUSSIA! Is anybody really surprised by this?

Recall, on the eve of Burr gave an interview to CBS, in which he talked about how the investigation of the alleged collusion of Donald Trump's campaign headquarters with Moscow in 2016 is progressing. The senator said that he didn’t yet know what kind of conclusions the investigation would end, during which two hundred witnesses had already been interviewed and 300 thousand documents studied. In addition, the committee of the committee of the upper chamber of the congress held about twenty public hearings during the investigation and published two interim reports.

The senators could not speak with only one of the key witnesses - former MI6 agent of British intelligence Christopher Steel, the author of the secret dossier, which stated that Trump’s “connections” were with official Moscow. Initially, the author's name file was hidden, but he managed to reveal the American and British media. Today, Steele, according to media reports, works as one of the leaders of the analytical bureau Orbis Business Intelligence, founded in 2009. The company is engaged in private investigation and consulting.

• Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr
• Reuters
• © Aaron P. Bernstein

Steele was never called for interrogation in the US Senate, although many such attempts were made, Burr said.

The main question, the answer to which the commission of the upper house of the congress is to find, is related to the accusations against Donald Trump in “collusion” with Moscow, which allegedly helped the Republican win the elections. Speaking about this in an interview with CBS, Burr said that the commission was not able to identify any facts or evidence in favor of this version.

“When compiling a report based on clarified facts, we will have nothing to cite as evidence of an agreement between Trump’s headquarters and Russia,” the senator said, adding that his words are supported by data that had been received all the time.

According to Burr, although there were some episodes of interaction between people from Trump's entourage and Russian counterparties, there is no clear talk about political motives. At times, activity, which could be regarded as a kind of conspiracy, may have a completely different explanation.

“These ties may not be relevant to the 2016 American elections, but the fact of such ties does exist. The case may be in business, Russian special services may also be involved, and it may turn out that they all work for Oleg Deripaska, ”Burr stressed.

Senator Richard Burr voiced similar thoughts last September in an interview with Fox News. As the head of the Senate Commission explained then, it was not possible to find evidence in favor of the conspiracy, although he did not rule out the possibility that new details might appear in the case.

However, this did not prevent Burr from speaking in general about attempts to influence Moscow on the political situation in the United States. As the senator said last December, the Russian side tried and continues to try to split American society, bringing confusion and disagreement on issues of "race, religion and ideology." This senator said, commenting on the published report of the Computer Propaganda Research Project of the University of Oxford and the Graphika analytical company, which said that during the US election campaign, Russia was conducting propaganda in social networks, spreading distorted information.

However, Trump’s personal relations with Moscow were not mentioned in this document, nor was the report of the US Senate Intelligence Committee published in the summer of 2018. The committee then came to the conclusion that Russia allegedly tried to interfere in the electoral processes in order to harm Hillary Clinton.

However, despite this, the Senate Committee has not yet been able to put an end to its research - although it was expected that the results would be presented before the end of 2018, the investigation is still ongoing. As Richard Burr said in November, the investigation should not be expected to complete in the next six months.

"Response step"

A similar investigation is conducted today by the intelligence committee in the lower house of the US parliament. Congressmen had previously closed the investigation without finding any evidence of Trump’s links with the Russian authorities — in April 2018, the House Intelligence Affairs Committee published a report stating that Trump did not collude with Moscow, as well as the intent of such a deal. Trump and his team were only blamed on some “ill-considered and short-sighted decisions,” just like his rival Hillary Clinton.

• US President Donald Trump
• Reuters

At the same time, like colleagues from the Senate, the congressmen concluded that Russia was trying to bring confusion into the minds of ordinary Americans through an information campaign on social networks.

However, having received a majority in the lower house of parliament following the November elections, the Democrats resumed their investigation into the head of the White House. This was announced on February 7 by the head of the intelligence committee, member of the Democratic Party, Adam Schiff. Democrats do not hide the fact that they intend to start the procedure of impeachment of Donald Trump, and the investigation of the mythical connections of the head of the White House with the Russian authorities can be their only trump card in this game.

As it became known on February 10, not only the lower house intelligence committee, but also the financial services committee headed by Democrat Maxine Waters will be connected to this investigation. Together, they intend to investigate the actions of Deutsche Bank and its transactions with the Trump Organization. This was announced on Sunday by Adam Schiff, adding that he doubted how carefully these contacts were checked by Special Prosecutor Robert Muller as part of his investigation.

As Ivan Tsvetkov, associate professor of American Studies at the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University, explained in an interview with RT, there were serious contradictions between Trump and the Republican elite before, after the parliamentary elections the center of the main political struggle moved inside the congress: between the lower and upper chambers. Accordingly, the Republicans, who have the majority in the Senate, are less inclined to confrontation with the head of the White House.

“The statement of the American senator is explained by the need to remove the neurosis that exists in the US regarding“ Russian intervention ”against the background of the actions of democrats who have a majority in the lower house. Now the intrigue is whether the Democrats can take a reciprocal step - pull out new witnesses, get sensational testimony, and so on, ”the expert emphasized in an interview with RT.

According to Tsvetkov, against the background of the investigations that the relevant committees of the upper and lower chambers of the congress are now “racing”, the investigation of Special Prosecutor Robert Muller is somewhat dimming.

“Muller’s investigation will be completed, the report will definitely appear before the end of this year, but this is not the main battlefield,” the expert believes.

"Not the last point"

Recall, the investigation into the alleged "interference" of Russia in the US election campaign was launched in May 2017 under the leadership of Special Prosecutor Robert Muller. Donald Trump denied all the allegations from the very beginning, for his part, Moscow also expressed bewilderment over the suspicions of the Democratic Party.

During the time that has elapsed since the investigation began, the Muller team examined about one and a half million pages of materials, and also questioned about 30 witnesses. In November, Trump himself gave his testimony - the politician sent answers to the questions of the Special Prosecutor in writing.

During this time, even Robert Muller himself managed to play the role of defendant in court - a lawsuit against him in December 2018 was filed by one of the witnesses, a journalist and writer Jerome Corsi. He accused the special prosecutor of trying to pressure him to obtain the necessary testimony about the "involvement" of Julian Assange and former adviser to Trump Roger Stone to hacking the server of the Democratic Party in 2016. Corsi stressed that although he had never been in contact with Assange, they refused to believe this in Muller’s office.

• Voters leave polling station after voting
• Reuters
• © Aaron Josefczyk

According to experts, the fact that since 2017 neither the team of Robert Muller, nor the parliamentary commissions have managed to find evidence against Trump speaks for itself.

“If even one of these investigations were successful, the American domestic policy would seriously change, this would be instantly known. Congress would have happily prepared for impeachment, ”political analyst Alexander Asafov said in an interview with RT.

Trump's opponents cannot close the failed investigations for a number of reasons, analysts say. According to Ivan Tsvetkov, Russia is firmly entrenched in American political discourse as the main danger and it is difficult to even imagine that American politicians will come out and say that they were mistaken that Russia is a “threat”.

“Trump brags on Twittter that they didn't find anything against him. However, the words of Burr - not the last point in this story. Expect a real cessation of the investigation is not worth it. The theme of "Russian intervention" is just entering its new phase. We need to wait for new investigations to appear, including in the lower chamber, since they are actively working to find new leads and plots, ”the expert explained in an interview with RT.

According to Asafov, the topic of “Russian intervention” will be unwound, at least, until the next US presidential election in 2020. Only Trump's re-election or, on the contrary, defeat, can influence the change of political agenda. But even in this case, the investigations will not be solemnly closed, but simply quietly disappear.

“If they are closed, it will be done as quietly as possible, unless Trump demands to do it in public.” No one himself admits that investigations into “Russian interference” were conducted in vain - the campaign initiators will simply try to quietly push this topic down into the shadows, ”concluded Alexander Asafov.