Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Biden confronts campus protests; Trump hedges on accepting election results

Americans are more likely to oppose than support campus protests

The grinding familiarity of the jocks-vs.-hippies proxy fight

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

Teen grabs wheel when driver passes out and school bus veers into traffic

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

The New York Times, alone in its outrage over access to Biden

The ‘Access Hollywood’ video cemented Trump’s air of invincibility

Wait, what is Stephen A. Smith talking about? Find out with our quiz.

The Post endorses April McClain Delaney and Tom Royals for Maryland’s 6th District

On Press Freedom Day, little to celebrate for Hong Kong’s journalists

Young Georgians want to be part of Europe. Their government is in the way.

The new cure-all for vacation excess: the IV drip 

What’s the best bus to New York? We tested 5 for comfort and value.

Adaptive equipment is making national parks more inclusive

In photos: At least 39 dead as historic flooding hits southern Brazil

Conservatives don't get why Kristi Noem killed her dog

Rooftop rescue of flood victims in Brazil

Confident of victory over Ukraine, Russia exhibits Western war trophies

Northern Gaza is in ‘full-blown famine,’ World Food Program leader says

Two women are seeking Mexico’s presidency. But the race is about a man.

In a pinch, the Nationals finally find some offense

The Capitals, a team in transition, know what they want this offseason

Is Pastis as good as our food critic thought? He sent spies to find out.

Trump Media auditor charged by SEC with ‘massive fraud’

Google’s empire is massive. A judge will soon rule if it’s a monopoly.

Five tech products we actually like

Ask Amy: My boyfriend just confessed he’s almost $20,000 in debt

Miss Manners: Is it inappropriate to reach out to old girlfriends?

Carolyn Hax: Longtime friend won’t forgive being last-minute canceled for a guy

See more coverage in your recommendations

Get the weekly Campaign Moment newsletter

Set alerts for major election developments

Election 2024

The Campaign Moment newsletter

Politics alerts

Zurab Kurtsikidze

Tension between Russia and Ukraine extends back decades, centuries. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fixation on Ukraine has more recent roots, but it is still rooted primarily in geopolitical considerations that intersect with the United States only tangentially, when at all.

That said, Russia’s intervention in parts of Ukraine that Putin has declared to be independent has escalated the salience of Russia-Ukraine politics in the United States. And that means it’s useful to walk through the ways in which this conflict has been intertwined through our politics over the past decade — particularly as it concerns former president Donald Trump.

Sign up for How To Read This Chart, a weekly data newsletter from Philip Bump

Some history is useful. In 2013, Ukraine’s president was Viktor Yanukovych, a member of a political party called the Party of Regions. He ran for president in 2004, as well, in a contest viewed by international observers as deeply corrupt. Yanukovych was initially identified as the victor over Viktor Yushchenko, but that result was invalidated after widespread protests (dubbed the Orange Revolution) that focused on questions about the validity of the vote. Yanukovych lost a second runoff vote.

There were also questions about the manner in which Yushchenko fell <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/03/12/remember-when-an-ukrainian-presidential-candidate-fell-mysteriously-ill/" target=_blank>suddenly and dramatically ill</a> during the campaign. He was apparently a victim of poisoning with the chemical dioxin. That Yushchenko was fervently supportive of moving Ukraine politically closer to Europe and further from Russia contributed to a sense that Russia may have had a hand in Yushchenko’s illness.

After his loss, Yanukovych and the Party of Regions <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/15/ten-years-ago-trumps-campaign-manager-warned-of-a-rigged-election-in-ukraine/" target=_blank>brought in an American consultant</a> who could bolster their political position. That consultant was Paul Manafort. He helped the party solidify power and, in 2010, helped Yanukovych win the presidency. That election, too, involved allegations of fraud but less so, in part, one diplomat <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/15/ten-years-ago-trumps-campaign-manager-warned-of-a-rigged-election-in-ukraine/" target=_blank>speculated</a>, because “Russian influence has been muted.” With Yanukovych’s victory, though, Russia gained far more influence in the country.

That brings us back to 2013. That November, Yanukovych refused to sign a free-trade agreement with the European Union, triggering a new round of protests that lasted several months. In February, riot police <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/02/27/what-does-ukraines-euromaidan-teach-us-about-protest/" target=_blank>overran</a> a protest camp, leaving about 100 people dead and hundreds injured. A few days later, Yanukovych fled the country. Ukraine’s Parliament voted unanimously to impeach him.

Yanukovych <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/world/europe/viktor-yanukovych-russia-ukraine-treason.html" target=_blank>appealed to Russia</a> to help return him to power. In eastern Ukraine, geographically and politically closer to Russia (and therefore the center of Yanukovych’s support in 2010), protests in support of Yanukovych began. In April 2014, separatists declared two regions of eastern Ukraine independent “people’s republics.” It was those two regions that Putin recognized as independent this week, but Russia was already providing support to military forces opposing the Ukrainian government in the regions.

By that point, Russia had already annexed the southern peninsula of Crimea. This triggered broad international opprobrium, including the ouster of Putin from the group of international leaders known as the Group of Eight. (It is now the Group of Seven.) In the United States, though, Putin found some support — if only because he provided a contrast with Democratic President Barack Obama.

Trump, whose Miss Universe pageant had been held in Moscow the year before (spurring Trump to wonder publicly if Putin might become his “best friend”), joined other Republican voices in celebrating Putin’s demonstrated geopolitical strength.

“We have to show some strength. I mean, Putin has eaten Obama’s lunch, therefore our lunch, for a long period of time,” he <a href="https://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/03/14/donald-trump-shuts-down-nbcs-matt-lauer-putin-has-eaten-obamas-lunch-106236/" target=_blank>said</a> during an appearance on the “Today” show. “And I just hope that Obama, who’s not looking too good, doesn’t do something very foolish and very stupid to show his manhood. I just hope that doesn’t happen.”

As Russia was bolstering its support for opposition actors in Ukraine, it was beginning its efforts to influence American politics. The investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/16/timeline-how-russian-trolls-allegedly-tried-to-throw-the-2016-election-to-trump/" target=_blank>determined</a> that the agency responsible for influencing social media in the United States, the Internet Research Agency, began its focus on U.S. campaigns in April 2014. In June of that year, two agency employees traveled to the United States to gather information aimed at aiding that effort. By 2015, the agency was spending thousands of dollars a month on ads aimed at elevating dissent in the country’s political conversation. It’s also understood that hackers working for Russian intelligence agencies first accessed the Democratic Party’s network that summer.

The summer of 2015 is also when Trump declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. It was a campaign predicated largely on domestic, not foreign, issues — in part because of Trump’s lack of familiarity with geopolitical debates. Asked by NBC’s Chuck Todd that August about allowing Ukraine to join NATO, Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/17/donald-trump-on-meet-the-press-annotated/" target=_blank>replied</a> that “whether it goes in or doesn’t go in, I wouldn’t care.”

That he was running a campaign focused on a rejection of business as usual in Washington tied Trump more closely to Russia in two ways. The first was that Russia’s influence efforts soon focused on seeking to boost his candidacy amplify the threat posed to the established political order. (Messages obtained by investigators from February 2016 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/16/timeline-how-russian-trolls-allegedly-tried-to-throw-the-2016-election-to-trump/" target=_blank>indicated</a> that both Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders [I-Vt.] were being boosted by the Internet Research Agency campaign.) The second was that well-known Republican campaign operatives avoided his candidacy, both because there was a surfeit of better-known candidates and because, at the outset, he didn’t seem likely to win.

So when Trump in the spring of 2016 was looking for someone to help manage his delegate-counting efforts before the convention, he took the <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/roger-stone-convinced-trump-to-hire-paul-manafort-former-officials-say" target=_blank>recommendation</a> of his longtime political adviser Roger Stone: Hire Manafort, who had previously done consulting work alongside Stone.

Manafort’s reputation was well-known elsewhere, which is one reason he was available. He was also already <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/manafort-interviewed-twice-by-fbi-before-joining-trumps-2016-campaign-new-documents-show/2018/04/24/bcf88ac6-47cc-11e8-827e-190efaf1f1ee_story.html" target="_blank">on the FBI’s radar screen</a> by that point. But Manafort had experience and offered to work for free, so he got the job. Eventually, he took over as campaign manager, ousted only once new reports about his payments from the Party of Regions drew new, unwanted attention to his ties to Russia.

The months before the 2016 election are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/24/timeline-what-weve-learned-so-far-about-russia-trump-campaign/" target=_blank>well-documented</a>. Manafort reached out to a Russian oligarch to whom he owed money, apparently seeking to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/09/20/paul-manaforts-ominous-email-to-an-aide-how-do-we-use-this-to-get-whole/" target=_blank>use his position</a> with the campaign to help resolve that debt.

Other Trump campaign representatives had contact with Russia through other conduits: Carter Page traveled to Moscow. George Papadopoulos was told that Russia accessed emails stolen from Hillary Clinton. Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-linked attorney met to discuss sanctions — a meeting predicated on the idea that Russia wanted to aid Trump’s election by providing dirt on Clinton. (“If it’s what you say, I love it,” Trump Jr. replied to that idea.) Russia used WikiLeaks to release material stolen from the Democratic Party and, later, from Clinton aide John Podesta. Stone repeatedly intimated that he had foreknowledge of what WikiLeaks was going to release. Manafort met with one of his former associates, one understood to be linked to Russian intelligence, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/15/government-finally-connects-line-trumps-campaign-russian-intelligence/" target=_blank>handed over</a> proprietary polling information from the campaign. Trump embraced the WikiLeaks releases and, at one point, called for Russia to publish emails stolen from Clinton. (Within hours, Russia’s hackers tried to access her private email server.)

Perhaps most important to the current moment was the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-campaign-guts-gops-anti-russia-stance-on-ukraine/2016/07/18/98adb3b0-4cf3-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html" target=_blank>decision</a> to soften pro-Ukraine language in the Republican Party platform at the 2016 convention. A delegate to the convention later <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/12/04/568310790/2016-rnc-delegate-trump-directed-change-to-party-platform-on-ukraine-support" target=_blank>pointed</a> to a Trump aide as the reason that language in favor of arming Ukraine was softened to more general support.

After Trump’s narrow win, details of the multipronged investigation into Russia’s efforts to influence the election emerged. Intelligence <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/national-security/obama-putin-election-hacking/" target="_blank">indicated</a> that Putin had directly advocated for promoting Trump and undercutting Clinton; details later came out about how that effort was undertaken. One effect of this becoming public was that Trump — concerned about perceptions that he had backed his way into the White House — was prompted to reject the determinations of intelligence officials and, by extension, to play down the evidence that Russia had wanted to help him win. (Whether it did is a subject of debate; if it did, it was through the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/19/actually-mueller-report-showed-that-russia-did-affect-vote/" target="_blank">WikiLeaks releases</a> and not <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/09/that-sophisticated-specific-russian-voter-targeting-effort-doesnt-seem-exist/" target="_blank">the social media effort</a>.)

Again, Trump’s predilection for Russia as president is well-documented. He sided with Putin repeatedly on the question of 2016 interference, finding it personally more useful to shrug at what Russia did than to elevate questions about how he won. He lashed out against intelligence agencies and the FBI’s probe of Russian interference and complained constantly about America’s allies.

The day after firing the director of the FBI in an obvious effort to derail the Russia probe, he took the unusual step of inviting Russia’s ambassador and foreign minister to a meeting in the Oval Office. He questioned America’s participation in NATO during the campaign and, as president, criticized NATO allies and the organization. He demonstrated more interest in becoming friends with autocrats such as Putin and only rarely spoke out against Russian interests. Putin wanted an American president who would weaken or ignore U.S. alliances, and he soon enjoyed the benefits of having one.

In 2019, Ukraine held another presidential election. This time, the country elected Volodymyr Zelensky, a well-known television personality who promised to target corruption. This was an ongoing problem in the country. In 2015, a number of international leaders called on Ukraine’s then-president to fire Viktor Shokin, the country’s top prosecutor, alleging that he had failed to aggressively combat corruption. At one point, the United States, in partnership with other international organizations, threatened to withhold loan guarantees if Shokin were not ousted. He was. Zelensky’s election was predicated on continuing that improvement.

Trump saw Zelensky as useful for other reasons, however. He was already looking ahead to his 2020 reelection bid and understood that Joe Biden was most likely going to be his opponent. Trump seized on a false allegation that the U.S. pressure to oust Shokin — delivered by Biden as vice president — stemmed from a promise by Shokin to investigate an energy company for which Biden’s son Hunter served as a board member.

There has been no evidence to support this claim; it appears to have originated from a vengeful Shokin. But Trump thought that having Ukraine investigate the actions of Joe and Hunter Biden — or at least to announce such an investigation — would aid his reelection effort. So, speaking to Zelensky by phone in July 2019, he urged him to announce such an investigation.

Over the next several months, a diplomatic effort operating outside traditional governmental pathways sought to extract such an announcement from Zelensky’s team. Trump allies <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/trump-impeachment-timeline/" target=_blank>halted</a> planned military assistance to Ukraine when no announcement of an investigation was forthcoming. (In that call with Zelensky, Trump infamously replied to the Ukrainian president’s request to buy weapons by saying, “I would like you to do us a favor, though.”)

Zelensky hoped for a White House meeting to send a message to Russia that the United States was unquestionably allied with Ukraine; Trump and his team delayed it indefinitely as they sought the announcement of the Biden probe. It was only once the government’s failure to provide the assistance drew public attention that aid was actually released — and that attention led to Trump’s eventual impeachment for leveraging his position to try to aid his 2020 campaign.

Again, though, one effect was to position Trump and his party as opposing Ukraine. That was literal to some extent, given the actual proven effort to withhold aid. But it was also rhetorical. To defend Trump’s interactions with Zelensky, Trump allies tried to cast Ukraine — not Russia — as the political body that had wanted to influence the 2016 election (despite a dearth of evidence to that effect) and, therefore, as the bad actor in the situation.

American intelligence agencies <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/16/977958302/intelligence-report-russia-tried-to-help-trump-in-2020-election" target=_blank>believe</a> that Russia again tried to boost Trump’s candidacy during his 2020 reelection bid, although not on the same scale as four years earlier. It was not successful, despite Trump’s claims of victory since then.

Once Trump was out of office, Putin again turned his attention toward solidifying Russian control over Ukraine. Prominent Republicans, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/22/trump-reacts-putins-invasion-ukraine-exactly-youd-expect/" target=_blank>including Trump</a>, wasted little time in expressing their respect for the effort.

The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America

Ohio State University

Philip Bump is a Post columnist based in New York. He writes the newsletter <a href="https://wapo.st/3m3QTiy">How To Read This Chart</a> and is the author of <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/696653/the-aftermath-by-philip-bump/">The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America</a>.

Philip Bump

the-washington-post

Ukrainians mark 8th anniversary of the violent Maidan protests, Kiev, Ukraine - 20 Feb 2022

EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Biden administration

The Fix

The 202s

Polling

Democracy in America

Balance of Power Pair

U.S. House Aggregate

U.S. Senate Aggregate

Politics

washpost

iptc-media/politics/political_process

iptc-media/politics/international_relations/diplomacy

iptc-media/politics/international_relations/diplomacy/summit_meetings

iptc-media/crime_law_and_justice

iptc-media/politics/government

iptc-media/politics/election

iptc-media/politics/international_relations

iptc-media/politics/government/defence

iptc-media/politics/political_process/political_system

iptc-media/conflict_war_and_peace/armed_conflict/war

iptc-media/politics/political_process/political_system/democracy

iptc-media/politics

iptc-media/politics/government/heads_of_state

iptc-media/society

iptc-media/politics/political_process/political_parties_and_movements

client-blocklists/Client List: Becton Dickinson KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/CLIENT LIST: Nomura KWs 2021 - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Johnson & Johnson KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Bed Bath & Beyond KWs - INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Exxon Mobil  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/WaPo: Combined Disaster Keyword List - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: USAA KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: T. Rowe Price KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Google PG KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Microsoft KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/T. Rowe Price KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/Workday Persona: CFO

client-blocklists/HBO KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Ford/Lincoln KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Discover Card KWs – INCLUDES ANY

advertising/European Content

client-blocklists/Capital One (One Tech) KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Louis Vuitton KW List - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY - 12.23.20

client-blocklists/Client List: Diageo - Johnnie Walker KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/ Client List: Mercedes EQS KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/Flu, Sickness & Virus Content

client-blocklists/FlexForm KW List - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Boeing KWs 2021- INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Morgan Stanley KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Organon KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T KWs 2021 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Verizon KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/P+ Halo KW List - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Synchrony Financial KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/ExxonMobil 03312021 KWs - INCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Ukraine-Russia (Apple News) KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Showtime KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/Hybrid Work

advertising/IMF Custom

client-blocklists/Client List: Apple TV+ KW – INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Business_legacyaux_hws

client-blocklists/Client List: Ronald McDonald House KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Campaigns and Campaign Finance_legacyaux_l7e

client-blocklists/Client Neg KW List: Omega KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/PMI KWs 2021 - EXCLUDE ALL

client-blocklists/Marcus Goldman Sachs Neg KW List - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Congressional Elections_legacyaux_r48

client-blocklists/GEICO KWs - INCLUDES ANY_4.26.21

client-blocklists/Blockist: Capitol Building Mob

client-blocklists/Client List: Eli Lily KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Culture and Tradition_legacyaux_kfx

advertising/B2_Cyber Security & Intelligence Community_legacyaux_E8X

advertising/B2_Defense_legacyaux_yxn

client-blocklists/Client List: Citibank KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Embassy, Ambassador, & Diplomat Content_legacyaux_1ho

client-blocklists/Citibank KWs 2021 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Purina KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/Fortune 500 Content

advertising/Qualcomm Custom KW - 5G

advertising/Citrix Mindfulness

client-blocklists/Client List: Fidelity Investments KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/CME KW List 2022 - EXCLUDES ALL 

advertising/B2_Government & Policy_legacyaux_mza

advertising/B2_Health and Beauty_legacyaux_3fv

client-blocklists/Bank of America KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Chase KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/Client Keywords: On Running

advertising/Racing and Nascar Enthusiasts

client-blocklists/BP KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Independent_legacyaux_2ez

advertising/B2_Consulting_legacyaux_s68

advertising/B2_International Conflicts & Relations_legacyaux_5l0

advertising/B2_International Relations_legacyaux_a8t

client-blocklists/National Instruments KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Intel KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T Digital Divide  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Samsung 2021 KWs - INCLUDE ANY

advertising/B2_Politically Active - DO NOT REMOVE_legacyaux_lmp

client-blocklists/Google PG Competitor KWs - EXCLUDES ALL 

advertising/B2_Politics_legacyaux_8f3

advertising/B2_Positive News_legacyaux_hlt

advertising/B2_President and Administration_legacyaux_kxq

advertising/B2_Russia & Putin_legacyaux_F55

advertising/B2_Society_legacyaux_0cz

advertising/Hitachi continuum

advertising/B2_Young Professional / International Businessman_legacyaux_r5x

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Siemens KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Cisco KWs - INCLUDES ANY

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/politics&limit=20

Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.

Post Politics from The Washington Post is the source for political news headlines, in-depth politics coverage and political opinion, plus breaking news on the biden administration and White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, elections and more.

prism://prism.query/site,/politics/the-fix&limit=6

Keeping up with politics is easy with The 5-Minute Fix Newsletter, in your inbox weekdays.