All Roads Did Lead To Putin In 2019

Nancy Pelosi asked Donald Trump, "Do all roads lead to Putin?"

She had a point. Trump has tried to lift sanctions on Russia and refused to impose new sanctions passed by Congress. He still refuses to believe that Russia interfered in our 2016 presidential election, and has taken Putin's word that it was Ukraine (not Russia) that did that. Trump has also damaged our relationship with our allies in Western Europe, and still doubt the efficacy of NATO.

When it comes to Trump, all roads do indeed lead to Putin. But Trump is not the only road to Putin. Putin has had a very good year in 2019.

Here is how Andrew Higgins describes Putin's very good year in The New York Times:

Its economy, already smaller than Italy’s, may be sputtering but, two decades after a virtually unknown former K.G.B. spy took power in the Kremlin on Dec. 31, 1999, Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin, have just had what could be their best year yet.

The United States, an implacable foe during the Cold War but now presided over by a president determined to “get along with Russia,” is convulsed and distracted by impeachment; Britain, the other main pillar of a trans-Atlantic alliance that Mr. Putin has worked for years to undermine, is also turning inward and just voted for a government that vows to exit the European Union by the end of January.

The Middle East, where American and British influence once reigned supreme, has increasingly tilted toward Moscow as it turned the tide of war in Syria, provided Turkey, a member of NATO, with advanced missile systems, and signed contracts worth billions of dollars with Saudi Arabia, America’s closest ally in the Arab world. Russia has also drawn close to Egypt, another longtime American ally, become a key player in Libya’s civil war, and moved toward what looks more and more like an alliance with China.