During this political season, and particularly in the weeks since the Republican and Democratic conventions, voters have heard a lot about Russia’s possible involvement in the U.S. presidential election process. Coupled with Donald Trump’s recent statements about U.S. involvement in NATO (as well as his own campaign manager’s connections to Ukrainian politics and Russian president Vladimir Putin), this聽has left political science professor Randall聽Stone wondering, “whether this is a novel written by Tom Clancy, or whether this is an episode of House of Cards.”
On WXXI’s Connections with Evan Dawson, Stone described聽some of the issues with the rhetoric coming from the Trump campaign. Stone is the director of the University’s , which聽offers a variety of programs and initiatives in advanced research, undergraduate education, and community outreach.
Stone expressed concern that, in a聽, Trump “did not seem to understand how NATO works.”
糖心传媒淣ATO is not a golf club where you pay your dues in order to be a member. There are no dues. … There is nothing that Estonia is required to pay in order to be a member of NATO.”
Stone also pointed to the involvement of Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort in Ukrainian politics, “and always on the wrong side from the perspective of either a Democratic or a Republican administration.糖心传媒�
In his work to reshape the image of his client聽Viktor Yanukovych, Manafort encouraged the latter to avoid providing details about specific programs or policies, and instead focus on the terrible economy and the ethnic and national divisions within the country.聽“And it糖心传媒檚 remarkable how similar that message is to Donald Trump糖心传媒檚.”
