(Miscellaneous comments from pieces dealing with Russia I’ve collected. Most of them anonymous or with pseudonyms. They are chosen to illustrate either rabid hostility to everything Russian or stone-dead ignorance of present reality. I post from time to time when I have enough, spelling mistakes and all.)

Putin-style glorification of the Soviet regime is entering the mind of the president, inspiring his words and—who knows—perhaps shaping his actions. How that propaganda is reaching him—by which channels, via which persons—seems an important if not urgent question. But maybe what happened yesterday does not raise questions. Maybe it inadvertently reveals answers.

David Frum: Why Is Trump Spouting Russian Propaganda? The president’s endorsement of the U.S.S.R.’s invasion of Afghanistan echoes a narrative promoted by Vladimir Putin. The Atlantic 3 January 2019.

Frum, in his account, doesn’t give any reason for the Soviets to invade that contradicts what Trump said. He is also, it seems, unaware of Zbigniew Brzezinski’s involvement in enticing the Soviets to invade. The beginning, as it happened, of a long process that got us to 911 as Washington alternately supported and opposed jihadists.