A contrasting question was posed (as a thread title) and so I thought we should examine the question left unasked: has the American right wing empowered Putin? I say: yes.
Of course they have. To start I’ll post a link to a picture of the two guys at a Trump rally wearing shirts that they would rather be Russian than Democrat.
And those guys are just the tip of the iceberg.
I’ll give the obvious answer: the American right has empowered Putin by supporting and protecting Trump, who is somewhere between his preferred presidential candidate and his government’s asset. Or worse.
I’ll give the same response I’ll give in the other thread; the world doesn’t orbit around American politics. Putin doesn’t need the right or the left in America to empower him. His power base is in Russia.
The problem with our answer is at least threefold. No one asked if Putin needed the left or right to empower him. No one said the world orbited around American but Russia obviously did put effort into affecting it anyway. And while his power base is in Russia, his oligarchs have worldwide concerns.
Sure, but the American right has expanded Putin’s power in the world at large, and in so doing have also strengthened his grip on his power base in Russia.
Putin’s ability to move his ill-gotten gains around is absolutely subject to constraint by the actions of countries besides Russia. He is not a politician in the western democratic sense — he’s a gangster. And, like other gangsters, having the law — or “American politics” — on his side is a benefit.
I suppose they have empowered Putin mainly by weakening the USA; and perhaps Putin’s agents have empowered or at least enriched them–for now.
I was the 2nd Doper to pick “something else, somehow.”