this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024

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334

Kremlin confirms Putin received COVID-19 testing devices from Trump (thehill.com)

submitted 2 months ago by vegeta@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

32 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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[–] vegeta@lemmy.world 85 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Trump's 2024 campaign communications director Steven Cheung blasted Woodward's claims, saying in a statement, "None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true..."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-putin-covid-test-machine-bob-woodward-book-war/

Aged like spoiled milk. Though I guess taking the Kremlin at it's word isn't necessarily a good idea.

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Yeah, one of the most trusted journalists in world history just made it up

[–] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 59 points 2 months ago (5 children)

It's interesting that the Kremlin felt the need to confirm this. Why?

[–] ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 38 points 2 months ago

Putin frequently confirms or publicizes corrupt actions, when he knows nobody can do anything about them. It's part of the projection of power - not only can he act with impunity, but he can publicize it in various ways, and the fact that there will be no repercussions is itself a secondary assertion of power.

Similar to any US presidential candidate we know of?

[–] malloc@lemmy.world 30 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Diversion tactic. Promote political ~~discourse~~ discord in US so Russia can continue their atrocities in Ukraine

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 28 points 2 months ago

Because it shows power to those that need to know.

As the top post says: Republicans denied it happening. They might as well have played a soccer ball to Putins feet even though they're supposed to play on opposite sides, and then wondering why he kicked it back in their face.

They did that to show that they are in control. They can get whatever they want from a republican and spit in their face afterwards, because some idiots in the GOP are under their control.

The Russian mobsters like to remind people of their reach like that.

Its the same reason why they keep confirming people falling out of windows with two suicidal bullets to the head and such. It's mobster whistles.

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

Are you joking?

You don't know why the Kremlin felt the need to brag that they own a former president of the United States?

[–] diffusive@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

IMO is because Russia is a pariah now. It’s the same rationale that made Putin endorse Harris.

It’s the same narrative “we, the GOP, are against Russia… see? Putin endorses Harris. See? They fabricated a lie that Trump gave tests to Russia. Because Russia is afraid of the GOP”

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 44 points 2 months ago (3 children)

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Trump gets BURNED. There was absolutely no reason for the Kremlin to confirm this except to fuck Trump over, and now I'm wondering...why?

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Tbh they like to sow chaos as much as possible when it comes to geopolitical adversaries. Putin/the Kremlin also know that the conservative media sphere is often impervious to facts and logic, so who knows if the trumpians will even believe this.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 14 points 2 months ago

They would think it's a good thing if they did believe it.

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

You don't know why they're openly bragging that the former US president is a Russian agent?

They're making fun of Trump and and America. Bragging.

[–] abff08f4813c@j4vcdedmiokf56h3ho4t62mlku.srv.us 1 points 2 months ago

Me too. I thought Putin wanted him to win, while this would do the exact opposite.

I wonder (speculate) if this is a power play, that guy (say for example) tried to push Putin into accepting some kind of Ukraine peace deal and it wasn't generous enough, so this is how Putin pushes back?

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 28 points 2 months ago

Lmao I fucking hate both Trump and Putin, but it is absolutely hilarious that the latter threw the former under the bus so quickly

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The Orange Turd caught being Putin's puppet again.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

*cockholster

Tap for spoiler

[–] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Troll level over 9000.

[–] eran_morad@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why, though? This doesn’t seem to serve Putin’s interests.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Because it creates chaos

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 13 points 2 months ago

IT DOESN'T CREATE CHAOS, YOU'RE A PUPPET OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA!

Oh wait, I think I see your point.

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Putin is bragging to those who want to see a new world order led by Russia, Iran, and China.

The president of the US was his errand boy.

[+] corroded@lemmy.world -17 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I hate Trump almost as much as Putin, but in the midst of a global pandemic, should we be providing testing devices, vaccines, etc to whoever needs them as long as we have some to spare? Trump has a whole list of crimes that he should be locked away for. This isn't one of them.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The devices were for Putin's personal use, not for the people.

[–] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Trump also blocked COVID testing and PPE shipments while he was doing this

He literally cares more about Putin than the average American

[+] rbn@sopuli.xyz -7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Also during the pandemic, Putin was the leader of a relatively important country. If giving a few cheap tests to a global leader improves the relationship with the country by just 0.0001%, then I still think it's worth it. Even though these tests were rare at times, they were never really expensive. If you can bribe Putin a little bit with a tiny amount of money, I'd say go for it.

[–] CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think there is a difference between being nice to a hostile nation and giving up a valuable resource to them during a national emergency. Also that gesture got Trump nowhere and you have to look at the overall picture of what he did as president with foreign leaders.

Look at all the stuff he did for Kim Jong Un and how he snuggled up to that dictator and got nothing out of it. If anything, their meetings were a large detriment to the US relations with our allies in the end. Same thing with president Xi of china, he had plenty of great things to say to inflate that leaders ego but again we got nothing out of it and at some point it began to feel like jealousy for other dictators.

[–] rbn@sopuli.xyz -3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You don't have to convince me that Trump is a jerk. There are many scandals around Trump that deserve our attention but this one from my perspective is really not a big deal.

If Harris gifts Putin a nice pencil next week and there's a 0.001% chance for a positive impact, why not try it? Putin is a narcisstic dictator with tons of money. I doubt you can bribe him with money. A small gesture that's well thought out on the other hand, might reach him possibly if it comes at the right point in time.

[–] CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I can appreciate that but there are a million and one gifts to give him that your nation isn’t dependent on for survival. That’s the messed up part. You always take care of your people at home first, gifts second. Especially during a pandemic or other crisis. If people are panicking for a vital resource and you’re giving it away for diplomacy, you’re a dumbass

[–] rbn@sopuli.xyz 0 points 2 months ago

Is there an info on how many tests he gave away? As it's said to be for personal use, I would expect it to be a two digit number. Let's assume 50. What difference do 50 tests make for the survival of the nation? How many lives would have been saved if there would have been 50 additional tests? Hard to quantify. Could be none at all but also thousands. If you're very lucky you might test just the right person at the right point in time. And by putting that one person into quarantaine, you avoid a huge superspreader event. Or all 50 tests are negative. Maybe you even have some false negatives that cause a super spreader event.

Of course, the more tests a nation has and performs during a pandemic, the better. Fully agree. But it's hard to quantify the effect of such a small amount.

Similarly, it's very hard to quantify the effect of diplomacy. Maybe (most likely!) the gift had no effect at all. Maybe Putin didn't even use them in fear of contact poison on the swabs. But maybe, they also had some effect. Maybe the gesture subconciously influenced Putin to not do something stupid, do it a little later, or slightly less stupid. We'll never know. Not even Putin himself knows.

Independent of the diplomacy part, let's try to deconstruct the scandal into two parts.

Completely ignore the "Putin" part of this scandal. Let's assume Trump had a stash with Covid tests for his personal use. Let's assume someone finds out now that Trump hoarded 50 tests in his drawer all the time that he never used. The effect on the US pandemic would have been the same as giving the same number of tests away. Maybe even worse: If Putin used the tests and broke some infection chain, that might have saved people in Russia from catching Covid that might have travelled to the US later.
Now ignore the "Covid tests" part. If we assume a value of $5 per test, that leads to a total value of $250. So Trump gifted Putin a rare cigar or a nice pen whatever. This is completely normal diplomacy and global leaders exchange such things all the time. Also with nations that aren't your allies. So from my perspective, the Putin part of the scandal is not relevant and can be ignored.

What stays is "Trump reduced the number of available Covid tests in the US by 50". You can call that whataboutism but is this a scandal that deserves our attention in comparison to all the traitorous, imorral and illegal things he did?

[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 months ago

Actively denying it exist but sending tests to your bff is an issue.

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

The former US president is a Russian agent and Putin's personal errand boy.