A White House that is no longer political: Paul Manafort's indictment, in the big picture

When asked to comment on Russia and the rise of populist movements in America and the EU, Ian Bond, a former adviser to NATO and director of Foreign Policy at the CER in London, expressed a similar opinion. “I basically agree with Mark. The Kremlin has not created these discontents or these movements. The problems of inequality, the problems of alienation and loss of trust in the political process were there before Vladimir Putin came to power, and they have probably intensified in recent years, certainly since the 2008 economic crisis…This is the weakness of Western society. The extent to which Russia has exploited the different populist movements is variable.”