The connection between the Trump Administration and the Kremlin is dangerous because Trump is already a man with autocratic tendencies, and the Kremlin is filled with people who know exactly how to make their citizens meekly accept such authoritarianism. But first, some background:

As a young man, I felt more Ukrainian than American. In some ways my parents’ personal history made my life at home pretty adventurous – Romantic with a capital R. Stories of being forced from their homes and sent by train to unknown and forbidding destinations. Navigating dangerous refugee camps, learning to communicate in a third and fourth language. Dodging Allied machine guns strafing the countryside. Making the courageous decision to move to another continent and learn yet another language.

I grew up learning Ukrainian as a first language, all the while hearing about the old country, a comfortable place where everything was done properly, correctly, and according to custom.

But not everything was idyllic. My life in upstate New York, while pleasant enough at times, had a certain threatening air about it. Requests were never made. My brothers and I were alerted to tasks our parents wanted done in a way that never involved asking or explaining. Family plans were made in secret, methods to be used determined in advance, and orders being issued in a tone normally reserved for privates in the army, prisoners, or beasts of burden. No smiles just work, work, work. I couldn’t help but think, If this is how it was in the old country, I’m not sure it was the Canaan they described it to be.

Right or wrong, I certainly felt somewhat put-upon as a youngster. However, living in an ethnic neighborhood where others my age had similar experiences made this existence infinitely more tolerable. I used to attribute the brutishness of my parents to their own experience as the hardworking children of farmers in a rural setting about 100 years behind that of the west, but not everyone in our neighborhood came from such a background. Some of my parents’ immigrant neighbors were officials in their local government. Some were the children of professionals back in Ukraine. Some had more or less education than the eight years my mother was able to squeeze in before the fields beckoned. So why did all of my parents’ contemporaries sound as autocratic with their children as my Mom and Dad sounded to me?

Autocracy. I feel I’ve suffered under it first-hand. Autocracy is why Russia is important, or more aptly, this is why Russia’s influence over Donald Trump is important. It doesn’t even matter if the collusion between them during the election ever amounts to a criminal act. The Russians are the enemy of democratic principles because their values regarding fundamental human rights do not match our, more lofty values. And Donald Trump’s actions and statements involving the media, rights of minorities, personal freedoms, independence of the judiciary, and relationship of the Congress to the White House clearly illustrate that his own concept of his powers is one of authoritarianism. Sadly, dangerously, his concept of what government should be is chilling in its similarity to that of the Russians.

It’s taken me decades to discern, and I don’t want to sound racist, but I’ve come to believe that there is a mentality pervasive in Eastern Europe or Eurasia that not only is there virtue in governing with a top-down focus, but to do so in a way that is as arrogant and aggressive as possible. That is not the American way, but it was the way in my home, in my neighborhood, and certainly in Russia and the USSR. One of my acquaintances who’s visited and worked in Ukraine for long stretches shared a story with me that illustrates how this attitude permeates even average citizens.

My friend and his adolescent daughter were in Kyiv in the spring and attended an Easter service at one of the cathedrals in the Capitol. Standing room only, he and his daughter remained in the back, and she stood with her arms hanging down but crossed in front of her hips. As the service proceeded, a middle-aged, somewhat older gentleman standing next to them eventually reached across to the girl and gently pulled at her arm so that they became uncrossed to hang limply at her sides. The girl and her dad exchanged glances but opted to say nothing. After some time she again crossed her arms before her and their too-familiar parishioner repeated his move to force her to uncross them. Her Dad admonished him this time for interfering with his daughter to which the man replied in a whispered but urgent voice, “What’s the matter with you? She can’t stand in church with her arms crossed like that. What kind of father are you?” Incredulous, the dad pointed out the obvious and no more intervention took place.

It seems to me that in the Ukrainian/Russian mentality there is one way to do things – My Way. And this would mean “the way” of whoever is in charge at that time, in that place. After reading the book, The Russians, by Hedrick Smith, I realized that Russians and Ukrainians do indeed share a common culture. How could they not with Ukraine being ruled by Moscow for so long? In that book I read with fascination how a Russian in Vladivostok – 9,000 miles from western Ukraine – sounded and acted just like my father did. And he grew up nine thousand miles from Vladivostok. There seems to be an attitude of not trusting others. An attitude of “Do it because I said so.” And a general attitude among the regular populace of, “Hey, what can you do?” Even worse, sometimes the populace in Russia bemoans the loss of a strongman like Stalin. Actually, not sometimes, but often.

Before the national media began questioning the coincidence between Trump’s public comments and the exposure of his political opponent’s emails; before the Congressional inquiries into the possible quid pro quo involving Russian favors to Trump and his decision to eliminate providing Ukraine defensive weapons to hold off the Russian invasion; and before the nation’s media began noting Trump’s affinity for authoritarian pronouncements; I became very concerned during the 2016 election year about the eerie similarity between the way Trump argues his points and the way the Russians have historically argued theirs.

The Russian government at present, like the Soviet government before it and the czarist regime before that, follows a pattern of lies. At first they deny any responsibility at all. The denials are vehement and often so defensive that we imagine they are insulted and disgusted by whatever accusations are being made. Secondly, they assert that it is their enemy that is actually guilty of whatever accusation has been leveled. Following or accompanying this counter-claim, the Russians often produce documentary “evidence” of this counter-claim. Fortunately for the world, most of the time this “evidence” is prepared so sloppily that even amateur investigators easily de-bunk the material. Sometimes the fabrications are truly laughable as when Russia’s Defense Ministry used video game footage as “proof” the United States actually supported ISIS’s military in Syria. See the article from The Guardian at this site: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/14/russia-us-isis-syria-video-game-still

Finally, when the Kremlin finds itself backed into a corner, and if word of its misdeeds becomes a fait accompli, it usually admits to the accusations but justifies them because other nations have done the same thing. Invading Crimea and the Donbass territories of Ukraine is supposedly acceptable because the Untied States increased its territory through an illegal war against Mexico. Their history of ethnic cleansing (There is a reason why the percentage of Russians in eastern Ukraine and Crimea is so large, and it’s not because Russians are indigenous to those areas.) is supposedly justified because of the annihilation of the American Indians throughout the 1800s. This is the famous “What about . . . “ defense. In Trump’s case it sounds like this: :”What about crooked Hillary?” Or when Trump’s reputation suffered from accusations of sexual assault and harassment from about twenty women, he asked, “What about Bill Clinton?” Well, Bill Clinton was caught being a womanizer, lied about it, and was impeached by the House of Representatives. One can only hope such transparency and consequences occur for the present Trump administration.

To illustrate the Russian pattern of lies, one need only look at their activities and statements surrounding Ukraine, both historically and at present. During the early 1930s, the Holodomor occurred when Moscow targeted Ukraine for forced collectivization and uncounted millions of Ukrainians were purposely starved to death. The reason? Continued nationalism in the country and the support for national rights among the communist leaders in Ukraine. The leaders were arrested and shot. Following a later census when the world learned that the population of Ukraine decreased by millions, Stalin blamed World War II for the attrition rate. Of course, World War II hadn’t yet occurred when millions were erased by the Kremlin’s brutal policies.

When the evidence and truth of the genocide became accepted in the 1980s, Russia’s response then as now was that the collectivization targeted no nationality in particular and that Russians also perished. While especially true in the area just east and northeast of the Black Sea, that area (known as the Kuban) was filled with Ukrainians, many of whom had been moved the previous century to allow for the infiltration of Russians. We refer to such populations transfers today as ethnic cleansing. In the 1930s, many more Ukrainians than Russians lived in the Kuban. So while some areas outside of Ukraine were affected by the Holodymor, those areas were primarily populated by Ukrainians. Those Russians who did live int he Kuban were sacrificed. After all, Moscow has never been very concerned about its citizenry. Just ask the poor souls who were handed wooden guns in World War I to defend against the Kaiser’s armies.

More recently, in 2014, a Dutch airliner that was shot down over eastern Ukraine. Personnel monitoring the conflict zone noted the flurry of congratulations captured on radio and Facebook accounts – radio and Facebook controlled and owned by Russians and their patsies in the Donbass. Those radio recordings survive although the Facebook accounts were erased. Moscow’s first reaction to the news was denial. It’s second reaction was to blame Ukraine’s armed forces, and the Kremlin produced a flawed image showing a Ukrainian jet actually in the process of firing its missiles at the airliner in the distance. The image was proved a fabrication, but the Russians still proclaim innocence and point the blame at others. Sound familiar?

A year earlier Russia invaded and illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula, Crimea. They denied Russians were involved. They claimed it was Ukrainian nationalists at fault. And finally, when presented irrefutable evidence of the invasion, the justified it saying Crimea was the cradle of Russian civilization (even though Russia never controlled Crimea – ever – until the 1790s when Catherine the Great conquered the area).

Deny. Deflect. Fabricate. Rationalize.

Likewise, as Trump’s campaign continued, I became alarmed at what I saw as his mimicking Russian propaganda and disinformation tactics. Accused of sexual assault? He claims all 19 of his accusers are liars! Continue pressing his sexual deviance? It’s Bill Clinton who’s guilty, not he! There is a frightening aspect to Donald Trump’s prevarications: Denying the truth and claiming untruths are reality; saying, in effect, that we should not believe our own senses, but rather, believe only what he tells us . . . This is the way autocrats, dictators, and the other evil leaders of the world conduct their business. It is the way Hitler and Stalin gained and maintained power.

The Russian involvement in our 2016 election is not some weak attempt to entice the US into an unlikely friendship. And it’s not “past tense.” Their efforts to destabilize the United States is constant. Moscow’s intent is as it always was: Weaken the United States so that Russian hegemony can continue unabated and undeterred. Weaken the Untied States so that Washington’s leadership role in the world is diminished, allowing flawed, corrupt leaders like Putin to increase his influence, and his wealth and that of his cronies. Weaken the Untied States by dividing the population against itself so that nothing of value is accomplished and its citizens become less and less concerned about the world around us.

And sitting in the White House, the Kremlin has a friend who is willing to have this enemy of America, this enemy of truth clutter up our free press and our democracy. In the White House we have the nation’s most prominent conspiracy theorist ignore the magnificent intelligence apparatus at his fingertips while re-tweeting fabricated anti-Muslim videos, parroting the lies promoted in RT (Russian Television News), and offering his own deflections and rationalizations – his own version of the truth. His “alternative facts” as one of his advisors has said.

Nero fiddling while Rome burned will pale in comparison to the catastrophe that will occur on this planet should America abdicate its responsibility to the truth and fall in line beside other autocracies as they carve out their niches, all at the expense of the freedoms we have enjoyed.

Russia matters.