Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Why the Comey Hearing Was Frightening to a Russian

Ill-informed intelligence chiefs and legislators may spark a wrong-headed witch-hunt.

March 21, 2017 at 3:10 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

What does he know about Russia really?
Photographer: YURI GRIPAS/AFP/Getty Image

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Monday's hearing on Russia's alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election and the alleged contacts between Donald Trump's campaign and the Kremlin yielded inspiring news for Trump opponents: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is officially looking into the matter. I wasn't inspired, though; I was a little scared.

What frightened me was this exchange: