Rand Paul’s Campaign to Appease Russia Comes to Congress

After Donald Trump’s performance at last summer’s press conference in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, many of the U.S. president’s fellow Republicans were alarmed. One, however, was encouraged: Senator Rand Paul. A few weeks later, Paul arrived in Moscow seeking dialogue with his Russian counterparts. Now Paul is enlisting U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. to help convince his American colleagues of the virtues of U.S.-Russian cooperation.

The unusual request is part of Paul’s larger campaign to smooth the way for a possible rapprochement between Trump and Putin. A better relationship with Russia was one of Trump’s campaign promises, but more recently, Trump’s position has shifted. Earlier this month he boasted about his administration’s arming of Ukraine. Last weekend, he announced the U.S. was withdrawing from a treaty that banned intermediate range missiles because of Russian violations of it.