[ItendToDisagree]

1) Russia is not a "European" country. Though it does exert influence in that sphere and has a 'European Russia'. Anecdotally most Russians I've met would bristle at Russia being called a "European" territory.

2) If Manafort, Flynn, Sessions, etc had non-shady dealings with Russia you would think they wouldn't have to be so shady about how they present those dealings. Sessions wouldn't have to explicitly commit perjury in front of the Senate to try and hide his interactions with Russian officials if they were normal interactions.

3) If you're taking large amounts of money (say for real estate deals) from Russian state banks and oligarchs you're playing a dangerous game of being in someone's pocket.

[dang]

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14424279 and marked it off-topic.

[cookiecaper]

>1) Russia is not a "European" country. Though it does exert influence in that sphere and has a 'European Russia'.

As previously mentioned, Russia is by far the world's largest state. Though their land area extends across Asia, Russian culture, customs, religion, and heritage are undoubtedly Euro-centric. Almost 80% of Russian citizens live in "European Russia" [0]. By every calculation except raw geography, Russia is rightly classified European.

Moscow is about 1000 miles east of Berlin. It's 3000 miles west of Beijing.

>2) If Manafort, Flynn, Sessions, etc had non-shady dealings with Russia you would think they wouldn't have to be so shady about how they present those dealings. Sessions wouldn't have to explicitly commit perjury in front of the Senate to try and hide his interactions with Russian officials if they were normal interactions.

I really don't want descend into this unending pit of politically-motivated "nuh-uh", "yuh-huh" accusations about imaginary events and anonymous sources, but I'd at least suggest that you soften your tone re: Sessions. He has not been charged with, let alone convicted of, perjury. You state it as if it's an irrefutable reality.

I think that your bias is leaking through a little bit.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Russia

[ItendToDisagree]

He lied in his confirmation hearing after being pressed on an issue. Then admitted he was not truthful after it was publicized. Lots of people (especially in Gov) get away with that sort of stuff without conviction. That seems to have been a large point of the last election no? Different set of rules for everyone else and all that.

I'd say my posts were drenched in bias from the very start. I'm amazed you missed it ;)