[zqna]

That's exactly what Trump's is looking for - an excuse to break up and to open doors for Putin on the east flank. Same old story, meanwhile there is no counterreaction from freedom loving populace of the blessed country. That's all one needs to know.

[general1465]

Unlikely Putin can capitalize on it with how his army is depleted.

[JPKab]

So Trump wants to help Putin while simultaneously seizing his oil tankers?

Explain.

[zqna]

My 1st guess is that they made Ribentrop-Molotov deal last year in Alaska. 2nd guess he is drunk on power and inpunity. Or maybe both.

[joezydeco]

The stupidest answer is the most likely one. Occam's Kazoo.

[dragonwriter]

The goal seems to be to create essentially the geopolitics of 1984 (the Orwell novel, not the historical year), with the superstates of Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia replaced (for now) with three imperial zones of influence whose metropoles are the US, Russia, and China (this is the real substance of the “Donroe Doctrine”, though the overt part of that focuses on only the US-centered zone of control), though these imperial zones of control becoming de facto or de jure superstates isn't out of the question.

As in 1984, visible geopolitical conflict with a sufficient perceived degree of real kinetic threat between the empires serves the rulers of each empire by providing the external threat to maintain the apparent need for strong internal control, it also facilitates the transition from the current international status quo to the desired end state by providing a set of threats intended to coerce lesser powers to accede to the dominion of their respective regional overlords.

[hshdhdhj4444]

Because they were transporting Venezuelan oil?

It’s not even clear whether they were actually Russian or if they were just flying the Russian flag to try and not get captured.

But even if they were Russian, it was a clear area in which Putin overstepped his boundary.

[vdupras]

One explanation could be that, if Trump is a Russian asset, he'd be more effective at it if he wasn't obviously one. Seizing all tankers except russian ones might be too obvious.

Therefore, it might be worth it for Russia to lose a few tankers in order to keep one of their greatest assets.

All hypothetical of course. I'm sure Trump isn't a Russian asset. No way they can have kompromat on such a virtuous guy.