A History Of The Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin Feud

It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin have a long-standing feud that dates back many years. It is said to have become publicly apparent in 2011 when Vladimir Putin almost lost the chance for a third term as president. His decision to run for president that year caused a lot of upheaval, with hundreds of thousands of protesters taking to the streets to protest against his decision.

Vladimir Putin’s response to the movement at the time was to lay blame on Hillary Clinton, stating, “She set the tone for certain actors inside the country; she gave the signal. They heard this signal and, with the support of the U.S. State Department, started actively doing their work.”

This is as reported by Time. At the time, Hillary Clinton publicly voiced her support for the demonstrations, stating, “The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve the right to have their voices heard and their votes counted. And that means they deserve free, fair, transparent elections and leaders who are accountable to them.” Dmitri Medvedev was the President of Russia and was apparently cozying up to the Obama administration, while Putin was the Prime Minister. Vladimir Putin is said to have taken the alleged interference personally.

Fast forward to October this year and Vladimir Putin made a veiled threat against Hillary Clinton following her harsh rhetoric against him and Russia, terming them as counterproductive. He also added that there would be a “confrontation” with the United States if this continued. The following was his exact statement as reported by the New York Post.

“Jeopardizing Russian-American relations in order to gain brownie points internally – I consider this to be harmful and counterproductive… It’s not funny anymore. If somebody out there wants confrontation. This is not our choice but this means that there will be problems. Mrs. Clinton has chosen to take up a very aggressive stance against our country, against Russia.”

“Mr. Trump, on the other hand, calls for cooperation – at least when it comes to the international fight against terrorism. Naturally we welcome those who would like to cooperate with us. And we consider it wrong, that we always have to be in conflict with one another, creating existential threats for each other and for the whole world.”

This was after Hillary Clinton accused Russia of meddling in the United States presidential elections by hacking Democratic National Committee emails and releasing them via WikiLeaks so as to destabilize her campaign. Her statements were also echoed by the director of national intelligence James Clapper and Jeh Johnson, secretary of homeland security, who issued the following statement.

“These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow — the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities”

Hillary Clinton also recently blamed Russia for the ongoing crisis in Syria, saying, “The whole situation has deteriorated in many ways because of the refusal of the Russians and the Iranians to put the kind of pressure on Assad that is necessary to reach an accommodation that would save lives.”

Following the shocking Hillary Clinton loss to Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential elections, President Barrack Obama promised retaliation for the alleged interference of the American elections by Moscow. The following was his statement.

“I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections … we need to take action. And we will – at a time and place of our own choosing. Some of it may be explicit and publicised; some of it may not be.”

This is as reported by the Guardian.

[Featured Image by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]