What are the consequences of the Mueller report?
Donald Trump is saying that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report has exonerated him. It came to the conclusion that there was no criminal collusion between Trump or his election campaign team and Russian agencies. But the report is less clear on the question of whether the president obstructed justice. Journalists examine the consequences for the US election campaign and politics in Moscow.
Trump exonerated but not Russia
Vedomosti says the Mueller report has the potential to trigger new US sanctions against Russia:
“Trump is now officially neither a traitor nor a Kremlin agent. But for Russia another conclusion of Mueller's is far more important: Russia did, after all, interfere in the 2016 presidential election. ... This is now considered proven. And it is precisely this - the interference and not the involvement of the president - that all sanctions are tied to. Now in the US it will be difficult even for Trump to prevent new sanctions against Russia. The Kremlin has called attention to the fact that it was concluded that there was no conspiracy. But that's simply an attempt to divert attention from the allegations of cyberespionage and aggressive campaigns in social networks.”
Democrats can forget impeachment
Now Trump can take aim at the presidential election 2020, writes Dnevnik:
“He is entering the election campaign stronger than ever: the economic indicators are good, 90 percent of Republicans support him and also a third of the independent voters. And Mueller's sword is no longer hanging over Trump's head. ... Barring new revelations the Democrats can forget impeachment proceedings against Trump. Such a course of action would be political suicide. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, knows this, but the left wing of the party will insist on it all the same. If only recently it appeared that Trump posed a threat to the unity of the Republic Party, now he has become a threat to the unity of the Democrats.”
Defeat the president in elections
The US president was elected democratically and should also be voted out of office democratically, La Razón argues:
“Trump was not unknown to most voters nor did he make any bones about the populism and nationalism in his discourse. ... We believe that his protectionist policies, his exploitation of fear and of the prejudices of the classes more hard hit by globalisation, and his recourse to black and white thinking in international relations will have more negative than positive consequences for US society in the long term. Such policies can be combatted by confronting the ideas and programmes, denouncing the mistakes and proposing alternative solutions. ... The Democrats should resign themselves to removing him from office in elections. There are more than enough arguments for doing so.”
Talk of impeachment was wishful thinking
For the daily Der Tagesspiegel the report shows how inappropriate the public prejudices were:
“Again and again expectations were raised that the president would soon be corralled - with headlines like: Russia - investigation closing in on Trump'. But on closer examination this was never the case. As far as the transgressions of his colleagues were concerned, they usually occurred before they worked for Trump's campaign. A number of politicians and media clearly wanted to talk about the president's impeachment until it became reality. But this was above all wishful thinking. It lacked a real basis. This should serve as a warning to be more careful in future.”
The Agent Trump fairytale has been debunked
This must be a hard blow for Trump's opponents, Ria Novosti concludes:
“The hopes of many American politicians, journalists and experts that Mueller's investigators would uncover some 'kompromat' [short for compromising material in former KGB jargon] against Trump have been dashed. The main thing: now it will be extremely hard to continue the fake narrative that frames Trump as an agent of the Kremlin who is in power as the result of a conspiracy with the Russian leadership - which organised interference in the US elections. This is also a hard blow particularly for those who have been telling their audiences since 2016 that Trump is a KGB agent and that Hillary Clinton's defeat was the result of a special operation ordered or even coordinated by Putin himself.”
Only a fool wouldn't see the signs
Telegram.hr finds the Mueller report hard to believe:
“For two years now it has been clear that something was very rotten in Trump's relations with Russia. If we look at his relationship with Vladimir Putin there is no logical explanation other than a deal. Trump has lied about everything that had to do with Russia - during the election campaign, afterwards and to this day. There is no one in this world Trump hasn't insulted - from the pope to Meryl Streep - everyone except Putin. ... Trump has lied so much on the subject of Russia and attacked the investigators so harshly that only a fool wouldn't see this as a sign that he was hiding something and that something is going on between him and Putin.”
Mueller's results are valuable
Even if the special counsel has exonerated Trump regarding a conspiracy with Russia he has shed light on certain important facts, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung comments approvingly:
“The suspicion of illegal arrangements with Moscow was only one of several areas under investigation. Another area was the allegation that Russia interfered with the US elections through a sophisticated cyber and propaganda operation. When the special investigator was first appointed the public had only vague ideas leaked from intelligence agency circles. Trump was able to announce on a regular basis back then that he didn't trust the intelligence agencies and that the hacker attacks against the Democrats' computers could just as well have been the work of another state or even individual. Mueller has conveyed a plausible picture of Russian operations in two comprehensive bills of indictment.”