Cuddle up to the Kremlin and do not be surprised when you are burnt. There is no need to believe the lurid, unverified tales about Russian efforts to cultivate and compromise Donald Trump to recognise the danger in the president-elect’s infatuation with Vladimir Putin. Mr Trump is a wealthy property developer; the Russian president a former head of his country’s ruthless Federal Security Service, or FSB. This is not a balanced match-up.
Mr Putin has pocketed one significant victory even before Mr Trump reaches the White House. The next time US intelligence agencies flag up a security threat — another Russian incursion into Ukraine, say, or the subversion of elected governments in eastern Europe — the Kremlin has a riposte. If the occupant of the Oval Office has no faith in the CIA, the National Security Agency or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, why should anyone else believe them? Mr Trump broke all the rules of politics to win the White House, but a president at war with those charged with keeping America safe?
Intelligence agencies do not always get it right. The CIA will pay the price for its flawed judgments on Saddam Hussein’s weapons programmes for years to come. But the spooks could scarcely have been more confident in saying that the Kremlin hacked into Democratic party computers during the presidential election campaign.