So people are still fighting about Russia meddling in the 2016 election. It seems to be reasonably well established that they did so, though the claim that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians seems to be based on little more than wishful thinking. Until I see anything better, I’m going to continue with the assumption that the meddling *seemed* to be mostly anti-Hillary because everyone pretty much assumed she was going to win in a landslide, and the goal wasn’t so much getting Trump elected as it was just messing with the US democratic process and sowing internal dissent and strife for the purposes of generally weakening the US. Which is why the meddling continued well after the election.

Now that the requisite virtue signaling is out of the way… Putin tells us that it wasn’t the Russian government but, you know, those wacky Jews.

Trump-Russia: Putin criticised for Jewish ‘election meddling’ remark

In an interview over the weekend, Putin said of those who ran the troll farms and such:

“Maybe they’re not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, just with Russian citizenship.”

Now, here’s the thing. Imagine this was in *any* other context. Instead of election meddling, the people involved were, say, bank robbers. Or an acting troupe. Or athletes. Or *anything.* And instead of Russians, they were Americans. Now imagine this statement:

“Maybe they’re not even Americans, but Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, just with American citizenship.”

Consider: if someone is Ukranian, or Tatar, or Jewish, or Irish, or Mexican, or Nigerian, or Innuit, or Ainu, or Gondorian or Alderaanian, but they have American citizenship… that means they are *American.* So how is it someone can have Russian citizenship but not be a Russian?