@jeff @PurpCat @cjd @Morghur someone pointed out to me years ago that there are a lot of russia experts in washington that don't even speak russian. some portion of the expert class only exist to make decisions by the powerful look legitimate, but actual experts are costly and risky (they might disagree with you). it is frustrating because there are real social scientists and political scientists but I think they work behind the scenes and the ones you see prominently in the media or on twitter are just the puppet ones