Why Vladimir Putin is smiling.

VLADIMIR PUTIN IS A THUG, BULLY AND A MURDERER. — U.S. SEN. JOHN MCCAIN

His winning streak was already impressive before the recent U.S. election chose to put Donald Trump in the White House. He successfully invaded the Crimea, destabilized Ukraine, kept Syrian strongman Bashar Assad in power and reversed the advances the terrorists of ISIL had been making across the Middle East.

He has successfully demonstrated Europe’s lack of unity and backbone, challenged the NATO alliance without suffering serious repercussions and put the fear of the Lord in a vulnerable group of Baltic countries from Poland to Estonia, which are now nervously making plans for the possibility they may be next on Moscow’s hit list.

It might have seemed things could hardly get better, but apparently they can. On Nov. 8 American voters chose to put Donald Trump in the White House. If Putin didn’t already control hundreds of billions of dollars via proxies, state institutions and possible outright graft (up to $200 billion by some estimates) he might want to consider buying a lottery ticket, because luck is certainly on his side.

On Friday the Washington Post reported that an extensive CIA analysis has concluded that Russia actively intervened in the U.S. election, not just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, but to help get Trump elected. As the campaigns battled for votes, “Russian government officials devoted increasing attention to assisting Trump’s effort to win the election,” an unnamed U.S. official familiar with the findings said.

If anyone in Moscow feared the revelation might trigger anger in Washington and repercussions against Russia, they can rest easy. Trump and his aides have responded by trashing the CIA rather than Putin’s regime.

“These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction,” said a statement from Trump’s transition office. “The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history.”

Actually the election ended just a few weeks ago, and Trump’s electoral college margin ranked 46th out of 56 elections. But to have the president-elect denouncing the country’s intelligence officials is excellent news for Putin, as it undermines confidence in the agency and the credibility of future findings, including those that might produce additional findings of Russian transgressions.

Trump had already given Putin reason to smile when his team telegraphed that Rex Tillerson, president and CEO of ExxonMobil, is expected to be named Secretary of State. The head of the international oil giant has known Putin for years, criticized the sanctions that have hobbled Russia’s economy (and Exxon’s investments there) and is on such good terms with Russia’s leader that he was awarded Russia’s Order of Friendship in 2013. Russia’s economy is heavily dependent on oil exports; Tillerson has worked his entire career in the oil industry. What could be better?

Sen. John McCain told Fox News on Saturday that “Vladimir Putin is a thug, bully and a murderer, and anybody else who describes him as anything else is lying.”

But McCain is part of the Republican old guard that Trump disdains, and Congress is likely to remain far more in awe of Trump’s election triumph than the views of a man who lost his own bid for the presidency to Barack Obama in 2008.

Oil prices have been showing signs of life since Trump’s victory. In November the OPEC countries reached a deal to reduce production to strengthen prices. On Saturday 11 non-OPEC countries agreed to cut 558,000 barrels a day among them. Russia has signed on to the reductions, though there are doubts it will keep its word.

In past production cuts, reports the Wall Street Journal, OPEC members have missed their pledges by about 40 per cent. This time the cartel has set up a compliance committee to ensure everyone keeps their word. Russia was named to one of its four seats.

Russia, named to monitor the honesty of a band of wholly untrustworthy producers, the bulk of whom have a long history of cheating. It’s like the cat being put in charge of the world’s juiciest canary.

If Vladimir Putin has anything to complain about, it must be the difficulty of wiping that gigantic grin off his face. Damn thing just won’t go away.

DEVOTED INCREASING ATTENTION TO ASSISTING TRUMP’S EFFORT.