in no fashion whatsoever is, has or was russia exercising control over our nation. rather the people of our nation are exercising the same sort of mentality that excuses religion, bigotry, and every other 'boogeyman in the closet' fascination we come up with. in other words; what we always do. there are plenty of people in this country who no more grasp of the nuances of communism than they do of democracy or any other form of government. but they are still indoctrinated to fear communism specifically. that is residual bigotry from the f'ing 50's, and it is starting all over again. the very idea that a nation with half the people of our own, spread out over a vast and highly differing set of cultures and landscapes is somehow controlling our government, or even a single person in it, defies logic. oil and gas interests, yes. russians? silly. it is preposterous. there are wealthy people all over the world who effectuate control over most aspects of most governments, because most people are so silly they consider the problem to be external, while simultaneously excusing their own willingness to vote for horrendous candidates that they don't even care for on a personal level. it is not anything but the minister's new clothes. the worst part being that previously normal, sane individuals would rather besmirch good candidates such as stein as being tools of russia. this is cognitive dissonance giving reason to people choosing not to vote for regular, normal, american citizens, and capitulating their very souls to pre-fab politicians - people that come from money and move to wherever their side of the political duopoly sends them. this has happened before, but unfortunately nobody in america has access to a history book or dictionary without the 'mc' to the 'mo' pages ripped out. fortunately wikipedia still has some of those letters available. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism