Talk about whiplash. Of all the reasons why Russian President Vladimir Putin conspired with Donald Trump to rig the 2016 election in his favor, the very top of the list was the easing of U.S. sanctions against Russia. Those sanctions have personally cost Putin billions of dollars over the past several years. But as of today we’re heading into an upside down world in which the only way Putin can get those sanctions lifted is to get rid of Donald Trump.

Last month the Senate passed a bill in nearly unanimous bipartisan 98-2 fashion which would take away Donald Trump’s ability to ever lift sanctions on Russia. Because Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is either a sycophantic coward or a Russian asset or both, he stalled as long as he could in trying to prevent that bill from being voted on in the House. But now the House Republicans have agreed to imminently hold the vote after all (source: NY Times), and it’ll pass with enough votes to make it impossible for Trump to veto it.

This means that Donald Trump is now days away from having officially and permanently failed to accomplish the number one priority that Putin assigned him. You can argue that Putin has gotten other benefits out of having Trump in office. But Putin’s history suggests he cares more about those sanctions than every other issue combined. And the U.S. government has just set things up so that Putin will never be able to get those sanctions lifted as long as Trump is in office. You see where this is going.

If Putin were to leak the kind of dirt on Trump that destroyed him and forced him to resign, the U.S. would end up with a new president. At that point, if Russia began conceding to America’s demands to stay out of its elections, it’s conceivable that Congress might allow the next president to begin easing sanctions on Russia. So now Putin has to decide if he’s willing to get Trump ousted for the sake of sanctions relief. But it’s now clear that those sanctions will remain in full force as long as Trump continues to illegitimately occupy the office of President of the United States. If you find Palmer Report valuable, make a donation.