From Russia to Donald with love is a story that just keeps giving. The latest explosive revelation is that sacked security chief Michael Flynn is seeking immunity from prosecution to come clean on Trump’s links with Moscow. It has Democrats on the congressional committee salivating with glee. It was Flynn who said of a similar deal with Hillary Clinton’s aides last year: “When you are given immunity, that means you’ve probably committed a crime.”

Mike Flynn indicates he would testify in Trump-Russia inquiry in exchange for immunity Read more

Flynn survived just days as Trump’s most senior defence adviser before resigning over what seemed a minor offence. He had misled the new vice-president about whether he had met a Russian during the election campaign. In today’s Washington or London it is hard not to meet a Russian, though the claim apparently left him open to “blackmail”.

The vast and pernicious sheer scale of electronic surveillance means there is no longer such a thing as secrecy, certainly for those close to power. Someone somewhere will be listening in. That is why fake news, that ancient phenomenon, is such a nonsense. A lie can barely go viral before being savaged by the bloodhounds of truth. For a foreign power, even an enemy, to dabble in someone’s election is hardly a surprise, least of all in the home city of the CIA. What is new is how quickly we all know about it.

It is clear – or surely soon will be - that dealings between the Trump organisation and Moscow were close. That is no surprise in the world of dodgy finance. What is not known is whether these dealings were merely over dodgy finance, or strayed into winks and nods over policies that might be adopted by Trump in power.

Vladimir Putin’s Russia is generally regarded as America’s mightiest enemy, however idiotic this might be. When a vast military empire has been constructed with the exclusive aim of “deterring” a particular foe, any less than total commitment in this respect is devastating. The mind boggles at what Flynn might conceivably say that might “incriminate” him?

The irony is that resetting the west’s relations with Putin’s Russia was one of Trump’s few refreshing pledges when he was running for the presidency. He refused to hurl the statutory abuse. He was clearly sceptical of western sanctions, which have strengthened Moscow’s kleptocracy and driven Putin’s potential opponents to emigrate. There even seemed a hope that the recent, crazy resumption of an east-west arms race might go into reverse. Sanity beckoned.

But there is no sanity on the Trump horizon, only reckless chaos. Flynn clearly has a tale to tell about a matter central to America’s global stance. It should be gripping, but it is hard to believe it will leave the world a safer place.