The Gist

Vladimir Putin Plays the Long Game

Obama’s second ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, on the Rex Tillerson nomination and how the U.S. should approach Russia post-hacking.

Masks of Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on a world map.

Ulrich Baumgarten/Getty Images

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As Michael McFaul knows well, sometimes the interests of the United States and the interests of Exxon Mobil don’t line up. “You have to find oil where it is … and that tends to be controlled by autocrats around the world, and you have to do deals with them,” says McFaul, who was America’s ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. Here, McFaul weighs in on the Rex Tillerson nomination for secretary of state, Russia’s likely hacking of the U.S. election, and Putin’s designs in the Baltics.

For the Spiel, what we know about Trump’s plan for Taiwan.

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