“Trump is ours!” a Russian state journalist declared after Donald Trump’s controversial decision to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson just hours after Tillerson publicly criticized Russia for allegedly attacking an ex-spy in the U.K. using a military-grade nerve agent.
Tillerson was fired on Tuesday morning, just hours after he came out strongly against Russia for what has been termed a brazen attack on foreign soil. British Prime Minister Theresa May condemned Russia as well and said the nation had until the end of the day on Tuesday to answer for the attack or else the U.K. would deem the act an “unlawful use of force” by Moscow, the BBC reported.
Tillerson’s statement was seen as an important show of solidarity with Britain and a forceful rebuke of Russia, which has been accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential election in order to help elect Donald Trump. Tillerson’s abrupt firing — he learned of his firing when Donald Trump announced it on Twitter — drew controversy given Trump’s reluctance to speak out against Russia and his decision not to enforce sanctions that had been passed with almost unanimous support in Congress.
Russian journalist Olga Skabeeva was more blunt in her assessment. Speaking on Russian state television on Tuesday, she implied that Donald Trump remains under the control of Moscow.
“Yesterday Tillerson supporter Theresa May in her ‘highly likely’ Russia accusation. And Trump immediately fired him. Trump is ours!” she declared.
The statement was relayed on CNN and quickly went viral online, feeding fuel to the speculation that Russia is blackmailing Donald Trump, a central claim of the dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele. Skabeeva was not the only one speculating that Trump was under Russian control, with many of the president’s critics openly questioning whether there was an ulterior motive behind Tillerson’s firing.
“Trump is ours!” – Prominent Russian journalist Olga Skabeeva pic.twitter.com/fENw3LQA9B
— VoteVets (@votevets) March 13, 2018
This is not the first time that Olga Skabeeva has gleefully bragged that Donald Trump is under the control of Russia. As Raw Story noted, she made a similar boast earlier this year after Trump decided not to enact sanctions against Russia that had been passed with overwhelming support from both Democrats and Republicans, again saying, “Trump is ours!”