title:  BREAKING: Russian Officials Celebrate Rex Tillerson As ‘A Gift’ From Trump To Russia
text: Quid pro quo in the Trump/Russia situation is happening sooner than expected, at least according to Russian officials   you know, they give him a gift by using hacking a propaganda to hand him the election, and Trump builds a nightmarish team for himself that will be very friendly to Russia. So friendly, in fact, that the Kremlin is pretty openly celebrating Trump s newest  gift  to them.Thus far, The Donald has filled his cabinet to the brim with so many pro-Russian people that Stolichnaya stocks have gone through the roof (just joking, don t bother Googling that). Seriously, though, Russia is thrilled with Trump s selections so far.But it is Rex Tillerson s nomination for Secretary of State that, as The Guardian notes,  confirms Vladimir Putin as one of the strategic victors of the US presidential election. The Wall Street Journal notes that  Friends and associates said few US citizens are closer to Mr Putin than Mr Tillerson.  And, of course, Tillerson will now be in a position to make a f*ckton of money in his new position, as The Guardian points out:The 2011 Exxon-Rosneft agreement was frozen when sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2014, following the annexation of Crimea and covert military intervention in eastern Ukraine. Exxon Mobil estimated the sanctions cost it $1bn and Tillerson has argued strenuously for the measures to be lifted. We always encourage the people who are making those decisions to consider the very broad collateral damage of who are they really harming with sanctions,  he said, at a shareholders  meeting.In June, two years after sanctions were imposed and in an apparent show of support for Sechin, Tillerson reportedly turned up at a St Petersburg economic summit.If the sanctions were lifted, the Arctic project would probably go ahead and Tillerson s retirement fund of Exxon Mobil stock would increase in value. He would most likely have to divest himself of stock by the time he entered the office on the seventh floor of the state department. It might be harder to divorce his judgments entirely from the oil company where he spent his career.Tillerson s nomination can be called a lot of things   but pro-Kremlin Russian political commentator Sergei Markov calls it what it is:  some kind of Christmas gift from the American people to the Russian people  especially in light of the  artificial  Cold War  that was started with Russia  over the country s involvement in hacking Donald Trump s political enemies for him (at his request, no less).Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, which advises the Kremlin, says that Tillerson represents  profound changes in U.S. foreign policy  that stands to favor Russia heavily. Mr. Tillerson is very well known to the important people here, and neither Mr. Putin nor the others will need time to learn who he is and how to deal with him,  Lukyanov says.  This news is better than any other possible person for this position. At this point, how can we allow Donald Trump to assume power on January 20? Electors have the weight of the world on their shoulders as December 19 approaches. Will they do nothing and allow a tyrant installed by a foreign power to take office   or will they do the right thing and say  no more? Featured image via Getty Images/Alexey Druzhinin