Image credit: Gage Skidmore, Flickr
Image credit: Gage Skidmore, Flickr - China and Russia will be tempted to exploit the chaos facing the United States, according to ANU national security expert Emeritus Professor Paul Dibb. Following a violent uprising of US President Donald Trump's supporters, who stormed Capitol Hill, a curfew has been imposed in Washington DC and the country has been plunged into a crisis. "Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will be delighted with the chaos unfolding in the United States right now and will be tempted to take advantage of the situation," he said. "Trump has deliberately and malignly fanned the flames of this act of sedition by his supporters. "And just where was the warning of such a well-planned attack on the Congress from the FBI and other US domestic intelligence authorities such as Homeland Security?" John Blaxland, Professor of the International Security and Intelligence Studies at ANU, said we have seen American democracy at its "rambunctious worst" today. "Trump still has the power to draw supporters into the public square and we can all hope that his latest call for them to be law abiding will be the line he maintains to inauguration and beyond," Professor Blaxland said. "Vice President Mike Pence's unwillingness to comply with Trump's calls to ignore the democratic outcome and Trump's own belated call for his protesting supporters to obey the law suggest that this moment will pass and that Biden's ascension to the presidency will proceed unhindered. "The Democrats' win in the Georgia senate elections would suggest Trump's reluctance to concede and willingness to entertain protest in support of undemo
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