Yesterday, Carnegie Endowment Vice President for Studies Andrew S. Weiss made the following comment on Twitter regarding the Green Party's affinity for Russia and it's strongman, Vladimir Putin.

Wherein @DrJillStein's running mate @ajamubaraka claims Russia was blamed unfairly for 2014 MH17 shootdown #Ukraine https://t.co/C4iw8deRdZ

— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) August 6, 2016

I think that, despite all the Russian-backed conspiracy theories, it's pretty obvious that Russians, or Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine shot down the Malaysian Airways flight MH17 in 2014. The tweet prompted me to ask this question:

@instapundit @andrewsweiss Is there a presidential candidate the Russians don't either have their hooks in or blackmail material?

— Matthew Hoy (@hoystory) August 6, 2016

You can Google Trump and Russia and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort for a look at the odd connection between the Trump campaign and Putin. If you want evidence that something odd is going on, just check out how Trump's allies got the normally hawkish, pro-freedom GOP platform changed.

That tweet prompted some Hillary supporters to come to her aid.

@hoystory yep. Clinton. Putin is afraid of her. @instapundit @andrewsweiss

— Michael Joyce (@MJoyce2244) August 6, 2016

My response:

@MJoyce2244 @instapundit @andrewsweiss Clinton was the one I was referring to re: blackmail. That server wasn't full of yoga routines.

— Matthew Hoy (@hoystory) August 6, 2016

This was something that came up a week or two ago when Trump asked the Russians to release Hillary's emails. FBI Director James Comey, in his non-indictment indictment of Hillary's email server suggested that it was very likely that foreign governments had breached her server. (And today, Sen. Tom Cotton suggested that the former Secretary of State's private server may have helped get an Iranian scientist killed.)

Hillary's surrogates quickly suggested that Trump be prosecuted for treason for daring to suggest that Russia release documents many believe they already have, but were at a loss to explain why releasing the emails Hillary had deleted--allegedly yoga routines and wedding planning--would be worrisome.

I suspect that a complete accounting of Hillary's emails would reveal that she was, at the very least, doing a lot of Clinton Foundation fundraising while also serving as Secretary of State. Very likely this was unethical, and probably illegal. Hence the blackmail concerns should she become president.

But let's look at that claim by Michael Joyce. Does anyone really believe that Putin is afraid of Hillary Clinton?

I don't think there's a single candidate from any major political party (and that includes the Green and Libertarian parties) that the Russians "fear." I don't think there's any that they respect.

In a Clinton Presidency, will America arm Ukraine? The fact that Obama has refused military assistance to Ukraine suggests that unlikely. What does Russia have to fear from Hillary?

Nothing.