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Anne Applebaum: Trump is not vindicated. I am.

But not only me: Everyone who began writing about the weird connections between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government in the spring and summer of 2016, is vindicated. As it turns out, the Russian attempts to assist the Trump campaign were deep and broad, and those who described them, even if tentatively at first, were right to do so.

For me, the turning point was Trump's decision to hire Paul Manafort, who I knew had spent several previous years supporting pro-Russian political leaders in Ukraine. Manafort was famous for using polarizing campaign tactics and sleazy dirty tricks to help his clients win; he helped form the corrupt and lawless world of Ukrainian politics, one in which anything goes - and where, on Sunday, a television comedian is probably going to be elected president.