Would John Bolton be a Russia hawk at State?

Would Bolton use his formidable bureaucratic skills to push a more hawkish line on Russia, or would he sway to what seems to be the prevailing let’s-be-friends ethos of the president-elect and the National Security Adviser designate, Retired General Michael Flynn—and, presumably, Tillerson? That’s hard to know, but those looking for tea leaves might be drawn to Bolton’s recent comments about the intelligence hacks of the Democratic National Committee.

Intelligence agencies have said that the hacks were Russian and that they were intended not only to sow distrust in democracy but to alter the election in favor of Trump. Bolton has expressed skepticism. Earlier this month, when he said that the hacks might be a “false flag,” many interpreted his comments to mean that he was charging the Obama administration with faking the hacks in order to lay blame on Moscow. After considerable criticism, both a spokesman for Bolton and Bolton himself clarified the remarks, chalking up the dustup to what Bolton called “typical bad reporting,”

Bolton insisted that what me meant was that any number of foreign actors—the Chinese, the Iranians, the North Koreans—could be the real culprits and may have just left digital breadcrumbs to make it appear that the Russians could have done it.

Reading between the lines of Bolton’s comments, he seems to be treading an interesting path.