<33 From Russia with Love <33
a love story (duh)
MOSCOW —
The Russian government maintained contacts with members of Donald J. Trump’s “immediate entourage” during the American presidential campaign, one of Russia’s top diplomats said Thursday.
“There were contacts,” Sergei A. Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. “We continue to do this and have been doing this work during the election campaign,” he said.
Mr. Ryabkov said officials in the Russian Foreign Ministry were familiar with many of the people he described as Mr. Trump’s entourage. “I cannot say that all, but a number of them maintained contacts with Russian representatives,” Mr. Ryabkov said.
Later, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said Mr. Ryabkov had been referring to American politicians and supporters of Mr. Trump, not members of his campaign staff. The contacts were carried out through the Russian ambassador in Washington, who reached out to the senators and other political allies to get a better sense of Mr. Trump’s positions on various issues involving Russia.
For Russia and Putin, a Surprise Gift From America NOV. 9, 2016
https://nyti.ms/2eFqfXX
TRUMP'S RUSSIA INTEREST SPARKED IN THE SOVIET YEARS
The Republican candidate’s links to Russia are a mix of bling, business and bluster spanning 30 years. This account in five sections traces Trump's fascination for Russia from its beginnings in Soviet times through deals done in the Putin era to Trump's appointment of a slew of Russia-connected advisers during the US presidential campaign. It concludes with outside views on Trump's long-standing Russia ties and the president-elect's own explanations.
Yuri Dubinin
A first contact from Moscow
In 1986 Soviet ambassador Yuri Dubinin sat next to Donald Trump at a New York lunch and they talked about Trump Tower. “One thing led to another, and now I’m talking about building a large luxury hotel across the street from the Kremlin in partnership with the Soviet government,” the tycoon recalled in his book Trump: The Art of the Deal. Trump flew to Moscow at Dubinin’s invitation to discuss the hotel project with the Soviet tourism agency.
Mikhail Gorbachev
No glasnost at Trump Tower
The hotel never materialised but Trump aides promised something even better: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, would tour Trump Tower during a 1988 visit to New York. Trump said Gorbachev wanted to see the building because “it’s become the hottest building in New York”. But the visit didn’t happen: the Gorbachevs visited other Manhattan landmarks and Trump rushed out of his tower to greet a lookalike of the Soviet leader.
Zurab Tsereteli
Russia’s Columbus seeks the new world
Trump’s Russia connections continued under Gorbachev’s successor, Boris Yeltsin. Trump attempted in 1997 to erect a giant bronze statue of Christopher Columbus donated by the Russian government at his development on the Hudson river. Taller than the Statue of Liberty, the artwork was crafted by Zurab Tsereteli, a close friend of the Moscow mayor. It ended up in Puerto Rico after several US cities refused to accept it.
TRUMP’S RUSSIA DEALS AND LINKS MULTIPLY
As financial headaches cramped Trump’s style in the US, the property tycoon’s organisation stepped up efforts to win Russian business.
Tevfik Arif
Trump’s Russia-connected business partners
By the 2000s, corporate bankruptcies had limited Donald Trump’s access to capital markets. An FT investigation showed that the tycoon joined forces with Bayrock, a New York property developer founded by a Soviet-born newcomer to the US, Tevfik Arif, to pursue deals around the world. Their best-known collaboration was Trump SoHo, a 46-storey hotel-condominium completed in 2010.
Ilya Reznik
Coastal Miami becomes little Moscow
Throughout the 2000s, records show Russians were buying millions of dollars of Trump- branded real estate in the US, according to property records reviewed by the FT. The Trump Organisation said it did not believe Russians spent more money on Trump ventures than those from other regions. Russian real estate broker Ilya Reznik told the FT that Russian could be heard everywhere in the Trump properties on the Florida coast.
Trump Luxury Vodka
Trump Luxury vodka makes a splash in Moscow
Trump and his partners promoted their “24K Super Premium Vodka”, a luxury vodka sold in a bottle decorated with 24-karat gold, at the Millionaire Fair in Moscow in 2007. The fair lured Russian high-spenders with luxury yachts, diamond-encrusted mobile phones and entire islands for sale. The venture later went out of business.
Dmitry Rybolovlev
The oligarch who bought Trump’s mansion
Trump’s single biggest reported Russian deal to date came in 2008 when fertiliser billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev purchased the tycoon’s Palm Beach mansion for $95m. Trump boasted of the profit he made on the deal, having bought the property four years earlier for only £41m. Trump denied ever meeting the oligarch and said “he just happened to be from Russia”.
Eric Trump
Trump’s sons promote Russian business
At the same time, the Trump family were gushing with praise for Russians. While marketing Trump SoHo, the tycoon’s second son, Eric, told Russian journalists that “the best property buyers are now Russian” while Trump himself said: “I really like Vladimir Putin.” Trump’s first son, Donald Jr, told eTurboNews that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets…we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia”.
Sergei Millian
The Russian middleman claiming to act for Trump
One of the people who said he brought Russian money into Trump projects was Sergei Millian, head of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce. His organisation said in 2009 it had “signed formal agreements with The Trump Organisation” to service Russian real estate clients and Millian bragged about winning Trump’s affection at the 2007 Millionaire Fair in Moscow. The Trump Organisation denied that Trump had any relationship with him.
Aras Agalarov
Trump’s Russian beauty pageant
Moscow property billionaire Aras Agalarov signed a $14m deal to bring Trump’s Miss Universe beauty pageant to Moscow in 2013. Trump invited Vladimir Putin, tweeting that the Kremlin chief would be his “new best friend” if he came. The Russian president instead sent a trusted envoy, Kremlin property chief Vladimir Kozhin and a “beautiful present”. At the show, Agalarov claimed he had a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
RUSSIAN RUCTIONS IN TRUMP'S ELECTION CAMPAIGN
When Trump made his run for the presidency, a volley of pro-Moscow remarks and a slate of advisers with notable Russian connections rang alarm bells in Washington.
Vladimir Putin
Trump strikes a pro-Moscow tone
Trump attracted attention for multiple comments praising Vladimir Putin and his policies. Last December, Putin called Trump “talented”, a compliment Trump described as a “great honour”. This summer Trump appeared to incite Moscow to hack into Hillary Clinton’s private emails. At a 2014 press lunch, Trump claimed to have spoken “indirectly and directly” with Putin, “who could not have been nicer”. He subsequently denied ever meeting Putin.
Paul Manafort
Ex-chairman of Trump's campaign
Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort quit in August 2016 amid controversy over his work advising the pro-Moscow former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. Ousted from power in 2014 amid allegations of massive embezzlement, Yanukovych fled to Russia. Ukrainian authorities found a ledger showing $12.7m in off-book payments to Manafort by Yanukovych’s party, payments Manafort has strongly denied receiving. Manafort’s interpreter had a background in Russian military intelligence, according to colleagues.
Carter Page
Trump's former foreign policy adviser
Manafort is not the only Trump adviser to quit over Russian links. Carter Page, a former Merrill Lynch banker and adviser to Russian state energy company Gazprom, was named by Trump as a foreign policy adviser. The New York Times has reported that FBI agents examined during the summer numerous possible connections between Russians and members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle, including Mr Manafort and Mr Page, as well as a mysterious and unexplained trail of computer activity between the Trump Organization and an email account at a large Russian bank, Alfa Bank. Page resigned from the Trump campaign in September.
Richard Burt
The former ambassador with a Russian link
RicharThe truth, as severad Burt, an ex-US ambassador to Germany, helped draft a Trump foreign policy speech in April, while earning hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for a Russian- backed gas pipeline that would extend Putin’s leverage over Europe. Burt told the FT he was “not in any way officially involved” with Trump’s campaign, but provided “some ideas or language” for the speech. Burt advises the owners of Russia’s Alfa Group, who have close Kremlin ties.
Michael Flynn
The ex-general paid to attend a Moscow banquet
Michael Flynn, a former head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, was named as a national security adviser by the Trump campaign and was nominated by Mr Trump in November to take that role in government. Like Trump, Flynn has argued for closer links with Russia. In interviews, Flynn acknowledged being paid to give a speech and attend a lavish anniversary party for the state-controlled RT television network in Moscow, where he sat next to President Putin.
https://ig.ft.com/sites/trumps-russian-connections/
Donald Trump’s Many, Many, Many, Many Ties to Russia
http://time.com/4433880/donald-trump-ties-to-russia/
When asked about this, and his affection for Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump said any inference that a connection exists between the two is absurd and the stuff of conspiracy.
“I have ZERO investments in Russia,” he tweeted after the Democratic National Committee was apparently hacked by Russia and the emails released by Wiki Leaks on the eve of the DNC convention to nominate Clinton as its 2016 presidential candidate.
As columnists and reporters have painstakingly shown since the first hack of a Clinton-affiliated group took place in late May or early June, is that several of Trump’s businesses outside of Russia are entangled with Russian financiers inside Putin’s circle.
So, yes, it’s true that TrWhat’s more, ump has failed to land a business venture inside Russia. But the real truth is that, as
major banks in America stopped lending him money following his many bankruptcies, the Trump organization was forced to seek financing from non-traditional institutions. Several had direct ties to Russian financial interests in ways that have raised eyebrows. What’s more, several of Trump’s senior advisors have business ties to Russia or its satellite politicians.
“The Trump-Russia links beneath the surface are even more extensive,” Max Boot wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “Trump has sought and received funding from Russian investors for his business ventures, especially after most American banks stopped lending to him following his multiple bankruptcies.”
What's more, three of Trump’s top advisors all have extensive financial and business ties to Russian financiers, wrote Boot, the former editor of the Op Ed page of the Wall Street Journal and now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Trump’s de facto campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was a longtime consultant to Viktor Yanukovich, the Russian-backed president of Ukraine who was overthrown in 2014. Manafort also has done multimillion-dollar business deals with Russian oligarchs. Trump’s foreign policy advisor Carter Page has his own business ties to the state-controlled Russian oil giant Gazprom. … Another Trump foreign policy advisor, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, flew to Moscow last year to attend a gala banquet celebrating Russia Today, the Kremlin’s propaganda channel, and was seated at the head table near Putin.
But it is Trump’s financing from Russian satellite business interests that would seem to explain his pro-Putin sympathies.
Read more: This Is How the Trump Campaign May Have Interfered With Russia Policy
The most obvious example is Trump Soho, a complicated web of financial intrigue that has played out in court. A lawsuit claimed that the business group, Bayrock, underpinning Trump Soho was supported by criminal Russian financial interests. While its initial claim absolved Trump of knowledge of those activities, Trump himself later took on the group’s principal partner as a senior advisor in the Trump organization.
“Tax evasion and money-laundering are the core of Bayrock’s business model,” the lawsuit said of the financiers behind Trump Soho. The financing came from Russian-affiliated business interests that engaged in criminal activities, it said. “(But) there is no evidence Trump took any part in, or knew of, their racketeering.”
Journalists who’ve looked at the Bayrock lawsuit, and Trump Soho, wonder why Trump was involved at all. “What was Trump thinking entering into business with partners like these?” Franklin Foer wrote in Slate. “It’s a question he has tried to banish by downplaying his ties to Bayrock.”
But Bayrock wasn’t just involved with Trump Soho. It financed multiple Trump projects around the world, Foer wrote. “(Trump) didn’t just partner with Bayrock; the company embedded with him. Bayrock put together deals for mammoth Trump-named, Trump-managed projects—two in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a resort in Phoenix, the Trump SoHo in New York.”
But, as The New York Times has reported, that was only the beginning of the Trump organization’s entanglement with Russian financiers. Trump was quite taken with Bayrock’s founder, Tevfik Arif, a former Soviet-era commerce official originally from Kazakhstan.
“Bayrock, which was developing commercial properties in Brooklyn, proposed that Mr. Trump license his name to hotel projects in Florida, Arizona and New York, including Trump SoHo,” the Times reported. “The other development partner for Trump SoHo was the Sapir Organization, whose founder, Tamir Sapir, was from the former Soviet republic of Georgia.”
Trump was eager to work with both financial groups on Trump projects all over the world.
“Mr. Trump was particularly taken with Mr. Arif’s overseas connections,” the Times wrote. “In a deposition, Mr. Trump said that the two had discussed ‘numerous deals all over the world’ and that Mr. Arif had brought potential Russian investors to Mr. Trump’s office to meet him. ‘Bayrock knew the people, knew the investors, and in some cases I believe they were friends of Mr. Arif,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘And this was going to be Trump International Hotel and Tower Moscow, Kiev, Istanbul, etc., Poland, Warsaw.’”
The Times also reported that federal court records recently released showed yet another link to Russian financial interests in Trump businesses.
A Bayrock official “brokered a $50 million investment in Trump SoHo and three other Bayrock projects by an Icelandic firm preferred by wealthy Russians ‘in favor with’ President Vladimir V. Putin,’” the Times reported. “The Icelandic company, FL Group, was identified in a Bayrock investor presentation as a ‘strategic partner,’ along with Alexander Mashkevich, a billionaire once charged in a corruption case involving fees paid by a Belgian company seeking business in Kazakhstan; that case was settled with no admission of guilt.”
Trump Soho was so complicated that Bayrock’s finance chief, Jody Kriss, sued it for fraud. In the lawsuit, Kriss alleged that a primary source of funding for Trump’s big projects with Bayrock arrived “magically” from sources in Russia and Kazakhstan whenever the business interest needed funding.
There are other Russian business ties to the Trump organization as well. Trump’s first real estate venture in Toronto, Canada, was a partnership with two Russian-Canadian entrepreneurs, Toronto Life reported in 2013.
“The hotel’s developer, Talon International, is run by Val Levitan and Alex Shnaider, two Russian-Canadian entrepreneurs. Levitan made his fortune manufacturing slot machines and creating bank note validation technology, and Shnaider earned his in the post-glasnost steel trade,” it reported.
Finally, for all of his denials of Russian ties lately, Trump has boasted in the past of his many meetings with Russian oligarchs. During one trip to Moscow, Trump bragged that they all showed up to meet him to discuss projects around the globe. “Almost all of the oligarchs were in the room” just to meet with him, Trump said at the time.
And when Trump built a tower in Panama, his clients were wealthy Russians, the Washington Post reported. “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia,” Trump’s son, Donald Jr., said at a real estate conference in 2008, according to a trade publication, eTurboNews.
The only instance that Trump acknowledges any sort of Russian financial connection is a Florida mansion he sold to a wealthy Russian. “What do I have to do with Russia?” Trump said in the wake of the DNC hack. “You know the closest I came to Russia, I bought a house a number of years ago in Palm Beach, Florida… for $40 million and I sold it to a Russian for $100 million including brokerage commissions.”
But it should be obvious to anyone trying to pay attention to these moving targets that Trump is saying one thing and doing something else. When it comes to Trump and Russia, the truth may take awhile to emerge.
The Curious World of Donald Trump’s Private Russian Connections
http://www.the-american-interest.com...n-connections/
Throughout Donald Trump’s presidential campaign he expressed glowing admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Many of Trump’s adoring comments were utterly gratuitous. After his Electoral College victory, Trump continued praising the former head of the KGB while dismissing the findings of all 17 American national security agencies that Putin directed Russian government interference to help Trump in the 2016 American presidential election.
As veteran investigative economist and journalist Jim Henry shows below, a robust public record helps explain the fealty of Trump and his family to this murderous autocrat and the network of Russian oligarchs. Putin and his billionaire friends have plundered the wealth of their own people. They have also run numerous schemes to defraud governments and investors in the United States and Europe. From public records, using his renowned analytical skills, Henry shows what the mainstream news media in the United States have failed to report in any meaningful way: For three decades Donald Trump has profited from his connections to the Russian oligarchs, whose own fortunes depend on their continued fealty to Putin.
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You don't need a private investigator or secret dossiers to see that trump's closet is overflowing with skeletons.
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i am willing to accept payments bimonthly.