RussiaDonald Trump a de facto Russian asset, FBI official he fired suggests (9/12/2024)DOJ alleges Russia funded US media company linked to right-wing social media stars (9/4/2024)Republicans Who Like Putin (3/1/2024))Russia’s 2024 election interference has already begun (2/28/2024)How Putin Co-Opted the Republican Party (2/22/2024)Trump says he would encourage Russia to attack Nato allies who pay too little (2/11/2024)Alexander Smirnov: FBI source accused of Biden lies 'linked to Russian intelligence' (2/20/2024)The Republican Party has grown much more supportive of Russia in recent years (2/13/2024)Why Are Republicans Siding With Russia? (12/16/2023) The AtlanticBinder of classified material on Russia reportedly went missing in final Trump days (12/15/2023)Russia disinformation looks to US far right to weaken Ukraine support (3/16/2023)Senate Intel report confirms Russia aimed to help Trump in 2016 (4/21/2020)Will Trump Be Meeting With His Counterpart — Or His Handler?Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy said ‘I think Putin pays Trump', 2016 recording reveals (5/18/2017)The KGB began cultivating him in the early 1980s. He was an easy mark: vain, stupid, amoral, sex-crazed, and desperate for cash. By the middle of that decade he was using condos in the tower that bore his family’s name to launder money for Russian organized crime figures. He liked doing business with crooks. They paid in cash, and if things went sideways, they would never sue. Portrait of an American Strongman (2/1/2022) Greg Olear "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing." ....Trump doubled down, repeating the request. Putin has succeeded where his Soviet predecessors failed: adroitly exploiting American divisions to pull off one of the most spectacular operations in modern espionage. Moscow’s candidate sits in the White House and you imagine Putin will try and keep him there. Rigged: America, Russia and 100 Years of Covert Electoral Interference by David Shimer (Guardian review) “The thing that keeps me up most at night is the president of the United States is an asset to a foreign power. We have no idea the level of damage it’s done until he’s out of office. And what we’re going to find out is all of his sycophants were all out to enrich themselves and probably did decades of damage to the country. Especially to the State Department, it’s non-existent. It can barely issue visas.” Malcolm Nance …The New Yorker quotes Tamir Pardo, the director of Israel’s chief spy agency Mossad from 2011 to 2016, as saying of the Russian election-interference operation in 2016—which appears to have received significant assists from Israeli, Saudi, and Emirati entities—“It was the biggest Russian win ever. Without shooting one bullet, American society was torn apart.” Yet U.S. media still spends more time dissecting Trump’s tweets than seeking to curate the hundreds of major-media investigative reports from around the world that confirm that it is Trump who is, piece by piece, dissecting our nation’s foreign policy and domestic institutions. Seth Abramson: Proof of Conspiracy ...of course the Russian effort affected the outcome. Surprising even themselves, they swung the election to a Trump win. James R. Clapper, Facts and Fears. The NRA's role in the Trump-Russia scandal was substantial. Maria Butina, eventually convicted as a Russian spy, used "relationships within the NRA to build an informal channel of diplomatic relations with Russia”. Her efforts included a famous public exchange with Donald Trump during his first campaign, in which he expressed his affection for Vladimir Putin and promised to improve relations as president. Review of Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA by Tim Mak (Guardian) The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion... Mr. Trump would repeatedly portray the Mueller report as having found “no collusion with Russia.” The reality was more complex. In fact, the report detailed “numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign,” and it established both how Moscow had worked to help Mr. Trump win and how his campaign had expected to benefit from the foreign interference. How Barr’s Quest to Find Flaws in the Russia Inquiry Unraveled (1/26/2023) NYT We assess that Russian President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US. Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections (3/10/2021) pdf 'Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.' Russian trolls had created social-media posts clearly aimed at winning support for Trump from churchgoers and military families—key Republican voters who seemed likely to lack enthusiasm for a thrice-married nominee who had boasted of groping women, obtained multiple military deferments, mocked Gold Star parents and a former prisoner of war, and described the threat of venereal disease as his personal equivalent of the Vietcong. Russian trolls pretended to have the same religious convictions as targeted users, and often promoted Biblical memes, including one that showed Clinton as Satan, with budding horns, arm-wrestling with Jesus, alongside the message “ ‘Like’ if you want Jesus to win!” One Instagram post, portraying Clinton as uncaring about the 2012 tragedy in Benghazi, depicted a young American widow resting her head on a flag-draped coffin. Another post displayed contrasting images of a thin homeless veteran and a heavyset, swarthy man wearing an “UNDOCUMENTED UNAFRAID UNAPOLOGETIC” T-shirt, and asked why “this veteran gets nothing” and “this illegal gets everything.” It concluded, “Like and share if you think this is a disgrace.” Jane Mayer in the New Yorker
...one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory", Senator John McCain after the Helsinki meeting between Trump and Putin. Perhaps Trump's most egregious vulnerabilities stemmed from his lies about his Russian dealings. Putin knew that he had lied. And Trump knew that Putin knew - a shared understanding that provided the framework for a potentially coercive relationship between the president of the United States and the leader of one of our greatest adversaries. This simple fact could explain something that made no sense otherwise: why Trump repeatedly did what he had just done at the press conference, choosing th course of action that made little sense in the context of U.S. security but that clearly benefited Russia. Peter Strzok from his book Compromised. pg 261
Our Secret Weapon Against Putin Isn’t So Secret (3/28/2022)
Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the thirty thousand emails that are missing. I think you will be rewarded mightily by our press" July 2016 press conference.
Putin’s People ends with a chapter on Donald Trump, and what Belton calls the “network of Russian intelligence operatives, tycoons and organized-crime associates” that has encircled him since the early ’90s. The fact that Trump was frequently overwhelmed by debt provided an opportunity to those who had the cash he desperately needed. Belton documents how the network used high-end real estate deals to launder money while evading stricter banking regulations after 9/11. She’s agnostic on whether Trump was a witting accomplice who was aware of how he was being used. As one former executive from the Trump Organization put it, “Donald doesn’t do due diligence.” An alarming document that may prove Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was leaked by a 25-year-old woman who grew up in a small town in Texas, the Department of Justice alleged this week. Reality Winner Was Arrested For Leaking An NSA Memo. Here's What We Know About Her.
“Hillary Clinton would almost certainly have won” the presidency in 2016 if not for Russian subversion, which sowed confusion and hardened negative opinions about her. He astutely tallies the degradation that Trump’s lawless, norm-busting presidency has already inflicted: stuffing the courts, assaulting the Justice Department, demonizing the free press and mainstreaming extremist ideas like mass deportations and the Muslim travel ban — now shamefully validated by a Supreme Court majority.
The NRA’s role in the Trump-Russia scandal was substantial. Maria Butina, eventually convicted as a Russian spy, used “relationships within the NRA to build an informal channel of diplomatic relations with Russia”. Her efforts included a famous public exchange with Donald Trump during his first campaign, in which he expressed his affection for Vladimir Putin and promised to improve relations as president. Review of Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA by Tim Mak (Guardian) "Evgeny Popov, the host of 60 Minutes, the most popular state TV program in Russia as of 2018, is defiant about the findings in the Mueller report. Popov tells me: 'Soon, we will help you elect Trump once again. Just like the last time. Get ready!'” Julia Davis "There is, indeed, almost a “law of irony of revolutions” – they nearly always tend to produce what they were intended to oppose. Certainly the Russian Revolution produced a nonhereditary czar with far greater powers than the unfortunate Nicholas II, in the shape of Lenin, Stalin and their successors." Kenneth E. Boulding, The World as a Total System pg 122.
Russian society has always been anti-Semite and chauvinist and has had resistance and prejudice against all different and alien ethnicities and nations. The unity was always held with force and terror was always imposed by the government. All territories that now comprise Russian Federation were acquired by force, bribery, or both. Imperial Russia added more territories, Soviet Russia added more territories, and today’s Russia is adding territories. A letter from a Russian friend
Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States electionsPutin's rule is weakening, So what comes next? Timothy Snyder (7/30/2022)Trump praises ‘genius’ Putin for moving troops to eastern Ukraine (2/23/2022)How Trump became Russian Mafia’s Bitch (2/7/2022)Putin Says He Deserves Ukraine as Consolation for Losing White House (2/2/2022)Kremlin papers appear to show Putin’s plot to put Trump in White House (7/15/2021)Indictment, Lawsuits Revive Trump-Alfa Bank Story (9/23/2021) Brian KrebsAn Ex-KGB Agent Says Trump Was a Russian Asset Since 1987. Does it Matter? (2/21/2021)Inside the Decade-Long Russian Campaign to Infiltrate the NRA and Help Elect Trump (4/2/2018)Russia is demonstrating in Ukraine how bad a right wing country can be. Powerful leader surrounded by oligarchs, with no free press, suppressed [assassinated] political opponents, mounts an unprovoked invasion on neighboring Ukraine resulting in millions of refugees, unnecessary deaths, threatens nuclear disaster, demonstrates bad right wing government. Russians have made effort to undermine 25 democracies since 2004: Baltic States, EU countries, Georgia, Ukraine, Brexit, and of course the US. They supported Syrian President Assad who made war on his own people resulting in masses of refugees to the EU. The surge of migrants from both war and climate deterioration caused a right-wing backlash in the EU. The masses of immigrants wore out their welcome in the EU and far right parties strengthened. Democracy is visibly in decline. Russians supported far-right parties in the EU, including Brexit, and in the U.S. That and massive migration from both wars and climate change had the potential to break up the EU and also weaken NATO. "If the only way Trump's business could survive was with borrowed money and they could only do it if they had co-signers and the only people who would co-sign were Russian oligarchs...you get the drift? He was dependent on them. They, very nearly literally, own him." David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) August 28, 2019 Trump’s son said “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” Putin knew that Trump could cause chaos in the US and it appears he groomed Trump for a long time. Russian oligarchs, some with mob connections, owned and sometimes lived in Trump Tower, also lavishly bought Trump properties in Florida. (Google it.) Links between Trump associates and Russian officials Jeff Sessions (former AG)
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Russians groomed and favored Trump and cultivated a number of his campaign managers, paid for propaganda on social media, hacked elections to cause chaos and fracture the US. That paid off magnificently. The Republican Party platform weakened the position on Ukraine. Even as the Presidential campaign proceeded, Trump was negotiating with a sanctioned bank to do business in Russia. The NRA was used by Russians to recruit Republicans. Was Russia helpful in electing Trump ? In January 2017 James Clapper announced the consensus of the CIA, FBI, and the National Security Agency – that Putin personally ordered an “influence Campaign” to damage Clinton’s Campaign, help elect Trump and “undermine public faith in the US democratic process. Even before the 2016 election, Trump benefited the Russians altering the Republican platform to stop the armament of Ukraine. An investigation of Biden's son may have been an excuse to stop vitally needed arms to stop the Russian invasion. Trump actively wanted to pull the United States our of NATO, He actively attacked the alliance. He advocated for a plan to pull US troops out of Europe. He advanced plans to pull US troops out of Asia, the Pacific, and the Middle East. He effectively sought to hand Syria to the control of Russia and Russia's allies. He pulled out of arms deals that constrained the Rusians. He pulled out of a deal that contained Iran, a key ally of Russia. American Resistance, The Inside Story of How the Deep State Saved the Nation US right-wingers, the Mercers, Bannon, and other notables worked with Cambridge Analytica to drive social networks to the right. Russian bots used Facebook to inflame US voters. Reality Winner is in jail for making public Russian interference in our election. After election, Trump didn’t bother to impose sanctions on Russia. The State Department budget was substantially cut, experienced civil servants left and hollowed the department out, the military took charge of foreign policy. (Ronan Farrows book: The War on Peace is excellent on this.) Removing cold warriors from the State Department is a huge benefit for Russians. Rex Tillerson was said to be the Russians choice for Secretary of State. Diplomacy languished as the military were pumped up. Trump demanded more money from allies as a condition of supporting NATO, which looked like a protection racket, and of course he supported the alt-right not only here in the US, but in the EU as well. Trump relates well to authoritarians, not so much with democratic former allies. Although intelligence agencies agreed that Russians meddled in US elections, Republicans killed efforts to stop them, so there could well be interference in the next ones as well. Chaos in the US has certainly weakened standing in the world, undermined democracy, and moved world leadership elsewhere. Trump has caused the loss of US moral leadership, which formerly and arguably was its best asset. Republicans have reversed democratic values and have us on a path to Fascism. It appears that traditional war is obsolete when, faster and cheaper, with little destruction, and far less expense, cyber warfare is much more effective. Traditional armaments look to be a huge waste. Nuclear armaments as so destructive that no one should use them, however Trump has pushed to expand the nuclear arsenal and spurned the UN ban on nuclear weapons. The US continues to inflate a huge economic bubble, the worlds largest military. Senior Trump advisers seem to have a lot of other connections with Russians as well, not limited to access to HRC and the DNC’s emails, and they lied about it. The Republican convention was pressured to remove sanctions. The NRA seemed also to be a channel for Russian influence and money. Delay in arms assistance to Ukraine directly assisted Russia’s war effort there. While campaigning Trump was revealed to be negotiating for a major construction project in Moscow. Justice Kennedy is said to have resigned to protect his son, employed by Deutsche Bank, from prosecution for laundering Russian money to Trump. Of course we can’t know a lot because Trump’s tax returns, which by law should be accessible to the Congress, is now up to the Supreme Court. Investigations have been squelched by a decapitated DOJ, which by the way dropped charges against Flynn. Trump no longer has checks, unless the Supreme Court rules against him, or if he actually loses the next election. If he is unchecked, he is a dictator and that will confirm that the US has become a fascist state.
A Timeline: Russia and President TrumpWas Trump a Russian Asset? (2/19/2021)How the KGB Hooked Trump (1/26/2021)How Paul Manafort promoted Russian disinformation that has been embraced by Trump (8/19/2020)
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