The Evolution of ‘Krasnov’: Russian Mafia Associate, KGB Asset, US President, Traitor
How Trump Became A KGB Asset
It was 1987, and General Vladimir Kryuchkov, head of the KGB First Chief Directorate, had a recruitment problem — how to improve the quality of American ‘assets’. Intelligence gathering from American field stations was disappointing — but, Kryuchkov had a plan.
Kryuchkov sent out a series of memos — that were shared with British Intelligence by Oleg Gordievsky — to heads of stations that outlined new instructions. KGB officers were to ‘be creative’, they should ‘make bolder use of material incentives’ — that is, money and flattery.
KGB Heads of Stations were instructed to find ‘U.S. targets to cultivate or, at the very least, official contacts.’ ‘The main effort must be concentrated on acquiring valuable agents.’
Kryuchkov proposed to make wider use of ‘the facilities of friendly intelligence services’ — Czechoslovakian and East German networks.
Adding, ‘Further improvement in operational work with agents calls for fuller and wider utilisation of confidential and special unofficial contacts. These should be acquired chiefly among prominent figures in politics and society, and important representatives of business and science.’ These should not only ‘supply valuable information’ but also be able to ‘actively influence’ a target country’s foreign policy ‘in a direction of advantage to the USSR.’
KGB case officers were to compile a file on their targets documenting personal details, a personality assessment: ’Are pride, arrogance, egoism, ambition or vanity among subject’s natural characteristics?’
The case file should include a section on kompromat: ‘Compromising information about subject, including illegal acts in financial and commercial affairs, intrigues, speculation, bribes, graft … and exploitation of his position to enrich himself.’ ‘his attitude towards women is also of interest.’ ‘Is he in the habit of having affairs with women on the side?’ Plus ‘any other information’ that would compromise the subject if exposed to ‘the country’s authorities and the general public.’ The KGB could…
According to declassified intelligence files in 2016, Trump may have first appeared on the KGB radar in 1977 when he married his first wife, Ivana Zelnickova, a Czech model. Trump became the target of a spying operation overseen by the Czech intelligence service that probably shared details with with the KGB. By the time Kryuchkov was implementing his new American ‘asset’ recruitment plan, Trump had a prominent profile as a realestate development tycoon. But more, the Czech files recorded a comment by Ivana that Trump was becoming interested in politics.
In 1980, Trump opened his first big property development, the Grand Hyatt New York hotel near Grand Central station. Trump bought 200 television sets for the hotel from Semyon Kislin, who owned Joy-Lud electronics on Fifth Avenue — and also worked for the KGB.
Yuri Shvets had the rank of major in the KGB. In the 1980s, he was posted to Washington with a cover job as a correspondent for the Russian news agency Tass. According to Shvets, Joy-Lud was controlled by the KGB and Kislin identified Trump, a young businessman on the rise, as a potential asset. Trump, a young, successful American and interested in politics — this triggered KGB interest in Trump, and they set out bait and hook him.
It was in 1986 when the new Soviet ambassador to the U.N., Yuri Dubinin would deliberately seek out and successfully charm Trump.
Yuri Dubinin’s daughter, Natalia Dubinina, was already living in New York, she was part of the Soviet U.N. delegation. In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper she recounted her father’s charm offensive.
She picked up her father at the airport. As this was his first visit to New York, she took him on a tour. They came to Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, and Dubinin was so excited he decided to go inside to meet the building’s owner. They took the elevator to the top floor where they met Trump.
According to Natalia, her father — ‘fluent in English and a brilliant master of negotiations’ — charmed Trump, telling him: ‘The first thing I saw in the city is your tower!’
Natalia continued: “Trump melted at once. He is an emotional person, somewhat impulsive. He needs recognition. And, of course, when he gets it he likes it. My father’s visit worked on him like honey to a bee.’
In 1987, Yuri Dubinin, arranged for Trump and Ivana, to enjoy an all-expense-paid trip to Moscow to consider possible business. in 1987, Trump and Ivana visited Moscow and St Petersburg.
Shvets recalled: “For the KGB, it was a charm offensive. They had collected a lot of information on his personality so they knew who he was personally. The feeling was that he was extremely vulnerable intellectually, and psychologically, and he was prone to flattery.
The KGB cultivated Trump as part of an ‘active measures’ campaign during which he was flattered and fed talking points, they even suggested he should go into politics.
On Sept 1, 1987, just seven weeks after returning from Russia, Trump ran full-page ads in the Boston Globe, the New York Times and Washington Post calling for the dismantling of the postwar Western foreign policy alliance — NATO. He accused Japan of exploiting the US, and expressed scepticism about US participation in NATO, questioning ‘on why America should stop paying to defend countries that can afford to defend themselves’.
Shvets, who had returned to Russia, was at the headquarters of the KGB’s first chief directorate, when he received a message celebrating the ad as a successful ‘active measure’ executed by a new KGB asset.
In 1988, Trump launched a brief, but abortive, campaign for President. He even held a campaign rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
The former head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence service, Alnur Mussayev, recently stated that Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987, when he first visited Moscow. On his KGB file he was given the codename ‘Krasnov’. Further, Mussayev noted that “Today, the personal file of resident ‘Krasnov’ has been removed from the FSB. It is being privately managed by one of Putin’s close associates.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-recruited-kgb-codename-180759277.html?guccounter=1
Just after Mussayev made his claim, another ex-KGB officer living in France, Sergei Zhyrnov, categorically endorsed the allegations in an interview with a Ukrainian journalist. Watch the interview (in Russian) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH6r8Oq-tu4
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book
https://www.yahoo.com/news/examining-claim-trump-recruited-kgb-030000387.html
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kgb-spy-russia/
Trump And The Russian Mafia
By the early 1990s, Trump’s businesses owed $4 billion to more than 70 banks. By 2009, Trump had spent two decades in court, crashing through no less than 6 bankruptcies, the most recent in 2004 and 2009.
Trump’s bankruptcies in the 1990s coincided with Russia’s capital flight after the break-up of the Soviet Union. What emerged over the next two decades was a mutually beneficial convergence of crises, a mutual dependency at first coincidental then deliberate.
To the Russian mafia, property was a favoured destination for laundering criminal proceeds that needed to be exfiltrated out of Russia. In 1984, the Russian Mafia began to use Trump real estate to launder money and continued to do so for decades.
Transferring criminal proceeds out of the country required clandestine methods. And because the Trump organisation had a reputation for not asking too many questions, Russian money flowed into Trump’s properties.
Helping with this was Deutsche Bank which actively facilitated the movement of Russian funds to the West, using methods that bypass normal scrutiny. In 2017, Bloomberg reported that Deutsche Bank earned $629 million from facilitating ‘mirror trades’ that transferred $10 billion out of Russia to the West.
Trump, his family members, and his businesses conduct business through Deutsche Bank most probably because of its track record at moving Russian money.
In 1984, David Bogatin came to Trump Tower with $6 million and bought five apartments. According to the FBI, Bogatin was a member of the Russian mafia, a close associate of Semion Mogilevich the ‘Boss of Bosses’ of the Russian mafia. The apartments were later seized by the government, which claimed they were used as part of money laundering for the Russian mafia. (NY Times, Apr 30, 1992)
Bogatin was the first of many Russian mafia associates — 13 people associated with the Solntsevso organised crime group and its partner criminal organisations owned, lived in, and even operated criminal activities out of Trump Tower or other Trump buildings.
In 1998, the Treasury Department fined the Trump Organization $477,000 after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) determined that the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, had violated anti-money laundering rules more than 100 times in its first 1.5 years of operations by failing to report gamblers who cashed out more than $10,000 in a single day. At the time, the fine was the largest ever assessed for violating the Bank Secrecy Act; however, it pales when compared with the $10 million the casino had to pay in 2015 when FinCEN again found the establishment had “willfully violated” anti-money laundering laws since 2003.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/22/politics/trump-taj-mahal/index.html
By the late 1990s, after Trump’s Atlantic City casinos went bankrupt, no U.S. bank would deal with him. In 2005, shunned by domestic US interests, Trump partnered with the Bayrock development group to develop the Trump SOHO project in Manhattan. Bayrock was headed by Tamir Sapir, Felix Sater, and Tevfik Arif; all three were associated with the Russian mafia. Bayrock poured money into the Trump organisation — licensing his name and property management.
Bayrock, which financed and developed Trump SoHo, transformed the project into a money laundering operation, the details for which were documented in several U.S. lawsuits initiated by Jody Kriss, a finance director at Bayrock.
Russian-born Felix Sater is the son of Russian mafia boss Michael Sheferovsky, the head of a New York criminal group — part of the Mogilevich syndicate — involved in racketeering and extortion. Mikhail Sheferovsky was an underboss for Russian Mafia “boss of bosses” Semion Mogilevich.
From 1993, Sater was involved with the Mogilevich group in securities fraud schemes. But, in 1998, Sater was convicted of fraud in connection to a $40 million scheme conducted by the Russian Mafia. Following his conviction, he assisted investigators looking into an international money laundering scheme involving Viktor Khrapunov, a former government minister in Kazakhstan accused of laundering more than $3 million in stolen government funds by purchasing three units in Trump SoHo in the names of his family members.
In 1999, following a period in prison, he moved into Trump Tower New York to work with Trump, and was the managing director of Bayrock, located on the 24th floor of Trump Tower. Sater was a close childhood friend of Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer. Cohen’s family owned El Caribe, which was frequented by the Russian Mafia in Brooklyn. Cohen had ties to Ukrainian oligarchs through his in-laws and his brother’s in-laws.
Shunned by Western banks, Trump made frequent overtures to Russian money and accepted injections of cash from Kremlin-linked figures, such as Dmitry Rybolovlev. Initially, Trump tried to enter the Russian market through the Solntsevo criminal group. The SoIntsevo conducted part off its US operations out of Trump Tower New York.
Between 2007 and 2016 Trump pursued realestate deals in Kazakhstan, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Belarus, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan.
In 2007, at Mar-a-Lago, Trump met with Lev Leviev to discuss potential deals in Moscow. Austrian police have identified Leviev with Mikhail Chernoy of the Izmailovo OCG. Leviev is a close friend of Putin. Leviev was a business partner of Prevezon Holdings (owned by Denis Katsyv, who was accused of money laundering in the Magnitsky case).
In September 2008, Donald Trump Jr. openly boasted of Russian money ‘pouring in’ and that, ‘Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.’
https://www.eturbonews.com/9788/executive-talk-donald-trump-jr-bullish-russia-and-few-emerging-ma
In 2011–2013, the FBI were monitoring the Nahmad-Tokhtakhunov-Trincher crime group operating out of Trump Tower New York. The group ran a large-scale money laundering operation. Tokhathunov had close ties with the Solntsevo OCG.
In April 2013, federal agents raided an apartment at Trump Tower in New York City to disrupt an international crime syndicate run by Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov. The leaders of the organization were charged with laundering more than $100 million through shell companies in Cyprus and the U.S. However, this did not prevent Tokhtakhounov from attending Trump’s Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in November 2013, as a VIP guest.
A 2017 Reuters investigation found that that prominant Russians had invested nearly $100 million in Trump properties located in South Florida. Many of the units were purchased through anonymous shell companies, that intentionally made it difficult to identify the ultimate owner. In 2008, Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev bought Trump’s Palm Beach property for $95 million — more than twice what Trump had paid only four years earlier. This property was bought through an anonymous shell company, but the ultimate owner was later confirmed.
Russian money flowing into Trump-branded real estate continued elsewhere around the country, especially in New York.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/
During the marketing campaign for Trump SoHo, Eric Trump told reporters, ‘As the experience of the past few years shows, the best property buyers now are Russian…They’re different in that they can go around without a mortgage loan from American banks that require income checks, and they can buy apartments with cash.’ And in 2014, when asked who funded Trump’s golf courses, he told the sports writer James Dodson, ‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia. … We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.’
http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2017/05/05/james-dodson-donald-trump-golf
In 2020, the investigative organisation Global Witness, investigated large-scale money laundering conducted through the Trump Ocean Club in Panama and found that Russian-speaking real estate brokers targeted Eastern Europeans as potential buyers.
The investigation also found that ‘What is clear is that proceeds from Colombian cartels’ narcotics trafficking were laundered through the Trump Ocean Club and that Donald Trump was one of the beneficiaries.’
According to the terms of the Panama development, Trump stood to gain more than $75 million.
Later, Sater received multiple subpoenas in the case against Mukhtar Ablyazov who is alleged to have defrauded BTA Bank of up to $5 billion as chairman. And in 2020, a lawsuit accused Sater and his partner Daniel Ridloff of using Trump properties to launder millions of dollars in stolen funds.
Trump was hosting the Russian mafia for many years before he even ran for president.
Brian Frydenborg; ‘…in Putin’s cynical salsa with Team Trump, when so many people connected to Trump and Putin are involved in similar money laundering schemes involving Russians and the Russian mafia and each other and Trump properties, we pass out of the realm of allowing for reasonable doubt and suspicion to the point where the crimes become so obvious that what remains to be answered is no longer “if” but simply “how much” these people are guilty…’
https://www.ft.com/content/159eb2d8-6162-11e7-8814-0ac7eb84e5f1
https://www.ft.com/content/33285dfa-9231-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923
Trump Election Campaign And Russian Collusion
Based upon public reporting and indictments by special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump 2016 campaign and transition team had at least 272 known contacts and at least 38 known meetings with Russia-linked operatives.
In a charge brought by special prosecutor Robert Mueller on October 27, 2017, Paul Manafort was named the beneficial owner of the Cyprus company Lucicle Consultants Limited, which received millions of dollars from the Ukrainian MP Ivan Fursin. Ivan Fursin, in turn, according to Austrian police, is an associate of Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash, and is part of the Russian mafia headed by Semyon Mogilevich.
Manafort was introduced to pro-Russian Ukraine oligarchs by the American Arthur J. Finkelstein, a strategist for conservative political campaigns.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/dark-money-dirty-politics-and-backlash-against-human-rights/
Finkelstein ran polarising campaigns that succeeded in securing victory for Netanyahu in Israel, and Orban in Hungary. Finkelstein remained an advisor to Orban for 10 years. Finkelstein also worked for other autocrats of the former Soviet Republics. Finkelstein was also a long-time associate of Trump. Finkelstein died in 2017.
The European headquarters of the Russian FSB is located in Budapest. Andras Gollner Professor Emeritus, at Montreal’s Concordia University, concluded that there was a link between the Trump 2016 campaign and the FSB which operated via Budapest.
Trump cooperated with Araz Agalarov to create the 2013 Miss Universe event in Moscow. Araz’s son Emin was a close associate of Sergei Mikhaylov the leader of the Solntsevo organised crime group.
Emin Agalarov arranged the meeting between the lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya with Jared Kushner and the leadership of Trump’s election staff, where she offered dirt on Hillary Clinton and asked for help in repealing the Magnitsky law.
In February 2016, it became known that the FBI was investigating whether funds of the National Rifle Association, of which the deputy chairman of the Bank of Russia Alexander Torshin was a member, were illegally funnelled to finance Trump’s election campaign. Torshin was believed to be a member of the Tagan OCG. In 2016, Spanish authorities considered arresting Torshin in relation to money laundering.
Andras Gollner; Hungarian Free Press; “The Budapest Bridge: Hungary’s Role in the Collusion Between the Trump Campaign and the Russian Secret Service” and “The Budapest Bridge Part 2″
Trump made a concerted effort to deny Russian election interference and to shutdown election interference investigations. He coordinated with Russia regarding sanctions, and the investigations into election interference, and concealed discussions with the Russian side.
In May 2017, before the NATO summit, Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russia’s Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office. Trump informed Lavrov and Kislyak that he had fired FBI Director James Comey. Trump barred US press from attending the meeting, but allowed TASS news agency to be present.
Trump spent months pressuring Comey to drop the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn; Trump fired Comey and later admitted that it was due to “this Russia thing.”
The general details of the Russian government’s support for Trump in the 2016 election are clear. Russia conducted a massive disinformation campaign targeting American voters. Russia hacked Trump’s opponents’ email and released the details, some via Wikileaks; and some of Trump’s team members received advanced notice of the leaks. Russia also used American fronts to direct financial support into Trump’s campaign and influence Republican policies.
https://themoscowproject.org/explainers/a-case-study-in-collusion/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/opinion/donald-trump-russia-putin.html
https://theins.ru/en/politics/98190
https://theins.ru/en/politics/98262
https://themoscowproject.org/collusion-chapter/chapter-1/index.html
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/cracking-the-shell/
https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/1601017_Conley_KremlinPlaybook_Web.pdf
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russia-trump-political-conflict-zone/story?id=42263092
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/us/politics/trump-tower-putin-felix-sater.html?_r=0
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2017/03/politics/trump-putin-russia-timeline/
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/donald-trump-2016-russian-ties-214116/
A Traitor In Plain Sight
It is difficult to understand the collective wilful blindness, the cognitive disconnect in America to Trump’s criminal activities, the dismantling of US democracy and institutions, the capture of the legal system, the blatant turn to authoritarian rule by decree, and the active promotion of Russian foreign policies and objectives.
Trump has demonstrated a clear and consistent pattern of behaviour toward Russia that actively advances Russia’s foreign policy objectives while undermining Western policy cohesion. At every opportunity, Trump has embraced Putin and adopted positions that align perfectly with Russia’s foreign policy goals, often favouring the Kremlin over his own country.
Putin’s seeks to weaken and divide the transatlantic alliance. Putin views NATO and the transatlantic relationship as Russia’s main strategic adversaries.
In support of this, Trump undermines US relationships with European allies and calls the US’s commitment to NATO into question. When Montenegro decided to join NATO it prompted criticism from Russia followed by repeated attacks from Trump.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/07/trump-montenegro/565475/
During his first summit with other NATO leaders, Trump refused to reaffirm America’s commitment to Article 5 of the Atlantic Treaty.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/05/trump-nato-speech-national-security-team-215227
Trump considered moving US forces away from Russia’s borders. Kevin Harrington of the National Security Council proposed withdrawing US military forces from Eastern Europe. He framed the proposal as an overture to Putin to “refram[e] our interests within the context of a new relationship with Russia.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-official-floated-withdrawing-us-forces-to-please-putin
In an interview with The New York Times, Trump stated that the US should only defend NATO allies who have “fulfilled their obligations to us.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy-interview.html
Trump announced plans to leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in October 2018 worsening tensions with European allies opposed to a unilateral US withdrawal.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/20/politics/donald-trump-us-arms-agreement-russia/index.html
As Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister and foreign minister of Sweden, observes, in just the first two months of Trump’s second term, he and Rubio have upturned the transatlantic alliance, casting Europe as the enemy while dismissing security concerns vis a vis Russia — the US stunned all when it sided with Russia against a UN General Assembly vote condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Carl Bildt’s assessment is very insightful; ‘Since MAGA ideologues see open, liberal European societies as extensions of their enemies at home, their support for illiberal, anti-democratic forces is perfectly logical.
They also have a fundamentally different view of Russia. It is no coincidence that their rhetoric often echoes that of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime (sometimes almost word for word). MAGA and Putin alike espouse aggressive nationalism and hostility toward liberal values; they both carry on endlessly about sovereignty and the role of strong leaders and strong nations in shaping the future. Whether you are in the Kremlin or the White House, the so-called globalists are the enemy.’
However, the logic of strong leaders and strong nations shaping the future through aggressive nationalism is that they take by force what they want, and agree on a carve-up of the world.
Putin works to undermine the European Union and support pro-Russian political movements. A unified Europe constrains and undermines options for Russia. The success of a vibrant liberal and democratic EU provides a direct contrast to Putin’s corrupt regime. EU sanctions strangle Russia economically, and European unity hinders Russia’s efforts to bully its neighbours and build transactional alliances with EU members. A Europe internally divided would enable Russia to threaten former Soviet satellite states and expand its influence in Europe.
Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went to Brussels to undermine the EU. In 2018, Pompeo gave a speech attacking the European Union and calling on member states to reassert their sovereignty.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/07/pompeos-speech-in-brussels-was-tone-deaf-and-arrogant/
Rubio has continued to attack the EU. Trump has initiated meetings with Russia to end the war in Ukraine without involving the EU or Ukraine. Trump has attacked Zelenski, and blamed Ukraine for starting the war. Trump has suspended intelligence and military support for Ukraine, while Rubio and Musk have threatened to deny Ukraine access to Starlink.
Trump has threatened to use military force, and sanctions, if Denmark does not sell Greenland. Trump is also trying to extort Ukraine’s mineral resources as payment for the military assistance the US has given; but, this was actually signalling to Russia which soon after offered Trump access to rare earth minerals from an occupied Ukraine.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gdx7488g5o
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/25/nx-s1-5307012/europe-nato-us-ukraine-russia-eu
Trump supported National Front leader Marine Le Pen in the 2017 French presidential election. Le Pen and her far-right National Front party ran on a platform promising to remove France from the EU. She has a strong pro-Putin position and has received active financial support from Russia and a Russian hacking-campaign targeting Le Pen’s opponent.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/21/trump-supports-marine-le-pen-237464
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/world/europe/france-macron-hacking.html
Trump has repeatedly praised pro-Russia Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. And Trump’s 1st administration ambassador to Germany announced his support for right-wing parties including pro-Russian Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz. While Musk has openly supported the German AfD.
Putin would like to disrupt American leadership and dominance of the global economic order. Putin resents the global economic order and America’s central role in international finance. The prevailing order confers significant economic and geopolitical benefits to the US. The US uses its unique position to leverage access to its capital markets, which makes tools such as economic sanctions so impactful. Putin aims to disrupt this system which has been deployed against Russia for several years.
Trump is actively pushing for a trade war with all US major trade partners. He has introduced tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, China. During his 1st term, he applied tariffs on steel and aluminium imports and threatened tariffs on European cars.
Trump also ended negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Putin wants to build global resentment and distrust towards the US. The US has always been viewed as Russia’s geopolitical rival. The US and partners have become increasingly critical of each other, longstanding partnerships based on shared values have been strained. This opens the way for Russia to create new, more transactional alliances with other Western nations.
Both Germany and Canada have implied that the era of American global leadership is over.
Following the May 2017 NATO summit in Brussels, Merkel commented that Germany could no longer rely on the transatlantic relationship, saying, ‘The times in which we could rely fully on others — they are somewhat over. This is what I experienced in the last few days. We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands.’
Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum prompted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call it ‘a turning point in the Canada-US relationship.’
The German Foreign Office began working on the first-ever America strategy, with the goal of producing a strategic document that Germany traditionally develops with respect to its adversaries like Russia.
Anti-Americanism is increasing. Trump’s destructive presidency has impacted America’s global influence, as international confidence has fallen from 64% during former US President Barack Obama’s final years to 22% at the beginning of Trump’s 1st term.
The Washington Post has defined this as the global story of our times.
Countries should realise that the US is not an ally, but a strategic risk.
Putin needs to relieve economic and domestic political pressure from US sanctions on Russia.
US and European sanctions against Russia have impacted the Russian economy and have personally impacted Russian oligarchs and officials on whom Putin depends. Russia’s 2015 national security strategy stated the goal of creating a ‘favourable external environment that would allow Russia’s economy to grow steadily and become more competitive.’ — sanctions undermine this goal.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/unpacking-russias-new-national-security-strategy
Trump lifted sanctions on three companies linked to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and Putin ally who was linked to the Russia investigation. The sanctions were intended as retaliation for election interference. Deripaska helped fund former Trump campaign manager Paul Manfort’s work on behalf of Russian interests for years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/21/us/politics/oleg-deripaska-russian-sanctions.html
https://www.apnews.com/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a
At the start of the 1st Trump administration, Trump moved to repeal Obama-era sanctions. The State Department was tasked with developing a plan to lift existing sanctions against Russia, restore diplomatic compounds from which Obama had expelled Russian diplomats in retaliation for the 2016 election interference, and take steps to placate Moscow.
The US Congress was opposed to lifting sanctions against Russia, passing the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) through both houses by an overwhelming majority. But, Trump condemned the legislation as ‘seriously flawed’ and unconstitutional.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-admin-lobbied-lawmakers-to-weaken-russia-sanctions
Trump deliberately failed to properly implement the requirements of the legislation, delayed the sanctions, and ensured that reporting and impact assessment requirements were so poorly done as to render them useless.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dems-demand-answers-from-trump-on-russia-sanctions-delay
The sanctions that were eventually announced were limited to people already sanctioned rendering the effort meaningless. Additional sanctions were deployed in April 2018, but these were also incomplete. Instead the only serious effort was directed to lifting sanctions on Oleg Deripaska.
Trump has continued to advocate for Putin’s views on US sanctions.
Putin aspires to international legitimacy for his regime.
Trump is all to willing to help. He publicly dismisses concerns about Putin and offers Putin public praise, while also hiding meetings and coordination with Putin.
Trump tried to hide the content of at least five meetings with Putin from U.S. government officials. After a 2017 meeting in Hamburg, Trump confiscated notes from his interpreter and instructed him to not tell any other officials what happened in the meeting. During the 2018 G20 in Argentina, Trump met with Putin for a brief conversation without a translator or note taker.
https://www.ft.com/content/61842ec4-23a0-11e9-8ce6-5db4543da632
At the 2018 Helsinki Summit, Trump rejected the combined US intelligence agencies’ analysis that Russia tried to influence the 2016 US election, with a state-authorised campaign of cyber attacks and fake news stories posted on social media. Instead, Trump accepted Putin’s denial without challenge, even though 2 days before the summit, Robert Mueller had indicted 12 Russian military officers. Trump even condemned the 2016 Russian election interference investigation. Trump excused Russia by saying that other countries may have been responsible.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/world/asia/trump-putin-election.html
Trump made a concerted effort to deny Russian election interference and to shutdown election interference investigations. He coordinated with Russia regarding sanctions, and the investigations into election interference, and concealed discussions with the Russian side.
In May 2017, before the NATO summit, Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russia’s Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office. Trump informed Lavrov and Kislyak that he had fired FBI Director James Comey. Trump barred US press from attending the meeting, but allowed TASS news agency to be present.
Trump spent months pressuring Comey to drop the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn; Trump fired Comey and later admitted that it was due to ‘this Russia thing.’
https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/07/politics/james-comey-testimony-released/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/james-comey-fired-fbi.html?mtrref=t.co
Putin’ aims to revive Russia’s status as a great power and gain international acceptance for its seizure of Crimea.
Russia’s 2015 national security strategy explicitly stated that one of the country’s goals is to ‘[consolidate] the Russian Federation’s position as a centre of influence in today’s world.’
Western leaders condemned Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, and in response implemented sanctions against Russia’s economy and they expelled Russia from the G8.
https://www.csis.org/analysis/unpacking-russias-new-national-security-strategy
Trump called Crimea part of Russia. At the 2018 G7 summit in Canada, Trump told G7 leaders that ‘Crimea is Russian because everyone who lives there speaks Russian.’
https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/trump-russia-crimea?utm_term=.sw0RWOZQ5#.kpYZ4rnLb
Trump is also trying to restore Russia’s international standing. At the 2018 G7 summit, Trump said, ‘we should have Russia at the negotiating table.’ — advocating for the restoration of Russia’s membership by claiming that everyone benefits.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-call-russia-join-g7-faces-swift-backlash/story?id=55750098
Before the 2017 G20 summit, Trump had a list of concessions prepared which he presented at his first bilateral meeting with Putin. There was strong resistance to the meeting from the State Department and National Security Council who recognised that it would signal acceptance of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and the annexation of Crimea.
During the G20, Trump held a second meeting with Putin but neither the National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster nor the Senior Director for Europe and Eurasia Fiona Hill were present. Incredibly, only the Kremlin’s interpreter was present for the meeting — no US official has a record of what occurred.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/29/white-house-sanctions-first-trump-putin-meeting
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/world/europe/trump-putin-undisclosed-meeting.html
Putin seeks to disrupt Western elections, and to promote discord across Western democracies while limiting repercussions for interfering in American and European elections.
The Trump administration has undermined the US government’s main tool for combatting Russian disinformation, the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC). GEC was specifically ‘tasked with countering Moscow’s disinformation campaign.’ However, the centre has suffered from a lack of Russian speaking analysts, a hiring freeze, and budget restrictions.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/russia-propaganda-america-information-war
Trump has undermined America’s cyber defenses. Trump administration has limited the government’s ability to coordinate a coherent cybersecurity policy. The State Department tried to close the Office of Cybersecurity Coordinator until Congress intervened. The former National Security Agency head Admiral Mike Rogers stated he had not been granted the authority by the White House to counter Russian cyber operations ‘where they originate.’
And Trump even discussed forming a ‘Cyber Security unit’ with Putin when they met at the Hamburg G20 summit in July 2017. Putin reportedly again suggested a cybersecurity working group at the Helsinki summit.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/09/trump-pitches-cyber-security-task-force-with-putin-240332
In October 2017, the administration closed the State Department’s sanctions office, eliminating the Coordinator for Sanctions Policy. The responsibilities of this office once led by a veteran diplomat and a team of five, have been moved to a single person who works on the topic part time.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/26/state-department-scraps-sanctions-office/
Putin would like to soften America’s adversarial position on Russia.
Trump and the Republicans blocked moves to maintain sanctions against Putin’s close associate Oleg Deripaska. After the Helsinki summit, Trump twice extended an invitation to Putin to visit the US, despite intense opposition to the idea.
Trump directed that the Republican National Committee platform on Ukraine support should be weakened. Trump’s constant campaigning on behalf of Russia led to a Republican delegation travelling to Russia to pursue renewed US/Russia relations.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/15/politics/russia-sanctions-senate-trump/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/us/politics/trump-putin-browder-mcfaul.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-campaign-changed-ukraine-platform-lied-about-it
Putin drives concealed efforts to destabilise the US from within. Russia seeks to promote preexisting divisions within US society, which they view as a way to distract and weaken an adversary.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/russia-facebook-race/542796/
Trump attacks US institutions while driving divisive politics and eroding democratic norms.
Trump has been actively hostile toward the press, denouncing journalists as ‘the enemy of the American people’ and popularizing the term ‘fake news’ (a term used by Hitler to attack the press) to undermine credible institutions like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN.
Trump is violating established norms, using his power to silence his critics; he has weaponised the Dept of Justice and courts for the same purpose.
Trump has publicly defended neo-Nazis and repeatedly used racially-charged language.
Following the August 2017 white nationalists’ march in Charlottesville that resulted in the death of one counter-protester, Trump said the white nationalists included some ‘very fine people’. Trump retweeted three propaganda videos from a British hate group which falsely claimed to depict Muslim migrants attacking white citizens.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/29/16714788/trump-retweet-britain-first-islamophobia
Trump has actively instituted discriminatory policies including ‘muslim bans’, ‘zero tolerance’ policies against immigrants from Central and South America, and the erasure of LGBT and equity programs.
Trump has advanced conspiracy theories that undermine the democratic process including deliberately false claims of election fraud, and ‘deep state’ conspiracies.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/05/trump-deep-state-coup-hysteria
Putin’s seeks to advance the Kremlin’s narrative to shape global perceptions.
Trump has gone out of his way to repeat Russia’s position across as range of topics, especially on Ukraine and NATO while rejecting US intelligence assessments regarding Russian election interference and disinformation, criticising the FBI and CIA, and uncritically accepting assurances from Putin.
Thank you for reaching this point; it is a long read. This article provides the background to Trump’s Russian connection. However, it is not the end of the story. The more alarming part of the story is the compelling parallels between Trump’s rise and the rise of the Nazis. Trump is extremely dangerous, and I urge everyone to read about Trump’s adoption of Hitler’s methods outlined in the story below.
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