The Trump-Putin Bromance Is Getting Even Shadier - By Jonathan Chait
From the standpoint of the United States, the prospect that a President Donald Trump would be unduly influenced by Vladimir Putin has paled beside the far more harrowing prospect that he would be Vladimir Putin. Still, Trumps relationship with Putin is creepy and mysterious. Some of its elements lie perfectly visible the exchange of compliments between the two men, Putins efforts to help elect Trump, Trumps adoption of unusually Russophilic policies on Ukraine, and the financial ties between Trumps campaign and the Kremlin. The latter is coming more clearly into view with several new reports today.
1. Paul Manafort, Trumps campaign manager, previously worked on behalf of a pro-Russian candidates effort to bring Ukraine back into Moscows orbit, a campaign that enjoyed Russian support. Michael Crowley reports that Manaforts joining the Trump campaign was an inflection point. Despite a fondness for Putin as a strong leader who crushes his enemies, Trump had a hawkish line on his aggression against Ukraine. We should definitely be strong. We should definitely do sanctions, said Trump, who described Putins seizure of Crimea as taking Ukraines heart and soul. Since Manafort signed on, his tone has changed radically.
2. A second source of influence on Trumps Russia policy is his Russia adviser, Carter Page. Christina Wilkie and S.V. Date report that, just days before Trumps convention (where his campaign beat back a plank to endorse defensive weapons for Ukraine), Page traveled to Russia and delivered speeches criticizing American policy toward Russia as hypocritical, and called for an end to the sanctions imposed after the Ukraine invasion. As Masha Froliak notes, Page is heavily invested in Gazprom. Gazprom is not merely a Russian firm the way Apple is an American one. It is a lever of the regimes power, used to dispense patronage to allies and threaten countries that stand in the way of Russias foreign-policy goals. Page has complained that the sanctions hurt his energy firms bottom line.
3. Jeff Nesbit delves into the murky and largely hidden financial connections between Trump and Russia. This is the most potentially explosive piece of the relationship, and also the most inscrutable. Nesbit cites a lawsuit against Trump Soho, a hotel project that attracted financing from Russian underworld figures. (Read Michael Idovs 2008 New York feature on the murky construction of the building.) A lawsuit cited by Nesbit alleged that a primary source of funding for Trumps big projects with Bayrock arrived magically from sources in Russia and Kazakhstan whenever the business interest needed funding. This gets closer to the deepest suspicion surrounding Trump: Because his multiple bankruptcies have made him un-creditworthy banks dont like lending money to people who make a practice of not paying back the loans he has had to turn to unconventional sources. It is possible Trump is merely intertwined with Russians, as with other sources of capital. But it is also possible he has grown uniquely dependent on them in a way that gives Russia leverage over his policies.
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