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Trump's ties to Putin and other Russian Oligarchs

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Piecake

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1. All the other discussions of Trump's finances aside, his debt load has grown dramatically over the last year, from $350 million to $630 million. This is in just one year while his liquid assets have also decreased. Trump has been blackballed by all major US banks.

2. Post-bankruptcy Trump has been highly reliant on money from Russia, most of which has over the years become increasingly concentrated among oligarchs and sub-garchs close to Vladimir Putin.

After his bankruptcy and business failures roughly a decade ago Trump has had an increasingly difficult time finding sources of capital for new investments. As I noted above, Trump has been blackballed by all major US banks with the exception of Deutschebank, which is of course a foreign bank with a major US presence. He has steadied and rebuilt his financial empire with a heavy reliance on capital from Russia. At a minimum the Trump organization is receiving lots of investment capital from people close to Vladimir Putin
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4. Then there's Paul Manafort, Trump's nominal 'campaign chair' who now functions as campaign manager and top advisor. Manafort spent most of the last decade as top campaign and communications advisor for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Ukrainian Prime Minister and then President whose ouster in 2014 led to the on-going crisis and proxy war in Ukraine. Yanukovych was and remains a close Putin ally. Manafort is running Trump's campaign.

5. Trump's foreign policy advisor on Russia and Europe is Carter Page, a man whose entire professional career has revolved around investments in Russia and who has deep and continuing financial and employment ties to Gazprom. If you're not familiar with Gazprom, imagine if most or all of the US energy industry were rolled up into a single company and it were personally controlled by the US President who used it as a source of revenue and patronage.

6. Over the course of the last year, Putin has aligned all Russian state controlled media behind Trump. As Frank Foer explains here, this fits a pattern with how Putin has sought to prop up rightist/nationalist politicians across Europe, often with direct or covert infusions of money.

7. This is one thing that made the Trump convention very different. The Trump Camp was totally indifferent to the platform. So party activists were able to write one of the most conservative platforms in history. Not with Trump's backing but because he simply didn't care. With one big exception: Trump's team mobilized the nominee's traditional mix of cajoling and strong-arming on one point: changing the party platform on assistance to Ukraine against Russian military operations in eastern Ukraine. For what it's worth (and it's not worth much) I am quite skeptical of most Republicans call for aggressively arming Ukraine to resist Russian aggression. But the single-mindedness of this focus on this one issue - in the context of total indifference to everything else in the platform - speaks volumes.

Add to this that his most conspicuous foreign policy statements track not only with Putin's positions but those in which Putin is most intensely interested. Aside from Ukraine, Trump's suggestion that the US and thus NATO might not come to the defense of NATO member states in the Baltics in the case of a Russian invasion is a case in point.
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To put this all into perspective, if Vladimir Putin were simply the CEO of a major American corporation and there was this much money flowing in Trump's direction, combined with this much solicitousness of Putin's policy agenda, it would set off alarm bells galore. That is not hyperbole or exaggeration. And yet Putin is not the CEO of an American corporation. He's the autocrat who rules a foreign state, with an increasingly hostile posture towards the United States and a substantial stockpile of nuclear weapons. The stakes involved in finding out 'what's going on' as Trump might put it are quite a bit higher.
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-putin-yes-it-s-really-a-thing

I would definitely recommend reading the whole article. It goes into some significant and important details and a few more major points

And damn, that is fucking disturbing that the ties seem to go well beyond Trump's fascist tendencies and simply having a 'unique' view of foreign policy.

No wonder why he doesnt want to release his tax returns

Update :

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So by supporting Trump, you are also supporting Putin, Global Racism and corruption. I have a feeling that this guy shouldn't be president, just a hunch.
 
As if we need more reasons we can't allow him to become president. I'm sure there will be plenty of political ads about this. People need to understand how big of a catastrophe we are staring down.
 
excelsiorlef said:
Make America Red Again....

I know Russia is not communist anymore but too good a joke to pass up.
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I said it in PoliGAF but this makes me so mad that the Eastern Bloc never managed to reform and survive. None of this right-populist nationalist garbage would be spreading its influence.
 
All of this is pretty widely known and covered before (not to mention one of his foreign policy advisers, Michael Flynn, who was also rumored to be a VP candidate, has ties to Russia Today). Politco in particular

It's really crazy because last election, Romney's whole foreign policy revolved around containing Russia (and I might add, he was widely mocked by the left for it...like the line about the '80s calling and wanting its foreign policy back),

But now for Republicans, Russia has gone from the enemy to just a cuddly bear or something.
 
Man, Putin is really living up to those Bond-villain labels people were giving him at some point.
 
So if this turns out true, we're really voting Clinton v. Pence, as there is no way citizens make this connection when the government hasn't. If it's true, Trump will de detained post election.
 
Huh. This illuminates the whole Trump campaign to me a little bit more, beyond the typical "popularity" grab and Trump desiring to be president for the attention.
 
The fact that Manafort is even running a campaign should be setting off alarm bells. I mean obviously he's not being paid by Putin to run but I can't believe the GOP has gotten behind such a pro Putin candidate.
 
The Adder said:
So if this turns out true, we're really voting Clinton v. Pence, as there is no way citizens make this connection when the government hasn't. If it's true, Trump will de detained post election.
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The idea isn't that he's a manchurian candidate, there's nothing to detain him over.
 
smokeandmirrors said:
Paging trump gaf.
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I can't believe liberals are wasting their time attacking Trump on [whatever issue this thread is about]. They should really focus on attacking him over [some other thing they've already been attacking him over]. I think a lot of people are gonna be surprised come November, when Trump manages to swing [random collection of swing states] due to his strength in [absurd demographic]. Not saying I support everything Trump says, but I can't vote for Hillary.
 
OP you beat me to making this thread.

Trump's candidacy has to be among the most alarming in our country's history.
 
the fact that Trump will start getting intelligence briefings next month is legit concerning

I hope Dems hammer him on the Putin angle in ads and stuff. Kaine's speech today made a few jabs involving Putin so they're not afraid of doing it at least.
 
Putin will make America great again

I wonder how well this will stick to him. I'm sure Trump voters will find some crazy way of rationalizing it.
 
DiscoJer said:
All of this is pretty widely known and covered before (not to mention one of his foreign policy advisers, Michael Flynn, who was also rumored to be a VP candidate, has ties to Russia Today). Politco in particular

It's really crazy because last election, Romney's whole foreign policy revolved around containing Russia (and I might add, he was widely mocked by the left for it...like the line about the '80s calling and wanting its foreign policy back),

But now for Republicans, Russia has gone from the enemy to just a cuddly bear or something.
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Holy shit! What the fuck happened to Ed Schultz. Always knew there was something not right with that guy.
 
How can Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell live with themselves?

They have the power to stop this, it's like they're just hoping Hillary will do it for them and they're willing to risk the country on that bet.
 
Cerium said:
How can Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell live with themselves?

They have the power to stop this, it's like they're just hoping Hillary will do it for them and they're willing to risk the country on that bet.
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The republican establishment right now is pretty much the same as the leaders of the Leave campaign.
 
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