Trump and Putin, behind the scenes

[Admin]

If there is one thing the White House has sought to hammer home about the FBI investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, it is that President Donald Trump was not a subject of it. The point was so important to Trump that he repeated it in his letter firing FBI Director James Comey. "I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation," he wrote.

When Comey told Congress last week that he had, in fact, confirmed to Trump on at least two occasions that he wasn't under investigation, Trump and his allies said they felt "vindicated," even though the investigation into his campaign team was ongoing. And they continued to rail on "innuendo" that the president's interactions with Comey were unethical or illegal in any way.

But when The Washington Post reported on Wednesday night that Robert Mueller, the special counsel overseeing the FBI's probe, was investigating whether Trump obstructed justice, the talking points circulated by the Republican National Committee did not dispute the accuracy of the report. Neither did Trump's lawyer, Mark Kasowitz.

According to Axios and The Daily Beast, that's at least partly because Trump's aides and people close to him know that Comey's version of events — that Trump asked him for loyalty, to back off the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and to announce publicly that he himself was not under FBI investigation — is most likely accurate.

Similarly, White House officials "assume [Trump] did, indeed, ask Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, if they could help derail the Flynn probe," Axios' Mike Allen reported. "They also assume he said similar things to other officials."

Having fielded Trump's requests, Comey most likely had a sense that the president would not let the FBI get in the way of clearing his name and would pressure those he considered allies to find ways to intervene on his behalf. Even if Comey didn't predict as much, however, he made clear in his testimony last week that he took Trump's comments about the Flynn investigation — "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go" — as an order. Which is all to say: Comey — who has said he documented every interaction he had with Trump because he was often "stunned" by the president's overtures — couldn't announce publicly that Trump was not under FBI investigation because the likelihood that he soon might be increased with every public and private comment Trump made about the Russia probe.

'The president did this to himself' "Keep him away from Twitter, dear God, keep him away from Twitter," one Trump aide told The Daily Beast when asked about the White House's game plan. "The president did this to himself."

Trump proves Comey right on investigation - Business Insider

[Admin]

The question came up again early last month after the golf writer James Dodson told WBUR that Trump's son, Eric, bragged in 2014 that the Trump family had secured access to $100 million from Russian lenders to fund their golf courses.

"He just sort of tossed off that he had access to $100 million," Dodson said. "I said, 'Eric, who's funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one's funding any kind of golf construction. It's dead in the water the last four or five years.'

"He said, 'Well, we don't rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.' I said, 'Really?' And he said, 'Oh, yeah. 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.'"
Eric has denied the story, which he called "completely fabricated."

But it's not the first time one of Trump's sons has boasted of ties to Russia. In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. said the Trump Organization saw "a lot of money pouring in from Russia."

"Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets," he said at the time.

The Washington Post has reported that "Trump and his family members have made numerous trips to Moscow in search of business opportunities" since the 1980s, "and they have relied on Russian investors to buy their properties around the world." The Trump Organization is also believed to have received loans from Russia when it was struggling in the 1990s, the report said.

The family's bank of choice has long been Deutsche Bank, which was the only bank willing to loan to Trump after he lost others money in a series of bankruptcies — something he figured "was the bank's problem, not mine," he wrote in his 2007 book, "Think Big: Make it Happen in Business and Life

"What the hell did I care?" Trump wrote. "I actually told one bank, 'I told you you shouldn't have loaned me that money. I told you the goddamn deal was no good.'"

Deutsche Bank was fined earlier this year as part of a Russian money-laundering scheme that involved its Moscow, New York, and London branches. The bank refused earlier this month to hand over documents requested by five Democratic lawmakers related to the bank's relationship with Trump, citing the confidentiality of non-public customer information.

But a meeting in December between his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, with Sergey Gorkov, the CEO of sanctioned Russian bank Vnesheconombank, is reportedly being scrutinized by Mueller's team in its investigation. 

Gorkov was appointed by Putin in 2016 on the recommendation of Herman Gref — a Putin ally and CEO of Russia's largest bank whom Trump met, along with several other oligarchs, while he was in Moscow in 2013. 

"The Russian market is attracted to me,” Trump tweeted shortly after the meeting, which was meant as a kind of meet-and-greet. "Almost all of the oligarchs were in the room...TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next."

Reuters reported last month that the FBI was examining whether, during Kushner's meeting at Trump Tower, Russians suggested lifting or relaxing economic sanctions in exchange for Russian banks financing Trump associates' — and his family's — business ventures. 

Kushner at the time was trying to find investors for a Fifth Avenue office building in Manhattan, though White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks denied when news broke of Kushner's meeting with Gorkov in March that they had discussed the construction project.

Trump-Russia probe turns into follow-the-money - Business Insider

[Admin]

Last year, the Russian government approved the renewals of six trademarks for President Donald Trump that were about to expire, according to a New York Times investigation on Sunday. Four of those renewals were officially registered by Russia on Election Day. 

The Times found that the Kremlin approved applications for the trademarks' renewal beginning in April 2016 and ending in December of that year, according to records maintained by Rospatent, Russia's government agency which oversees intellectual property. The trademarks were originally obtained between 1996 and 2007, but they had gone unused. Each of the trademarks was granted a 10-year extension in 2016, the investigation found. 
Trump has repeatedly said that he has no remaining business deals in or involving Russia.

Russia renewed 6 Trump trademarks during the 2016 election - Business Insider

[Admin]

Another character emerges..

A congressional committee wants to interview President Donald Trump's digital director as part of its investigation. Investigators are probing whether voter information stolen by Russian hackers made its way to the Trump campaign. A top official said Russia targeted election systems in at least 21 states.

Brad Parscale emerges as crux in Trump-Russia investigation - Business Insider

[Admin]

The FBI is examining whether Russian officials suggested to President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, that Russian banks could finance Trump associates' business ventures if US sanctions were lifted or relaxed, Reuters reported on Friday, citing a current US law enforcement official.

The possibility first came under scrutiny after Kushner met with the CEO of Russia's state-owned Vnesheconombank in December 2016. The meeting came on the heels of Kushner's meeting with Russia's ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, at Trump Tower, in which he reportedly floated the possibility of setting up a secure line of communication between the Trump transition team and Russia.

Kushner meeting head of sanctioned Russian bank could have alarming consequences - Business Insider

[Admin]

evidence is emerging that the hacking and disinformation campaign waged at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin took at least four separate but related paths.

The first involved establishing personal contact with Americans perceived as sympathetic to Moscow — such as former Defense Intelligence Agency chief Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and early Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page — and using them as a means to further Russia's foreign-policy goals.

The second involved hacking the Democratic National Committee email servers and then giving the material to WikiLeaks, which leaked the emails in batches throughout the second half of 2016.

The third was to amplify the propaganda value of the leaked emails with a disinformation campaign waged predominantly on Facebook and Twitter, in an effort to use automated bots to spread fake news and pro-Trump agitprop.

And the fourth was to breach US voting systems in as many as 39 states leading up to the election, in an effort to steal registration data that officials say could be used to target and manipulate voters in future elections.

Evidence mounts Russia meddled in US election - Business Insider

[Admin]

Worst of all for Trump, the investigation is likely to shine a spotlight on his own dubious business practices. In March, for example, USA Todaywrote that “the president and his companies have been linked to at least 10 wealthy former Soviet businessmen with alleged ties to criminal organizations or money laundering.” 

It appears that Trump and his associates have been trying to cover their tracks because a more recent USA Today scoop reported that “Since President Trump won the Republican nomination, the majority of his companies’ real estate sales are to secretive shell companies that obscure the buyers’ identities.”

But, despite these attempts at concealment, Reuters reported “at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida.” Eric Trump reportedly bragged in 2014 that Russian investors were funding Trump’s golf courses.

You’d Be Scared if You Were Donald Trump, Too - Business Insider

[Admin]

Just as a reminder what kind of guy is sitting in the Kremlin:

 A colossal cyberattack on Tuesday has been wreaking havoc on countries and corporations across the globe, and some cybersecurity experts are zeroing in on a familiar name as the possible culprit. The attack, dubbed "Petya," is a ransomware worm that has so far targeted, among others, Ukrainian banks and airports; Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft; British advertising company WPP, US pharmaceutical giant Merck; and shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk, which said every branch of its business was affected.

Analysts at several cybersecurity firms have confirmed that the Petya assault utilized a powerful and dangerous cyberweapon reated by the National Security Agency that was leaked in April by the hacker group Shadow Brokers. Though it's too soon to be certain, experts say it seems as though a confluence of factors may be pointing to Russian state involvement in carrying out the attack.

Russia may be behind the Petya cyberattack - Business Insider

If you read the rest of the article you know that it wasn't for money and that the Russian companies affected somehow didn't experience any negative effects.. They did the same to Estonia, and then there are the US 2016 elections, the Macron leaks days before he was elected President of France, etc. etc.

Russian hackers are targeting the campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, say security experts. Phishing emails, malware and fake net domains were all being used as attack techniques, said Feike Hacquebord, from security company Trend Micro. The attackers are believed to be part of the same group that targeted the US election. Russia has denied that it is behind attacks aimed at Mr Macron.

Russian hackers 'target' presidential candidate Macron - BBC News

Let's not forget they shot down a Malaysian plane full of Dutch holiday makers..

Russia has vetoed proposals for an international criminal tribunal into the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. It was the only nation to vote against the measure, using its veto power as a permanent member of UN Security Council to prevent the draft resolution from passing.

MH17: Russia challenged to prove Ukraine shot down plane | MH17 News | The Week UK

Then there is Syria, where they're backing a butcher slaughtering his own people

The US has concluded that Russia knew in advance about the chemical attack in Syria last week that killed dozens of civilians and is believed to have been carried out by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, a senior US official told The Associated Press on Monday.

Russia knew of Assad chemical attack in Syria, US official says - Business Insider

And they are killing opponents of Putin at home and abroad..

Since 2003, more than two dozen murders or mysterious deaths in multiple countries seem to trace back to Moscow. But no one seems to be doing much about it. At least 33 people in the UK, US, Ukraine, Greece, India, and Kazakhstan have been murdered or died mysteriously in the last 14 years, according to recent reports by BuzzFeed News and USA Today. Last week, BuzzFeed News released the first two parts of a two-year investigation detailing how US spy agencies gave the British government, upon its request, evidence linking the murders or deaths of 14 Russians and Brits in the UK to the Kremlin, the FSB — Russia's security agency — or the Russian mafia, which sometimes works with the government. But the British government has ruled out foul play in each case.

Russia keeps assassinating people abroad, and no one is doing anything - Business Insider

And did Russians actually benefited from all these machinations? Well, no:

They sell their system of “illiberal democracy” on the basis of pragmatism, not some universal theory of history. These leaders claim they are simply more effective at getting things done. That is certainly true when it comes to stirring nationalist sentiment and stifling dissent. They have been less effective, however, in nurturing long-term economic growth. Once one of the world’s two superpowers, Russia’s GDP is now about 40% of Germany’s and just over 50% of France’s. Life expectancy at birth ranks 153rd in the world, just behind Honduras and Kazakhstan. In terms of per capita income, Russia ranks 73rd (in terms of purchasing power parity) – well below the Soviet Union’s former satellites in central and eastern Europe. The country has deindustrialised: the vast majority of its exports now come from natural resources. It has not evolved into a “normal” market economy, but rather into a peculiar form of crony-state capitalism.

Putin's illiberal stagnation in Russia offers up a valuable lesson | Joseph Stiglitz | Business | The Guardian

[Admin]

President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort registered Tuesday with the Justice Department as an agent of a foreign government, acknowledging for the first time that some of his lobbying work on behalf of Ukraine’s former president was aimed at influencing U.S. policy makers and journalists. The filing by Manafort, who for years advised the ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, came after his work in Eastern Europe fell under scrutiny last year at the height of the U.S. presidential election, ultimately leading to his resignation as Trump’s campaign chairman. His filing also acknowledged that he was paid more than $17 million for his lobbying work for a Ukrainian political party.

Paul Manafort, Trump’s ex-campaign manager, registers as foreign agent - MarketWatch

[Admin]

But the White House is pushing back on new legislation passed earlier this month by the Senate that would levy new sanctions on Russia and Iran and prevent the president from easing Russian sanctions without congressional approval. And the administration is reportedly in talks with the Russians to return the diplomatic compounds Obama ordered evacuated in December in retaliation for the election meddling.

National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers told lawmakers in a recent closed-door briefing that he was struggling to convince Trump to accept the intelligence community's conclusions about Russia's interference, according to CNN. And Trump reportedly doesn't seem willing or able to differentiate between the investigation into Moscow's attempts to influence the election and the probe into whether any collusion occurred between his associates and Russian officials. He also reportedly resents the amount of attention being paid to the Russia probe.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Trump asked Rogers and the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to say publicly that he was not a subject of the FBI's probe into Russia's election interference, and that no collusion occurred between his campaign and Moscow.
Trump still receives briefings on new information about the Russian attack when it comes to light, according to CNN, and he "appears no less engaged on issues surrounding Russian election meddling than on any other matters covered in the presidential daily brief."

Top officials are reportedly frustrated with Trump's lack of concern about Russia - Business Insider

Nothing to see here, right?