Donald J. Trump, 47th President of the United States, (Blog: Trump, The Loser,11/03), has opened a can of worms with his widespread involvement and backing of Russia in their imperialist war against Ukraine. In the face of bipartisan US Congress opposition he has reopened the controversy surrounding his association with that dictatorship. Adding to his perverse decision is the fact that Russia is openly supporting Iran, a country that the USA is technically at war with. Furthermore he is calling for the axing of Ukrainian President Zelensky who is the universally celebrated David fighting an evil Goliath.
Trump’s relationship with Russia is a long and complicated story which began in the 1980’s. It has involved a cosy collaboration with shady individuals, a company that fed him money, money which originated from a Russian oligarch and Kazakhstan, repeated attempts to establish a Moscow Trump Tower and with Putin somehow always in the shadows.
The Russian saga had fallen out of view because Trump had been ostensibly exonerated in 2019 by the Mueller Investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential election. As a result he has coped with any criticism by mockingly screaming “Russia, Russia, Russia” dismissing it as a “hoax”, literally hundreds of times since.
But to begin what has Trump done to Ukraine to favor Putin’s Russia?
TRUMP’S INTERFERENCE IN UKRAINE CONFLICT IN FAVOR OF RUSSIA.
Trump has made decisive moves to buttress Russia’s aggression in the past few weeks that have shocked even his punch drunk party. He has given life support to their failing economy by offering to buy diesel fuel over the next year. More significantly he has signed an Executive Order nullifying the comprehensive Sanctions Act against Russia that was overwhelmingly passed by Congress. The latter is named after his closest ally the late Senator Lindsey Graham who, recently, passed away thereby evoking criticism from his sister the Senatorial candidate in South Carolina.
Trump has made his bias blatant by calling for the replacement of Ukraine’s remarkable President, Voldomyr Zelensky. On top of that Musk withdrew Starlink from Ukraine after a long conversation with Trump making them totally vulnerable to missiles and drones. In fact Trump has provided no assistance whatsoever to the beleaguered East European country. He has not even delivered all the munitions that other NATO countries have bought to hand over to the victims of naked aggression. In so doing he has put his heavy thumb on the scale against Ukraine in their defense against Russia’s drawn out bloody imperialist grab of their country.
A measure of the opposition to his actions is that even his sycophantic Speaker of The House of Representatives, Mike Johnson has publicly voiced his disagreement, as well as a bipartisan group of legislators. The outcome was that Starlink was switched on again but the issue is far from over. The media is awash with supposed deals he and his cronies are making with Putin’s Russian oligarchs.
Trump however feels emboldened by being allegedly being free to do what ever he likes because in a major investigation by a Special Counsel he was supposedly
“exonerated” of involvement with Russia.
TRUMP “EXONERATED” IN RUSSIA INVESTIGATION
Ostensibly anything untoward between Donald J. and the Russians was resolved favorably by Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation between 2017 and 2019 into Russian interference into the 2016 Presidential election. His Attorney General Bill Barr whitewashed the findings under protest by Mueller who said that he had not conveyed the outcome accurately. The Special Counsel asked that his Executive Summary be released to the public. Barr refused. What Mueller had not proved beyond a “reasonable doubt” was that Trump and Russia had acted together“in criminal collusion”.
However Mueller had conclusively showed that Russia had conducted a widespread ongoing operation in support of Presidential candidate Trump, thereby interfering in the election. The latter included Russian operatives meeting with the highest Trump campaign officials “to get dirt on Hilary Clinton”.That meeting was brokered by Arav Agalarof who had hosted Trump’s 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow. Agalarof had close connections to Putin. Trump further, had drafted a false report as to the reason of the meeting.
Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, had passed on sensitive information to Russia which amounted to intelligence. He and several other members of Trump’s campaign team were convicted as a result of Mueller’s investigation for lying under oath and obstruction of justice. Mueller also indicted 12 Russian Military Intelligence Officers. Trump had publicly called “Russia” to release his opponent Hilary Clinton’s emails whereupon they promptly hacked them. The infamous “Russia if your’e listening” appeal played to the world.
The aforementioned has to viewed in the light of the fact that during the campaign Trump was pursuing a real estate deal with Russia opening wide the possibility of conflict of interest.
The damning report went onto document that Trump dismissed the FBI Director investigating Russian interference in the election and the next day in the Oval Office confided to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador that that had taken “great pressure” of him in regard to Russia. He also afforded Minister Lavrov sensitive highly classified material. At a meeting with Putin in Helsinki in 2018 he spent two hours alone with him and publicly contradicted his own Intelligence Officers saying he believed Putin when he denied Russian interference. Putin subsequently admitted that he wanted Trump to win. A year prior to that Trump had met with Putin in Hamburg and had the interpreter destroy the notes.
To put the kibosh on this whole Barr subterfuge a bipartisan Senate investigation under the leadership of Marc Rubio, the current Secretary of State, essentially came to the same conclusion of Russian interference in favor of Trump. Their 1000 page report emphasized the counterintelligence implications of the whole saga maintaining that serious national securities had been exposed. Paul Manafort had relayed this information directly to a Russian Intelligence Officer. The Senate also focussed on the fact that Trump was secretly pursuing a Moscow real estate deal during the 2016 election campaign.The latter required direct Kremlin involvement. All of this withheld from the electorate.
So Mueller far from exonerating Trump had together with the Senate established an elaborate Russian interference operation to assist him in the 2016 election. What’s more there had been inappropriate communication during the campaign and unconventional private meetings between the two Presidents with no public reports.
So to continue with the saga of Trump’s relationship which began in the 1980’s in the good old USSR..
IN THE BEGINNING - FELIX SATER AND BAYROCK
Trump has been investigating possible real estate deals with the Soviet Union since the 1980’s even traipslng there in 1987 in the hope of installing a Trump Tower. This was well prior to his visit in 2013 when he hosted his Beauty Pageant in Moscow. (Incidentally on that occasion the future US President received a gift and a letter from Putin).
Trump is alleged to have most of his company’s conventional real estate dealings with Russians. Eric Trump admitted as much in 2017 while Don Jnr. In 2008 noted that most of their customers were Russian. Reuters reported in 2017 that 63 purchasers in Trump buildings had paid a combined $100 million.
On the 24th Floor of Trump Tower a Felix Sater moved in 2001 running a real estate company called Bayrock. That was the beginning of extensive ongoing dealings with Donald J Trump Inc. Sater had been already a convicted felon for $40 million stock fraud and been to prison for assault. He had extensive connections to Russian business and international terrorism.
It is important to note that the founder of Bayrock was a Mr. Tevfik Arif a Russian businessman who had extensive connections with Kazakhstan. The Arif family acquired a chromium mine in Kazakhstan after the collapse of the Soviet Union which engendered massive profits. An entity called Mediapart reported that the Arif family transferred $368 million into offshore accounts between 2004 and 2014. Another major investor in Bayrock was Alexander Mashkevich who was one of the owner of Kazakhstan’s metal industry. A Reuter investigation found a $30 million transfer to Bayrock from a Kazahstan bank.
In 2006 Sater travelled with Donald Trump Jnr. and Ivanka to Moscow to look at possibilities for deals
Former Finance Director of Bayrock, Jody Kriss, explained that the company had received unexplained funds from Russia and Kazakhstan and that financial arrangements concealed the true nature of certain transactions. He also maintained in civil litigation that some of the Russian investors were politically acceptable to Vladimir Putin. In fact other Russians were prepared to offer better terms than the former but the ones more favorable to Mr. Arif and Putin were chosen.
TRUMP, SATER AND BAYROCK
From the word go Trump had a sweetheart deal with Bayrock’s Sater. His real estate company provided no capitol and was given substantial management and licensing fees. Trump could retain moneys even when a project failed. The two companies were involved in several projects.
A major project that was financed by Bayrock was Trump Soho. The money came via an Icelandic Company called FL Group. In return the latter would get 62% of four projects including Soho. While $50 million came from that group, chunks of it went all over the show. Bayrock’s other ventures with Trump included The International Hotel and Tower in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Trump International Hotel and Residences in Phoenix, Arizona. All these projects either went belly up or were never completed.
The money that Bayrock used ultimately came from Kazakhstan or Russia. Trump was Introduced to Russian investors by the founder of Bayrock, Mr. Arif. Trump knew that those investors poured money into Bayrock. Another wrinkle in the whole saga was that the bank that would finance Trump after all his financial disasters was Deutsche Bank. The latter was found to have laundered Russian money. It is not known who were the guarantors for the Trump Deutsche Bank loans.
Then came the project that was all over the 2016 Presidential campaign, Trump Tower Moscow.
TRUMP, COHEN, SATER AND THE MOSCOW TRUMP TOWER CIRCA 2015
In October 2015 Trump, represented by Felix Sater and his personal lawyer Michael Cohen signed a letter of intent with a Russian developer to a build Trump Tower Moscow. That was four months after he descended the Golden Escalator in Trump Tower announcing his candidacy for the Presidency. Sater who was made an advisor to Trump in 2010, subsequently had an office on Trump’s 26th floor rent free and a business card to that effect.
According to Cohen the deal was halted in July 2016 and contrary to Trump’s statements the latter was continually updated of its progress during the campaign. Much is on the record especially from Sater’s emails. Sater himself never went to Moscow but had an associate as a representative. He also had a contact in the Russian military intelligence who helped him obtain visas for Cohen and himself. The visit was set but cancelled it June/July 2016.
In November 2015 Sater communicated to Cohen that “our boy could become President” and it was hoped to obtain Putin’s backing. In January 2016 Cohen contacted Peskov, Putin’s Press Secretary and had a detailed discussion about the project. Sater reported that Putin should be offered a $50 million penthouse in the building. The Kremlin at the least knew all about the prospective deal. The Mueller report provided far more detail including that Sater was in contact with Putin. Trump admitted signing the letter of intent in October 2015 but had no recall of Cohen updating him.
All in all it stinks to high heaven. And Attorney General Barr whitewashed everything. In fact he was appointed to replace Jeff Sessions when he had written his opinion to the WhiteHouse as to what he thought about the Mueller Investigation. Thereafter at any hint of impropriety Trump would sarcastically yell, “Russia, Russia, Russia”.
Trump had one another score to settle and that was his open hatred of Ukraine’s premier Voldomyr Zelensky.
ZELENSKY
It is interesting to note that he has had a rocky relationship with President Zelensky as well bullying him from the word go. Trump 45’s first impeachment was as a result of threatening the newly elected Zelensky that he would withhold Congress approved Ukraine support unless the latter announced an investigation into the Bidens. He has publicly humiliated Voldomyr on a number of occasions including in the Oval Office. In addition to providing life support to Russia he has called for the Ukrainian President’s ouster.
Zelensky is still in the game and somehow Trump/Musk have turned on the lights again and Starlink is fully functional. Trump has enough on his plate without this open revolt of his support on Ukraine.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Trump has had favorable financial Russian relationships since at least the 2000’s.
Russia intervened in Trump’s favor in the 2016 Presidential election.
Trump has intervened in favor of the aggressor Russia in it’s war against Ukraine.
Trump should be challenged when he responds, “Russia, Russia, Russia”.
Depending on the outcome of the midterms Trump is realistically at risk for his third impeachment with serious problems in the following trial in the Senate. The major disagreement the traditional Republicans have with him is his support of Russia. They voted overwhelmingly for Russian sanctions which he unceremoniously chucked out. The politician who last time saved Trump from conviction in the Senate in his second impeachment, then leader Senator McConnell, in a lengthy op -ed piece in the Wall Street Journal wrote, inter alia, “…..This is factually wrong, strategically naive and morally bankrupt. His obsequious accommodation of Russia rewarding the aggressor with sanctions relief, won’t persuade Mr. Putin to stop….”.
(Full disclosure: Nothing in this blog is original research. It is all part of the record),
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