He also not long ago hired this guy, which is not surprising giving Trump's admiration for KGB Putin.
March 31, 2016:
“A senior aide to Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump helped a scandal-plagued Ukrainian oligarch with ties to political and criminal figures in Russia park millions of dollars in offshore real estate investments, according to documents released as part of a federal racketeering suit.
The lawsuit, brought by former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, accused U.S. political consultant Paul Manafort of complicity in a complex scheme of retaliation against Tymoshenko and her political allies for impeding the business interests of Ukrainian gas tycoon Dmitry Firtash.
Manafort, a veteran GOP consultant and former adviser to recently-ousted Ukrainian president and Firtash ally Viktor Yanukovych, is now leading the Trump presidential campaign’s efforts to secure delegates at the Republican National Convention in July.
Trump’s praise for Russian president Vladimir Putin, who backed Yanukovych’s Kremlin-friendly government, has drawn criticism from Republican rivals and experts on U.S. policy toward Russia.
One of the GOP frontrunner’s top foreign policy advisers is also a staunch defender of Putin’s regime and highly critical of U.S. efforts to counter Russian influence in Ukraine and the rest of Europe.
Manafort’s involvement with Firtash in high-dollar business ventures could fuel criticism of Trump’s apparent affinity for Russian political interests, which U.S. military leaders say amount to the nation’s greatest strategic threat.”
http://freebeacon.com/issues/lawsuit-trump-aide-ukraine/
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Trump's relationship with Russia goes far back. In 1987, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was meeting with Soviet officials and negotiating the building of "luxury hotels" in Moscow and Leningrad .
A story at the time said Trump had met Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin, who mentioned how much his daughter had admired the "opulent" Trump Tower in New York City. This led to an invitation to Trump to visit the USSR. The story said Dubinin wrote a letter to Trump, who hosted a meeting with Soviet officials in New York.
The invitation to Moscow was issued by Intourist, the giant Soviet in-country travel organization which operated all the hotels for foreigners in the Soviet Union.
Intourist was created in 1929 by Joseph Stalin and run by KGB officials. Intourist hotels were designed for wealthy foreigners, and virtually all the Intourist guides were KGB informers. In fact, one aspect of their jobs was the recruitment of foreigners. ..."
"...we are left thinking [whether] Trump understands the aggressive intentions of Vladimir Putin.
"...when Trump was asked about the nuclear balance with Russia during the most recent Republican presidential debate, he displayed ignorance of the decaying nature of the U.S. nuclear triad , which constitutes our ability to deter and survive a Russian nuclear first strike.
"Putin has just presided over a ceremony honoring the KGB's successor agencies, and the Russia Today (RT) propaganda channel has announced the grand opening of a "cultural center" dedicated to mass murderer Joseph Stalin.
It looks like Putin has outmaneuvered Obama and Trump. It is an opening for Trump's opponents, especially Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL). But do they have the courage to "follow the money" and hold Trump accountable for doing business with a criminal regime that threatens the survival of the United States? At the end of this money trail, they may find an explanation of why Trump is so reluctant to hold Putin responsible for his crimes.
Follow Trump's Money to Moscow
Renew America ^ | December 25, 2015 | Cliff Kincaid
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/kincaid/151225
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"Trump said that he "often speaks highly" of Putin because of his "intelligence and no-nonsense way." An intelligence operative, Putin was in the KGB and ran one of the KGB's successor agencies, the FSB.
Putin certainly has a "no-nonsense" approach to his perceived political enemies. Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was poisoned, miraculously survived, but was then later shot dead on October 7, 2006, which happened to be Putin's birthday. She had been warning about the KGB's return to power and was investigating the circumstances surrounding the kidnapping and murder of hundreds in the Beslan school massacre in southern Russia in 2004.
This event, like the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings, was blamed on Islamists and gave Putin the opportunity, or pretext, to further consolidate his power over the military, the intelligence agencies, and the economy. He assumed virtual dictatorial powers.
The poisoning of Politkovskaya was a hallmark of the KGB's "no-nonsense" way of doing business.
Later that same year, dissident former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko was murdered by poisoning in London, to which he had fled. He wrote the book Blowing Up Moscow: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror, about the FSB's role in those 1999 Moscow apartment bombings. He had also named al-Qaeda's number two man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as having been trained by the KGB.
While Trump's 2011 book denounced "Obama's pandering to the Russians" in areas like sabotaging missile defense for our allies, he said Putin had a "grand vision," the creation of a "Eurasian Union" to replace the USSR. He said Putin wanted to control oil supplies to all of Europe. This was an important insight into how Putin's regime is not defensive, nor reacting to the U.S. and NATO, but is instead aggressive in foreign affairs and trying to dominate its neighbors. However, rather than explain what the Russians were up to with this "grand vision," Trump went on to say "Hats off to the Russians" in getting their way with Obama.
One can fully understand taking Obama to task for giving in to the Russians. But praising the Russians for taking advantage of Obama reflects a trait that is all too common with many conservatives. Their disgust with Obama has blinded them to the nature of our enemies, who exploit his foreign policy to their advantage. They somehow think Putin is acting in America's interests when Obama is not. ..."
Follow Trump's Money to Moscow
Renew America ^ | December 25, 2015 | Cliff Kincaid
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/kincaid/151225