{"id":24734,"date":"2016-07-27T05:35:15","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T09:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=24734"},"modified":"2016-07-26T20:41:47","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T00:41:47","slug":"more-on-trumps-russian-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/more-on-trumps-russian-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Russian connections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In yesterday\u2019s discussion<\/a> about whether the Russians, who apparently hacked into the Democratic National Committee\u2019s e-mails\u2013see this<\/a> for the evidence (HT: Tom Hering)\u2013are trying to manipulate our election, reader Rustbeltrick\u00a0cited another source that listed direct connections between Donald Trump and the Russian government.<\/p>\n

According to Josh Marshall of Talking Point Memo,\u00a0<\/em>Trump has long been dependent on Russian investments for his businesses, including from investors with strong ties to Vladimir Putin. \u00a0Perhaps more to the point, Trump\u2019s campaign manager Paul Manafort was a top advisor to the pro-Russian president of the Ukraine, whose ouster was the catalyst for the Russian intervention. \u00a0Trump\u2019s foreign policy advisor, Carter Page, has\u00a0for his whole professional life been working for Russian interests. \u00a0And there is more.<\/p>\n

\n

True, Marshall is a liberal journalist and maybe has a Democratic axe to grind. \u00a0But I would think the employment history of Manafort and Page is a matter of public record. \u00a0Also the investors in Trump\u2019s business dealings.<\/p>\n

Are Trump\u2019s\u00a0Russian connections something to be concerned about? \u00a0Or does it not really matter?<\/p>\n

From Rustbeltrick<\/a>, summarizing Josh Marshall,\u00a0Trump & Putin. Yes, It\u2019s Really a Thing<\/a>, Talking Point Memo:<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Trump\u2019s debt load has grown dramatically over the last year, from $350 million to $630 million. At the same time, he\u2019s been blackballed by all major US banks.<\/p>\n

2. Post-bankruptcy, Trump has become highly reliant on money from Russia \u2014 most of which has over the years become increasingly concentrated among oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

3. Paul Manafort, Trump\u2019s campaign manager and top advisor, spent most of the last decade as top campaign and communications advisor to 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 ally of Putin.<\/p>\n

4. Trump\u2019s 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, which, in turn, is part of Putin\u2019s financial empire.<\/p>\n

5. Over the course of the last year, Putin has aligned all Russian state controlled media behind Trump.<\/p>\n

6. The Trump Camp was totally indifferent to the Republican Party platform, with one exception: They changed the party platform to eliminate assistance to Ukraine against Russian military operations in eastern Ukraine. Not incidentally, this is the single most important issue to Putin.<\/p>\n

7. Trump is also suggesting 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 \u2014 another important issue to Putin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Be sure to read all of Josh Marshall\u2019s report.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In yesterday\u2019s discussion about whether the Russians, who apparently hacked into the Democratic National Committee\u2019s e-mails\u2013see this for the evidence (HT: Tom Hering)\u2013are trying to manipulate our election, reader Rustbeltrick\u00a0cited another source that listed direct connections between Donald Trump and the Russian government. According to Josh Marshall of Talking Point Memo,\u00a0Trump has long been dependent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[4685,3881,4684,1939,4683,2320],"class_list":["post-24734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-carter-page","tag-donald-trump","tag-paul-manafort","tag-russia","tag-trumps-russian-connections","tag-vladimir-putin"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump's Russian connections<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In yesterday's discussion about whether the Russians, who apparently hacked into the Democratic National Committee's e-mails--see this for the evidence\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/more-on-trumps-russian-connections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump's Russian connections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In yesterday's discussion about whether the Russians, who apparently hacked into the Democratic National Committee's e-mails--see this for the evidence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/more-on-trumps-russian-connections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-27T09:35:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-07-27T00:41:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/more-on-trumps-russian-connections\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/more-on-trumps-russian-connections\/\",\"name\":\"Trump's Russian connections\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-27T09:35:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-07-27T00:41:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"In yesterday's discussion about whether the Russians, who apparently hacked into the Democratic National Committee's e-mails--see this for the evidence\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/more-on-trumps-russian-connections\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/more-on-trumps-russian-connections\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/07\/more-on-trumps-russian-connections\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trump’s Russian connections\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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