The GOP took $10.4 M over 2 years from Russian Americans linked to Viktor Vekselberg,
a Russian oligarch who was identified yesterday as having been detained by the Mueller team in an airport a couple months ago, because they wanted his electronic devices.
Professor Ruth May, a business professor at the University of Dallas, did some very important reporting last year that provides background to the recent action by Mueller's investigators. She specifically named Vekselberg as a Russian oligarch who merited Mueller's scrutiny. He is connected to Russian Americans who donated millions to the GOP from 2015-17.
No wonder the GOP Congress are defending DT so strongly now. Their corruption is entangled with his.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/04/05/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns
Viktor Vekselberg is one of the 10 richest men in Russia. He and long-time business partner Blavatnik hold a 20.5 percent stake in Rusal. (They met while attending university in Russia.)
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Andrew Intrater, according to Mother Jones, is Vekselberg's cousin. He is also chief executive of Columbus Nova, Renova's U.S. investment arm located in New York. (FEC records list his employer as Renova US Management LLC.)
Intrater had no significant history of political contributions prior to the 2016 elections. But in January 2017 he contributed $250,000 to Trump's Inaugural Committee. His six-figure gift bought him special access to a dinner billed as "an intimate policy discussion with select cabinet appointees," according to a brochure obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.
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Simon Kukes is an oil magnate who has something in common with Intrater. From 1998 to 2003, he worked for Vekselberg and Blavatnik as chief executive of TNK. Redacted CIA documents released in 2003 under the Freedom of Information Act said "TNK president Kukes said that he bribed local officials." The CIA confirmed the authenticity of the reports to The Guardian newspaper but would not comment further. In 2016, Kukes contributed a total of $283,000, much of it to the Trump Victory Fund. He had no significant donor history before last year's election.
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In total, Blavatnik, Intrater, Shustorovich and Kukes made $10.4 million in political contributions from the start of the 2015-16 election cycle through September 2017, and 99 percent of their contributions went to Republicans. With the exception of Shustorovich, the common denominator that connects the men is their association with Vekselberg. Experts who follow the activities of Russian oligarchs told ABC News that they believe the contributions from Blavatnik, Intrater and Kukes warrant intense scrutiny because they have worked closely with Vekselberg.
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