McClatchy: Web of elite Russians-some from Putin's inner circle met w-NRA execs during 2016 campaign
BY PETER STONE AND GREG GORDON
June 11, 2018 05:00 AM
Updated 4 hours 3 minutes ago
WASHINGTON
Several prominent Russians, some in President Vladimir Putins inner circle or high in the Russian Orthodox Church, now have been identified as having contact with National Rifle Association officials during the 2016 U.S. election campaign.
The contacts have emerged amid a deepening Justice Department investigation into whether Russian banker and lifetime NRA member Alexander Torshin illegally channeled money through the gun rights group to add financial firepower to Donald Trumps 2016 presidential bid.
Other influential Russians who met with NRA representatives during the campaign include Dmitry Rogozin, who until last month served as a deputy prime minister overseeing Russias defense industry, and Sergei Rudov, head of one of Russias largest philanthropies, the St. Basil the Great Charitable Foundation. The foundation was launched by an ultra-nationalist ally of Russian President Putin.
The Russians talked and dined with NRA representatives, mainly in Moscow, as U.S. presidential candidates vied for the White House. Now U.S. investigators want to know if relationships between the Russian leaders and the nations largest gun rights group went beyond vodka toasts and gun factory tours, evolving into another facet of the Kremlins broad election-interference operation.
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