How Trump followed a Russian map straight to Paul Manafort
Manafort is the link between Donald Trump and a variety of Russian interests
LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV
09.23.2017•8:00 AM
It’s been the question right from the start, hasn’t it? Why Russia? And when you consider the Russians, why Trump? Well, I think I’ve got the answer: sanctions. What the Obama administration did, in effect, was put sanctions on fun, and Trump’s deal with the Russians was to bring back the fun. The plain fact of the matter is, Russia is a modern lifestyle hell hole.
That idea alone explains a lot about why the Russians were so eager to have the sanctions lifted against their country. Who wants to live in Russia 12 months of the year, anyway? Why do you think Putin’s oligarch buddies have been gobbling up high rise condos at such a high rate of speed? Sub-zero winters and hellish summers sound good to you? A country with a land mass twice the size of the United States and an economy the size of Italy’s? Try thinking of something Russian you’re dying for. How about a nice flight on Aeroflot? An apartment in a concrete monstrosity overlooking an industrial wasteland? Anyone? Okay, okay. Caviar. If you ask me, at best an acquired taste, and hardly a reason to pack your bags, ship your stuff and move over there.
There simply hasn’t been enough attention paid to the importance of the sanctions imposed by the Obama administration at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and occupation of Crimea. The Obama sanctions put a huge crimp in the international jet-setting lifestyles of Russian governmental officials and their oligarch buddies. A whole bunch of Russian bigwigs were put on a virtual no-fly list for travel to the United States by denying them visas. A list of big Russian companies were banned from doing business with American corporations and citizens, and the favorite banks of the Russian elite were banned from conducting normal banking transactions with American banks and financial institutions. Sanctions by the United States of America resulted in difficulties for the Russian elite in other jurisdictions. Suddenly that visa to visit Berlin that was so easy to get takes months and months and months. That bank in Brussels that lent you money last year is having a long, hard look at your financials and is not taking your calls. Having that FSB Russian intelligence school diploma on your resume looked exotic last year, but not so much, now that you’re on the American shit list.
The good old USA is where many of the Russian elite went to have a good time. Think about it. Where else in the world do you have, within a single set of national borders, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the bright lights and spinning roulette wheels of Las Vegas, the white sand beaches of Miami and Palm Beach, and enough corrupt politicians and businessmen that there are many hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to launder your ill-gotten Russian gains and pad the cushy confines of your lifestyle? You want to buy a Gulfstream 500? Come to the USA. You want a whole strip of high end shops for your wife to spend your money in on stuff like $6,000 handbags, five million dollar diamond necklaces, $1,700 spike heels and $15,000 casual leather coats? Madison Avenue is your spot! Looking for a 59th floor triplex on which to drop a few tens of millions? Maybe you want to set up a phony LLC and buy several of them? Got your triplexes in spades right here on 57th Street. Want to impress your friends by dropping a few thousand on tickets to “Hamilton”? It ain’t playing on Lomonosovsky Prospekt, Vladimir, pal. You’ll find the marquee for “Hamilton” right here at the Richard Rodgers Theater on West 46th Street.
Which is probably why our pal Poor Paul Manafort looked so delicious from the snow-banked streets of Moscow last year. Here was an obscure Republican hack who hadn’t been involved in a presidential campaign since he was an adviser in the moribund effort of Bob Dole back in 1996. Suddenly, it’s March of 2016 and he’s presiding over the runaway train of Donald Trump! And our boy Paul was no stranger to the Russian government and the oligarchs close to Putin. Manafort worked for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from 2004 to 2010 and maintained an office in Kiev until Yanukovych was deposed in 2014 and fled to the arms of his mentor and friend, Vladimir Putin. He probably had more frequent flier miles from flights back and forth to Moscow than Carter Page, and good old Carter had quite a few from his time in the Moscow office of Merrill Lynch working in the Russian oil and gas field.
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http://www.salon.com/2017/09/23/how-trump-followed-a-russian-map-straight-to-paul-manafort/
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