An In-Depth Examination Of Donald Trump’s Ties To Russia And Vladimir Putin

November 7, 2016
A mural on a bar in Vilnius, Lithuania shows Russian President Vladimir Putin kissing GOP Presidential nominee Donald Trump, recalling the 1979 photo of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German President Erich Honecker.

A Four-Part Look At Donald Trump’s Ties To Russia

The Interpreter and The Daily Beast have partnered to write a four-part series on the alleged ties between Donald Trump, and his campaign staff, and Russia.

In part one, The Interpreter’s editor-if-chief Michael Weiss looks at the way Trump has refashioned Ronald Reagan’s Republican Party, largely out of his own conviction, into a helpmeet of the Kremlin, rejecting decades of policy set forth by both the U.S. government and the GOP:

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When Donald Trump Was More Anti-NATO Than Vladimir Putin

Russian Dressing This is the first of a series of articles examining all facets of Donald Trump's alleged ties or political sympathies with the Russian government. In this installment, Daily Beast Senior Editor Michael Weiss looks at the way Trump has refashioned Ronald Reagan's Republican Party, largely out of his own conviction, into a helpmeet of the Kremlin.

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Nov 07, 2016 21:14 (GMT)

In part two, Catherine A. Fitzpatrick and Pierre Vaux examine statements made by both Trump and Putin about the other. 

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Donald Trump's Unrequited Love for Vladimir Putin

Donald Trump's oft-stated admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin isn't just about macho admiration or authoritarian envy. It's more in the spirit of a locker-room rivalry, a matter of camaraderie and competition-and to some extent deterrence. Searching for an analogy, one thinks of the way Russia-friendly U.S.

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Nov 07, 2016 21:17 (GMT)

The third article in the series, by Michael Weiss, Catherine A. Fitzpatrick, and James Miller, examines how Trump has spent the better part of three decades trying — and largely failing — to get a foothold in the Russian market. While perhaps the ultimate symbol of his vanity — a Trump Tower in Moscow — has never materialized, Trump has made plenty of sordid Russian business contacts along the way.

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Trump's Russia Towers: He Just Can't Get Them Up

LET'S MAKE A DEAL This is the third in our series of articles laying out all you ever wanted to know about Trump and Russia, but were afraid to ask. Read parts one, two, and four.

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Nov 07, 2016 21:31 (GMT)

The final article is by The Interpreter’s managing editor James Miller who looks at the ties between some of Trump’s foreign policy and campaign advisors and the Russia government. Alarmingly, several Trump staffers are under investigation by either the FBI or U.S. intelligence agencies because of their links to foreign governments, the Russian intelligence apparatus, and/or the Russian mafia.

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Trump and Russia: All the Mogul's Men

Follow the Money This is the fourth and last in our series of articles laying out all you ever wanted to know about Trump and Russia, but were afraid to ask. Between the summer of 2015 and the GOP convention a year later, a great many pundits were surprised by the rise of Donald Trump.

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Nov 07, 2016 21:33 (GMT)

Ultimately, Trump appears to have shown more attention to Russian leaders than they have to him; past Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev never visited Trump Tower while in New York and despite some prevarication on the topic, Trump never met Putin himself in Moscow. 30 years after the idea was conceived, there is no Trump Tower in Moscow.

Still, Trump has routinely done business and associated himself with wealthy Russians who are hurt by Western sanctions against their motherland. Trump’s staffers have shown pro-Russian attitudes, and some have even closer ties to the Kremlin and its allies. Many of these people, both in Russia and in the U.S., would benefit greatly from a closer relationship between the United States and the former Soviet power capital.

In the quid pro quo world of Russian kleptocracy, if Trump moves into the White House, his business interests may intersect with his stated foreign-policy goals.