A Russian connection?


I’d say it was disturbing if it wasn’t so unsurprising. Donald Trump seems to have an awful lot of ties to Putin.

Over the last year there has been a recurrent refrain about the seeming bromance between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. More seriously, but relatedly, many believe Trump is an admirer and would-be emulator of Putin’s increasingly autocratic and illiberal rule. But there’s quite a bit more to the story. At a minimum, Trump appears to have a deep financial dependence on Russian money from persons close to Putin. And this is matched to a conspicuous solicitousness to Russian foreign policy interests where they come into conflict with US policies which go back decades through administrations of both parties. There is also something between a non-trivial and a substantial amount of evidence suggesting Putin-backed financial support of Trump or a non-tacit alliance between the two men.

I remember a time when getting cozy with the Russians would have been the kiss of death for a politician, especially a conservative politician. But nowadays, our right-wing authoritarians love them a right-wing authoritarian no matter what country they’re from.

It’s so beautiful. It’s something that brings people of different nationalities together in the common cause of tyranny.

Comments

  1. chigau (違う) says

    There’s a thing to set fire to your dreams.
    Zombie USSR and Fascist USA as AlliesAgain®.

  2. says

    I remember a time when getting cozy with the Russians would have been the kiss of death for a politician, especially a conservative politician.

    Didn’t George W. Bush look into Putin’s eyes and see his soul? Ah, yes…:

    “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country.”

    He should have examined Dick Cheney’s eyes more closely.

  3. robro says

    Wowza! That’s quite a read, particularly the part about the money ties. I suppose the question should be: is this reliable information?

  4. brett says

    That’s pretty vile on Trump’s part, and is something I absolutely could believe is true. When has Trump ever not mingled politics and business, or gone off looking for the next round of victims to pay the price for his failures wherever they are? The previous round of that in Atlantic City had to use junk bonds and the like to raise money, so this is beyond even that.

  5. says

    Putin’s been greatly admired by the alt-right and the conspiracy set for some time already. It doesn’t matter what you tell them about his abolition of the free press, his invasion of foreign sovereign territory, the murder of his opponents, or the installation of a puppet Russian parliament, they will tell you:

    “But unlike Obama, he loves his country. He’s a tough guy that won’t take any crap from the global elites.”

    It takes a special kind of stupid to believe Obama is intent on tyranny while Trump will be some kind of Putin-like savior, but there’s a lot of it about, apparently.

  6. unclefrogy says

    can anyone tell me with a straight face that neither Putin nor Trump have any connections to organized crime?
    uncle frogy

  7. Ichthyic says

    He should have examined Dick Cheney’s eyes more closely.

    *looks in Cheney’s eyes*

    “huh… all I see are shotguns?”

  8. Ichthyic says

    It takes a special kind of stupid to believe Obama is intent on tyranny while Trump will be some kind of Putin-like savior, but there’s a lot of it about, apparently.

    If I keep saying this, year after year after year… maybe people will listen?

    not stupid… authoritarian.

    http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

  9. Jake Harban says

    Come on, that’s not surprising at all. Trump and Putin aren’t just fellow right-wing authoritarians; they also share a sort of reality show aesthetic. I can’t listen to either of them without mentally inserting jump cuts, funky angles, jangly music, and a smug narrator.

    It’s actually an interesting strategy; use the reality show aesthetic to subtly cue people to treat politics as meaningless and inconsequential like American Idol and they’ll stop taking it seriously. It seems to have worked well for Putin; let’s hope Trump finds decidedly less success at it.

  10. Ichthyic says

    …well, can be both, of course. not necessarily exclusionary, but the mindset is the important thing. Authoritarians are only comfortable when everyone is marching in lock-step.

  11. laurentweppe says

    So… Trump is a far-rightists who happens to be Putin’s whore: As a Frenchman, let me congratulate you: We too, have a campaign funds embezzling far-rightists crook running for president who’s heavily subsidized by Putin: the Frenchification of America is going well.

  12. tkreacher says

    Ichthyic #7

    If I keep saying this, year after year after year… maybe people will listen?
    not stupid… authoritarian.
    http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

    I’ve been beating that drum and recommending that book to people I know, and have been for a long time, and it’s entirely possible that I first saw it in one of your posts.

  13. dianne says

    Putin’s also supporting right wing nationalist groups in Europe, including UKIP and the AfD. All these nationalist “insert-country-here first” movements being funded and organized by Russia. It’d be hilarious if it weren’t so frightening.

  14. Dunc says

    It doesn’t matter what you tell them about his abolition of the free press, his invasion of foreign sovereign territory, the murder of his opponents, or the installation of a puppet Russian parliament…

    … because that’s what they admire about him. To an authoritarian, those are features, not bugs.

  15. KG says

    It’s actually an interesting strategy; use the reality show aesthetic to subtly cue people to treat politics as meaningless and inconsequential like American Idol and they’ll stop taking it seriously. It seems to have worked well for Putin; let’s hope Trump finds decidedly less success at it. – Jake Harban@9

    Oh, it seems to be working pretty well for Trump – a lot of people on the left have convinced themselves there’s no important difference between Trump and Clinton, for example.

  16. KG says

    dianne@14,

    In referring to Putin’s support for UKIP, are you meaning anythnig beyond his expressed pleasure at the Brexit vote? If so, I’d be interested in any links you have.

  17. Nemo says

    But nowadays, our right-wing authoritarians love them a right-wing authoritarian no matter what country they’re from.

    …as long as they’re white, and ostensibly Christian.

  18. birgerjohansson says

    Unethiclal foreign contacts are only unethical when libruls do it.

    Republican party sabotaging LBJs peace talks by telling the South Vietnamese government Nixon would give them better terms (he didn’t) ? Totally legit.
    Contacts with the Ayatollah, delaying the hostage release? Trading with the Iranians to set support for a murdering band of Contras? Totally legit.
    Cheney selling stuff to Iran through an intermediary to circumvent the embargo? Totally legit.

    State Department blocking the customs from tracking Butler’s illegal gun shipments to Iraq? No problem.
    Trump is merely following a republican tradition going back to Tricky Dick.
    Or, if you include the former boss from United Fruit that became Eisenhower’s secretary of state, and sponsored a fascist coup in Guatemala to save the company’s investment, going back much further.

  19. brett says

    @19 birgerJohansson

    Hello, pro-Russian troll. Many of those things are true, but in no way does that make Trump’s financial connections and possible financial dependency on Russian capital any less dodgy.

  20. says

    With Trump, it always comes back to money. The article to which PZ linked makes it clear that Trump was/is such a bad businessman that he burned all his bridges with American banks. Now he has to rely on Deutsche bank and the backing of Russian oligarchs.

    Putin is helping Trump out by also turning Russian media into a Trump propaganda machine.

    It’s an ugly picture that is founded on Trump’s relentless self-aggrandizement.

  21. Pierce R. Butler says

    robro @ # 3: … is this reliable information?

    Follow the links in the TPM story cited above, especially Inside Trump’s financial ties to Russia and his unusual flattery of Vladimir Putin from the WaPo and Putin’s Puppet” at Slate.

    Rather amazing that none of the 16 other Repubs running for the nomination (particularly Jeb! Bush, who hired the top “oppo research” guy), dug up any of this, or used it if they did find it out.

    birgerjohansson @ # 19 – Got a link on that Iraq gun-running story? It might make a difference at my next family reunion!

  22. Pierce R. Butler says

    Speaking of Russian support for “alt-right” propaganda:

    … a massive paradigm shift that has been underway for some time now. For those that have been paying attention, it is clear that nationalist, patriotic movements are everywhere ascendant in the West. …
    The endless migration of millions of 3rd world men into Europe, the callousness of the Elite class to the concern its Natives, and the fever-pitched identity politics of the Regressive Left have brought us to a crossroads… It should come as little surprise to nobody that the native populations of the West have started asking some hard questions about their own identity. …
    The last 7 years (at least) have seen the complete takeover of national discourse and cultural exchange by a group of rabid left-wing fanatics in the West. …
    It has come to the point where it is easier to come out publically to polite society as a Tranny than it is to come out as a Trump supporter.
    The witch-burning mob mentality of the Regressive Left engendered a reaction …
    … the alt-right does not just deal with politics; it is an all-encompassing intellectual movement. There are HBD (human bio-diversity) enthusiasts, male self-improvement advocates, rebellious sub-cultures of 5th gen. meme-warriors as well as Monarchists, Traditionalists, National-Libertarians, Socialist-Nationalists, Identitarians and Russo-philes…

    [italics, & some of the ellipses, in original]

    “male self-improvement advocates”?

  23. unclefrogy says

    “male self-improvement advocates”? = anti-feminists (MRA)?
    uncle frogy

  24. Pierce R. Butler says

    unclefrogy @ # 24 – Yabbut I’ve never heard ’em, or anybody else, describe them that way before. :-P

  25. kaleberg says

    Taking off my protective tin foil hat, I’m wondering if we should expect a ginned up political crisis this fall involving the Russians and aimed at letting Trump appear to be the only one who can resolve it. It worked for Ronald Reagan with the Iranian revolutionaries.

    There, better, I’ve put my tinfoil hat back on.

  26. birgerjohansson says

    Brett
    I was being sarcastic about Reptilians, not being pro-Russian.
    And in regard to Russian manipulations, I can no longer be shocked by anything Putin does.

  27. dianne says

    KG@17: The evidence is largely indirect, but a couple of links to articles that strongly suggest a connection:

    UKIP was part of a right wing coalition that blocked an effort to increase scrutiny into Russian funding of European political parties: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/11666944/Ukip-under-fire-after-blocking-scrutiny-of-party-donations.html

    The Economist states that there are “rumors” that UKIP is funded by Putin, but that they’re “less well substantiated” than the evidence that Putin supports LePen and the Hungarian right wing. Of course, the evidence of Putin supporting LePen is that LePen accepted a check from him for 9 million Euros, so all the “less well substantiated” means is that UKIP hasn’t admitted it.

    So it’s all indirect, but it’s clear that UKIP is strongly connected to other European right wing parties that are overtly accepting money from Putin and they are doing their best to make it hard to trace their funding. Hard to see any motive for them to do that other than to try to hide their connection as best they can.

  28. Dunc says

    “male self-improvement advocates”? = anti-feminists (MRA)?

    Sounds more like a euphemism for purveyors of dodgy pills intended to enlarge a certain part of the male anatomy…

  29. rq says

    Putin to the east already terrifies me. With Trump to the west, I’m sending my deepest apologies to my fellow citizens, but I’m taking the kids and going back to Canada and making my own rqexit from the EU, while I still have an EU from which to rqexit.

  30. dianne says

    RQ@30: I don’t know. Canada’s awfully close to the US. I think it’s an open question where all hell is going to break loose first and worst: North America or Europe.

  31. rq says

    dianne
    Canada’s bigger. More space to hide. I keep going north of here, and I’m still way too close to the Russian border. The UK’s not much of a solution these days, either.

  32. Menyambal says

    Back in the ’70s, all the conservatives just hated godless Russia, and thought that left-wing groups were being funded by the communists. Now, it’s so frakking opposite I can’t even.

    The common thread may be that conservatives hate people, and love authority. A big boss god, or a big boss man, is better than people deciding things for themselves, especially people deciding things differently from conservatives.

  33. vaiyt says

    The extent to which the alt-right falls for Putin’s macho propaganda is astounding. Hook, line, sinker and rod.

  34. says

    What’s amazing to me is that during the Cold War the Soviet Union at least had a claim to representing a real difference, a real contrast. In practice, of course, it was a largely a sham, but they presented an ideal that challenged the depredations of capitalism, racism, and imperialism.

    Today? Russia’s ruled by oligarchs, institutionalizes violent bigotry, scorns human rights, and gives power to the most reactionary representatives of the Orthodox Church. Not even in theory can Putin’s regime try to present itself as a contrast to the inequality, bigotry, and irrationality of “the West.” There isn’t even an attempt to claim a superior ethical vision. They can’t offer any coherent alternative – it’s just pathetic power politics.

  35. dianne says

    SC@35: Way back when in the 1980s I was in college. I remember some conservative friends of mine saying how wonderful it was that the Soviet Union had broken up and how this was going to bring about peace and prosperity throughout the world, especially in Russia and the other ex-Soviet countries. It probably says horrible things about me that I want to find them again to tell them (sarcastically) how right they were and hasn’t it all worked out wonderfully?