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Originally Posted by Brian James
This is bullshit. Manafort wasn't convicted of colluding with Russia.
And Trump being Putin's puppet is just nonsense. There is zero evidence to support such a claim.
Manafort was convicted of colluding with some Ukranians who were basically Russian spies or agents or financially backed by Russia.
Trump is absolutely Putin's puppet. Whether its because Putin has a tape of Trump urinating on prostitutes in Moscow or for whatever reason Trump has held meetings with Putin without an interpreter. That is a first. And it means that nobody is going to know what is said between them.
Trump does seem to have strong support for other authoritarian leaders. But for whatever reason Trump caters to Putin's wishes. Like how Trump deals with NATO (which would be Putin's enemy).
Here is an article that describes a lot of Trump's ties to Russia:
"The truth, as several columnists and reporters have painstakingly shown since the first hack of a Clinton-affiliated group took place in late May or early June, is that several of Trump’s businesses outside of Russia are entangled with Russian financiers inside Putin’s circle.
So, yes, it’s true that Trump has failed to land a business venture inside Russia. But the real truth is that, as major banks in America stopped lending him money following his many bankruptcies, the Trump organization was forced to seek financing from non-traditional institutions. Several had direct ties to Russian financial interests in ways that have raised eyebrows. What’s more, several of Trump’s senior advisors have business ties to Russia or its satellite politicians.
“The Trump-Russia links beneath the surface are even more extensive,” Max Boot wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “Trump has sought and received funding from Russian investors for his business ventures, especially after most American banks stopped lending to him following his multiple bankruptcies.”
"What’s more, three of Trump’s top advisors all have extensive financial and business ties to Russian financiers, wrote Boot, the former editor of the Op Ed page of the Wall Street Journal and now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Trump’s de facto campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was a longtime consultant to Viktor Yanukovich, the Russian-backed president of Ukraine who was overthrown in 2014. Manafort also has done multimillion-dollar business deals with Russian oligarchs. Trump’s foreign policy advisor Carter Page has his own business ties to the state-controlled Russian oil giant Gazprom. … Another Trump foreign policy advisor, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, flew to Moscow last year to attend a gala banquet celebrating Russia Today, the Kremlin’s propaganda channel, and was seated at the head table near Putin."
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But it is Trump’s financing from Russian satellite business interests that would seem to explain his pro-Putin sympathies."
"The most obvious example is Trump Soho, a complicated web of financial intrigue that has played out in court. A lawsuit claimed that the business group, Bayrock, underpinning Trump Soho was supported by criminal Russian financial interests. While its initial claim absolved Trump of knowledge of those activities, Trump himself later took on the group’s principal partner as a senior advisor in the Trump organization."