The Plot to Hack America

It was his political effort to raise the prestige of Yanukovych and his party—the confrontation and division of society on ethnic and linguistic grounds is his trick from the time of the elections in Angola and the Philippines. While I was in the Crimea I constantly saw evidence suggesting that Paul Manafort considered autonomy [from Ukraine] as a tool to enhance the reputation of Yanukovych and win over the local electorate.³⁷

Two years later Crimea would be invaded and seized by Russia.

Howard Lorber is the Trump campaign’s economic advisor. Vector Group President Howard Lorber is a Trump campaign donor and investor in Russia.³⁸ He’s given $100,000 to the “Trump Victory fund.” When Trump went to Moscow in 1996 to consider branding projects, Lorber worked to help Trump open a building in Moscow, but the venture failed. Visits with Lorber include one in November 1996. The trip focused on a project under development in Moscow like Ducat Place.

Carter Page joined Trump’s campaign in March 2016. In July 2016, Page went to Moscow and delivered a series of speeches on establishing a better relationship with Russia. His recommendations included easing of economic sanctions imposed after the invasion of Crimea in 2014. As the Trump campaign talks about ending TPP and other trade deals, the unelected candidate’s spokespeople are out inviting business with Russian partners especially in industries that are known to have crime bosses and Russian mafia ties.

Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham were staunch advocates of arming the government of Ukraine in their fight with Russian separatists and Putin. During the Republican National Convention, the party platform committee proposed language to the effect that Ukraine needed U.S. weapons and NATO support to defend itself, in support of a long-held Republican position. Carter Page, now on the Trump campaign team, used to work in the Merrill Lynch’s Moscow office, has personal investments in Gazprom, a Russian state oil conglomerate. He told Bloomberg that his investments have been hurt by the sanctions policy against Russia over Ukraine.³⁹ He has characterized the U.S. policy toward Russia as chattel slavery.⁴⁰

Page was the Trump campaign’s representative to the party platform committee. Trump wanted a more Russian-friendly platform, and his team, led by Page, insisted on removing any language that would demand the arming of the Ukraine. Shortly after Page’s visit to the committee, the platform was modified to do just that—all language to support arming Ukraine was removed. RNC officials told the Huffington Post that it was the “only major revision the campaign demanded”⁴¹

Richard Burt was the former U.S. ambassador to Germany under President Ronald Reagan from 1985 to 1989. Mr. Burt is the Chair of the advisory council for The National Interest. He joined the Trump campaign at the request of Paul Manafort. Burt sits on the board of the largest commercial bank in Russia, Alfa-Bank. He also has a role in an investment fund that controls Gazprom, the same company where Carter Page has deep investments. He has been a vocal critic of the need for NATO and has written position papers on the future of Russia-Ukraine relations.42 The Nation speculated that Richard Burt wrote Trump’s April 27, 2016 Russia-friendly speech on foreign policy.⁴³

Dmitri Konstantinovich Simes was born in Moscow in October 1947. He moved to the U.S. in 1973. He’s the former director of Soviet studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former chair of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace’s Center for Russian and Eurasian Programs. He is the publisher of The National Interest, a renowned foreign policy publication.⁴⁴

The Center for the National Interest is close allies with the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation, a Russian-funded organization led by Adranik Migranyan. It was revealed in State Department documents leaked via WikiLeaks that Migranyan was given the position by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.⁴⁵ Migranyan has called Russian president Putin “Russia’s Reagan” and has advocated for an ease of sanctions on Russia.

Michael Caputo lived in Russia in the post Soviet 1990s. Caputo worked for Gazprom Media, and has done work under contract to improve Vladimir Putin’s image. He took on the role of Trump’s adviser for the New York primary in 2016.

Trump’ Spy, Putin’s Ally?