Tag: Torshin

Posted on

Maria Butina Said in 2015 Russians Had “A Right To Negotiate” With GOP

Kremlin-Tied Russian Agent Maria Butina

In case you missed it, there was a very interesting observation(as usual) on the 7/16/2018 Rachel Maddow show regarding Russian agent Maria Butina. The main story was that the FBI had arrested her the previous night for “conspiracy to act as an agent of Russia” in the U.S.

However in the same segment, Maddow threw in some additional details about Maria Butina that Yours Truly found quite interesting.


The most interesting fact was that as early as 2015 Maria Butina and by extension her Russian sponsors were confident that the GOP would win the election in 2016. Even more interesting, she apparently said in 2015 that they(Russians) “had a right to negotiate” with the incoming GOP administration. Maddow, like Yours Truly wondered out loud why Kremlin-tied Russians would think they “had a right to negotiate” with any U.S administration? The implication is obvious folks–The Russians had delivered something to TeamTrump/GOP and thus felt they had a “right to negotiate” over U.S. policies affecting Russia. This in itself is a very strong indication that as early as 2015 there was already collusion between Kremlin-tied Russians and the GOP/TeamTrump

There are other interesting tidbits from the must watch Maddow segment(see full segment below). For example the Russians apparently sent a Kremlin-approved delegation to the Prayer Breakfast, a very popular event among U.S. Evangelicals. Why would a Kremlin-approved delegation attend the Prayer Breakfast? This raises questions that the Mainstream Media never asks Trump Evangelicals–and that is their ties to Putin’s Russia. In other words there is a yet untold story about how the strong support Trump gets from Evangelicals is all part of the larger TrumpRussia scheme of things.

Are Trump Evangelical leaders and their Churches beneficiaries of monies from Putin-tied oligarchs? These are questions the media never asks but hopefully soon they’ll start delving into.

Maria Butina communicating with Alexander Torshin about the Russian delegation to the Prayer Breakfast

Dems and the Mainstream Media need to start asking some of the Trump Evangelical leaders whether they worked with Kremlin-tied Russians to help Trump get elected. Somehow the Evangelicals are left out of the collusion debate yet it is very clear that they played a major part in the TrumpRussia collusion scheme.

Maddow also reported that on 2016 election night, after it became apparent that Trump had won, Maria Butina sent Alexander Torshin a message saying she was “waiting for further orders”. This raises the interesting question as to whether Torshin has sent messages/instructions to Maria Butina after Trump assumed the Presidency and whether any such messages/instructions have been acted upon by President Trump. We talk about TrumpRussia collusion only in the pre-election context. Could there be TrumpRussia collusion still taking place even after Trump became President?

Maria Butina’s message to Alexander Torshin on election night after Trump won

Bottomline Dems and the Mainstream Media need to do some serious inquiry as to why Kremlin-tied Russian agent Maria Butina was so sure back in 2015 that the GOP would win the White House giving them(Russians) a “right to negotiate” with the GOP over U.S. policies affecting Russia. Any reasonable person would conclude that the Kremlin-tied Russians had done the GOP a favor which they believed earned them the “right to negotiate”–the quintessential TrumpRussia collusion.

For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out




Posted on

Putin Allies Met With Top NRA Officials During 2016 Campaign Season

In a previous post, Yours Truly pointed out that the FBI was investigating the powerful gun lobby group NRA for allegedly being used by Russians to funnel money into the Donald Trump Campaign


Well in a bombshell new piece, the news site McClatchy is now reporting that there is photographic evidence of Putin allies meeting with top NRA officials in Moscow. Until recently, most of the public were only aware of Russian banker and Putin ally Alexander Torshin in relation to FBI’s money funneling investigation. Well it now turns out according to McClatchy’s piece that during the hustle and bustle of the 2016 campaign season top NRA officials also met Dmitry Rogozin, who until last month served as a deputy prime minister overseeing Russia’s defense industry, and Sergei Rudov, head of one of Russia’s largest philanthropies, both close allies of Putin. In the picture below Rogozin is front right, Rudov is the bearded guy in the back, Torshin is in the back with black shirt, NRA President Pete Brownell is to the left of the women. Also in the picture is none other than the controversial former Milwaukee County Sheriff Dave Clarke(back turned to photo)

NRA Officials Meeting With Putin Allies

It is still unclear whether these two new individuals funneled money into the NRA but the fact that they are close Putin allies who met the NRA during the thick and thin of the 2016 presidential election will certainly be of great interest to the FBI. It bears pointing out that using foreign money to influence a U.S. election is a federal crime punishable with prison time. Simply put this is serious business.


Also remember that the NRA spent more than $30 million on the Trump campaign, more than double what they spent on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012. If some or all of this money was illegally funneled from Russia, it could subject Trump and his campaign staff to criminal penalties, and possibly ensnare the NRA, top Republican Party officials and even candidates. Bottom line folks, this is a big deal and Yours Truly will keep you posted on the latest developments.

For those of you very happy with@Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out




Posted on

Did Russia Funnel Money To TeamTrump Through The NRA?

One of the biggest obstacles for Democrats, especially in the battle for control of State Legislatures has been the powerful gun lobby group National Rifle Association(NRA). Unlike other powerful lobby groups that influence both the Republican and the Democratic Party, the NRA literally has a stranglehold on the Republican party. NRA’s stranglehold on the GOP is so bad, even President Trump recently had to ask GOP Members of Congress not to be “afraid of” the gun lobby group when discussing sensible gun control proposals. Marion Hammer, a powerful NRA lobbyist in Florida for example is so feared by Florida State GOPers, that she’s dubbed “The Real Gov of Florida.” Such is the power the NRA wields over the GOP

https://youtu.be/L6I0zp-lAeo

The troubling news therefore that the FBI is investigating the NRA as a possible vehicle for funnelling Russian money to help Trump in the 2016 elections should be of great concern to Democrats. New York Times Columnist Frank Bruni said on CNN’s Outfront with Erin Burnett that the NRA spent a whopping $30M to help Trump get elected, which is more than they spent the last two Presidential cycles combined. A Russian banker Alexander Torshin who has ties to Putin is an NRA life member and the key suspect in the alleged funnelling scheme. Torshin apparently wanted to create a “back channel” between the Trump Campaign and Russia and one of his associates reportedly told a Trump campaign staffer that “Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump.”(see YouTube video from 14:00 onwards)

Under normal circumstances this would be just another questionable daliance between a powerful U.S. gun lobby group and a foreign financier. However against the backdrop of an ongoing Special Counsel investigation into U.S. election meddling by the Russians, this strange relationship between the NRA and the Putin-allied Russian financier has become a much more serious issue, one that Americans trust Mueller and Co. will get to the bottom of.


It also bears pointing out, as New York Times Columnist Frank Bruni did that Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr, is a major NRA supporter and activist. Trump Jr you’ll remember is already in the middle of a very questionable meeting with Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower. Veselnitskaya has since confessed that she’s an informant for Putin’s Kremlin

Simply put, the NRA-Russia story is a major story that could affect the Dem political fortunes from here on out. According to CNN Political Correspondent Sara Murray, the NRA is privately, very concerned about the FBI’s investigation into its ties to the Russian Banker(vid at 14:00). Obviously we Dems have to be patient and allow the feds to conduct their investigation into the NRA but just like Trump used the ongoing Clinton email probe to hamstring her 2016 campaign, there is no reason why the DNC should not pummel NRA-allied GOP candidates over Russian money as we head to Midterms 2018, the perfect target being Sen Ted Cruz

For those of you very happy with @Emolclause‘s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out




You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com