There have been many claims throughout President Donald Trump’s campaign about his connections with Russia. The most notable were the Russian hacks into the Democratic National Committee. These accusations have only become more common in the first month of his presidency.
Michael Flynn was recently asked to resign as National Security Advisor for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with high ranking Russian officials regarding U.S. sanctions on Russia put in place by the Obama administration.
I would like to note here that even though there may be evidence that the Russians hacked the DNC, there is absolutely no evidence that those hacks affected the election in any way. They did not hack voting machines; Michael Flynn was fired for lying to Pence. So, how deep are Trump’s connections with Russia?
In 1987, the Soviet Ambassador to the U.S., Yuri Dubinin, invited Trump to visit Moscow to discuss building luxury hotels. Those plans fell through, and four years later the Soviet Union fell.
In 1996, Trump traveled to Moscow again to discuss building a replica of Trump Tower there, and the possibility of renovating the Moskva and Rossiya hotels. But, due to bankruptcies in New York, none of those projects came to fruition. He did, however, seek wealthy investors in Russia, many of whom bought several condominiums in Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Eleven years later, Trump introduced his new line of vodka, Trump Super Premium Vodka.
According to CNN, Patrick Kenny, the former CEO of Drinks America Holdings said, “If you can sell vodka made in the Netherlands to Russians in gold bottles with ‘Trump’ on them, and wealthy Russians think this is good vodka, this is a marketing coup.” Only 800 cases were distributed of the 50,000 projected.
In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. reportedly told Russian investors that the Trump organization planned on building hotels in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi, according to USA Today. He was quoted, “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.” He went on to say that they see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.
Over the next year and a half, Donald Trump Jr. traveled to Russia several times seeking deals, but no deals were ever made.
In 2013, Trump brought the Miss Universe Pageant to Moscow. Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov funded this with $20 million of his own money.
Granted, this timeline of Russia-Trump connections I have provided is a condensed list, but the bottom line is that most of those dealings fell through.
As far as President Trump’s foreign policies regarding Russia are concerned, I think that improving relations with Russia would be a good thing. Do we really want to see a new Cold War emerge? Why do many agencies in the mainstream media keep referring to Russia as our enemy?
I lived through part of the Cold War, and I can tell you that the concept of mutually assured destruction is more than frightening, it’s terrifying. I believe we should at least try to work together, and I believe that is what President Trump is trying to achieve.
