Need to pull out some stuff from this 2017 Time article.
Moscow Cozies Up to the Right
ti.me/2m5KpyB
Moscow Cozies Up to the Right
ti.me/2m5KpyB
"Bistro Bis, a swanky French joint on Capitol Hill, is a DC institution that has hosted all sorts of political summits over the years. But the group that piled into the restaurant's Leaders Room on the night of 2/1/17 was among the more unusual."
2/1/17: "For four hours, current and former RUSSIAN OFFICIALS dined w/two Republican Congressmen, a conservative magazine publisher, a longtime GOP consultant and a close friend of top WH strategist Steve Bannon."
2/1/17: "We have so many people who are trying to destroy the relationship between Russia and the U.S." says Rep Dana Rohrabacher of California, who attended the dinner [WITH TORSHIN AND BUTINA] and has visited Russia at least a half-dozen times over the past five years."
2/1/17: Rohrabacher continues: "I'm trying my best to expand the amount of personal contacts we have with people who are engaged in government in Russia."
2/1/17: "Some of the officials who attended the dinner--including a deputy central banker and former RU senator...Alexander Torshin, and his protégée, a young gun-rights activist named Maria Butina--have been part of a years-long campaign to build connections..."
I dropped the link to this Time article, here it is:
(Thanks @SureReality !)
time.com/4696424/moscow…
(Thanks @SureReality !)
time.com/4696424/moscow…
"The crusade, which predates the rise of Trump, has garnered scant attention but achieved significant success, sparking new alliances with leading U.S. evangelicals, lawmakers and powerful interest groups like the NRA."
"It's NO ACCIDENT that Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein scored a seat at Vladimir Putin's table at a 2015 banquet in Moscow for the state-sponsored propaganda outlet RT, or that RT hired former MSNBC anchor Ed Schultz, who boasts a fervent liberal fan base."
"But over the past 5 yrs, Russia has also been fostering a growing affinity on the right. According to a February Gallup poll, nearly 1/3 of Republicans now say they have a favorable impression of Putin..."
Guess those pro-Putin op eds being dropped in the local paper helped ; )
Guess those pro-Putin op eds being dropped in the local paper helped ; )
"The dinner at the George Hotel, hosted by conservative activist and Rockefeller scion George O'Neill Jr., was part of the festivities surrounding the Nat'l Prayer Breakfast...run by evangelicals to forge new, if informal, diplomatic ties through shared spiritual principles."
"Evangelicals have discovered common ground w/Moscow's nationalist and ultraconservative push--led by the Russian Orthodox Church--to make the post-Soviet nation a bulwark of Christianity amid the increasing secularization of the West."
"Prominent soc conservative leaders, like Franklin Graham, say they see Putin as a powerful partner in the quest to protect Christian religious minorities. In war zones like Syria...Putin has been a stronger defender of Christians than US leaders."
"Islam teaches to kill Christians and Jews," claims Graham, pres of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Assoc. Putin "sees himself in the Middle East as defending the Christian remnant that is left in Syria."
"In 2015 Graham met privately with Putin, who has supported Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, while visiting Moscow at the Russian Orthodox Church's invitation"
NO RUSSIA CONNECTIONS! 🤦🏽♀️🤣
NO RUSSIA CONNECTIONS! 🤦🏽♀️🤣
"They planned a conference on persecuted Christians, which will be held in Washington in 5/17. "He was very supportive," says Graham. "He said he would do all he could from his office to help."
HOLY....
HOLY....
"Catholic leaders like Brian Brown have been impressed by the Russian Orthodox Church's decision to tighten policies on abortion and uphold traditional marriage. Since 2014, Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage,"
"...has worked closely with the church and w/RU anti-abortion and antigay marriage activists like FamilyPolicy.ru. In late 1/17, Brown visited Moscow to seek the Duma's support for his group's new manifesto on those issues. These new bonds w/RU have "been a SEA CHANGE,"
"Wherever there are folks standing up for marriage, we will meet with them." While some activists bonded over faith, others found shared purpose in guns. Russia has no real tradition of Second Amendment rights."
THIS IS SO CRAZY!!
THIS IS SO CRAZY!!
"But with Torshin's help, Butina has managed to form close relationships with top NRA officials. Butina, 28, was running a furniture business in her provincial Siberian hometown just a few years ago. After moving to Moscow in 2011, she founded a gun-rights organization."
"the Right to Bear Arms, and began traveling BACK AND FORTH to the U.S. "She's very, very well connected with elected officials in the Soviet Union," says Alan Gottlieb, who founded the Second Amendment Foundation,"
"
"In 2015, a collection of NRA officials flew over to attend Butina's annual gun conference. Among them was Erickson; former NRA and ACU chief David Keene; gun manufacturer and NRA first vice president Pete Brownell; and Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke,"
"In 2015, a collection of NRA officials flew over to attend Butina's annual gun conference. Among them was Erickson; former NRA and ACU chief David Keene; gun manufacturer and NRA first vice president Pete Brownell; and Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke,"
Just dropping the link showing Clarke shilling for this PAC, that got caught soliciting foreign donations:
"Butina's group shelled out $6,000 for the sheriff's [CLARKE's] meals, lodging, transportation and other excursions on the trip.
NRA allies say the group is happy to work with international firearms-advocacy groups to advance mutual interests."
NRA allies say the group is happy to work with international firearms-advocacy groups to advance mutual interests."
Butina tweeting out on 2/2/17 (the ay after this event), that Trump relaxed sanctions on the FSB:
"The NRA forked over some $30 million to help elect Trump, about TWO AND A HALF TIMES the amount it shelled out on the 2012 election, despite his previous support for gun-control measures."
"I am deeply grateful for the friendship of the American NRA," Butina, now a graduate student in international relations at American University in DC, wrote in an email to TIME. "My work has been focused exclusively on the expansion of gun rights--very publicly."
"But Butina's attraction to the Republican Party runs broader than common ground on gun rights. "It may take the election of a Republican to the WH in 2016 to improve relations between the RU Federation and the U.S.," she wrote in the summer of 2015 in the National Interest,"
"...a magazine published by the Center for the National Interest. The SAME Washington think tank hosted a foreign policy speech for candidate Trump in 4/16, where Trump was introduced to RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR SERGEY KISLYAK, according to the Wall Street Journal."
"In 4/15, Butina and Torshin traveled to Tennessee to attend a fundraiser for a political group backing the pres campaign of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, then viewed as a leading contender for the GOP nomination. In July, she attended Walker's campaign kickoff in Wisconsin. "
"The same wk [4/15], Butina flew to LAS VEGAS for one of Trump's first campaign events. She asked Trump whether he would end the "damaging" US gov't sanctions on RU. Trump, "I know Putin, and I'll tell you what, we'll get along w/Putin..."I don't think you'd need the sanctions."
"It wasn't the pair's only brush w/the Trump campaign. Torshin, who according to Bloomberg News has been accused by Spanish investigators of directing a $$$-laundering op for a Moscow syndicate..."
"...boasted of meeting the Pres son Donald Trump Jr. at a 2016 Louisville meeting of the NRA, where he is a lifetime member. That encounter "should have set off alarm bells," said one former WH official. "IT IS A BIG DEAL."
"Last month [2/17] Torshin assembled the delegation of Russians who attended the National Prayer Breakfast. The group of 16 included Kremlin advisers, university presidents and the mayor of an eastern Russia city."
"At the Bistro Bis dinner, the room was set in traditional RU style, w/the guests on one side of a long table and the Americans on the other. "The better to hear, the better to toast," Butina explained."
Yeah, bottoms up MFs-the better to drown your sorrows re sanctions!
<eot>
Yeah, bottoms up MFs-the better to drown your sorrows re sanctions!
<eot>
Oh, before I forget: there was one IDIOT who was proud to post to his soc media that he had breakfast w/the RUSSIANS on 2/2/17.
He's supposed to be investigating Russian interference, yeah right... 🙄
He's supposed to be investigating Russian interference, yeah right... 🙄
