Thread by @AmoneyResists

Russia coopted the Republican Party before Trump. The @GOP’s lovefest with the Kremlin dates back to 1995, when American historian and staunch right-winger Allan Carlson met with Ivan Shevchenko; Russian chairman of the group “the orthodox brotherhood of scientists & specialists”

https://twitter.com/phillipspobrien/status/1754567142035354108

In a journal entry dated January 16th, 1995, Carlson describes the meeting that eventually opened the door for collaboration between American social conservatives and those closest to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Shevchenko wanted Carlson to help recruit American organizations/political figures for an “international conference on the family” planned that summer at an Orthodox monastery near Moscow, with the purposes of:

1.) Defining the common pressures on families in modern countries vis-a-vis state and economy, and

2.) Drafting an ‘appeal’ or ‘declaration’ to the governments of the world, including common demands.

This brought into being the earliest iteration of what would come to be known as the “World Congress of Families (WCF),” one of the most prominent Russian-American anti-LGBTQ collaborations to date, and the foremost international anti-LGBTQ organization in the world.

In time, the WCF would host American conservatives in Russia, Russian officials in the United States, and rope in Russian oligarchs—including at least one who is now sanctioned—as reported funders.

Kline Preston IV (far-right American from Tennessee) was focused on the legal aspects of building a new state in Russia: helping formulate tax code, defining copyrights, explaining benefits and breaks. Preston said he helped refine concepts like copyright for Russian lawmakers.

That’s what got him initially interested in the region. What kept his interest—and would pave the way to him introducing Russian officials to the @NRA—was “God”; specifically, the explosion of religiosity in post-Soviet Russia & Putin’s role in “expediting Christianity’s return.”

@NRA The thing that attracted Preston to Putin was his “rebuilding and building anew of churches in Russia,” he said. “Since he came into power, there have either been renovated, refurbished, or built anew almost 10,000 churches across the country.” Preston said Putin was “God-sent.”

@NRA Preston spent the 90s and 2000s traveling throughout Russia whenever he could—from large cities like Moscow to smaller towns like Vladimir—to see these new churches, which he believed represented “a country returning to its religious roots.”

@NRA “Rather than go out to a bar on K Street, like you might do in D.C., we went to church, man,” he recalled.
During this time, Preston kept up with his work in TN—including helping lead multiple re-election campaigns for Representative (now Senator) Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

@NRA Preston linked the GOP to the Kremlin via Alexander Torshin, a central bank official in Russia who has been accused of being one of the primary figures involved in Russian money laundering across the entire continent of Europe, with numerous ties to Russian mafiosi as well.

@NRA Because Torshin had supposedly expressed an interest in gun ownership, Preston decided to make a call. He rang up then-NRA President David Keene, and put Keene in contact with Torshin.

@NRA The rest, as they say, is history. Or if not history, then at least a series of events and payments; between Torshin and the @NRA, and between the @NRA and the Trump campaign, that the @FBI is allegedly still looking into, and the @NRA still refuses to disclose much about.

Trump was initially coopted as a Russian asset before this, of course. Trump-Russia dates back to 1987, when he began renting condos in his shitty buildings to sketchy Russian oligarchs who recognized the potential of real estate purchases for laundering obscene sums of money.

While this investment took over two decades to truly pay off for the Kremlin; it paid off spectacularly, in the form of their most long-cultivated asset becoming (thanks mostly to their help/cyberwarfare against our 2016 election) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

https://twitter.com/amoneyresists/status/1109324062243909632

Since Trump is a pathological liar, you can pretty much assume that the opposite of whatever he says is true. If he repeats a lie, you can assume that the opposite of it is extremely true. There is no lie he has repeated more than calling the Russia investigation “a hoax” (LIE)

https://twitter.com/amoneyresists/status/1561020019525521409

Another easy way to identify Trump as Putin’s bitch is to look at his attitude towards NATO—which has been increasingly critical and disparaging despite his claims to have “restored/salvaged the alliance” (LIE)—keeping in mind that weakening NATO is one of Putin’s primary goals

https://twitter.com/amoneyresists/status/1499977237084397568