Malcolm Nance - The Plot to Hack America

After being arrested by U.S. federal agents in June of 2010, the U.S. and Russian governments arranged a swap in July of the same year, exchanging the ten arrested in the U.S. for four former Russian spies who were detained in Russia for helping the U.S. One of them was instrumental in arresting former U.S. FBI Agent Robert Hansen, who had been providing the Russians with information for years. 19

Upon returning to Russia, Chapman has received national celebrity status, modeling for the Russian version of Maxim magazine and appearing in multiple fashion shots. She has also met and has been praised by Putin, and made appearances in Russian military recruitment and propaganda videos. The British tabloid magazine Daily Mail , reported that Chapman posted a picture to her Instagram account this April, expressing support for 2016 GOP Presidential nominee, Donald Trump. In her account she wrote “Trump will ‘get along with Putin,’ he approves of the Russian operation in Syria and is surprised why the USA supports Ukraine. Changes in America are closer? What do you think?” An additional post also mocked Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Chapman’s return as a conquering hero, even if she was a failed spy, is not surprising in Putin’s Russia. Putin values loyalty to the nation above all else and an attractive, loyal FSB officer is propaganda gold. His sense of loyalty to the spy service propelled him to national fame under Yeltsin and keeps his position safe today. In fact, in order to be put under Putin’s “roof” of protection, it is nearly essential for that individual to have a prior association with the KGB/FSB. An estimated 78 percent of Russia’s top one thousand leading political figures worked for FSB or its predecessor the KGB or GRU. 20When asked about a book written by a dissident Putin said, “I don’t read books by people who have betrayed the Motherland.” 21

This deep history of espionage, intrigue, and murder shaped Vladimir Putin’s worldview toward the West. Forged between decades of a poverty-stricken Soviet Union and tantalized by the riches of U.S. and European economic dominance, Putin’s actions and public statements hint at a world where he and his nation receive the respect and preeminence they deserve. Apparently, Putin surmises that America and NATO are waning, with the U.S. military stretched thin beyond capacity due to two failed wars costing trillions of dollars.

Russia is changing Russia’s face and not towards democracy. Karen Dawisha, a Professor at Miami University, told PBS Frontline that “Instead of seeing Russia as a democracy in the process of failing, see it as an authoritarian system that’s in the process of succeeding.” 22Putin is that authoritarian. For him to succeed at the mission of damaging the United States he will use all tools of the Russian statecraft such as forging alliances, but also including blackmail, propaganda, and cyberwarfare.

To Putin, the best of all possible worlds would be an economically crippled America, withdrawn from military adventurism and NATO, and with leadership friendly to Russia. Could he make this happen by backing the right horse? As former director of the KGB, now in control of Russia’s economic, intelligence and nuclear arsenal, he could certainly try.

DONALD TRUMP HAS LONG SOUGHT to establish real estate relationships with Russia’s wealthy elite. In 2013 he got his chance. He was invited by one of the richest families in Russia to co-host the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow.

It would not be Trump’s first visit to Russia. His Trump’s interest in Russia predated the fall of the Soviet Union. Long before the pageant, in 1987 Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin convinced Trump to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg to develop a Trump Tower for Russia. Trump went on an exploratory trip but the business and construction conditions were not optimal for him to take advantage of the Soviets or make a profit. He returned home without any projects in hand. 1

Trump didn’t have to wait long for conditions to change. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to an extreme concentration of wealth in Russia. With Putin at its helm, the money went straight to his cronies and the oligarchy developed—a premier class made up of Putin loyalists. Russian oligarchs must have very deep, personal ties to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin to get anything accomplished or even to hold onto their wealth. Having a “Roof” over one’s head—a Russian euphemism for sponsorship by the politically powerful—is a tradition as old as Russia itself.

Twenty years after Trump’s initial visit, there was a huge demand for more luxury and higher quality brands in Russia. Trump’s son Donald Jr. visited Moscow in 2008, looking to expand the Trump real estate brand beyond America to Europe and the Middle East. According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant , Trump had considered aiding the reconstruction of the city’s Moskva and Rossiya hotels. 2

But it wasn’t hotels or the golden Trump name that won Russians over. It was his popularity as a finger-pointing, quick-firing boss in the NBC television show The Apprentice . His fame on that show brought him into contact with the wealthy Agalarov family. Their money, lavishness, and flattery won Trump over. Aras Agalarov, a billionaire Russian real estate mogul, and his son Emin, the rich pop singer, were big fans of his—Emin even had Trump appear in one of his music videos “In Another Life,” to “fire” Emin at the end of the video as he daydreamed about luxury houses filled with hot women. Emin has been called the Donald Trump of Russia due to popularity, wealth, and his personal relations with Vladimir Putin. -72

Aras was born in Azerbaijan in 1956. His Forbes-estimated net worth is roughly $1.3 billion in real estate development. His company, Crocus Group, received Kremlin contracts for two World Cup 2018 stadiums. Putin even gave Aras a medal of honor in 2013. As with all things Putin, the medal itself wasn’t important or even valuable—it was Putin’s imprimatur in front of the nation that sealed Aras’s stature as a personal benefactor to the President.

“I have always been interested in building in Russia,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Post after returning from Moscow in 2013. He was also proud that “almost all of the oligarchs were in the room.” -72

Trump negotiated the deal that brought the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow with the blessing and support of the Agalarovs. “We just had a meeting… we all seemed to like each other, shook hands and signed our contract within a week’s time,” Emin said in his Forbes interview, adding that the pageant would cost $20 million to host. Trump first announced Moscow winning the bid in June 2013. “Moscow right now in the world is a very, very important place. We wanted Moscow all the way.” 3

After being turned away by American banks due to bankruptcies, Trump has been getting considerable investments from Russian sources, including many with known criminal ties. At one point he even turned to Muammar Gaddafi, the terrorism loving Libyan dictator that blew up American soldiers at a discotech in Germany, funded the Irish Republican Army, destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland and the French UTA Flight 772 over the Sahara. Those airline attacks alone killed 413 total passengers and crew. 4

Trump certainly must have been thrilled to be in the presence of the super Nouveau-riche of Moscow, a city where Mercedes Benz was selling more cars than anywhere else in the world. Even Putin’s personal counter-assault teams from the KGB rode in armored stretch Mercedes G-Wagons. The money was spilling from Russia and Trump was now associating himself with some of the most powerful people in the eastern hemisphere.