When Donald Trump slithered down that escalator in 2015 to announce he was running for president, he brought with him two decades of connections to Russia. By the time the primaries were winding down, he’d acquired a collection of staff and advisers who were not just Russophiles, but fans of autocrat Vladimir Putin. Chief among them were Paul Manafort, Carter Page, and Michael Flynn.
Manafort was brought on as campaign chair in March 2016. At the time, his most recent political experience was working to put a Russian puppet regime at the head of Ukraine. Manafort arranged fake rallies against NATO …read more
Source: Daily Kos