Independent journalist and writer, Régis Genté looked into the links between Donald Trump and Moscow in his latest book. A love story that began in the 1970s and never ended.
On November 5, Donald Trump will once again be a candidate for president of the United States against Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris. Less than a month before the election, the revelations on the links between the New York billionaire and Russia follow one another and are intriguing.
Correspondent in the Caucasus for RTS, Régis Genté is preparing to release, on October 16, his book “Our man in Washington: Trump in the hand of the Russians”. The journalist returns to the genesis of a budding love between Donald Trump and Russia, which began in the 1970s.
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The 45th President of the United States was spotted when he was only in his thirties and a young businessman active in real estate in New York. At the time, the KGB, the Russian intelligence services, noted its delay in recruiting sources.
“No doubt that at the very beginning, it went through Donald Trump’s first wife, Ivana, who was Czech. At the time, Czechoslovakia was a very harsh socialist regime with state security, the STB, which worked hand in hand with the KGB He is spotted and followed,” explains Régis Genté in La Matinale.
First visit in 1987
The KGB then undertook an operation which would lead to Donald Trump’s first trip to Moscow in 1987. “We pretend that we want to have him build a Trump Tower in the Russian capital, but in reality, it was a question of surrounding him and to make something of it that could be useful to the Soviet homeland,” notes the journalist.
Donald Trump then becomes a “confidential contact”, as it is called in the jargon. “It’s someone who is not necessarily aware of that, who is not paid, but who is part of a network that we cultivate, to whom we provide services and vice versa. Because controlling Trump is not necessarily easy.”
On his return from Moscow, Donald Trump took public positions in the American press criticizing NATO, completely in line with the Kremlin.
It’s a kind of galaxy that spends its time revolving around itself with a lot of money circulating and people who we quickly understand are linked to the Kremlin.
Not fundamentally pro-Russian, the American billionaire also benefits there. “We will find an incredible gallery of characters who revolve around him, in particular people from the mafia which is intimately linked to the life of the Russian state and its interests. He meets people of very high level,” says Régis Genté, stressing that this network will be particularly useful to him.
“About fifteen of them will buy or rent an apartment in the famous Trump Tower. They will also launder their money in Donald Trump’s casinos. Often, they will intervene at key moments in his history, notably when he is close to bankruptcy “maybe this is how he was cultivated and he was perhaps not aware that this money came directly from a decision of the KGB”, recalls the specialist in the former Soviet republics.
Another example: the sale in 2008 of one of his villas in Palm Beach to the oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev. “He bought this house for $40 million and sold it four years later for $95 million, even though real estate hasn’t changed in the area. All of a sudden, $50 million came to him. fall into the trap and we don’t know why.[…] There you have it, it’s a kind of galaxy that spends its time revolving around it with a lot of money circulating and people who we quickly understand are linked to the Kremlin.”
“Vladimir Putin was a bit of his idol”
In the year 2000, Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia, but according to Régis Genté, the new strongman in Moscow did not immediately pay attention to the American businessman. “At the start, he wasn’t necessarily on his radar, that will come later. In 2013, Donald Trump made several trips to Russia, where he dreamed of meeting Putin. He was a bit of his idol […] It also helped it to have an image, an international stature. He needed to appear as part of a sort of political jet set,” analyzes Régis Genté.
His election was not necessarily a Kremlin calculation at the start
The 2016 US presidential election will be the culmination of murky ties between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, during which the Russians hacked the emails of his opponent Hillary Clinton.
“It is at this moment that Donald Trump will certainly come into consideration in the concerns of the Russian president. His election was not necessarily a calculation of the Kremlin at the start, it happened a little by chance. The revelation emails from Hillary Clinton, in which there was nothing scandalous, was used to weaken the Democratic camp. It was at an important moment for Trump, because there were, for example, revelations about. his private life”, details the RTS correspondent, specifying that this made it possible to reduce media pressure on the failures of the future president.
A still “very important” influence
Speaking of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Régis Genté speaks of an “unlikely” duo, coming from two different worlds, but “solid”. “First of all, there is a fairly common political background between the two, not much love for democracy. There is also the idea that states must be strong. And they have the same adversaries: the American Democrats. “
And at the dawn of the American presidential election, Régis Genté believes that Russian influence on the billionaire “certainly very important”.
“In 40 years of Donald Trump’s statements and positions on Russia, there is not a single one that is truly critical. There may be one or two, but they are clowning,” he concludes.
Comments collected by Pietro Bugnon
Web article: Jérémie Favre
Régis Genté, “Our man in Washington: Trump in the hands of the Russians”, ed. Grasset, October 2024.
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