[_tunic_]

just read an interesting article in the Dutch newspaper. It's auto-translated by Firefox, so it's a bit sketchy at times.

Band Putin and Trump won’t fall from the sky: ‘By common past they will never betray each other’

Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a “murderous dictator and unadulterated villain.” But since his successor Donald Trump sits in the White House, there is no bad word from the US government about the Russian president. “Fascism reigns in Washington.”

Sanne Schelfaut 08-03-25, 03:00 The last update: 07:37:37

A remarkable letter submitted this week in the Volkskrant [which is another Dutch newspaper]. Author is former defense minister Joris Voorhoeve. He writes that it has surprised many how Donald Trump dealt with Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump called Zelensky “an unelected dictator,” rhetoric who might as well have come from the Kremlin.\

Voorhoeve (79) itself is anything but surprised. “Trump’s business empire is full of money from Russian financiers who have flowed to him through money laundering constructions by European banks. The network of Putin’s accomplices in the banking world and his investments in Trump may be believed to be known, right?” he wrote.

Asked about the content of his letter, the former minister says that the U.S. currently has a fascist government. ,, Fascism reigns in Washington. Trump wants to radiate the “strong man” in everything, his Maga movement is superior to everything and everyone. The independent judiciary and journalism are attacked, political opponents are ridiculed, he uses aggressive language. They are all characteristics of fascism.”

According to Voorhoeve, the only thing missing in this list is the application of violence. ,,But that cannot be ruled out either. He has expressed his wish to take possession of the Panama Canal and to add Canada and Greenland to the US. He wants to achieve this peacefully, but has not said he absolutely excludes violence in these cases.”

According to the former minister, you see in Trump’s behavior and policy that he is an admirer “of sole ruler Putin.” ,,for as far as I’m concerned, they are two criminals who speak the same language and will never betray each other through their common past.”

 

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump during a 2017 meeting. • AP


Investing of Russian rubles

That shared past has to do with investing Russian rubles in businessman Trump’s real estate empire. ,,To understand that, we need to go back to the early 90s. The Soviet Union had just disintegrated, and agents of the KGB, the secret service, at the time stole many properties from the collapsing Soviet Union and sold for a lot of money. Think of soil, oil and other raw materials.”

That money had to be laundered abroad and then, according to multiple sources, Trump comes into the picture. ,,Through his real estate is almost certainly Russian money laundered. In return, these mafias rescue Trump from destruction after a series of bankruptcies of his casino empire, among others. No American bank wanted to invest in its business, but the Russians did not suffer from it. Without them, he would probably have been played long and wide. Also in political terms,” says Voorhoeve, who refers to books that investigative journalists Catherine Belton and Craig Unger wrote about the influence and power of Putin and his inner circle, which consists mainly of ex-KGB agents and other Russian oligarchs.

Money outside of Russia parking

Belton states in her book Putin’s men’s men and clear that there are close ties between some of these oligarchs and the Kremlin, and that investments in Trump’s real estate projects may have been part of a strategy to park money outside Russia and gain influence in the US.

 

Putin is from the KGB world, so it could certainly be that he has confronting information for Trump
Hubert Smeets, Russia expert

Russia expert Hubert Smeets (Fram on Russia) indicates that Voorhoeve is probably right, but that there has never been hard evidence that Putin had an influence on Russian money laundering in Trump’s real estate empire, but there are former KGBs who have been clapped from the school about the criminal tactics. And emphatically refer to the close connection between these figures and Trump. In any case, what we know for sure is that the current American president has been saved a few times by Russian capital-providing oligarchs. We must question the origin of their money. Those figures kept and holding a mafia power structure.”

 

During a carnival parade in Dusseldorf, Germany, earlier this week, the spotlight was winds with the negotiations between America and Russia on a peace agreement in Ukraine. Reuters Reuters


Whether Putin can put pressure on Trump, for example by demanding bad conditions for Ukraine and for Russia in the negotiations for a peace agreement, is therefore difficult to answer, according to Smeets. ,,There are going to be stories that Trump was recruited by the KGB more than thirty years ago for laundering those Russian rubles. Putin is from the KGB world, so it could certainly be that he has confronting information for Trump, which is therefore not attacking him. If so, we can safely say that the Russians have the White House in their power.”

Trump may be blackmailed

Trump may be blackmailing, but according to Smeets we should not forget that the American president thinks the same as Putin. ,,They divide the world into three blocs of power: America, Russia and China. Three bite-sized chunks, the rest doesn't matter. Trump thought so during his first term, but now he has put together one more loyal team for him to perform his power thinking. At home and abroad.”

According to Smeets, the Russian president has been surrounded by the international aisle with Trumpian types for years. Power-stuned alpha men with autocratic traits, a penchant for money and with little to no moral sense. ,,Men whom he easily binds to himself through the same traits.” Examples include the Syrian former dictator Assad, the Belarusian sole master of Lukashenko, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and now Trump.