Wow…
Though why be surprised? It turns out that Putin has figured out that the way to influence the West is to embroil its political and business titans in shady dealings, which they must hide and which leave them vulnerable to underground pressure. This story from today’s Guardian describes Le Canard Enchainé’s latest explosive story:
Fillon 'got $50k to fix meeting between Putin and Lebanese billionaire
The French presidential candidate François Fillon has been hit by allegations he was paid $50,000 (£40,000) to arrange a meeting between a Lebanese billionaire and Vladimir Putin as prosecutors investigating whether his wife was paid for fake jobs widened their inquiry to look into whether she signed forged documents.
No one was very surprised that Marine Le Pen was Russia-friendly in the last debate—Putin is a racist autocrat, what’s not to like? But for a traditional center-right politician, Fillon has come off as oddly pro-Russian.
We are learning that Putin plays a very long game. This Fillon involvement occurred in 2005. (Fillon would become the French prime minister under Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012. So Putin knew where to put his money.) Putin’s first known contacts with Trump were in 2007, and today’s Mother Jones covers the AP’s latest hit on Manafort:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/03/paul-manafort-putin-russian-work-secret-plan
Paul Manafort, who ran President Donald Trump's campaign from April to August 2016, secretly worked to "greatly benefit" Russian President Vladimir Putin's interests a decade ago, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.
In 2006, Manafort signed a $10 million annual contract with Russian oligarch and Putin ally Oleg Deripaska to "influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and the former Soviet republics to benefit the Putin government," the AP reports.
And it was all starting to bear mega-fruit for Putin. Until the recent unfortunate uncovering of his illegal payments to his wife and children for imaginary work, Fillon was headed for the French presidency.
The breadth of Putin’s success is staggering.