Wow, what are the odds, and so forth.
The White House abruptly canceled a scheduled meeting in February between President Trump and a high-level Russian central banker after a national security aide discovered the official had been named by Spanish police as a suspected “godfather” of an organized crime and money-laundering ring, according to an administration official and four other sources familiar with the event.
The Russian banker in question is Putin ally Alexander Torshin, deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, and the meeting was supposed to be at the site of the National Prayer Breakfast last February. But then some unspecified "national security aide" noticed Torshin's name on a list and a "former campaign adviser" mentioned that maybe an administration currently awash in Russia-related scandal should not meet with a Putin-allied organized crime figure and you just know Trump was all "What? Half of my golden New York tower is full of Putin-allied organized crime figures, you can't throw a well-cooked steak in that place without hitting one" but, in any event, the meeting was nixed.
Anyhoo, Spain has been trying to arrest Torshin since 2013 for his connections to Russian organized crime in that country. Meanwhile, in this country, he's a big cheese in the Russia-conservative cracker factory:
[Torshin] is a key figure in the Kremlin’s outreach to the conservative movement in the United States. In addition to his appearance at the Prayer Breakfast — an event he has been attending for the past several years — Torshin is also a “life member” of the National Rifle Association —
—where during last year’s convention he got to meet Donald Trump Jr., because apparently everybody has been itching to meet Donald Trump Jr.—
“He’s sort of the conservatives’ favorite Russian,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who together with Rep. Tom Massie, R-Ky., had dinner with Torshin and other members of the Russian delegation [...]
Outstanding! Wonderful! Of course! It just so happens that "conservatives' favorite Russian" is a man wanted elsewhere for his ties to organized crime. Pure coincidence. Nothing to see here. The man's a National Rifle Association member, after all, he's got to be a great guy.