The Dallas News ran an extensive report on the source of Len Blavatnik’s great wealth, which turned the expatriate American into Britain’s richest man by 2015.

Blavatnik’s first business partner was Oleg Deripaska, whose deal with Paul Manafort is the subject of special counsel Mueller’s Russia investigation.

The Soviet-born US national Blavatnik then partnered with Alfa Bank’s Mikhail Fridman, ex-KGB officer Victor Vekselberg (Russia’s wealthiest man) and BP to buy an oil company on the cheap, and re-sell it to Vladimir Putin’s Rosneft oil company.

Lest there be any doubt that Levine’s donor sent him Russian oil money from Vladimir Putin, this story on Blavatnik even has a photograph of the $7 billion dollar wire he received for selling that Russian oil company to Putin. (see below)

Today, Len Blavatnik is the owner of Warner Music Group and a major donor of Florida’s pro-Trump Republican Senator Marco Rubio and numerous other high profile Republican candidates including President Trump:

Marco Rubio’s Conservative Solutions PAC and his Florida First Project received $1.5 million through Blavatnik’s two holding companies. Donald Trump and the political action committees for Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich and John McCain accepted $7.35 million in contributions from a Ukrainian-born oligarch who is the business partner of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarchs and a Russian government bank.

Mayor Levine is still a registered Democrat and was a major surrogate for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Len Blavatnik’s company Access Industries became a major player in Miami Beach real estate soon after Levine became Mayor. Shortly thereafter, he donated to the Relentless for Progress PAC — so named as shorthand for RFP or request for proposal — which was later shut down for causing a political scandal.

Miami New Times reported on broad disapproval of the donations to Levine, which later led to a city ordinance forbidding these kind of contributions:

Last December, Levine released a call for sponsors for the city’s lavish 100-hour centennial celebration, urging companies to bankroll the celebrity-studded event. Len Blavatnik gave $200,000. Soon after, his company Saxony Beach donated $100,000 to the Relentless for Progress PAC, which was created by Commissioner Jonah Wolfson and supported by Levine.

Leaked DNC emails later showed that even the national Democratic Party thought Levine’s RFP PAC was a slimy, dark money fund.

Left: Len Blavatnik, and Mayor Philip Levine holding microphone at Faena Condo ceremony.

Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries put millions of dollars into a Miami Beach mega-complex called Faena.

But Blavatnik’s brother Alex is involved in a project known as Ocean Terrace, where he proposed to tear down a beach-side historic district, if voters would give him a massive up-zoning.

They didn’t.

But Miami Beach’s commission, which Levine is a part of, gave Blavatnik’s project a major rezoning entitlement anyway, last year.

Lately, Levine has been touting his idea of running as a “radical centrist” — an undefined term — as the Mayor very publicly discussed an independent run for Florida governor.

Time: 28:30 Mayor Levine explains that “he who pays the piper picks the tune.” He then called himself the only donor to All Aboard Florida PAC. Now, the Blavatniks are picking the tunes.

Phil Levine is the first Miami Beach Mayor to decline a third term of office, and deeply unpopular at home after his stunning failures of leadership were chronicled.

Mayor Levine was never like other municipal leaders, he always saw the top political job in a high profile town of 90,000 people as a stepping stone to high office.

But when the Mayor attempted to series of Trump-like tirades on Twitter, it looked like his political career hit the skids for good.

Now, Phil Levine is resurrecting his hopes to be Florida’s governor by turning to GOP money men while pitching a message of Democratic talking points like higher minimum wages.