Foreign Policy Magazine has a great article this morning on how the so-called President’s son-in-law and recently-promoted-to-everything aide de camp, Jared Kushner, met with an important Russian financial institution during his father-in-law’s transition.

Seems like his meeting with Vnesheconombank (VEB) was one of the many meetings that Jared – call me Kush – Kushner conveniently forgot to mention he attended when he was completing his disclosure forms for his top-secret security clearance. Because listing a series of meetings with Russians and Russian banks was probably considered bad form when your benefactor and father-in-law was furiously denying that anybody on his team had any contact with Russia. (“Rush – ah? What is this place Rush-ah that you speak of? Never heard of it.”)

Now, the fact that VEB is a little known, kind of shadowy, outfit is probably not a good reason to excuse the fact that Kush failed to disclose his meeting on his security clearance documents. Because – surprise – Vnesheconombank is a very important agent of Russian foreign policy and – spoiler alert – it’s pretty much under Putin’s thumb.

Foreign Policy outlines how Vnesheconombank, originally set up as a development bank similar to the World Bank, has morphed into a kind of slush fund that is used by Russian President Vladimir Putin to finance his covert foreign policy initiatives worldwide.

[F]or executives at VEB, there is little real distinction between business affairs and matters of state. A review of the bank’s recent history and its deals reveals that VEB, slapped with sanctions by the United States after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, is a central, versatile tool in the Kremlin’s foreign-policy machinations. The bank functions as an off-the-books kitty that allows President Vladimir Putin to reward his allies and shower money on his pet projects and political priorities…Essentially, the bank was used as an off-the-books budget for the government.”

So the sequence of events appears to be this: the Russian government works hard to derail Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and propel Donald Trump to the Presidency. Shocker! They do it. Shortly thereafter, the head of the development bank that has become the Russian President’s personal financial arm is on a plane to America to meet with the son-in-law of the American President-elect. And then Kushner – risking felony changes – declines to admit these meetings on his Security Clearance disclosures.

But I’m sure it’s all on the up and up. I mean who among us has not met with the personal bankers of the leader of the government who worked nefariously to elect your father-in-law to the Presidency of the United States and then forgot to mention it on top-secret security clearance disclosure documents on which it is illegal to lie?

What. The. Fuck.

Don’t let Gorsuch, filibusters, Susan Rice and Tomahawk missiles distract you. Don’t be put off by those that decry the “lack of a smoking gun”. This is evidence of a large, complex, multilayered operation orchestrated by a very very smart man (Putin, not Trump) who is a master of covert operations and exerting state influence by stealth. A man whose aim is the destabilization of the world order.

The clouds of smoke and the efforts at coverups belie a blazing inferno concealed within. Like most scandals, you need to follow the money. And the trail of money flows through Vnesheconombank and now – apparently – through White House “Kush.”

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