In October 2015, Trump retweeted a news article about Russian operatives promoting his campaign.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

This is the tweet:

Link to tweet

And this is the article (from the Washington Examiner, FWIW):

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/russias-putin-loves-donald-trump/article/2574339

Featured front and center in the article was Konstantin Rykov, a Putin-allied Russian legislator turned IT whiz described as "Putin's Trollmaster"

The article points out in relevant part:

Kremlin mouthpiece Konstantin Rykov said Wednesday in a Twitter post that Trump won the first Democratic presidential debate, held Tuesday in Las Vegas. In that tweet, Rykov linked to a Russian language, pro-Trump website with a Russian domain, www.Trump2016.ru, that he is likely behind. Until a few weeks ago, Rykov's Twitter home page featured Trump and his 2016 campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."

Western sources who monitor Russian politics told the Washington Examiner that Rykov is a propagandist arm of the Putin government machine. "Rykov is considered to be one of the leading pro-Kremlin bloggers in Russia," said Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Obama who is now a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution think tank. "As you can see from his Twitter feed, he is very active. And he loves Trump."

Another source described Rykov as a "chief voice and troll for the Kremlin on Twitter."

Rykov is a media entrepreneur who has worked in Russian media and launched technology firms that are connected to the Kremlin. He has been closely associated with the Russian government under Putin and ex-president Dmitry Medvedev, and served briefly in Russia's parliament. Although his social media activities aren't strictly Kremlin-related, sources say he doesn't contradict Putin, and his online commentary on international politics serve as a reliable indicator of the Russian president's opinions and preferences.

Rykov has created a series of websites, similar to Trump2016.ru, or used his Twitter page to post opinions on international politics. He often promotes rightwing political figures; for instance, he has previous promoted the National Front, a French nationalist political party, and its leaders, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and his daughter, Marine Le Pen. Rykov also uses events to draw favorable comparisons to Kremlin policy, such as likening Scotland's independence movement to Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

As I pointed out last week, just days after Trump was elected, Rykov took to Facebook and posted what appeared on its face to be a brazen confession of running a covert campaign to target US voters in support of Trump, including using data the Trump campaign obtained from Cambridge Analytica. My post--with the translated versions of Rykov's postings--can be found here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029322103

Notably, in response to Trump tweeting the article describing Rykov's endeavors, Trump received a response from none other than Rykov himself, who tweeted, "In Trump We Trust! "

Link to tweet

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. I guess my only remaining question is:

Did Trump read the entire article or just the title?

And would it even matter? At this point in 2015--we'll before even the first primary--Trump was unabashedly spouting a pro-Kremlin line.

[Gothmog]

2. There are so many laws being violated by this that it is not even funny

[Tommy_Carcetti]

7. Yup. nt

[FakeNoose]

3. It never occurred to him then

... that this would all come back and bite him in the ass.



But it's all there and it's not going away.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. It never dawned on him that this might not be proper behavior...

...for someone running for President.

Or maybe it did, and he just didn't care.

[FakeNoose]

5. In all of his 71 years

...I'm sure nobody has explained to Cheeto about "proper behavior."

So yes it didn't dawn on him, and yes he didn't care.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. True. Nt