Guess Who Came to Dinner With Flynn and Putin

[deminks]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/guess-who-came-dinner-flynn-putin-n742696

It was a (red) star-studded affair, the December 2015 dinner celebrating the 10th birthday of Russian TV network RT. At a luxe Moscow hotel, President Vladimir Putin and a host of Russian luminaries toasted a state-backed news channel that U.S. intelligence calls a Kremlin mouthpiece.

And next to Putin at the head table, in the seat of honor, was an American. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who would later become Donald Trump's national security adviser, was already advising Trump's presidential campaign when he was paid $45,000 to speak at the gala.

"It is not coincidence that Flynn was placed next to President Putin," said Michael McFaul, U.S. ambassador in Moscow from 2012 to 2014 and now an NBC News analyst. "Flynn was considered a close Trump adviser. Why else would they want him there?"

(snip)

Next to Ivanov was Dmitry Peskov, nominally Putin's spokesman, but more importantly his de facto national security adviser, say U.S. officials. Like almost everyone at the head table that night, he speaks perfect English.

(end snip)

Link to tweet

Right next to Jill Stein.

[tenderfoot]

1. I was blocked by Jill Stein on Twitter

LOL.

[riversedge]

12. I was also--during the primaries.

[geek tragedy]

2. Peskov was the guy Michael Cohen was trying to reach nt

[TubbersUK]

3. And remember, Flynn was involved with Cohen/Sater in that strange Ukraine 'peace plan' thing

The Curious Link Between Trumps Moscow Tower Deal and a Ukraine Peace Plan

A pair of Trump associates, Michael Cohen and Felix Sater, appear to be gaining significance in the Trump-Russia investigation. News broke this week that during the presidential campaign the two sought a deal for the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow. And, as reported earlier this year, the pair pushed a Kremlin-backed proposal for the US to lift sanctions on Russia—part of a proposed “peace deal” between Ukraine and Russia that Cohen and Sater brought to Trump’s then national security advisor Michael Flynn.

Congressional investigators are now interested in how the Moscow tower proposal and the so-called peace deal may connect. “That is a question members will be exploring, certainly,” says an official close to the Senate Intelligence Committee. One thread running through both deals is Russia’s desire for relief from US sanctions, which the Trump presidential campaign repeatedly signaled it was interested in accommodating. How that might shed further light on the deals is a “very interesting line of inquiry,” the official adds.


Cohen claims that he pulled the plug on the Moscow tower deal in late 2015. But after Trump took office, Cohen and Sater went on to push a “peace plan” under which the US would unwind economic sanctions in exchange for the withdrawal of pro-Russian troops from Ukraine and an agreement to hold a referendum on the fate of Crimea, the Ukrainian territory Russia seized in 2014. Cohen hand-delivered the proposal to Flynn, who was soon forced to resign over matters including his lying about having discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador to the US.

The peace plan came from Andriy Artemenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker known for his pro-Kremlin views, who told the Times that senior aides to Putin encouraged him to push the plan. Artemenko said he contacted Sater through an unnamed “mutual friend,” who worked with Cohen to get the plan to Flynn. It is not clear if Trump himself reviewed the plan, though around the same time the president reportedly asked the State Department to look into the possibility of unilaterally rescinding sanctions on Russia.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/the-curious-link-between-trumps-moscow-tower-deal-and-a-ukraine-peace-plan/

[bettyellen]

4. And assange appeared via satellite!?!? Lamenting the "end of privacy" no less? You can't make this

Shit up. To think how many people were hoodwinked by Assange it makes me sick. It was clear he was hyper partisan last year, and people did not care.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Full picture and face picture of Peskov

Not the cropped one in the 4 month old article about the 20 month old dinner.

All the same, kudos to Maddow for pointing to the playbook photo that supplies labels to the characters.

[tinrobot]

6. Flynn next to Putin. Stein next to Peskov.

These seating arrangements are no accident.

[bobbieinok]

7. NEVER forget Stein's role

[calimary]

9. I most certainly won't.

Not EVER.

[KelleyKramer]

11. Peskov looks like he is right out of central casting

And just a year later Flynn had access to the USA's most sensitive secrets.

These bastards better end up in prison

[ellie]

8. Fucking Jill Stein

Jesus Christ.

[Bradshaw3]

10. Don't forget Peskov ran the hacking operations

And Putin didn't know anything about it. Right....