Newly leaked documents from the Kremlin reportedly show a plot to support Donald Trump‘s candidacy in the 2016 presidential election. Most notably, the papers appear to have been personally signed by Vladimir Putin and outline Russia’s desire to back the “mentally unstable” Trump in an effort to cause “social turmoil” in the U.S. According to the documents, the plan to back Trump was solidified during a meeting in January 2016, when Putin and top ministers in his government apparently plotted to coalesce around Trump as he became the Republican primary frontrunner.
Via The Guardian:
They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s strategic objectives, among them “social turmoil” in the US and a weakening of the American president’s negotiating position.
Russia’s three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin’s signature.
By this point Trump was the frontrunner in the Republican party’s nomination race. A report prepared by Putin’s expert department recommended Moscow use “all possible force” to ensure a Trump victory.
The documents also appear to confirm that the Russian government has kompromat on Trump (read: compromising material) obtained during his previous visits to Moscow, which makes him the “favoured” candidate for Russia’s ideal scenario that “will definitely lead to the destabilisation of the US’s sociopolitical system.”
According to The Guardian, independent experts reviewed the documents and believe them to be genuine. However, there is understandable skepticism about anything that’s supposedly been leaked by the Kremlin, and the motives for doing so.
(Via The Guardian)