In 1984, KGB was Instructed to Recruit “Prominent Western Figures”, And so the Nightmare Began
Trump’s first visit to Moscow was in 1987. The visit was arranged by KGB’s top arm, General Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov. In the mid eighties, the General realized the world was changing. Russia would be left far behind, if they couldn’t gather intelligence.
In January 1984, Kryuchkov discussed the problem at a review in Moscow, and then again, six months later, at a conference. The demand was crystal clear, the KGB needed to improve their agent recruitment. Once upon a time, Moscow recruited Western individuals who sympathized with Russian ideology. In the mid-eighties, such individuals were hard to find, if not nonexistent. During these conferences, Kryuchkov suggested using money and flattery to lure recruits.
Hmmm……can you think of any prominent Western figures who’d be lured by money and flattery?
Trump had been a target with the KGB for a long time. According to files in Prague, declassified in 2016, Czech spies had been secretly observing Donald Trump and his newlywed Ivana. At the time, Ivana Zelnickova was a 28 year old model from Czechoslovakia, a communist country.
According to the declassified files, the Czech spies would read the letters Ivana sent back home.
The fact that the KGB was interested in recruiting Donald Trump to be a spy is fact. Whether or not Trump replied favorably to their offers of cash and flattery is questionable, but once upon a time, Donald Trump was almost certainly recruited by the KGB.
To become a full KGB agent, a foreigner had to agree to two things. (An “agent” in a Russian or British context was a secret intelligence source.) One was “conspiratorial collaboration.” The other was willingness to take KGB instruction. — Politico
The bottom line is that Trump had been a recruitment target of the KGB for decades.
The recruitment process started when Trump was introduced to Soviet ambassador Yuri Dubinin in 1986.
Dubinin’s daughter said: “Trump melted at once. He is an emotional person, somewhat impulsive. He needs recognition. And, of course, when he gets it he likes it. My father’s visit worked on him [Trump] like honey to a bee.”
Six months later, Trump is at an Este Lauder luncheon, and just happens to find himself sitting next to Yuri Durbinin. It just seemed too weird that this ambassador, the one who wound up sending Trump to Moscow for the first time, was magically everywhere that Trump was.
Dubinin’s other daughter, Irina, said that her late father — he died in 2013 — was on a mission as ambassador. This was, she said, to make contact with America’s business elite. For sure, Gorbachev’s Politburo was interested in understanding capitalism. But Dubinin’s invitation to Trump to visit Moscow looks like a classic cultivation exercise, which would have had the KGB’s full support and approval. — Politico
According to The Art of the Deal, Trump toured “a half dozen potential sites for a hotel, including several near Red Square.” “I was impressed with the ambition of Soviet officials to make a deal,” he writes.
It seems that Russia kept flaunting the greatest pieces of real estate in front of Trump’s face. Thirty years ago, Trump was so close to making a deal, that still hasn’t occurred. Perhaps Russia was using these properties as bait, to lure Trump along.
Trump’s first visit to Moscow was relatively unproductive. Trump was shown all these beautiful and lucrative real estate properties. He stayed in a hotel room that Lenin stayed in, most likely it was bugged. And then he went home. But Trump did endure one significant change, when he came back from his first Russian trip. As soon as he got back to America, Trump began tossing around the idea of running for president.
