In today’s Vatnik Soup, we examine the ties of Donald Trump and his family to Russian intelligence operatives and the Kremlin. His current dealings with Putin may shock some people, but the pattern of collusion has been clear for more than a decade.
Umar Kremlev, close to Putin’s security circle, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars toward Trump Jr.’s May 2026 Bahamas wedding celebrations. Yes, he changed his name to sound more Kremlin, you can't make this shit up. They also hunted together in Mongolia in August 2026.
On 9 June 2016, Trump Jr. infamously held a meeting at Trump Tower with Russian agent Natalia Veselnitskaya and former Soviet intelligence operative Rinat Akhmetshin, representing the Kremlin’s interests.
At a 30 Nov 2016 Trump Tower meeting, Jared Kushner asked Sergey Kislyak about using secure Russian embassy facilities to communicate with the Kremlin. US intelligence later intercepted Kislyak reporting Kushner’s request for a channel beyond US monitoring.
Kislyak and Kushner met in person and spoke on the phone; Kushner joined Trump Jr. at the 9 June 2016 meeting. Another key Kremlin-linked figure in today’s Russia–Ukraine talks is Kirill Dmitriev. His Trump connections go back to January 2017.
On 11 January 2017, Blackwater founder Erik Prince met Kirill Dmitriev in the Seychelles. The UAE’s Mohamed bin Zayed was also involved. The meeting was arranged to establish a back channel between Trump’s incoming administration and the Kremlin.
Trump’s Russia envoy, Steve Witkoff, wrote a 2010 recommendation letter for his friend Anatoly Golubchik, later convicted in a Russian mafia racketeering operation based in a Trump Tower apartment. He is not the only Russian mafia connection here. bsky.app
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we’ll introduce an American billionaire, real estate developer, and wannabe diplomat, Steve Witkoff. He’s best known for trying to sell Ukraine to Putin and for helping Trump sell this treason and encouragement of genocidal war as “peace”. 1/20
Moscow-born real estate developer Felix Sater, son of a senior Russian mobster, was a senior adviser to Donald Trump in 2010, before Trump became president. He also worked with Don Jr. at the Trump Organization. In 1998, he was convicted in a Russian mafia fraud scheme.
On 10 Dec 2015, Russian state TV RT paid Michael Flynn $33,750 to speak in Moscow, where he sat with Putin. A perfect choice for Trump’s national security adviser (picked Nov 2016, in office Jan 2017). Like Kushner, he had dealings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, worked for pro-Kremlin Ukrainian president Yanukovych and Kremlin-linked Russian oligarch Deripaska. While advising Trump, he worked closely with Konstantin Kilimnik, a confirmed Russian intelligence officer. bsky.app
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a former Ukrainian politician and president, Viktor Yanukovych. He’s best known for selling his country to Russia, trying to turn it into an authoritarian state, and eventually fleeing to Moscow once his plan failed. 1/22
Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone collaborated with Guccifer 2.0, the online persona attributed to Russian military intelligence (GRU), which released hacked Democratic Party documents to WikiLeaks. Stone openly supports Putin’s genocidal invasion of Ukraine.
On 20 Jan 2016, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen spoke to Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s assistant. In 2017, Columbus Nova, linked to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, paid Cohen’s Essential Consultants at least $500,000. The firm handled Trump’s Stormy Daniels payment.
Andrii Derkach, a Russian military intelligence (GRU) asset, was convicted in absentia of treason in Ukraine on 13 July 2026. He worked with Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on efforts to investigate Joe Biden and his son in Ukraine.
Russian intelligence assets kept collaborating with Trump’s officials during Biden’s term. FBI source Alexander Smirnov fabricated Biden bribery claims in 2020, repeated lies in 2023, and admitted Russian intelligence ties. He pleaded guilty on 16 Dec 2024.
The conflict of interest reaches the top of the FBI. Its director, Kash Patel, received $25,000 on 8 July 2024 from Kremlin-linked filmmaker Igor Lopatonok’s Global Tree Pictures for a film interview.
Lopatonok has also collaborated with GRU asset Andrii Derkach and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Under Patel, the FBI is punishing agents who investigated those Russia ties. Mueller investigator Walter Giardina was fired on 8 Aug 2025.
Michael Caputo did PR for Putin at Gazprom Media in the 2000s, began working for Trump in 2014, and later collaborated with Kilimnik and Derkach. Trump made him HHS spokesman in 2020 and appointed him to the President’s Cancer Panel on 4 Oct 2026.
George Papadopoulos, another central figure in Russiagate, and his wife, Simona Mangiante, have continued working for Kremlin propaganda. They have worked with Igor Lopatonok; Mangiante interviewed GRU asset Andrii Derkach. The couple often appear on Russian state media.
Trump campaign lawyer Bruce Marks was part of the team advising on the so-called “fake electors scheme” in Georgia. He still has an active office in Russia and is a frequent contributor to Russian state propaganda media.
In June 2026, US Commission of Fine Arts chairman Rodney Mims Cook Jr., overseeing Trump’s White House ballroom, held secret diplomatic talks with Kremlin officials at SPIEF in St Petersburg. He has a long history of visiting Russia and is a fan of Russian architecture.
Republican operative Jesse Benton’s 2016 campaign-finance conviction was pardoned by Trump in Dec 2020. His 2022 conviction was for a 2016 $25,000 Trump Victory donation from Russian businessman Roman Vasilenko, a naval reserve officer who led a military unit’s finances.
RT secretly funded Tenet Media, whose pro-Trump influencers later joined Trump’s White House press pool. vatniksoup.com Tenet head Lauren Chen credited Trump official Joe Rittenhouse with her Dec 2025 US return. She visited the White House in Apr 2026.
For fear of “politicization”, Washington ignored or forgot dozens of incidents it should have treated as treasonous, given Russia’s hostility to the US. The Kremlin gained access to Trump’s circle while America looked away.
On 16 Oct 2026, Trump waived most new Graham Act sanctions and tariffs on Russia. “America First” means Russia first and the Trump family’s private wealth first. America, the rest of the world and human rights come last.
Thanks to @martinlaineolen.bsky.social for preparing the ingredients for this special soup. The Kremlin spends $5 billion a year on propaganda to manufacture passivity for its invasions. Fact-based research to counter that is crucial — please support our work: vatniksoup.com
vatniksoup.com