among the many threads to the story of russian interference in the 2016 election in the russian connection to the national rifle association. the fbi s already reportedly investigating ties between the president s son and the kremlin-lynched russian banker and nra member aleksander torshin that met an anra meeting. now a new story suggests russians were trying to cultivate a much deeper relationship than previously reported. some prominent rsians high in the russian orthodox church have been identified as having contact with the nra officials during the 2016 u.s. election campaign. with me now co-author of that piece, peter stone. peter, we sort of knew about torsion. you guys found a bunk of new stuff. what s new in your reporting
this is white collar fraud involving millions of dollars and foreign countries and our international interests. if anyone should be treat this had way, it s paul manafort. mcclatchy is reporting new connectibetween russia and then ra which spent an estimated $30 million to boost the trump campaign. according to photographs and an anonymous nra source, several prominent russians summoned putin s inner circle have been identified as having contact with the nra officials ding th2016 uz election campaign. those russians hosted an nra delegation for a week of lavish wining and dining in moscow in december of 15. they include the russian prime minister of defense as well as aleksander torshin who spoke with donald trump jr. five months later at the nra event in kentucky. what s the common interest of the nra and moscow that s the $80 million. whetr there was a common
convention and the right to bear arms conventions in moscow is parts of the sophisticated back and forth that led to the nra becoming a back channel between kremlin supported politician torshin and top ranking brass of the nra and ultimately the president and his son at the time when the candidacy was going on. and to take it a step further, i want to ask you about the president s picket for national security adviser, john bolton, and his involvement in the nra. are there those who believe that the nra s $20 million donation to president trump s campaign influenced his decision to appoint bolton? i m not sure we can make that connection. but let s back up to the news from yesterday, torshin is under sanctions by the treasury department, his assets are frozen. this sort of strips away any
their founder, marina butina. aleksander torshin hired marina butina, who won a political contest put on by the kremlin. she comes from a hunting background, very comfortable with guns. she won a regional political competition, sort of caught the eye of aleksander torshin. she founded the group right to bear arms which turned into a russian clone in moscow of the nra, so promoting a sort of second amendment in russia, all kinds of advances in gun rights, which they ve had very sort of modest success. but this effort was part of the you know, influence operation, essentially, to capture the attention of the nra. and this interchange between her group, and she and torshin and the nra sending delegations back and forth between the nra consequenti
been a russian effort to infiltrate the nra. joining me is rolling stone s tim dickerson. tell us about aleksander torshin and the role he plays in all this. as you just described it, it s been a longstanding campaign. aleksander torshin was a top ranking senator, at one point rising to be the chairman of the russian senate, sort of its mitch mcconnell. he began attending nra conventions back in 2011, befriended david keene and succeeded in opening up the nra as a conduit to reach out to republican politicians, to top-ranking social movement conservatives. and ultimately to try and broker a meeting between candidate trump and vladimir putin in the run-up to the 2016 election. i want to ask you about the significance of the russian group right to bear arms and