as patron of london s royal national theatre and the association of commonwealth universities. heated debate is underway over a planned admission tchotchkes of. the italian government s new budget calls the day trip is to pay from two to ten euros a visit. that he sees will not support the proposal or you know i also think the city should be more orderly. my god even going to put it on the people will still keep coming but when they get here they ll be surprised to find they have to pay admission just to get into venice solo but in fact haven t it s a few years venice is being struggling with increasing numbers of two wrists a bone of contention is tourists who only come for a day and spend little or no money in the city. east for just west of. moscow is currently hosting an exhibition of faberge eggs
meetings, the meeting a few months before with kushner, trump junior, and the russian lawyer. and, again, around this time, george papadopoulos is also running around europe on behalf of the campaign, meeting with russian intermediaries. and, ken, this name, viktor vekselberg excuse me. i m having trouble with it. viktor vekselberg. what do we know about him? fill in some of the blanks for folks not too familiar. he s worth about $15 billion, reported to be the fourth richest man in russia. happens to have the largest private collection of faberge eggs, fun fact. but you know what? he s been cultivating influence in the united states for a long time. he was a contributor to the clinton foundation years ago. so it s not clear to me that this entree to michael cohen wasn t garden variety influence peddling, which could be a scandal in its own right. it could be that, or it could be a gesture on behalf of the russian government because after all, this is an oligarch who operates, yo
you know, is wealthy because vladimir putin allows him to be wealthy and wants sanctions lifted. in fact, he is under sanctions now as of april by the united states, and so he has an interest in pursuing policies that vladimir putin wants to see happen. and, susan, the even broader context for this is the other reporting this week from the new york times about meetings in august of 2016 donald trump jr. had with other foreigners seeking some kind of involvement with the campaign. well, that s right. i think actually that this new york times story today about michael cohen and vekselberg is quite significant. notice the language which i found particularly kind of dry and ironic suggesting, well, they were discussing russia policy and their desire to see a change in russia policy in the new administration. come on. you know, michael cohen is not a noted russia policy expert. and to me, this actually had a very sharp echo of the explanation that president trump initially offered a
wasn t garden variety influence peddling, which could be a scandal in its own right. it could be that, or it could be a gesture on behalf of the russian government because after all, this is an oligarch who operates, you know, with the permission of vladimir putin, you know, is wealthy because vladimir putin allows him to be wealthy and wants sanctions lifted. in fact, he is under sanctions now as of april by the united states, and so he has an interest in pursuing policies that vladimir putin wants to see happen. and, susan, the even broader context for this is the other reporting this week from the new york times about meetings in august of 2016 donald trump jr. had with other foreigners seeking some kind of involvement with the campaign. well, that s right. i think actually that this new york times story today about michael cohen and vekselberg is quite significant. notice the language which i found particularly kind of dry and ironic, suggesting, well, they were discussing
vek se vekselberg is considered to be something more important, a supremely russian government fixer who does things for putin like spending millions on faberge eggs that were supposed to come back to russia for a kremlin display case. so keep that in mind when you recall that michael cohen has not only disclaimed any outreach to russia, but he has said that he does not talk to russian government people. i am telling you that i was not in prague. and they claim to have photos with me of some russian personnel, and i said show me. have you been with hookers in prague? i have never been to russia, and so is release the photos. and release the photos. you string enough together, and you will have photos. this is the video, and airing on msnbc for the first time tonight