Ever wonder why a US president would consistently align with Russian interests for decades? Investigative journalist Craig Unger has spent over ten years untangling the web of connections between Donald Trump, Russian money, and the Kremlin.
Since Trump’s return to office in January 2025, Politico has documented 29 instances where his positions aligned with Putin’s in his first month alone. But according to Unger, this pattern started long before the presidency – in Trump Tower, 1984, with a Russian businessman carrying $6 million in cash.
Against the backdrop of Trump’s rapprochement with Putin and attempts to strong-arm Ukraine into stopping resistance to the Russian invasion, Euromaidan Press writer Alexander Price spoke with Unger at the 2025 Munich Security Conference to make sense of repeated media claims that Trump is a Russian asset.
The latest one includes a Facebook post by former Kazakh intelligence chief Alnur Mussayev, who stated on 21 February 2025 that the Soviet KGB recruited Trump as an asset codenamed “Krasnov” in the 1980s – a claim reported by The Mirror (UK). However, reports about the American president’s ties to the Kremlin already circulated during his first presidency.
The Guardian reported that Czech intelligence services targeted Trump in the late 1980s following his 1977 marriage to his first wife, Ivana Zelníčková. British intelligence also warned the US of Trump’s contacts with Russia in 2015.
Unger brings rare expertise to this topic as the former deputy editor of The New York Observer and editor-in-chief of Boston magazine. His books include the bestselling “House of Bush, House of Saud” (2004), followed by two deeply researched works on Trump’s Russian ties: “House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia” (2018) and “American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump” (2021).
“A home base for the Russian mob”
Alexander Price: What is Donald Trump’s relationship with Putin and the Russian mafia?
Craig Unger: In 1984, a man named David Bogatin went into the newly opened Trump Tower and put down $6 million in cash. He met with Donald Trump and purchased five condos.
According to FBI files, Bogatin was associated with the Russian mafia. As the owner of these condos, Bogatin was positioned to launder money through their sale.
The question becomes: Where did the money come from? Trump didn’t ask.
It’s very hard to prove that Trump knowingly participated in money laundering, and he gets away with it because the regulations are incredibly loose and hard to enforce. I found thirteen Russians tied to the Russian mafia who owned Trump properties at Trump Tower or other Trump buildings. It’s astonishing that a President of the United States would provide a home base for the Russian mob.
Trump has been allied with Russians for over 40 years. It started out in 1980 at his first successful hotel. He bought all the TV sets from an electronics firm that was a front for Russian intelligence — they were identifying potential assets for the KGB during the Soviet era. They cultivated Trump and brought him to Moscow in 1987 at the KGB’s direction.
Looking at this 40-year relationship, and the various times Trump has profited from it, I don’t believe he’ll turn against them now.
I can’t see him doing anything to help Zelensky in Ukraine. They’ve announced that their negotiating position is essentially to cede all Ukrainian territory to Russia, and I’m not sure how that can be prevented.
Price: After Trump’s announcement last week of his phone call with Putin and plan to negotiate a peace plan for Ukraine, many European leaders have compared this moment to the signing of the Munich Agreement with the Germans in 1938. What do you think of this comparison and the implied association of Putin with Hitler?
Unger: I think the comparison is absolutely accurate, and all the more troubling because many of us remember the history leading up to World War II. It’s happening again. There’s no question that Trump is in Putin’s pocket. I’ve written two books about this relationship.
One shows how his real estate empire has been used for money laundering by Russian organized crime figures. After six bankruptcies, Russian money helped him rebuild his business. He has been an asset to Russian intelligence, a relationship going back to 1980 that I detail in “American Kompromat.”
This moment represents a breaking point for NATO, and few Americans understand how effective the Western alliance has been for 80 years. After World War II, we helped establish strong market economies in Europe, creating military allies and trading partners.
The difference in Western Europe today versus 1945 is remarkable. It’s as if we’re discarding that successful alliance for the personal interest of Donald Trump and his allies.
The 1938 Munich disaster taught the world these five ironclad security lessons. The 2025 one proved Trump has forgotten them all
“Asset versus agent”
Price: When you say that Donald Trump is an intelligence asset for the Russians, what specifically does it mean? Is he in communication with a handler?
Unger: I want to clearly differentiate between an asset and an agent. An agent is a paid employee with specific duties. It doesn’t work that way with Trump.
In one of my books, I compared him to Armand Hammer, the enormously wealthy American oil man who had franchises with the Soviet Union.
When Hammer died in the 1980s, Soviet intelligence sought a replacement, and I believe Trump was among those they approached. It’s more like a friendship — you do a favor for him, he does a favor for you. There doesn’t have to be direct contact.
Everyone knows Putin’s position regarding Ukraine. Trump doesn’t need specific instructions to align with these interests.
That’s what we’re seeing now with Pete Hegseth, J.D. Vance, and Trump all basically selling out Ukraine. I think it’s horrifying that America is doing this.
Price: And what about Tulsi Gabbard and her relationship with the Russians? She’s been a very controversial choice for Director of National Intelligence.
Unger: She’s completely unqualified. She’s demonstrated loyalty to Trump and alignment with positions beneficial to Putin, which is simply very scary. Since Trump returned to office, the United States has become an unreliable NATO partner.
I can’t imagine Ukrainian intelligence or any Western allies wanting to share sensitive intelligence with America now that Gabbard is DNI, especially with people like Kash Patel also in senior positions.
These officials are more allied with Trump and Putin than with Ukraine and our traditional allies. We’re at a disturbing moment when the United States becomes an untrustworthy NATO partner.
We’re at a disturbing moment when the United States becomes an untrustworthy NATO partner.
Price: You mention Kash Patel. There’s also a troubling relationship between Trump allies and the FBI. FBI counterintelligence officer Charles McGonigal was arrested in 2023 because he had been working for Oleg Deripaska, an agent for Putin. It emerged he had been working for the Russians while he led the investigation on Russia, Trump, and election interference.
Unger: The FBI has had its own problems. Two former directors, William Sessions and Louis Freeh, ended up working for Russian interests after leaving the Bureau. Sessions took Semion Mogilevich as a client — one of the most powerful organized crime figures in Russia with ties to Russian intelligence.
It must have been very hard to be an FBI agent investigating Russian intelligence while knowing that.
Similarly, Louis Freeh represented Prevezon, which was involved in the Magnitsky scandal.
He also moved to Palm Beach, just a few miles from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Now you have Trump installing Kash Patel as head of the FBI. If Patel takes over, I don’t see how the Bureau’s intelligence operations can be trusted anymore. [interview was taken before confirmation of Patel – ed]
Price: Trump purged officials from US intelligence services who investigated his activities or criticized him. That’s not how democratic rulers behave.
Unger: No, it’s absolutely insane. In purging all those people, Trump is effectively doing the work of Vladimir Putin, and he’s making it much easier. He’s dismantling all our defenses, and it’s going to be very, very hard to restore.
“End of NATO as we know it”
Price: How do you see this playing out over the next three years? What are the implications for Ukraine, NATO, Europe, and the United States?
Unger: American democracy is being destroyed by Trump, and the question is how much resistance will emerge. Many people with integrity in the Justice Department are resigning masse rather than participate in what’s happening.
In New York, mayor Eric Adams is under indictment, and Trump is saying he’ll drop the indictment if Mayor Adams will round up all the immigrants and deliver them to him. That’s the quid pro quo. The American justice system is in jeopardy.
We need similar pushback in the intelligence community because the FBI, the CIA, and the DNI under Tulsi Gabbard’s leadership make the United States worthless in defending against Russian aggression. This affects Ukraine and the whole Western alliance. It effectively means the end of NATO if the United States is no longer a reliable partner.
Price: How would you respond to Trump supporters who dismiss these concerns as partisan politics – just Democrats criticizing Republicans, or progressives criticizing conservatives?
Unger: Just yesterday, one of the top United States Attorneys in New York, Danielle Sassoon, resigned rather than go along with Trump. She stood up to him, and if you look at her background, she is anything but a leftist or a Democrat. She had excellent credentials — Yale Law School, but also a member of the right wing Federalist Society. She’s somewhat like a new Liz Cheney. We’ve seen a handful of Republicans with real integrity stand up to Trump.
One problem is that the American media no longer functions as it once did—factual reality does not penetrate to the other side.
It’s very disturbing that these concerns are dismissed as left-wing propaganda. If people looked at the documented facts and read substantive reporting, they would see the extent to which Trump has benefited from Russian connections. We’re starting to become an oligarchy in the same way Russia has.
