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Why did Russia free an imprisoned US ex-marine after four years · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Apparently all it took was a call from Donald Trump
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  Speaker 1: to Vladimir Putin to get American former serviceman Robert Gilman
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  Speaker 1: released from Russian prison. Trump says he just asked Putin
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  Speaker 1: to let him go, and Putin said okay. Didn't ask
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  Speaker 1: for anything in return, at least according to Trump. The
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  Speaker 1: White House released pictures of Robert Gilman. He's on the
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  Speaker 1: left here with his mother, who campaigned for his release,
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  Speaker 1: and others on the plane back to the US, looking
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  Speaker 1: very unwell. US officials say he's in very poor health.
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  Speaker 1: Advocates and family members say his health has deteriorated from abuse, torture,
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  Speaker 1: and being drugged. Gilman was working as a teacher in
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  Speaker 1: Russia when he was arrested four years ago, accused of
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  Speaker 1: assaulting a police officer on social media. Donald Trump said
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  Speaker 1: Putin agreed to release Gilman on a quote humanitarian basis,
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  Speaker 1: that no exchange took place and that Russia didn't ask
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  Speaker 1: for anything in return. Now, in theory, these two countries
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  Speaker 1: are long standing. The US is the biggest supporter of
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  Speaker 1: Ukraine and NATO. So what does this Russian pardon tell
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  Speaker 1: us about the two leader's relations I'll be talking about
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  Speaker 1: this with investigative journalist Craig Unger. He spent years researching
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  Speaker 1: Trump's relations with Russia. His New York Times bestseller American
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  Speaker 1: Kompromot How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump and related tales
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  Speaker 1: of sex, greed, power and treachery, makes the explosive argument
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  Speaker 1: that Trump is actually a Russian asset. Craig, good to.
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  Speaker 2: See you, Thanks for having me. Good to see you. Now.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to be talking more later about why you
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  Speaker 1: say Trump is a Russian asset. But I want to
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  Speaker 1: start with the Gilman release. Is this just a good
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  Speaker 1: will gesture as the two presidents are framing it, or
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  Speaker 1: do you see a Russian strategy behind it?
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  Speaker 2: I think it's more than just goodwill. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: here in New York we have something called the favor
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  Speaker 2: bank that's in the world of politics, in the world
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  Speaker 2: of journalism, and the legal world. And by that we mean, look,
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to do you a really, really big pay
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  Speaker 2: favor and I'm asking nothing in return for now. But
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  Speaker 2: in the long run, you owe me, and you owe
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  Speaker 2: me big time. And that's what seems to be going on.
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  Speaker 2: As far as I can tell. There's you know, as
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  Speaker 2: you say Gilman was extremely poor health, and that may
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  Speaker 2: well have been what precipitated his release. But the framing
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  Speaker 2: of this is much more important when you look at,
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  Speaker 2: as I've written about, everything the Russians have done for
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  Speaker 2: Trump again and again and again, and now this can
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  Speaker 2: be sold as a win for Trump. He looks good.
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  Speaker 2: He's gotten a favor out of Putin and to the
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  Speaker 2: time when he desperately needs it. I mean, the last
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  Speaker 2: few months have been humiliating for Trump. In the Iran war,
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  Speaker 2: the United States, the most powerful military name on Earth,
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  Speaker 2: is being humiliated by Iran. We have the Epstein case.
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  Speaker 2: We have I don't I don't know if in Germany
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  Speaker 2: or following the reflection pool reflecting pool mess. We have
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  Speaker 2: the midterm elections coming up. Trump is going down, down,
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  Speaker 2: down in the polls. And when you look at what's
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  Speaker 2: really going on between Russia and the United States, you
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  Speaker 2: also have to look at the Ukraine War, and there
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  Speaker 2: Trump has been making noises about how wonderful Zelenski's been
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  Speaker 2: with his UH those long range zone attacks, and he
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  Speaker 2: said he he's promised at various times UH to give
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  Speaker 2: him to give Ukraine patriot missiles. Now I don't believe
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  Speaker 2: he's going to actually do that, but it's it's a
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  Speaker 2: huge source of tension between the United States and Russia,
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  Speaker 2: and Russia does not want that to happen.
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  Speaker 1: Now, if we look at the messages coming out of
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  Speaker 1: Washington about this release, it seems to me there's a
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  Speaker 1: dissonance here. On the one hand, there's the message from Washington,
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  Speaker 1: Russia probably mistreated an American Robert Gilman to the point
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  Speaker 1: that his life is at risk here. But then there's
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  Speaker 1: this messaging that Putin is the humanitarian who is releasing him.
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  Speaker 1: How do you see these two messages.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's most likely that Putin takes people
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  Speaker 2: like Gilman, as you know, like a poker chip that
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  Speaker 2: he can dispense with when he needs to, and that's
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  Speaker 2: what's going on now. They can be traded for other
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  Speaker 2: prisoners or for other favors, and I think we're not
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  Speaker 2: seeing the payback right now, but we will in the future.
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  Speaker 2: And as it is, Trump has gotten an awful lot
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  Speaker 2: out of the Kremlin, and I think he's going to
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  Speaker 2: continue to get that.
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  Speaker 1: Now, let's come to what you write about in your books,
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  Speaker 1: Because a lot of people have speculated about why Trump
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  Speaker 1: often appears to praise Putin and Russia. US intelligence agencies
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  Speaker 1: have also concluded that Russia worked to influence the twenty
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  Speaker 1: sixteen US election in Trump's favor. But your books argue
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  Speaker 1: that there's a much deeper and more long standing relationship
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  Speaker 1: between between Trump and the Soviet Union later Russia. Can
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  Speaker 1: you sum up the timeline that you lay out in
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  Speaker 1: your books.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, I go back to nineteen eighty four in terms
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  Speaker 2: of money laundering and Trump's relationship with Russian mafia. And
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  Speaker 2: that's when a man named David Boganin went to Trump
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  Speaker 2: Tower and he plunked down six million dollars in cash
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  Speaker 2: to buy five condos, and Boganin was tied to the
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  Speaker 2: Russian mafia. It was the beginning of a relationship that
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  Speaker 2: continued for decades, and over that period of time, the
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  Speaker 2: Russian mafia laundered more than one billion dollars through Trump
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  Speaker 2: real estate. You know, Trump is often characterized as a
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  Speaker 2: brilliant businessman. He's not. He had six bankruptcies he filed
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  Speaker 2: for he went to court again and again and again,
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  Speaker 2: and one of the ways he got out of trouble
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  Speaker 2: was by Russians laundering. The Russian mafia laundering money through them.
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  Speaker 2: In addition, you know, I've talked to former members of
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  Speaker 2: the KGB. There was General Oleg Kalugan and Major Jurish
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  Speaker 2: Fitch who both told me about Trump's ties to the KGB.
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  Speaker 2: It was in nineteen eighty seven that Trump made his
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  Speaker 2: first trip to Moscow and it was all arranged by Intours,
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  Speaker 2: which is really a front, a long time front for
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  Speaker 2: the kg BE. And when Trump came back, he admitted
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  Speaker 2: immediately again assailing NATO as he's done for forty years,
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  Speaker 2: and destroying MATO is something that Putin would love to
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  Speaker 2: see happen.
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  Speaker 1: Now, you do make the distinction between an agent and
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  Speaker 1: an asset. You say Trump is not a Russian agent,
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  Speaker 1: but he is an asset in the sense that he
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  Speaker 1: is favorable to Russia's wishes and positions. Do you think
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  Speaker 1: that they have some compromising information on him or is
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  Speaker 1: it just this this i'll scratch your back, you scratch mine.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's more than just iratch we'll scratch
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  Speaker 2: each other's backs. I think it's quite likely that they
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  Speaker 2: have a compromise on him. But again it's very very
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  Speaker 2: difficult to pin down. And you know, I've talked to
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  Speaker 2: a number of people in the Russian mafia and so
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  Speaker 2: forth who told me they've seen tapes and so forth,
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  Speaker 2: But I've never been able to get someone to go
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  Speaker 2: on the record and to dig up those tapes. So
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  Speaker 2: for now, I think it's best to keep it push
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  Speaker 2: that aside. And it's indisputable as far as I can tell,
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  Speaker 2: that they've done favors for him that had brought him
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  Speaker 2: more than a billion dollars. And if you looked into
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  Speaker 2: to Trump Tower itself, I found at least thirteen members
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  Speaker 2: of the Russian mafia or oligarchs who own condos or
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  Speaker 2: were living in Trump Tower. When you understand also that
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  Speaker 2: the Russian mafia is taught it really works hand in
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  Speaker 2: hand with Russian intelligence, this becomes just an extraordinary breach
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  Speaker 2: of national security for the president of the United States
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  Speaker 2: to have Russian mobsters living in what was the crown
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  Speaker 2: jewel of his real estate empire.
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  Speaker 1: If your case is true, or your argument that you make,
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  Speaker 1: and Trump really is a Russian asset, as you say,
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  Speaker 1: why is the US still supporting Ukraine. Why hasn't Trump
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  Speaker 1: pushed harder for an end to the war on Russia's terms?
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  Speaker 1: It just seems to me that if he were really
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  Speaker 1: a Russian asset, that he might be pushing harder for
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  Speaker 1: their positions.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think he's you know, if he were not
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  Speaker 2: a Russian asset, I think he would be pressuring Putin
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  Speaker 2: to end the war, and he really hasn't done that.
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  Speaker 2: In the lease, you know, he has reneged on America's promises.
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  Speaker 2: I believe there was four hundred million dollars in aid
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  Speaker 2: he withheld. He had promised to bring them Patriot missiles
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  Speaker 2: to Ukraine, but he's reneed on that promise as well,
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  Speaker 2: and I'd be surprised if he ever delivers on them.
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  Speaker 2: And he's pushed off promised a military authorization of funds
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  Speaker 2: that were authorized by the previous administration, and he's postponed
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  Speaker 2: them until after the end of his term in twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty nine.
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  Speaker 1: Now, at the beginning of our conversation, you said that
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  Speaker 1: Putin is doing Trump a favor here by releasing Gilman,
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  Speaker 1: with the idea that he may call up a favor
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  Speaker 1: later from Trump. What kind of favor do you think
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  Speaker 1: that Putin might call up later from Trump.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's hard for me to speculate, but
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  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously the most important thing going on now
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  Speaker 2: is Ukraine War. And you know, it's quite extraordinary because
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  Speaker 2: you see NATO. Trump is on the brink of destroying NATO.
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  Speaker 2: That would be a home run, a Grand Slam home
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  Speaker 2: run for Putin if he were able to get a
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  Speaker 2: t to do that formally. And we're teetering on the
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  Speaker 2: edge of that right now. And that's really what concerns me.
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  Speaker 2: Is it possible that Trump will formally destroy the artizs
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  Speaker 2: Sinado And he has all but done that so far,
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  Speaker 2: and to me, that's the biggest concern.
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  Speaker 1: Craig Gunger, thanks so much for talking to me.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think the release of Robert Gilman tells
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  Speaker 1: us about US Russian relations? Let us know in the comments,
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  Speaker 1: and don't forget to like this video and subscribe if
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  Speaker 1: you want to see more from DW News. I'm David Levitz.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for watching.