cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25921559

Link above goes to the Daily Kos post that discovered the scrubbing. Here’s the text of the original article:

Former Intelligence Officer Claims KGB Recruited Trump

Isabel Van Brugen – The Daily Beast – 21 February 2025

A former Soviet intelligence officer has alleged that Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 and given the codename “Krasnov.”

Alnur Mussayev, 71, a former Kazakh intelligence chief, made the explosive claim in a Facebook post on Thursday. He claimed that he served in the 6th Directorate of the KGB in Moscow, which was responsible for counter-intelligence support within the economy. One of its key objectives, he claimed, was “recruiting businessmen from capitalist countries.”

Mussayev wrote that in 1987 “our directorate recruited Donald Trump, a 40-year-old American businessman, under the pseudonym Krasnov.”

He reiterated that the department specialized in recruiting spies and intelligence sources from the West, asserting once again that Trump had been brought into the fold.

“I hope I’ll survive a third assassination attempt,” he said in a comment below his post.

He made another shocking allegation in another comment, saying: “Today, the personal file of resident ‘Krasnov’ has been removed from the FSB. It is being privately managed by one of Putin’s close associates.”

Mussayev’s allegations, while unfounded, add to ongoing speculation about Trump’s connections to Russia. Trump’s first visit to Moscow as a real estate developer in 1987 drew intense scrutiny and speculation that the trip was arranged by the KGB for dubious reasons.

According to Politico, in 1985, the KGB updated a secret personality questionnaire distributed among the agency, advising case officers what to look for in a successful recruitment operation.

The document instructed agents to target “prominent figures in the West” with the goal of drawing them “into some form of collaboration with us… as an agent, or confidential or special or unofficial contact.”

Trump has denied any improper ties to Moscow or collusion with President Vladimir Putin.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Russia’s Foreign Ministry for comment.

U.S. officials have also expressed concerns about Trump’s relationship with Putin.

Anthony Scaramucci who briefly served as Trump’s White House communications director in 2017, said during an episode of “The Rest Is Politics: US” podcast with co-host Katty Kay on Friday that he thinks there is a mysterious “hold” on the president.

Scaramucci did not elaborate on what he believes that “hold” might be, adding only: “I don’t know why it’s like this. [H.R.] McMaster couldn’t figure it out, [James] Mattis couldn’t figure it out, [John] Kelly couldn’t figure it out.”

  • Chaotic Entropy
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    22 months ago

    True or not, you couldn’t really find a more complimentary president/business leader for Putin’s Russia than Trump. He will bend over backwards to protect and extend that relationship no matter what.

  • @[email protected]
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    12 months ago

    Before I signed in, this showed up. It disappeared after I signed in. It’s being scrubbed here too.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️
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      12 months ago

      Nah. If it’s here it’s here. You’re literally looking at it right here right now, so obviously this thread has not been deleted or blocked in any way.

      If you’re signed in your visible feed is influenced by your community subscriptions and default sorting preferences. Lemmy does not hide content based on any “algorithm” other than communities you have outright blocked under your account. Signing in might have prompted your client/UI to sort this off of your front page, but it’s not being nefariously hidden from you.

      • @[email protected]
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        02 months ago

        Sorry man, that’s not true. There’s a reason I’m not on lemmy world anymore. It was probably a rogue admin, but still it’s a thing.

        • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️
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          12 months ago

          I am literally on lemmy.world right now, it is my only instance, and I’m commenting on this thread because it appeared on my front page. I don’t know what to tell you other than you don’t seem to understand how this works.

            • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️
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              12 months ago

              .world has been doing server maintenace today. There was a sticky about it and everything. So there are probably federation delays and timeouts to contend with but your inmediate go-to is to start spouting nonsense about “rogue admins.”

              Yeah, okay. Sure.

              • @[email protected]
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                2 months ago

                Wow, you’ve spent a lot of time reddit. I had my comments removed a couple of times that didn’t show up in the log, but was by a certain admin. He said so. Wtf do you care anyway?

                • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️
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                  12 months ago

                  I know this might be a difficult concept for you to grasp, but when you post something… in the comments… in public, it prompts people to respond to your comment. Especially if what you said was nonsense.

    • snooggums
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      42 months ago

      Some of knew he was compromised back when he ran in 2016, or did you mean the fear of the US falling for it twice?

      • @[email protected]
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        2 months ago

        We were fucked the moment the votes came in. I still hold a grudge against Devin Nunes for setting the entire tone of how the next 8 years would go by halting all election interference investigations in the house.

        Devin Nunes is an absolute creatin but he is far from America’s biggest issue.

        • snooggums
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          12 months ago

          All of the people who refused to follow through on investigations are complicit.specially the ones that used an upcoming election as a reson not to do anything. Maybe if you fuxking followed throigh we wouldn’t be running nazi.org v2

  • @[email protected]
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    02 months ago

    If you think the people running Trump and the GOP - and I mean the documented ones - like the Mercer’s, Thiel, Adelson, Tim Mellon, etc, would cede control of their man to Russia, please say why.

    • @[email protected]
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      12 months ago

      Do you honestly think any of them have competing interests? The greedy ones stand to make money either way, and the ideologically driven ones are salivating at the idea of destroying the country if it means they could possibly steer a new government.

    • @[email protected]
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      12 months ago

      They got there too late to be a primary influence, but Trump won’t ever say no to a hand out.

  • @[email protected]
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    12 months ago

    I think Trump has a thing for Slavic women and that combines with the Putin strong man vibe, and Trump clearly has daddy issues. He’s the definition of a useful idiot.

    • @[email protected]
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      52 months ago

      I don’t particularly remember this story, but I also remember in 2016 some pretty damn clear links to Russia were made.

      But, it was also all described perfectly in the Russian playbook to defeat the US, so congrats Soviets, you did it

      At what cost?

      • @[email protected]
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        32 months ago

        Before being invited to an interview on RT, even Alex Jones said Trump was “too mobbed up with the russians”… Of course it would take a moron like trump to make AJ right about anything…

  • @[email protected]
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    12 months ago

    Are VPNs still good at getting around government restrictions of blocking sites? Only a matter of time now…

    • @[email protected]
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      12 months ago

      The technology of VPN works great for circumventing censorship. VPN can be blocked, but it’s a game of whack a mole between the state and private actors. The main vulnerability in hosted VPN is that the provider has the ability to sell you out if law enforcement comes knocking. Picking a trusted provider is key. Alternatively, there’s TOR but that isn’t perfect either, as anyone may participate in the network.

    • @[email protected]
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      12 months ago

      As someone who’s been to China a handful of times in recent years. No. None of the VPNs I’ve tried work any longer. Couldn’t tell you the technical reasons why, just that they just no longer work.

      If the US decides to implement a great firewall, people who aren’t very software savvy are basically screwed.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 months ago

      Rather than buy nothing for 24 hours, why not buy from independent or second hand shops forever? You buying nothing on Friday and twice as much on Saturday to compensate isn’t gonna achieve shit.

      • @[email protected]
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        02 months ago

        What if I buy stuff but then tip all the service workers exorbitantly? Or is that bad because they’ll go on to buy things…

        • @[email protected]
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          02 months ago

          I don’t think you’ve understood what I’ve said … Let’s say I buy and eat an apple every day, but I’m not having one on Friday cause of this protest, so on Saturday I buy and eat two apples to compesate. Who loses?

      • @[email protected]
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        22 months ago

        You’re still paying tax.

        I don’t know about you but most of the independent shops near me are heavy right-wing supporters.

        One day moratorium on spending is a cease and desist, just a warning

        • @[email protected]
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          12 months ago

          Appreciated, but the moneys not going to big corps. Plus if you don’t pay tax your infrastructure doesn’t get maintained…

  • DukeHawthorne
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    02 months ago

    Always had my doubts about The Daily Beast, given Chelsea Clinton is on the board of the company that owns them, and they continue to employ Matt “I Hate Trump But Still Happily Call Myself a Republican” Lewis. Their recent “questionable salute” headline about Bannon the other day was a huge red flag. This is just the icing on the cake.

  • Cosmic Cleric
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    2 months ago

    The next step to ask would be, say for arguments sake this is true, then what comes next?

    Would Congress actually act on this and impeach him?

    If not, does the CIA and Joint Chiefs have a conversation and then act, to eliminate a domestic enemy?

    Dark times to be had, either way. Sucky timeline to live in.

    Edit: Addendum. Since one of the links articles is four years old, why hasn’t something been done by Congress by now?

    • @[email protected]
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      2 months ago

      Nothing will happen. Things will get worse. Things are probably going to get pretty bad. Start thinking about somewhere you might be able to escape to if you’re able and what the threshold is that would need to be crossed for you to make that decision.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 months ago

      Members of congress went to Russia on Independence day. They all probably have their own code names as well.