Leaked Kremlin documents support claim Russia has ‘compromising material’ on Trump

The documents were acquired by The Guardian and have, of course, been denied by the Russian government

As reported by The Guardian, the UK newspaper has managed to get its hands on official Kremlin papers which seem to suggest that the Russian intelligence were tasked with manipulating US democracy to allow Donald Trump to come to power, among other incriminating and "compromising material" on the disgraced former president. According to writers Luke Harding, Julian Borger and Dan Sabbagh, these papers detail how Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex" in his 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council. Not only have these documents been examined by independent experts and assessed to be genuine, but Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of them for some time and are continuing to carefully examine them. As well as including incidental yet accurate details come across which chime with the "overall tone and thrust" of Russian "security thinking", the documents represent a serious and highly unusual leak from within the Kremlin. Examining the contents of these papers, the author appears to be Vladimir Symonenko, the senior official in charge of the Kremlin’s expert department, and the meeting in question is said to have taken place on January 22nd 2016, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present. During this meeting, officials are said to have agreed that a Trump White House would help secure Moscow’s own strategic objectives, among them being to capitalise on the “social turmoil” in the US, which would help weaken the American president’s negotiating position. Russia’s three spy agencies were said to have been ordered to find practical ways to support Trump's electoral campaign in a decree that appears have Putin’s signature written on it. At the time this was signed, Trump was already leading the Republican party’s nomination race. Furthermore, a report prepared by Putin’s expert department is believed to have urged Moscow to use “all possible force” to ensure a Trump victory, which included inserting "media viruses" to further exacerbate the already "deepening political gulf between left and right” - i.e. the Facebook's part in the election fraud debate. Lastly, the documents are said to imply that the Kremlin possesses "potentially compromising material" from Trump’s earlier “non-official visits to Russian Federation territory” and Moscow in particular.

The paper refers to “certain events” that happened during Trump’s trips to Moscow - security council members were invited to find details in appendix five, paragraph five, though it is unclear what the additional material contained.

The Kremlin has, unsurprisingly, denied the allegations raised in these documents. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said the idea that Russian leaders met and agreed to support Trump was “a great pulp fiction” when The Guardian reached out for a comment.