A senior Conservative MP has undertaken to clarify his remark that we should take into account the “chance” that the US president is a Russian asset.
Graham Stuart, a former Overseas Workplace minister, initially issued the comment in response to Donald Trump’s determination to pause all navy assist to Ukraine. The extraordinary transfer got here because the US administration regarded to extend strain on Volodymyr Zelenskyy to comply with an unconditional ceasefire with Russia.
Commenting on the developments, Stuart posted to X final week: “We have now to think about the chance that president Trump is a Russian asset.
“If that’s the case, Trump’s acquisition is the crowning achievement of [Vladimir] Putin’s FSB profession — and Europe is by itself.”
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Stuart was requested to clarify his place throughout an look on BBC One’s Politics Stay programme Monday. Pressed on why he issued the remark questioning the US president’s allegiances, he responded: “As a result of, nicely, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…”
The Conservative MP added: “What extra may [Putin] presumably ask of Trump than what Trump is doing?”
Stuart informed the BBC: “What we’ve acquired is a president who’s making completely no calls for of the aggressor, the dictator, the person who has subverted Russian society and seeks each day to subvert our society — as we’ve seen through the years, and but is making demand after demand and giving insults and abuse to the sufferer, the sovereign nation of Ukraine, with its heroic president.
“And subsequently it’s onerous to not have it as a chance. After all, there’s completely no onerous and quick proof, which is why I say it’s a chance. [But] you look again to [Russian oligarch] Dimitri Rybolovlev’s buy for $95 million of that palm seashore property in 2008 simply when Trump wanted it most.
“And also you [have] acquired to ask your self whether or not that, or his dealings within the 80s, or certainly his private deportment — which you’ll be able to solely think about at sure occasions, in or exterior Russia, may need left him susceptible to the compromising of a person who’s a KGB agent.
“That’s what Putin did for his entire skilled profession. He sought to subvert folks, flip them to his will, and if he was wanting to try this proper now, what extra may he presumably ask of Trump than what Trump is doing?”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, observe him on Bluesky right here.
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Senior Conservative MP says UK should take into account chance ‘Trump is a Russian asset’
