The key to understanding the Trump-Russia entanglements requires going back long before the 2016 presidential campaign, and looking at the parade of organized crime figures who passed through Trump Tower — or in some cases, did business with the Trump Organization, and even Trump himself.
Many of these shady figures stem from the countries of the former Soviet Union, have ties to the oligarchs and, through them, to the Kremlin itself. And there’s an FBI angle.
