I'm John Matthew with Craig Unger, the author of American Compromat and House of Trump, House of Putin.

And we're following the money. Hollywood's advice is always well taken. And the money here is not

Trump's problem. He is franchising his name because it has great weight in Russia and we believe

we're out Asia. We're going to Baku because I've

traveled to Baku many times over these last years. I have good friends there. It's an oil

rich, very small country on the Caspian Sea. And as you drive into the capital from the airport,

tower after tower under construction in the years I was

traveling there between 2017 and my last trip was right after the war in 2020.

Tower after tower going up for new homes for the well-to-do because the oligarchy that was

a Soviet state turned into an oligarchy that's an oil-rich state, oil and gas,

and it has the terminus that begins the line of natural gas all the way to Europe. So it's a

vital part of European security. At one point, the money that we've talked about in Panama comes to Baku and Craig again it's a

new cast of characters but there are a lot of Russian names here how did it work well it's the same

really variations on the same formula that they were using in Panama and Toronto and Soho.

And again, Trump did not develop this. He did not put a dime into it. The original development did not work, actually.

As you said, when you were there, it was under the eages

of Ritz Carlton. But they picked it up after the Trump development completely failed.

So I think the important point here is that it didn't matter that it didn't work.

No one really lost money. You're dealing with mobsters.

They're laundering their money and they expect you don't get a hundred cents on the dollar when you

launder money. And Trump took a little slice of it every time without putting up a dime himself.

You have a picture, a photograph in your article at Substack.

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