The Clinton campaign paid for and spread false Russia smears against President Donald Trump and his connection to Russia that helped divide a nation. What was ironic was that included in that was information that they got from a Russian national while they were smearing Trump over Russian connections. There are still thousands of deluded Democrats who believe in the Russia collusion myth. Joe Biden helped to feed that myth, claiming that Trump’s presidency was a “gift to Putin,” and that he would “stand up” to Putin. That hasn’t worked out so well.

Meanwhile, Democrats and the liberal media largely ignore any real questions related to Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s business associations including with Russians, Chinese, and Ukrainians connected to their respective governments. Joe Biden just lies his head off on the subject, and neither Democrats nor liberal media hold him accountable. For example, Joe lied during the campaign, claiming that his son didn’t make any money related to China–when indeed he made millions.

We’ve reported extensively on some of those associations, but there’s more.

When Joe was vice president, Hunter met with at least four oligarchs closely aligned with Vladimir Putin during a two-day meet and greet in Moscow. According to the NY Post, that even includes one oligarch who is now wanted for murder, Telman Ismailov.

The meeting with Telman Ismailov took place on Feb. 17, 2012 at the Moscow headquarters of AST Group, his vast holding company which once owned a publishing house, a tour company, and had a telecom division, according to the Moscow Times.

Ismailov was accused in 2017 by Russian authorities of paying $2 million for the murder of two entrepreneurs a year earlier, Agence France-Presse reported. Vladimir Savkin, a shopping mall magnate and Yury Brilev, founder of Lyublino Motors, were both bumped off on the Novorizhskoye highway in Moscow, allegedly over a business dispute with Ismailov, according to the Investigative Committee of Russia, the country’s primary federal investigations agency.

A lawyer for Ismailov did not respond to request for comment from The Post about either the alleged murders or the Hunter Biden meeting, but told Radio Free Europe that the charges were bogus and “a result of political and economic persecution by the Russian Federation.” In February he was granted asylum by Montenegro.

Now, why would anyone just throw cash at Hunter Biden to “invest” in his company, unless they thought they were getting something for it? What we’ve seen in the other cases is that “something” was sometimes meetings with VP Joe Biden and the perceived influence/power that they might get from that. So, what did the Russian oligarchs here think they were getting out of this deal?

“The only reason someone — other than a crack dealer or a hooker — would want to meet Hunter Biden is to get to his dad,” said Jim Hanson, president of the Security Studies Group. “They were selling access, it was their business model. The Biden family was involved in capitalizing on Joe’s political career.”

The Post details who the other oligarchs were and how close they were/are to Putin.

The other billionaire oligarchs penciled into Hunter Biden’s calendar — which The Post found on a hard drive Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware computer repair store in April 2019 — included Sergey Chemezov, the CEO of the Russian state owned conglomerate Rostec (formerly Rostekhnologii); Vladimir Yevtushenkov, President of the Russian Holding company Sistema; and Samuel S. Karapetyan, a Russian real estate baron. [….]

Chemezov has been close friends with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the 1980s, when they were both young KGB agents working in East Germany. He was sanctioned by the United States in 2014 after Russia’s invasion of Crimea and again in 2022 over their subsequent attempt to overrun the rest of the country. His super yacht was seized by Spain in March.

Karapetyan — who Forbes has dubbed a “king of Russian real estate” — is known to be close to Putin and the owner of a 285-foot super yacht called Ace, has not been sanctioned by the United States.

Yevtushenkov has been sanctioned by both England and Australia over the current war in Ukraine — though has also not faced punishment from the U.S. He is married to the sister of Russian billionaire Elena Baturina, the widow of ousted Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

Baturina wired $3.5 million for a “consultancy agreement” with an investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden in 2014, a report released by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in 2020 alleges. Hunter Biden has denied that he was a co-founder of the company.

Yevtushenkov followed up with a breakfast with Hunter in New York City at the Ritz-Carlton off Central Park on March 14, 2012. A rep for Yevtushenkov previously told The Post the meeting was “part of a routine business trip to the US to scout potential investment opportunities.”

That raises the question, far more than anything that Clinton and the Democrats tried to smear Trump with, of what the nature of some of these relationships was and if/how Biden may have been compromised by them. Republicans have said that they will be looking into all this much more deeply if they take back the House and the Senate. One more reason to get out and vote, if you didn’t have enough reasons already.