Slaidiņš: No Proof of Russian Compromising Material on Trump, but Trump's 1987 Soviet Trip Worth Noting
Latvian army officer Jānis Slaidiņš said on TV24 that it is impossible to say with certainty whether Russia holds compromising material on US President Donald Trump. He pointed to Trump's 1987 visit to the Soviet Union.
Theories about possible Russian compromising material on US President Donald Trump surface in public discussion from time to time, but there is no evidence that would allow such claims to be confirmed. The issue was raised on the TV24 programme “Aktuālais par karadarbību Ukrainā” (“The Latest on the War in Ukraine”), a Latvian show about the war in Ukraine, by Jānis Slaidiņš, a major in Latvia's National Armed Forces (NBS) and an officer at the Home Guard (Zemessardze) headquarters.
Impossible to say for certain
Slaidiņš noted that it cannot be stated with confidence whether Russia has compromising information on Trump, or whether it could influence the US president's relations with the Kremlin, Russia's leadership.
The 1987 Soviet visit
The officer also recalled Trump's trip to the Soviet Union in 1987. After returning to the United States, Trump bought advertising space in the three largest American newspapers and published a message about US foreign policy and the country's relations with its allies. In it he criticised US spending on the defence of other countries.
Slaidiņš encouraged interested people to look into the press coverage of that time themselves. At the same time, he stressed that he does not have complete clarity about all the circumstances of this episode in history.
The matter, then, concerns not a proven fact but a historical event to which the officer invites attention, without drawing conclusions about compromising material.
