Russian Oligarch Money Flows Freely Into The Upper Reaches Of The GOP

 The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Senior Republican lawmakers have received millions in contributions from Russian oligarchs connected to Vladimir Putin. While  party loyalty is often seen as why Republicans choose not to overly  criticize the President, there is something else that is holding them  back as well: Many senior Republicans have unseemly relations with  Russian officials too.“Donald Trump and the political action  committees for Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey  Graham, John Kasich and John McCain accepted $7.35 million in  contributions from a Ukrainian-born oligarch who is the business partner  of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarchs and a  Russian government bank.During the 2015-2016 election  season, Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonid “Len” Blavatnik contributed  $6.35 million to leading Republican candidates and incumbent senators.  Mitch McConnell was the top recipient of Blavatnik’s donations,  collecting $2.5 million for his GOP Senate Leadership Fund under the  names of two of Blavatnik’s holding companies, Access Industries, and AI  Altep Holdings, according to Federal Election Commission documents and  OpenSecrets.org.”Given the role of money in U.S. politics,  it is unlikely that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) or the other  Republicans mentioned would necessarily want to bite the hand that feeds  them.