Russia at the core of 'puppet' Donald Trump's campaign, alleges Hillary Clinton

Washington: Russia is at the “core” of Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican nominee himself could be a “puppet” for the Kremlin, the rival Clinton Campaign alleged on Monday. “The hand of the Kremlin has been at work in this campaign for some time. It’s clear that they are supporting Donald Trump,” the Clinton Campaign Manager, Robby Mook told ABC News during a Sunday talk show. [caption id=“attachment_2861928” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Hillary Clinton. File photo. Reuters[/caption] “But we now need Donald Trump to explain to us the extent to which the hand of the Kremlin is at the core of his own campaign. There’s a web of financial interests that have not been disclosed. And there are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race?” he alleged. “You’re saying he’s a puppet for the Kremlin?” Mook was asked. “Well, real questions are being raised about that. There’s a web of financial ties to the Russians that he refuses to disclose. We’ve seen over the last few week, him parroted Vladimir Putin in his own remarks. We saw the Republican Party platform changed,” he alleged. “She saw Donald Trump talk about leaving Nato and leaving our Eastern European allies vulnerable to a Russian attack. The gentleman he brought with him to his security briefing just last week is someone who’s on the payroll of the Russia Times, which is a basically a propaganda arm of the Kremlin. He was sitting two seats away from Vladimir Putin at heir 10th Anniversary gala,” he said. “There are a lot of questions here. We need Donald Trump to disclose all of his financial ties and whether his advisers are having meetings with the Kremlin,” Mook alleged. Responding to a question on Clinton Foundation’s decision not to take foreign money as donation if Hillary Clinton is elected as the president she said it is unprecedented. “The steps that are being taken if she should become president are unprecedented. We’re happy that that planning is taking place. But I think when we talk about transparency, when we talk about disclosure, Donald Trump needs to release his taxes. He needs to explain his financial ties,” he said. “Just yesterday, we read in The New York Times, that his businesses owe millions of dollars to the Bank of China. Donald Trump talks all the time about a trade war with China. How can he really do that when millions of dollars of his own bottom line could be affected directly by the Chinese government?” he asked. Mook, according to the Clinton Foundation, is saying that they don’t want to become a distraction, that they want to go as far as they possibly can to make sure there’s no possible conflict of interests. “But again I just want to be fair here, Donald Trump is refusing to disclose deep financial ties that potentially reach into the Kremlin, which could influence his foreign policy decisions, but also where countries like China have leverage over him and could potentially distort his decision making there,” he said. “None of this is being disclosed. You and I are having this conversation because the foundation has chosen on the take unprecedented steps to disclose their donors from the last few years,” Mook said.