Thats a real dick move , Jan . <| sep |> Thought this deserved a reexamination . Regardless of the merits of the recountaudit , this is still so messed up . Through Trump has had dealings with Russia going back yearshe met with Trumplike , conspiracymongering mogul Vladimir Zhirinovsky in 2002 and has pursued business deals in Moscow since the Soviet erahe did not appear to become a popular subject of Russian media until 2014 , which was around the time of his Fox interview where he supported Putin ' s Sochi disaster . Trump ' s comments , which occurred shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine , went essentially unnoticed by the US press . This makes sense in context Why would anyone care what the host of The Apprentice thought about Russian geopolitics ? But Trump ' s comments were covered extensively by Russian media , with outlets praising Trump for encouraging Russia to breathe freely and running headlines such as Donald Trump ' Stop picking on Russia . ' Some of these stories ran in Russia Today , the duallanguage website whose annual celebration dinner was attended by Trump ' s advisor , Michael Flynn , who is a professed fan of the network . For over a year , the flattering Russian coverage of Trump continued , a trend which baffled Russia experts . Obama fatigue alone can hardly explain the Kremlin ' s haste to heap praise on this eccentric candidate , who despite his unexpectedly high ratings at the early stage of the race , has little chance of becoming the Grand Old Party ' s actual nominee , according to nononsense US analysts , wrote Eugene Bai in Russia Direct in Aug . 2015 , sorely overestimating the acumen of nononsense US analysts .