"Natalia Veselnitskaya being at the center of this week's explosive revelations is the latest indication that Russiagate didn't begin last year – but almost a decade ago"

RS:

The interview was off the record, so I can't say much about it, except to say that my experience was weirdly similar to the account Trump Jr. offered about his meeting with Veselnitskaya.

...

Natalia didn't speak a word of English,' said one source. "Don't let anyone tell you this was a sophisticated lobbying effort. It was the least professional campaign I've ever seen. If she's the cream of the Moscow intelligence community then we have nothing to worry about.'"

Though Veselnitskaya seems like a small-timer – and Leonid Bershidsky's excellent background report on her for Bloomberg makes her seem like the equivalent of a third-rate lawyer for the Staten Island Borough president – one never knows with this story. After all, the Trumps themselves aren't exactly sophisticates, and they live in the White House.

...

The scam works as follows: a group of thugs with strong government and/or police ties targets a private company with assets. They then cook up an excuse to "raid" the company offices, at which point the thugs take the company's seals, certificates of ownership, registration files, etc. From there, the "raiders" simply sign over the company to new owners while the old ones are either pushed out, killed, or thrown in jail.