Is Kanye West Headed to Russia, Inviting Putin to His Church Service? For real?

Ye [formerly Kanye West] made headlines every day this week. Nothing new about that fact, but Billboard’s January 11, 2022 story that the entertainer intends to grow his business in Russia with billionaire developer Aras Agalarov and Agalarov's musician son, EMIN was picked up by Forbes and Business Insider giving it credibility.

AOC found the story totally plausible, given Ye’s relationship with the Trump family and Trump’s relationship with the Agalarovs. Kanye dined with Jared Kushner one-on-one in Miami Beach on January 7, with both parties denying that any business was discussed. The story broke four days later.

Trump and the Agalarovs

In 2013, the Russian oligarch and his son EMIN arranged the kind of spectacle in Moscow that Trump adores. Trump arrived as a surprise guest, with an armored Mercedes stretch limo driving off a freight elevator fight into a ballroom where 3000 Russian guests couldn’t believe their eye as Trump emerged to greet them.

Politico refreshed our memories about Trump and Agalarov in 2016. As Trump sought the nomination for the US presidency, the political website published When Donald Trump brought Miss Universe to Moscow. The article fills in much more background about the 2013 event.

It was West’s confidant and strategic advisor Ameer Sudan who told Billboard that they were working on the arrangements. Russia is going to be “a second home” for Ye, Sudan said: “He will be spending a lot of time out there.”

There’s no disagreement that Sudan is tied closely to West.

Another part of the West camp denies the Billboard Kanye and Putin story entirely, prompting Business Insider to publish the denial. But Rob Goldstone, the PR dude who helped set up the infamous Trump Tower meeting in 2016, says he can “confirm there are talks going on” to bring Ye to Russia. This meeting revolved around Trump Inc. expecting to get damaging and dirty documents on Hillary Clinton from Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Rolling Stone finally wrote a headline: Kanye West’s Associates Can’t Agree on Whether He’s Meeting Vladimir Putin. Forbes did not publish the denial.

Based on other stories with Forbes involving West, the prominent media source wants the denials from West himself. As loquacious as Kanye is — after all, he praises himself in public as much as Trump — surely Kanye can take 60 seconds to confirm to Forbes. After all, they have his billionaire’s list and all. Forbes knows a lot about West’s business connections. And they have writers and contacts worldwide. When Forbes runs the story, they do it with conviction, not just dialing for page clicks. And they are a paywall site looking for higher-income readers.

Trevian Kutti Revisited

This news about Kanye meeting Putin comes also on the heels of reports of West’s publicist Trevian Kutti. The Republican operative is caught on video threatening two Georgia election workers 61-year-old Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss with imminent harm if they didn’t admit to manipulating ballots that were Trump votes.

“Trevian Kutti was not associated with Kanye West or any of his enterprises at the times of the facts that are reported in these articles or since these facts occurred,” said Pierre Rougier, West’s spokesperson, in a statement to Reuters, the original source of the story.

Reuters did publish the Rougier denial, but Forbes took issue that they want to hear the denial from either Kutti or West.

'Source' Says Kanye Is Headed to LV Men's; Ye Worked with Donald Trump to Overturn GA Election; Kanye Tells Kim K to 'Run Right Back to Me, Baby' Pt.1 AOC Fashion

AOC did cover that story and notes that Forbes still hasn’t published the denial from the West camp that they were no longer affiliated with Kutti. Furthermore, Forbes also puts Trevian Kutti backstage at the West-Drake December 9 concert, writing:

Neither Kutti or West responded to requests for comment to Reuters, and Kutti’s online biography lists her as West’s “Director of Operations”—footage she posted on social media appears to show her behind the scenes at a Los Angeles benefit concert where the rapper performed on Thursday evening.

There is no doubt that serious media including the Washington Post and New York Times are investigating the truth to all these political stories about Kanye West that keep breaking nonstop.

Trevian Kutti Was Early Promoter of Kanye West Going to Vuitton Men’s Story

AOC documented from her Instagram that Trevian Kutti was promoting the story that Kanye West should replace Virgil Abloh at Louis Vuitton men.

It was this possibility breaking throughout media that prompted us to protest the possibility of West at Vuitton Mens. We then discovered all the other headlines about West on the same day.

For the sake of clarity and documentation, the LVM post is also shown in sequence from Kutti’s entire Instagram feed, which is an ode to Kanye and Kyle Rittenhouse.

Is it possible that Kutti was the source of the story about Kanye and Vuitton Men’s? Perhaps. But in the endless claims and barrage of words coming out of Kanye’s Drink Champs podcast, he again commented on the fact that Vuitton should have been his position, not Virgil Abloh’s.

So it could have been a joint effort to launch the story and also to thrown it out as a decoy against more damaging stores. Clearly, the Arnault family saw the West v. Abloh opportunity for LVMH differently.

Kanye also references himself as a young Putin in the two-part Drink Champs podcast. That’s a jaw-dropper. One minute Kanye is God in waiting and the next minute he’s a future authoritarian leader. AOC links into YouTube below for the Drink Champs podcast, but most probably the yellow shirt videos on Kutti’s feed are also from that same interview. They may not be the Putin quote, as over 2 hours of video have been released in two podcasts.

Why Putin and Kanye Together Makes Sense

The Billboard story about Ye coming to Moscow and hopefully meeting with Putin resonated for multiple reasons.

1) Ye fancies himself a member of the Trump inner circle and has an ego commensurate with those of both Trump and Putin.

Note that Kanye insisted that he no longer has the brotherly love for Trump that he once expressed, but he reversed this claim in the Drinks Champs interviews. The intersections of Trump connections in Kanye’s life are prolific and political, including his tight relationship with Jared Kushner.

It’s possible that Kanye’s ego and sense of genius status are so massive that he doesn’t know the ways he’s being used as a pawn to advance Republican politics. Reports that West spoke with Kushner daily during the White House days often advanced the theory that Kushner was manipulating West.

AOC doesn’t pretend to know the extent of West’s involvement with Trump and the Republican party. But Kanye has major headaches ahead.

Recently, it’s reported that Kanye is in some serious trouble over his presidential candidate election violations. And the extent to which his campaign was run by Trump people does beg the question of his genuine independence from Trump and West’s real motive for running for president in the first place.

Highest Level Right-Wing Conservatives Ran West’s Presidential Campaign

2) Substantial information has recently emerged at just how involved Trump’s right-wing conservatives were in running Kanye West’s presidential campaign. The West campaign took steps to disguise their involvement with “a secretive network of Republican Party operatives, including advisers to the GOP elite and a managing partner at one of the top conservative political firms in the country,” wrote Politico in late December 2021.

Kanye has problems that he didn’t report any of this information as required by federal law.

“The importance of disclosure in this matter can’t be overstated,” Paul S. Ryan, vice president of government watchdog Common Cause told The Daily Beast. “It’s no secret that Kanye West’s candidacy would have a spoiler effect, siphoning votes from Democrat Joe Biden. Voters had a right to know that a high-powered Republican lawyer [Holtzman Vogel, one of the most powerful and well-connected law firms serving major Republican political and nonprofit organizations today] was providing legal services to Kanye—and federal law requires disclosure of such legal work.”

AOC didn’t report this information when the story broke, not wanting to be perceived as having a particular grievance with Kanye West. I don’t pretend to be indifferent to the man and his recent actions confirm my worst fears about him. But the only person AOC has bird-dogged daily in almost 15 years is Donald Trump.

Now we’ve decided to follow Ye daily, because it’s a rare day when Kanye West isn’t making news. Kanye is like Trump, wanting his “genius” on display to the entire world with daily headlines. It doesn’t matter if the headline is good or bad. Ye eats up press the same way Trump does.

In November Kanye West Explained Why He Is ‘Young Putin’

West actually compared himself to Putin, calling himself “Young Putin” during an interview on the popular Drink Champs podcast discussed earlier in this article. West told hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN, “Culture is an oil. Culture is an energy, and I’m the king of culture for the past 20 and the next 2,000 years.”

What are more reasons why a Kanye West connection to Putin and Russia seem totally plausible?

3) You may struggle with this idea, but it’s not new and the assertion about evangelical Christians and Putin is rock-solid. Trump Republicans love Vladimir Putin because he is their religious savior. #Truth. Putin has positioned himself as a defender of traditional morals and invoked the Russian Orthodox Church in his speeches.

Putin is very anti-gay rights, but he has been reluctant to take on abortion rights, fearing a backlash. Ordinary people can’t own guns in Russia but Putin champions the NRA, holding conventions in Russia. Imagine that Americans are flying to NRA conventions in Russia.

A 2019 Senate report revealed that the NRA was a foreign asset to Russia ahead of the 2016 campaign.

Kanye West has no fear of trying to end abortion for women worldwide. He’s on it, telling the world that God spoke directly to him in the shower, telling him to shut down Planned Parenthood. Why is this relevant, you ask? Because Billboard wrote that Ye planned to hold Sunday Service performances in Russia.

Billboard wrote in breaking the Kanye in Russia story on Tuesday:

The Sunday Service shows will be Ye’s first performances in Russia in his 25-year career and, according to Sudan, the concerts and the meeting with Putin are something Ye’s been wanting to do since he debuted the Sunday Service project in 2019. The Sunday Service performances will likely be held at the Crocus City Hall theater, which holds more than 7,300 people, or Grand Sports Arena at the 81,000-person Luzhniki Olympic Complex, Russia’s national stadium where much of the 1980 Olympic Games were held. Ye plans to invite Putin to attend the gospel performance as a special guest.

There’s no doubt that this week will bring new Kanye West news of a political nature. His personal life is spiraling in very strange ways as well.

As I’ve written before — having been in police protection for a year over my support for Planned Parenthood and the white dude who was determined to kill me because of it — Kanye West is just another right-wing, patriarchal, authoritarian, ego-maniac in my opinion. Kanye unsettles me as much as Trump.

West lies recklessly, just like Trump and as pressure mounts on him, he is lying about routine matters that concern Kim Kardashian.

I was formerly a West supporter, but no more. Personally, I think Kim Kardashian is in for a very rough ride with this man. He has ALL the habits and mindset of a man who believes women are subordinate to men.

When Ye bought the house across the street from Kim Kardashian to be “close to his kids”, I found the news chilling. I’ve been there and know this screenplay. Just sayin’. ~ Anne

Correlation Exists Between Lynching and Confederate Statues by US County

A map [middle image’ highlights the correlation between lynchings and Confederate monuments in America. The darker, redder colors indicate higher numbers of lynching victims; with each dot representing a Confederate monument (courtesy of the University of Virginia)

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Large numbers of white southerners have long argued that Confederate monuments exist exclusively as symbols of southern pride and a proud history of rebellion against America’s federal government.

Led by United Daughters of the Confederacy, supporters of Confederate monuments refuse to acknowledge that there is any psychological damage to nonwhite people living their daily lives in the shadows of these relics to the days of slavery.

Former slave families should also celebrate the honor of the Old South, say white southerners while waving their Confederate flags in their faces. If people of color are bothered by these towering monuments of famed Confederate generals, they should praise God’s creation of an ideal society and way of life. Otherwise, people of color can hop the first boat back to Africa. Easy peasy.

A new study by researchers at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville challenges the noble premise of Confederate monuments.

Led by Kyshia Henderson of UVA’s Social Psychology Program, who worked with data scientist Samuel Powers and professors Sophie Trawalter, Michele Claibourn, and Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi at the university’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, the researchers documented a significant correlation between the numbers of Confederate monuments in an area and the number of documented lynchings from 1832 to 1950.

Published by the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers do not assert that the existence of Confederate monuments causes or provokes lynching. Their private beliefs — and those of the majority of researchers working in this area of study — do believe that Confederate statues are symbols of hate and also dominant power. But this study only concludes that there is a positive correlation between the two data sets: lynchings by county and Confederate statues by country.

“We can’t pinpoint exactly the cause and effect. But the association is clearly there,” Trawalter wrote. “At a minimum, the data suggests that localities with attitudes and intentions that led to lynchings also had attitudes and intentions associated with the construction of Confederate memorials.”

The researchers referenced another study associated with dedication speeches for Confederate memorials, finding that nearly half of the 30 dedication speeches reviewed involved “explicit racist language,” including phrases like “love of race” and “your own race and blood.”

TIME 100 Icons Meghan and Harry Call Global Citizens to Action in Central Park

Harry and Meghan head the list: TIME 100 Most Influential People

Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are headliners in this year’s TIME 100. Their own narrative was written by Spanish chef José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen, a non-profit devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters.

The trio combined their activist energies in December 2020, when José Andrés and his non-profit, World Central Kitchen, became the first major charitable contribution of Harry and Meghan’s Archwell charity.

Harry and Meghan | Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweaka | UN Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield

AOC wrote about Harry and Meghan’s activist work on COVID vaccinations worldwide in our introduction of TIME 100: Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organization. Prince Harry and Meghan asked the question: what will it take to vaccinate the world? “Unity, cooperation and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,” is their answer.

As Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2016 – 2020) and also AU COVID-19 Special Envoy and WHO COVID-19 Special Envoy, Okonjo-Iweala has existing skills and knowledge around global vaccine efforts.

Writing about the Trump administration’s blocking of Okonjo-Iweala’s rise to head of the WTO, we noted her close relationship with Linda Thomas-Greenfield, now US President Biden’s UN Ambassador. As we predicted, one of the very first initiatives in the new Biden Administration was to end the Trump blockade against Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Global Citizens Held Hands September 24th in Central Park

AOC’s dot-connecting came full circle on Saturday with the truly epic Global Citizen concert that ran for 24 hrs. moving around the globe. The New York City Central Park action went live post-Paris at about 5pm. An hour or two in to the concert, it was clear that someone was in the house. Cries of glee, clapping — some rock star had arrived.

Well, they are rock stars — Meghan and Harry — and it was our chance to claim them as our own. The crowd was in love with the couple — as is AOC. Are they perfect? No, for heavens sake. And who is? We are so happy to have these global activists making their home now in America. We need them here, as America tries to get our act together once again.

“My wife and I believe that where you’re born should not dictate your ability to survive,” Prince Harry said. “So Global Citizens, we ask you tonight: Do you think we should start treating access to the vaccine as a basic human right?

“When we start making decisions through that lens, where every single person deserves equal access to the vaccine, then we can achieve what is needed together for all of us,” he added. 

And then who did Harry and Meghan introduce next at the Global Citizen ? UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who they met for the first time earlier in their New York City visit.

Harry and Meghan: Glamping in Botswana to Hollywood Royalty

The Wall Street Journal wrote last week Prince Harry and Meghan Hustle to Become Royalty — in Hollywood. Like the Obamas, the couple has media deals with Netflix and Spotify and have already produced a six-segment mental health series for Apple TV.

29 Million US viewers watched Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2018 wedding, compared to 23 million US viewers for Prince William and Kate Middleton. Our own postings about Harry and Meghan’s wedding remain high in Google search results.

In fact, it wasn’t the wedding that was on my mind last week, when thinking about Harry and Meghan pre-Global Citizens Concert. I’ve always been interested in the trend towards glamping. My partner’s children thought it was hilarious that I once wore kitten heels on a camping trip and took about 100 pics of my feet.

It was then that I knew glamping, not camping, was in my future. Writing about an imaginary wedding proposal on a glamping trip — inspired by a real life wedding featured in British Vogue — triggered my memory of writing about Harry and Meghan’s third date — when they flew to Botswana in Africa.

As Harry put it: “We camped out with each other under the stars, sharing a tent and all that stuff. It was fantastic.”

In the AOC article Harry was promoting the National Geographic documentary ‘‘Into the Okavango’ . I couldn’t help thinking about Harry and Meghan and Harry’s profound attachment to Africa. Harry described his pre-Meghan relationship to Africa as one in which he loses himself in the bush. “This is where I feel more like myself than anywhere else in the world. I wish I could spend more time here….”

Writing about energy vortexes on AOC’s imaginary glamping trip to the American Southwest, I knew that Harry and Meghan would share the same enthusiasm, based on their third date at Botswana’s sustainable Meno a Kwena safari lodge.

Botswana’s sustainable Meno a Kwena safari lodge. Courtesy