Evraz, Russia's second-largest steel company, owns three American steel companies: one in Pueblo, Colo., one in Portland, Ore., and one in Chicago. Russian Roman Abramovich, who lives in Moscow, owns the controlling shares in these "American" steel companies.
If Evraz gets a contract to supply steel slats for a border wall, a lot of our hard-earned tax dollars will end up in the pockets of Russian oligarch Abramovich and his cronies, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Interestingly, Ivanka Trump is friends with Abramovich's wife.
President Donald Trump seems desperate to get funding for his border wall. He seems so desperate that he is willing to put us all through the carnage of a costly and painful shutdown. If Trump were serious about national security, he would know that we are woefully vulnerable to cyberattacks and would be clamoring for cybersecurity funding. He would stress the need for Coast Guard funding, more port security, more Border Patrol agents. So many more valid options, yet he clamors for a wall.
Construction projects can be avenues of money laundering, kickbacks, payola. Perhaps Trump is getting pressured by Putin, and perhaps his border security emergency is actually a Trump family business emergency.
Charlene Kaserman, Salt Lake City
