{"id":1551477,"date":"2022-07-13T05:04:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T09:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1551477"},"modified":"2022-07-13T05:04:31","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T09:04:31","slug":"wisconsin-dem-who-calls-republican-a-russian-apologist-traveled-to-russia-shortly-after-putins-controversial-2012-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wisconsin-dem-who-calls-republican-a-russian-apologist-traveled-to-russia-shortly-after-putins-controversial-2012-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Dem Who Calls Republican a Russian Apologist Traveled to Russia Shortly After Putin\u2019s Controversial 2012 Election"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwisconsin-dem-who-calls-republican-a-russian-apologist-traveled-to-russia-shortly-after-putins-controversial-2012-election%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1551477&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/\">Democrats<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Senate candidate Alex Lasry spent weeks blasting Sen. Ron Johnson for participating in a congressional delegation to Russia<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\"><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tAlex Lasry \/ YouTube\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/alana-goodman\/\" title=\"Posts by Alana Goodman\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Alana Goodman<\/a> \u2022 July 13, 2022 5:00 am<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate Alex Lasry\u2014who has spent the past few weeks slamming Sen. Ron Johnson (R.) for traveling four years ago on a congressional delegation to Moscow\u2014visited Russia himself shortly after President Vladimir Putin&#8217;s controversial election in 2012, according to a now-deleted post on Lasry&#8217;s Facebook page.<\/p>\n<p>Lasry, the son of a hedge fund billionaire, posted a photo of himself posing on a gold-carved, red velvet throne while dining at a luxury tourist restaurant inside an imperial palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, according to a copy of the June 17, 2012, post obtained by the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh I just can&#8217;t wait to be king,&#8221; wrote Lasry in the caption for the photo, in which he is holding a red crystal goblet.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1616265\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/lasry2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"612\" height=\"986\" srcset=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/lasry2.jpg 612w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/lasry2-186x300.jpg 186w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/lasry2-305x491.jpg 305w\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The picture could complicate Lasry&#8217;s attempts to contrast himself with Johnson, whom Lasry has blasted as a &#8220;Putin apologist&#8221; who &#8220;would rather spend the Fourth of July in Moscow than Wisconsin.&#8221; It could also play into criticism from Lasry&#8217;s Democratic primary opponents, who argue that his massive family wealth has left him out of touch with voters.<\/p>\n<p>The restaurant, Russian Ampir, is a popular site with tourists, according to TripAdvisor, which\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tripadvisor.com\/Restaurant_Review-g298507-d3764629-Reviews-Russian_Empire-St_Petersburg_Northwestern_District.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">says<\/a>\u00a0the hotspot gives diners an &#8220;acquaintance with the cuisine of Russian aristocracy in the days of the imperial St. Petersburg.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even the most exacting audience will be fascinated by the view of tables served with 24-karat gold flatware, exclusive porcelain of 18th century, crystal wares encrusted with gold,&#8221; said the travel guide.<\/p>\n<p>Lasry, who is polling in a dead heat against fellow Democrat and Wisconsin lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes in the party&#8217;s Senate primary, has been running ads criticizing Johnson over the Russia trip, saying Wisconsinites can&#8217;t count on the senator to &#8220;represent our values of freedom and democracy.&#8221; Johnson in July 2018 traveled to Moscow on an eight-member Republican congressional delegation led by then-Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Richard Shelby (R., Ala.). The Kremlin later barred Johnson and several other senators from visiting on a bipartisan delegation trip in 2019, reportedly in retaliation for their support of U.S. sanctions against Russia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll always represent you, as a Wisconsinite and as an American,&#8221;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexLasryWI\/status\/1542926913953480710\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>\u00a0Lasry in the ad.<\/p>\n<p>Lasry&#8217;s campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the nature of the trip. At the time, Lasry had just finished a three-year stint as an aide in the Obama administration. He went on to attend graduate school at the New York University Stern School of Business.<\/p>\n<p>Lasry&#8217;s trip took place amid global outcry and massive\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2012\/06\/12\/world\/europe\/russia-protest\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">protests<\/a>\u00a0against Putin&#8217;s 2012 election, which many pro-democracy activists said was fraudulent, and as U.S.-Russian relations were\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2012\/06\/18\/tv\/rocky-relationship-for-obama-and-putin\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">growing<\/a>\u00a0increasingly rocky.<\/p>\n<p>One year after Lasry&#8217;s Russia trip, Lasry&#8217;s father, hedge fund billionaire and Democratic donor Marc Lasry, was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/politics\/billionaire-tied-to-russian-mob-to-hold-fundraiser-for-hillary-clinton\/\">dropped<\/a>\u00a0from consideration as the Obama administration&#8217;s ambassador to France due to alleged involvement with an illegal high-stakes poker ring and reported ties to a Russian mobster. The poker game later became the focus of the film <em>Molly&#8217;s Game<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The younger Lasry went on to work as an executive for the Milwaukee Bucks, which is co-owned by his father.<\/p>\n<p>One of Lasry&#8217;s far-left Democratic primary opponents, Tom Nelson, during a party forum last week\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jsonline.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2022\/07\/07\/tom-nelson-jabs-alex-lasry-wealth-wisconsin-democratic-u-s-senate-forum\/7828834001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">slammed<\/a>\u00a0him as an &#8220;out-of-state billionaire,&#8221; citing the candidate&#8217;s wealth and East Coast upbringing. The Democratic primary is scheduled for Aug. 9.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats Senate candidate Alex Lasry spent weeks blasting Sen. Ron Johnson for participating in a congressional delegation to Russia  Alex Lasry \/ YouTube  Alana Goodman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1551477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1551477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1551477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1551477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1551477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}