President Trump's incoming national security adviser, John Bolton, once appeared in a strange promotional video for a Kremlin-linked gun rights group, NPR reports. The Right to Bear Arms, a Russian organization, brought on Bolton in 2013 to promote the creation of a Second Amendment-like addendum to the nation's constitution. "The Bolton video appears to be another plank in a bridge built by Russia to conservative political organizations inside the United States," writes NPR.
At the time of the video's recording, Bolton was serving on the NRA's international affairs subcommittee. Traditionally, Bolton — the former ambassador to the U.N. under President George W. Bush — has been no friend of Russia's. One person familiar with the video said former NRA president David Keene had personally asked Bolton to make the video.
The situation gets murkier when you look at the Russian group behind the footage. The Right to Bear Arms' founder, politician Alexander Torshin, is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and has come under scrutiny recently by the FBI, which wants to know if Torshin illegally pushed money through the NRA to help elect Trump.
Russian citizens do not have a formal right to own a gun, as Americans do. "Were the Russian national government to grant a broader right to bear arms to its people, it would be creating a partnership with its citizens that would better allow for the protection of mothers, children, and families without in any way compromising the integrity of the Russian state," Bolton argues in the video. "That is my wish and my advice to your great people." Read more about the creation of the video and Bolton's involvement at NPR.