As Donald Trump prepares to dismantle American national security – already badly compromised by his first White House stint – his allies in the Kremlin haven’t hesitated to remind the incoming president of his “obligations” to them.

Certainly Vladimir Putin is thrilled by the notion of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a 37 year-old Fox News commentator with a checkered background, or Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose scant qualifications include little more than her skill in shooting a puppy. These are ultra-partisan hacks who will do whatever Trump orders.

But who will be telling Trump what to do?

On Russian TV’s most watched network, the hosts of a popular show immediately “congratulated” Trump on his victory by broadcasting images of his wife Melania in the nude that appeared in GQ magazine decades ago. Propaganda presenter Yevgeny Popov smirked as introduced the explicit photos, noting that in one shot, the future Mrs. Trump was “only wearing her underwear, lying on a blue carpet with the United States seal, as though the editors of the men’s magazine knew something in advance about the future of their model.” His co-host Olga Skabeeva ostentatiously suppressed a cackle.

Evidently Vladimir Putin didn’t think that message of domination was sufficiently clear, because on November 11 his top aide Nikolai Patrushev made the following remark to a Moscow newspaper:

“To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations,” Patrushev told the business daily Kommersant in response to a question about whether the outcome of the presidential election would bode well for Russia. “As a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them” -- rather than any fleeting campaign promises or an oath to defend the United States against hostile foreign powers.

The Kremlin news agency Tass then made certain to distribute Patrushev’s statement globally.

But to make certain that Trump got the point, Patrushev went out of his way to raise an even more sensitive subject. “We know of two cases of attempts on his life during the election campaign,” said the Putin aide. “In general, throughout the history of the United States, attempts have been made on the lives of presidents and candidates regularly—more than 20 times. Four U.S. presidents have died at the hands of assassins while in office. Therefore, it is extremely important for U.S. intelligence agencies to prevent a repetition of such cases.”

By the way, acording to the Wall Street Journal, it was Patrushev – like Putin, a former Russian intelligence officer – who oversaw the aircraft explosion that killed rebellious Kremlin warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin in the summer of 2023.

Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization formerly known as The Investigative Fund. His latest book is The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism.