Shining light on the truth

themoscowproject.org

The Moscow Project

An interactive resource to shine light on Trump's collusion with Russia.

Collusion in Plain Sight

The Moscow Project is an initiative of the Center for American Progress Action Fund dedicated to analyzing the facts behind Trump’s collusion with Russia and communicating the findings to the public. The Moscow Project’s team employs a multi-disciplinary approach towards its work, leveraging a unique combination of experience and expertise gained on Capitol Hill, at the State Department, and in private industry to examine this complex and sprawling series of events stretching back decades.

In pursuit of the truth

Piecing the facts together

Shortly after the FBI, the CIA, and the National Security Agency released a report in 2017 that said Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 election, the Center for American Progress decided to launch the Moscow Project with the goal of investigating this collusion and making sure the hard facts were getting out to the public.

CAP’s Moscow Project, made up of investigative staff with forensic accounting and policy experience, began researching, collecting, and organizing troubling facts about Donald Trump’s business dealings and Vladimir Putin’s assault on Western democracy. A few months after the initial launch, the team at Wide Eye was brought in for an hour-long presentation of the Moscow Project’s research and findings. We knew immediately we had to help tell this story.

“There was a real fear that political forces were just going to conspire to put this thing away.”

Adam Jentleson / The Center for American Progress

Just the facts

The most comprehensive resource about Trump and Russia

We started the project with one goal in mind: making the site the go-to source for the latest and most comprehensive information about Trump and Russia. We sought to make the website accessible whether you’re looking for explainers on terms you might be hearing in the news, a journalist looking for a specific cited activity from a specific date, a person looking for background on any of the people involved, or if you’re just looking to get a high-level overview of how decades of financial dealings led to meddling in the 2016 election.

“A theme that emerges is one of indebtedness to a foreign power,” said Diana Pilipenko, who is the corporate accounting expert for the team. “The story of Donald Trump and Russia begins with money.”

Interactive timeline

What did they know, and when did they know it

The core feature of the site is the interactive timeline of events. It includes over 350 cited events dating back to the 1980’s through today (although that number grows every day). Each event includes details of what happened, the date it happened, the people involved, and supporting resources for further research. You can view all of the events along the timeline, search by a specific year, person, or tag. We incorporated multiple entry-points to support the varies ways users may be looking for information and using it.

What it means

Telling the Full Story

In addition to the interactive timeline, which allows users to consume the cited research in their own way, the Moscow Project team also produced a four-chapter narrative that pulls together all of the research into one digestible story of collusion. It walks users through Trump’s business dealings over the last three decades, Vladimir Putin’s global interests, the run-up to, and ultimately, the election. We wanted to give users another option for consuming information in a high-level way for those who need more of a top-level walk-through of what happened, when, and why.

  • Interactive timeline
  • Chapterized narrative
  • 100s of resources
What it means

Telling the Full Story

In addition to the interactive timeline, which allows users to consume the cited research in their own way, the Moscow Project team also produced a four-chapter narrative that pulls together all of the research into one digestible story of collusion. It walks users through Trump’s business dealings over the last three decades, Vladimir Putin’s global interests, the run-up to, and ultimately, the election. We wanted to give users another option for consuming information in a high-level way for those who need more of a top-level walk-through of what happened, when, and why.

  • Interactive timeline
  • Chapterized narrative
  • 100s of resources

Eye-catching social graphics

We delivered social graphic templates to the CAP team to extend the reach of their online presence

Eye-catching social graphics

We delivered social graphic templates to the CAP team to extend the reach of their online presence

Sharing-made-easy

Social share options are ubiquitous throughout the site

"We handed Wide Eye a difficult challenge: an immense amount of complex information that needed to be user-friendly and accessible. They surpassed our wildest expectations delivering one of the best websites I’ve ever seen. They are professional to work with, have a brilliant eye for design, and have a creative approach to problem solving."

Max Bergmann, Director of the Moscow Project / Center for American Progress

The "go-to" resource

Since we launched the Moscow Project website with CAP, the site has been featured by the Rolling Stone, Washington Post, Business Insider, NBC, The Hill, The Nation, CNN, Newsweek, the New Yorker, and the Guardian. Since launch, the site has gotten close to 500k views in 190 countries around the world (including Russia).

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