You're reading: New York Times: Trump’s national security pick sees ally in fight against Islamists – Russia

WASHINGTON – Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for national security adviser, traveled to Moscow about a year after he took charge of the Defense Intelligence Agency to cultivate what he saw as natural allies in the fight against Islamist militants: Russia’s spy agencies.

It was June 2013, a briefly optimistic moment for both the Americans and Russians, and Mr. Flynn hoped to take advantage of it. During the trip, which got almost no attention, he met with the chief of the Russian military intelligence unit known as the G.R.U. – the same agency that has since been implicated in interference in the 2016 presidential election – and held an hourlong discussion with midranking officers at its headquarters.

Read more here.