Trumpublicons: Foreign Influence/Grifting in '16 US Election

[BenDhyan]

Things are not always as they first seem, deception everywhere..

All Russiagate Roads Lead To London: Evidence Emerges Of Joseph Mifsud’s Links To UK Intelligence

By Elizabeth Vos April 04, 2018

Over the last few months, Professor Joseph Mifsud has become a feather in the cap for those pushing the Trump-Russia narrative. He is characterized as a “Russian” intelligence asset in mainstream press, despite his declarations to the contrary. However, evidence has surfaced that suggests Mifsud was anything but a Russian spy, and may have actually worked for British intelligence. This new evidence culminates in the ground-breaking conclusion that the UK and its intelligence apparatus may be responsible for the invention of key pillars of the Trump-Russia scandal. If true, this would essentially turn the entire RussiaGate debacle on its head.

To give an idea of the scope of this report, a few central points showing the UK connections with the central pillars of the Trump-Russia claims are included here, in the order of discussion in this article:

Mifsud allegedly discussed that Russia has ‘dirt’ on Clinton in the form of ‘thousands of emails’ with George Papadopoulos in London in April 2016.
The following month, Papadopoulos spoke with Alexander Downer, Australia’s ambassador to the UK, about the alleged Russian dirt on Clinton while they were drinking at a swanky Kensington bar, according to The Times. In late July 2016, Downer shared his tip with Australian intelligence officials who forwarded it to the FBI.

Robert Goldstone, a key figure in the ‘Trump Tower’ part of the RussiaGate narrative, sent Donald Trump Jr. an email claiming Russia wanted to help the Trump campaign. He is a British music promoter.
Christopher Steele, ex-MI6, who worked as an MI6 agent in Moscow until 1993 and ran the Russia desk at MI6 HQ in London between 2006 and 2009. He produced the totally unsubstantiated ‘Steele Dossier’ of Trump-Russia allegations, with funding from the Clinton campaign and the DNC.
Robert Hannigan, the head of British spy agency GCHQ, flew to Washington DC to share ‘director-to-director’ level intelligence with then-CIA Chief John Brennan.

Each of these strands of UK-tied elements of the Russiagate narrative can be substantially dismantled on close inspection. This untangling process leads to the surprising conclusion that UK intelligence services fabricated evidence of collusion in order to create the appearance of a Trump-Russia connection.

This trend begins with Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese scholar with an eclectic academic history who Quartz described as an “enigma,” while legacy press has enthusiastically characterized him as a central personality in the Trump-Russia scandal. The New York Times described Mifsud as an “enthusiastic promoter of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia”, citing his regular involvement in the annual meetings of the Valdai Discussion Club, a Russian-based think-tank, as well as three short articles he wrote in support of Russian policies.

Mifsud strongly denied claims that he was associated with Russian intelligence, telling Italian newspaper Repubblica that he was a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Clinton Foundation, adding that his political outlook was “left-leaning.” Last month, Slate reported Mifsud had ‘disappeared’, as did some of the other figures linking the UK to the Trump-Russia scandal. This aspect will be discussed in more detail below.

To contextualize Mifsud’s eclectic academic career in terms of intelligence service, it is helpful to note that research undertaken by this author and Suzie Dawson as part of the Decipher You project has repeatedly shown the close ties – an outright merger in many cases – between the intelligence community and academia. This enmeshment also takes place with think-tanks, NGOs, and in the corporate sphere. In this light, Mifsud’s brand of ‘scholarship’ becomes far less mysterious.

Mifsud’s alleged links to Russian intelligence are summarily debunked by his close working relationship with Claire Smith, a major figure in the upper echelons of British intelligence. A number of Twitter users recently observed that Joseph Mifsud had been photographed standing next to Claire Smith of the UK Joint Intelligence Committee at Mifsud’s LINK campus in Rome. Newsmax and Buzzfeed later reported that the professor’s name and biography had been removed from the campus’ website, writing that the mysterious removal took place after Mifsud had served the institution for “years.”

WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange likewise noted the connection between Mifsud and Smith in a Twitter thread, additionally pointing out his connections with Saudi intelligence: “[Mifsud] and Claire Smith of the UK Joint Intelligence Committee and eight-year member of the UK Security Vetting panel both trained Italian security services at the Link University in Rome and appear to both be present in this [photo].”

The photograph in question originated on Geodiplomatics.com, where it specified that Joseph Mifsud is indeed standing next to Claire Smith, who was attending a: “…Training program on International Security which was organised by Link Campus University and London Academy of Diplomacy.” The event is listed as taking place in October, 2012. This is highly significant for a number of reasons.


Claire Smith standing with Joseph Mifsud, on the left side of the back row

-snip-


Image via The Guardian: Boris Johnson pictured at the dinner with the ‘London professor’, Joseph Mifsud (left) and Prasenjit Kumar Singh.

-continued...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49138.htm

[seemslikeadream]

Scott Stedman

The year is 2014. Wilbur Ross is the Vice Chairman of the Bank of Cyprus. Two of the largest shareholders in the bank are Viktor Vekselberg (5.4%) and a Cypriot lawyer named Christodoulos Vassiliades (5.77%). All three of these people would reappear in Trump’s orbit in ‘16-‘17.

Ross of course is named as commerce secretary and is one of the few Trump appointees to have survived the first full 14 months of his presidency.

Vekselberg, through his cousin and close business partners, funnels huge sums of money to Trump’s inauguration and attends the event.

Vassiliades turns up when Trump attempts to build Trump Tower Moscow during the election. Vassiliades is the nominal owner of IC Expert - the development company in Moscow that Trump partnered with.

Vassiliades has acted as a shell for the richest Russians to hide their money. He didn’t actually own the shares in the Bank of Cyprus or IC Expert. He was holding them for someone who wanted to remain secret.

If Wilbur Ross hasn’t been interviewed by Mueller yet, I suspect it will happen soon. The cast of characters he worked alongside at the Bank of Cyprus is concerning to say the least.https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/statu ... 4241011712

Scott Stedman
‏
Connecting some dots on the Russian oligarch questioned by Mueller: Viktor Vekselberg's private jet was in New York 5 weeks ago, donated $285k to Trump's inauguration (via his cousin) and attended the Michael Flynn RT dinner in Moscow in December 2015.

Where was Vekselberg prior to New York? In Pattaya, Thailand hours before Deripaska's mistress (Nastya Rybka) was arrested there. Rybka's associate Alex Lesley works for Viktor Vekselberg at the Skolkovo Foundation.

Vekselberg not only donated to the inauguration. he also attended
https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/statu ... 2230162432

[Grizzly]

Peddling Meddling examines the Doctrine of Russiagate and how it's critics are portrayed in the media as climate (of hysteria) deniers.

[Grizzly]

@Ben D

Excellent find; that 'informationclearinghouse' article, which was picked up from "Disobedient Media". Thank-you.

[BenDhyan]

Thanks Grizz..

[8bitagent]

Does anyone think, if its scary Trump supports Russia and Putin...what the fuck will happen when Trump becomes obsessed in HATING Putin and Russia and turning against Russia? I think we may see that soon...and it aint something we on the left leaning side should champion.

China and Russia are now in a military pact to fight the US militarily
http://www.newsweek.com/china-military- ... -us-870070

[seemslikeadream]

Olga_Lautman NYC ..
‏
Sam Patten and Russian Intel Agent Kilimnik opened a company in DC in Feb 2015 tied to Cambridge Analytica.

Sam Patten was also very involved in the Ukrainian elections and was Kilimnik’s boss in 2001. Considering Kilimnik freely spoke of his Intel work Patten should have known







10:37 PM - 4 Apr 2018
https://www.washingtonpost.com
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washin ... story.html …

This is getting really ridiculous why so many criminals are freely walking around and that they should have been monitored for decades. Wtf

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.thedai ... perative-3 …

Screenshots are from this article and the Wapo article

Accused Russian Intel Asset Teamed Up With GOP Operative

Konstantin Kilimnik found himself a partner in Sam Patten, a lobbyist and political hand who just happens to have worked previously for Cambridge Analytica.

As 2016 campaign season neared, a Russian national who special counsel Robert Mueller now believes was working with the country’s intelligence services founded a consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

Begemot Ventures International was incorporated in February 2015, occupying an office on Constitution Avenue. Like other firms in the nation’s capital it offered services catering to the politically inclined. But unlike those other shops, Begemot had executives tied not just to an alleged Russian influence campaign, but also a controversial data firm that would later help elect President Donald Trump.

The space that the firm continues to occupy also houses the offices of Sam Patten, a Republican lobbyist and foreign policy consultant who had previously worked to hone the firm Cambridge Analytica’s microtargeting operation during the 2014 midterm election cycle. They don’t just share a location either. Patten is listed as one of two Begemot executives in D.C. incorporation records.

The other is Konstantin Kilimnik, who is currently front-and-center in the federal investigation into Russian government meddling in the 2016 presidential election. A recent court filing by Mueller alleged that “Person A”—believed to be Kilimnik—“has ties to Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016.”

Kilimnik has a years-long professional relationship with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, whom Mueller has accused of illegally advancing the interests of foreign clients in the U.S. Kilimnik was a frequent intermediary between Manafort and Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, to whom Manafort offered private briefings on the 2016 presidential race. Kilimnik has long been suspected of having worked with or for Russian intelligence services in the past. But Mueller’s allegations are so explosive because they allege such ties continued through the presidential election—ties that would, by virtue of Kilimnik’s association with Manafort, represent the Trump campaign’s closest known link to Kremlin operatives.

But those close to Kilimnik say the allegations are at a minimum overblown, and at most an outright fabrication. Patten too rejected allegations of Kilimnik’s Russian intelligence ties in an interview this week.

Patten acknowledged his collaboration with Kilimnik on Begemot, which he said operates entirely abroad despite its D.C. address. Patten also confirmed his work with Cambridge Analytica, saying he assisted the firm’s U.S. operations in 2014, and also worked with the company on “several overseas campaigns.” He declined to go into further detail, citing a nondisclosure agreement, but stressed that his work for Begemot and Cambridge Analytica were entirely separate.

Cambridge Analytica did not respond to a request for additional information.

There is little public information about Begemot, whose name literally translates (from Russian) to hippopotamus but also may be a reference to a character in the Russian novel The Master and Margarita. Its emergence on the political scene—and the principles involved in its creation—underscore the smallness of the universe of Republican operatives and foreign policy hands who have done business with those at the center of the Russia investigation.

Begemot’s website says it “helps its clients win elections, strengthen political parties, build the right arguments before domestic and international audiences, and achieve better results.” But it doesn’t disclose any of those clients, or even the countries in which they operate. Patten declined to go into any detail about its work.

Patten’s relationship with Kilimnik goes back nearly two decades, when they worked together at the International Republican Institute, a GOP-aligned foreign policy group. In 2007 and 2008, Patten was an undersecretary of state for Democracy and Global Affairs in the Bush administration. He has also lobbied for political parties in Iraq and Georgia, and currently represents a group called the Committee to Destroy ISIS, a campaign funded in part, records show, by a Jordanian construction company.

“I operate in a small niche,” Patten said of his work.

Patten’s association with Cambridge Analytica began in 2014. His personal website says he worked with the firm “to introduce new technologies and methodologies to U.S. campaigns during the 2014 congressional cycle.” The “beta run” of Cambridge Analytica’s microtargeting efforts, the website says, was “adopted by at least one major U.S. presidential candidate.” At the time the website was written, Patten said, Cambridge Analytica was working on behalf of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), though Patten never worked on behalf of the Cruz campaign. Cambridge Analytica would later work to elect Trump.

The data firm is at the center of controversy over the use of social media data in political micro-targeting efforts. A Cambridge Analytica whistleblower claims the company pilfered data from Facebook for use on behalf of its political clients. The company denies any wrongdoing. And Trump campaign officials have tried to downplay the efficacy of the firms work, even though the campaign spent nearly $6 million for its services.

Mueller’s team is examining the role that Cambridge Analytica played in Trump’s election victory, but there is no indication that Patten’s work for the firm is problematic or of any interest to the special counsel’s investigation. Patten himself played down the connection, saying his work for the firm was “wholly unconnected” to Begemot and Kilimnik.

Begemot, Patten said, “is a privately-held, small consulting company that has provided public relations and political strategy advice for clients outside the United States, and [is] not related to the ongoing circus here.”

Patten expressed skepticism about Mueller’s recent allegations about his colleague. “A lot of people in our country wish Mueller well. If this is his ace in the hole, I am profoundly depressed,” he said.

“I have no reason to suspect him of being a Russian agent,” Patten added. “For people to continuously repeat the ‘in contact with/working with Russian intel’ epithet about anyone who lives or works in a country ruled by an ex KGB officer is rather absurd.” Such a description, he said, could include “anyone who rides the Moscow metro.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/accused-r ... perative-3

Funny how people conveniently forget

Carole Cadwalladr

But Sam Patten played a central role on the Nigeria campaign. And we knew he was a long time associate of both Manafort and Kilimnik, now a star of a Mueller filing.


We took Sam Patten out of the piece because the article was already too preposterous. (But true) Chucking in the man with with the known connection to a Russian spy just seemed like a step too far...

[seemslikeadream]

Why Mueller’s Move on Trump Is the Beginning of the Endgame
The special prosecutor’s findings will probably be public before the midterm elections.
By Jefferson Morley / AlterNet April 5, 2018, 5:29 AM GMT


With the Washington Post’s revelation that President Trump is not the “subject” of criminal investigation, special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s strategy for completing his probe is coming into view.

Mueller has pinned down Trump with two grand juries, issuing a wide net of indictments on diverse charges that have kept the president off-balance. The sentencing of Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer working for indicted Trump aide Rick Gates, underscored a message for the president: those who lie to investigators face swift consequences.

What has seemed like an interminable inquiry now looks like it will terminate in a one-two punch: an interview with Trump followed by a report on the question of obstruction of justice.

All of this may well happen before the 2018 midterm elections.

Subject to Change

The president’s defenders can take solace in the studiously telegraphed message of the Post’s article: that Trump is not the “target” of investigation. In law enforcement terms, a subject is a person who has engaged in conduct that is under investigation, but there is not sufficient evidence to bring charges.

Substantively, this is not a huge new development. The Post reported last June that Mueller was investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice. What’s new is how Mueller plans to finish the job.

What Mueller is saying, via the Post, is that he does not have sufficient evidence to charge the president with wrongdoing. Through deft use of leaks—and we can be sure Mueller is not unhappy about the Post story—Mueller is sending the message that he wants to talk to the president, sooner rather than later.

Some of the president’s advisers intuit Mueller’s endgame, according to the Post. They “noted that subjects of investigations can easily become indicted targets—and expressed concern that the special prosecutor was baiting Trump into an interview that could put the president in legal peril.”

That is exactly what Mueller is doing.

Team Turmoil

With the president’s legal team in turmoil, Trump is already in peril. His attorney John Dowd, a heavy-hitter from Wall Street, resigned last month after Trump rejected his advice to refuse Mueller’s request for an interview.

As Mueller closes in, Trump is poorly equipped to fight back.

He can’t find a replacement for Dowd. In normal circumstances, the most famous and capable conservative lawyers in Washington would welcome the chance to represent a Republican president. Ted Olson was the lead attorney in the Bush v. Gore case, which decided the 2000 election. Brendan Sullivan was attorney for right-wing hero Oliver North during the Iran-contra scandal. Both men declined to join Trump's team.

Trump then hired hatchet man Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney whose TV talking-head skills exceed his courtroom reputation. DiGenova lasted only a few days and was relieved, apparently for reasons of "chemistry."

Report Due

Mueller is also letting the public know that his investigation is beginning to end, at least on the question of obstruction of justice.

From the Post:

Mueller’s investigators have indicated to the president’s legal team that they are considering writing reports on their findings in stages—with the first report focused on the obstruction issue, according to two people briefed on the discussions.

“They’ve said they want to write a report on this—to answer the public’s questions—and they need the president’s interview as the last step,” one person familiar with the discussions said of Mueller’s team.

If the president refuses to be interviewed, Mueller’s team can start writing their report. If Trump agrees to sit down with Mueller, the report will have to wait a little longer. Either way, Mueller’s report on the obstruction of justice question seems likely to be finished well before the November midterm elections.

Mueller then has to submit his findings to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who supervises the special prosecutor because Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself. It is Rosenstein, not Mueller, who must decide if Mueller’s findings should be made public.

It is not hard to figure what Rosenstein will do. He is a career Justice Department attorney and a civil servant, like Mueller. He appointed Mueller last May. In December, he deflected demands for Mueller’s head. And—another timely disclosure by Mueller’s office this week—Rosenstein authorized Mueller’s investigation of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

All in all, it's bad news for the White House. Mueller’s clock is running out and Team Trump is in disarray.
https://www.alternet.org/muellers-move- ... ng-endgame

Robert Mueller Follows the Money by Questioning Russian Oligarchs

Monique Judge
Today 8:13pmFiled to: NEWS

In a quest to find out whether or not money was illegally funneled to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign—either directly or indirectly through cash donations—special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has been questioning Russian oligarchs traveling into the United States.

Multiple sources told CNN that at least one Russian oligarch was stopped and had his electronic devices searched when his private jet landed at a New York-area airport. A second was also stopped on a recent trip to the U.S., but it is unclear whether his electronic devices were searched, too.

A third oligarch who has not recently visited the U.S. was given an informal voluntary document and interview request by Mueller’s team.

The names of these wealthy, powerful Russians have not been revealed.

CNN posits that these inquiries indicate that the Mueller team is looking into the flow of money from Russia into the the U.S. election as it continues to investigate whether or not Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Campaign-finance laws prohibit foreign nationals from donating to U.S. political campaigns, so another angle the Mueller team is exploring is whether Russian investments were made in companies or think tanks with political action committees that donated to Donald Trump’s campaign.

It is also possible that wealthy Russians used “straw donors,” or Americans with citizenship, as another means of putting money into both the presidential campaign and the inauguration fund.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Trump raised $333 million for his campaign fund and $106.8 million for his inauguration, which is more than twice as much as any of his predecessors. His inauguration committee has been criticized by watchdog groups for not fully disclosing how the inauguration funds were spent.

At this point, it is unknown whether or not Mueller’s team has uncovered any illegal campaign funding. The only thing clear is that Mueller is going to continue digging until he finds something to nail Trump to the wall with.
https://www.theroot.com/mueller-follows ... 1825032257

[seemslikeadream]

Polly Sigh
‏

Mueller is tracking down Trump business partners, w/ Cohen a focus of queries: Armed w/subpoenas for electronic records & sworn testimony, Mueller team showed up unannounced at the home of a business assoc linked to Trump's international expansion.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation- ... 90764.html …




Mueller investigators were particularly interested in interactions involving Trump’s longtime personal atty & former Trump Org employee, Michael Cohen, who was involved with Trump Org business deals in Georgia, Kazakhstan & Russia.



Mueller is tracking down Trump business partners, w/ Cohen a focus of queries: Armed w/subpoenas for electronic records & sworn testimony, Mueller team showed up unannounced at the home of a business assoc linked to Trump's international expansion.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation- ... 90764.html …


Recall Michael Cohen's travel to The Republic of Georgia in 2012 and to Kazakhstan in 2014 to pick up Trump's dirty Bayrock money (?) which, according to a former Bayrock employee, "arrived 'magically' from sources in Russia & Kazakhstan"



ICYMI: "This Is The Inside Michael Cohen's Passport"

#Trumprussia #maddow https://www.buzzfeed.com/anthonycormier ... .boVZxzKxB …





Former NY federal prosecutor Kenneth McCallion: Trump Org projects are financed w/ dirty money originating w/ international financial criminals from Russian, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Republic of Georgia & other Eastern European & Central Asian sources.

"Trump Org projects are financed w/ dirty money via international criminals from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia--"



The Georgia project [Batumi] origins trace to a relationship between then-Trump Org lawyer Michael Cohen & one of the Silk Road Group partners, US-based *Giorgi Rtskhiladze.* Cohen also teamed up w/ Rtskhiladze to push Trump Diamond in Kazakhstan.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politic ... rylink=cpy …






Giorgi Rtskhiladze has had a long-standing interest in working with Trump & pursued a deal to build Trump Tower Batumi in Georgia. Trump traveled there in 2012 to promote the Batumi deal & was paid $1M in upfront cash. The project was never built.


https://twitter.com/dcpoll/status/982071845892403201

[seemslikeadream]

Among the sanctioned Russian Oligarchs:
-Deripaska [→Manafort & Gates]
-Shamalov [Putin son-in-law→Wilbur Ross]
-Vekselberg [$$$→Trump & GOP via cutouts]
-Miller [Gazprom]
-Torshin [NRA→Trump campaign]
-Kostin [VTB Bank→Cohen→Moscow Tower]

Caroline O.
‏
The Treasury Department is imposing sanctions on:

-7 Russian oligarchs and 12 companies they own or control
-17 senior Russian officials
-A weapons trading company and its subsidiary, a Russian bank

<Quick thread on the oligarchs...1/>

PRESS RELEASES
Treasury Designates Russian Oligarchs, Officials, and Entities in Response to Worldwide Malign Activity
2.3K188
APRIL 6, 2018
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in consultation with the Department of State, today designated seven Russian oligarchs and 12 companies they own or control, 17 senior Russian government officials, and a state-owned Russian weapons trading company and its subsidiary, a Russian bank.

“The Russian government operates for the disproportionate benefit of oligarchs and government elites,” said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “The Russian government engages in a range of malign activity around the globe, including continuing to occupy Crimea and instigate violence in eastern Ukraine, supplying the Assad regime with material and weaponry as they bomb their own civilians, attempting to subvert Western democracies, and malicious cyber activities. Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities.”

Today’s actions are pursuant to authority provided under Executive Order (E.O.) 13661 and E.O. 13662, authorities codified by the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), as well as E.O. 13582. These actions follow the Department of the Treasury’s issuance of the CAATSA Section 241 report in late January 2018. In the Section 241 report, Treasury identified senior Russian government officials and oligarchs. Today’s action targets a number of the individuals listed in the Section 241 report, including those who benefit from the Putin regime and play a key role in advancing Russia’s malign activities.

Concurrent with this action, OFAC is issuing two general licenses to minimize immediate disruptions to U.S. persons, partners, and allies. For details, see General Licenses 12 and 13, as well as related FAQs.

All assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction of the designated individuals and entities, and of any other entities blocked by operation of law as a result of their ownership by a sanctioned party, are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealings with them. Additionally, non-U.S. persons could face sanctions for knowingly facilitating significant transactions for or on behalf of the individuals or entities blocked today.

DESIGNATED RUSSIAN OLIGARCHS
Vladimir Bogdanov is being designated for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy. Bogdanov is the Director General and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Surgutneftegaz, a vertically integrated oil company operating in Russia. OFAC imposed sectoral sanctions on Surgutneftegaz pursuant to Directive 4 issued under E.O. 13662 in September 2014.

Oleg Deripaska is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, a senior official of the Government of the Russian Federation, as well as pursuant to E.O. 13662 for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy. Deripaska has said that he does not separate himself from the Russian state. He has also acknowledged possessing a Russian diplomatic passport, and claims to have represented the Russian government in other countries. Deripaska has been investigated for money laundering, and has been accused of threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally wiretapping a government official, and taking part in extortion and racketeering. There are also allegations that Deripaska bribed a government official, ordered the murder of a businessman, and had links to a Russian organized crime group.

Suleiman Kerimov is being designated for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation. Kerimov is a member of the Russian Federation Council. On November 20, 2017, Kerimov was detained in France and held for two days. He is alleged to have brought hundreds of millions of euros into France – transporting as much as 20 million euros at a time in suitcases, in addition to conducting more conventional funds transfers – without reporting the money to French tax authorities. Kerimov allegedly launders the funds through the purchase of villas. Kerimov was also accused of failing to pay 400 million euros in taxes related to villas.

Igor Rotenberg is being designated for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy. Rotenberg acquired significant assets from his father, Arkady Rotenberg, after OFAC designated the latter in March 2014. Specifically Arkady Rotenberg sold Igor Rotenberg 79 percent of the Russian oil and gas drilling company Gazprom Burenie. Igor Rotenberg’s uncle, Boris Rotenberg, owns 16 percent of the company. Like his brother Arkady Rotenberg, Boris Rotenberg was designated in March 2014.

Kirill Shamalov is being designated for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy. Shamalov married Putin’s daughter Katerina Tikhonova in February 2013 and his fortunes drastically improved following the marriage; within 18 months, he acquired a large portion of shares of Sibur, a Russia-based company involved in oil and gas exploration, production, processing, and refining. A year later, he was able to borrow more than one $1 billion through a loan from Gazprombank, a state-owned entity subject to sectoral sanctions pursuant to E.O. 13662. That same year, long-time Putin associate Gennady Timchenko, who is himself designated pursuant to E.O. 13661, sold an additional 17 percent of Sibur’s shares to Shamalov. Shortly thereafter, Kirill Shamalov joined the ranks of the billionaire elite around Putin.

Andrei Skoch is being designated for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation. Skoch is a deputy of the Russian Federation’s State Duma. Skoch has longstanding ties to Russian organized criminal groups, including time spent leading one such enterprise.

Viktor Vekselberg is being designated for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy. Vekselberg is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Renova Group. The Renova Group is comprised of asset management companies and investment funds that own and manage assets in several sectors of the Russian economy, including energy. In 2016, Russian prosecutors raided Renova’s offices and arrested two associates of Vekselberg, including the company’s chief managing director and another top executive, for bribing officials connected to a power generation project in Russia.

DESIGNATED OLIGARCH-OWNED COMPANIES
In addition to sanctioning the individuals listed above, OFAC today designated 12 companies that constitute some of the most prominent among the entities that are owned or controlled by the individuals designated today. This list of 12 companies owned or controlled by the sanctioned oligarchs should not be viewed as exhaustive, and the regulated community remains responsible for compliance with OFAC’s 50 percent rule.

B-Finance Ltd., based in the British Virgin Islands, is being designated for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, Oleg Deripaska.

Basic Element Limited is being designated for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, Oleg Deripaska. Basic Element Limited is based in Jersey and is the private investment and management company for Deripaska’s various business interests.

EN+ Group is being designated for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, Oleg Deripaska, B-Finance Ltd., and Basic Element Limited. EN+ Group is located in Jersey and is a leading international vertically integrated aluminum and power producer.

EuroSibEnergo is being designated for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, Oleg Deripaska and EN+ Group. EuroSibEnergo is one of the largest independent power companies in Russia, operating power plants across Russia and producing around nine percent of Russia’s total electricity.

United Company RUSAL PLC is being designated for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, EN+ Group. United Company RUSAL PLC is based in Jersey and is one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, responsible for seven percent of global aluminum production.

Russian Machines is being designated for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, Oleg Deripaska and Basic Element Limited. Russian Machines was established to manage the machinery assets of Basic Element Limited.

GAZ Group is being designated for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, Oleg Deripaska and Russian Machines. GAZ Group is Russia’s leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles.

Agroholding Kuban, located in Russia, is being designated for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, Oleg Deripaska and Basic Element Limited.

Gazprom Burenie, OOO is being designated for being owned or controlled by Igor Rotenberg. Gazprom Burenie, OOO provides oil and gas exploration services in Russia.

NPV Engineering Open Joint Stock Company is being designated for being owned or controlled by Igor Rotenberg. NPV Engineering Open Joint Stock Company provides management and consulting services in Russia.

Ladoga Menedzhment, OOO is being designated for being owned or controlled by Kirill Shamalov. Ladoga Menedzhment, OOO is located in Russia and engaged in deposit banking.

Renova Group is being designated for being owned or controlled by Viktor Vekselberg. Renova Group, based in Russia, is comprised of investment funds and management companies operating in the energy sector, among others, in Russia’s economy.

DESIGNATED RUSSIAN STATE-OWNED FIRMS
Russia has contributed to the instability of the Government of Syria through the sales and transfer of Russian-origin military equipment in support of Assad’s regime, enabling Assad to continue carrying out attacks against Syrian citizens. These attacks have included chemical weapons attacks, which claimed the lives of hundreds of Syrian citizens.

Rosoboroneksport is a state-owned Russian weapons trading company with longstanding and ongoing ties to the Government of Syria, with billions of dollars’ worth of weapons sales over more than a decade. Rosoboroneksport is being designated under E.O. 13582 for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, the Government of Syria.

The Russian Financial Corporation Bank (RFC Bank) is being designated for being owned by Rosoboroneksport. RFC Bank incorporated in Moscow, Russia and its operations include deposit banking activities.

DESIGNATED RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
Andrey Akimov is the Chairman of the Management Board of state-owned Gazprombank. Akimov is being designated pursuant E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Mikhail Fradkov is the President of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), a major research and analytical center established by the President of the Russian Federation, which provides information support to the Presidential Administration, Federation Council, State Duma, and Security Council. Fradkov is being designated pursuant E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Sergey Fursenko is a member of the board of directors of Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of state-owned Gazprom. Fursenko is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Oleg Govorun is the Head of the Presidential Directorate for Social and Economic Cooperation with the Commonwealth of Independent States Member Countries. Govorun is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Alexey Dyumin is the Governor of the Tula region of Russia. He previously headed the Special Operations Forces, which played a key role in Russia’s purported annexation of Crimea. Dyumin is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Vladimir Kolokoltsev is the Minister of Internal Affairs and General Police of the Russian Federation. Kolokoltsev is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Konstantin Kosachev is the Chairperson of the Council of the Federation Committee on Foreign Affairs. Kosachev is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Andrey Kostin is the President, Chairman of the Management Board, and Member of the Supervisory Council of state-owned VTB Bank. Kostin is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Alexey Miller is the Chairman of the Management Committee and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of state-owned company Gazprom. Miller is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Nikolai Patrushev is Secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council. Patrushev is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Vladislav Reznik is a member of the Russian State Duma. Reznik is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Evgeniy Shkolov is an Aide to the President of the Russian Federation. Shkolov is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Alexander Torshin is the State Secretary – Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. Torshin is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Vladimir Ustinov is the Plenipotentiary Envoy to Russia’s Southern Federal District. Ustinov is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Timur Valiulin is the head of the General Administration for Combatting Extremism within Russia’s Ministry of Interior. Valiulin is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Alexander Zharov is the head of Roskomnadzor (the Federal Service for the Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media). Zharov is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Viktor Zolotov is the Director of the Federal Service of National Guard Troops and Commander of the National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation. Zolotov is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the Government of the Russian Federation.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-re ... hY.twitter

Of the 7 Russian oligarchs designated by the US Treasury for sanctions, at least 3 have clear ties to Trump and associates:

-Oleg Deripaska
-Kirill Shamalov
-Viktor Vekselberg

2/

Oleg Deripaska is the most well known.

Among other ties, Paul Manafort allegedly offered to provide Deripaska with personal briefings about the 2016 presidential campaign (in exchange for debt relief) less than two weeks before Trump accepted the Republican nomination.

3/

Viktor Vekselberg is another one of the 7 Russian oligarchs targeted by sanctions.

His cousin (an American citizen named Andrew Intrater) gave $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration fund.

A Putin-Friendly Oligarch’s Top US Executive Donated $285,000 to Trump
The head of Viktor Vekselberg’s American subsidiary helped finance Trump’s inauguration.
DAVID CORN AND DAN FRIEDMANAUG. 17, 2017 6:00 AM

Earlier this year, as Donald Trump, then the president-elect, was trying to counter news reports that Russia had hacked the 2016 election to help him win, the head of the American subsidiary of a Russian conglomerate owned by a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin made a huge donation to Trump.

On January 6—the day the US intelligence community reported that Putin had approved a covert operation to subvert the presidential campaign to assist Trump—Andrew Intrater donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration fund.

Intrater is the CEO of Columbus Nova, the lone American subsidiary of Renova Group, a giant holding company owned by oligarch Viktor Vekselberg with interests in the metals, mining, chemical, construction, transport, energy, telecommunication, and financial sectors in Russia and abroad. Intrater, an American citizen, is Vekselberg’s cousin, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In June, Intrater also made a $35,000 contribution to a joint fundraising committee for Trump’s reelection and the Republican National Committee.

Intrater has no public history as a major political funder; his Trump donations dwarf his previous contributions. According to Federal Election Commission records, his only past political donations were $2,600 in 2014 to a business associate running as a Republican for Congress, $1,200 to Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s 2008 presidential campaign, and $250 to the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts in 1995. Intrater’s hefty gift to the inauguration fund earned him special access to inaugural events, including a dinner billed as “an intimate policy discussion with select cabinet appointees,” according to a fundraising brochure obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.

Vekselberg is one of Russia’s richest men. Bloomberg recently estimated his net worth at $15.5 billion. The same month that Intrater pumped that quarter of a million dollars into Trump’s inauguration bank account, Vekselberg publicly expressed hope for the lifting this year of the tough US and European economic sanctions imposed on Russia after it annexed Crimea and supported pro-Russian separatists fighting in Ukraine.

Vekselberg, one of Russia’s richest men, seems to be on good terms with Putin and the Kremlin.
During the campaign, Trump advisers hinted at the possibility of easing or removing the sanctions. After Trump took office, his administration reportedly considered unilaterally lifting sanctions on Russia and returning diplomatic compounds seized in December as retaliation for Russian interference in the 2016 election, moves Trump aides hoped would improve relations with Moscow. The White House also unsuccessfully opposed a congressional measure to bar Trump from undoing sanctions without approval from Capitol Hill lawmakers.

Vekselberg seems to be on good terms with Putin and the Kremlin. He heads a major Russian initiative to bring high-tech businesses into the country. In December 2015, he attended a gala dinner featuring Putin that celebrated the 10th anniversary of RT, the English-language, Kremlin-cozy media outlet. (Retired Gen. Michael Flynn, then an adviser to Trump, was an honored guest at the dinner and was paid $45,000 to speak at a conference that was part of this RT celebration.) In March, Vekselberg had a one-on-one meeting with Putin to discuss infrastructure projects involving his business. (Renova is constructing an airport in southern Russia as part of the nation’s preparations to host the 2018 soccer World Cup.)

Vekselberg certainly scored points with Putin with a pet project: his acquisition and repatriation to Russia of Fabergé eggs. In 2013, Vekeslberg told an interviewer he had spent more than $100 million to obtain the eggs, which once were owned by the late Malcolm Forbes. He noted that Putin personally thanked him for this: “I’ve seen the emotion of our president. It’s important to him that a Russian citizen has brought back this important collection.”

Like many Russian oligarchs, Vekselberg has faced accusations of corruption. One lawsuit claimed he used gunmen to gain control of a Siberian oil field. Two senior executives at firms controlled by Vekselberg were imprisoned last year in Russia on charges that they bribed regional officials.

Republicans were previously eager to highlight Renova and Vekselberg’s political contributions—to Hillary Clinton.
In 2014, Vekselberg’s Renova Group became a partner with American billionaire investor Wilbur Ross in the takeover of the Bank of Cyprus, which had held billions in deposits from wealthy Russians—some of it presumably dirty money or funds deposited there to avoid Russian taxation. The bank had failed in 2013. Ross went on to become Trump’s secretary of commerce. During his confirmation hearings in February, Democratic senators sent Ross a list of questions regarding his relationship with Vekselberg. Ross has yet to answer them.

Columbus Nova, the Renova American subsidiary headed by Intrater, is a New York-based investment firm that claims more than $2 billion in investments in a variety of industries, including biofuels, real estate, health care, insurance, telecommunications, and construction.

Intrater and Renova and the Republican National Committee did not respond to requests for comment. Asked about Intrater’s donations to Trump, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said, “You would need to contact inaugural.” The Trump inaugural committee did not respond to a subsequent inquiry.

Republicans were previously eager to highlight Renova and Vekselberg’s contributions—but to another candidate. During the 2016 election, the Trump campaign and conservatives blasted Hillary Clinton for a link with Vekselberg because the Renova Group had donated between $50,000 an $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. The Trump campaign issued a press release claiming that this contribution was evidence Clinton was actually the candidate in the race with “close ties” to Putin and had “sold out American interests to Putin in exchange for political and financial favors.” (That press release is no longer available online.) Conservative groups and media outlets—including the National Review, Investors Business Daily, and the Wall Street Journal‘s op-ed page—have cited this relatively modest Renova donation as proof the Clintons were chummy with Putin’s regime. In 2015, David Bossie, a conservative activist who went on to serve as deputy campaign manager for Trump, said the Clinton Foundation’s connection to Vekselberg was “just another example of how the Clintons will take money from any source, good, bad, or ugly.”

Besides Intrater’s $250,000 donation—which has not previously been reported—Trump’s inaugural committee accepted other Russia-related contributions. Russian American businessman Alexander Shustorovich and Access Industries, a firm owned by Len Blavatnik, a Soviet-born American citizen and Vekselberg’s longtime business partner, each gave $1 million to finance Trump’s inauguration.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... -to-trump/

4/


Kirill Shamalov is another one of the 7 Russian oligarchs.

Trump's commerce secretary Wilbur Ross retained his shares in a company called Navigator Holdings. One of the main customers is Russian energy company Sibur.

Shamalov owned 20% of Sibur shares until last yr.

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Wilbur Ross’ stake in Navigator Holdings has received more than $68 million since 2014 from Sibur (the company co-owned by Shamalov, the Russian oligarch who was sanctioned today).

Shamalov is also Putin's son-in-law.

6/

Paradise Papers: Global Witness Statement on Wilbur Ross’ Offshore Secrecy

Paradise Papers: Global Witness Statement on Wilbur Ross’ Offshore Secrecy Sparrow in
Washington, DC — Leaked documents published today by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists expose how offshore tax havens, white-collar professionals, and anonymous company owners hide their finances behind a veil of secrecy. The documents from Bermuda-based law firm Appleby include evidence of dubious deals and holdings involving the Queen of England, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief fundraiser, and Trump appointed U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

According to the documents, Wilbur Ross used a constellation of companies, some with their ownership undisclosed. The companies were set up by Appleby to retain shares in Navigator Holdings, a shipping firm with business ties to a Russian oligarch subject to American sanctions.

Ross’ stake has received more than $68 million in revenue since 2014 from Sibur, a Russian energy company co-owned by the son-in-law of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The documents also report that Appleby has administered some 50 companies and partnerships set up in the Caymans and other tax havens that are connected to Ross, whose net worth is estimated to be more than $2 billion dollars.

“This is yet another instance of conflicts of interest within the Trump administration. Wilbur Ross influences US trade and sanctions, yet he is still making millions from a Russian company that could be targeted by these decisions. This is highly problematic for an administration at the center of investigations into collusion with the Russian state,” said Mark Hays, Anti Money Laundering Campaign Leader at Global Witness.


The deals outlined in the Paradise Papers underscore the importance of transparency measures, such as Beneficial Ownership Transparency legislation [S. 1454, S. 1717, and H.R. 3089] , which would help prevent public officials and companies involved in potentially criminal or corrupt activities from using the offshore system to hide their dealings behind a veil of secrecy.

“This new leak demonstrates once again how it’s all too easy to use anonymous companies to game the system,” said Hays.
https://www.sparrowmedia.net/2017/11/pa ... e-secrecy/

Kirill Shamalov is another one of the 7 Russian oligarchs.

Trump's commerce secretary Wilbur Ross retained his shares in a company called Navigator Holdings. One of the main customers is Russian energy company Sibur.

Shamalov owned 20% of Sibur shares until last yr.

5/
Show this thread

There's also Suleiman Kerimov, another one of the 7 Russian oligarchs hit w/sanctions today.

He has been linked to Rinat Akhmetshin, the Russian lobbyist who was at the infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016.

(This March 16, 2016 file photo shows Trump Tower in New York, the luxury tower emblazoned with Donald Trump's name.Associated Press/Mark Lennihan)

Rinat Akhmetshin, the Russian lobbyist and ex-Soviet military intelligence officer who was at Donald Trump Jr.'s Trump Tower Russia meeting last June, has deep connections to the Kremlin.
He was involved in two hacking-related cases after working for Russian businessmen who were closely allied to Vladimir Putin.
Akhmetshin has also told reporters he is a "longtime acquaintance" of Paul Manafort, though Manafort's spokesman denied the claim.
Rinat Akhmetshin, the Russian lobbyist who was present at Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer last June at Trump Tower, may have stronger links to the Kremlin than previously known, The New York Times reported Monday.

A former Soviet military intelligence officer, Akhmetshin has long been tied to Kremlin-linked individuals, but the new Times report has drawn connections between Akhmetshin and several high profile Russian billionaires, for whose companies he supposedly worked. The companies were embroiled in contentious legal battles during which their opponents made hacking allegations.

Further, the Times found that, in 2010, Akhmetshin began working with Viktor Ivanov, who used to be the deputy head of Russia's intelligence agency, the F.S.B., and who previously served as a top adviser to Putin.

In an affidavit Akhmetshin provided in one of the hacking cases, he said he had spoken to Ivanov about topics "from narco-trafficking and terrorism in Afghanistan to surveillance of undercover agents, suspected undercover agents and their identities."

The hacking cases

Akhmetshin has been associated in the past with corporations owned by multiple Russian businessmen with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he was involved in two legal battles in which his associates' rivals were victims of sophisticated hacking operations.

In one case, Akhmetshin was tied to Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, when Kerimov was involved in a dispute with competitor Ashot Egiazaryan.

Kerimov is a portfolio investor who is said to be tied to the Kremlin through his business dealings with individuals like Vladimir Kogan, a Russian tycoon who's been referred to as "Putin's banker." In March, Putin also awarded Kerimov the Order for Merit to the Fatherland of II.

During Kerimov's conflict with Egiazaryan in 2011, two British lawyers representing Egiazaryan received suspicious emails, sources familiar with the investigation told the Times. Forensic analysis of the emails determined that the messages contained malicious content meant to infect their computers. The emails originated from computers registered with one of Kerimov's companies in Moscow.

Later that year, Russia approved a warrant for Egiazaryan's arrest, based on charges of large-scale fraud. Egiazaryan is currently a fugitive and wanted by Interpol.

In 2013, Akhmetshin was directly accused of hacking in a separate case. At the time, Akhmetshin was consulting for a law firm representing EuroChem, a mining company owned by a Russian billionaire. The allegations against Akhmetshin claimed he was targeting International Mineral Resources.

A source familiar with the case told the Times that Akhmetshin had personally given a flash drive containing hacked documents to a lawyer "engaged in another matter potentially damaging" to International Mineral Resources. An investigator working for EuroChem's competitor also claimed he'd overheard Akhmetshin saying that he had paid Russian hackers "a lot of money" for the documents. Court filings reviewed by the Times indicate that the content on the flash drive was also accessed by someone with the initials, "R.A."
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lobbyist ... 59943.html

7/


Also hit w/ sanctions today: Alexander Torshin, the Russian bank exec and suspected mobster/organized crime boss who is now being investigated by the FBI for potentially funneling $ through the NRA to help Trump's campaign.

8/Caroline O.
Alexander Torshin — a Putin ally/Russian banker who's under FBI investigation for potentially funneling $ thru the NRA to the Trump campaign — sent Trump an interesting bday tweet in 2015.…

Show this thread

Tim Mak

Russian politician Alexander Torshin, who closely cultivated relationships with the NRA for years, is on the Treasury Dept's list of sanctioned individuals

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-cente ... 80406.aspx …

‏
I've been writing about Alexander Torshin for the better part of two years: he's met four NRA presidents, attended 5 NRA conventions, was an election observer in Nashville in 2012 -- and a life member of the NRA.

Depth Of Russian Politician's Cultivation Of NRA Ties Revealed

Tim MakMarch 1, 20189:03 PM ET

Russian politician Alexander Torshin, standing next to then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, attends a ceremony at the Kremlin in 2011. Torshin is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and says he met Donald Trump through the group in 2015.

Konstantin Zavrazhin/Getty Images
Updated at 10:25 p.m. ET

A prominent Kremlin-linked Russian politician has methodically cultivated ties with leaders of the National Rifle Association and documented efforts in real time over six years to leverage those connections and gain deeper access into American politics, NPR has learned.

Russian politician Alexander Torshin said his ties to the NRA provided him access to Donald Trump — and the opportunity to serve as a foreign election observer in the United States during the 2012 election.

Torshin is a prolific Twitter user, logging nearly 150,000 tweets, mostly in Russian, since his account was created in 2011. Previously obscured by language and sheer volume of tweets, Torshin has written numerous times about his connections with the NRA, of which he is a known paid lifetime member. NPR has translated a selection of those posts that document Torshin's relationship to the group.

These revelations come amid news that the FBI is investigating whether Torshin, the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, illegally funneled money to the NRA to assist the Trump campaign in 2016, McClatchy reported in January.

In a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Senate intelligence committee, the NRA denied any wrongdoing and suggested the FBI is investigating Torshin, not the NRA. Neither the NRA nor Torshin responded to inquiries from NPR.

Investigations by Congress and the Department of Justice have revealed that the Russian government has sought to sharpen political divisions among American citizens by amplifying controversial social issues. Investigators have expressed concern about Russian links to the NRA, one of the most politically polarizing organizations in the U.S.

Torshin is a former Russian senator and served as the deputy speaker of Russia's parliament for more than a decade. Known as a Putin ally, he also spent time on Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee, a state body that includes the director of Russia's internal security service and the ministers of defense, interior and foreign affairs.


Translation of November 2016 tweet: "For 15 years, I've traveled to the U.S. with official delegations, and more often — privately. In this time, I NEVER HEARD ONE BAD WORD ABOUT RUSSIA!"

Torshin's use of NRA connections to open doors, and his 2015 claim to know Trump through the organization, raise new questions about the group's connections with Russian officials — at a time when the organization is being roundly criticized by its opponents, and at times the president himself, for opposition to gun control.

The president has also defended the group in recent days as the gun debate has re-emerged following a Florida school shooting, including a tweet calling the group's leaders "Great American Patriots."

The NRA has been a key part of Trump's conservative base. After a meeting with lawmakers in which Trump angered many conservatives for entertaining proposals for gun control, the president tweeted that he had another meeting with NRA leaders in the Oval Office on Thursday night.


On his verified Twitter account, Torshin talked about how he knew Trump through the NRA, citing a connection at the group's 2015 convention. Responding to a tweet about comedian Larry David accusing Trump of being a racist, Torshin said he knew the businessman through the NRA, and he defended him.


Translation of November 2015 tweet: "A comedian should make people laugh! Right? So he is trying! I know D. Trump (through NRA). A decent person."

"I saw him in Nashville" in April 2015, Torshin added later, the date and site of the NRA's 2015 convention. Trump gave a speech at that convention, the outlines of which would become familiar as his stump speech throughout the 2016 presidential campaign. The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment by NPR but in 2017 denied to Bloomberg News that Trump has ever met Torshin.

Among his tens of thousands of tweets, Torshin also documented his attendance at every NRA convention between 2012 and 2016, only some of which have been previously reported.

Torshin's attendance at the NRA convention in 2016 is where he reportedly met with Donald Trump Jr.

Torshin had made repeated attempts to meet with Donald Trump himself at that convention during the presidential election year, but there is no evidence of this occurring. A conservative activist with ties to Torshin aide Maria Butina reached out to the Trump campaign in 2016, saying that Russia was "quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S." and would try to use the NRA convention to make "first contact," the New York Times reported.

"Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump," the activist, Paul Erickson, wrote. "He wants to extend an invitation to Mr. Trump to visit him in the Kremlin before the election." Erickson has business ties to Butina, having started an LLC with her in South Dakota.

Torshin has used his repeated trips to NRA conventions to cultivate relationships with top NRA officials. And his Twitter account documents that he has personally met with every person who has been president of the NRA since 2012.

On Twitter, Torshin portrayed these meetings as more than merely casual encounters. In 2017, he tweeted that he was bringing a gift to then-NRA President Allan Cors and suggested he was familiar with Cors' hobbies.


Translation of January 2017 tweet: "Bought a gift for NRA President Allan Cors. Tanks are his favorite topic!"

Cors is the founder of the Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles, according to its website.

In a public Dropbox album that Torshin linked to from his Twitter account, he is seen meeting with former NRA President Jim Porter as well as another former NRA president, David Keene.

His tweets suggest a longtime relationship with Keene, who repeatedly appears in photos as Torshin documents his visits, suggesting that their meeting was not merely coincidental. Keene did not respond to a request for comment.

Torshin has also met the current president of the NRA, Pete Brownell, who was part of an NRA delegation that visited Moscow in 2015.

These relationships that he cultivated appeared to open another door. Torshin came to the United States in 2012 as an international election observer and watched as ballots were cast during the Obama-Romney presidential contest in Tennessee. This was possible, he wrote, because of his NRA links.


Translation of January 2015 tweet: "I was there at Obama's last election! The NRA card, to me as an observer from Russia, opened access to any [polling] station."

"Tennessee resident Kline Preston requested Mr. Torshin to be an international observer in November 2012," Adam Ghassemi, a spokesman for the Tennessee secretary of state, told NPR. The Washington Post reported last year that Preston, a Tennessee lawyer, was the one who originally introduced Torshin to Keene back in 2011.

The heat is on the Russian politician, who was alleged by Spanish police to have directed financial transactions for the Russian mob. Not only is the FBI reportedly investigating him — the bureau declined to comment for this story — but lawmakers involved in congressional investigations have also expressed interest in Torshin.

Both the Senate and House intelligence committees are currently engaged in investigations into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and a member of the Senate intelligence committee, has demanded that the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network hand over documents related to Torshin and the NRA.

"The NRA and its related entities do not accept funds from foreign persons or entities in connection with United States elections," NRA General Counsel John Frazer wrote in response to a request from Wyden to turn over documents related to transactions between the NRA and Russian citizens. "NRA political decisions are made by NRA officers and executive staff, all of whom are United States citizens. No foreign nationals are consulted in any way on these decisions."

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, told NPR this week that the committee's members have asked relevant witnesses about the NRA through the course of their investigation.

"I can't go into what we've been able to learn thus far on that issue. I can tell you it's one of deep concern to me and to other members of the committee, that we get to the bottom of these allegations that the Russians may have sought to funnel money through the NRA," Schiff said. "It would be negligent of us not to investigate."

Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of research firm Fusion GPS, alluded to Torshin and the NRA during his closed-door testimony before the House intelligence committee in November.

"It appears the Russians, you know, infiltrated the NRA. And there is more than one explanation for why," Simpson told lawmakers. "But I would say broadly speaking, it appears that the Russian operation was designed to infiltrate conservative organizations. And they targeted various conservative organizations, religious and otherwise, and they seem to have made a very concerted effort to get in with the NRA."

Not only are congressional investigators interested in the NRA's relationship with Russia, but this inquiry comes as the NRA is receiving additional pressure from groups hoping to pass more gun restrictions into law and as dozens of American companies have cut ties with the organization in response to the Parkland, Fla., shooting last month.

"These revelations suggest that for years the NRA courted a top Putin ally who is now reportedly attracting scrutiny from the FBI," John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, told NPR. "NRA leaders still haven't explained their close relationship with Russian officials in Putin's orbit. Until they do, people will continue to wonder what the NRA is hiding."
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/01/59007694 ... s-revealed

Torshin, for example, said that he knew Donald Trump through the National Rifle Association. And he met with Donald Trump Jr at 2016 NRA convention.

In 2016 a Republican activist reached out to Trump campaign to suggest meeting Putin, via Torshin.
https://twitter.com/timkmak/status/982246915394813952

PIERRE THOMAS and JAMES GORDON MEEK
April 6, 2018
1:30 2:26
Mueller obtains evidence about Seychelles meeting

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained evidence that calls into question Congressional testimony given by Trump supporter and Blackwater founder Erik Prince last year, when he described a meeting in Seychelles with a Russian financier close to Vladimir Putin as a casual chance encounter “over a beer,” sources told ABC News.

Well-connected Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, a key witness given limited immunity by Mueller, has been interviewed seven times by prosecutors on a wide range of subjects. He told investigators that he set up a meeting in the Seychelles between Prince and Russian sovereign wealth fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev, mere days before Trump was inaugurated, sources familiar with the investigation said this week.

Nader has submitted to three interviews with special counsel investigators and four appearances before a federal grand jury in Washington since agents stopped him at Dulles International Airport in January, served him with a grand jury subpoena and seized his electronic devices, including his cell phone. Documents obtained by Mueller suggest that before and after Prince met Nader in New York a week before the trip to the Seychelles, Nader shared information with Prince about Dmitriev, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News, which appears to be inconsistent with Prince’s sworn testimony before a U.S. House of Representatives investigative panel.

"I didn't fly there to meet any Russian guy," Prince told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in November. He testified that he travelled to the Seychelles for a meeting with United Arab Emirates officials about possible business opportunities, and they introduced him – unexpectedly – to Dmitriev.

The special counsel's office declined to comment on this story when reached by ABC News.

As of late March, Mueller’s team has not asked Prince – whose sister Betsy DeVos serves as Trump’s Secretary of Education – to appear before the grand jury being used to investigate whether Trump campaign officials or transition aides colluded with Russian government operatives, according to one of Prince’s friends.

Prince told the House Intelligence Committee that his meeting with Dmitriev was a chance encounter “down in the bar” at the suggestion of "one of the brothers" of the United Arab Emirates' leader Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed al-Nayhan.

"At the end, one of the entourage says, 'Hey, by the way, there’s this Russian guy that we’ve dealt with in the past. He’s here also to see someone from the Emirati delegation. And you should meet him. He'd be an interesting guy for you to know, since you’re doing a lot in the oil and gas and mineral space,’” Prince told lawmakers under oath in his sworn testimony. “So, as I recall, I met him, this same guy I talked about, Kirill Dmitriev. Met him down in the bar after dinner, and we talked for 30 minutes over a beer, and that was it.”

Sources say Nader -- who worked at the time for the Emirati leader, known as "MBZ” – tells a different story. According to multiple sources, the U.A.E., an important U.S. ally increasingly eager to be seen as a global powerbroker, wanted to bring a Russian close to the Kremlin together with someone Nader believed was a trusted confidant of members of the incoming administration.

Sources tell ABC News Nader met with Prince at New York's Pierre Hotel a week before the Jan. 11, 2017 meeting in the Seychelles, and later sent Prince biographical information about Dmitriev, which, according to those sources, noted that Dmitriev had been appointed by Putin to oversee the state-run sovereign wealth fund.

Nader says he then facilitated and personally attended the meetings, including one between Prince and Dmitriev, at a resort owned by MBZ off the coast of East Africa, the sources told ABC News. One of the primary goals of the meeting, Nader told investigators, was to discuss foreign policy and to establish a line of communication between the Russian government and the incoming Trump administration, sources told ABC News.

Nader — who Prince said in a 2010 lawsuit deposition had once represented his military contractor business in Iraq — was not mentioned in Prince's congressional testimony despite Prince being asked by lawmakers who was present. Prince said only that Dmitriev's wife was there but she left after a few minutes while they discussed terrorism and oil prices.

A spokesperson for Prince told ABC News on Thursday that "Erik has said all there is to say to the committee and has nothing further to add." Prince has said that the Seychelles meeting was leaked to the news media last year in an illegal “unmasking” of his identity in U.S. signals intelligence intercepts.

Nader, a naturalized U.S. citizen, is an enigma in the nearly yearlong probe of the Trump presidential campaign's dealings with Russians linked to the Kremlin.

His background and credibility have come under attack as his name appeared in recent headlines. He has been arrested twice in the U.S., first in 1984 and again 1991, and convicted once, according to court records unsealed in March, for possession of pornographic videos featuring underage boys.

Nader was also arrested for similar charges involving underage boys in the Czech Republic, according to an Associated Press report.

ABC News could not confirm the AP report, and Nader’s legal team vigorously disputes its accuracy.

Nader's lawyers at powerhouse firm Latham & Watkins, which includes former Obama White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, have said unnamed individuals are dredging up the old criminal cases to discredit him as an important witness for Mueller. They declined to comment to ABC News on Nader's interactions with the special counsel and Nader himself has refused to speak about the Russia probe.

Few in Washington remember George Nader, whose colorful biography reads like a spy thriller: his career has spanned the globe, and along the way he has been a hostage negotiator, arms broker, security operative and, now, an important witness for the former director of the FBI.

He’s even negotiated with the Kremlin. According to Al-Monitor, a news website covering the Middle East, Nader helped broker a $4.2 billion arms deal between Iraq and Russia in 2012.

Nader’s associates say he has embarked on countless sensitive diplomatic missions overseas and was once a special adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. He had easy access to the White House under Presidents Reagan, both Bushes and Clinton, according to former officials, and he visited the Trump White House last year despite his criminal record.

Nader posed with Trump for a picture and even helped arrange the new American president's first major foreign trip to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last year, two top Trump advisers told ABC News.

"He has worked for the Israelis, the Syrians, the Iranians, the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Shiites in southern Iraq," said Mouafac Harb, a Lebanese former journalist who has known Nader for decades. "He’s typical of the kind of shady operatives you often see in the Middle East.”

His 1991 federal conviction in Alexandria, Virginia, for being caught returning from Germany with videotapes in his luggage "depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct" highlights the conflicting chapters in his life.

Prominent foreign policy figures sent testimonials to the federal trial court judge in Virginia, including one friend who said Nader, a Lebanese Christian, "is risking his life" to help free a dozen American, British and other hostages held in Beirut in 1991, by leveraging his close ties to the Shi'a terrorist group Hezbollah. The letters to the judge were provided to ABC News last week by Nader's legal team.

The judge in 1991 sentenced Nader to six months in a halfway house -- well below mandatory sentencing guidelines at that time -- and allowed him to travel to both Moscow and Beirut during his criminal proceedings, later citing Nader's "extraordinary cooperation with the government in certain areas."

The 1991 criminal case was ordered sealed for six months. Instead, it remained under seal for 26 years, until a judge opened the case file last month amid news reports about Nader cooperating with Mueller. Sources told ABC News the U.S. government did not want Nader's secrets easily unearthed while he operated as a backchannel on sensitive matters.

"We used him because we needed all the channels we could get into the Syrian security establishment," said a former top career American diplomat in Damascus, who was aware of Nader's activities in the years following his 1991 conviction. "Nobody was looking for his child porn case. Nobody cared about that stuff at all back then. He was providing too invaluable a service to us."

Nader, according to one former diplomat, has a rare and valuable skill.

"His stock in trade is access and influence,” the former diplomat said. “He finds a way to be valuable to people.”

But Nader had dropped off the radar of many former associates two decades ago, including those who worked in Washington for his "Middle East Insight" magazine, which held many foreign policy discussions hosted by Nader and televised on C-Span until it folded around the time of his criminal conviction.

"Until his name appeared recently, I had no idea that Mr. Nader was even alive," said one former writer at the magazine, who, like most of Nader's associates, declined to be identified by name.
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/mueller-evide ... ories.html

[seemslikeadream]

Trump is a Money Launderer for Russian Mob...

Patrick
‏
Donald Trump tried to enter the Russian market through the Solntsevo criminal group, and his contacts with Russian organized crime are much wider than previously thought.

Кандидат от района Солнцево. Что связывает Трампа с российскими ОПГ | The Insider


https://theins.ru/korrupciya/97595
12:50 PM - 6 Apr 2018


"Dietmar Claudo, closely acquainted with the criminal authority Semyon Mogilevich: business talks were held during this party: "There were two Americans at the party, whose names I do not know. However, they discussed the construction of the Trump Tower in Moscow and Kazakhstan"






From 1984 to the present, a total of 13 criminal authorities associated with Solntsevskaya OPG & its partner criminal organizations had real estate in the Trump Tower in New York or other Trump buildings. The main buyers were clients from Azerbaijan, Russia and Kazakhstan.







In a charge brought by Mueller, Manafort was named the beneficiary of Cyprus company Lucicle Consultants Ltd, which received millions of dollars from Ivan Fursin, who, according Austrian police, works for Dmitry Firtash and is part of the organization of Semyon Mogilevich.





In 2006, the Azerbaijani criminal Hikmet Mukhtarov was shot in a car registered with the co-founder of Crocus, Rail Zeynalov. According to some, Vyacheslav Ivankov-Yaponchik (who was detained in the Trump Tower) was present at the funeral of Hikmet's authority in Azerbaijan.







Emin Ahmadbekov, a former Azerbaijani police officer: "I worked for the police for 18 years. I was put on trumped-up charges. Two criminal authorities sat with me, who told that in the early 1990s the Hikmet group, the thief in law, guarded Agalarov and his family."






"In the 90's it was impossible to work without a criminal world. As far as I understand, Agalarov allocated a certain amount of money to the thieving obshchak, and in return they provided security for him, his wife, his son, and so on. Then the thieves became businessmen"




Sam Kislin started with an electronics store in Manhattan, a favorite place for Soviet diplomats, KGB agents and members of the Politburo. In 1976, Kislin and another emigrant from the USSR, Tamir Sapir, managed to sell 200 TV sets to Trump Commodore Hotel on credit for 30 days.



A colleague of Mogilevich, Dietmar Claudot: "Felix Sater from Bayrock counted Seva Mogilevich, Mikhas and Japonka to his friends. It is possible that it was Sater who helped organize the very meeting of Trump representatives with Mikhais and Mogilevich in the hotel "Ukraine""







October 28, 2015 Trump signed a declaration of intent with the Russian company IC Expert Investment Co., according to which it was planned that the Russian company will pay Trump for the use of his brand in the construction of the Trump Tower in Moscow.





Shortly thereafter, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen wrote a letter to Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president's press secretary, asking him to support the project. Sater admitted that he had received funding from the VTB Bank for the Trump Tower (later VTB CEO Kostin denied this).





Spanish law enforcement agencies consider Torshin a member of the Tagan OPG. In 2016, his representative, Alexander Romanov, who owned the hotel in Majorca Mar y Pins, was sentenced to confiscation of property and two years in prison for money laundering





Sam Kislin in 1998 helped Giuliani fundraising, which brought $ 2.1 million to participate in the elections to the Senate. At the same time, in 1996 and 1997, the company Mogilevich YBM Magnex made donations to the National Republican Committee of the Congress.



In 2007, Trump organized the wedding of the daughter of Tamir Sapir and Rotem Rosen, the general director of the American branch of the company "Africa-Israel", owned by Lev Leviev. A few months after the ceremony, Leviev met with Trump to discuss potential deals in Moscow



At the wedding there was Jared Kushner, the future husband of Ivanka Trump and, like Leviev, an orthodox Jew (which, perhaps, helped them find a common language). Later Kushner bought a house from Leviev for $ 300 million and in 2009 married Ivanka Trump.




RosUkrEnergo in 2004 became an intermediary in the gas trade from Russia to Ukraine. A clear explanation of why a gas broker needs an intermediary could not have been given either by Yanukovych or Putin.






On the Russian side, the shareholder of RUE was Gazprombank (controlled by Vladimir Putin's closest associate), and the people of Mogilevich (Firtash and Fursin) from the Ukrainian side. According to Alexander Turchinov, it was Semyon Mogilevich who was behind the RUE.




The fact that Mogilevich, Tokhtakhunov, Gennady Petrov and other leaders of the underworld, being wanted in the US and Europe, operate unhindered in Russia, confirms the hypothesis of their cooperation with the state.



https://twitter.com/TrickFreee/status/9 ... 6954535936

Ok, I can read THESE TWO words

Дональд Трамп

The Agalarov connection to Ivankov-Japonchik /Mogilevich/Mikhailov is particularly enlightening.

Wendy Siegelman
May 30, 2017
Rosneft Deal — 2 Charts — Basic & Detailed
The chart views below show the December 2016 Rosneft 19.5% privatization deal with Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority. Scroll down to see a detailed chart showing the complex overlapping financial and political connections related directly and indirectly to the December transaction. Also see SCL/Cambridge Analytica chart, Trump-Parscale, Trump Soho & Drake Hotel charts.
NOTE: chart not yet updated to reflect CEFC China Energy 14.2% investment.




SOURCE DATA USED FOR THE CHART (info in chart as of May 2017)
Note: some filing data has updated and is not yet reflected in the chart.
Rosneft Shareholder Structure
Rosneft Board of Directors
QHG Holding LLP — #OC414947 — filings and significant persons data
QHG Investment LLP — # OC414949 — filings and significant persons data
QHG Trading LLP — # OC414946 — filings and significant persons data
QHG Trading Rosneft deal for up to 55 million tons of oil
QHG Oil Ventures Pte Ltd, formerly QHG Shares Pte Ltd, Catalpo Pte Ltd (Singapore Govt Biz site, enter name to search for name history)
VTB loan of 692 billion rubles to QHG Shares Limited
QHG Investments owns QHG Shares
Intesa Sanpaolo May 25 2017 debt syndication of 5.2 billion Euros
Reported 50/50 joint venture between Qatar and Glencore (including 300 million Euros from Glencore, 2.5 billion Euros from Qatar, 5.2 billion Euros from Intesa loan, and 2.2 billion Euros source unknown)
VTB and Rosneftegaz Bridge loans
Russian Order of Friendship awards for Qatar, Glencore, Intesa heads
RUSAL Shareholder Structure — including 8.75% ownership by Glencore controlled Amokenga Holdings and SUAL Partners
SUAL Partners Vekselberg and Blavatnik
RUSAL Board of Directors — including Glencore’s CEO Ivan Glasenberg, Rosneft Chairman Matthias Warnig
Glencore Chairman Hayward Advisory Board for L1 Energy, part of LetterOne
Richard Burt Advisor to the Board of LetterOne
Intesa 350 Mil Euro Gazprom loan
Intesa 750 Mil Euro Yamal LNG loan
Yamal LNG $27 billion project
Rosneft ENI partnership extended by Putin and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni
2012 $500 billion Exxon Rosneft agreement
2011 Exxon Rosneft Arctic agreement
Exxon Qatar Golden Pass LNG partnership
Qatar Airways Trump Tower tenant
Qatar (QIA) and Tom Barrack Miramax purchase and other business deals
Blackstone connection to deal through Walkers and QHG Cayman Ltd
Blackstone majority holding in Intertrust
Intertrust acquisition of Walkers
Blackstone $376 million co-financing loan for Kushner’s Watchtower building
Steven Schwarzman on Board of Russian Direct Investment Fund
Rosneft loan to Venezuela PDVSA (owner of Citgo) — default would transfer ownership to Rosneft
Rosneft bid to purchase India’s Essar Oil
Fridman, Blavatnik, Vekselberg, Khan $28 billion sale of BNP-TK to Rosneft
Rosneft former client of Bracewell & Giuliani
Bank of Cyprus — Wilbur Ross Vice Chairman, Viktor Vekselberg largest shareholder
Paul Manafort and Oleg Deripaska business deals
Carter Page July 2016 New Economic School visit and alleged meeting with Igor Sechin
This Reuters chart provided information used in the basic chart. Ownership, company names, and other data was updated and expanded based on Companies House filings and other sources noted above.

Additional info not yet on chart:
Peter Grauer Glencore Director and Blackstone Director
FBI Director nominee Christopher Wray lawfirm represents Rosneft and Gazprom
Rex Tillerson was Director of Bahama based US-Russia firm Exxon Neftegas in 1998
Giuliani business interactions with Qatar, Rosneft, & Alfa

https://medium.com/@wsiegelman/rosneft- ... 59ac95ae7f

[seemslikeadream]

The Russian lawyer defending FSB agents accused of treason for being involved in Steele's #TrumpRussia Dossier just spoke out.

He says that Putin definitely got the dirt on Trump from his 2013 Miss Universe Moscow visit.

Award-winning Russian lawyer just made a damning announcement about Putin and Trump
BY GRANT STERN
PUBLISHED ON APRIL 6, 2018


A Russian lawyer honored by Human Rights Watch just told Australian public television that Vladimir Putin has lots of dirt on Donald Trump from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant held in Moscow.

“I don’t know what they have on him, but I’m sure they have a lot from his visit,” says attorney Ivan Pavlov, who is defending two Russian citizens accused of treason for their roles in Christopher Steele’s Trump-Russia dossier.

Pavlov was just awarded the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism by Human Rights Watch for defending Russian Federation citizens accused of high treason, whose numbers have multiplied since the Russian autocrat decided to invade Ukraine. SBS reports:



In the aftermath of the dossier’s publication, there was a spate of arrests in Moscow, including leading cybersecurity expert Ruslan Stoyanov, and FSB state intelligence officers Dmitry Dokuchayev and Sergei Mikhailov – the FSB’s deputy head of cyber operations, who was reportedly marched out of a meeting with a bag over his head.

Mr Pavlov is reportedly representing more than one of them.
Before Ruslan Stoyanov was charged with treason, he used to work for the Russia-based Kaspersky Internet “Security” company – whose software is believed to be used by Putin’s intelligence services to covertly scoop up data around the world – before his dramatic arrest last January.

In a Kafkaesque twist, Russian authorities claim that his charges stem from an unrelated incident from 2010. But Reuters reports that “Russian authorities at times use old cases as a way of charging people suspected of later crimes.”

Stoyanov managed to smuggle a message out from Moscow’s infamous Lefortovo Prison to tell the world that both Vladimir Putin and the Russian state are harboring cybercriminals.

The two FSB officers were arrested just after Trump took office, leading former NSA officials to speculate that there was a connection between the two events.

The arrests happened last year right before of news broke about the suspicious death of a former KGB general close to Putin who worked as Chief of Staff to the Russian state-owned oil company boss, Igor Sechin.

“Life is hard but fortunately it’s short,” said the fatalistic attorney Pavlov to SBS about how he has become accustomed to less than fruitful conditions for justice being served by Putin’s regime. “It helps to keep optimism. And continue to work in Russia.”
https://washingtonpress.com/2018/04/06/ ... and-trump/

[alloneword]

Cheers for the link, Ben.

I knew I'd heard the name... a background piece on him (Mifsud) here:

Why has Britain given such a warm welcome to this shadowy professor?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -professor

[BenDhyan]

Thanks alloneword...

[seemslikeadream]

Elizabeth Vos

All Russiagate Roads Lead To London is a most ridiculous poorly researched headline/story ...get a clue........ have you never heard of any of the rest of the names below? Of course Mifsud is not all roads what an insane thing to say.....he is part of a trail to Papadopoulos and that is it! Get back to me when you go down all these roads. Have you never heard of Paul Manafort ...Paul Gates? No one needs Mifsud to get to Sessions or trump for that matter. My god love have you never heard of Felix Sater?

Moglevich➡️Fursin➡️Gates➡️Broidy➡️VanDerZwaan➡️Nikulin➡️Dokuchaev➡️Giulani➡️WeberRohrbacher➡️Manafort➡️Pence➡️Trump

Erdogan➡️Zarrab➡️Gulen➡️FlynnJr➡️Flynn➡️Nader➡️Zamel➡️➡️Prince➡️Kushner➡️Pence

Lavrov➡️Mifsud➡️Papadopoulos➡️Miller➡️Sessions
Pinedo
Sater
Page
18 Russians
Ed Kutler
Ivanka
Stone
Corallo
Paul Ryan
100+ FELONY CHARGES
Cambridge Analytica➡️BCCI 2.0

you can toss those feathers Ms. Vos


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEJa_VgpIAc
_________________


Feb 2013: A VIP party for Mihas, leader of the Solntsevo OPG [RU mafia], was held at a Moscow hotel on a floor permanently reserved for Mogilevich. The singer was Emin Agalarov, whose father very close w/ Mihas.

Polly Sigh

Konstantin Kilimnik [Russian GRU business partner of Manafort & Gates] started a DC lobbying firm in 2015 with Sam Patten, a lobbyist who worked for Cambridge Analytica in 2014. Kilimnik & Patten's firm "helps its clients win elections." I'll bet.

David Carroll


Meet Sam Patten, former #CambridgeAnalytica operative who teamed up with accused Russian intel asset, Konstantin Kilimnik. In 2014, #AggregateIQ built RIPON for SCL Elections Ltd. AIQ is now suspended by Facebook.

A Suspected Russian Spy, With Curious Ties to Washington

A longtime Republican operative has been in contact with a suspected Russian intelligence agent for nearly two decades. What does it mean for Robert Mueller's investigation?

Natasha Bertrand3:10 PM ET
A longtime Republican operative with ties to the controversial data firm hired by President Donald Trump’s campaign team also has a nearly two-decade-long friendship and business relationship with a suspected Russian intelligence agent, Konstantin Kilimnik, who has landed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s crosshairs.

The Washington-based operative, Sam Patten, would not tell me whether he has been interviewed by Mueller’s team as part of their investigation into Russia’s election interference and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. But Patten said that his relationship with Kilimnik—a former officer in Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) who worked closely with Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, for over a decade—has “been thoroughly explored by relevant government entities.”

Patten’s long friendship with Kilimnik—which stems from their time working together at the International Republican Institute between 2001 and 2003—would likely be enough to draw scrutiny from Mueller, who appears to have honed in on Kilimnik as a potentially significant link between the Trump campaign and Russia. The special counsel’s office alleged in a court filing late last month that Kilimnik still had ties to Russian intelligence services in 2016, and that his conversations with Gates in September of that year are relevant to the investigation. Manafort and Gates’s arrival to the campaign team coincided with the most pivotal Russia-related episode of the election: the release of emails that had been stolen from the Democratic National Committee by hackers working for the GRU, Russia’s premier military-intelligence unit.

“We’ve known each other for more than 15 years, and we periodically look for places we can work together,” Patten told me of Kilimnik. Their relationship is also proof that Kilimnik’s ability to ingratiate himself with American political consultants went beyond Manafort and Gates—a fact that could serve as a new data point in examining Russia’s ties to Republican operatives in the U.S. By the spring of 2015—when, as my colleague Frank Foer wrote, Manafort’s “life had tipped into a deep trough”—Kilimnik was already working on a new venture with Patten that appeared to be focused on targeted messaging in foreign elections.

That venture, first reported by The Daily Beast this week, was a private LLC incorporated in February 2015 called Begemot Ventures International (BVI) with a mission to “build the right arguments before domestic and international audiences.” Kilimnik is listed as the firm’s principal and Patten is listed as an executive, according to company records, and the company is registered to Patten’s office address in Washington. A website for Begemot—which was built almost two years after the company was incorporated—links to Patten’s email for inquiries, but does not list the company’s clients.

It is not clear why Patten, who already had a consulting firm registered in D.C., decided to open a brand-new company with Kilimnik. Asked whether any of the firm’s clients were in Russia or Ukraine, Patten replied, “It would be poor business to talk about our clients, but I can tell you declaratively that none of the clients have involvement in the particular circus in the U.S. that seems to have become a news industry in and of itself,” an apparent reference to the Russia investigation. He confirmed that the company, which he described as providing “strategic communications advice for clients outside the U.S.,” is still active, but said it has no projects ongoing at this time.


“BVI has only worked for clients outside U.S. in other countries,” Patten said. “As a result of all this, I regret it probably won’t be working for anyone anymore, but you never know. Life can be unpredictable.” Patten said that, “to the best of [his] knowledge,” Kilimnik “was no longer working for Manafort when BVI was formed.” But he acknowledged that Kilimnik and Manafort, who began working together in Kiev in 2005, “remained in touch, as is well-known.” Patten’s work in Ukraine dovetailed with Manafort’s. About eight months after BVI was incorporated, in October 2015, Patten was in Ukraine advising Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko on his reelection campaign. On his website, Patten writes that he “helped steer Mayor Klitschko to reelection in Ukraine’s capital and largest city in one of the toughest anti-government atmospheres in that country’s history.”

Serhiy Lyovochkin—the former chief of staff to ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who hired Manafort to rebrand the pro-Russia Party of Regions in 2014—brought Patten onto Klitschko’s team, Ukrainian media reported at the time. Dmitry Firtash, a pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarch with ties to Manafort who is known for bankrolling pro-Russia candidates in Ukraine, also boasted in 2015 that he was involved in Klitschko’s campaign. Asked whether Manafort coordinated with Patten and/or Kilimnik on Klitschko’s reelection campaign, a spokesman for Manafort said he had “nothing to add.”

Patten describes himself as an “international political consultant” on his website, but he worked at the Oregon office of Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, SCL Group, helping to fine-tune the firm’s voter targeting operations in the runup to the 2014 midterm elections, according to investigative journalist Nafeez Ahmed, now a columnist for Middle East Eye. Patten alluded to this work on his website, writing that he worked with “one of London’s most innovative strategic communications companies” on “a beta run of a cutting-edge electoral approach” that “included taking micro-targeting to the next level” during the 2014 congressional cycle. Those technologies, he wrote, were “adopted by at least one major U.S. presidential candidate.”

Both Republican candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump employed Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 election. Mueller is now scrutinizing the Trump campaign’s ties to Cambridge Analytica, whose board included Trump’s campaign CEO and former chief strategist, Steve Bannon. Bannon interviewed Patten in July 2016 for his SiriusXM radio show, Breitbart News Daily, about a group Patten represents called the Committee to Destroy ISIS. There is no evidence that Patten did any work with Cambridge Analytica or the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. But his relationship with the data firm did not end with the 2014 midterm elections. According to The Guardian’s Carole Cadwalladr, Patten “played a central role” in the firm’s work in Nigeria in early 2015—work that included hiring Israeli computer hackers to search for “kompromat,” or compromising information, on the candidate challenging the incumbent president at the time, Goodluck Jonathan. Patten didn’t respond to a request for comment about the Nigeria campaign.

Patten said that he remains in touch with Kilimnik, who he believes has been unfairly scrutinized. “As you might imagine, the barrage of shade and innuendo that has been cast on him since Manafort had his time in Trump Tower has not been something he’d welcomed, nor anything that could objectively be called fair,” Patten said, referring to Manafort’s role on the campaign, which was headquartered at Trump Tower.

Gates and Manafort—who were indicted by Mueller in late October on charges including money laundering and tax evasion—remained in touch with Kilimnik during the campaign, according to court documents and emails, even though both knew about Kilimnik’s background in Russian intelligence. Kilimnik later acknowledged in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that he and Manafort emailed each other “about Trump and everything” during the campaign. “There were millions of emails,” Kilimnik told RFERL in a text message. “We worked for 11 years. And we discussed a lot of issues, from Putin to women.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... source=twb

Spain issues arrest warrants for Russian officials close to Putin

Move by Spanish national court judge follows decade-long investigation into the activities of the Russian mafia

Luke HardingLast modified on Tue 28 Nov 2017 16.59 EST
Spain has issued arrest warrants for senior Russian government officials close to Vladimir Putin following a decade-long investigation into the activities of the Russian mafia.

A Spanish national court judge is seeking to arrest 12 people allegedly linked to Russian gangsters operating in Spain. They include Vladislav Reznik, a prominent MP for Putin’s ruling United Russia party, and Reznik’s wife Diana Gindin.

Also sought are Nikolai Aulov, the deputy head of Russia’s federal narcotics service and Igor Sobelevsky, the former deputy head of the the prosecutor general’s investigative committee, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Most of those wanted by Spain are believed to be in Russia.

The high-placed officials are thought to have helped one of Russia’s best-known mafia groups, the Tambov gang, infiltrate state structures, police, port authorities and private banks and corporations. The Tambov and Malyshev gangs, which made their names smuggling heroin in St Petersburg when Putin was deputy mayor in the 1990s, allegedly laundered money through Spanish real estate.

They are also accused of murder, extortion and drugs and weapons trafficking. The arrest warrants were issued in January but only became public this week.

The Spanish prosecutor’s moves bolster longstanding allegations that the Russian government is a mafia state involved in corruption and organised crime. The reputed head of the Tambov gang, Gennady Petrov, has previously been tied to several of Putin’s closest allies.

In 1998-99 he was a co-owner of Bank Rossiya, along with several men who have homes with Putin in the Ozero dacha compound near St Petersburg.

In 2014 the US sanctioned Bank Rossiya, describing it as the “personal bank for senior (Russian) officials.” Last month the Panama Papers revealed that managers at Bank Rossiya transferred at least $1bn to offshore firms linked to Sergei Roldugin, a professional musician and Putin’s best friend. Roldugin owns 3.2% of the bank.

“The criminal organisation headed by Petrov managed to achieve a clear penetration of the state structures of his country, not only with the lawmaker Reznik but with several ministers,” the Spanish prosecutor’s report said.

In particular, Petrov allegedly paid investigative committee deputy head Sobolevsky’s personal expenses and presented him with gifts in exchange for information about police actions against his gang. The Spanish court has reissued 2012 warrants for Petrov, his wife, and a supposed member of the Malyshev gang.

The arrest warrants follow a major, multi-stage investigation by prosecutors and Spain’s intelligence services into Russian mafia activity. Russian criminals began using Spain as a base of operations back in the mid-1990s. They laundered profits from illegal activities in Russia and invested them in Spanish real estate.

In 2004 Spanish prosecutors created a formal strategy to “behead” the Russian mafia. The Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, an expert on Russian organised crime, helped the police investigation. It was Litvinenko who, according to US diplomats, coined the phrase “mafia state”.

A public inquiry last year into Litvinenko’s murder heard that he was due to give evidence to Spanish prosecutors. A week before the meeting in 2006 he was murdered in London with radioactive polonium.

Other senior Russian government officials not so far indicted feature in Spanish court papers.

They include Russia’s deputy prime minister, Dmitry Kozak, former prime minister Viktor Zubkov, and former defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Zubkov’s son-in-law. Also mentioned is Leonid Reiman, a former communications minister. All are close to Putin.

The most intriguing name is that of Aulov. The Spanish police collected thousands of hours of intercept material during their inquiry including 78 phone calls between Aulov and Petrov. Shortly before he was killed, Litvinenko wrote an unflattering report about Viktor Ivanov, Aulov’s boss. An inquiry chaired by Sir Robert Owen found last year that the report had fallen into the Kremlin’s hands and may have contributed to Litvinenko’s murder.

It is highly unlikely the Kremlin will allow the extradition of any of the wanted Russians to Spain. Russia’s constitution forbids the extradition of its citizens. Putin has refused to extradite to the UK Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun – the two men found by the public inquiry to have poisoned Litvinenko.

The Spanish prosecutor alleges that Reznik helped secure government positions inside Russia for the mafia’s preferred candidates. One of them was Alexander Bastrykin, the boss of Russia’s powerful investigative committee. In return, it is alleged, the mafia rewarded Reznik with money and property. Reznik denies wrongdoing and says his friendship with Petrov is purely social.

Prosecutors have put out a warrant for Reznik through Interpol, a move that Reznik’s lawyer said had been appealed. The federal narcotics service called the decision to arrest Aulov part of “a political hit job to discredit Russian officials”, RIA Novosti reported.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ ... e-to-putin

PANAMA PAPERS
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=39684&p=643273&hilit=Panama+Paper#p643273