1/ Vladimir Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin as president in 1999, on a wave of popularity generated by his decisive handling of the response to a series of terrorist attacks on Russian apartment buildings in September 1999, when he was prime minister.
2/ This was after the First Chechen War, a brutal suppression of the Chechnya independence movement in which some 100,000 Chechens were slaughtered by Russian troops.
(Bill Clinton compared Yeltsin to Lincoln while underwriting the operation ).
3/ The Russian IC was able to assassinate the Chechen president while he was negotiating peace terms on his cell phone, using advanced technology provided to the FSB by the US. A referendum was to be held in Chechnya in 2001—CHEXIT, call it—that would determine its fate.
4/ But then, on Sept 4, 9, and 13, 1999, a series of apartment bombings happened in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, killing 300 and injuring 1000 more. These were said to be the work of Chechen separatist terrorists—a lie that Russians believed.
5/ In fact, Russian IC masterminded & implemented the bombings as a way to galvanize popular support for its misadventures in Chechnya. Putin was the primary beneficiary. He took the presidency because of his perceived strength during the response. He’s been in charge ever since.
6/ Putin was very keen to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan. He pressured Clinton to do so in 2000. The Taliban put a stop to heroin cultivation, which hurt Semion Mogilevich and the Russian mob. Also, the Taliban was not into the pipeline, which the Russian economy needed.
7/ In late June 2001, an Indian magazine reported that a joint force was being planned, with Russian, US, and Indian forces combining to oust the Taliban.
8/ In August 2001, Putin warned the Bush government of a plot involving suicidal hijackers planning to attack the US (per a Fox News report from 2002).
9/ On Sept 12, 2001, a Russian newspaper claimed that Russian IC knew who was behind the attacks and who implemented them, and that Putin had warned Bush a few weeks in advance.
10/ Putin was the first world leader to call George W Bush after the 9/11 attacks—pledging his support, of course.
11/ In a recent NYT piece about Bruce Ohr, Ohr's longtime deputy said this: “Until 9/11, organized crime was one of the main priority criminal programs at the Justice Department. Russian organized crime was a focus. Bruce knew a lot of the Russia stuff and traveled there.”
12/ In other words, 9/11 had the effect of taking the FBI’s focus off of Semion Mogilevich and the Russian mob.
13/ The birthday of Felix Dzerzhinsky—“Iron Felix,” who founded the Cheka, the notorious Soviet state security operation, and Putin’s hero—was September 11.
(Fun fact: The secret state police was an invention of Ivan the Terrible.)
14/ Despite his recent charm offensive, Felix Sater, Trump’s erstwhile business partner, has long ties to the Russian mob. He was an FBI informant, and a good one: he helped the US government track down Osama bin Lade
15/ How would a guy known for solid Russian mob contacts be able to find UBL, presumably an enemy of the Russians? Further, if the Russians knew where bin Laden was hiding, why did Putin not just relay that intel to Bush/Obama directly, since he was so eager to offer his support?
16/ Russia was probably behind the bizarre attacks on US diplomats in Cuba last year. And they launched a cyber attack on us in 2016, contaminating our election.
17/ Obama seems to genuinely loathe Putin. HRC, same thing. Trump, of course, positively adores him. (This may be because he has been laundering money for Putin’s partner in crime, Semion Mogilevich, for years.)
18/ Trump and the GOP are now actively courting Putin. Energy Secretary Rick Perry is in Moscow now. Rand Paul has acted as a courier between Trump and Putin. Once anti-Trump, Lindsey Graham has been turned and is now a Kremlin mouthpiece.
19/ The FBI/DOJ folks Trump goes after publicly have one thing in common: they are all Russian mob experts.
20/ So Putin 1) has experience blowing up buildings full of civilians to sway popular support, & in '01 wanted: 2) the Taliban gone; 3) his mob associates to not be the DOJ’s top focus; 4) an image as a champion of democracy & fighter of terrorists to burnish his image at home.
I will leave the speculation to others, but one conclusion can certainly be drawn: Putin is an evil fukker, and a POTUS who capitulates to him is no Leader of the Free World—he is a slave.
[END]
PS: Book sources are "The Terror Timeline" & "The War on Truth."
Also h/t
@ToestringRd @LincolnsBible @ericgarland @ninaandtito @ZevShalev
PPS: The great photo is from Vanity Fair, taken by the photographer Platon in 2012.