Its.
All.
Connected.
TRUMP-RUSSIA
All.
Connected.
TRUMP-RUSSIA
RUSSIA/РОССИЯ THREAD—ASSANGE CHRGD W/ SPYING—DJT IMPEACHED TWICE-US TREASURY SANCTS KILIMNIK AS RUSSIAN AGNT
- Thread starter ☑︎#VoteDemocrat
- Start date
Did nikkas think I wouldn't bring up TAD DEVINE again???
We MUST hold these people accountable!!!!!
Its ALL connected!!!!
@88m3 @ADevilYouKhow @wire28 @dtownreppin214
@dza @wire28 @BigMoneyGrip @Dameon Farrow @re'up @Blackfyre @NY's #1 Draft Pick @Skyfall @2Quik4UHoes
We MUST hold these people accountable!!!!!
Its ALL connected!!!!
@88m3 @ADevilYouKhow @wire28 @dtownreppin214
@dza @wire28 @BigMoneyGrip @Dameon Farrow @re'up @Blackfyre @NY's #1 Draft Pick @Skyfall @2Quik4UHoes
Nothing burger 
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
Where’s the sirens?
In Ukraine
Merchant Banker Took Money, Instructions From Moscow to Run New York ‘Propaganda Center’: DOJ
Merchant Banker Took Money, Instructions From Moscow to Run New York ‘Propaganda Center’: DOJ
Instagram/@russiancenter.newyork
A 61-year-old woman holding both U.S. and Russian citizenship who ran an “I Love Russia” youth outreach campaign has been charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Russian government, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Elena Branson, who is alleged “to have corresponded with Putin himself,” remains at large after moving from New York to Russia roughly a year and a half ago, according to a Department of Justice press release. But before that, according to Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen, she was engaged for years “in a wide-ranging influence and lobbying scheme with funding and direction from the Russian government—all while deliberately leaving the American people in the dark.”
Branson faces six criminal counts, with Manhattan prosecutors detailing how she evaded registering with the U.S. government as a foreign agent—a charge sometimes described as “espionage-lite.” She is also charged for allegedly participating in a visa fraud conspiracy, and making false statements to the FBI.
The charges against Branson were announced hours after President Joe Biden said the U.S. would ban oil imports from Russia, which he said would effectively sever “the main artery” of the Russian economy. The White House, like manyother countries, is continuing to pursue economic avenues of retaliation against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Prosecutors have accused Branson of trying to hide the fact that the organization she founded and ran, Russian Center New York, was backed by tens of thousands of dollars in funding from the Kremlin. The Russian government also instructed her on what to do with that money, prosecutors said.
Branson was also the chair of the Russian Community Council of the USA (also known in Russian as the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots of the U.S. or its acronym KSORS). In her spare time, she held down a day job as an advisor to Manhattan Venture Partners, a merchant-banking technology firm, and before that, a financial strategist at Beryl Consulting Group, according to her LinkedIn.
The Daily Beast first reported in June last year that the FBI was investigating KSORS, questioning dozens of people associated with the group and conducting home searches. The council, a diaspora network with aims of popularizing Russian culture in the U.S., became increasingly aggressive and nationalistic after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. One former chair told the Beast that he had been unceremoniously pushed out by the organization after refusing to co-sign a statement in support of the occupation.
One expert told the Beast at the time that the gray area between celebrating cultural heritage and promoting political agendas made such investigations difficult. “The most difficult thing here is to distinguish where ‘innocent’ events dedicated to the popularization of Russian literature, language, a commemoration of dates from the common history of nations, and so on, end,” Jamestown Foundation analyst Kseniya Kirilova said, “and destructive ‘information operations’ begin.”
The extent and the outcome of the FBI’s probe is still largely unclear, but KSORS announced in November 2021 that it would be shutting down. In a statement, the group directly blamed the investigation, which it said had targeted “300 Russian community members,” for its closure. Calling the FBI’s tactics “reminiscent of the Cold War era,” KSORS also denied it had engaged in any political activities, according to RadioFreeEurope.
Branson was one of the KSORS community members who had her home raided by federal agents. She told state-funded news channel RT, whose American bureau shut down earlier this month, that agents had swarmed her home in the early hours of Sept. 29, 2020, confiscating computers, iPhones, and documents.
“The agents asked me to go out and searched the apartment for several hours,” she said, RadioFreeEurope reported. “They didn’t tell me what they were looking for.”
Amidst all the kerfuffle, Branson was also focused on her duties as president of Russian Center New York.
The organization, according to its own mission statement, “a community organization founded in 2012 to celebrate and share Russian cultural heritage for the enrichment of our community, improve relations between the American and the Russian people, protect the rights of Russian Americans and encourage their participation in public and cultural affairs of the U.S.”
The Manhattan federal prosecutors on Monday had a somewhat more succinct definition of it: “a Russian propaganda center.”
“The Russian government at its highest levels, up to and including President Vladimir Putin,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, “have made known that aggressive propaganda and recruitment of the Russian diaspora around the world is a Russian priority.”
In direct pursuit of that goal, Williams continued, Branson “corresponded with Putin himself and met with a high-ranking Russia minister” before founding RCNY over a decade ago.
At one point operating out of a twelfth-floor, one-bedroom apartment on Central Park West in Manhattan worth around a million dollars, as the Beast reported last year, Branson and RCNY ran a “campaign to identify the next generation of American leaders, cultivate information channels, and shape US policy in favor of Russian objectives,” FBI official Michael J. Driscoll said.
Her campaign methods included pushing an “I Love Russia” campaign “aimed at American youths” and hosting an annual “youth forum.” Around 2019, she and RCNY also lobbied Hawaiian state officials to halt the name change of a formerly Russian fort on the island of Kauai. As part of the effort, Branson organized a trip for the Hawaiians to go to Moscow and rub elbows with their Russian counterparts, according to prosecutors.
The fort was not named by prosecutors, but it is likely Russian Fort Elizabeth, a designated monument built in 1817. Hawaiian activists were ultimately unsuccessful in changing its name to the native title of “Paʻulaʻula o Hipo.”
None of these things are considered illegal in isolation, but lobbyists for foreign governments working in the United States must declare their background to the Department of Justice, as part of an 83-year-old law called FARA, or the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Branson “knew” that she was legally required to do so, prosecutors said.
But instead, she lied to federal agents who questioned her the same day her home was raided in 2020. In an interview, she “falsely claimed” that she had never been asked by the Russian government to coordinate meetings between American business and political leaders and Moscow officials, according to the Department of Justice.
Shortly afterward, Branson fled to Russia. In an interview with a state-controlled news channel in October of 2021, Branson said she had left the U.S. under duress, adding it was likely she would have been arrested had she stayed.
Merchant Banker Took Money, Instructions From Moscow to Run New York ‘Propaganda Center’: DOJ
Instagram/@russiancenter.newyork
A 61-year-old woman holding both U.S. and Russian citizenship who ran an “I Love Russia” youth outreach campaign has been charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Russian government, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Elena Branson, who is alleged “to have corresponded with Putin himself,” remains at large after moving from New York to Russia roughly a year and a half ago, according to a Department of Justice press release. But before that, according to Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen, she was engaged for years “in a wide-ranging influence and lobbying scheme with funding and direction from the Russian government—all while deliberately leaving the American people in the dark.”
Branson faces six criminal counts, with Manhattan prosecutors detailing how she evaded registering with the U.S. government as a foreign agent—a charge sometimes described as “espionage-lite.” She is also charged for allegedly participating in a visa fraud conspiracy, and making false statements to the FBI.
The charges against Branson were announced hours after President Joe Biden said the U.S. would ban oil imports from Russia, which he said would effectively sever “the main artery” of the Russian economy. The White House, like manyother countries, is continuing to pursue economic avenues of retaliation against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Prosecutors have accused Branson of trying to hide the fact that the organization she founded and ran, Russian Center New York, was backed by tens of thousands of dollars in funding from the Kremlin. The Russian government also instructed her on what to do with that money, prosecutors said.
Branson was also the chair of the Russian Community Council of the USA (also known in Russian as the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots of the U.S. or its acronym KSORS). In her spare time, she held down a day job as an advisor to Manhattan Venture Partners, a merchant-banking technology firm, and before that, a financial strategist at Beryl Consulting Group, according to her LinkedIn.
The Daily Beast first reported in June last year that the FBI was investigating KSORS, questioning dozens of people associated with the group and conducting home searches. The council, a diaspora network with aims of popularizing Russian culture in the U.S., became increasingly aggressive and nationalistic after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. One former chair told the Beast that he had been unceremoniously pushed out by the organization after refusing to co-sign a statement in support of the occupation.
One expert told the Beast at the time that the gray area between celebrating cultural heritage and promoting political agendas made such investigations difficult. “The most difficult thing here is to distinguish where ‘innocent’ events dedicated to the popularization of Russian literature, language, a commemoration of dates from the common history of nations, and so on, end,” Jamestown Foundation analyst Kseniya Kirilova said, “and destructive ‘information operations’ begin.”
The extent and the outcome of the FBI’s probe is still largely unclear, but KSORS announced in November 2021 that it would be shutting down. In a statement, the group directly blamed the investigation, which it said had targeted “300 Russian community members,” for its closure. Calling the FBI’s tactics “reminiscent of the Cold War era,” KSORS also denied it had engaged in any political activities, according to RadioFreeEurope.
Branson was one of the KSORS community members who had her home raided by federal agents. She told state-funded news channel RT, whose American bureau shut down earlier this month, that agents had swarmed her home in the early hours of Sept. 29, 2020, confiscating computers, iPhones, and documents.
“The agents asked me to go out and searched the apartment for several hours,” she said, RadioFreeEurope reported. “They didn’t tell me what they were looking for.”
Amidst all the kerfuffle, Branson was also focused on her duties as president of Russian Center New York.
The organization, according to its own mission statement, “a community organization founded in 2012 to celebrate and share Russian cultural heritage for the enrichment of our community, improve relations between the American and the Russian people, protect the rights of Russian Americans and encourage their participation in public and cultural affairs of the U.S.”
The Manhattan federal prosecutors on Monday had a somewhat more succinct definition of it: “a Russian propaganda center.”
“The Russian government at its highest levels, up to and including President Vladimir Putin,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, “have made known that aggressive propaganda and recruitment of the Russian diaspora around the world is a Russian priority.”
In direct pursuit of that goal, Williams continued, Branson “corresponded with Putin himself and met with a high-ranking Russia minister” before founding RCNY over a decade ago.
At one point operating out of a twelfth-floor, one-bedroom apartment on Central Park West in Manhattan worth around a million dollars, as the Beast reported last year, Branson and RCNY ran a “campaign to identify the next generation of American leaders, cultivate information channels, and shape US policy in favor of Russian objectives,” FBI official Michael J. Driscoll said.
Her campaign methods included pushing an “I Love Russia” campaign “aimed at American youths” and hosting an annual “youth forum.” Around 2019, she and RCNY also lobbied Hawaiian state officials to halt the name change of a formerly Russian fort on the island of Kauai. As part of the effort, Branson organized a trip for the Hawaiians to go to Moscow and rub elbows with their Russian counterparts, according to prosecutors.
The fort was not named by prosecutors, but it is likely Russian Fort Elizabeth, a designated monument built in 1817. Hawaiian activists were ultimately unsuccessful in changing its name to the native title of “Paʻulaʻula o Hipo.”
None of these things are considered illegal in isolation, but lobbyists for foreign governments working in the United States must declare their background to the Department of Justice, as part of an 83-year-old law called FARA, or the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Branson “knew” that she was legally required to do so, prosecutors said.
But instead, she lied to federal agents who questioned her the same day her home was raided in 2020. In an interview, she “falsely claimed” that she had never been asked by the Russian government to coordinate meetings between American business and political leaders and Moscow officials, according to the Department of Justice.
Shortly afterward, Branson fled to Russia. In an interview with a state-controlled news channel in October of 2021, Branson said she had left the U.S. under duress, adding it was likely she would have been arrested had she stayed.
Nothing is going to happen. Move on
To be fair, a lot of the shyt we talked about in this thread is becoming super relevant.
Trump's first impeachment (withholding defense funds) directly relates to the situation in Ukraine right now.
Trump's campaign manager (Paul Manafort) having extensive ties to pro-Russian Ukrainian government officials is important as well.
It will take a long time for everyone to truly understand the extent of Trump's damage on international affairs.
Accused Russian Agent Gave to One Politician: Tulsi Gabbard
NATIONAL SECURITY
Accused Russian Agent Gave to One Politician: Tulsi Gabbard
MAHALO
Russian-American national Elena Branson was indicted this week for lobbying for pro-Kremlin policies while not registered as a foreign agent. She gave to one U.S. politician.
Roger Sollenberger
Political Reporter
Shannon Vavra
National Security Reporter
Published Mar. 10, 2022 7:25PM ET
EXCLUSIVE
Bill Pugliano
Listen to article18 minutes
Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and 2020 presidential dark horse candidate, has long perplexed U.S. officials and observers with her seemingly inexplicable pro-Russian positions. And a new development this week is sure to reinforce the half-jokes that Gabbard is a “Russian asset”; as it turns out, her campaign took money from one.
That agent—dual Russian-American national Elena Branson, also known as Elena Chernykh—stands accused of illegally pushing pro-Russia policies in the United States for nearly a decade, at the direction of top Kremlin officials, without registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), according to a criminal complaint federal prosecutors filed this week in the Southern District of New York.
But, in all her time lobbying for Russian goals, she gave money to just one federal candidate: Gabbard.
According to Federal Election Commission records, an Elena Branson made two donations in 2019 to Gabbard’s presidential campaign. The filings tie the donation to Branson’s former address at a million-dollar condo on Central Park West. However, the merchant banker listed her occupation as “not employed.” (Branson lived in the United States for decades and holds American citizenship, so the contributions were legal.)
While the combined total of those donations isn’t colossal by any means—a whopping $59.95—they do raise questions about why an alleged Russian agent, tasked with currying favor with U.S. politicians, would zero in on Gabbard, and only Gabbard.
According to a Justice Department press release, Branson, who fled the United States last year and remains at large, had ties to top Kremlin brass, and “corresponded with Putin himself.”
“At the direction of the Russian government, she led a years long campaign to identify the next generation of American leaders, cultivate information channels, and shape US policy in favor of Russian objectives,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll said in the press release.
Of course, Gabbard is a longtime favorite of the Russian propaganda machine. She hired an alleged Russian agent on her campaign, and her Putin-backing has struck officials and political observers as well out of the norm for years—perhaps most famously her support for Russian intervention in Syria while defending dictator Bashar al-Assad.
That strange pattern continued even after Gabbard left office in 2021. This year, as Putin prepared to invade Ukraine, Gabbard parroted Russian talking points, urging the Biden Administration to guarantee that Ukraine will never join NATO—a longtime Kremlin demand.
Russia appears to have reciprocated. For instance, when Gabbard announced her 2020 aspirations, many of the sites that helped Russia interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections came to her side. Her campaign also received thousands of dollars from a number of influential Russia backers in the United States.
The complaint against Branson, however, could offer another clue: The alleged spy conducted an off-the-books lobbying campaign targeting officials in Gabbard’s home state of Hawaii, regarding the name of a state park. That campaign ultimately yielded charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent against Branson.
According to an FBI agent’s sworn statements, the lobbying project involved communications with a member of Congress—an unidentified “Representative-1.”
At the time, the complaint said, Branson worked in concert with Russian diplomats to block a local proposal to change the name of “Russian Fort Elizabeth,” a 19th-century former Russian military installation on the island of Kauai.
Some residents and activists wanted to restore the fort’s Hawaiian name, a move that would literally wipe “Russia” off the map. But, according to the complaint, Branson spearheaded the Kremlin resistance, “by providing Hawaiian officials with messages from Russian officials and by organizing a trip for Hawaiian officials to Moscow to meet with high-ranking Russian Government personnel.”
The complaint said this violated federal lobbying laws, because Branson never registered with the Justice Department as an agent of the Russian government. She also never reported the work.
The FBI agent’s affidavit cites an email that Kauai County councilwoman Felicia Cowden forwarded to Branson in 2019, between Cowden and “an individual working in the office of a member of the United States House of Representatives (Representative-1).”
In the email, as quoted in the affidavit, Cowden asked the staffer whether the Representative would like to meet with “an extraordinary group of people regarding Russian diplomacy.” The email notified the staffer that the group would include Branson and “two diplomats from the Russian embassy in Washington DC,” the affidavit said.
That email was dated Feb. 7, 2019. Nine days later, Branson made her first donation to Gabbard, in the curious amount of $49.95.
It’s not clear whether Gabbard attended the meeting, or if she or her office had any direct contact with Branson or the Russians. However, a few months later, Branson organized a trip to Russia for a group of local Kauai officials, including Cowden, where they met with Kremlin officials.
The complaint includes photocopies of a thank-you card that Cowden allegedly sent Branson “for welcoming the people from Kauai.” The photocopies include a handwritten Post-it, on which Cowden wrote, “I am not coming or communicating because I am being watched. It feels wrong for me to be involved that way.” A second note on the back reads, “It is on the American side.”
The park’s name has not been changed, and is still a matter of contention.
Branson’s case isn’t entirely novel. Russia has long relied on its diaspora in the United States and around the globe to make connections and push for policies that favor Russia. Maria Butina was notoriously charged in 2018 for acting illegally as a Russian agent in the United States, after years of infiltrating influential GOP circles before and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In one case, Butina tried to arrange a meeting between then-candidate President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, prosecutors said.
A Gabbard spokesperson provided a statement that the former congresswoman did not know about Branson’s donations until The Daily Beast reached out.
“Congresswoman Gabbard’s campaign has received thousands of contributions over the years, so she was not aware of Branson’s miniscule contributions ($10 and $49.95) to Tulsi Now, nor is she aware of having any interaction with her,” the statement said. The spokesperson also claimed Gabbard was “not familiar with any park or fort or any other issues around this.” (The historic state park is located in Gabbard’s district, and at least one local activist group claims to have prepared a petition about the matter for Gabbard’s office.)
In light of the charges against Branson, Gabbard intends to donate the contributions to a charity, the spokesperson said.
“Despite the fact that Branson's contributions were miniscule, on principle, Branson's contributions will be donated to a charity that supports veterans, because it appears that Branson may be acting as an agent for a foreign country,” the spokesperson said, adding that the feds had not reached out to Gabbard’s team.
The spokesperson also claimed Gabbard was not Branson’s only target, asserting that Branson had contributed to a number of other Democratic candidates and committees as well. This, however, is not true, but a reference to a different Elena Branson, who lives in California and confirmed to The Daily Beast that those other donations were hers—and that she had not been served with a criminal complaint for acting as an unregistered agent of the Kremlin.
Gonna relink with Deripaska
apnews.com
Trump aide Manafort removed from plane for revoked passport
2 minutes
MIAMI (AP) — Former Trump adviser Paul Manafort was removed from a plane at Miami International Airport before it took off for Dubai because he carried a revoked passport, officials said Wednesday.
Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta confirmed that Manafort was removed from the Emirates Airline flight without incident Sunday night but directed further questions to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That agency did not immediately respond to an email Wednesday seeking comment.
A lawyer who has represented Manafort did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment Wednesday.
Manafort, 72, led former President Donald Trump’s campaign for several months during the 2016 presidential race but was ousted in August of that year after revelations about his business dealings in Ukraine.
He was later indicted on a broad array of financial crimes as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. He was convicted by a jury in August 2018 and later pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington.
In May 2020, Manafort was released from a low-security prison where he was serving a more than seven-year federal sentence amid concerns about the coronavirus. Although Manafort had not served long enough to be eligible for release under the guidelines, the Bureau of Prisons decided to free him because of his age and health vulnerabilities, a person familiar with the matter has said. Trump pardoned Manafort in December 2020.
Manafort’s removal was first reported by the website Knewz.com.
___
The name of U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been corrected in this story.
