Putin stated,

“They professed Judaism in the Kaganate, which was on the bregs of Azov and Black seas. It’s also ours; it’s us, which Russian people absorbed all this in ourselves. It’s a natural development.“

Two video sources:

Youtube (subtitles need to be selected under CC and switched to English)

Backup: Odysee (subtitles automatic)

For more, see the New Khazaria index.

By Timothy Fitzpatrick

If The Epoch Times is controlled opposition on behalf of China, as I suggested in the summer of 2020, then what can we make of the widely distributed newspaper’s fixation on the “Wuhan virus” narrative?

The evidence is now overwhelming that “Covid-19” is completely fake. There is no evidence of a contagion. None. Yet, The Epoch Times (Falun Gong) and others in the alternative media (even Fox News) have been spreading non-stop since the beginning of this farce that China created a virus called Covid-19 as a bioweapon against the West. As alluring as this hypothesis is, especially to an anti-communist like myself, it simply doesn’t add up. Even if you threw out the mountains of evidence against the contagion hypothesis of Covid-19, the logistics don’t make sense. Covid-19 would be a bioweapon that only kills off upwards of two percent, at best, of those it infects? Why would China go to all that trouble to kill off fewer than two per cent? “Wuhan virus” proponents might respond to that question with, “it’s not about killing with the virus but about necessitating a vaccine.” OK, then, if it’s about the vaccine as the end game, why wouldn’t China just fake a virus using the world’s all-too-compliant media? Wouldn’t that be easier, quicker, more controlled, and less expensive to do then creating a real virus, which could backfire and kill your own people?

This, it seems, is exactly what has happened; although, it’s not just China but the entire world involved, perhaps with Russia, China, and Israel (Falun Gong has support of at least the Israeli Knesset and one Jewish banker) leading this massive psyop democide.

Why, then, is The Epoch Times pushing the “Wuhan virus” narrative so hard? Furthermore, if The Epoch Times is a CCP surrogate, why would China implicate itself in a worldwide conspiracy? That couldn’t possibly be, could it?

The answer seems to be that the Epoch Times is trying to gatekeep the reality of this pandemic hoax by distracting truth seekers with the “Wuhan virus” carrot, which legitimizes Louis Pasteur’s dubious “germ theory”, and China is implicating itself as part of a larger hybrid warfare campaign, with the desired result of the communists actually winning. This hybrid warfare (or non-linear warfare) campaign seems to involve China taking the heat off of other neo-Soviet players in the world conspiracy, namely Russia, Israel, and the Eastern Bloc. By focusing the world’s anger and wrath squarely on China, the other players can continue to discreetly sabotage the world with their world communism agenda. In hybrid warfare, you can allow yourself to be exposed or blamed to a certain degree as long as you ultimately come out ahead. In this way, hybrid warfare can dovetail nicely with limited hangouts. It’s a very effective deception tactic that is intended to render the target bewildered and disarmed.

If this sounds far fetched, consider that in the 1950s-1960s, China appeared to do this very same thing when heat was about to come on Russia and Bulgaria for leading global narcotics trafficking as a political weapon against the West. China stepped in and allowed itself to take most or all of the blame, thereby distracting and diverting anti-narcotics initiatives from the Western powers. This drastic measure was taken by China in order to maintain the overall strength of the worldwide communist front.

“These propaganda instructions were extended in 1964 in a letter signed by Leonid Brezhnev, which was discussed at a meeting of the Czechoslovak Defence Council. The letter directed that data on the Chinese drug and narcotics trafficking operation should be made public, to advertise China’s role as the source of illicit trafficking and thus to draw attention away from the Soviet operation. (One of the first articles written for this purpose appeared in Pravda on September 13,1964. It was written by V. Ovchinnikov and was entitled ‘The Drug Dealers’: see also page 146, and Note 43, page 152).^[1]

After the successful completion of this phase of their agenda, China and Russia, through their saboteurs within the U.S. State Department, eventually redrew the Golden Triangle to exclude China from world narcotics maps, thereby eliminating the world’s perception of China as a leading opium producer.

“In 1970, the CIA map of the Golden Triangle was passed to the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, a forerunner of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Months later, a new version of the map emerged from the White House. The tip of the triangle had been moved from 25 degrees north latitude in China down to 20 degrees north latitude, in Laos. The new designation is shown by the dashed-line triangle in Figure 2. With a few strokes of a pen, Communist China had been effectively excluded from the Golden Triangle.”^[2]

The next part of their phase would be to saturate the media and popular culture with the idea that the CIA is responsible for narcotics trafficking. While the CIA has likely been involved in drug trafficking, it seems it has been the Soviets directing global narcotics.

In the 1980s, the Soviets began spreading propaganda that the United States and the CIA created the so-called AIDS virus as a biological weapon—part of the Soviet active measure campaign “Operation INFEKTION”. Firstly, let the reader understand that the “science” behind the official narrative of AIDS is no better than that of Covid.

“AIDS is not a specific disease at all. It simply means a collapse of the cell-mediated immune system, known, even in the 1970s, to have many diverse causes. With the collapse of the immune system, you see conditions like frequent infections, TB, mononucleosis, peripheral neuropathy, and Guillain-Barré syndrome—all of which often come under the rubric of AIDS. The new part of the disease, Kaposi’s sarcoma, has been definitively linked to the use of “poppers” (alkyl nitrite drugs), which are immune-suppressive. This drug was used to relax the anal sphincter and facilitate anal intercourse. The vast majority of people who got Kaposi’s sarcoma were gay men who used poppers (never people who “acquired the virus” from any other source). Once the use of poppers stopped in the gay community, so did Kaposi’s sarcoma. In spite of forty years of research, no one has isolated an HIV virus from any bodily fluid of a person suffering from AIDS. Not once.”^[3]

It may well be that AIDS is another contagion hoax; regardless, it is being used to discredit Western institutions, like the Covid clot shot campaign today. As well, propaganda in the East actually claims that the U.S. created Covid as a biological weapon (many Western conservatives and conspiracists believe this lie, as well as the lie that the U.S. invented AIDS). Ultimately, though, it seems that both “AIDS” and “Covid” were designed expressly for political uses.

“We are currently resolving the task of bringing the [active] measures down to a more practical level, and in particular, to attain specific political results by exploiting the “laboratory version” for AM [active measures] on other issues. So, efforts are being made to intensify anti-base sentiments in countries where American forces are deployed by using slogans suggesting that U.S. soldiers are the most dangerous carriers of the virus. By demonstrating the defeat of the “African version” [of AIDS’ origins], we can whip up anti-American sentiments throughout the states of the continent.”^[4]

Western analysts claim that Operation Infektion was largely unsuccessful. However, although it might have been somewhat unsuccessful as an isolated operation, strategically, it subconsciously implanted the idea that the West was capable of creating bioweapons and using them indiscriminately—something Eastern propagandists and their fellow Western dupes claim is happening now. In effect, it served as a primer, it would seem.

To summarize, we have the East using fake viruses to discredit the West (thereby affirming and legitimizing it’s own communist rule) domestically and abroad running cover for other players in the communist conspiracy by distracting Westerners with germ theory- and bio weapons-based tales. Little has changed in Soviet strategy. Covid-19 seems to be the continuation of the Soviets’ Operation INFEKTION active measure, only more convincing and with the entire world’s support.

The evidence continues to mount that so-called alternative conservative media like The Epoch Times are not on our side as they pretend to be but are, instead, controlled by our would-be captors. It’s important that we identify and neutralize these sinister forces attempting to mislead the conservative world.

1. Douglass, Joseph D., Red Cocaine: The Drugging of America and the West, Clarion House, 1990, pg. 41 ↑
2. ibid, pg. 91 ↑
3. Cowan, Thomas S. and Morell, Sally Fallon, The Contagion Myth: Why Viruses (including coronaviruses) Are Not the Cause of Disease, Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2020, pgs. 131-132. ↑
4. “KGB, Information Nr. 2742 [to Bulgarian State Security]”., Wilson Center Digital Archive. 1987. Retrieved July 23, 2019. ↑

(Editor’s note: For more on Trump, Arif, and Sater, see Part IV of my Trump series.)

By Compromat.group
Dec. 19, 2019 Anno Domini
Translated from the Russian

He is the owner of the Bayrock Group, which Donald Trump and Felix Sater used to launder money and finance. When Trump was unable to secure funding for his projects from other sources, due to numerous bankruptcies and debts, he turned to his friend Arif. Arif was born in the USSR and worked for the USSR Ministry of Trade for 17 years before finding his niche as a member of a crime syndicate. Arif is a major donor to Felix Sater’s home synagogue in Port Washington.

In 2010, Arif was arrested aboard the $ 60 million luxury yacht Savarona. On board, the authorities found underage girls from Russia and Ukraine who were used to sexually serve wealthy clients at prices ranging from $3,000 to $10,000. A year later, Arif was acquitted by a Turkish court along with six other defendants. Four, however, were convicted, but with a suspended sentence. Bloomberg reported that those arrested included Russian, Kyrgyz and Kazakh businessmen and government officials. The Israeli press revealed that among those arrested on the yacht were Kazakh-Israeli billionaire Alexander Mashkevich (a member of the World Jewish Congress), Russian-Jewish businessman Telman Ismailov and senior assistant to the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov.

The Israeli press wrote about Arif: “The investigation began several months before the police raid on the yacht. The Turkish police received information about a criminal organization engaged in human trafficking and extortion. The organization is headed, according to information, by Turkish tycoon Tevfik Arif, a business partner of Donald Trump and owner of a metal production plant in Kazakhstan and many other enterprises in the United States and Great Britain. Arif, who received the name “David” from his people, was born in Kazakhstan and has been living in Turkey since 1994.

Police monitored his organization for two months, documented the facts with video cameras, tapped telephones and hacked e-mail and bank accounts. Investigation materials show that Arif’s organization provided escort services to businessmen. Young women, some of whom were minors (according to the investigation, one of the businessmen was especially fond of 13-14 year olds, and the head of the organization supplied girls to clients), were brought from Russia and Ukraine through modeling agencies. ” Mashkevich denied that he was on the yacht during the search, but Turkish law enforcement officials claim that they have evidence, in the form of receipts, with which Mashkevich paid for the yacht rental in advance within five days.

But the most interesting thing is that this particular yacht was chartered by Doddy Al-Fayet and Princess Diana for their romantic voyages, which once again proves the fact that they were under the control of Chabad and the Mossad. And even more interestingly, the first owner of this yacht was the first president of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Mashkevich, through his Eurasian Group and Bayrock LLC, finances Trump’s real estate projects.

After his arrest on Arif’s yacht in the company of underage girls, Mashkevich was awarded a Torah scroll at the Chabad Russian Center of South Florida.

Sex scandals: Alexander Mashkevich and Telman Ismailov on Ataturk’s yacht

Turkish newspapers and television are bursting with indignation, the Turkish public is in shock, and the police are seriously afraid of riots: the country has spread the news that a historical landmark, the personal yacht of the founder of the state, Mustafa Kemal Pasha Ataturk, has turned … into a floating brothel.

Last Tuesday, in a lazy afternoon, several dozen members of a special detachment of the Turkish police suddenly landed on the deck of the Savarona. The raid, as reported by the police department of the Mediterranean port city of Göcek, on the roadstead of which the yacht was at that time, was carried out as part of an operation to combat pimping and prostitution. And in fact – together with Tevfik Arif and his very high-ranking guests, ten girls, as they say, “model appearance”, citizens of Russia and Ukraine, fell into the hands of the law enforcement officers, and only two of them were 18 years old – the rest were much younger …

There is also no reason to argue about their duties on board: despite the daytime, all passengers at the time of their arrest were in their cabins, in beds with the mentioned girls. And they themselves did not at all deny that they were on the yacht not as guests of a hospitable host, but as personnel hired through various modeling agencies. According to preliminary data of the Turkish police, a night of close communication with them cost the invitees to “rest” in the amount of three to ten thousand dollars.

Tevfik Arif, better known in the post-Soviet space as Tofik Arifov, was the first in the field of view of Turkish law enforcement agencies, and then of publications from this country. According to the extremely scarce information that occasionally leaks into the press, he has a very “interesting” past.

According to the media and the Internet, in the late 80s and early 90s of the last century, an Uzbek businessman of Turkish origin was considered one of the pillars of the criminal world. Allegedly, it was Tofik who was the “godfather” of the notorious founders of the Trans World Group, brothers Lev and Mikhail Chernykh.

They also say that he actively helped the formation of the “Eurasian troika” headed by Alexander Mashkevich, who allegedly in gratitude for the services rendered made a lot of efforts so that in the mid-90s Mr. Arifov acquired a passport of a citizen of Kazakhstan more reliable for entrepreneurial activity.

By the early 2000s, the roads of Tofik Arifov and the Cherny brothers diverged in different directions, but the Turkish-Uzbek-Kazakh multi-billionaire never interrupted contacts with Alexander Mashkevich.

From publications in the Russian press, it is known that Alexander Antonovich was usually listed among the guests of honor at events organized by Tofik Arifov. This was the case, for example, in 2005, when Arif presented another hotel of the Rixos chain in the Turkish town of Belek, which he co-owns, according to some sources, along with one of the candidates for the Nobel Prize from Kazakhstan.

Accordingly, when information appeared in the Turkish media about the detention in the framework of the case of organizing a brothel aboard the landmark for Turkey yacht Tofig Arif, it became obvious that very soon Aleksandr Mashkevich would be “spotted” in the growing scandal.

And so it happened.

According to media reports, orgies were organized on the yacht, in which underage girls from Russia and Ukraine took part. Among those implicated in the scandal, the Turkish press names Russian businessman Telman Ismailov, Kazakh billionaire Alexander Mashkevich, as well as a man who introduced himself as “an assistant to the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan” …

The Turkish newspaper “Hurriyet” claims that Mashkevich paid for the lease of the vessel for five days. Among the suspects in the sexual scandal on the yacht is an adviser to the Kazakh prime minister, designated in this message by the initials PS. A night with a young priestess of love cost each of the participants in the orgy in the amount of $3,000 to $10,000, the article says.

The newspaper “Yediot Ahronot” continues to cover the “Turkish sex scandal” involving the president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC), Kazakh tycoon and holder of Israeli citizenship, Alexander Mashkevich. On October 8, this publication reported, citing anonymous sources “connected” with the incident, that Mashkevich not only paid for the rental of Kemal Ataturk’s historic yacht “Savarona” to hold orgies there, but was allegedly even detained on board by the Turkish police.

He immediately hired a large Turkish law firm and was soon released on bail, the newspaper said. However, it is noted that this information has not yet received official confirmation. Those close to Mashkevich do not comment on these messages in any way, but the World Jewish Congress (WJC) allegedly demanded explanations from him regarding such publications. And anonymous sources in the VEK told reporters that if it turns out that Mashkevich is really involved in a sex scandal, he will have to leave all official posts.

“Yediot Ahronot” adds that, according to Turkish media reports, on the yacht “Savarona”, along with prostitutes from Ukraine and Russia, prominent businessmen and even politicians from the post-Soviet space were detained. Among them were allegedly the Russian billionaire Telman Ismailov and a certain “assistant to the head of the government of Kazakhstan.”

The raid on Ataturk’s yacht has already caused a powerful political scandal in Turkey. “I gave the necessary orders to ban the lease of a yacht,” Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Shimsek said in connection with the incident. According to him, now the yacht should be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture.

“If the company does not agree with the refusal to lease, we will go to court to revoke the license,” he added.

A member of the Turkish parliament, Mehmet Sevigen, demanded that the Ministry of Culture immediately return the status of a museum to the yacht.

“The scandal with prostitutes on the yacht is a blatant desecration of the memory of Ataturk,” the indignant parliamentarian concluded.

In the meantime, as already mentioned, this roundup caused a political scandal in Turkey, comparable only to a 12-point earthquake. Brothels in this Muslim country are somehow banned, but the fact that Kemal Ataturk’s personal yacht was turned into a brothel turned this whole story into a powerful time bomb.

It is known that the Turks are taught to honour the name of the founder of the state from an early age: the name of Ataturk is a kind of icon for Turkey, no less sacred than the name of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was for the Soviet Union. So now the Turkish authorities, who have come to their senses, are trying to show their indignation and desire immediately, right on the spot, to sort it out and punish all those involved.

Trump’s business partner Tevfik Arif turns Ataturk’s yacht into a brothel

Turkish police have detained a yacht lessee that once belonged to the founder of the state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The current interim owner of the $60 million ship is accused of organizing a brothel for the rich, The Daily Mail writes. It turns out that sex orgies were held on his yacht, in which underage girls from Russia and Ukraine took part. The millionaire himself, according to some reports, in the past was an ordinary Soviet employee in the Ministry of Trade.

The 57-year-old New York real estate tycoon Tevfik Arif was in custody. Moreover, according to some reports, the yacht’s lessee introduced himself as a “Kazakh businessman”, and a man who identified himself as “an assistant to the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan” was detained along with him, “Diapazon” reports.

The police raid on the yacht Savarona was arranged last Tuesday as part of an operation to combat pimping and prostitution. At that moment, the ship was in the roadstead of the Mediterranean port of Gocek. Together with the millionaire, 10 alleged prostitutes from Russia and Ukraine fell into the hands of the police. All of them were very young girls—models, and only two of them came of age.

The girls were recruited to work on the ship through foreign modeling agencies.

According to police, the clients of the “floating brothel” were the most demanding and wealthy lovers of sex without obligations, who laid out three to 10 thousand dollars per night on board a 137-meter yacht, Infox.ru reports.

The luxury ship has 16 rooms, a gangway with 282 golden steps, a cinema room, a Turkish bath and a helicopter landing pad. Moreover, the yacht Savarona has a rich history: in the last century it was the floating residence of the first ruler of the Republic of Turkey—the legendary Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The President used it until his death in 1938.

According to Bloomberg, prominent businessmen and officials from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan were detained during the police raid.

According to the head of the police special forces, whose fighters suddenly landed from a helicopter on the deck of the yacht at lunchtime, all the guests at that moment were caught in their beds. Moreover, the police found dozens of condoms in each issue. In the evening, Arif gave his first testimony at the Belek police station.

According to Arif’s lawyer Engin Agyuzlu, his client simply fell victim to a smear campaign. He also expressed confidence that the millionaire will be able to defend his good name in any independent court.

It is known that Tevfik Arif has business ties with Donald Trump through his company Bayrock Group, which, in particular, built the 46-storey Trump SoHo hotel and restaurant complex and Trump International Hotel in New York.

According to Real Estate Weekly, Tevfik Arif was born in the USSR, on the territory of modern Kazakhstan. For 17 years he worked in the Ministry of Trade of the Soviet Union.

In 2001, Arif creates his own company Bayrock Group. He currently owns a luxurious three-story mansion worth $6-million in New York. It is located in Port Washington (Long Island).

The yacht “Savarona” was built in 1931 by the American engineer William Francis Gibbs and sailed in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean for 7 years, after which in 1938 she was bought by the Turkish government and transferred to the founder of the republic Ataturk. Meetings of the government cabinet, receptions of leaders of foreign countries were held here. And after the death of Ataturk, the ship was transferred to the maritime administration. In 1989 it was rented by Kahraman Sadykoglu for 49 years.

Soviet tycoon arrested in Turkey for turning Ataturk’s yacht into a floating brothel with Russian models

Turkish police have detained a yacht lessee that once belonged to the founder of the state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The current interim owner of the $60-million ship is accused of organizing a brothel for the rich, The Daily Mail writes. It turns out that sex orgies were held on his yacht, in which underage girls from Russia and Ukraine took part. The millionaire himself, according to some reports, in the past was an ordinary Soviet employee in the Ministry of Trade.

The 57-year-old New York real estate tycoon Tevfik Arif was in custody. Moreover, according to some reports, the yacht’s lessee introduced himself as a “Kazakh businessman”, and a man who identified himself as “an assistant to the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan” was detained along with him, “Diapazon” reports.

The police raid on the yacht Savarona was arranged last Tuesday as part of an operation to combat pimping and prostitution. At that moment, the ship was in the roadstead of the Mediterranean port of Gocek. Together with the millionaire, 10 alleged prostitutes from Russia and Ukraine fell into the hands of the police. All of them were very young female models, and only two of them reached the age of majority (18 years old).

The girls were recruited to work on the ship through foreign modeling agencies.

Former State Duma deputy Denis Voronenkov: “The situation in Russia is like in Nazi Germany. I don’t want to live in lies and hypocrisy. I became a citizen of Ukraine and I am proud of it.”

By Yuri Butusov/Censor.net
February 14, 2017 Anno Domini
Translated from the Russian

Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the 6th convocation Denis Voronenkov and his wife, also a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the famous Russian opera singer Maria Maksakova in October 2016, even before the end of their parliamentary powers, left for Ukraine. They received Ukrainian citizenship and are not going to return to Russia anytime soon.

Voronenkov became one of the important witnesses in the investigation by the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine of the case of high treason of the ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. For the first time, statesmen of the Russian Federation of such a level went to Ukraine and for the first time testified in a case that is extremely painful for the Russian leadership, whose protégé was Yanukovych. Information about the action of Voronenkov and Maksakova became a sensation and a super scandal in the Russian establishment, of which both MPs were a part; the political resonance is colossal. Denis Voronenkov gave his first interview in Ukraine to “Censor.NET” – a site that is completely banned by the decision of Roskomnadzor on the territory of the Russian Federation.

“I HAVE INVESTIGATED CORRUPTION IN THE FSB. EMPLOYEES OF GENERAL FEOKTISTOV HAVE ATTEMPTED ON ME. PUTIN DOESN’T LIKE WHEN CLEANING DIRT AWAY.”

• Couldn’t you, a wealthy man with connections, with a famous wife, find your place in Russia in order to occupy your niche and live in peace?

• In 2011, I went to the elections to the State Duma, financed myself, without attracting any oligarchs, passing all meetings with my own feet, without having any political strategists. The rudiments of democracy still existed in 2011, when I was elected to the State Duma. At the same time, demonstrations began on Bolotnaya Square, and it seemed to me that these were sprouts of freedom that would lead to positive changes. But everything was brutally suppressed. And the government began to take on more and more authoritarian character. In 2016, I went to the polls again, and they had nothing to do with democracy. I won the elections, but the authorities openly and cynically organized pressure on the members of the election commissions and falsified the results at every polling station.

Today the political system in Russia works only to destroy everyone who is not embedded in it. Meanings and principles are being replaced. The law and the rights of voters are being violated. Those who do this are the real traitors. But the meanings are being substituted, and they call me a “national traitor”, who did not earn money from the authorities, did not master budget money, did not enter into any schemes and did not falsify anything. And those in power shout loudest about their patriotism in order to present their personal interests as national. Straight on Saltykov-Shchedrin: “They began to press on patriotism. Apparently, they steal.” They say that I am a criminal. A criminal is a person convicted of a criminal offense by a court. By what court and when was I convicted? Here we will have to state with regret the accusatory bias of the current Russian justice. In Russia, according to the Supreme Court, every third man between the ages of 20 and 60 is either tried or prosecuted. What does this mean? This means that the law is somehow wrongly arranged. Any person can be prosecuted at any time or a case can be fabricated. And why? And suddenly he began to blather something, speak against the authorities, go out of step with everyone. If there were a man, there would be a job. They say: “Fugitive deputy”, and what, I have no right to choose where to live? And who was I running from? The names of all these corrupt shitty journalists writing under the dictation of the authorities are known to everyone in the Russian Federation. I believe that they should be tried for libel and Goebbels propaganda.

– The Russian media reported that in April 2015, a criminal case was opened, in which you are being held. Tell us what is at stake and what is the reason for opening a case?

• This is pure lie. But let’s start in order. In the early 2000s, we created the Federal Service for the Control of Drug Trafficking, headed by General of the Army Viktor Cherkesov. It was then one of Putin’s closest associates. And Putin instructed Cherkesov to deal with the fight against smuggling as well. As a military lawyer, I was appointed to a serious position in the new structure – the head of the department, I received the rank of colonel. And we took up the fight against smuggling very seriously, our task was to reach out to those who were in charge of these schemes. As a result of our activities, 16 FSB generals were dismissed, as well as a number of prosecutors associated with them. There has never been such a purge of the siloviki leadership. And this was only the beginning, the investigation continued to progress successfully.

And in one of the cases, we proved that the smugglers were directly high-ranking FSB leaders who delivered goods directly to the address of their military unit. Billions of dollars have been earned on this over the years. We opened this channel, documented most of the leaders, and stopped this activity. This case became known as the Three Whales case. A certain Zuev was drugged, taken to Germany, he rewrote the business to the Chechen loaders who allegedly worked for him, who later had to rewrite further to whom they showed. But we dug it all out. We were proud of the results and accomplishment of the task set by the country’s leadership.

But the results were unexpected: we failed to complete the investigation. Many of my colleagues who took part in the development were arrested by the FSB on trumped-up charges, and the Drug Control itself was essentially destroyed. In October 2007, General Cherkesov wrote an article entitled “The soldiers must not be allowed to turn into merchants.” He wrote about the disastrous consequences that impunity for high-ranking corrupt officials can lead to the country. But the result was the same: because of this article, he was fired, the FSKN was liquidated.

And at that moment it became clear to everyone that Russia had chosen a different course. It turned out that Putin does not like to have dirty linen out of public, if this rubbish concerns his closest friends, whom corruption, as it turned out, is allowed. In fact, the FSB smuggling case determined the direction along which Russia will develop in the future.

So, in order to destroy the cases against the leadership of the FSB, they began to persecute the employees of the Drug Control Service. This was done by Oleg Feoktistov, head of the sixth service of the FSB’s CSS. Feoktistov is now the head of the Rosneft security service. And our confrontation with him began precisely from that period. Feoktistov received the task to deal with all the employees of the Drug Control Service who were involved in the investigations against the leadership of the FSB. They decided that I was one of the key links in this operation.

– And what did they do to you?

• In 2007, an attempt was made on my life in the center of Moscow. They shot at me. This is in the midst of the Three Whales affair. I am sure that the assassination attempt was carried out by Feoktistov’s employees. I was lucky – I survived, but received bullet wounds in my legs. Transferred 12 operations. A criminal case was opened on attempted murder – no one was found. The press even wrote “order” – but he was walking drunk, he fell and broke his leg. They have it so. It is absolutely impossible to underestimate them.

– After such a war with the FSB, could you stay in the civil service?

• Not. We all left. All employees of Narkokontrol resigned in 2008, following Cherkesov. So that you understand – those who tried to stay were fired anyway, even the cleaning ladies were fired! Cherkesov is a very smart, correct, honest person, they decided to remove him and all of us from power. And in 2011, together with him, we were elected to the State Duma. They overlooked this, believed that being a person far from politics, I would never be elected. It was only possible to change something in the country by being elected to the State Duma; there are no other options for us in Russia. The State Duma has always been viewed as a platform for reaching independent positions. Governors, auditors, mayors. For this purpose, I went to the State Duma. The path to law enforcement was closed to me forever, but I wanted to serve my power, and went into politics.

– And who received the money for smuggling under the “roof” of the FSB? The Russian press claims that Feoktistov is Igor Sechin’s man, and Sechin is a close friend of Putin? 

• This case was not fully investigated. We were not allowed to do this. How many years this system has existed, who received money from it. This should have been investigated within the framework of a criminal case and given an assessment to all those people who were involved in this. I only had the operational development materials. We didn’t manage to find everyone.

– How did you work in the State Duma, did you manage to “change Russia” as you hoped?

• I understood that in order to achieve any results, you need to have a strong rear. The State Duma at that time theoretically provided such an opportunity. I joined the Communist Party faction, which is considered oppositional. In 2012, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation nominated me for the position of auditor of the Accounts Chamber. This position is quite significant in the Russian Federation. And here these unfinished FSB officers made every effort so that they would not appoint me this auditor. The approval was passed in the presidential administration, all workplaces and diplomas were checked by the FSB, but the FSB’s CSS immediately intervened. By the gradation of “friend or foe” I was a stranger, and nothing else was interesting to them. And before the last stage – agreement with the president, they announced that I should not be nominated, I am almost a criminal. The mechanism for appointing to the post is as follows: a faction nominates a candidate, first everything is checked by the presidential administration, already within the framework of this check, the FSB is involved, if the go-ahead is given, the president submits it to the State Duma and a vote takes place. In general, I was not allowed to become an auditor either.

“FOR PUTIN THE STATE DUMA IS NOTHING. THE FSB RULES EVERYTHING.”

-What is the essence of the criminal case, the defendant of which you are? What are the charges against you? 

• No charges have been brought against me. And there is nothing to do with me. In one of the trumped-up criminal cases, I am passing in the status of a witness. The case was invented just at the moment when I was promoted to the position of auditor. The FSB announced that a case was opened on the illegal re-registration of a building. Then they re-qualify him for fraud (159), a more serious article, take him from one district to another (for their own convenience), create a group of 25 investigators. The FSB does everything with the hands of the Investigative Committee, and they begin to invent a criminal case specifically “for me”. The funny thing is that this building did not go anywhere, the owner did not change. Subsequently, I found out that some tax officer tried to re-register it, who for some reason died two weeks later under strange circumstances. Some former FSB officers, apparently engaged in raider seizures and did not share with their leadership. All these people, most of whom I do not know and have never seen, have never called my name and never talked about any of my illegal actions. But only until the moment when each of them was not arrested and placed in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. Here they immediately began to give the necessary evidence that they acted together with Voronenkov. After that, a so-called deal with justice was concluded with them, they were released, receiving a suspended sentence. My status, I emphasize, which was and still is, is that of a witness. In Russian law, there is such a concept – a deal with justice. When a person admits his guilt and he says – “yes, I did it”, but together with such and such. And there is only his words, no more proof. But on this basis you will be judged. In 2014 alone, 500 thousand people were convicted in this way (I made a request to the General Prosecutor’s Office). In collaboration with colleagues from other factions, we prepared bills and changed this article 90 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code in 2016. Now, according to the law, a full-fledged investigation should be carried out against a person who did not know about this case. And I personally, of course, would very much like this case to be considered by any European court. So that the enormity of the falsifications and the insignificance of the accusations made were visible. After that, everyone who was involved in this case will have to be prosecuted.

– And yet, what is the essence of the case in which you are involved? I would like to understand how far justice in the Russian Federation is now from the standards of 1937.

• Justice today is not comparable to the 37th year, it is worse. Under Stalin, people were mostly convicted under Article 58 on political matters. But for all the rest of the general criminal, there were 20% of acquittals. Now in Russia there are less than 0.5% of acquittals. Political cases are rarely opened – it is loud, the West looks at it badly, it is easier to make a criminal out of a person. Any person who is independent and independent, was engaged in something: business, real estate, restaurants, construction, always under the gun of the Russian Criminal Code. And in Russia a new category of convicts has appeared – by analogy with “fifty-eighth,” they are called “hundred and fifty-nine.” This is a scam article that can attract almost anyone. This is a grave article of up to 10 years in prison.

In my case, they said that the documents were changed for a building in the center of Moscow at a cost of $ 5 million. Who evaluated him, where did this amount come from? Then it turned out that it was a stall behind the third ring of Moscow. To be honest, I don’t even know where this street is located in Moscow. But it was necessary to make a beautiful picture. I am not a poor person, a lot of property has been declared, since I was legally engaged in business. Yes, I realized, all incomes have been declared. In the middle of the 2000s, I was in real estate. I didn’t come up with anything new – it’s cheaper to buy, more expensive to sell, to make money on the difference. This required the legal purity of the transaction and documents, which interested me. And here is the person who took 100 thousand dollars from me in total, he had to sell one building to me, but just trivially “threw” me and disappeared. And I accordingly met with the head of the investigative committee, wrote a statement, and then they turned this case over to me. And this man turned out to be a drug addict, their agent. A certain lawyer Krylov, who has no education, was previously convicted of drugs. They told him: “You declare that he gave you this money to steal this building.” Everything was done primitively. Everything that the Russian authorities do with propaganda on TV, they do the same with respect to each individual person. I had a huge number of people in Russia who supported me, they knew that I would never do such nonsense. But now everyone lives according to the principle “my house is on the edge”, very few people supported me. And I was left alone with the system. You cannot fight legally against someone who acts illegally a priori. How can you talk legally with a bandit? And the main bandit in Russia now is the state. This is where the problem is. And some people, such as Feoktistov, usurped punitive functions. They themselves determine who to punish, how to act.

– Did Feoktistov’s people offer you to close the case?

• Yes, I was repeatedly offered offers, even the sums were named .. There were approaches, I dismissed them.

– How big was your business?

• It so happened that at one time in Moscow what was bought at a thousand dollars per square meter, a year later already cost 8-9 thousand. This was after I left the prosecutor’s office, somewhere in 2000. During this period, I was not in the civil service. And already before joining the Duma, I left all LLCs, because I understood perfectly well that as a deputy, I expose any of my business to direct guidance. Therefore, I diversified, I did the right thing, because now I would be left with nothing.

– In addition to the conflict with the FSB, did you have any conflict situations in power?

• I had no conflicts with anyone. The most interesting thing is that I have never seen Mr. Feoktistov in my life and have never met him.

– Alexei Navalny wrote that the current head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin sang at your wedding with Maria, is that true?

• Yes, this is not classified information. Naryshkin at that time was the same State Duma deputy, our colleague. There were many people at the wedding, with whom we worked, communicated in power for many years.

– Navalny speaks critically about you, says that he does not believe that beliefs can be changed when crossing the border.

• From my point of view, Navalny is a man driven to despair who is now attacking everyone without going into details. I think it’s strange to sort things out for people who are under attack. I had my own good reasons to change my views and reconsider my life and its values. I will not enter into an argument with someone, it makes no sense. I sacrificed too much when leaving Russia, and I am not going to argue with anyone.

– Didn’t you inform Putin about the situation with your connections?

• For Putin, the State Duma is nothing, complete zero. In the system of the division of state power in the Russian Federation, it does not have any significance. There is no electorate, elections and democracy mean nothing, it’s just technology.

– Do you mean that the elections in Russia are all rigged?

• Absolutely. Everything from municipal to federal. The leaders of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, including Zyuganov, thoroughly know my situation. He signed many letters in my defense. They were outraged to the limit, but the level of their influence in the Russian system of state power, unfortunately, is not very large. There is always a certain set of requests that cannot be endless. In this list of requests, the name Voronenkov was somewhere far away. Therefore, now these people have no moral right to say that I did something wrong. They did not do something for me, but I did for them when I went to the polls and advertised their brand. And I don’t owe them anything to anyone.

– The Communist Party of the Russian Federation did not intercede for you?

“I’d like to know who they ever stood up for. They talk about a mythical struggle for human rights. But this struggle is limited to demagoguery. Of course not. We signed some letters to which there was no reaction at all. They are literate people, they have been in the system of state power for a long time. And in five years of working together, they could figure it out. For 7 years, in violation of the current legislation, I was under round-the-clock surveillance (and I knew about it), all my phones were tapped, all members of my family were monitored. With constant printouts in the press of details from my personal life, where I am, where I went, with whom. Even the Suvorov School, which I graduated from 30 years ago, received requests asking me to describe how I behaved, whether I enjoyed authority in the team. They checked all places of work – whether I received bribes. Couldn’t find anything. However, they find one of my acquaintances, who was one of the main “cashiers” in Moscow – Kachur Vitaly, he worked absolutely not hiding, with their permission. And they detain him and say tell him that you gave Voronenkov a million dollars – 7 years ago, but he did not return it. They needed it because I did not receive any material benefit from the alleged crime. Imagine a person who gave me a million dollars and for 7 years never reminded me of it! I never asked for a refund! Of course, he has no receipts, he has no contracts either – he just allegedly gave a million and forgot about it. And I only remembered being in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. Apparently, only there the memory starts to work well. This man is still sitting so that God forbid he would not give up his testimony while they deal with me.

– Can we conclude that Russia is now ruled by the FSB?

-A separate group of persons in this department usurped power powers on behalf of the state. They single-handedly decide whom to execute and whom to have mercy. Now the FSB has completely demoralized and defeated the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office has no oversight functions. Everything is run by the FSB. And to resist it … I thought that we should try to resist it – alas, I overestimated my capabilities and the scale of the problem. I would like to add that you are the first journalist who is interested in the real circumstances of my discrediting. Unfortunately, in Russia everyone is totally working out their fee.

– How, then, does Putin influence the mafia in the FSB and does he?

• Early Putin was a different person who delved into all the problems, understood that the state is stable only in a system of checks and balances. Now this is not the case. Why do they behave this way. And even if you come to him, he will ask for a certificate from the FSB. In Russia, now the main document for all cases is the FSB’s operational information. Despite the fact that in the Criminal Procedure Code there is no such document as the FSB’s operational reference. Putin is guided by the same principles. If he did not want to destroy the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office, then this would not have happened. If there were a system of balances, there would be at least some kind of balance. In Russia, this system has long been gone. If you are in conflict with these people, then you are finished. I’m in conflict with them. Their main principle is the same – with whom do you share the money that you earn? I never shared money with them, when I served, I was not engaged in business.

VORONENKOV’S WIFE MARIA MAKSAKOVA LOST TWO CHILDREN DURING PREGNANCY DUE TO STRESS UNDER THE PRESSURE OF THE FSB

– What would have happened to you if you had not left, what do you think?

• At 45, starting life elsewhere is a very difficult decision that is not easy to make. But I don’t want to be afraid, I understood that when I lose my deputy status, anything can happen to me. I am the enemy of those people who, unfortunately, represent the law in my country. I know that the FSB uses psychotropic drugs to suppress the will and subordination of people in the Lefortovo detention center. It started under Feoktistov, and I don’t want to become the next victim. The arrested General Kolesnikov, for example, was thrown from the balcony, declared a drug addict, and told that his wife tried to smuggle drugs into his shoes. Or, for example, Maksimenko, an employee of the Investigative Committee, was also guilty of something – and now they have made a “vegetable” out of him in Lefortovo. And I understood that because of the struggle that I was waging openly, I would also be treated with an extraordinary approach. It was a question of my life, health. Several high-ranking people directly told me that I overestimate my capabilities, and it was better for me to leave Russia. I took these warnings seriously.

– The Russian press wrote that your wife, State Duma deputy Maria Maksakova, because of these persecutions, experienced severe stress during pregnancy and lost two children in 2015. It’s true?

• Unfortunately. These are not people, but scum. Markin, a representative of the Investigative Committee, made accusations against me specifically on my birthday – April 10, 2015. The pressure was growing from all sides – the FSB wanted all friends and acquaintances to turn away from me after seeing this campaign. Maria saw all this and was very worried … She was in her third month of pregnancy … This tragedy greatly influenced me and made me look differently at many things in life. When your family is suffering, there is no choice.

– You understood that if you left for Europe, then there would not be such a reaction against you, because Ukraine is now called in Moscow the main enemy of Russia.

• I was hinted so that I would not try to go in this direction. And I am too independent a figure for them, too independent, and all our confrontation was absolutely obvious to the political elite in Russia.

“I DIDN’T CHANGE THE OWL. I HAD A CHOICE WITHOUT CHOICE – EITHER SEPARATE WITH ME, OR LEAVE”

– Do you understand that the Kremlin’s propagandists will turn you into an enemy of the state? Do you understand that they will try to trample your name and brand as a national traitor?

• They themselves are primarily national traitors. They insult others, insult the state, and unleash wars. These scum have never done anything in their lives for their Motherland, including fulfilling their constitutional duty – they did not serve in the army.

In my state, I went from a Suvorov soldier to a colonel, from a simple teacher to a professor, doctor of jurisprudence, served for many years, worked in the Arctic Circle, was a deputy of the State Duma, and I did not harm Russia with any of my actions.

Yes, I testified in the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine in the case of the ex-President of Ukraine Yanukovych, who really betrayed his country, was involved in the massacres of people, who fled to another country and called on the troops of another state to destroy his people. I believe that this person should not have received asylum in Russia, but a fair trial. And this court is very important for a democratic country. I am not a traitor, I love the country in which I was born and took place. I did not betray anyone, I did not betray my oath. If Putin considers the previously twice-convicted Yanukovych to be his friend, then I don’t need such friends.

I even think that they absolutely do not care that Yanukovych is being tried on a high treason case. They understand that they can confiscate $ 1.5 billion of property from him. The fight is only for this. The economy determines all politics. The unhappy fate of many people is a consequence of the choice they did not make. I made this choice. And I’m proud of it.

– Why did you vote in 2014 for the annexation of Crimea? 

• I myself did not vote, they voted for me with a card. The decision of the Communist Party faction was to vote for the annexation of Crimea, and they voted with a card instead of me, although I did not give a power of attorney to vote. Then I saw the dire consequences of this vote, and today I consider it a gross mistake. My mistake and Russia’s mistake. And this mistake must be corrected.

I believe that the last wars of conquest ended in the 19th century, when other countries took over territories and siphoned off resources. Having seized Crimea, Russia began to pump huge amounts of money there. Resources for this are being siphoned off at the expense of other primordially Russian regions. In the Russian Federation, the poorest regions are the Russian regions – Ivanovo, Ryazan, Vladimir, Vologda, Pskov regions. The imbalance in the provision of regions is enormous. The Caucasus, for example, receives billions of dollars in subsidies. Now all of Russia is deprived to the detriment of Crimea. The consequences are dire for the country, they do not provide an opportunity for development. Having committed aggression against Ukraine, Russia quarreled with the entire world community, this was done even in violation of the federal Russian laws on referendum. Now Russia is under sanctions, anti-Russian sentiments are growing in the world, investments and access to Western credit resources have ceased.

– I found Cherkesov’s article “You can’t let the soldiers turn into merchants” in 2007, about which you spoke. There he described three ways of development of Russia under Putin. The first is the building of civil society, the second is the strengthening of power structures and the construction of neo-feudalism, and the third is the Soviet version of stagnation and corruption, which will lead to disintegration. Which way is Russia going?

• I think Russia is following the second path, gradually moving to the third.

Now there is a change of generations, and I see by what principles – parochialism, protectionism, etc. It is impossible to change the state under conditions of negative selection. I fought to lead one of the regions, I was close to that. And they explained to me that no, you cannot exist as a white crow. No one will ever let you do this, and secondly, if you managed to overcome corruption, to establish life within one region – this is a small projection of the country, then in principle you can succeed with a large region. Who needs such an example? And I began to understand that they wouldn’t let me do anything, the experience was not in demand, and I would just have to fight against a blank wall. At one of the meetings in the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Zyuganov said that the USSR had collapsed because the rules were gerontocracy. This was said by a man who is 72 years old, who has been in charge for 20 years – he does not consider himself gerontocracy. And United Russia, which blames America and Ukraine for all Russia’s problems, has been in power for 17 years. There is such a concept in economics – an institutional trap. All over the world it is believed that 100% of profits should not exceed 40% of taxes. Because if this figure is higher, a person will not be engaged in business, because there will be no opportunity to invest in production, pay normal salaries – this is killing the economy in the bud. So in Russia it is about 60%. In fact, everyone who does business, they do it illegally through various forms of outsourcing. And how can this be changed if any changes in the state are prohibited? I was the author of a number of laws on offshore amnesty, on capital amnesty, which were signed by President Putin. But this is not beneficial for the state. If today some businessman is simply engaged in business and the state turns a blind eye to violations, and tomorrow he wants to speak out on some political issue, for example, about the Donbass, then the state will immediately be able to organize a criminal case against him.

– But you somehow lived with all this for many years, what has changed? 

• A person is free to choose where to live. I left because I just don’t want to live in lies and hypocrisy anymore. Sometimes you have to make a decision – do you want to change something, or are you ready to live quietly as a timeserver? I don’t want to compromise. My wife tells me all the time that the worst thing in life is to compromise. I agree with her. This is a pernicious thing for the conscience. First you make a small compromise, then a bigger one. Now in Russia there are many people who are waiting for changes in the government, but they cannot come from within the government, which is just fine with everything and the system rejects everyone who wants changes. She also rejected me. Therefore, I had a choice without a choice – either they will deal with me, or leave the country. And in general, I agree with the statement of the famous actor that Russia is a necrophilic country where the dead are loved more than the living.
  

“THE CRIMEA UNITED RUSSIA AROUND THE IDEAS TO SLEEP … SOMETHING AT HIS NEIGHBOR. THIS IS MY ERROR, RUSSIA’S ERROR, AND THIS ERROR SHOULD BE CORRECTED”

– You left while still a State Duma deputy?

• Yes, in October. Formally, we had powers until December 4. But we decided not to wait for their completion. We considered different options, but due to my mentality, my roots and my position, which I often expressed, we decided to move to Kiev.

– Do you intend to obtain Ukrainian citizenship and build your life here?

• And I am already a citizen of Ukraine. On December 4, my powers as a State Duma deputy ended, and on December 6, I became a citizen of Ukraine.

– You gave evidence to the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine. Tell us what exactly.

• I would not like to tell the materials of the preliminary investigation, but in short … Yes, I testified in the case of Yanukovych’s treason. I considered it my duty to help my country and expose this villain. A previously convicted criminal who betrayed his people, escaped and asked to send troops of another state to destroy his citizens. It is my firm conviction that all these words and actions need to be translated into the legal plane. And give them a legal assessment. Yanukovych is a puppet. He himself signed the abdication, and his appeal to bring in Russian troops was illegal. At first, this appeal was generally written by the Crimean Aksenov. In Russia everything is a secret, but nothing is a secret. Then the Kremlin considered who Aksyonov was if Yanukovych was in Russia. And so he writes a letter to the President of the Russian Federation on the introduction of troops.

– How do you perceive the events in Ukraine, the revolution, the war for independence?

-. When the Maidan happened, the entire normally thinking part of the Russian political elite was delighted that the Ukrainians had driven away the corrupt government. The same thing is happening in Russia. A very small group has taken over and plundered the country. And all the rest are punished by punitive methods through the Investigative Committee and the FSB. It’s just that Russia is much more amorphous than Ukraine and there are many more opportunities to exploit it so that this power can stay in its place. Therefore, the Kremlin got mad and shouted that the events in Ukraine were the hand of America. What if this happens in Moscow? There is also a huge number of dissatisfied people. This was the main problem. Strangle in the bud and show that God forbid something like this happens here.

– How do you feel about the fact that Russia is waging a war against Ukraine in the Donbass?

• This is a huge disaster. The situation in Russia now is like in Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Everyone knew that he was killing Jews, but they continued to cooperate with him for many years, pretending that nothing was happening. The whole state went mad precisely in the pseudo-patriotic frenzy. Many things are now the same in Russia. As one well-known writer said: “What unites Ivan and Magomed in Russia? This is an opportunity to sp..t something for free.” Then all national, religious and linguistic differences disappear. Crimea has become such a litmus test – it has united Russia around the idea of ​​something to sleep … with its neighbor. And many Crimean citizens would do the same – they have the same thinking. The Americans would come to Crimea and say: now there will be America here and pensions for a thousand dollars, so they would vote for America. War is trouble. Ukrainians must show maximum willpower. There will be victims, but you need to defend your territory. I see that there is a very high patriotic enthusiasm here. There is no other way to win the war. Otherwise, Ukraine will be crushed and crushed, the Kremlin will not stop. Today’s Russia does not need a successful Ukraine in any way. Only with the change of this power can something change, an epiphany come.

– What would you say to those Russians who go to Donbass to take part in hostilities?

• Over the past 20 years in Russia, unfortunately, they have lost the education system. Today propaganda is bringing up. When young people with no education, no profession (their parents are mostly asocial elements) are told every day: “Judeo Bandera, ukrofashists, enemies”, they develop false patriotism, they go to war. First of all, because they are not in demand, they cannot find themselves in Russia. And the state is filthy parasitizing on them, using them as “cannon fodder”. The same Motorola – he worked at a gas station. He was nowhere and never could achieve anything – and he was easy to hire and seduce with a false social lift. Such people have always been in any state.

– Why Ukraine after all? You could become a citizen of any country in the world, but everything is complicated here, because feudalism, corruption, they are also widespread in our state, and the state itself is just beginning to be created, there is a lot of chaos, and there are many disappointments. Life in Ukraine is a path of struggle.

• I earned enough in due time. But I realized that this is not the goal of my life. For me, the most important thing is to be in demand, to be useful to the state and society, to achieve certain results in my work so that they are visible, and strive to make life better around me. You go where you can find a case. And Ukraine is my second native country. Here, too, are my roots, in the Kherson region. Therefore, I do not feel like a stranger here, a visitor. Ukraine accepts everyone who believes in it. There are many problems, but there is a vector of development, there is a spirit of freedom, there are normal people. The first thing that we saw when we arrived here – people are kind, normal, there are no evil faces. I don’t want to leave Kiev. In Europe you will always be a stranger. Only the third generation will feel like non-emigrants. I am a person who has worked for the state all my life, what will I do there, who will I serve? Yes, my wife is in demand, she often travels to Europe. I think they will now begin to put obstacles in place in Russia.

– A terrorist attack was committed in Kiev, a former Russian journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed, circumstances say that he could have become a victim of the Russian special services. Aren’t you afraid that you are also now a potential target for Russian terrorists, and they might hunt you down?

• Do not underestimate any risks. But I am also a prepared person. And there is a risk. But the risk in Kiev is no higher for me than in Moscow. I’m willing to take risks.

– What would you like to do in Ukraine?

• First of all, of course, I would like to be useful to the country, with all the knowledge that I have. In Russia today people like me are not needed. I am currently in the negotiation stage. First, I received citizenship, because not being a citizen of the country, it is difficult to apply for any government office. I do not need privileges, I will try to find my place in life, like everyone else. I understand that it will be difficult, not easy. But this is freedom. A person can always make his own choice. I made my choice.

I would like to quote V. Mayakovsky:

“I wanted to be understood by my country,

But I won’t understand – well … ..

I will pass over my native country,

How the slanting rain passes … “

By Mary Anastasia O’Grady
Nov. 9, 2020 Anno Domini
Wall Street Journal

In an animated video clip posted to Twitter on Nov. 1, Democratic Vice- Presidential candidate Kamala Harris argued that America needs to strive not for equal treatment of individuals but for equity. “Equitable treatment,” she explained, “means we all end up at the same place.”

Efforts to guarantee outcomes are at odds with what it means to live in a free society where equality under the law is the guiding principle. So either Ms. Harris was blowing smoke or she wants to change America into a place where liberty takes a back seat to central planning. The latter is called socialism, a system that is not particularly kind to the poor.

Hugo Chávez also promised to make everyone in his country equally well-off. The concept sold in a nation that believed it was infinitely rich because it was swimming in oil. Intellectuals reasoned that he ought to stick it to the haves. When he did, they packed their bags and left.

Of the more than four million Venezuelans who are estimated to have fled their country since 2015, many are unskilled workers who have been forced into menial labor or lives as mendicants in foreign countries. Images of their march into exile have provoked compassion and grief across the globe.

Yet it is the flight of the knowledge worker that has done the most harm to the nation. As one Venezuelan economist told me recently, “you can be sure that the country’s most skilled professionals were among the first to leave and valued tradesmen were not far behind.”

The Bolivarian revolution’s earliest large-scale assault on know-how came during a lockout at the monopoly oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PdVSA) in December 2002. Union leaders and the largest association of private enterprises called for the labor action in response to Chávez’s antidemocratic tactics. By February 2003 the effort had fizzled out. But the regime used it to purge at least 18,000 PdVSA and related-company employees, gutting the industry of most of its experienced personnel. By replacing fired workers with political loyalists, Chávez believed he was protecting his golden goose. Some of the most sophisticated PdVSA minds saw the future and fled.

In 2009, the regime expropriated Venezuelan companies that served the oil industry in the Lake Maracaibo area and in the eastern part of the country. It was one of many politically motivated mistakes that would lead to the end of investment flows. But as long as oil prices were high, the costs of such recklessness was hidden.

The party ended when prices tanked in 2014, government revenues dropped precipitously, and central bank money-printing led to a mega-devaluation of the bolivar. When PdVSA salaries couldn’t keep up with inflation, another wave of oil engineers— this time led by a younger generation—went abroad to work. In the years that followed, more oil technicians threw in the towel on life in Venezuela.

This vicious circle of declining revenue and human-capital flight has brought the once-mighty Venezuelan petroleum powerhouse to a standstill. Drilling operations and refineries no longer function properly, making the country especially vulnerable to U.S. sanctions.

There has been a loss of competency in a host of other industries as well. Gone is the presumption that one can turn on the tap for running water. This is reality in many poor countries, and people adapt. But for wealthy Venezuela to fall into such an abyss is mind-boggling.

From 1992 to 1999, José María de Viana was president of the state-owned water company, Hidrocapital, serving metropolitan Caracas. In an October interview with the Venezuelan news site TalCual, he spoke about the pain that this crisis is causing the poorest Venezuelans and “patients who are confined to hospitals where, in most of them, there is no water.”

“It was a long process,” TalCual wrote, paraphrasing Mr. de Viana, “that began with professional decline of the [water] companries” that, until 1999, “had the skills to maintain the delicate economic-financial balance that made it possible to cover costs and meet the needs of the population in a timely manner.” The nation’s electrical grid has similarly deteriorated as Venezuelans with the proficiency to maintain the system have left for greener pastures outside the country. Power failures are now routine.

The prospects for reversing Venezuela’s skills gap aren’t good. With incomes of less than $3 a month, many teachers have been pushed out of the profession by the need to survive. Last month the president of the association of professors at the Simón Bolívar University summed up the catastrophe this way: “A country without its children and young people training, learning, as Venezuela is in these gloomy moments, is condemned to continue to being dragged down as a nation and to be more violently devastated.”

It seems like a recipe for all to end up in the same place—to borrow a phrase from Ms. Harris—but not in a good place.

By Eustace Mullins
Excerpt: Murder by Injection: The Story of the Medical Conspiracy Against America (1988 Anno Domini)
pgs. 169-170

The daytime soap opera known as the Iran-Contra affair was made to order for the secretive operatives of the CIA. They delighted in leading the obtuse members of Congress on one wild goose chase after another, while the real story remained untold. It was chefs surprise, a culinary delight of drugs, the sale of arms to  belligerents, and money, well seasoned with political sauce, stirred with various commitments to the State of Israel by leading Washington politicians, and topped with luscious Swiss bank accounts. In fact, the Iran Contra affair was the logical culmination of the longtime involvement of the Rockefeller interests and the Drug Trust in pro-Communist activity. John D. Rockefeller himself had tucked the sum of $10,000 in cash into Leon Trotsky’s pocket before seeing him off to start the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party which was left behind to subvert the United States, was operating under the name of the  Socialist Workers Party. It was then given the cover name of League for Industrial Democracy. Thus the Drag Trust, while maintaining the Stalinist Communist government in Russia, simultaneously maintained a Communist backup regime in the United States, the Trotskyite movement, in case the Stalinist regime should fall. Noticeably irked by this competition, Stalin sent an agent Mexico to  eliminate his rival, whom he had previously exiled, realizing that Trotsky was still too popular in Russia to be murdered there.

The Trotsky organization now had its political martyr. During the 1950s, it quietly placed its members in power in the media, the universities and the government, replacing, in most instances, the incumbent Stalinist hardliners. The Stalinists in Washington who had surrounded Roosevelt and Truman were gradually replaced with “neoconservatives,” that is, hard-line anti-Moscow ideologues, who later added to their masquerade by additional and impressive noms de plume, such as “the Hard Right,” “the New Right,” “the Religious Right,” or, in some instances, merely as “conservatives.” None other than the Hollywood man on the white horse, Ronald Reagan, rode into power in 1980 on a tide of “neoconservatism.” His principal  backing came from the CIA, which by then was only a mouthpiece for the neoconservatives, and its house organ, the National Review, whose editor, William Buckley, boasted that the only job he had ever had was with the CIA. Jeane Kirkpatrick, of the Rockefeller financed League for Industrial Democracy, became the spokesman for the new policy, while Reagan’s entire team was dominated by the Hoover Institution, whose two senior fellows, Sydney Hook and Seymour Martin Lipset, were on the board of LID. Thus David Rockefeller maintained close liason with the Stalinist Communists in Moscow, while other Rockefeller interests directed the “anti-Communist” stance of the Reagan regime. It was a classic Hegelian operation of thesis and antithesis, with the still unresolved synthesis yet to come. The power of the LID lay in its domination of the CIA and its total commitment to the State of Israel as the world headquarters of the Trotskyite Communist movement. Thus Elliott Abrams, son-in-law of the Israeli propagandist Norman Podhoretz, who was editor of the American Jewish Committee organ, Commentary, was appointed by Reagan to direct the Contra operation in Nicaragua, a classic standoff between the Stalinist regime in Managua and Trotskyite directed rebels in the hills.

The drug involvement in this operation should surprise no one, because the Rockefeller interests, having established the American Drug Trust, had long been active not only in ethical drugs but in unethical ones as well. The contra affair not only threatened to blow the lid off the Iran Connection; it endangered the Israeli Connection, the Swiss Connection, and the Rockefeller Connection as well. The danger was averted by astute maneuvering of the docile congressmen, and by adroit manipulation of the media to focus on Col. Oliver North and Admiral Poindexter, to the exclusion of their controllers. Thus a “crusade against Communism,” a noble effort to contain the Communists a la George Kennan, to be financed with “dirty” money from the sale of drugs, was at last revealed….

By Mary Anastasia O’Grady
Wall Street Journal
October 12, 2020 Anno Domini

During Evo Morales’s nearly 14 years as pres- ident, Bolivia grew into one of the Western Hemisphere’s most insidious threats to democracy. Now a year after his resignation, there is a danger that his Movement Toward Socialism party, known as MAS, could return to power—even though a majority of Bolivians don’t support it.

One legitimate worry among Latin America watchers is that if the MAS party, with Evo as its de facto boss, makes its way back into the presidential palace by way of the ballot box on Oct. 18, there won’t be another fair election in a very long time.

Mr. Morales has been secretary general of Bolivia’s federation of coca growers since 1996. He held that post throughout his tenure as Bolivia’s chief executive, and under his leadership the country became a narco state and a player in transnational crime.

Mr. Morales is a protégé of Fidel Castro. As Foreign Minister Karen Longaric told the Bolivian newspaper Pagina Siete in January, “the relation- ship with Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba,” which became close Bolivian allies during the Morales presidency, “was aimed at consolidating an ideological current that had a geopolitical project.” Iran was another friend of Mr. Morales, a further reason why a MAS victory would be a setback for the region.

Mr. Morales was approaching his term limit when he organized a 2016 referendum on whether he should be allowed to run for a fourth term. Bolivians said no. So in 2017 his hand-picked Supreme Court abolished term limits. Using that decision, he ran again last year.

Mr. Morales declared victory in that election. But evidence—including an audit by the Organization of American States—supported allegations that MAS committed fraud.

Bolivians went to the streets for three weeks to protest the government’s dirty tricks. When Mr. Morales lost the support of the army and the national police, he resigned and fled the country. Bolivia has accused him of terrorism and human-rights violations.

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador gave the Bolivian refuge. That raised eyebrows in Mexico because that country has been torn apart by drug-cartel violence and Mr. Morales’s federation of coca growers is one of the region’s largest producers and distributors of cocaine.

A month later the newly elected peronista government in Argentina granted Mr. Morales refugee status. As per constitutional succession, former Sen. Jeanine Áñez, of the Democrat Social Movement party, is now Bolivia’s interim president.

Mr. Morales is running the campaign of MAS presidential candidate Luis Arce from across the border. Polls have Mr. Arce leading the race but with only about 44% of total expected valid votes. (Voting is mandatory, but blank votes are subtracted from the total.) Behind him by about 10 points is former president Carlos Mesa of the Revolutionary Left Front party. Revolutionary Nationalist Movement party candidate Luis Camacho is next with 15%. Two other candidates share another 5%.

Ms. Áñez withdrew from the race last month in an effort to unify the anti-MAS vote. But since a first-round victory requires only 40% of valid votes cast with a 10-point spread over the second-place finisher, and the opposition remains split, a first-round win by Mr. Arce is a real possibility.

There are eerie parallels with Nicaragua, where Daniel Ortega ruled as a dictator from 1979, when his Sandinista army overthrew Anastasio Somoza, until he was voted out in 1990. Mr. Ortega returned to power in 2006 by taking advantage of a divided opposition to win an election.

The “reformed” Mr. Ortega did not move against business but instead formed partnerships with it. A commodity boom and Venezuelan oil shipments financed with debt put the wind at his back while he consolidated power institutionally. When the money ran out and Nicaraguans decided he should go, they found themselves back in a dictatorship.

Mr. Morales pursued a similar course in Bolivia during the days of high energy and soybean prices. As Bolivian economist Mauricio Rios Garcia explained in a Nov. 13, 2019, commentary on his website, high commodity prices “allowed Morales to have a budget 4 times greater than that of the ‘neoliberal’ era of the 90s.” It was a spending increase “like never before in the history of the country,” and Mr. Morales used it to “gain powers over the economy to the detriment of economic freedom.” Mr. Morales ended central bank independence and “intervened in the banking and financial system in 2013 to grant abundant artificially cheap credit.” I might add that American and European drug consumers also sent a gusher of narco-dollars into Evo’s economy and his MAS party’s radical causes.

Bolivians were lucky to get rid of Mr. Morales when they did, and perhaps only because his consolidation of power did not sufficiently purge the military and national police. If his MAS party returns to the presidency, he won’t make the same mistake twice.

By Brent Kendall and Jared S. Hopkins
Wall Street Journal
August 26, 2020 Anno Domini

WASHINGTON—The U.S. business of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. was in- dicted Tuesday on charges the generic drugmaker fixed prices on cholesterol medication and other drugs.

The Justice Department’s antitrust division brought the case in a Pennsylvania federal court, alleging Teva Pharma- ceuticals USA engaged in anti- competitive conduct that re- sulted in at least $350 million in overcharges to consumers.

Prosecutors accused the company of fixing prices, rig- ging bids and allocating cus- tomers in three different con- spiracies, including for pravastatin, a commonly pre- scribed cholesterol drug whose brand name is Pravachol.

A second conspiracy in- volved price fixing on medica- tions used to treat arthritis, sei- zures, pain, skin conditions, and blood clots, the Justice Depart- ment alleged. The third alleged conspiracy involved drugs used to treat brain cancer, cystic fi- brosis, arthritis, and hypertension, the department said.

Teva participated in the conspiracies from May 2013 until at least December 2015,prosecutors alleged.

“Today’s charge reaffirmsthat no company is too big to be prosecuted for its role in conspiracies that led to sub- stantially higher prices for ge- neric drugs relied on by mil- lions of Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General Ma- kan Delrahim, the Justice De- partment’s top antitrust official.

Teva rejected the allegations and promised to defend itself in court, saying in a statement that it was “deeply disappointed that the government has chosen to proceed with this prosecution.” The company said its own internal investigation found no price-fixing.

The indictment is the highest-profile action in a long-running investigation that has swept across the generic-drug industry and has resulted in cases against seven companies and four executives so far.

Generic drugs account for some 90% of medications dispensed in the U.S.

Most companies so far have agreed to settle charges by paying criminal penalties, admitting wrongdoing and agreeing to cooperate, in exchange for deferred prosecution agreements in which the government would drop the cases eventually, as long as the defendant companies fulfilled their obligations under the settlements.

Among those that reached such deals were Novartis AG’s Sandoz subsidiary, which in March agreed to pay a $195 million criminal penalty, and Taro Pharmaceuticals Inc., which agreed last month to pay $205.7 million.

The Justice Department alleged Teva’s conspirators included Sandoz and Taro, as well as Apotex, which agreed to pay a $24.1 million penalty in May, and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, which is facing charges the department announced in June. The company has pleaded not guilty.

Teva had met with top Justice Department brass to try to persuade them not to bring a case, and it was resistant to a settlement that would have included a deferred prosecution agreement, a sizable financial penalty and a requirement that the company admit wrongdoing, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Teva said it attempted to reach a resolution but the department “has shown an unwillingness to consider alternatives that would not deeply impact Teva and the stakeholders who depend on the company, including the patients who benefit from our medicines.”

Teva, which had nearly $17 billion in sales last year, is among the largest pharmaceutical companies by revenue globally. The Israel-based company has been challenged in recent years by the collapse of generic drug prices and a heavy debt load, seeing shares fall more than 80% since 2015. New management initiated a restructuring.

In addition to financial penalties, a felony conviction of Teva could lead to its exclusion from federal health-care programs.

The case would mark a rare showdown in court. Because the stakes of a criminal conviction can be so dire, companies in the Justice Department’s crosshairs for price fixing rarely elect to go to trial.

Each of the charges carries a statutory maximum penalty of $100 million, but the maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the alleged crime or twice the loss suffered by victims.

The charges are the latest headache for Teva, which also is facing price-fixing lawsuits from state attorneys general and private plaintiffs, including health insurers.

A coalition of states has filed three sweeping lawsuits related to alleged drug price-fixing since 2016 against a host of companies including Teva. The most recent, filed in June, involves alleged price-fixing of more than 80 prescription drugs including skin medications.

The states have alleged that conspiracies among top generics makers played out over years at routine industry events, including meals, parties and golf outings as well as through telephone calls, emails and text messages.

Teva has disputed the allegations.

The company’s U.S. unit also was hit with a separate civil lawsuit from the Justice Department this month alleging it engaged in a scheme to game the Medicare system and prop up high prices for its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone. Teva denied the allegations.

Teva is also among drug manufacturers facing thousands of lawsuits brought by states, cities and counties accusing it of helping spark the nation’s opioid crisis. Last year, Teva agreed to a global settlement framework with several state attorneys general to resolve the claims, but so far nothing final has been announced.

Chief Executive Kare Schultz said in an interview this month he had hoped a deal would go through earlier this year, and that talks are continuing.