BIKERS FOR THUGS: CHAINSAW ARTISTS, MIAMI MAMAS AND THE KREMLIN CALLIGRAPHY
BIKER CLUBS AS A HYBRID WAR TOOL
On August 11, 2018, the anniversary of Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Trump hosted 180 bikers from across the country at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Read on to discover how the Russian secret services agents and officials close to the Kremlin ran an operation to organize armed para-military biker club network throughout the US in 2012–2016, approached Trump personally, invested millions of dollars into Trump-brand luxury property, curtailed the operation due to the public scandal and how a non-biker with family and career connections to the top US politicians lobbying for the Russian oligarchs is currently continuing to mobilize and politicize existing biker base in the US.
This article covers the following facts and events:
- The Kremlin uses Russian Orthodox bikers also known as “Putin’s bikers” as para-military pro-Putin forces domestically and internationally since at least 2012.
- The leader of this biker group is close to Putin and other government officials and has received grants, awards and honors from the Kremlin.
- He is also connected with former and functioning Russian military special forces officers, secret service agents and Russian government officials who own or owned Trump-branded luxury condominiums in Florida.
- These Russian state employees/Miami real estate investors teamed up with a Russian-American police officer and founded and ran a Russian-American biker club in Miami. The club bore a Russian special forces (KGB/FSB) name and logo, had a branch in Moscow and communicated with “Putin bikers” and their leader. Their members had a right to carry firearms.
- The Russian-American biker club founders were/are connected to the real estate agents working for Trump and his family in the US and Russia, participated in soft power projects run by the Russian Consulate in Washington D.C. in 2015 and 2016 and have a criminal record history in Russia and the US as well as ties with the FSB and FBI.
- In June 2017, the club was dissolved a few days before an expose in a US publication came out and caused a scandal in Russia and the US.
- In 2015, a former Washington D.C. employee with the experience of working for the election campaigns of a former Vice President, Secretary of State and a presidential candidate whose family members lobbied for Putin’s ally, and related to a prominent long-time Evangelical Christian active in the coalition that ushered Trump to power, registered a biker group as a Delaware limited liability company with undisclosed members. The group has an agenda that directly mirrors that of Putin’s bikers club and appeared at events sponsored by Putin’s supporters.
- In August 2018, this club announced that its members were to “step up rallies across America in time for midterm elections” and currently they are promoting a strong pro-Trump and anti-Democrat campaign for midterm and the 2020 elections, pushed by the Russian bots on the social media.
PART 1: PUTIN’S BIKERS
RUSSIA
THE NIGHT WOLVES — PUTIN
Putin maintains close a relationship with the group of nationalist bikers known as the Night Wolves.
→ In 2009, according to one of the bikers named Felix, Putin has arrived to the Moscow nightclub Sekston owned by the leader of the Night Wolves, Alexander Zaldostanov (aka “Khirurg” which means “Surgeon”), and helped to solve issues with the Ukrainian security services.
→ In 2012, Putin attended their compound and rode a three-wheeled version of a bike. He was presented with a leather jacket that had “God Is with Us” embroidered on it.
→ In 2013, Putin received the leader of the Night Wolves, Aleksander Zaldostanov in the Kremlin multiple times and awarded him with the “order of honor,” according to Reuters.
A Yale historian Timothy Snyder called it a biker gang that serves “as a paramilitary and propaganda arm of the Putin regime.”
According to the US Treasury news release statement, “Zaldostanov chairs the overall Night Wolves organization, and some of his responsibilities include the punishing of chapter groups and members for disloyalty to the Night Wolves organization.”
2. ZALDOSTANOV — RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE SERVICES
The Night Wolves have been closely connected to the Russian special services, helped to recruit separatist fighters in Ukraine and were deployed to Eastern Ukraine, according to the US Treasury news release.
As reported by Bild am Sonntag, German intelligence experts confirmed the results of the journalists’ investigative research showing that the bikers received transfers from the Russian military intelligence GRU, the Russian defense industry and organized crime and warned that the Night Wolves’s actions were a part of Russian hybrid war against the West.
In December 2014, the Night Wolves and Zaldostanov were added to the list of Ukrainian and Russian separatist leaders, militias and entities issued by the Treasury and made subject to U.S. financial and travel restrictions.
A Treasury news release stated:
→ “The Night Wolves biker group had its members serve in the Crimean self-defense forces as early as February 2014, which supported local Crimeans against the Government of Ukraine.
→ In March 2014, the Night Wolves conducted intimidation and criminal activities within Ukraine and also abducted and subsequently assaulted a Ukrainian Border Guard official.
→ This biker group also participated in the storming of the gas distribution station in Strikolkove and the storming of the Ukrainian Naval Forces Headquarters in Sevastopol.
→ During this operation, Zaldostanov coordinated the confiscation of Ukrainian weapons with the Russian forces.
→ In early-April 2014, the Night Wolves helped smuggle a former senior Ukrainian official out of Ukraine and also helped obtain Russian passports for another larger group of senior Ukrainian officials that they helped get into Russia.
ZALDOSTANOV — THE KREMLIN
According to Radio Svoboda, bikers receive multiple and generous government grants for “sport-and-patriotic” events and facilities for youth and adults, “several hundred million rubles a year” according to a 2013 report. According to Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund, in 2013–2014 Night Wolves received 56 million rubles (approximately $840,000); in 2015, 9 million rubles (approximately $135,000) for Christmas parties for children. In October 2015, Night Wolves received a donation of 12 million rubles from the Russian government to ‘build a “Patriot” youth center in Sevastopol in Crimea’.
In 2014, at an official reception in the Kremlin, Zaldostanov physically assaulted a journalist who was critical of a Presidential grant for the bikers. He never faced any consequences.
ZALDOSTANOV — DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATIONS, CULTURE AND EDUCATION
IMMORTAL REGIMENT MARCH — WORLD WAR II
The Immortal Regiment March, the Victory Day and other World War II-related events became important propaganda and hybrid war tools used by the Kremlin in Russia and abroad.
Read a detailed report on how the events commemorating World War II are weaponized by the Kremlin. The article below is being used by the Committee for Russian Economic Freedom in a lobbying effort to remove the Resolution J4960 Commemorating the 4th Annual New York Immortal Regiment March organized by the Russian Youth of America:
In 2015, Zaldostanov appeared at the Immortal Regiment March, a grassroots movement hi-jacked by the Kremlin and turned into a powerful propaganda machine.
He marched with Alexander Kibovsky, former Deputy Director of the Department of Mass Communications, Culture and Education of the Government of the Russian Federation and Putin’s close ally. They were photographed walking next to the portrait of Stalin’s right-hand man Lavrenty Beria guilty of the deaths of many thousands people. The photograph was shared by the Department of Culture of Moscow.
IMMORTAL REGIMENT MARCH — PUTIN — NETANYAHU
In 2018, Putin attended the Immortal Regiment March after the military parade at the Red Square in Moscow with the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Victory Day Parade featured 13,000 troops, 159 types of hardware including 75 aircraft, drones, de-mining robot used by the military in Syria’s Palmyra and Aleppo, a Terminator tank designed to be used in war zones involving nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, a MiG-31 supersonic interceptor jet carrying a high-precision Kinzhal (Dagger) missile, a pair of SU-57 stealth fighter planes, a fifth-generation jet reportedly tested in Syria. Some of the weaponry demonstrated at the parade may soon end up in the hands of Assad’s regime in Syria, noted WSJ. Moscow is also contemplating providing Assad with its S-300 air defense system. This might explain Netanyahu’s presence at the parade. Or there might be other reasons. Read on.
HYBRID WAR: THE “HERO”/“STRONGMAN” NARRATIVE
The main battle filed of a hybrid war is the individual and collective minds and subconsciousness. For the most part, the Kremlin fights not with weapons but with myths. It weaponizes language and thinking patterns to remodel the society from within. This is a critical concept of this research: bikers are an illustration of this method.
The narrative of “victorious, chosen people” liberating the world from the dark forces is used to inflame militant patriotism. Faith and religious rituals are added to engage the public. Zaldostanov’s carefully engineered image of a pious, just outlaw and a ruthless fighter is used as a vehicle for this narrative. The “folk hero” narrative supports the cult of personality of the ruler, his divine nature and messianic role.
Demythifying — or debunking — the Kremlin narratives and shedding light on these clandestine strategies and the motifs behind them is the key to killing this invisible war in the bud.
THE USA
3. ZALDOSTANOV — TRUMP TOWER PROPERTY OWNERS
PAVEL UGLANOV — ROAD RALLY — ZALDOSTANOV
Zaldostanov is known to have personal ties with Pavel Uglanov, a Trump Hollywood (Florida) property owner in 2012–2014, a member of Putin’s United Russia party and in 2010–2011, the first deputy minister of industry and power in the Saratov region and a double citizen of the US and Russian Federation.
In March 2013 brief visit to Russia, Uglanov who ran a gas station network and transportation business in the US was shot and injured from a traumatic pistol by a former business partner over the conflict of 20 million rubles.
In May 2015, Uglanov helped to organize the Russian-American road rally commemorating Victory Day in the World War II across five states.
The rally ended with the reception at the Russian Consulate in the US hosted by Sergey Kislyak, the Russian Ambassador to the US at the time.
The Russian-American road rally is an example of soft power events run by the Russian government with the help of the organized crime members and money. The Kremlin supports and sponsors groups, agencies and individuals implementing the hybrid war strategies.
IGOR ZORIN — ZALDOSTANOV
Igor Zorin, who owned three apartments in Trump Palace: $1,57 million, $2,32 million and $2,22 million, is another high-level Russian government official holding a series of strategically important positions related to propaganda.
Being the director of federal state unitary enterprise, Zorin had no right to own and operate business firms, including the foreign one. He failed to disclose his ownership and used multiple shell companies and a complex scheme to acquire the property.
A deputy head of the Federal Communications Agency at the time of his Miami real estate operations, Zorin previously served as the director of the Main Center for Special Communications, a federal state unitary enterprise that acted as a courier service in charge of the delivery of secret dispatches, narcotic drugs, weapons and cash.
In 2009, Zorin left this position due to a scandal: he was accused of the theft of nineteen million rubles.
In 2010, Zorin was awarded the Medal of the Order “For Services to the Fatherland of the II Degree” by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On awarding state awards of the Russian Federation” №650 dated May 27, 2010 “for the work achievement and many years of conscientious work.” The awards were presented by the head of the ministry Igor Shchegolev.
Zorin then moved on to the important position of the head of Russian Broadcasting and Alerting Networks agency that broadcasts emergency alerts and provides sound systems for military parades and major state actions, including Victory Day parade for the World War II on the Red Square,
In October 2015, Zorin, on behalf of this agency, received gratitude from the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. The agency’s wire broadcasting networks are one of the key elements of the civil defense system in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sevastopol (Crimea,) the cities of federal significance.
The agency has also been providing sound for the Immortal Regiment actions in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2015–2016 and have received gratitude from the Administration of the President.
Zorin maintained his high-rank positions in Moscow throughout his engagement in the US.
In October 2017, following the report by Transparency International based on the Miami Herald expose, Zorin was fired but was “unlikely to face criminal charges.” The Miami Herald, in a follow-up article, reported that Ilya Shumanov, deputy director of Transparency International, admitted he was surprised by the ruling. “This is one of the rarest [instances] when the General Prosecutor’s Office agrees with our allegations,” Shumanov wrote in an email to the publication.
SVYATOSLAV MANGUSHEV — ALFA-ANTIKRIMINAL
In Florida, Zorin purchased the property with the help of Stanislav Mangushev, a former officer of the Federal Security Service, Miami real estate investor and the head of the Board of Directors of the security companies network called Alfa-Antikriminal, founded by the Association of the veterans of the counterterrorism division of Alpha group of Russian FSB.
Alpha-Antikriminal lists Gazprom, Rosneft, Sberbank, Skolkovo and the Moscow City Government as its clients. Its coat of arms is the replica of the FSB emblem.
Alfa-Anticriminal received state contracts in the amount of almost 400 million rubles from the agencies associated with Zorin, according to the Center for Anti-Corruption Research and Initiatives Transparency International Russia.
In 2012, Mangushev opened an affiliate of Alpha-Antikriminal in Florida. He also ran a large number of other companies some of which appeared to be shell companies for buying property for Zorin.
SPETSNAZ MOTOR CLUB (MC) HISTORY
In May 2015, Zorin and Mangushev, together with German Bicbau (aka “Taran”), a deputy sheriff in Broward County, Florida, founded and ran a Russian-American law-enforcement motor club in Miami. The registered agent was The Legal Defense, P.A., a legal company run by Gennady “Gino” Sedikov, the founder of
The club was named Spetsnaz MC (literally, an abbreviation for “special purpose”) after a Russian military elite special forces and counterterrorism group equivalent to the US Navy Seals.
Before its official incorporation, Spetsnaz members asked the Night Wolves for official recognition. Zaldostanov has mentioned the application in an interview and Bickbau has confirmed the desire to join the Night Wolves in a letter quoted on the Night Wolves website.
In 2015, the club ran an event called “Sptesnaz” and “Bratva” (bratva is a slang word for “mafia” or “mob.”) In the 1990s, the power in Russia got usurped by the syndicate of the security forces (KGB/FSB) merged with the organized crime and oligarchs. This led to the creation of the mafia state.
The club members met and networked with the Russian-American Police Motorcycle club in NY and had plans to grow further.
In 2015, the Spetsznaz branch was opened in Moscow.
In 2015, Spetsnaz became a partner of Alpha-Antikriminal.
Spetsnaz went through the voluntary dissolution and stopped all operations on June 20, 2017 after the Miami Herald journalists contacted the founders for an interview. The well-researched and documented expose came out on June 22, 2017, and caused a scandal in the US and Russia.
FOUNDERS — SPECIAL FORCES
The close analysis of the founders’ background and political, business and social connections provides a thought-provoking material and sheds light on the motivations of the well-orchestrated campaign.
According to the founders, each of the five members of the Board and the founders of the Club served in the special forces, specifically:
- the [elite] Alfa KGB/FSB Group, for fifteen years [ Mangushev,]
- the Special Forces of the Air Force [either Monakhov or Shaburov,]
- the Special Forces of the USSR [either Monakhov or Shaburov,]
- the elite department of the USSR Moscow Criminal Investigations Department [probably, Sedikov,]
- the office of the Broward County Sheriff (fifteen years) [Bickbau]
The names are not indicated. The office of the Broward Country is German Bickbau. All five individuals are listed on the registration papers.
ALEKSEY SHABUROV
Alexey Shaburov graduated from MGIMO, an elite university in Moscow, infamous for training spies (and diplomats), and in 2000 became a co-owner of the Sokolniki Exhibition Center, the foundation for the largest exhibition company MVK (International Exhibition Company).
He served as the Chairman of MVK and the President of Moscow city-owned Sokolniki Exhibition and Convention Centre, running “patriotic projects:”
→ opening the first historic-patriotic museum at the North Pole, presenting his projects at the State Duma, etc.
SHABUROV — TRUMP
Shaburov is also a Director of the Museum of Calligraphy located at Sokolniki Center.
In 2011, Trump has attended the International Exhibition of Calligraphy hosted by Dezer Development in Miami and posed for a photo with Shaburov’s “counselor” Lyudmila Kulanina, another MGIMO graduate.
SHABUROV — AGALAROV
In 2005–2007, Shaburov’s company MVK partnered with Сrokus Ekspo, an exhibition and entertainment complex owned by Aras Agalarov and, in 2013, the venue for Trump’s Miss Universe.
In November 2013, Aras Agalarov, an Azeri-born, Moscow-based oligarch and another Putin’s ally, invested $20 million in Trump’s Miss Universe competition in Moscow. In October 2013, Putin decorated Agalarov with the Order of Orders in Kremlin.
In 2010, Shaburov sold MVK to the UK company ITE Group and the partnership with Crocus Ekspo dissolved. The joint website for two companies, Crocus Ekspo MVK, does not exist anymore.
SHABUROV, HIS WIFE OLGA SHABUROV AND TRUMP-BRANDED REAL ESTATE
In 2011, Shaburov purchased $2,51 million condominium at Trump Palace.
In 2016, according to The Real Deal, “Moscow-based Alexey Shaburov and his wife Olga paid $3.25 million for unit 903NE-M in Oceana Bal Harbour.”
Olga M. Shaburova, is a deputy director of the Museum of Calligraphy, Director of the Museum of Accordeons in Moscow and a real estate agent in Miami.
She works for Miami 365 Realty, LLC with Natalia Bickbau, the wife of German Bickbau, Spetsnaz club founder. The company’s agent is listed as Legal Defense, founded by another Board Member of Spetsnaz, Gennady Sedikov.
GENNADI “GINO” SEDIKOV
According to the bio on his website, Gennadi “Gino” Sedikov, the President and founder of Legal Defense PA, earned a law degree from Moscow State University Law School [elite and hard to get in without connections] in 1986 and proceeded to serve as a prosecutor in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation investigating financial crimes and racketeering, also serving at Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Trade.
Sedikov is also a partner of Miami Mama and Miami Luxe, Florida companies that run birth tourism from Russia.
Sedikov’s favorite movie is The Godfather.
EDOUARD MONAKHOV
Edouard Monakhov studied in a High Military Command Academy in Perm and lives in Florida, was arrested at least twice for disorderly intoxication/municipal ordinance and resisting officer without violence to his person and that he posed for a photo with the sheriff of Broward County Scott Israel.
GERMAN “TARAN” BICKBAU
German Bickbau serves as a deputy sheriff in Broward County, Florida. The sheriff of Broward Country is Scott Israel.
According to the Daily Beast, Sheriff Israel was elected with the help of Roger Stone and “hired a number of Stone associates and gave Stone’s stepson an uncommonly fast promotion to detective.”
Originally from Tatarstan, Bickbau graduated from Kazan Aviation Institute and moved to Moscow where he graduated from Russian Institute of Oil and Gaz, an alma mater of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, oligarch Roman Abramovich, and many other influential politicians.
In the US, Bickbau first ran a Russian-language journal Russky Yug (Russian South) and later worked at the Russian-language TV station, RTN-WMNB, according to his bio page.
In 2012, Bickbau founded and ran a company, International Innovative Technologies LLC, with a Russian Federation official, Ravil Nigmatzhanov.
Nigmatzhanov served as the deputy head of the department of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation until 1996, then as an executive representative of the Republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation, since 1997 a representative of the Republic of Tatarstan in the Republic of Cyprus and later trade and economic representative of the Republic of Tatarstan in the USA.
NATALIA BICKBAU — OLGA SHABUROVA — GENNADY SEDIKOV — ELENA BARONOFF
Bickbau’s wife Natalia Bickbau is a real estate agent who, as previously mentioned, works with Olga Shaburova for a company founded by Gennady Sedikov.
She also works for Exclusively Baronoff Rlty LLC, in the past managed by now deceased Elena A. Baronoff (also Lena Baronov and Baronova), VP of Customer Relations at Trump Grande, nicknamed “Trump’s Russian Hand.”
ELENA BARONOFF — TRUMP
Elena A. Baronoff was one of the biggest sellers of real-estate for Trump in the area and the exclusive realtor for the Trump Grand. She stated that she previously “served as a Cultural Attaché in Public Diplomacy for the Russian Government.” According to a Russian-American historian Yuri Felshtinsky, “It is not clear what exactly she meant by it and whether she actually worked for the Russian Government. Anecdotally, cultural attaché positions in Russian embassies were well-known as a cover-up for the KGB/FSB officers.”
According to the Rolling Stone, Glenn Simpson, who spent a year investigating Trump’s background during the campaign, testified before the House Intelligence Committee that Baronoff was a “suspected organized crime figure.”
According to the New York Times, Baronoff was a close friend of Trump, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Michael Dezer of Dezer Development, Trump’s partner in Sunny Isles.
Both publications report that days after Trump’s election in November, the local Sicilian newspaper, La Sicilia, quoted Baronoff’s friend Dino Papale describing Trump’s secret visit to the island in 2013. Papale stated that Baronoff introduced him to both Lavrov and Trump and hinted that he organized meetings between Trump and Russians.
ELENA BARONOFF — THE TRUMPS — MICHAEL BABEL
In 2007, Baronoff and Michael Dezer took the Trumps (Ivanka, Eric and Don) on a Moscow visit where they posed in front of the building belonging to the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of Russia with Michael Babel.
MICHAEL BABEL — ORGANIZED CRIME — THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT
Michael Babel, a graduate of The Russian Academy of Public Administration under the President, worked as an exclusive developer for a Soviet-time secret service agent and a KGB officer Shabtai Kalmanovich.
BABEL — KALMANOVICH
Kalmanovich had close personal connections with Putin, worked for the organized crime boss Semion Mogilevich, was an influential member of Solntsevo organized crime group and a former partner of Marat Balagula, a criminal boss of the Russian-American organized crime group known as “the Brighton Beach bros.”
In one of his interviews in 2002, Kalmanovich said that he was Putin’s adviser on the Baltic region and that he worked with an influential Kremlin official Sergey Prikhodko, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, the Head of the Executive Office of the Government. He was shot and killed in 2009 in Moscow.
The biography of Shabtai Kalmanovich is an excellent illustration to the symbiosis of the mafia, security services and oligarchy. Read more about Kalmanovich in a detailed article on the Russian mafia state and organized crime here:
BABEL — OLEG DERIPASKA
Babel was also a vice-president of Glavmosstroy, an integral part of the Glavstroy Group owned by Basic Element, Oleg Deripaska’s industrial group.
Deripaska is a Russian oligarch, a close ally of Putin, allegedly an FSB agent, and had business partnership with Paul Manafort.
In 2000, Deripaska hired the former US Senator Bob Dole to lobby for him and help organize the US visa that was denied on the grounds of his alleged ties with the organized crime.
In 2005, two English-language Russian sources, a Russian-American newspaper Kommersant and Moscow Times reported (NOTE: THE LINK DISAPPEARED AFTER THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED) that the Kremlin adviser Gleb Pavlovsky and Oleg Deripaska met Russian-born and raised Dimitri Simes, the president of The Center for the National Interest (formerly, The Nixon Center) and publisher of the foreign policy journal The National Interest, to discuss forming a Russian-funded think tank. The Nixon Center denied the story. The Center for the National Interest was a hosting institution for Trump’s first foreign policy speech.
Deripaska is also connected to Rosneft deal and more: read in detail here.
In 2016, Deripaska was allegedly offered private briefings about the progress of Trump’s campaign by Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager at the time.
In 2017, Deripaska allegedly took Prikhodko, an expert on international relations, very close to Putin, for a ride on his yacht and paid for the trip and escort services.
CHERCHEZ LA FEMME: DERIPASKA, KREMLIN, TRUMP
Evidence from Sex Industry Workers Has Arrived
medium.com
In 2017, Babel fled to the USA as Russian prosecutors accused him of fraud and called for an international search but have not demanded his extradition up to now. According to Felshtinsky, Babel might know too much to be put on trial. This might be the case with Zorin and Mangushev as well.
The Part 1 ends here. However, you will find the names of influential politicians and oligarchs from Part 1 (Russia — USA) in Part 2 (USA.)
PART 2. BIKERS FOR TRUMP
THE USA
“Bikers for Trump have a strong hold on the conservative imagination. They have a wide social media reach with tens of thousands of shares on their posts, many of which summon up racist tropes about immigrants or refugees to stoke xenophobic fears. When niche news sites write about Inauguration Day protests, the bikers come up in the comments section, invoked as a paramilitary solution that should take care of pesky protestors,” noted Mic in 2017 prior to the inauguration.
CHRIS COX
NOT A BIKER
“I don’t,” said Chris Cox, founder of Bikers for Trump, “have a bike right now.”
According to the AJC, Bikers For Trump founder Chris Cox… “is not really much of a biker.”
“Cox rides a Harley Davidson CVO Street Glide Screamin Eagle but didn’t necessarily drive it to every Bikers for Trump rally. Sometimes, he’d tow it to events on his flatbed truck, where his dog, Trigger, often joins him in the cab. Other times he’d get to a town and rent a bike there to motor to the rally. ‘I’ve had bikes on and off my whole life, but I’ve never considered myself that quintessential biker,’ he said.
CAREER IN POLITICS
Cox is not a biker. He comes from a family of a professional politician and grassroots organizer, “studied political science and communications at UNCW — where he learned how to throw political rallies, he said in his interview to the AJC — but dropped out before graduating” and worked for many high-rank politicians in Washington D.C.
After graduating [or not — ZZ] reports the Charleston City Paper, Cox left his native North Carolina to join his father, Earl Cox, in the political arena of Washington, D.C. He also worked for Dan Quayle, the Vice President for George W.Bush, and Colin Powell, the Secretary of State. He still wears a ring bearing the seal of the vice president on his right hand.
FATHERS AND SONS
EARL G. COX
Chris Cox told in an interview to the AJC, that his father, Earl Cox, was “a journeyman political operative, working for the departments of Agriculture and Labor and on George H.W. Bush’s campaign in North Carolina.”
His father’s political career is way more impressive than that. A conservative Republican, who considered Obama “a closet Muslim,” Earl Cox is “a former senior U.S. Government official with four different Republican administrations” and a life-long conservative politician, well-known religious leader and grassroots organizer turned “Christian international broadcaster and journalist.”
According to Earl Cox’s bio in Jerusalem Post, he “had served in senior level positions with four US presidents.”
EARL COX — CHRISTIAN COALITION
Earl Cox is a long-time contributor to the Christian Coalition, an organization that “helped usher President Trump into power in 2016,” writes the New York Times.
In 2018, the Christian Coalition is “planning its largest midterm election mobilization ever, with volunteers fanning out from the church pews to the streets to register voters, raise money and persuade conservatives that they cannot afford to be complacent this year.”
As early as 1990s, the Christian Coalition “began producing non-partisan voter guides which it distributed to conservative Christian churches. Complaints that the voter guides were partisan led to the denial by the IRS of the Christian Coalition, Inc.’s tax-exempt status in 1999.”
EARL COX — BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
A Christian leader, often listed among the major Evangelical Christians, Earl Cox is a strong supporter of Israel.
In 2002, Earl Cox was the first American to “purchase broadcast time to air messages in support of Israel” and was in a process of forming “an unprecedented Jewish-Christian Alliance.”
Due to his outspoken support for Israel, he has been recognized by Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu as a Good Will Ambassador from Israel to the Jewish and Christian communities around the world.
The leaders of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) claimed that “CUFI has made moving the embassy to Jerusalem a central focus of its 2017 agenda. The group’s founder and Chairman, Pastor John Hagee, has used White House audiences with Pres. Trump and Vice Pres. Mike Pence to urge them to move the embassy.”
In the first week of May, Pence spoke at the CUFI convention in Washington, D.C. Earl Cox was among the attendees.
On May 11, 2018, Trump’s administration formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced that the US will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The leaders of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) welcomed this decision.
EARL COX — PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGNS
The following segment gives a brief overview of Earl and Chris Cox political connections and associations.
The two midterm voting campaigns ran by the father and son are presented to the public as the grassroots movements. In reality, the campaigns are managed or assisted by career professionals with more than three decades of involvement with prominent figures in Trump — Russia investigation, such as Roger Stone and Paul Manafort.
Earl Cox worked on George W. Bush’s campaign in North Carolina.
ROGER STONE, AGAIN
In 1988, Roger Stone worked for George W. Bush’s campaign.
BOB DOLE, ROGER STONE AND PAUL MANAFORT, AGAIN
In 1996, Bob Dole’s presidential campaign employed Trump’s lifelong ally Roger Stone and Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Stone was forced to resign due to scandals about swinger ads.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, AGAIN
Bob Dole’s 1996 campaign also employed Arthur Finkelstein, who was introduced to Benjamin Netanyahu by Ron Lauder.
RUSSIA, AGAIN
Ron Lauder is a brother of Leonard Lauder, who in 1986 gave a luncheon where Trump was seated next to Yuri Dubinin, the USSR Ambassador to the US. Dubinin’s daughter engaged Trump in a conversation about the possibility of building a Moscow hotel in partnership with the Soviet government and this led to Trump’s first visit to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Source: Washington Post)
In 1996, Earl Cox tried to draft retired General Colin Powell for a White House run.
ELIZABETH AND BOB DOLE, AGAIN
In 1998, Earl Cox launched Elizabeth Dole’s presidential campaign.
DERIPASKA, AGAIN
At the same time, in 2000, Senator Bob Dole, the husband of Elizabeth Dole, and the law and lobbying firm of Alston & Bird were hired by the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska on the latter’s visa issue, as mentioned in Part 1. By 2003, Dole was lobbying for Deripaska.
MANAFORT, AGAIN
In 2007, Manafort and Deripaska started an investment fund in the Cayman Islands .
CHRIS COX — PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGNS
DAN QUAYLE
Chris Cox also worked for Bush’s vice president, Dan Quayle, during campaign events, as reported by the AJC, a publication that interviewed Cox.
“Dan Quayle is very personable… of all the politicians I worked with, he was the most personable,” said Cox in one of his many interviews and public appearances. “Donald Trump is also very personable.”
In February 2010, as reported by the Washington Post, Dan Quayle’s son, Ben Quayle, “announced his candidacy for the open House seat in Arizona’s 3rd district tapping into the right-wing’s recession-era angst and opened a controversial TV ad by looking straight into the camera and saying, ‘Barack Obama is the worst president in history.’ He ended that same ad with the words, ‘Somebody has to go to Washington and knock the hell out of the place.’” Ben Quayle lost due to a scandal: he allegedly wrote for a hard-core porn website.
On May 16, 2016, former Dan Quayle said he was backing Trump for president, as reported by ABC News, and called for the GOP to unite behind Trump.
On November 29, 2016, Dan Quayle “slipped into Trump Tower virtually unnoticed” as president-elect Trump “has summoned candidates and advisors to set an agenda and build his team,” according to the Daily Mail. Quale said that he had talked to Trump recently on the phone.
CHRIS COX — DARREL ISSA — LOBBYING
Cox was praised by a Republican Congressman Darrel Issa as, “an American patriot and one-man member of the Monument Militia” on the floor of the House after volunteering to maw a lawn in front of the memorial in Washington D.C. during the government shutdown.
CHAINSAW ARTIST
Then, Cox “tired of politics and decided, much to his family’s dismay, to follow the call of the saw.”
In 2011, Cox planned to start reality TV called Hard Wood. A trailer for that show, called Chainsaw Gang, is available on Youtube and contains extremely disturbing graphic images of injuries from a chainsaw.
Another video demonstrates Cox cutting the boots off his feet with a chainsaw.
The 48-year-old hasn’t been married, doesn’t have kids and lives with his mother and stepfather.
MARK MCGOVERN, MODERATOR FOR BIKERS FOR TRUMP, LLC
Mark McGovern, a moderator for Bikers for Trump, is a high tech executive turned politician: in 2018, he intended to become a GOP candidate for New Jersey’s Second Congressional District.
However, McGovern ultimately did not run. He announced his candidacy for the seat but did not appear on the candidate list following the filing deadline. He did not give any video or phone interviews. Currently, he keeps a low profile on social media.
According to OCNJ Daily, and his LinkedIn profile that does not show the full name, McGovern is a senior vice president at Citigroup with experience in high tech and operations in the financial services industry and a former employee at JP Morgan and Merril Lynch. A Google search did not provide any such results. In the email interview to Sea Isles News, McGovern said that he is a motorcycle enthusiast and used to own a gun shop.
McGovern’s website www.magamark.com redirects to another GOP candidate, Seth Grossman. His profile on Facebook has been deleted.
BIKERS FOR TRUMP — MORE SECRECY
In 2015, Cox started a grassroots movement Bikers for Trump.
On August 8, 2016, Bikers for Trump LLC was registered not in South Carolina where Cox is based but in the state of Delaware by a Registered Agent Inc. Neither Cox nor McGovern is listed in registration documents.
According to Harvard CC, when a Delaware LLC is filed through a professional Registered Agent, only the company name, address, the date of filing and the company file number of the Registered Agent appear on the Certificate of Formation. No information about the members or managers is required to be listed on the Certificate of Formation. Delaware Division of Corporations does not request, obtain or store any information regarding the LLC’s members and managers. The contact person does not have to be a member or manager of the LLC and does not need to reside in the United States or be a United States citizen.
“Bikers for Trump” trademark is registered to an address in Mount Pleasant, S.C., where his mother owns “a stately, two-story brick home that has a market value of more than $1.2 million, according to tax records,” wrote The Rapid City Journal in 2016.
“This is not for profit, all proceeds are used to support all Bikers for Trump!” the group’s website says.
However, Bikers for Trump is a for-profit business, not a 501(c)(3), reports the Daily Dot, adding “that the group also appears to be running a GoFundMe campaign with a $100,000 goal. There are limited FEC documents available online about the PAC and almost no information about the LLC.”
Other bikers claimed that Cox appropriated the income from promotional merchandise and Gofundme campaign for personal enrichment and sued him for copyright fraud.
BIKERS FOR TRUMP — VISION
Bill Barber, Cox’s supporter, a 61-year-old Biker for Trump who runs the Suck Bang Blow biker bar in South Carolina, views Trump as the first true biker candidate of the modern political era, [because]“Trump talks like a biker.”
“…Just because bikers want Syrian refugees vetted, and that we want to see a [border] wall built, that doesn’t make us racist,” claimed Cox, according to the Daily Beast.
Cox’s vision is “becoming as influential a force as the National Rifle Association or the Teamsters” and transforming bikers into “a distinct voting bloc, akin to the Christian Coalition [grassroots organization that helped with Trump’s 2016 campaign that his father is actively involved with].
“His group is composed of members of established groups such as Bikers for Christ and Veteran Bikers MC, and Cox says there are many more unaffiliated “lone wolf” bikers to still bring into the political fray,” wrote the Washington Post right before the Inauguration in January 2017.
CLEVELAND — AMERICA FIRST UNITY RALLY
In July 2016, Bikers for Trump participated in the America First Unity Rally in Cleveland.
The event was sponsored by Citizens for Trump, Infowars’ Alex Jones and Trump’s ally Roger Stone.
Milo Yiannopoulos who worked for Breitbart at the time and gun advocate Jan Morgan attended along with the neo-Nazi Matthew Heimbach and his party the Traditionalist Workers Party, known to have ties to the Kremlin.
An independent anonymous researcher noted the significance of the Cleveland convention date, as it was then that Trump announced the changes to the GOP program in regards to Ukraine and it was then that Ambassador Kislyak (see Part 1) meet Trump’s advisor Carter Page.
BIKERS FOR TRUMP AND MIDTERM ELECTION
In 2018, Bikers for Trump deliver a well-coordinated social media promotion campaign aimed at potential voters.
The administrators challenge group members to:
→ register to vote immediately,
→ share the message
→ mobilize and recruit more Trump supporters
→ use hashtags like #WalkAway #RedWave and #QAnon.
The linguistic analysis of some of the messages indicates grammatical errors typical for native Russian speakers (i.e. “Bikers for Trump is coming!” and “Just don’t share this post” instead “Don’t just share the post.” In Russian, the word order in the sentence does not change the meaning.)
“Russia is attempting to influence the midterm elections in the United States in November as well as divide the transatlantic alliance,” the US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats warned at a meeting co-hosted by the Atlantic Council in Normandy, France, on June 8.
“It is 2018, and we continue to see Russian targeting of American society in ways that could affect our midterm elections,” he said. “These Russian actions are purposeful and premeditated and they represent an all-out assault, by Vladimir Putin, on the rule of law, Western ideals and democratic norms,” he said.
As stated by the Atlantic Council, the head of the Russian-American Congress, Igor Baboshkyn, warned the US Congress in 2015 that the Russian Embassy was focusing on diaspora groups to create a network of the US citizens who support the Kremlin’s geopolitical objectives.
Whether this goal is reached through religious groups, biker clubs, neo-Nazi or environmentalist organization, has no significance. The hybrid war strategy is to micro-target different demographics by designing customized messages and delivering slogans that appeal to each particular group.
CONCLUSION:
Many publications reported on the Russian government officials and organized crime members purchasing the Trump-branded real estate and the money-laundering opportunities that these deals provided. I wrote a detailed report on Trump’s history in Florida.
The focus of this article is not money-laundering or organized crime but the hybrid war, in particular, the Kremlin’s weaponization of money, religion and culture (or, in this case, subculture) and the establishment of complex networks of agents of influence.
According to the Atlantic Council, para-military groups “carry the markings of Kremlin-oriented special operations:
The strategy of recruiting, training and using ultra-nationalist and religious groups, para-military units and violent gangs has been used by the Tsarist Russia and developed by the FSB/KGB during the seventy years of the USSR reign.
The groups are used to suppress protests, threaten, and recruit new members.
Nationalistic, ultra-patriotic and orthodox religious ideas are combined with the Law and Order concept and packaged in gang-style attire and props, often complemented by hard rock music.
The narratives of a national hero, a savior, a strongnman, Robin Hood — a just criminal — justify the behavior of the tyrant and enables him to break the law and commit crimes in the name of the people.
The appeal of slick and fashionable uniform, power, speed and adrenaline is used to glamorize the power.
The religious sentiment is added to sanctify the power and add the exciting feeling of crusade to the movement.
The underground culture is weaponized without being physically suppressed. This is one of a signature KGB tactic.
During the later stages of the hybrid war, these units can be mobilized for combat. In Crimea, similar networks were used to facilitate the illegal annexation of the peninsula, writes the Atlantic Council. Chris Cox went on conservative morning show Fox & Friends to say that their intention was to create a “wall of meat” between civilians and protestors at the Inauguration Day.
The Kremlin often experiments on the Russian people before exporting the hybrid war method to the international arena.
The Night Wolves is a precursor to the failed Spetsnaz, a more successful Bikers for Trump, and other groups that mushroom in abundance in today’s America.
Both the Spetsnaz LE MC “law enforcement” biker club run by the Russian secret agents reaching out to Trump and Bikers for Trump run by a non-biker, professional politician with multiple ties in the pro-Trump political environment, were founded at the same time — 2015 and have a striking resemblance.
If the Miami Herald journalists and independent researchers did not expose the machinations behind Spetsnaz, this operation would be ongoing.
Many similar operations are going on currently in preparation to the mid-term elections in November 2018, for instance, pro-Russian paramilitary “boot camps” in California, Washington and Oregon, and Russian militarized events in Pine Bush, NY, at the estate purchased with the money donated by the Moscow Patriarchate in the early 1960s and owned by the Russian Orthodox Church.
The German intelligence services consider Putin’s bikers a hybrid war strategy.
PRACTICAL STEPS
It is critical to remember that the hybrid war takes place in the minds of people. When the behavioral patterns of individuals and masses are changed, the whole society is changed — and can be usurped. As Molly McKew states in a program article The Gerasimov Doctrine, “the shadowy puppeteering at the heart of the [Kremlin’s hybrid war strategy] also makes it inherently fragile. Its tactics begin to fail when light is thrown onto how they work and what they aim to achieve. This requires leadership and clarity about the threat...”
Leadership is not reserved for the government or people in power.
It is up to each citizen to take time to get educated on the hybrid war situation by reading and fact-checking, and, once the information and the sources are verified, share it widely via social media and in person.
In other words,
→ read
→check links and sources
→think
→share with your circles
On a personal note, I believe that truth will prevail.
Read more here:
1. Politics. Oligarchs. Mafia.
2. Information war. Cyberwar. Propaganda.
This is Chapter of CLUSTERCLICK, a photo novella documentary by Zarina Zabrisky.
*Credits: See the links to the photo sources and information throughout the text. A lot of research was performed in June 2017 by several brilliant independent researchers. I aspired to credit all data/research and will be happy to add any missing links. I Recommended additional reading on Twitter: Wendy Siegelman @WendySiegelman, DW@dark_wisdom, Jay McKenzie @JamesFourM, Venture Capital @kelly2277. Special thanks to Michael Yudanin, the founder of Russian-Americans Against Trump and a blogger, for assistance with the Israeli part of research.
*All facts and photos are in public domain and available through Google. Links to the original sources are included.
** Click and hold the clapping hands on the left bottom corner so more Medium users can read it. The longer you hold it, the more claps the article gets and more people will be able to find out this article. Share on the social media: we need independent research.
