KAVANAUGH, CHRISTIANS, OIL AND GAS
RELIGIOUS GROUPS AS A HYBRID WAR TOOL
In 2014, the Kremlin began building and strengthening ties with the conservative religious leaders and organizations in an effort to recruit and cultivate agents of influence. By 2018, the Kremlin has built a strong network in the US and around the world. Currently, this network is being used to stack courts and stop the investigation into the global organized crime, money-laundering and political machinations of Putin and Trump.
The strategy of “courting conservative American groups served a double purpose: It increased Russian influence in America while perpetuating Putin’s new image as a defender of conservative ideals,” writes James Lamond, a senior policy adviser at the Center for American Progress, in his visionary article “The Origins of Russia’s Broad Political Assault on the United States” in Center for American Progress.
The lack of transparency, rigid beliefs and the missionary mentality of religious groups make them vulnerable to covert and overt manipulations. The current government of the Russian Federation consists of the individuals who came of age and made their careers under the USSR. The majority of the leaders were members of the Communist parties and grew up in a society that made an atheism a religion. Their interest in religion is pragmatic.
In the 2000s, the Kremlin used religion in Russia to fill in the national identity void left by the fall of communism with its strong ideology. The idea of the Third Rome Empire fit into the “post-Western world order” concept.
In 2014–2018, the Kremlin started to use Evangelical Christians, Catholics, Orthodox Jews Conservatives and other groups to expand its influence and reach its political and economic goals. As I wrote in my opening article on the hybrid war for Byline, The Kremlin’s short-term goals include:
1. Weakening and dissolution of the EU and NATO
2. Removal of the economic sanctions against Russia
3. Destabilization of the US
4. Normalization of the military intervention in Ukraine and Syria
The divine nature of the ruler, “Messiah” and “Savior” myths, the “God-given” world order, “War on Christmas,” “Christian Nation,” the Muslim threat are all tactics of a strategic military campaign, used as a front for a hybrid war operation.
As my investigative research below will show, willingly or not, the Federalist Society, Fellowship Foundation (“The Family”), The National Breakfast Prayer, Russian Orthodox Church, and Chabad movement are being instrumental in lifting the economic sanctions against the Russian oligarchs and officials.
CONSERVATIVE RELIGIOUS GROUPS
THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY
Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is behind many of Trump’s judicial nominees, including Brett Kavanaugh.
The Federalist Society is “a large right-wing network that grooms conservative law students still in law school, mentors them, finds them jobs, and eventually places them in courts and in government,” writes the Daily Beast. The Federalist Society network is estimated to include over 70,000 people. In 2016, they reported $25 million in net assets.
“Brett [Kavnaugh] and I were part of a close circle of cold, cynical and ambitious hard-right operatives being groomed by GOP elders for much bigger roles in politics, government and media,” wrote David Brock, Kavanaugh’s longtime associate, in his opinion piece for NBC. “And it’s those controversial associations that should give members of the Senate and the American public serious pause.”
THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY — LEONARD LEO
Leonard Leo, Executive Vice President and a member of the board of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, has spent a career shaping the federal judiciary to reflect rigid, conservative religious dogmas and stacking the courts.
Leo has served as an outside adviser to President Trump on the Supreme Court and related judicial selection and confirmation issues. He supported the confirmation of Neal Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and the Roberts and Alito U.S. Supreme Court confirmations in 2005–2006.
According to Politico, Leo has “raised upward of $15 million from conservative donors.” Donors to Leo’s network of organizations include Koch Industries, the Mercer Family Foundation, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and her husband, as well as Chevron, Google, Microsoft, and Pfizer.
Leo is also a Chairman of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.
Leo is also on the Board of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), a premier institute dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy.
LEONARD LEO — TRUMP — KAVANAUGH
As of July 6, 2018, the Federalist Society website stated that Leo was on leave to prepare “to spearhead the campaign for Brett Kavanaugh, who holds extreme views on choice, birth control, and the Affordable Care Act in line with Federalist Society positions.”
Notably, Leo’ BH Group donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration in a form of a check, publicly described as anonymous, as reported by the Daily Beast.
TIMELINE OF KAVANAUGH’S NOMINATION
On May 14, 2018, attorneys for a Russian company Concord Management and Consulting LLC, indicted by special counsel Mueller and accused of illegally interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election filed a motion to dismiss and proposed dismissal order with the court on which Judge Kavanaugh currently sits, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, citing Kavanaugh nine times. Concord lawyers also cited Gorsuch, another Trump’s first Supreme Court pick.
On June 8, 2018, Concord lawyers filed another document, calling special counsel “unlawfully appointed.”
On June 27, 2018, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement.
On July 6, 2018, Leonard Leo met Trump.
On July 9, 2018, Trump announced that he selected Brett Kavanaugh to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States filling the vacancy left by the retirement Kennedy.
On September 20, 2018, Ed Whelan, the President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) and a longterm friend of Kavanaugh, shared his theory about a “person resembling Kavanaugh” on social media and hours after that offered his resignation to the EPPC. EPPC didn’t accept the resignation and had him take a leave of absence.
ED WHELAN — LEO LEONARD — HOWARD DAHL — EPPC
Ed Whelan is the President of the EPPC (currently on leave after Kavanaugh’s defense); Leo Leonard is on the board. We will get back to another Board member of EPPC, Howard Dahl, as reported by Jay McKenzie.
ED WHELAN — CREATIVE RESPONSE CONCEPTS — MANAFORT
Whelan “worked for Creative Response Concepts, Inc. (CRC), the prominent Alexandria, Virginia-based P.R. firm, that guided him during his Kavanaugh public defense,” as reported by Politico.
CRC helped organize a news conference featuring an array of women who dismissed Ford’s allegations, according to Politico.
A former CRC employee, Garrett Ventry, had been working for Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley.
CRC was registered in 2005 as a foreign agent for Viktor Yanukovych, Putin’s puppet/former president of Ukraine who fled to Russia after the Ukrainian people rebelled against the Kremlin rule.
Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort officially worked as a political consultant for Ukraine’s ruling party and personally advised the now-toppled Russian puppet Victor Yanukovich from 2006–07 to 2012.
Manafort conceded to committing several federal crimes and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department, including in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election after pleading guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy against the US and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice due to attempts to tamper with witnesses but here is what important in the framework of this article:
- Manafort and a Russian oligarch and Putin’s ally, Oleg Deripaska go back to 2007.
- Manafort was introduced to Yanukovich by Rinat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian oligarch. An official Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs report titled the “Overview of the Most Dangerous Organized Crime Structures in Ukraine” identified Akhmetov as a leader of an organized crime syndicate. He has allegedly financed the Russian separatists in South-Eastern Ukraine.
I have reported on this on November 2, 2016, a week before elections.
CRC — POTOMAC COMMUNICATIONS GROUP — MANAFORT
CRC was paid $10,000 by Potomac Communications Group.
Executive Vice President of Potomac Communications Strategies until recently, Rick Ahearn, former Ronald Reagan advance man, worked for Manafort in Ukraine, as reported by Jay McKenzie.
Aleksei Kiselev, who also worked for Paul Manafort to assist Yanukovych, worked for Potomac Communications Group.
CHRISTIANS
THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST — DOUG COE — DOUG BURLEIGH
The National Prayer Breakfast is held by Fellowship, also known as The Family, and the International Foundation.
“The Family considers #nationalprayerbreakfast a recruiting device,” tweeted Jeff Sharlet, who has published two books about the group.
Doug Burleigh is currently a lead of the National Prayer Breakfast. He took over after the longtime leader Doug Coe, Burleigh’s father-in-law, died in February 2017.
Both Dough Coe and Dough Burleigh have ties to the Russian officials.
DOUG COE — BORIS BIRSHTEIN
Doug Coe had a close friendship with Boris Birshtein, an émigré from the USSR and allegedly a (double) agent of the KGB and Mossad” with confirmed organized crime connections.
BORIS BIRSHTEIN — KGB
Birshtein’s network of companies Seabeco (Siabeco) was created by the order of the KGB chief Vladimir Kruchkov to finance the secret services projects and launder money.
BORIS BIRSHTEIN — RUSSIAN ORGANIZED CRIME
BIRSHTEIN — SOLNTSEVO
Birshtein is/was involved with Solntsevo organized crime group, ranked the highest by revenue by Fortune in 2014:
BIRSHTEIN— SEMION MOGILEVICH — SERGEY MIKHAILOV
Birshtein is known to be a partner of Semion Mogilevich and Sergey Mikhailov, the bosses of Solntsevo organized crime group.
BIRSHTEIN — YANUKOVICH
Birshtein has decades of helping the Kremlin’s puppet regimes around the world. Importantly, Birshtein helped to finance presidential campaigns of Leonid Kuchma and Vladimir Yanukovich, Putin’s puppets in Ukraine.
BIRSHTEIN — ALEX SCHNAIDER — TRUMP — PUTIN
Birshtein’s son-in-law and life-long business partner, USSR-born Alex Schnaider was a Trump’s partner in Toronto Trump Tower and has ties to the Kremlin.
BIRSHTEIN — FBI — OLEG DERIPASKA
In 2008, Birshtein collaborated with the FBI on Robert Levinson’s case, negotiating the conditions of the Russian billionaire and Putin’s close ally Oleg Deripaska’s entry into the US despite of the organized crime status.
CIA — ROBERT LEVINSON — BIRSHTEIN
Levinson, a CIA spy who disappeared in Iran in 2007, was an expert on the Russian organized crime and had previous contacts with Birshtein.
Levinson investigated Mogilevich and was an expert on the Russian organized crime.
BIRSHTEIN — “KAZAKH TRIO” — MASHKEVICH
Birshtein had ties with “Kazakh Trio:” Patokh Chodiev, Alijan Ibragimov and Alexander Machkevich. In the 90s, Mashkevich and Chodiev worked for Birshstein’s Seabeco.
“KAZAKH TRIO” — BAYROCK GROUP — TRUMP SOHO
Mashekvich and Trio controlled Bayrock Group, a company that was a strategic partner and one of the financing parties for the Trump SoHo in NY and developments in Arizona and Florida.
CHABAD
BAYROCK GROUP — FELIX SATER
Felix Satter was yet another Russian organized crime connection in Bayrock Group — Trump. He was closely involved with the Sapirs, Tarik Arif and Michael Cohen. He also belongs to a religious group called Chabad.
SATER — CHABAD
“Sater and another Bayrock employee, Daniel Ridloff, who like Sater later went on to work directly for the Trump Organization, belong to the Port Washington Chabad house,” writes Ben Schreckinger in “The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin” in Politico. “Sater told POLITICO Magazine that in addition to serving on the board of the Port Washington Chabad house, he sits on the boards of numerous Chabad entities in the U.S. and abroad, though none in Russia.”
TRUMP SOHO — TAMIR SAPIR
Another Trump’s partner in the Soho project was Tamir Sapir (Temur Sepiashvili), USSR-born emigre who studied in Moscow in the Ministry of Internal Affairs School.
TAMIR SAPIR — SAM KISLIN
Sapir’s partner was USSR-born Sam Kislin, with whom, in the 70s, Sapir had sold Trump about 200 televisions on credit for the Commodore Hotel, which Trump had bought in 1976 with Hyatt Corp. Kislin later issued mortgages to the buyers of Trump World Tower apartments.
KISLIN — SALYGIN
Later, Kislin provided a mortgage to Vasily Salygin, a future official of the Ukrainian Party of Regions linked to Putin.
SALYGIN — MANAFORT
Salygin’s time in office overlapped with Paul Manafort’s tenure as an adviser to the party.
KISLIN — RUSSIAN ORGANIZED CRIME — IVANKOV
A 1994 FBI report obtained by The Associated Press said Kislin is “a member or associate” of a Brighton Beach crime group run by Vyacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik,) the imprisoned godfather of Russian organized crime in the United States.
SAPIR — CHABAD
Sapir was also a part of the Chabad movement.
At a ceremony hosted by Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Sapir’s daughter Zina who once worked for Prudential Douglas Elliman, married Rotem Rosen, a right-hand man of Lev Leviev, an ally of Putin.
Douglas Elliman founder/executive and owners Howard Lorber and Ben LeBow brought Trump to Moscow in November 1996 and arranged discussions about a joint venture between their Liggett-Ducat tobacco factory, Trump Organization and the city of Moscow with the Moscow authorities, namely Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s office.
Rosen is a partner of Alex Sapir, the son of Tamir Sapir. Rosen and Alex Sapir accompanied Trump on 2013 visit to Russia and met with the Agalarovs.
SAPIR — ROTEM ROSEN — ALEX SAPIR — AGALAROVS — TRUMP — MOSCOW
Rotem Rosen is a close friend of Michael Cohen and appeared in public in an open demonstration of support for Cohen in 2018, during the court hearing in NY after FBI raided Cohen’s office and residence.
LEVIEV — JARED KUSHNER
Soviet-born Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, an oligarch with longstanding ties to Putin who calls the Russian president a “true friend, along with “Roman Abramovich, who would go on to become Chabad’s biggest patrons worldwide, to create the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia.”
Starting in 1999, Putin enlisted Leviev and Abramovich to build Chabad in Russia, writes Ben Schreckinger in “The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin” in Politico. “Leviev met Trump to discuss potential deals in Moscow and then hosted a bris for the new couple’s first son at the holiest site in Chabad Judaism. Trump attended the bris along with Kushner, who would go on to buy a $300 million building from Leviev and marry Ivanka Trump, who would form a close relationship with Abramovich’s wife, Dasha Zhukova.”
LEVIEV — PREVEZON
In 2008, Leviev sold real estate to Prevezon, a company owned by Denis Katsyv, the son of a former Russian government minister, Petr Katsyv.
Prevezon used the Leviev transaction to help launder millions of the Russian government’s illegal proceeds from its Magnitsky-related historic tax fraud scam (an issue on which Denis Katsyv and Yakunin both lobbied U.S. lawmakers), as reported by Bryan Frydenborg.
MAGNISTKY ACT — MANAFORT — MEETING WITH TRUMP JR.
During the 2016 presidential election Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner, met a confirmed Kremlin informant Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer who represented Denis Katsyv’s Prevezon and whose husband worked for the father of Denis Katsyv. The Prevezon case had initially been brought by Preet Bharara, whom Trump fired in 2017.
“The meeting was reportedly set up under the presumption that Veselnitskaya would present damaging information on Hillary Clinton to the Trump campaign. Veselnitskaya said she went to New York City in June 2016 to inform Trump campaign officials that certain Democratic donors had evaded taxes and to lobby against the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law sanctioning Russia in response to the death of a whistleblower in a Moscow prison,” as reported by the Hill. “She recalled Trump Jr. saying, “if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it. I understand our side may have messed up, but it’ll take a long time to get to the bottom of it,” Bloomberg reported.”
Leviev’s owned office space at Trump’s 40 Wall Street.
BIRSHTEIN — ITERA
Birshtein had close ties with Igor Makarov, Itera’s founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors.
ITERA
Itera was registered in Florida, a “middleman” company that had the rights to supply natural gas to heavily-dependent Ukraine by buying it from Gazprom.
Champion cyclist Igor Makarov from Turkmenistan owned Itera and operated it out of Jacksonville, Florida. Itera investors were threatened with jail and blackmailed. The Russian press suggested that the Soviet politicians Rem Vyakhirev and Viktor Chernomyrdin or their families were enriched by the dealings with Itera. Itera was purchased by Rosneft in 2013.
ITERA — DERIPASKA
ITERA — IGOR MAKAROV — PUTIN
Igor Makarov had Putin’s letter of gratitude to Itera for support during the elections on display in his office.
RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
ITERA — IGOR MAKAROV — RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
Igor Makarov is involved with the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 2006, he was on the Board of Trustees of Charitable Foundation for the Support of Russian Shrines in Holy Mount Athos, an organization created by Putin’s troubleshooter and long-time alley, Konstantin Goloschapov. The Board of Trustees was chaired by the Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, the Representative of the President of Russia Poltavchenko, and the Mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov and included another shareholder of Itera Chemezov; the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov; Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Evgeny Primakov; Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia; the President of Rosneft and other government and other influential partners of Putin, like brothers Rotenbergs, the General Prosecutor of Russia Yuri Chaika and Vladimir Yakunin.
Each and every name on this list has multiple connections to the organized crime, secret services, and some have ties to the Trump circles. One contact is particularly imporant.
In Apr 2016, Vladimir Yakunin, a former KGB agent and a close longterm ally of Putin and the boss of Natalia Veselnitskaya’s husband, met with Dana Rohrabacher to discuss working on lifting sanctions. The document used by Veselnitskaya and obtained by Business Insider closely mirrored the contents of a memo provided to Dana Rohrabacher by the office of Chaika while Rohrabacher was in Moscow last April.
PUTIN — RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH — MONEY-LAUNDERING
According to some, the day Putin visited New Athos was a pivotal point for Russia: on September 9, 2005, the Russian Orthodox Church and power merged.
In addition to the symbolism, the secret society provides a venue to siphon funds out of the Russian budget to be stored abroad. For instance, in 2014, the government had a hard time silencing a scandal with the obligatory charity donations that St. Petersburg transportation and community services agencies had to make for St. Panteleimon’s Monastery in New Athos. During a harsh winter, the city had to donate 17 million roubles that could be used for the city needs but were transferred to Greece.
ITERA — ORGANIZED CRIME
Birshtein was involved into operations with Itera along with Vyacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik), one of the most influential organized crime bosses in Russia, reportedly was hired by the FSB (KGB at the time) while operating in the US. Just before being arrested by the FBI, he was found at Trump’s Taj Mahal.
ITERA — ASTRATA-KIEV — AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT IN UKRAINE
Itera’s former Vice President Victor Korotkov is one of the owners of Astrata-Kiev. In 1992–95, Korotkov worked for Rosneft. He made his capital working for Itera in the 90s, selling gas in Yamalo-Nenetsky region. His wife allegedly worked as an accountant for Itera. He bought Astrata in 2003. In 2009 was fired from a Vice-President position of Itera for theft.
Another Astrata-Kiev partner is Victor Ivanchuk, who according to the Forbes worth 181 million dollars for 2013. According to four sources he was doing the economic espionage for the KGB from 1983–1993.
In a curious accident, on August 18, 2018, an anti-aircraft machine “Buk” crashed into the wall of the office buildings of Astarta-Kiev in Kiev, creating many rumors.
AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT IN UKRAINE — MICHAEL AND BRYAN COHEN
Alex Oronov, a father-in-law of Brian Cohen, the brother of Michael Cohen, owned an agricultural equipment business in Ukraine. Brothers Cohen are both married into the USSR-born families and have multiple business ties in Ukraine, including Vadim Novinsky, Putin’s ally and Victor Topolov with ties to Semion Mogilevich.
ASTARTA-KIEV — HOWARD DAHL
Howard Dahl, who is on the Board of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) with Leo Leonard and Ed Whelan, serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Astarta. Dahl’s company, Amity Technology, produces agricultural equipment.
HOWARD DAHL — RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
Dahl is also on the board of Russian-American Christian University (RACU.)
RACU is a member of the US — Russian Council. The Board Members of the US — Russian Council include Herman Gref, the chief executive of Sberbank, whom Trump met at a restaurant in Moscow at Miss Universe pageant in 2013 and Daniel H. Yergin who was on Trump’s ‘President’s Strategic and Policy Forum,’ in 2016.
THE NATIONAL PRAYER
DOUG COE — DOUG BURLEIGH
Doug Burleigh is a son-in-law of the deceased Doug Coe who took over the Fellowship Foundation. Burleigh was visiting Russia for 52 years and speaks some Russian that he used in his speech and interview during the First Youth Business Prayer Breakfast in Moscow on May 2015.
DOUG BURLEIGH — ALEXANDER TORSHIN — SERGEY GLAZIEV, PUTIN’S ADVISOR
In Moscow, Burleigh presented with the Vice President of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Alexander Torshin, Putin’s advisor Sergey Glaziev, the Vice President of Lukoil Andrey Gaydamaka and other influential officials.
After the speech, Burleigh gave an interview to Andrey Tunyaev, the chief-editor of President, a magazine distributed at the administration of the Russian Federation president and government offices.
Tunyaev is a part of the President Putin’s security service and a member of a fighting club.
TORSHIN — MARIIA BUTINA — THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST IN THE US, 2017
Alexander Torshin and Butina attended National Prayer Breakfast in the US in 2017.
The affidavit cites a 2017 email from Butina to a prayer breakfast organizer in which she thanks the person for allowing her group to attend “and the very private meeting that followed.” The organizer in the affidavit is unnamed, but the de facto director of the prayer breakfast is Doug Burleigh, according to Religion News.
Maria Butina was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the Russian Federation. Butina’s promotional activities for Russian political interests included attending the National Prayer Breakfast twice, according to the New York Times.
RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
MARK JUDGE — RUSSIAN ORTHODOX WEBSITE
On December 16, 2016, Pravmir.ru, a Russian Orthodox website sponsored by the Russian government and managed by a professional propagandist working for the administration of the Russian president, published an article by Kavanaugh’s alleged accomplice in an attempted rape, Mark Judge. It was linked to the original to the Catholic News Service website.
Pravmir is one of many non-commercial, supposedly independent media agencies, active and popular in Russia, publishing in Russian and English. As a 2015 Medusa expose demonstrates, these agencies are supported and sponsored by the Russian government or/and by the oligarchs close to Putin and the Kremlin.
The Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill is a known former KGB officer with alleged ties to the organized crime and a close ally of Putin.
CONCLUSION
Faith has nothing to do with it.
The democracy in the United States is in an extreme danger. The mass media and general audience are overwhelmed with the flow of current events. The appointment of Kavanaugh, however, and its consequences will have a drastic impact on the future of this country. Please share on the social media.
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