SANDERS: WHOSE REVOLUTION?
KREMLIN SUPPORT: SOCIAL MEDIA BACKING
On or about February 10, 2016, the day after both Sanders and Trump won their respective parties’ New Hampshire primary contest, a troll factory in Russia circulated a memo outlining themes to be posted to its social media accounts in the US. “Use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump — we support them),” said the memo.
In February 2018, the Special Counselor office’s indictment charged this organization, the Internet Research Agency (IRA), with interference with the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with a strategic goal to sow discord. According to the indictment, IRA, funded by Putin’s close ally, Yevgeny Prigozhin, stole identities of real U.S. persons, created fake accounts, groups, and pages on social media and posted profusely to address divisive U.S. political and social issues. The agents “engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.” Tweets sent from Russia included: “Bernie Sanders looks to black voters to boost his underdog campaign”; “Hillary Clinton’s summer of drama creates openings for Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden”; and “I’m for Bernie all the way!”
Sanders did not address the allegation directly while tweeting about the indictment:
KREMLIN SUPPORT: MASS MEDIA
RT (Russia Today) was founded by Putin’s decree in 2005 and is a brand-name for ANO TV-Novosti, a company, funded by the federal budget of the Russian Federations with a budget of 288,227,264 USD in 2019. RT claims to be the most-watched news network on YouTube with 10 billion views as of February 2020. Since February 2018, YouTube puts a label “RT is funded in whole or in part by the Russian government” on RT videos if the location is set in the US.
In 2015, Russia started meddling in the US elections, using RT and Sputnik, two state-funded behemoths, as a weapon. Russia’s effort to promote Sanders as a way to influence the U.S. election began shortly after he declared his candidacy in the spring of 2015. Hartmann’s own shows were sponsored by RT, as confirmed by Hartmann himself in 2011.
On February 2, 2016, Sanders gave an exclusive one-on-one interview to RT (formerly Russia Today):
On February 21, 2016, RT ran a story about Sanders’ 1988 honeymoon in Yaroslavl, Russia, praising the senator and showing the suite that was only booked for “foreign dignitaries.” (Notably, at the time, all foreign tourists were under KGB surveillance. On his return, Sanders held a press-conference that gave glowing reviews to life in the USSR.)
Later that month, February 2016, Alexey Nikolov, the managing director of RT, in an interview to Siberian Forum of Krasnoyarsk, said,
“Bernie Sanders, who became an absolute surprise of the current presidential election campaign in the US, — he did not come to interview with us by accident.”
He also stated that RT invited Jeremy Corbyn, “whom no channel wanted to interview, calling him a leftist and extremist” using the principle “we do what others don’t do.”
On October 6, 2016, Sanders gave another exclusive interview to RT:
KREMLIN TIES: CAMPAIGN MANAGER WORKING FOR THE RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICER AND PUTIN’S PUPPET REGIME IN UKRAINE
Sanders’ 2016 campaign manager Tad Devine and Trump’s 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort worked together to elect Putin’s ally in Ukraine in 2006 and later in 2014. Below are emails from Devine to Victor Yanukovich, Putin’s puppet; Rinat Akhmetov, a pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch and politician, and Paul Manafort.
Rinat Akhmetov is the biggest donor and unofficial leader of a pro-Russian and pro-Putin Party of Regions, later renamed to Opposition Bloc and the Russian separatists in South-Eastern Ukraine. An official Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs report “Overview of the Most Dangerous Organized Crime Structures in Ukraine” identified Akhmetov as a leader of an organized crime syndicate.
Below are Devine’s emails to Konstantin Kilimnik. Mueller indicted Kilimnik in June 2018. Kilimnik has been identified in filings as having worked for the GRU, Russian military’s intelligence service. A military-trained linguist, he also worked for the pro-Russian Party of the Regions, sponsored by oligarchs connected to the Kremlin and Putin.
Kilimnik worked as Manafort’s translator and an operative central to collecting fees owed to Manafort’s company by the pro-Russian political party Opposition Bloc in Ukraine and in Kyrgyzstan.
Kilimnik was contacted by Rinat Akhmetov with a request to hire an American political consultant for a pro-Putin politician. Kilimnik knew Paul Manafort from his work at the International Republic Institute. He introduced Manafort to Victor Yanukovich, who eventually became a President of Ukraine, carried out Putin’s policies and then was toppled and escaped to Russia. From 2006–07 to 2012, Manafort worked as a political consultant to Yanukovich.
In 2019, Sanders missed the vote on a resolution to keep sanctions on Oleg Deripaska’s companies. It needed 60 votes to pass and received 57 with multiple Republicans joining the Democrats. Notably, both Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik who worked with Tad Devine, had ties with Deripaska.
OUR REVOLUTION, SANDERS’ NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION, DOES NOT DISCLOSE DONATIONS
On January 22, 2020, a watchdog group Common Cause filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, alleging that Our Revolution, a political nonprofit organization founded by Bernie Sanders ((501(c)(4)that is not required to disclose its donors) violated campaign finance law by accepting donations in excess of federal limits ($2,800 for candidates and $5,000 for political action committees.) Our Revolution accepted $1 million from donors whose contributions exceeded those limits, according to tax filings for 2016, 2017 and 2018. Many donors who contributed six-figure sums remained anonymous.
Another organization, founded by Sanders in 2017, The Sanders Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, also does not have disclosure requirements. In 2017, it accepted nearly a half-million dollars in contributions and grants. According to the Vermont Digger detailed investigation, The Sanders Institute raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from donations, including two large donations listed in tax documents — for $15,000 and $30,000 respectively, that The Sanders Institute declined to detail.
*All facts and photos are in public domain and available through Google. Links to the original sources are included.
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