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Recent Appearances...

Home Front: Politix

Kremlin points to the abundance of fake news in the American media

2024-10-26

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Recently, there have been many false rumors in the American media, so the Kremlin no longer considers the US press authoritative. This was stated at a briefing on October 25 by the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov.

This is how he commented on the article in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) about Russia allegedly transferring satellite data to Yemeni rebels to attack merchant ships in the Red Sea.

“We are not in the habit of reading these publications first thing over coffee, because we no longer perceive them as authoritative newspapers that tell only the truth,” the Kremlin representative emphasized.

On October 25, the WSJ reported that Russia allegedly provided Yemeni Houthis with satellite data to attack merchant ships in the Red Sea. According to one of the newspaper’s sources, the data was transmitted via members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who were in Yemen. According to the newspaper’s sources, this helped the rebels significantly “expand the scope of their strikes.”

Also during the briefing, Peskov refuted the WSJ publication about contacts between Putin and American businessman Elon Musk.

As reported by Regnum News Agency, in October The Wall Street Journal published an article about Ulyanovsk Region Legislative Assembly deputy Viktor Bout allegedly participating in negotiations with Yemeni Houthis on arms supplies. The parliamentarian called this publication a fabrication.

He explained that in the absence of significant media personalities, American media outlets are using the brand of the "arms baron" that they once promoted, known to the masses, and his name. According to him, all this is being done in order to attract more public attention to their publication and raise the publication's currently sagging ratings.

Peskov previously noted that the Kremlin had studied this WSJ publication and was inclined to classify it as fake or informational attacks on Russian deputies.

In July, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called the work of the American media with facts ridiculous. Commenting on the material of the American newspaper The New York Times, the diplomat noted that the facts testifying to the Kiev regime's abuse of the civilian population in Donbass were presented by Russia, but the US media are doing everything to ignore this truth.

Link

Arabia

Bout Calls WSJ Article on His Involvement in Selling Arms to Houthis a Hoax

2024-10-08

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Viktor Bout, a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Ulyanovsk Region, called the publication in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that he allegedly participated in negotiations with the Yemeni Houthis on arms supplies a hoax.

The WSJ article noted that the talks took place in Moscow in August and resulted in an agreement to supply the Houthis with AK-74 assault rifles. The purpose of this article is to raise the publication's rating, Bout said in an interview with Izvestia.

"In the absence of significant media personalities, American media outlets are using the brand of "arms baron" that they once promoted, known to the masses, and my name. And it is clear that all this is being done in order to attract more public attention to their publication and raise the publication's ratings, which have apparently sagged," Bout said.

He also noted that the article, whose title mentioned Vladimir Putin, was published on the Russian president's birthday, which is hardly a coincidence. The WSJ has become a biased publication, and the episode with the publication about the Houthis on the president's birthday could be mentioned in a fictional series that is currently being prepared in Russia, Booth added.

As reported by the Regnum news agency, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, previously noted that the Kremlin had studied this WSJ publication and was inclined to classify it as fake or informational attacks on Russian deputies.

Bout returned to Russia in December 2022 following a prisoner swap with the United States. American authorities had previously sentenced him to 25 years in prison for allegedly intending to engage in arms trafficking and supporting terrorism. In September 2023, Bout was elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Ulyanovsk Region from the LDPR.

More from regnum.ru
Peskov calls reports of Bout's involvement in selling weapons to Houthis fake

Reports about the participation of Ulyanovsk Legislative Assembly deputy Viktor Bout in selling weapons to Yemeni Houthis are fake, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told journalists on October 7.

He reported that the Kremlin had become familiar with the publication on this topic.

“We are inclined to classify this as a fake or information attack on our elected representatives,” Peskov said.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Bout, who was previously convicted in the United States on arms trafficking charges, allegedly participated in negotiations with Yemen's Houthis. The talks were said to have taken place in Moscow in August and resulted in an agreement to deliver AK-74 assault rifles to Yemen.

As reported by Regnum News Agency, Bout returned to Russia in December 2022 after a prisoner exchange with the United States. American authorities had previously sentenced the Russian businessman to 25 years in prison for intending to engage in arms trafficking and supporting terrorism. Bout was pardoned in Russia. In September 2023, he was elected as a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Ulyanovsk Region from the LDPR party.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

WSJ's Evan Gershkovich & Ex-Marine Paul Whelan Freed By Russia In Major Prisoner Swap With US

2024-08-01

[ZH] From Airandee's comment
In a massive overnight night development, Russia has released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan in a prisoner swap, Bloomberg and others confirm.

Some sources are saying that as many as 20 and 30 political prisoners and journalists might be part of a multi-country exchange reportedly in progress, but what's certain is that Gershkovich and Whelan are currently on their way to freedom.

"The men, jailed in Russia on espionage charges they and the US deny, are en route to destinations outside of Russia," reports Bloomberg. "The US and its allies will return prisoners to Russia that they hold under the deal, the people said, asking for anonymity to discuss matters that aren’t yet public."

And The Moscow Times speculated overnight as rumors swirled of an impending major deal with Moscow, "Russia may be preparing to free between 20 and 30 political prisoners and journalists in an imminent exchange with the United States and Germany, a source familiar with the planning said, in what, if confirmed, would be the largest swap since the end of the Cold War." However, these latter details have yet to be confirmed. It is also as yet unclear who on the Russian side is being freed.

Only very recently, on July 19, a Yekaterinburg handed down a very significant 16-year prison sentence in Gershkovich's espionage case, after he had been behind bars since is March 2023 arrest.

Russian authorities claim he was spying for the CIA while investigating a major Russian defense company in Yekaterinburg, a city which lies east of the Ural Mountains.

It is widely believed that Russia was using the case as a bargaining chip all along, in order to free high level Russian detainees in the West, just like the prisoner swap involving Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout played out.

As for Marine veteran Paul Whelan, who was issued a 16-year sentence in 2020 on charges of espionage - which the US government condemned as false and unfair - his family had long complained that his case didn't get the attention from Washington that it deserved. But his fate appears to have suddenly and drastically changed for the better.

Could it be that Tucker Carlson's big interview with President Vladimir Putin had a part to play, or got the ball rolling in the prisoner deal?

A good question.

Link

-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Guess Who Stood For The National Anthem?

2023-05-15

[ZH] Guess who stood for the national anthem? Starting in 2020, WNBA start Brittney Griner said she and her teammates would protest the national anthem. Previously, "During a game between the Phoenix Mercury and the Los Angeles Sparks, the two teams walked off the court while the National Anthem played. Interestingly enough, Griner mentioned that this will not be the last time she would walk off the court."

But 10-months in a Russian prison later, and the Biden administration swapped her for a notorious international arms trafficker, the "Merchant of Death" Viktor Bout last December...

Fast-forward to her return to freedom in the United States and her first competitive game since her release, in a preseason Phoenix Mercury against the Los Angeles Sparks game, which took place Friday...

What a difference facing down a 9-year prison sentence in Russia makes:

Prior to the tip, Griner and her teammates stood for the national anthem, and the No. 1 pick of the 2013 WNBA Draft received a loud ovation from the home crowd as she was introduced.

"Hearing the national anthem, it definitely hit different," Griner said. "It’s like when you go for the Olympics, you’re sitting there, about to get gold put on your neck, the flags are going up, and the anthem is playing, it just hits different.

"Being here today ... it means a lot."

Link

-Short Attention Span Theater-

Trump Sent Chilling Warning from Viktor Bout

2023-04-15

[Western Journal] Former President Donald Trump received a bleak warning last week from an unexpected quarter: Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer nicknamed the "Merchant of Death."

Bout is the man who was freed from a U.S. prison last year by President Joe Biden in a controversial trade for American basketball player Brittney Griner, who had been convicted in a Russian court of drug possession.

According to a video posted on Twitter by the BBC’s Francis Scarr, Bout said on Russian television that he had sent a telegram
The Telegram reference is to the messaging software Telegram
to Trump, advising him that his life was in danger and offering him asylum in Russia — not to become a Russian citizen, but to "lead the fight for the American people, the rebellion against globalists, and for the bright future of the planet."

Bout wrote in the telegram that "the future of humanity and life is at stake" and implied that Trump is the man to save it.

Link

Cyber

TSA 'no fly' list leaked after being found on unsecured airline server

2023-01-22

[FoxBusinessNews] 'No Fly' list leaked by hacker reportedly contains 1.5 million entries and includes notable names linked to terrorist activities.

A foreign hacker obtained an old copy of the U.S. government's Terrorist Screening Database and "no fly" list from an unsecured server belonging to a commercial airline.

The Swiss hacker known as "maia arson crimew" blogged Thursday that she discovered the Transportation Security Administration "no fly" list from 2019 and a trove of data belonging to CommuteAir on an unsecured Amazon Web Services cloud server used by the airline.

Wasn’t there something about the DoD using them? I seem to recall Amazon staff being very upset at the idea.

The hacker told The Daily Dot the list appeared to have more than 1.5 million entries. The data reportedly included names and birthdates of various individuals who have been barred from air travel by the government due to suspected or known ties to terrorist organizations. The Daily Dot reported that the list contains multiple aliases, so the number of unique individuals on the list is far less at 1.5 million.

Noteworthy individuals reported to be on the list include Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was recently freed by the Biden administration in exchange for WNBA star Brittney Griner, and suspected members of the IRA and others, according to The Daily Dot.

"It’s just crazy to me how big that terrorism screening database is, and yet there is still very clear trends towards almost exclusively Arabic and Russian sounding names throughout the million entries," crimew told the outlet.
Imagine that...
Reached for comment, a TSA spokesman said the agency is "aware of a potential cybersecurity incident, and we are investigating in coordination with our federal partners."

In a statement to FOX Business, CommuteAir confirmed the legitimacy of the hacked "no fly" list and data that contained private information about the company's employees.

"CommuteAir was notified by a member of the security research community who identified a misconfigured development server," said Erik Kane, corporate communications manager for CommuteAir. "The researcher accessed files, including an outdated 2019 version of the federal no-fly list that included first and last name and date of birth. Additionally, through information found on the server, the researcher discovered access to a database containing personal identifiable information of CommuteAir employees.

"Based on our initial investigation, no customer data was exposed," Kane added. "CommuteAir immediately took the affected server offline and started an investigation to determine the extent of data access. CommuteAir has reported the data exposure to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and also notified its employees."

CommuteAir is a regional airline founded in 1989 and based in Ohio. The company operates with hubs in Denver, Houston and Washington Dulles and operates more than 1,600 weekly flights to over 75 U.S. destinations and three in Mexico.

According to crimew's Wikipedia page, which the hacker maintains is accurate, she was indicted by a grand jury in the United States in March 2021 on criminal charges related to her alleged hacking activity between 2019 and 2021. Her Twitter bio describes her as "indicted hacktivist/security researcher, artist, mentally ill enby polyam trans lesbian anarchist kitten (θΔ), 23 years old."
Indicted but no action taken? Til now?

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Russia releases US Navy veteran quietly held for past 9 months

2023-01-14

[IsraelTimes] Russia released a US Navy veteran who had been held in the country’s Kaliningrad territory for nine months, negotiator and former US politician Bill Richardson announced on Thursday.

Taylor Dudley had been held since April 2022 and was one of several detained Americans whom Richardson and US authorities have been seeking to have freed.

According to CNN
...the organization formerly known as the Cable News Network. Now who knows what it might stand for...
, Dudley, 35, had crossed into Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania, from Poland where he had been attending a music festival. It wasn’t clear why he crossed the border or what he were tossed into the calaboose for.

"It is significant that despite the current environment between our two countries, the Russian authorities did the right thing by releasing Taylor today," Richardson said in a statement.

The release came one month after Washington swapped tossed in the clink
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for US basketball star Brittney Griner, whom the US said had been wrongfully detained and imprisoned for possessing vape cartridges with cannabis oil.

In Dudley’s case, the US and Russian governments had not publicized his detention and Washington did not say he was wrongfully detained.

Richardson made no mention of any swap involved in his release.

He said a team from the Richardson Center, which has helped free detained Americans from a number of countries, had visited Moscow several times in the past year on Dudley’s case.

"The negotiations and work to secure Taylor’s safe return were done discreetly and with engagement on the ground in both Moscow and Kaliningrad and with full support from Taylor’s family back in the United States," the statement said.

"As we celebrate Taylor’s safe return, we remain very concerned for Paul Whelan and committed to continue to work on his safe return," Richardson said.

Whelan is a former US Marine who was arrested in Moscow in 2018 and then convicted of spying.

The US says he was a private citizen visiting Moscow on personal business, and has demanded his release.

He was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in a Russian prison.

US efforts to negotiate his freedom as part of the Griner deal failed after Moscow demanded in exchange the release of a Russian former intelligence official imprisoned in Germany for assassinating an anti-Moscow Chechen man in Berlin in 2019.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

‘Mechant of Death' Viktor Bout Praises Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Offers Help

2022-12-13

[Breitbart] Infamous Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, released by the U.S. government last week in exchange for basketball player Brittney Griner, said on Saturday that he wholeheartedly supports Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and wishes he could join the fighting.

"To be honest, I couldn’t even understand why we did not do it earlier," Bout said in an interview on the state-run Russia Today network (RT).

The interview was conducted by Maria Butina, who was herself incarcerated in the United States for espionage during the 2016 presidential campaign, and was elected to the Russian parliament after her release. Butina celebrated Bout’s release by President Joe Biden as a sign of Russia’s "strength" relative to the weak Biden administration.

"Why in 2014, you know, there were demonstrations in Kharkiv, people were carrying enormous tricolors and shouting, ’Russia, Russia, Russia,’ in Donbas and Odesa, as well, you know!" Bout exclaimed.

"Yes, clearly the conditions were not right and we were not ready, but I would have supported it wholeheartedly," he added.

In other words, Bout was saying ethnic Russians and Russian sympathizers living in Ukraine wanted Moscow to seize their hometowns as far back as 2014, the year Russia illegally annexed Crimea.

Russian forces are currently hammering civilian infrastructure targets in Odesa with missiles and Iranian-built drones, plunging the city into darkness, so there are not many residents waving tricolors and shouting "Russia, Russia, Russia" these days.

Bout said that if he had the "opportunity and necessary skills," he would volunteer to join the Russian invasion force. Bout was a Soviet air force pilot before launching his lucrative career as the "Merchant of Death," and at 55 he is younger than some of the recruits Putin is sending to Ukraine, so he would certainly seem to have the necessary skills to help the stalled invasion if he feels so inclined.

"The West believes that they did not finish us off in 1990, when the Soviet Union began to disintegrate," Bout told RT, harkening back to his days in the Soviet military. "They think that they can just destroy us again and divide Russia."

For all of his bluster about signing up for action in Ukraine, Bout appears to be more interested in planning a political campaign. On Monday, he took a break from his victory lap through Russian media to join the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), an ardently pro-Kremlin ultranationalist party.

"I am sure that Viktor Bout, a strong-minded and courageous man, will take a worthy place. Welcome to our ranks!" LDPR chair Leonid Slutsky declared. Slutsky said Bout would soon be invited to attend party parliamentary meetings.

LDPR plans to take Bout on tour across Russia to shore up morale, touting him as an expert in "freedom, peace, and love for Russia" who "survived incredible pressure in an American prison and did not break," as one local official put it.

Dismayed United States law enforcement agents told Politico on Monday that Bout might also return to the arms trade, reviving a career that included big-ticket sales to customers who were very interested in killing American soldiers and civilians.

Some of these sources worried that Bout could be more dangerous than ever, with his business network bolstered by contacts he made in prison and his reputation enhanced by the enthusiastic embrace of the Putin regime.

"The Merchant of Death is back in action, with more hatred against America and with greater motivation to fuel conflicts and support Russia in its outrageous and disastrous war with Ukraine," warned former DEA supervisor Derek Maltz.

"Anyone who thinks he’s washed up and Putin is not going to push him back into service, it’s beyond me. People who believe that don’t understand how the real underworld works," added Mike Braun, another former DEA chief.

Link

Government Corruption

Did the Biden Administration just trade a Republican for a Democrat ?

2022-12-11

[GP] Vikor Bout, known as the "merchant of death," is a former Soviet military officer, who was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, and provide material support to a terrorist organization. Bout has maintained he is innocent — via CNN.

Bout armed terrorist groups in some of the most violent conflicts in the world.

On Saturday Viktor Bout sat down with Maria Butina from Russia Today in his first interview since his release from US prison.

Viktor Bout told RT: They’re losing their Christian values. They’re losing their families. They’re losing literally their country. It is not anymore the same country we knew America used to be, the model for the entire world and lead and be an example. Like they say, you know, a sparkling town on a hill.""

Emphasis added.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Jackson Lee: Arms Dealer Freed in Griner Swap 'Has Not Killed Americans' — 'His Weapons Might Have Been Used to Kill Americans'

2022-12-11

[BREITBART] On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s "The ReidOut," Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

...the clownish U.S. Representative-for-life for Texas's 18th congressional district, serving since 1995. The district includes most of inner-city Houston. She is noted for her lack of tact and intellect. She is a member of the Democratic Party, and almost its epitome...
(D-TX) stated that Viktor Bout, the arms dealer who was serving time in prison for agreeing to supply weapons to U.S. agents posing as Colombian holy warriors to kill Americans, freed by the Biden administration in the prisoner swap to secure the release of Brittney Griner from Russia, is "a nasty, bad" person, but "He has not killed Americans." Although, Jackson Lee noted that Bout’s "weapons might have been used to kill Americans."

Jackson Lee stated, "Let me say this, no one knows the story of Paul — of the weapons dealer, if you will. And — as the facts would tell them, he was sentenced to 25 years, he served 11 to 16 years, I don’t know the — I can’t remember the exact number. But in actuality, his weapons might have been used to kill Americans. He has not killed Americans. I’m not saying he’s not a nasty, bad guy. But I will tell you that I believe that Americans should know that the illusory sovereignty of their nation will always be behind them and they’ll never be forgotten. Brittney Griner deserved this fight to be put forward. So does Paul Whelan."

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

The jailed KGB assassin responsible for keeping Paul Whelan behind bars in Russia: Kremlin said it would only release Brittney Griner AND the Marine vet if US helped free hitman who slaughtered Chechen separatist

2022-12-10

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]

Russia demanded return of former Federal Security Service (FSB) colonel and hitman Vadim Krasikov

He was convicted of murdering a former Chechen separatist in Berlin in December 2019

Germany balked at releasing him, the New York Times reported

Attorney for Russian Alexander Vinnik wants his client included

Indictment says he set up illicit bitcoin exchange that laundered $4B

American Marc Fogel is serving 14 years over marijuana after airport bust

White House was again pressed on whether Griner-Viktor Bout deal was fair

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Foggy Bottom sez Rodman effort to free Grinner could complicate existing efforts

2022-08-23

[The Hill] The Biden administration is discouraging former NBA player Dennis Rodman from traveling to Russia to help free fellow basketball star Brittney Griner, saying such a visit would only complicate existing efforts to secure Griner’s release from Russian prison.

"We put forward a substantial proposal to Russia to seek the freedom of Paul Whelan or Brittney Griner," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at a briefing Monday afternoon, when asked about Rodman’s stated plans.

"We believe that anything other than negotiating further through the established channel is likely to complicate and hinder those release efforts," he added.

Price stressed that Rodman would not be traveling on behalf of the U.S. government if he did go to Russia. He also reiterated that the administration has strongly advised American citizens against traveling to Russia because of the threat of wrongful detentions and Russia’s war in Ukraine, among other reasons.

Rodman told NBC News over the weekend that he planned to visit Russia to try to help free Griner, a WNBA player who was detained in Russia on drug charges in February and has since been sentenced to nine years in prison.

"I got permission to go to Russia to help that girl," Rodman told the outlet. "I’m trying to go this week."

The White House National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment on Rodman’s plans.

Griner pleaded guilty to the drug charges, but said she didn’t mean to pack vape canisters with cannabis oil in her bag. The U.S. has officially declared her as being wrongfully detained.

Link

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