Thread by @ZarinaZabrisky

💣🔥💥🍿🐾#SamPatten is a starter on this menu. A thread on #Trump #Putin #Collusion: from pop-singers in Taj Mahal to weapons in Syria, plus what Satan, black cats, soccer, Patriarchs & judo wrestling have in common. Tarantino, it is not. Oh, plus #CambridgeAnalytica. 👇

1. #SamPatten admitted failing to register in the U.S. as a foreign agent for his work lobbying on behalf of a Ukrainian political party. Breaking. 👇

2. "The nature of his cooperation isn’t clear." (Yes, but the connections are telling.👇 ) . Patten worked with Manafort and & on microtargeting operations with Cambridge Analytica.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

3. In 2015, "Patten formed a consulting firm with Konstantin Kilimnik, whom Mueller indicted in June," according to Bloomberg. "Kilimnik has been identified in filings as having worked for the Russian military’s intelligence service known as the GRU." Kilimnik, far left.

3.1. On Kilimnik, with a rare (and only) photo: apnews.com/f498ec3fec8c41…

4.#Patten and #Kilimnik set up a firm called Begemot Ventures International Ltd. It listed Patten and Kilimnik as the sole officers." Begemot Ventures carries a very clear connotation for any Russian speaker but it is lost on the Western audience.

4.1. “Begemot” is a character from an iconic Bulgakov’s novel, ”Master and Margarita.” A joker and occasionally a cat, Begemot is a part of a Satanic force that causes havoc and chaos. It is a typical postmodernist wink at clueless Americans.

4.2. This will not appear on court papers but “Russia is a country of symbols,” said @vkaramurza. Understanding the cheap theatrical effect behind the hybrid war and the psychological mechanism behind this behavior is critical.

5. Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russia Army trained linguist and known Russian intelligence operative was Manafort's translator & an operative central to collecting fees owed to Manafort's company by the pro-Russian political party called Opposition Bloc. 🤔

6. Kilimnik was contacted by Rinat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian oligarch, and the biggest donor to the Victor Yanukovich’s campaign, with a request to hire an American political consultant for Victor Yanukovich. meduza.io/en/feature/201…

7. Kilimnik knew Paul Manafort from work in International Republic Institute and introduced Manafort to Yanukovich. ☝️

8. Manafort then worked as a political consultant to Yanukovich from 2006–07 to 2012. In 2014, after Euromaidan and Yanukovich's failure, Akhmetov asked Manafort to help resurrect the Party of Regions. The Party of Regions was renamed into the Opposition Bloc. ☝️

9. 💡💡💡 But who is Rinat Akhmetov?

10. Rinat Akhmetov is a pro-Russian Ukrainian. It is important to remember when he (and many others) claim with indignation that they are "not Russian but Ukrainian." Things were convoluted in the USSR. For our purposes, they are ex-Soviet...

11. Ethnically, Rinat Akhmetov is neither Russian, nor Ukrainian but it does not matter: not in this story. What matters is that A) Akhmetov was a financier and unofficial leader of a pro-Russian and pro-Outin Party of Regions, later renamed to Opposition Blic.

12. B) 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. C) He allegedly financed the Russian separatists in South-Eastern Ukraine.

13. (a black cat enters!) Most importantly for us, Akhmetov is known for his business and political ties to the Russian-Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians with ties to Putin and Trump. 🐾👇

14. Akhmetov is a close business partner of Vadim Novinsky, a Russian-Ukrainian oligarch with close ties to Putin and connections to Trump's business & Victor Topolov, a business partner of Semion Mogilevich...

14.1. ...and also a business partner of Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen's business partner and relative, Alex Oronov. 👇👇👇

15. Vadim Novinsky, a business partner of Akhmetov (Akhmetov owns the controlling stake in Metinivest, the largest company in Ukraine, in which Novinsky owns a minority stake) is a MP for Opposition Bloc, a Russian-Ukrainian oligarch with ties to Putin and his circle.

16. He is known as the main sponsor of the Russian Orthodox Chruch and a person close to Patriarch Kirill and got a funny nickname for that. Here he is praying next to Putin. vadimnovinskiy.wordpress.com

17. Novinsky is a business partner of Dmytri Firtash and Victor Yanukovich, who in turn are closely tied to organized crime and the Kremlin."According to Odessa Network report, Novinsky has ties to Russian intelligence. cco.ndu.edu/Portals/96/Doc…

18. Novinsky is known to belong to "Pitersckie" (“St. Petersburg group”,) a criminal/oligarch/a political structure that came to power with Putin. Referring you to the bible of Putin and mafia translated here: medium.com/@ZarinaZabrisk…

19. Novinsky is an alleged member of Tambov OPG skelet-info.org/vadim-novinski…

20. Novinsky’s main business partner is St. Petersburg businessman Andrei Klyamko (according to Forbes, worth $1,9bn).

forbes.com/profile/andrei…

20.1. Klyamko owns a share in Novinsky’s Smart Holding and used to own 50% in UGOK in Ukraine.

skelet-info.org/vadim-novinski…

20.2. ⚡ Now, bear with me. Important. Klyamko is the president of the Sambo Federation of St. Petersburg, first VP of the International Amateur Sambo Federation (FIAS), a member of the board of trustees of the All-Russian Sambo Federation.
vadimnovinskiy.wordpress.com

20.3. Putin is the Honorary President of FIAS, a “Master of Sports” and a champion of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in sambo. Novinsky is also a “Master of Sports” in freestyle wrestling and was a member of the Russian National team.

20.4. Klyamko sponsors former Putin's wrestling school. Many organized crime gang members, oligarchs & Russian politicians have a wrestling background, particularly in sambo and judo (Putin, brothers Rotenbergs etc)
medium.com/mosaic2/wrestl…

20.5. Klyamko’s partners in UGOK are Evraz’s Roman Abramovich and Alexander Abramov, both Putin’s allies. forbes.com/profile/andrei…

20.6. Klyamko owns Regal Petroleum together with Mikhail Fridman and other shareholders of Alfa Group. In 2014, Alfa-Bank formed a partnership program with Amway, a company owned by DeVos family...
medium.com/mosaic2/who-is…

20.6.1. In 2016, Alfa Bank was involved in the scandal with Trump’s server.slate.com/articles/news_…

20.6.2. Richard Burt, a member of the senior advisory board of Alfa Bank, helped to draft Trump’s first policy speech at The National Interest in April 2016.

medium.com/mosaic2/who-is…

20.6.2.1. 😲 💥CA Connection: Robert Mercer’s funds bought U.S.-listed shares of 2 Russian telecommunications firms with significant operations in Russia and Ukraine, including VimpelCom (VIP), an affiliate of Alfa Bank, founded by Fridman and Aven.

21. Novinsky has many interesting business partners. For instance, Alex Schnaider and Eduard Shifrin (who received his Russian citizenship by a personal decree from Putin), and both former Trump’s partners in Trump Toronto Tower.
medium.com/mosaic2/mafia-…

21.1. In the 90s, Novinsky delivered coal to Schnaider’s and Shifrin’s Zaporozhstal. In 2009, Novinsky bought 70% shares in Schnaider’s and Shifrin’s Amstor. Schnaider held on 15% shares. news.finance.ua/ru/news/-/3035…

21.1.1. Schnaider’s father-in-law and business partner Boris Birshtein has long-term connections to Sergey Mikhailov (Solntsevo OC group), Mogilevich, Oleg Deripaska and, in 1980—90s’, KGB. He was also closely connected to Kuchma.

willzuzak.ca/lp/clover01.ht…

21.1.2. Birshtein’s company Seabeco (Siabeco), allegedly founded with the assistance of the KGB to smuggle out the gold of the Communist party, had partnered with Chodiev and Mashkevich, two USSR-born oligarchs involved with Trump’s Bayrock venture. forbes.com/sites/richardb…

21.1.3. In 2008, Alex Shnaider received €45.8 million for a yacht from Iceland’s FL Group.

the-american-interest.com/2016/12/19/the…

21.1.3.1. FL group was an Iceland bank with the Kremlin connections. In 2007, the Bayrock Group (namely, Terik Arif and Felix Sater) received $50mn investment from FL Group for four projects, including Trump SoHo. The investment was later renamed to a loan. ☝️

22. Novnisky has many more business partners with interesting ties: Roman Abramovich/Evraz (co-own UGOK), Alisher Usmanov (Moldovan Metallurgic Complex), Vagit Alkeperov/LukOil (co-owned network of gas stations in St. Petersburg in 1990s).👇

23. In Moldova, a country neighboring Ukraine, Novinsky co-owned Moldovan Metallurgic Complex with Alisher Usmanov. Usmanov has close ties to Sergey Mikhailov (the boss of Solntsevo OC group and a personal friend of Putin.) dosye.info/%D0%9D%D0%BE%D…

24. Usmanov is also known to invest funds, allegedly associated with the state-owned Gazprom, in Facebook, Twitter, and other Silicon Valley giants medium.com/@ZarinaZabrisk…

24.1. Usmanov also had close connections with Yury Luzhkov, the ex-Mayor of Moscow office. Luzhkov is known for his corruption. His administrated engaged in negotiating multiple joint-projects with Trump in 1996—2010.

politspectroscop.blogspot.com/2015/01/blog-p…

25. Novinsky also has close connections with Vagit Alkeperov (LukOil). In 1990s they have run a network of gas stations in St. Petersburg. Inga Bogutska, who was Trump’s executive assistant in 1996—2001, works for New York office of Lukoil since 2010. medium.com/@ZarinaZabrisk…

25.1. Remember this LukOil reference, it will come handy soon....

26. Novinsky also has a close relationship with Hares Youssef, a Syrian-born and Russian-educated adviser to the ex-president of Ukraine Yuschenko (2005-2010) on Foreign Investment Issues, and close ally of Victor Yanukovich. argumentua.com/novosti/avstri…

26.1. In Feb 2017, Hares Youssef was arrested in Austria. Spanish authorities alleged that Youssef and his close friend, Dmytro Firtash, were linked to an organized crime network involved in money laundering...

26.1.1. ntil his arrest, Youssef lived in Vienna. The apartment is owned, according to the Austrian property registry, by Siegfried Wolf, the Austrian CEO of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s car company. His neighbors were Firthash and Deripaska’s holding company, Basic Element.

26.1.2. ...Deripska is a close ally of Putin, connected to Manafort.
kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi…

27. Novinsky is also a business partner of Victor Topolov and had a joint business since at least 2005. Topolov is another Ukrainian oligarch and politician but there is more. medium.com/@ZarinaZabrisk…

28. 💥💥💥Alex Oronov (aka Alexey Oronov and Alex Ornov), a father-in-law of Bryan Cohen, the brother of Michael Cohen, now a deceased resident of Trump Hollywood, Florida., co-owned the joint-venture, a bioethanol plant, with Victor Topolov.

29. In 2006–2010, Cohen and his brother Bryan Cohen tried to raise money for a Ukrainian-based joint-venture owned by Oronov. In 2008, Oronov sold part of his business to Topolov and Novinsky (at the time, Russian citizen).

30. 💥💥💥Wait, it gets better. Topolov co-managed a conglomerate Kyiv-Donbas (currently KDD Group) founded by Semion Moglievich and another organized crime boss, Oleg Asmakov who was connected to the high-rank officers in Russian FSB. medium.com/@ZarinaZabrisk…

[taking a break]... more to come.

[did you do some breathing exercises? going for a dive.]

31. Topolov also had interesting business associates. For example, Andrii Artemenko, a member of Ukraine's parliament, a former member of a far-right Radical Party, who has arranged a meeting wtih Michael Cohen in Jan 2017. politico.com/story/2018/05/…

32. In 1999, Artemenko, replaced Topolov as the president of Kiev’s football team, CSKA-Kiev. In 2002, Artemenko was sued for $4mn theft. He laundered the money of CSKA-Kiev players through the off-shore Denvell Trading LLC.

33. Topolov allegedly stole CSKA-Kiev money before Artemenko but avoided prosecution due to his political connections Artemenko spent more than two years in jail and was released on bail. In 2007, the case was dismissed. dosye.info/%D0%90%D1%80%D…

34ю On January 29, 2017, Felix Sater of Bayrock organized a meeting between Artemenko and Cohen to discuss Artemenko's proposal for solving the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

35. The plan involved lifting sanctions on Russia and allowing Moscow to lease Crimea for either 50 or 100 years, and Russia withdrawing its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Cohen then allegedly "hand-delivered" the plan in a sealed envelope to Michael Flynn’s office.

36. According to Artemenko’s interview to Ukrainian strana.ru, he had known Cohen and Sater for a long time. He “got acquainted with Sater through mutual friends. He knew Cohen because “he founded a family “business on ethanol” in Ukraine.”

37. When asked why he was chosen as the person to tell about this initiative in Washington, Artemenko answered: “Because I have long known these people with close ties to Trump. …with Cohen and Sater, I began to discuss it at the primaries stage, when no one believed...

37.1. that Trump would even become a candidate, not to mention the presidency… Already at that time, I began to establish channels of communication with Donald Trump’s team.”
strana.ua/articles/inter…

38. Let's look at #MichaelFlynn connection here and remember where we started (#Cambridge Analytica--#SamPatten). Flynn has reported his paid advisory position at Cambridge Analytica.techcrunch.com/2018/03/23/cam…

38.1. Robert Mercer’s daughter, who works for the Mercer Family Foundation and was on Trump’s transition team, picked Michael Flynn for the national-security adviser position.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/…

38.2. Now, a reminder: Mercer’s funds bought U.S.-listed shares of two Russian telecommunications firms with significant operations in Russia and Ukraine, including VimpelCom (VIP), an affiliate of Alfa Bank, founded by Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Peter Aven.

38.3. Coincidentally, Robert Mercer, the co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies LLC, invested about $5 million in CA and owns 90% of CA. newyorker.com/magazine/2017/…

39. Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager at the time, hired CA for data-analysis services during the presidential campaign, “in deference to the Mercers.”

39.1. CA is a subsidiary of SCL Group (Strategic Communications Laboratory).
tabletmag.com/jewish-news-an…

40. SCL’s largest shareholder from 2005 to 2015, Vincent Tchenguiz, invested in Firtash owned U.K. business. tabletmag.com/jewish-news-an…

41. SLC’s major shareholder, Tchenguiz, and his brother got 40% of Icelandic Bank Kaupthing capital in loans in 2008, before Kaupthing had collapsed.

42. Kaupthing Bank was partially owned by Meidur that, in turn, had two owners. One of these owners, Shapburg Limited, owned stakes in a subsidiary of Alfa-Bank...remember Fridman and Aven?!

43. Surprise!... Tchenguiz Trust owns Consensus Business Group which is located at the same address as Fridman’s LetterOne Treasury in London. consensusbusiness.com letterone.com/contacts

43.1. And, by the way, Aven and Fridman of Alfa Group and Letter One are close and long-term allies of Putin. The 2007 report of Stratfor which has a reputation of being a “shadow CIA” and is trusted by many national governments, connects Fridman and Aven to Solntsevo mafia.

44. Now remember who else is Alfa's business partner? (Klyamko, Putin's sambo colleague and Novinsky's business partner, owns Regal Petroleum together with Fridman and other shareholders of Alfa Group.)

45. Now, let's return to the very first person in that chain: who contacted Kilimnik to find and hire Manafort?! Rinat Akhmetov, right? Well, he has more colorful friends.

46. Akhmetov is also a close childhood friend and a trusted person of a Russian composer Igor Krutoy, a close ally of Putin, who attempted to run a Trump business in Riga Latvia.

47. They don't only share close family ties but also a business. Akhmetov's Crimean seaport is registered under the names of people close to Krutoy. sobesednik.ru/politika/20180…

48. Krutoy is a strong supporter of Putin and spoke for him during the last election. He is also known to receive grants connected with the state-run companies and the Ministry of Defense. sobesednik.ru/politika/20180…

49. And it gets better! Krutoy has friends, too. He is known to be a "close friend in music" of no other than... Emin Agalarov and his father Aras Agalarov who brought Trump's Miss Universe in Moscow in 2013.

50. And, like his friends, Krutoy also tried to run Trump luxury complex... in Riga, Latvia. Unfortunately for the friends, the Latvian security services were looking into the deal and it caused problems. theguardian.com/world/2018/mar…

51. Krutoy also has a life-long friendship with the Russian diva, Alla Pugachova, who in turn, is connected to such figures as Luzhkov and Ivankov, and... drum rolls! performed at Taj Mahal with Donald Trump in attendance and received personal gifts from him...

52. 2. If you want to see more, it is all right here. You can't make these things up (take it from me, I am a writer.) medium.com/@ZarinaZabrisk…

53. You know who else is a friend of the Agalarovs? Michael Cohen. Around June 16, 2013, Michael Cohen attended a meeting with Trump and the father and son Agalarovs in Las Vegas. thesternfacts.com/busted-trumps-…

54. I can go on for a long time here but we started with #SamPatten and #CambridgeAnalytica... Remember how Akhmetov (who asked Kilimnik to hire Manafort who used to work for Deripaska) is a partner of Novinsky who is a long-term partner with LukOil's Vagit Alekperov?

Well, Cambridge Analytica presented materials to the energy company LukOil... It is like giving a lecture on Bulgakov at a gas station... theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/…

56. Here is brilliant @WendySiegelman explaining this and all things CA. Go to her page for all things CA/SCL.

57. And many other brave researchers dug into this and I am sure can add more. To name a few @dcpoll @grantstern @bfry1981 @patrickLSimpson @J_amesp @submergingmkt @annmarlowe and many more--sorry if I am missing names, will gladly add! Follow these people...

58. The bottom line: 30 years+ of "bratva" ("bros"=mobsters.) There is a logic to all of it. The critical idea of the Russian mob is "krysha." It means 1) protection money paid to a group/individual that controls all and every business in the former USSR (not just Russia.)...

59. ... 2) the group/individual providing the protection. There is one ultimate krysha for all oligarchs, all crooks, all businesses in Russia (and by now outside of Russia.) This krysha is the Kremlin. All these machinations lead to one entity: the Russian government.

60. There is no black magic and no Satan behind the absurd that struck us like the Moscow residents in "Master and Margarita." No matter how bad they are trying to play god or devil and reshape our reality, it all boils down to greed and lust for power...

ps. another very good thread here:

https://twitter.com/imthemadridista/status/982376354078445569

61. This + a manual to reading the Russian secret code in an article. medium.com/@ZarinaZabrisk…