The Congress told how Putin uses the money of oligarchs and special services to fight the West

In the US Congress, public hearings were held at an intelligence committee in the House of Representatives about Russia's possible interference in the US 2016 elections of the year. The hearing was addressed by former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, former head of the CIA department for Russia Stephen Hall and president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Heather Conley.

Photo: The official site of the Kremlin/kremlin.ru

“The fight between Putin and the West is just beginning. Putin believes that he is fighting the liberal, decadent West, and he calls himself a representative of “traditional values,” McFaul noted, speaking at the hearing. “He uses the money of the oligarchs and the intelligence services to wage this fight inside and outside Russia.”

According to him, in order to achieve his goals, Putin is actively investing money in the media, including the RT television channel and the Sputnik news agency, and “creating fake organizations around the world.” Also, the Russian president, according to McFall, “uses intelligence services to steal information and exploit it,” and “he uses property and money abroad to influence foreign policy.” The Kremlin, according to him, also actively uses the largest banks, in particular VEB: “In Russia they call it “Putin’s bank,” McFaul emphasized.

“Sometimes Putin also uses hidden military mechanisms to achieve his political goals, as happened in Ukraine in 2014,” McFaul also noted.

“Putin’s goal is to weaken democracy in Russia and the West,” former CIA Russia chief Stephen Hall said in his report.

Hall emphasized that “there is a mafia in the Kremlin” and Putin should not be looked at “through the lenses of liberal optimism.”

“The oligarchs are also being held hostage: in Russia everything is in the hands of the mafia,” Hall noted. – If Putin knows where your wife and children live, and in which banks your funds are located, you will do what he demands. And if not, then the punishment will be cruel: ask Khodorkovsky. And even if you leave Russia - Putin can organize an assassination attempt on you abroad: how it was done in relation to Litvinenko и Fiddle“,” he listed.

Hall, like McFall, said that the FSB in Russia collects information about Russian and foreign companies on Putin’s order. “The FSB and the GRU collect information on all “targets” that are of interest to them, including financial information.” And this collected “compromising evidence” can already be used for any purpose, the “buttons” are different for all people,” he emphasized.

“The success of any business in Russia depends only on the approval of the Kremlin. And if the activities of American businessmen do not suit the Kremlin, the collected information will be used against them,” said a former CIA representative.

“Russia is also better than many at laundering money: they have their own people in the Caribbean,” Hall emphasized.

“In Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, Russia has expanded its participation in companies to $160 million, we see an increase in economic presence. This money was used to finance political parties to make Europe more dependent on the Kremlin, and this harms American interests,” said Heather Conley, vice president of the Center for International and Strategic Studies in Washington, and director of the center’s European program. Among the companies in which the Russian authorities “illegally” invested, she named Deutsche Bank and the French financial group Societe Generale.

Present Tense conducted a live broadcast with simultaneous translation:

Since 2016, there has been a large-scale investigation in the United States about the possible influence of the Kremlin on the outcome of presidential elections. US intelligence agencies claim Russia intervened in the presidential election to undermine the position of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump’s rival in the Democratic Party.

In 2018, the US Department of Justice charged 25 to Russians in a case of alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election of the year. The department calls them employees of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Russia and businessmen close to Vladimir Putin.

Russians are accused of organizing cyber attacks to steal documents with a view to their subsequent publication. It is about the theft of 500 data of thousands of voters and money laundering, said Deputy US Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

The prosecution claims that the Russians participated in the hacking of the computer networks of the National Committee of the US Democratic Party (in April 2016) and the election campaign of Hillary Clinton (also in April 2016).

On the eve of the hearings completed investigation Special Prosecutor Robert Muller about the possible collusion of the election headquarters of Donald Trump and the Russian authorities during the US presidential election. US Attorney General William Barr concluded that Muller's investigation did not find that any “U.S. citizen or Trump campaign official knowingly conspired with Russia” or “coordinated with Russia” to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The investigation also states that “the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in a crime related to Russian election interference.”

Donald Trump himself repeatedly accused The US Department of Justice and the FBI politicized the investigations, and called the case itself a “witch hunt.” Russia all allegations of possible interference in the electoral process completely denies. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called the accusations against Russian citizens absurd.

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