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"How State-Sponsored
Blackmail Works in Russia
The art of kompromat
(By Julia Ioffe)
In January 1999,
Prosecutor General Yury Skuratov was summoned to the Kremlin by
then-President Boris Yeltsin’s chief of staff, who showed him a
videotape of “a man who looked like” Skuratov frolicking in bed
with two prostitutes.
Then he asked Skuratov to resign, even though
the prosecutor was in the middle of investigating Yeltsin’s
administration for taking bribes...
It was a grainy tape and
Skuratov would later say it was fake, but he submitted his
resignation nonetheless.
What happened next was one
of the most decisive battles in determining who would replace Yeltsin
when his second presidential term expired in 2000.
Skuratov’s
resignation had to be confirmed by the Federation Council, the upper
chamber of the Russian parliament—back when it had not yet become a
Kremlin rubber stamp. The Federation Council balked and asked
Skuratov to testify,
but the day before he appeared on the floor, RTR
TV ran the tape on its evening news, calling the segment “Three in
a Bed.”
When the Federation Council continued to resist the
Kremlin, and Skuratov tried to go back to work as if nothing
happened,
the tape was played on TV again, this time on the program
of the notorious media hit man Sergei Dorenko. Allowing children to
see the tape, Dorenko said, would make it harder for parents to
raise them patriotically; this was, after all, the prosecutor general
of the Russian Federation, “not Mick Jagger, who can run around the
beach with a naked behind.”
The tape is rumored to
have been delivered personally to the head of RTR by “a man who
looked like the head of the FSB,” who at the time was none other
than Vladimir Putin.
Soon afterward, on April
7, 1999, Putin went on TV himself to claim the tape authentic—
that
the “man who looked like” Skuratov was indeed Skuratov—
and
called not only for Skuratov’s resignation, but for a more robust
criminal investigation.
All this is noteworthy not
only because this was one of Putin’s key steps toward the
presidential throne,
but because this dark and convoluted chapter of
contemporary Russian history is also, however amazingly, now relevant
reading for understanding contemporary American history.
Now
that Buzzfeed has released a dossier compiled by a private
intelligence company, with unverified allegations that the FSB has a
video of Donald Trump with prostitutes in the Moscow Ritz Carlton in
2013, America has entered uniquely Russian territory.
In any case, welcome to
the world of kompromat, America.
After years of covering
and reporting from Russia, it is bizarre to me that this term has
surfaced in U.S. domestic politics, but here we are.
Kompromat is
a Russian squishing together of two words: “compromising material,”
which Americans refer to as “blackmail.” But kompromat is
different in that it is often coupled with what is called “black
PR”—
for example, Dorenko showing the video on his popular
television show, artfully stringing it out, and bashing his viewers
over the head with questions like, “Is lying something inherent to
prosecutors or is it something unusual?” Or using Wikileaks and
Kremlin-owned news sites to pound Hillary Clinton using the hacked
contents of the DNC servers or John Podesta’s emails.
… The FSB also doesn’t
hesitate to use kompromat against foreigners, both in
Russia and abroad. Take, for example, the case of the American
diplomat Kyle Hatcher. In August 2009, video purporting to be of
Hatcher, who worked in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, appeared online,
allegedly of him arranging and having sex with a prostitute.
After
the release of the video, allegedly by the FSB, the State Department
protested emphatically that the video was doctored and unproven—the
U.S. ambassador in Moscow at the time said it juxtaposed
footage of the diplomat with tape of someone else having sex. “I
have full confidence in him and he is going to continue his work here
at the embassy,” the ambassador told ABC News.
The incident revealed a
key FSB tactic: The purported footage had been
gathered before Hatcher had even begun work at the Embassy.
Aside from the substance
of the allegations in the document Buzzfeed released, it
would not be surprising or uncharacteristic for the FSB to have at
least tried something similar with a foreign man so rich, so
vulnerable, and so shameless.
It is in Trump’s DNA to go big, and
in the FSB’s to record any and all proceedings, just in case. And
even if there is no tape at all, the episode has brought what is a
distinctly Russian term to American shores.
They have hacked not just
the election, but the terms of America’s political discourse.
“
(Julia Ioffe is a US politics, national security, and foreign policy reporter for The Atlantic. Prior to early 2017, she was a contributing writer at POLITICO Magazine, where she covered the 2016 election, a contributor at Huffington Post’s Highline, and a columnist at Foreign Policy. Previously, she was a senior editor at The New Republic from 2012 to 2014 and a Moscow-based correspondent for Foreign Policy and The New Yorker. Ioffe has been a finalist for the Livingston Award twice: for a 2013 profile of Sen. Rand Paul and a 2011 piece on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In 2009, she received a Fulbright scholarship to live and work in Russia. Courtesy of All American Speakers )
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" Activists Across The Country Are Gearing Up For A Nationwide Response, as The Nation Speculates
Whether Or Not Donald Trump Will Interfere Or Obstruct The Special
Counsel's Russia Investigation.
...preparing emergency "Nobody is Above the Law" rallies that will happen directly following the firing should it occur.
On June 3rd, you joined
tens of thousands of Americans across the country in the
#MarchForTruth to demand urgency and transparency in the
investigations into Russian election interference and ties to Donald
Trump and his associates.
Now, we could have a
deepening Constitutional crisis on our hands. Will Donald Trump
take action to stop the investigation?
With indictments being
handed down, it has been reported Donald Trump is considering firing
the man investigating him and his inner circle, special counsel
Robert Mueller, or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who
oversees the investigation...
If this happens, our immediate response will determine the
future of our democracy.
That's why we're partnering with MoveOn.org, Public Citizen, Indivisible and many others to prepare emergency "Nobody is Above the Law" rallies that will happen directly following the firing should it occur.
There are already events in more than 700 cities organized across the country! Can you pledge to attend a rapid response rally?
That's why we're partnering with MoveOn.org, Public Citizen, Indivisible and many others to prepare emergency "Nobody is Above the Law" rallies that will happen directly following the firing should it occur.
There are already events in more than 700 cities organized across the country! Can you pledge to attend a rapid response rally?
Mueller was named as special counsel to get to the bottom of the
Russian meddling in the November election, and any ensuing effort to
cover it up. This includes conflicts of interest within the Trump
campaign, and possibly investigating the President’s own finances
to look for motives. Rod Rosenstein oversees the investigation, since
Attorney General Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself because of his
contacts with Russian officials.
By firing Rosenstein or Mueller, the President would trigger a full-fledged Constitutional crisis by asserting that he is above the law. The hours following the firing will determine whether he is proved right.
Congress has the constitutional authority and obligation to hold the President accountable for this abuse of power. But we've seen the Republican Congress give him pass after pass every time he crosses another line.
Should the President fire Rosenstein or Mueller, if that isn't the moment they put country over party to hold the President accountable, it's not clear whether it will ever happen. Let's show our lawmakers that we won't stand by while they allow Donald Trump to slide the US into authoritarianism.
Join thousands across the country who are pledging to take the streets should Trump fire Mueller, demanding immediate action to hold the President accountable—click here to find an event near you!
When Richard Nixon fired Archibald Cox from the Watergate investigation, it became a tipping-point moment for lawmakers in his own party to finally decide that they had to act or risk forfeiting our democracy.
It's up to us to make sure if the President fires Rosenstein or Mueller that it is the moment our lawmakers wake up and prevent Trump from putting himself above the law.
You can find more information on the link the March for Truth website here
You can read more about the March for Truth here
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→ Direct sources for Democrats:
* ( Personal favored and most informative follows are shared here with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone. #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify I am using a star rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )
The Democratic Party Website
Also
C-SPAN (a good place for speeches & hearings direct source (s))
→ Fact checking organizations courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists
in alphabetical order...
→ Some of my favorite, most informative
follows on Twitter include:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC
⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones
→ Some of the most credible media -- at the moment:
📰📰📰 Mother Jones
→ Some of the most credible Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
( 📎 Interesting to note: Wallace, a Republican (an inactive Republican I believe she calls herself) s new to the job but for right now she has clearly put country over party and her work on Trump GOP has been credible, IMO... )
...for Networking for Democrats today!
g. (Unapologetic Democrat)
g. (Unapologetic Democrat)
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(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.
It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."
( #its2018now )
*
Curated by Gail Mountain, with occasional personal commentary, Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!
( You can also find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )
*
See the League of Women Voters website:
Vote411 here
Thank you for focusing!
g., aka Focused Democrat
✊ Resisting "Fake News"
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