FBI against the Kremlin
In June of this year, Maria Zakharova and Dmitry Kiselev held a joint session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Russophobia and attempts by the pseudo-liberal West to “cancel Russia.” In addition to them, the discussion was attended by pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who served 12 years in an American prison for cocaine smuggling, the odious political strategist, RIA Novosti columnist Timofey Sergeytsev (known as the ideologist of the de-Ukrainization of Ukraine) and several “compatriots” who spoke about the “unprecedented in their scale of discrimination” of the Russian-speaking diaspora abroad.
“It all started with the fact that on September 29, 2020, at six in the morning, 30 FBI agents in uniform came to me … and arranged an interrogation for five hours and a search for eight hours,” a blond woman in a scarf in the colors of the Russian tricolortold the audience in a voice trembling with excitement. . – They showed me a paper … where several articles were written [accusations on which became the reason for investigative actions]: “agent of foreign influence”, “conspiracy in favor of a foreign state” … We all put on a T-shirt or made posters [with the inscription] on Russia Day “I love Russia” is such a flash mob. That is, it is illegal, it is a crime to love Russia!”
The patriot of Russia, who became a defendant in the FBI investigation, is called Elena Branson (Chernykh) . A citizen of the Russian Federation and America, in 2012 she established the Russian Center of New York, whose office was “located” in her Manhattan apartment, and from 2018 to 2021 she headed the Coordinating Council of Organizations of Russian Compatriots (KSORS) in the USA. The structure was positioned as informal and independent, but in reality it was completely controlled by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A month after the FBI visit, Branson left for Moscow. In March of this year, the US authorities filed formal charges against her for violating the law on foreign agents. According to investigators, for almost a decade, Elena Branson “deliberately evaded registration as a foreign agent, as required by the FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act), working in the interests of the Russian government and receiving assignments and funding from high-ranking Russian officials.” In addition, she is charged with participation in a fraudulent scheme for obtaining visas for Russian officials and their relatives and giving false evidence to the FBI – a total of six counts in the indictment .
At home, Branson did not remain idle: today she hosts an author's program on Sputnik radio (part of the Rossiya Segodnya International News Agency), in which she speaks with guests about Russophobia and the “hunt for Russians” abroad. On the basis of the charges brought against her in the United States, she faces 35 years in prison.
During the investigation of this case, several dozen people associated with the coordinating council of compatriots were subjected to searches and interrogations. Last November, the organization announced that it was suspending operations in the United States. Once on the radar of the American intelligence services, some of its prominent members, following Branson, left the country, the rest hid and went underground. There are those among them who, with the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, defiantly dissociated themselves from the movement of their compatriots and even condemned Moscow's actions. These people are trying to build a political career in the US and could potentially use their position and connections to influence attitudes towards Russia.
Diaspora in the service of the Kremlin
The Coordinating Councils of Russian Compatriots (KSORs) are umbrella structures that unite local emigrant organizations in their countries of residence: Russian-language media and publishing houses, Russian schools and kindergartens, cultural centers, clubs, and others. In one form or another, they exist in hundreds of countries around the world, from the former Soviet republics to Mauritius and Ecuador, and are subordinate to the World Coordinating Council, which, as indicated on its website , ensures "interaction between associations of compatriots with state institutions of the Russian Federation and its subjects."
KSORs work closely with Russian embassies and representative offices of the Rossotrudnichestvo (Federal Agency for CIS Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation) subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, receiving grants and instructions from them. Since the summer of 2020, Rossotrudnichestvo has been led by Yevgeny Primakov, the grandson and namesake of the former prime minister. Another institution that patronizes Russian diasporas abroad is the Russkiy Mir Foundation, a joint brainchild of the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Education and Science. Vyacheslav Nikonov, a State Duma deputy and grandson of Stalin's People's Commissar Molotov, is the chairman of the board of the fund, and Dmitry Kozak, deputy head of the presidential administration, is at the head of its board of trustees. In July of this year, Russkiy Mir and Rossotrudnichestvo were included in the EU sanctions list.
Formally, the councils of compatriots are called upon to popularize the Russian language, history and culture, consolidate the community and help strengthen diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and the countries of residence. However, since coming to power, Vladimir Putin has seen much more serious potential in the diaspora. Putin knows from his own experience how emigrants can be useful to the “center”: in the 1980s, he served in the residency of the Soviet foreign intelligence in Dresden and worked under cover as the director of the House of Friendship of the USSR – GDR.
Speaking at the first congress of compatriots in 2001, Putin bluntly stated that only a strong state can have a truly strong diaspora, and made it clear that emigration should work to strengthen Moscow's influence in the world:
“Now, when Russia is regaining both dynamics and authority, when the usual post-war structure of the world is breaking down, we should all the more be together. And the national success of Russia should become our common success… I think that our compatriots abroad have every opportunity to help their Motherland in a constructive dialogue with foreign partners.”
In return, compatriots regained their lost identity and a sense of belonging to a single “Russian world”, the concept of which, according to Putin, “from time immemorial went far beyond the geographical borders of Russia and even far beyond the borders of the Russian ethnos.” Over time, concern for Russian-speaking citizens abroad has become one of the main foreign policy narratives of the regime — and one of the justifications for aggression against Ukraine.
Over time, concern for Russian-speaking citizens abroad has become one of the justifications for aggression against Ukraine.
Considering the diaspora as an instrument of "soft power", the Russian authorities, however, were in no hurry to openly use it for political purposes. As Igor Baboshkin, head of the Nash Dom publishing house (New York) and ex-chairman of the US CCORC, told The Insider, until 2014, there were no explicit political tasks for compatriots:
“We held various festivals, concerts, celebrated holidays, supported organizations of Russian-speaking immigrants. The embassy paid for the rental of premises, tickets and hotels for conference delegates. Since the coordinating council did not have its own settlement account, each organization itself wrote an application to the embassy to hold the event, received money into its accounts and accounted for it.”
Everything changed after the referendum in Crimea. According to Baboshkin, in April 2014, the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded that the KSORS sign a letter in support of the annexation (a copy is available to The Insider). Sergei Lavrov and his then deputy Grigory Karasin, who oversaw relations with compatriots, put pressure on Baboshkin for a long time, but he refused: "We said that we would not play political games, and we did not sign." As a result, Natalya Sabelnik , the president of the Congress of Russian Americans (San Francisco), founded back in the 1970s, put her signature under the statement, and the Foreign Ministry "began to move it." In August 2014, as a result of fraud, she bypassed Igor Baboshkin in the election of the chairman of the coordinating council. The new composition of the organization then included people who actually swore allegiance to the Kremlin. Some of them, according to Baboshkin, were apparently recruited by Moscow. People loyal to the Russian government led associations of compatriots in other countries.
Post-Crimean activity
After the Crimean events, humanitarian tasks receded into the background – activists from the diaspora turned into agents of Russian influence and conductors of Kremlin propaganda.
One of the most energetic figures turned out to be Igor Kochan , head of the Russian Youth of America (RMA) society and coordinator of the Immortal Regiment in New York; he also headed the department for youth work at the patriarchal parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the United States. It is known about Kochan that he came to New York in 2007 from St. Petersburg, worked in a company that decorated the city for Christmas, and now retrained as a business analyst. Since 2014, the RMA, under his leadership, has held a whole series of political actions in support of Russian policy: its participants protested in front of the UN headquarters against the "growing neo-fascism" in Ukraine, held rallies with posters "Putin is not your enemy, Wall Street is your enemy", marched through Manhattan with Russian flags. They also handed out T-shirts with the image of the Russian president and the inscription "I am a friend of Putin" in Times Square.
In 2020, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Victory, Kochan organized a patriotic action on an unprecedented scale in several American cities – he launched a plane with a 30-meter St. George ribbon into the sky. As the BBC Russian Service reported, one hour of renting an advertising aircraft in the United States can cost about $3,000. But Kochan's budget, according to Igor Baboshkin, has always been "virtually unlimited":
“The fact that Kochan has as much money as he needs, I was personally told by [Consul General of the Russian Federation in New York] Igor Golubovsky. From this it could be concluded that this person was not at all random, especially since until 2014 I had no idea about him. He does not have American citizenship. In general, Kochan came from nowhere, pretended to be a buffoon, sang and danced – and crushed American youth under him to show that they, too, were on the side of the Kremlin.
After the start of the investigation against Elena Branson, Kochan left for Russia, but subsequently returned to New York.
In addition to patriotic activism, members of the KSORS were also engaged in direct political lobbying. Thus, in June 2014, Natalia Sabelnik from the Congress of Russian Americans (CRA) addressed an open letter to Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, calling for an end to "large-scale US intervention in Ukraine and the campaign to isolate Russia." “The US military contingent must be immediately withdrawn from the Eastern European region, and NATO expansion efforts and provocative actions against Russia must be stopped,” the message said. Two more letters – already addressed to President Donald Trump – were sent by Sabelnik in 2017 and 2018. One of them contained a request not to sign the law on the expansion of sanctions against Russia, the other – regret in connection with the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the United States and a call not to jump to conclusions about Moscow's involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal:
“About 90 percent of Russian-speaking Americans voted for you in the hope that you will restore relations with Russia and lift sanctions. Today it looks like you are backtracking on your campaign promise to improve bilateral relations.”
At the same time, at the next rally, the leadership of the KSORS instructed the organizations of compatriots to take part in the collection of signatures in support of the Trump-Putin summit.
Igor Baboshkin has no doubt that the letters in which the head of the CRA spoke on behalf of the entire Russian-speaking community in the United States were drawn up in the Russian Foreign Ministry. Today, Sabelnik claims to be the official representative of Russian Americans. At the end of September, she traveled to Costa Rica for a meeting of compatriot leaders from America, New Zealand and Australia. The main topic of the conference was "the destruction of the unity of the Russian world abroad", and in the final statement, the delegates agreed with "Russia's actions to protect sovereignty" and unanimously supported the annexation of four regions of Ukraine.
War and the "Russian world"
The investigation of Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, the case of Maria Butina, who was accused of illegal work for the Russian authorities, and then the searches of members of the KSORS forced the pro-Putin part of the US Russian diaspora to moderate their ardor. A year ago, speaking with Butina on RT, Elena Branson lamented that many members of the community had decided to distance themselves from compatriots:
“[They] said they would not come to the Immortal Regiment. They will not hold Christmas trees for children and, in general, will not come to events held by compatriots, because they are simply afraid that they will be persecuted.”
After February 24, there was a complete lull in the diaspora. Thus, this year the Immortal Regiment campaign was held on zoom – about 15 people dared to walk along the Brooklyn Bridge with portraits of their grandfathers who fought. The traditional Russia Day picnic hosted by the Russian Youth of America at a popular amusement park north of New York has taken place, only its usual name "Russian Glade" had to be changed to the neutral "Summer Glade". “But all Russian-speaking people perfectly understood what exactly we were celebrating: the date, balloons in the colors of the tricolor, the samovar in a place of honor,” Maria Popova, an RMA activist, assured in an interview.
After February 24 of this year, there was a complete lull in the diaspora, and the Immortal Regiment campaign was held on zoom
In such conditions, even the most ardent patriots do not risk taking to the streets with pro-war actions in the States, shares his observations Dmitry Valuev, coordinator of the Russian-speaking America for Democracy in Russia movement (Russian America for Democracy in Russia).
“Since these people permanently live in the United States, it is quite a serious challenge for them to openly support Putin today. The indictment of Elena Branson was a clear signal to them that their activities here would not be received positively, so support for the war is more sporadic.”
Somewhat bolder activists are acting online. In October, one of the pro-government Telegram channels reported that the Russian-American Cooperation Initiative, a youth organization coordinating the Immortal Regiment march in Seattle, announced a fundraiser for the Russian army: in the USA, the action against Russophobia exceeded all the organizers' expectations. During the day, a significant amount was collected, with these funds army thermal underwear was purchased for transfer to military personnel participating in the NWO.
As early as 2018, FBI agents visited the executive director of the Russian-American Initiative and the former secretary of the CCORS, Sergei Gladysh . Gladysh was born in 1991 in Moscow, in 2000 his family moved to the United States. After studying at the University of Washington in Seattle, he returned to Russia, worked at the RANEPA and Rosmolodezh. It was no coincidence that Gladysh came to the attention of American intelligence services: he organized a patriotic youth camp in Seattle similar to Seliger, together with Elena Branson administered the Facebook group Russian-Speaking Americans for Law and Order (“Russian-Speaking Americans for Law and Order”), which actively supported Trump, was associated with the English-language publications Russia Insider and The Duran, which spread Russian disinformation. In recent years, Gladysh has brought "delegations of young American leaders" to Russia, in particular, to participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. After the searches in 2020, Sergei Gladysh left for Russia; where he is now is not exactly known.
The website of the Russian-American Cooperation Initiative is currently inactive, but the Russian American Daily media project operates under its logo, publishing overtly pro-Kremlin content. The project's Facebook page has more than 30,000 followers.
Eduard Lozansky , the head of the Washington-based organization "Russian House – Continent", the president of the American University in Moscow, continues to speak openly on the side of the Kremlin. A representative of the “old” emigration (he came to the United States back in the 1970s), Lozansky calls himself a Soviet dissident, but at the same time, for many years, he has demonstrated loyalty to the Russian authorities. Он организовывал в Вашингтоне Всемирный русский форум с участием представителей российских властных и околовластных кругов, посещал посольские мероприятия, публиковал на своих сайтах us-russia.org и newkontinent.org материалы, разоблачающие провалы Запада и одобряющие политику России. Тем же самым политолог Лозанский занимается и сегодня. В своих статьях (в том числе для российских СМИ ) он винит администрацию Байдена в эскалации конфликта и превозносит Путина и Трампа.
В октябре Эдуард Лозанский стал героем спецрепортажа телеканала «Россия 24» об американцах, «озвучивающих альтернативный взгляд на отношения с Москвой». Высказывания сочувствующих России политиков — по большей части конгрессменов-республиканцев — он собирает и у себя в Facebook. Вот несколько ярких цитат из этой подборки (в переводе с английского): «НАТО снабжает неонацистов в Украине мощным оружием и учит им пользоваться. Что, черт возьми, происходит с этими #НАТОНацистами?»; «Зеленский — глобалистская марионетка Сороса и Клинтонов»; «Украина не наш союзник. Россия нам не враг. Нам нужно решать наши проблемы с долгами, инфляцией и иммиграцией. Во всем этом нет вины Путина»; «Я бы хотел, чтобы Путин был президентом Америки».
«Свои люди» в системе
Есть среди прежде активных деятелей КСОРС и те, кто выбрал другую стратегию поведения — открыто выступил против войны и даже перестал публично ассоциировать себя с Россией и соотечественниками. Впрочем, сразу трое собеседников The Insider, осведомленных об их работе в координационном совете, признались, что не верят в идеологический раскол: скорее всего, у этих людей сработал инстинкт самосохранения — они не хотят повторить судьбу своих коллег, вынужденно покинувших США, и «переобулись, почувствовав конъюнктуру».
Показательный пример — бывшая вице-председательница КСОРС, главный редактор нескольких русскоязычных изданий Ольга Тарасова (штат Оклахома). До разгона совета она участвовала в прокремлевских форумах, посещала приемы в российском посольстве и писала комплиментарные статьи о чиновниках МИДа и Россотрудничества. Ее сын, адвокат Алексей Тарасов, получил известность как защитник Виктора Бута и Константина Ярошенко; также он числится среди членов правления Конгресса русских американцев. С началом войны Тарасова поместила на свое фото в Facebook голубя мира, а ее газета The Russian America стала публиковать карикатуры на Путина и перепечатывать материалы независимых российских СМИ.
Еще более удивительной кажется «метаморфоза», произошедшая с Антоном Коневым , одним из лидеров молодежного крыла КСОРС США. Всего за несколько месяцев до начала войны на его странице Facebook можно было увидеть посты с хештегом #молодежьРусскогомира, комментарий посольства РФ о «провокационных действиях против представителей российской диаспоры» и пропагандистские ролики о России. 24 февраля Конев добавил на свой аватар украинский флаг, чем очень удивил подписчиков; с тех пор он выступает в соцсетях с резкой критикой путинского режима и всячески демонстрирует поддержку Украине. Но история Антона Конева примечательна другим: годами работая в США в интересах российского правительства, он последовательно пробивал себе дорогу в американской политике.
Коневу 39 лет, в США он приехал в 1997 году из Санкт-Петербурга, получил степень бакалавра политических наук в Университете штата Нью-Йорк. Он позиционирует себя как убежденного демократа, чем выделяется на фоне других активистов диаспоры, традиционно голосующих за республиканцев. Последние два года Конев является помощником по законодательным вопросам финансового контролера округа Олбани; до этого работал в Ассамблее штата Нью-Йорк, был членом городского совета Олбани, организовывал избирательные кампании различного уровня. «Сегодня он — один из пока немногочисленных примеров успешной политической карьеры представителя русскоязычной общины. Пока в верхних эшелонах власти в США правит бал русофобия, политики среднего звена продолжают развивать отношения между нашими странами», — писали о Коневе на сайте фонда «Русский мир».
Конев действительно оказался полезным для Кремля человеком. Так, осенью 2017 года он привез в Россию делегацию законодателей из штата Нью-Йорк во главе со своим начальником, членом Ассамблеи штата Луисом Сепульведой. Визит был неофициальным. Американские гости побывали в Москве, Санкт-Петербурге и Казани, встретились с Сергеем Собяниным, депутатами Мосгордумы и Госсовета Татарстана, членами Общественной палаты. Пропагандистское агентство Sputnik тогда с энтузиазмом цитировало одну из участниц делегации, сенатора Дайан Савино: «Мы были очень удивлены, увидев, насколько хорошо управляется город Москва… Мы надеемся, что сможем научиться чему-то и, возможно, реализовать у себя в Нью-Йорке некоторые действительно умные вещи, которые они сделали здесь за последние годы». Любопытно, что Елена Брэнсон также занималась организацией взаимных визитов американских и российских чиновников, и следователи по ее делу сочли это одним из доказательств незаконной иноагентской деятельности.
В мае 2018 года Антон Конев использовал свое служебное положение, чтобы на официальном уровне продвинуть повестку соотечественников. С его подачи Луис Сепульведа вынес на рассмотрение сената штата Нью-Йорк специальную резолюцию , посвященную шествию «Бессмертный полк». В документе подробно объяснялось значение акции и особо отмечались заслуги «Русской молодежи Америки» как «очень важной» общественной организации. Присутствовавший на том заседании президент РМА Игорь Кочан в интервью ТАСС удовлетворенно отметил:
«Несмотря на обострение отношений между РФ и США в верхах, на уровне штата и местных властей, напротив, мы видим теплое отношение к России и данной инициативе».
В политику пытается пробиться и другая бывшая активистка КСОРС — общественница, певица, преподавательница русского языка Татьяна Тулина . На выборах 8 ноября она баллотируется от Республиканской партии в совет округа Мекленбург в Северной Каролине (трое ее соперников — представители демократов). Своим избирателям она обещает бороться против повышения налогов, за улучшение качества образования и «традиционные ценности».
Татьяна Тулина родилась в Киеве, окончила Севастопольский национальный технический университет, в конце 1990-х эмигрировала в США; последние годы живет в городе Шарлотт, штат Северная Каролина. В КСОРС она отвечала за культурную часть, организовывала концерты, фестивали, праздники — и с 2014 года плотно сотрудничала с посольством РФ. В частности, накануне зимней Олимпиады в Сочи Тулина привезла в Шарлотт посла Сергея Кисляка. В программу визита входили выступление Кисляка в местном университете, встречи с представителями бизнеса и презентация «Сочи-2014». Летом 2018 года Тулина была в числе организаторов последнего форума российских соотечественников в США, который провели на территории посольства РФ в Вашингтоне.
На своем предвыборном сайте Татьяна Тулина заявляет: «Родившись и выросши в Советском Союзе, я точно знаю, что социализм не делает всех равными. Он дает правительству тотальный контроль…» При этом в сети можно найти фотографии, на которых она позирует в пионерском галстуке или с красным советским знаменем. В резюме Тулиной, оказавшемся в распоряжении The Insider, отмечено, что она занималась «донесением положительного образа России», а среди достижений и наград значится грамота Россотрудничества. По информации русскоязычных американских изданий, до 2022 года госпожа Тулина распространяла и фейки о неонацизме в Украине. Сегодня же она собирает гуманитарную помощь для пострадавших от войны и заявляет в интервью, что ее «любимая Украина заслуживает мира».
Выдвижение Татьяны Тулиной на политическую позицию, пусть и локального уровня, знаменует новый этап в интеграции людей, близких к структурам российских соотечественников, полагает Дмитрий Валуев из движения «Русскоязычная Америка за демократию в России». Игорь Бабошкин прямо называет ее протеже Кремля: российским властям «очень нужен „свой человек” в политических кругах. Пусть сперва не в Конгрессе, но через пару лет можно двигаться дальше, имея политический капитал».