Spy Masha Bentley
The Insider obtained the correspondence between Maria Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva and Sergey Zavidov, a career officer of the 4th Directorate of the GRU, from which it follows that Maria was recruited back in 2015. Then Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva served as second secretary at the Russian UN office in Geneva and participated in the negotiations between official Damascus and the Syrian opposition. In addition to detailed reports to the GRU on the progress of the negotiations, the second secretary sent operational maps with the deployment of military detachments of opponents of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. Recall that Russian troops were then directly involved in the conflict on the side of the Syrian dictator and attacked residential areas, including with the use of sarin.
The “four”, where Zavidov serves, oversees the countries of Africa, the Middle East and Israel, and before joining the GRU, he himself was engaged in scientific activities in Kubinka near Moscow at the test site for armored vehicles (military unit 68054). Apparently, Zavidov has been on business trips for a long time and, as can be seen from open sources, he rents out his studio apartment in the Odintsovsky Park 1 residential complex.
Maria Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva was born in Ryazan and until 2010 bore the surname Konovalova. Her father, Sergey Konovalov, is the deputy chairman of the all-Russian organization "Combat Brotherhood". In the "brotherhood" he manages all finances, and is also responsible for interacting with the media and supporting the initiatives of the Kremlin. So, in September 2022, when “partial” mobilization was in full swing in the country, Konovalov gave an interview in several pro-government media in which he said that “a real war of the West was organized against Russia”: “We understand the importance and necessity of partial mobilization, and this the measure will help to fulfill all the goals and objectives of the special operation set by Vladimir Putin.” Among other things, Konovalov oversees the collection of funds for the residents of Donbass and is engaged in special training of volunteer groups for their further transfer to the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The first to change her surname was Maria's mother, Elena Konovalova. A source told The Insider about a certain fortuneteller who told her mother that she allegedly had eminent princes Khodynsky and Kutuzov-Golenishchev in her family. After graduating from the Faculty of International Relations at MGIMO, Maria, following her mother, also changed her last name.
After graduating from the university, Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva entered the graduate school of the Department of Oriental Studies at MGIMO and at the same time worked in the Department of International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Soon she was seconded to the UN office in Geneva, where she joined the working groups on problems in the countries of the Middle East and took up the negotiation processes in Syria. Even then, colleagues from the Foreign Ministry noticed that in her speeches, the diplomat Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva too often uses the rhetoric of military personnel – for example, "operational space" and "operational-tactical measures."
Already while working at the UN, Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva too often used the rhetoric of military personnel
In 2013, Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva published her first book, The Libyan Lesson. End justifies the means?". Three more followed: “On the Right Side of History.” The Syrian Crisis”, “Aleppo: War and Diplomacy”, and “Syria: The Difficult Path from War to Peace”. All four books are written in the spirit of propaganda agitation, they contain passages like "the insidious West" and "the peace-loving policy of the Kremlin." True, it does not mention how Assad's troops, with the support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, besieged the city, and Russian aircraft bombed residential areas.
Sponsor Lenya-Helicopter
In 2018, the life of 34-year-old GRU agent Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva changed dramatically: she became a professor at MGIMO and appeared on federal TV channels as an international expert. She got expensive outfits, jewelry, Latvian stallions and a Bentley Continental worth 9 million rubles. And on the same day, with an expensive limousine, she bought a 2000 Zhiguli to get to work at the Foreign Ministry.
There are various rumors about the source of Mary's funding. Some talk about the father from the “Combat Brotherhood”, who, in addition to raising funds for the residents of Donbass, does not forget about the well-being of his only daughter. Others point to the chief ideologist of the Ministry of Defense Andrei Ilnitsky, in whose office she sits for a long time. However, most sources mention State Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky, who replaced the deceased Vladimir Zhirinovsky as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Deputy Slutsky, nicknamed Lenya the Helicopter, has been the subject of many high-profile scandals. In January 2017, the developer Sergei Polonsky appealed to the then Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika with a demand to initiate a criminal case against Slutsky and his "godfather" Vladimir Resin. According to Polonsky, both extorted a bribe from him and received 990 sq. m. m in the penthouse "Kutuzovskaya Riviera". In 2018, Alexei Navalny's FBK found a penthouse of 562 sq. m worth more than 400 million rubles and a land plot with a total area of 1 hectare in the Odintsovsky district of the Moscow region, which he did not indicate in his declaration for ten years.
In addition, through the Peace Fund headed by the deputy, invitations to Russia were issued to all kinds of right-wing radicals and neo-Nazis promoting the pro-Kremlin agenda in Europe. Together with them, under the guise of volunteers, eminent pop stars came to the country and performed at corporate parties of oligarchs and high-ranking officials. So, in 2013, Enrique Iglesias came to Russia with musicians and backup dancers as part of the Russian Initiative humanitarian project of the Peace Foundation. According to some reports, Iglesias spoke at a closed corporate party in Chechnya.
But the loudest scandal happened in March 2018, when journalists Farida Rustamova, Daria Zhuk and Ekaterina Kotrikadze accused Slutsky of harassment. Through friendly rectors of institutions, Slutsky organized a noisy campaign in his defense, and the Committee on Deputy Ethics of the State Duma once again did not find any crime in his actions.
The Insider's source in the State Duma apparatus is sure that the success of Masha-Bentley is the merit of Slutsky:
“Well, we have a well-known Casanova, Lenya-Helicopter, and many young women went through his, let’s say, office, who later received good positions in government agencies and promotion in show business. Remember the glamorous stories with the singer Zara or Maria Butina, with whom he paid for a lawyer when she was steaming in an American prison? As far as I know, Lenya began to patronize Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva when she studied at MGIMO. Then he got her a job at the Foreign Ministry and lobbied for an appointment in Geneva. A professorship for Masha, a position in the central office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, books, forums and PR on TV – these are all his handiwork. He is a rich man, and expensive gifts like Bentley and diamonds are quite within his power.
GRU and the Ismailis
But let's get back to the correspondence between Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva and GRU curator Sergei Zavidov. Operational maps with the location of combat detachments of opponents of the Assad regime came to Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva from the mailbox of the Ismaili-Nizari representation in London. Nizari Ismailis, mainly living in the province of Hama, first opposed Bashar al-Assad, but, having suffered heavy losses from ISIS, came to bow to him and asked for help. “You have 24,000 evaders hiding from the army, let them join,” Assad set the condition.
The London office is headed by former dentist Shafik Sachedina, who is the personal representative of the spiritual leader of the Nizari Ismailis, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV. In England, Sachedina founded a medical clinic, as well as several homes for the elderly and people suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The doctor travels a lot around the world, including visiting Moscow more than once and meeting with high-ranking officials from the Foreign Ministry.
In correspondence with Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva, Zavidov mentions a certain person from the Ismaili office in London:
File received, thank you very much. The information is up to date. Information about "our" person is transferred to the right reliable hands. They continue to work with him."
What kind of person with whom they continue to work was meant, it is not entirely clear. Apparently, the GRU had its source among the Ismailis.
The Ministry of Defense awarded Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva with medals "Participant in the military operation in Syria" and "For strengthening the military community."