Category Archives: Russia

Nunes Should Subpoena General Abizaid

Posted on by

So much was been said in testimonies on The Hill during the impeachment inquiries about President Trump placing a hold on military assistance to Ukraine for various reasons as asserted by Democrats. President Trump has questioned foreign funding going all the way back to his campaign days and still he continues to question the investment(s) and use of that aid not only for Ukraine but for Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan. IN 2018, Trump delivered a speech at the United Nations on this very issue that for some countries and non-government agencies caused some panic and rightly so.

But for Ukraine we need to travel back in time, a short time, in 2016 when Defense Secretary Ashton Carter along with his Ukrainian counterpart Stepan Poltorak signed a partnership agreement in London that would increase the defense capability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, promote the defense sector and strengthen military-technical cooperation. This was all in an effort to further Ukraine’s ability to protect its territory. It was during this time that Secretary Carter assigned then retired General Abizaid to be the manager of Ukraine with his counterpart to bring reforms, meet new standards, strengthen democratic civilian control over the armed forces and transition personnel structure making it compatible with NATO standards including corruption.

Now, 3 years prior to this, the Obama White House provided a FACT SHEET detailing support for Ukraine. In the fact sheet, there are some key items:

1. The U.S. government has provided $291 in assistance as well as a $1 billion loan guarantee. The breakdown is described as $7 million in humanitarian aid for those affected by the conflict. $46 million in security assistance for Ukraine’s military and border guards.  This assistance includes the provision of body armor, helmets, vehicles, night and thermal vision devices, heavy engineering equipment, advanced radios, patrol boats, rations, tents, counter-mortar radars, uniforms, and other related items.

2. Obama assigned Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to lead the US delegation for Ukrainian government and business leaders to discuss economic reforms to attract foreign investment capital.

3. Obama instructed continued work at the congressional level to seek other opportunities of assistance including other defense and interoperability initiatives with Western forces.

4. The Obama administration was also seeking coordination with Ukraine to strengthen election integrity and security, an inclusive Constitutional reform, public outreach, defend human rights, social protection programs, energy subsidies to increase use among households but most of all technical assistance to restructure Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz. (Naftogaz is a subsidiary of Burisma)

5. Retool media and expand the reach. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) will launch a daily, 30-minute Russian language television news program that will be a joint production of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Voice of America. The program will be shown on television affiliates in Ukraine, as well as in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Georgia, and possibly other countries. BBG will seek to make the program available to Russian-speaking news-seekers worldwide via digital platforms.

6. Obama directed U.S. authorities to work closely with Ukrainian authorities to help recover stolen assets, processing activities and evidence collection. Additionally, the Obama administration directed U.S. agencies to aid Ukraine officials to develop laws and regulations to establish anti-corruption institutions to combat corruption more effectively. Further, the United States was directed by Obama to contribute to international efforts including through the OECD and the EBRD to deter bribery and improve the Ukraine business climate. (The OECD = the French based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the EBRD = European Bank for Reconstruction and Development)

So, what do we have, the Obama admin plan, read Marshall plan for Ukraine failed. Then they had to rethink it all and send in other plan that sought to bolster military assistance for Ukraine using Secretary Carter and General Abizaid. Still, the military conflict manifested in Ukraine due to Russian forces. Interesting none of the witnesses expressed Obama failures.

Looking at Ukraine through President Trump’s view says he was proceeding with cooperation but wanted more reviews given the exceptional events since 2016 and rightly so including all things Biden, Burisma, corruption, theft, money-laundering and especially the change in the country’s leadership.

This brings us to NATO. Yes, President Trump did have some contempt for NATO not so much because it has been somewhat ineffective with regard to Russia but more due to NATO members not only not paying their mandated dues but member countries were not offering like assistance of that of the United States then or now. In 2018, President Trump with this envoy had a presentation in part dealing with Ukraine in the regard to the Nord Stram 11 gas pipeline.

Nord Stream II could cost Ukraine up to $2 billion annually in transit revenues, severely undermining our efforts to help secure an independent and economically sustainable Ukraine.

Ukraine continues its long journey to reforming its economy and achieving faster growth. Progress has been made on improving the governance and profitability of Naftogaz, the state-owned gas company, and improving oversight and resilience of the financial sector. Just last week, the Rada strengthened the anti-corruption process. But, Ukraine’s work – and the work of the U.S. and the EU in supporting reform efforts – is not complete. To grow, further progress is needed, including land reform, de-monopolization, natural gas price reforms, and further measures to counter corruption in the lending system.

Included in the remarks again was Naftogaz, once again it is a subsidiary of Burisma. Lots of corruption within Naftogaz as noted here. It is no wonder VP Biden was assigned the Ukraine portfolio and took advantage of circumstances.

In part from 2016:

“Russia criticizes our support of Ukraine. But Ukraine is an independent state and it asked for support. This is absolutely the legitimate right of every country, to ask for support and receive it. So there is no reason for criticism of the fact that we support a democratic government,” said Stoltenberg.

He recalled that NATO is providing support to Ukraine through a number of trust funds in the fields of logistics, management and reform of the military sector.

“We established a Commission Ukraine-NATO, which is a platform for our political and practical cooperation. But, of course, you can always do more. We work with the Ukrainians [to determine] what kind of support we can provide, policy and practice,” he added.

Stoltenberg noted that one of the biggest achievements of the summit in Warsaw was the fact that NATO formulated its policy towards Russia: a military fortification but also political dialogue.

So, to those Republicans on the Schiff Intelligence Committee, how about calling in General Abizaid for perspective and background to diffuse those Democrats that omit other Ukraine facts. Perhaps that would explain why poor Ukraine has lost 14,000 lives in the hot war with Russia. Add to the list of witnesses, Victoria Nuland, Susan Rice, Tom Donnilon, Ben Rhodes and Goesta Ljungman the onsite IMF representative in Ukraine. The investigations in Ukraine go way beyond Burisma and the Bidens.

 

 

It is Bigger than Burisma and the Bidens, Trump Knows

Posted on by

Speaker Pelosi held a press conference after the first day of the open impeachment inquiry hearing declaring that she is the smartest when it comes to intelligence and she will defend and protect the whistle-blower with all her might. HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff said at least twice that he does not know nor has he spoken to the whistle-blower. Sheesh really? REALLY?

Pelosi and Schiff are for sure covering for something much larger and it is in Ukraine and likely at least a few other countries. There was a historic theft from PrivatBank a few years ago that was in excess of $5 BILLION. Then Ukraine was forced to nationalize the bank until such time the monies were tracked, found or recovered, which still has not happened. The country was financially suffering and the reputation of corruption in Ukraine continued to fester.

Seems our own U.S. State Department was enlisted to step up operations in Ukraine using several government agencies and non-government agencies known as NGO’s.

The matter of the whistle-blower is but one piece of all things Ukraine even while 2 State Department officials, George Kent and William Taylor provide testimony in the first round of the public hearing. (BTW, Kent’s wife is of Crimean-Tatar ancestry) Kent and Taylor are in the thick of all things Ukraine and beyond even while responding in open testimony they were unaware of key political events stateside.

Our not so favorite nefarious operator George Soros is very much at the center of much of the chaos in Ukraine, the Hillary Clinton/John Kerry State Department and some of those NGO’s.

List below are some bullet items for reference. It is difficult to piece together the whole mess but the facts below may help the reader with the long game plot against President Trump because his handful of phone calls with Ukraine President Zelensky regarding investigations into corruption(s) has struck a nerve that the power-brokers in DC are driven to stop and protect.

  • To boost legitimacy of Ukraine and Burisma, the Obama administration partnered Burisma with USAID.
  • USAID was enlisted to prepare for a new generation of Ukrainian politicians.
  • From the U.S. Ukraine Business Council: Briefing by Vadym Pozharskyi, Advisor to the Board of Directors, Burisma Holdings Ukraine’s largest independent gas producer, 30% market share by gas output volume in 2015

    Vadym Pozharskyi currently serves as an Advisor to the Board of Directors at the Burisma Holdings. He is also in charge of the Holding’s overseas expansion, GR & PR block. Prior to that, he worked for 4 years in the public sector, inter alia, on positions of the Head of the International Relations Department at the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine and the Deputy Head of the State Environmental Investment Agency of Ukraine.

    During these engagements he extensively cooperated with international organizations, led the negotiations group to UNFCCC on the restoration of Ukraine’s status in Kyoto protocol. From 2010 until 2014, Mr. Pozharskyi was the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Focal point in Ukraine.

    Burisma Holdings, www.BURISMA.com, since its launch in 2002, has rapidly become the largest gas producer in Ukraine.  Burisma Holdings consists of 4 operating companies, engaged in exploration and production of hydrocarbons (dealing with hydrocarbon production).  Burisma Holdings has expanded its operations beyond Ukraine and now operates in Germany, Mexico, Italy, and Kazakhstan.

    Burisma Geothermal is a new branch of Burisma Holdings.  It is a 100% owned subsidiary which specializes in geothermal energy development and electricity production from renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources in Europe.  Burisma Holdings has purchased equipment and technologies from such USA companies as Halliburton and Caterpillar.

  • Several U.S. government agencies were tapped to provide financial assistance to Ukraine and President Trump is right to ask harder questions as there is no Inspector General assigned to Ukraine to track that spending for legitimacy. Remember the legacy of corruption in Ukraine and Trump has a duty to see if he can trust a brand new leader in Zelensky who was never a politician.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • William B. Taylor is the executive vice president at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Earlier, he was the special coordinator for Middle East Transitions in the U.S. State Department. He oversaw assistance and support to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009. Ambassador Taylor became chargé d’affaires ad interim for Ukraine in June 2019. In picking through some of the other names in the membership of The American Academy of Diplomacy  (NGO) which includes Taylor, they are: Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, Jon Huntsman Jr., John Kerry, Victoria Nuland, Thomas Pickering, Susan Rice, Wendy Sherman, Strobe Talbott and Kent Volker.
  • Willam Taylor as part of the U.S. Institute of Peace, not only was USAID a deeper partner in Ukraine but Google is also. USAID was/is a sponsor of RADA. RADA and the USAID program that launched in November of 2013 collectively took to the streets in Ukraine for what is known as the Revolution of Dignity coordinating with Members of Parliament and civil society organizations and other international experts.
  • President Trump mentioned Crowdstrike in the phone call. Crowdstrike was hired by Perkins Coie to investigate the hacking of he DNC server. Perkins Coie was the law firm of record for the DNC and hired Fusion GPS. Trump has the notion that Crowdstrike also may have operated out of Ukraine that clues point to Crowdstrike was part of foreign interference into our 2016 elections. It should be noted that a independent group of journalists based in Britain are seeking a UK report of Russian/Ukraine interference their Britain’s election. As a matter of fact, Crowdstrike has an office in London.

 

  • With all this political power and international resumes, how was it that Russia was allowed to annex Crimea and invade Ukraine in the first place? Where was Taylor, Nuland, Kerry, Rice or Obama? Too busy with the Iran nuclear deal it seems. The United States needed Russia’s cooperation with the Iran JCPOA so Obama did not grant the request of Ukraine for military aide other than to ship MRE’s and blankets. Congress (read Democrats) never complained until President Trump was in a phone call and approved the eventual shipment of real military aide.

So, back to the beginning, where does this whistle-blower fit in? Seems he was/is the Ukraine expert assigned to VP Biden who was assigned by Obama to be the leader of the envoy for all things Ukraine. At least 6 emails obtained from a FOIA list the Ciaramella in the email chain. Others include Victoria Nuland, George Kent and Kathleen Kavalec. There are other names in the email discussion(s) dated June 2016.

This is a larger operation that has a genesis in Ukraine. There are known quantities of moving parts but it is clear that Pelosi, Schiff and perhaps many others at NGO’s, the State Department, the previous members of the Obama White House are in fact just a little nervous that Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani are treading in waters made dark by operatives they are working to hide, defend and protect.

 

Erdogan of Turkey to Visit Trump White House

Posted on by

This visit is on and off and maybe on again. The meeting is scheduled the same day as the open impeachment inquiry hearings begin.

President Erdogan is angry with the United States due to Congress moving legislation to apply sanctions that would affect Turkey as a result of the invasion into Syria.

Turkey has been threatening Europe, especially Germany with more migrants and Chancellor Merkel capitulated. Erdogan is in fact deporting what he calls ISIS fighters to their home countries including the United States. Stating that Turkey is not a hotel, even if the home country has revoked citizenship, he is deporting them.

Now that Erdogan feels like he is in the driver’s seat, he has been also bombing Iraq as recently as last week.

On Tuesday morning Turkish air strikes targeted Kurdish forces on Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq.

According to initial reports, the Turkish Air Force struck at bases used by the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, and its ally, the Yazidi Shingal Protection Units.

If Erdogan does meet President Trump it is going to be an interesting session. Trump is slated to confront Erdogan about buying the Russian air defense system and the recent three sanctions that Trump lifted could easily be applied again. Tensions are in fact high.

This is what happened the last time Erdogan was in Washington DC.
U.S. Secret Service agents were among those attacked during the May 16, 2017 protests. Two Diplomatic Security special agents, six U.S. Secret Service officers and one MPD officer sustained multiple injuries, with at least one taken to the hospital.

THAWING TIES: Erdogan to meet Trump | Local News for ...

Just last month, the House of Representatives passed a resolution 405-11 reaffirming the United States’ condemnation of “the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923.”

“Whereas Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term genocide in 1944, and who was the earliest proponent of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, invoked the Armenian case as a definitive example of genocide in the 20th century,” the resolution states.

Turkey does not recognize the loss of 1.5 Armenians as genocide.

Meanwhile, a closer look at Turkey reveals the following:

 

  • In Germany, Turkey controls 900 mosques out of a total of 2,400. These Islamic centers not only serve members of the Turkish diaspora, but also stop them from assimilating into German society. Speaking with Turks in Germany, Erdogan urged them not to assimilate, and called the assimilation of migrants in Europe “a crime against humanity.”
  • Erdogan has also been expanding Turkey beyond its borders – starting with Cyprus, the Greek Islands, Suakin Island (Sudan) and Syria.
  • Mosques, migrants and the military are now Erdogan’s new weapons in his threats against the West.

Erdogan is the head of NATO’s second-largest army; he has spies throughout Europe through a network of mosques, associations and cultural centers; he has brought his country to the top of the world rankings for the number of imprisoned journalists and has shut the mouth of German comedians with the threat of legal action. By keeping migrants in Turkish refugee camps, he controls immigration to Europe.

The worse Erdogan behaves, the greater his weight in Europe. In a 2015 meeting, Erdogan reportedly was “openly mocking” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and other “senior European leaders”, as Juncker asked Erdogan to consider how he was treated “like a prince” at a Brussels summit.

Turkey’s 2018 military budget increased to $19 billion, 24% higher than 2017, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Erdogan has placed Turkey’s military — once a bastion of Turkish nationalism and secularism — under his political authority. While Europe is pacifist and refuses to invest in its own security or, like Germany, support NATO’s budget, Turkey is belligerent.

Ever since his Justice and Development Party (AKP) became Turkey’s dominant political force in 2002, for Erdogan, elevating the public role of Islam has been more than a slogan. At public gatherings, the Turkish president has made the “rabia“, a hand gesture of four fingers raised and the thumb hidden, to protest the overthrow of Egypt’s Islamist then President Mohamed Morsi by Egypt’s military. Erdogan evidently sees himself as a global Islamic leader with national elections to win. Through four million Turkish Muslims in Germany and vast communities in the Netherlands, France, Austria and beyond, Erdogan does indeed have enormous influence in Europe.

Erdogan has also been expanding Turkey beyond its borders – starting with Cyprus, the Greek Islands, Suakin Island (Sudan) and Syria. “We are a big family of 300 million people from the Adriatic to the Great Wall of China”, Erdogan said in a recent speech from Moldova. The borders of Turkey, he stated in Izmir, span “from Vienna to the shores of the Adriatic Sea, from East Turkistan (China’s autonomous region of Xinjiang) to the Black Sea”. More here.

 

Syrian Henchmen Financial Sanctuary in Moscow

Posted on by

2011: Hillary Clinton declared that Bashir al Assad was a reformer.

Primer:

Rami Makhlouf: Wealthy, powerful cousin of Syria’s president

Makhlouf, 45, is Syria’s richest man and a member of what was described during U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearings as a powerful “mafia” that also includes Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, Makhklouf’s cousin. Before his country plunged into civil war, Makhlouf was allegedly worth $5 billion thanks to his control of monopolies and semi-monopolies in the air travel, telecommunications, real estate, oil and construction sectors. Makhlouf is on U.S. sanctions lists and is a known beneficiary of corruption.

***

Several Makhlouf family members, close cousins and accomplices of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, have purchased tens of millions of dollars’ worth of properties in Moscow’s prestigious skyscraper district.

Headed by al-Assad’s uncle, Mohammed Makhlouf, the Makhloufs are considered to be Syria’s richest and second most important family. Before 2011, they controlled 60 percent of the Syrian economy, ostensibly acquired through years of corruption and intimidation.

GlobalWitness:

Our exposé of the Makhloufs’ properties is rare supporting evidence that lends substance to rumours of regime money being funnelled out of Syria throughout the war. Information about the regime’s assets and finances is notoriously scarce due to the terror fostered by al-Assad’s apparatus at home and abroad.

Our investigation further shows that the loans secured against some of the properties could be for the purposes of laundering money from Syria into Moscow. This opens the possibility that the money could then be moved into other jurisdictions, such as the EU, where members of the family are sanctioned.

Of the newly-revealed Moscow property purchases, the largest amount was bought by Hafez Makhlouf, one of Bashar al-Assad’s first cousins.

Hafez is accused of overseeing the killings and torture of detainees and protestors. Most of Hafez’s purchases were arranged using an opaque Lebanese loan structure that bears several hallmarks of money laundering, possibly with the purpose of moving the money beyond Russia.

Russia has been a key ally of the al-Assad family over their almost 50-year rule. It intervened on their side of the war in Syria in 2015, turning it in their favour through airstrikes and land offensives on opposition-controlled territory.

Reports of Russian banks aiding the Syrian regime surfaced in 2012 and 2013, after Western sanctions hit and the more powerful family members were stripped of European visas and their EU and Swiss bank accounts were frozen. Now it seems that the Syrian regime has been using Moscow as an alternative safe haven, and possibly a potential gateway for its ill-gotten gains to enter the wider financial system.

Hafez Makhlouf, who purchased US$22.3 million worth of property in Moscow’s ‘City of Capitals’ towers, was head of the Damascus ‘Section 40’ of Syria’s infamous General Intelligence Directorate until late 2014. This is the Syrian agency charged with quelling internal dissent, formerly and popularly known as the State Security service. As Damascus is the capital, this was already an important role, but Hafez appears to have had a great deal more authority than this official title reflects.

Testimony collected by Syrian human rights groups about Hafez’s Section 40 and its command branch, the Al-Khatib Branch, as well as wider testimony collected by journalists about the systemic use of torture by Syria’s intelligence services, points to how Hafez would have potentially overseen the detention of  thousands of Syrians and their subsequent abuse, and, in some cases, even murder.

Moreover, multiple regime defectors have since testified, in a 2019 book by journalist Sam Dagher, that Hafez was a hard-line member of Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle and one of his most influential advisers. According to the testimony, Hafez was one of two main advocates for crushing the demonstrations in 2011. Dagher’s book includes testimony from witnesses who saw Hafez shooting civilians in Douma and giving shoot-to-kill orders on hundreds of peaceful protestors in Daraa and Homs.

Makhlouf Family Tree Diagram english  When buying the Moscow office space in 2016, Hafez Makhlouf’s Russian-registered property companies took out loans using 11 of the properties as collateral. The complex structure of these loans disguises Hafez’s connection to the funds. This is characteristic of money laundering and could have been designed to establish money flows between Russia and Syria which would appear unconnected to Hafez, raising the possibility that the ultimate aim is to move the money out of Russia.

The loans were provided to Hafez’s Russian companies by a Lebanese company called Nylam SAL Offshore. The company is classified as ‘offshore’ in Lebanon; while Lebanese ‘offshore’ companies do not hide their owners like offshore companies in so-called secrecy jurisdictions like the British Virgin Islands, these companies do benefit from enhanced banking secrecy. The exact amount loaned by Nylam is unknown.

In 2018, two years after the property purchases, Hafez, the sole shareholder of his three Russian companies, passed his shares to Briana SAL Offshore, a Lebanese company with identical shareholders, directors and address as Nylam. Russian corporate records for the Russian property companies contain details about Briana because it is a shareholder. These records show that Briana states its country of business as Syria.

Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, provided banking services for at least one of the Russian property companies formerly owned by Hafez and now owned by Briana, a Russian corporate database shows.

As the loans from Nylam to Hafez’s Russian companies were international (coming into Russia from Lebanon), it is feasible that they were transacted in US dollars, which is the commonly used international currency. If that were the case, the money could have transited through Sberbank’s SWIFT payment system, which, according to anti-money laundering expert Graham Barrow, could risk breaching the terms of the US sanctions against Hafez Makhlouf.

The convoluted nature of the loans taken against the properties should have raised red flags with Sberbank, but it is unclear what due diligence was carried out on the loans.

Sberbank’s dealings with the Makhloufs are part of a broader pattern of major Russian banks helping the Syrian regime. In 2012 and 2013, both Reuters and Wall Street Journal reported that the al-Assad regime held accounts at Gazprombank and VTB, two of Russia’s largest banks, which, like Sberbank, have extensive international correspondent banking relationships. More here.

FBI in Joint Ukraine Corruption Investigation Since 2016

Posted on by

It is labeled to be the largest bank theft of the 21st Century. Did FBI Director Wray briefed President Trump on this prior to the contention phone call with Ukraine President Zalensky? You can bet members of Congress know this as well giving plenty of reasons to delay transfer of military assistance until a condition report was provided.

Read on…

Congressman Nunes issued a letter to Chairman Schiff seeking approval of the Republicans witness list  uring the impeachment inquiry. The list is pretty good and most interesting is Nellie Ohr, the wife of Bruce Ohr who worked with Fusion GPS using Ukraine as a channel.

Good, this list is a great start but hardly complete. There should be at least ten more on the list, yet Congressman Nunes may be holding back on additional names so as not to interfere or complicate John Durham’s work.
The matter of the impeachment operation managed by Speaker Pelosi has now centered on a quid pro quo scandal that bubbled to the surface as a result of at least three whistleblowers reporting on the President Trump phone call with Ukraine President Zelensky asking for a favor with regard to the Bidens and holding back military aid. Obama essentially held back requested military aid to Ukraine by not fulfilling the country’s request for military weapons, rather Obama only provided night vision goggles, radar equipment and MRE’s. President Trump allowed the real request to finally move to Ukraine which included Javelin missiles. So, ignore all that, because President Trump is NOT the first President or American politician to request foreign assistance for political purposes by far.
Further the matter of investigating the Bidens and Burisma was underway long before VP Joe Biden announced his candidacy for President. 
Two channels of concern are important here and they include the Obama administration infecting the US election process by using Ukrainian-American Alexandra Chalupa who was a contractor for the DNC. She visited the Obama White House 27 times according to visitor logs. At least one of her missions was the plot against Paul Manafort. Another channel is the matter of corruption in Ukraine. Beyond the matter of the Obama administration merging USAID with Burimsa to advance the energy business in Ukraine, which was later stopped due to corruption, there is a much larger scandal that has been in the works for many years and it regards billions stolen from Ukraine, You read that right, BILLIONS.
Beyond the mutual legal assistance cooperation agreement between the United States and Ukraine signed by President Clinton, there is the FBI cooperation agreement.
    Over the next two years the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (USA) (International Corruption Unit) will cooperate in investigations related to money laundering, international asset recovery and Ukrainian high-level officials’ bribery and corruption. This is stated in the Memorandum of Understanding between the NABU and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which was signed on June 29,2017, by the NABU Director Artem Sytnyk and the Head of the FBI Criminal Division Matthew Moon.
The abovementioned Memorandum was signed in continuation of cooperation launched last year when in June 2016, the Parties agreed to support each other. Thanks to the cooperation of the FBI and the NABU, the employees of the Special Operations Department of the NABU had the opportunity to train the skills of possession of weapons in conditions of physical and mental load, speed and accuracy of shooting, tactical training, identifying of the real goal and a potential threat, adopting competent tactical decisions in stressful situations.
Since February 2016, the representative of the FBI has a permanent Office in the NABU and jointly with the NABU Detectives works on the execution of international requests and controls their passage through the competent authorities of the United States of America.
Also, on June 19, 2017, the NABU Detectives in cooperation with the FBI detained 7 persons involved in demanding and receiving an improper advantage for the illegal lobbying of interests of a foreign company in amber mining in Ukraine.
As a part of a new Memorandum the NABU and the FBI will exchange the information, conduct trainings and joint investigations of the corruption offences. The Ambassador also informed Director Sytnyk that the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Section of the Embassy (INL) will provide U.S. Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) officers to train with NABU’s tactical officers on the execution of high-risk warrants and other tactical law enforcement operations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition, Director of NABU told US Ambassador about plans to create a criminal laboratory for electronic devices and data carriers, equipment for which will be provided by British partners in the nearest future. Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt said that FBI employees have a unique experience in decoding, and data recovery, and expressed readiness to further support the Bureau in implementing new technologies in investigations.
 
It should be reminded that the FBI with the support of the US Embassy to Ukraine provided the NABU`s Department of analysis and data processing with the equipment for criminal proceedings documents digitalizing.
Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Schiff are essentially covering for Biden and Obama. Remember, Biden tells us he does not need nor has he asked for Obama’s endorsement. Consider, the plot against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was a large mobilized operation that failed, the choreographed operation against candidate Trump failed with the Russia collusion operation as noted in the Mueller report. This impeachment plot against President Trump is actually a good thing for America while boring and tedious is soon to show how the nasty underbelly of Washington DC works against a duly elected President and against Republicans. This too will fail, so be patient, we will have a trifecta of failed plots against Republicans. Take notes and then vote accordingly.