Russia says it has uncovered more damning evidence connecting the US and NATO to recent terror and assassination campaigns in Russia, including making connections to the March 22 Crocus City Hall terror attack which resulted in over 140 Russians dead and hundreds more wounded and injured.
Russia's Investigative Committee, which is the country's top investigative body, announced Tuesday that it has launched a criminal probe into senior US and Western officials who are believed to be "financing terrorism".
The formal statement claims that an ongoing investigation has "established" that money from commercial organizations tied to NATO were used to "eliminate prominent political and public figures" inside and outside Russia, as well as to "inflict economic damage" against the country. Lately there's also been a spate of devastating cross-border attacks on refineries, ports, and oil facilities.
Another major event and probe which is high on the Kremlin's agenda is the August 20, 2022 assassination of Darya Dugina outside of Moscow, in a car bombing which authorities believe was likely intended to kill her father, Alexander Dugin, prominent philosopher and pundit who is seen as a close ally of President Putin. There's also the assassination of famous pro-Kremlin military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, killed in an April 2023 cafe bombing in St. Petersburg..
While it is nothing new that Russian officials would raise suspicions that such targeted attacks had covert NATO support, whether directly or indirectly, what is new - and a bit surprising - is that the name Burisma Holdings appears in the fresh statement of the Russian Investigative Committee.
This name is of course very familiar and notorious in the West, as AFP and Moscow Times report Tuesday:
The top law enforcement body named the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings as one of the implicated organizations. U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden served as a member of Burisma’s board of directors between 2014 and 2019.
His role has fueled Republican accusations against the Biden family over claimed corruption and culminated in an ongoing impeachment probe in U.S. Congress. Hunter Biden has denied any wrongdoing, and a former FBI informant was arrested in February on suspicion of fabricating accusations against the president’s family.
The Russian investigative body described that it is still examining "sources and movement of several million U.S. dollars and the involvement of specific persons from government officials and public commercial organizations of Western countries."
It said further it is seeking to expose "links of the direct perpetrators of terrorist acts with their foreign curators, organizations and sponsors" — however without naming specific countries or specific terror attack or assassinations (other than identifying Burisma).
Just like with US media over the past several years, Burisma has been featured prominently in Russian state media reporting. Below is the precise section from Tuesday's official statement naming Burisma (according to machine translation):
It has been established that funds received through commercial organizations, in particular, the oil and gas company Burisma Holdings, operating in Ukraine, have been used in recent years to carry out terrorist acts in the Russian Federation, as well as beyond its borders in order to eliminate prominent political and public figures and causing economic damage. —Russian Investigative Committee
This marks a first over the course of the more than two year long Russia-Ukraine war. Recently, Ukraine has stepped up its cross-border drone and missile attack on Russian soil. Moscow has all along complained that these attacks are sophisticated and long-range enough (with long-range attacks especially wreaking havoc on Russian oil facilities) that they must have CIA or Western intelligence help.
Conservative media was abuzz Tuesday after a familiar name resurfaced, this time over alleged links to terror financing...
Trump was effectively impeached because he wanted to look into Joe & Hunter Biden's connections to Burisma. https://t.co/GX9yh4L7wj
— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) April 9, 2024
It appears that the Kremlin is now not just pointing the finger at Western governments, but at commercial entities within Ukraine which have long established Western business ties. It seems the theory is that companies like Burisma are continuing to play a 'middle man' role in term of 'terror financing' for attacks on Russian soil.
Washington has repeatedly rejected Russian allegations that the US is involved in these attacks. Yet as we've recently detailed, more and more US mainstream media reporting has of late been offering surprising clarity on the CIA's role in assisting Ukraine with mounting high-risk cross border attacks on Russian soil of late.
