https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1503481678681067530

Inside Putin’s circle — the real Russian elite

As the west focuses on oligarchs, a far smaller group has its grip on true power in Moscow. Who are the siloviki — and what motivates them?


In describing Vladimir Putin and his inner circle, I have often thought of a remark by John Maynard Keynes about Georges Clemenceau, French prime minister during the first world war: that he was an utterly disillusioned individual who “had one illusion — France”.

Something similar could be said of Russia’s governing elite, and helps to explain the appallingly risky collective gamble they have taken by invading Ukraine. Ruthless, greedy and cynical they may be — but they are not cynical about the idea of Russian greatness.

The western media employ the term “oligarch” to describe super-wealthy Russians in general, including those now wholly or largely resident in the west. The term gained traction in the 1990s, and has long been seriously misused. In the time of President Boris Yeltsin, a small group of wealthy businessmen did indeed dominate the state, which they plundered in collaboration with senior officials. This group was, however, broken by Putin during his first years in power.


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These men are known in Russia as the “siloviki” — “men of force”, or perhaps even, in the Irish phrase, “hard men”. A clear line should be drawn between the siloviki and the wider Russian elites — large and very disparate and disunited congeries of top businessmen, senior officials outside the inner circle, leading media figures, top generals, patriotic intellectuals and the motley crew of local notables, placemen and fixers who make up the leadership of Putin’s United Russia party.

More: https://www.ft.com/content/503fb110-f91e-4bed-b6dc-0d09582dd007?segmentId=b385c2ad-87ed-d8ff-aaec-0f8435cd42d9

Russia and China are spreading conspiracy theories about alleged bio-labs “under U.S. control” along their borders—implying that COVID is an American-made virus.

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1380652897617244163

Russia, China Team Up to Peddle Insane U.S. COVID Lab Theory
COLD WAR PROBLEMS

Russian and Chinese officials are spreading conspiracy theories about alleged bio-labs “under U.S. control” along their borders—implying that COVID is an American-made virus.

The Cold War could be coming back with a vengeance, and the U.S.’s top adversaries are dusting off some old-school Soviet tactics.

Russian and Chinese government officials have recently teamed up to publicly accuse the U.S. of creating biological weapons near their borders and suggesting that Americans are responsible for creating COVID-19.

Speaking to the Russian daily newspaper Kommersant on Thursday, Nikolai Patrushev, Russia’s Security Council secretary, said: “I suggest that you pay attention to the fact that biological laboratories under U.S. control are growing by leaps and bounds all over the world. And—by a strange coincidence—mainly near the Russian and Chinese borders.”

Patrushev, who formerly served as director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)—the main successor organization to the Soviet KGB—added that “outbreaks of diseases uncharacteristic of these regions” have been recorded in areas adjacent to these alleged bio-labs. He then openly accused the U.S. of developing biological weapons in those facilities.

Like clockwork, Russian state media echoed and disseminated Patrushev’s accusations against the U.S. But this time, they were accompanied by an official statement from China’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Lijian Zhao, who tweeted: “The US bio-military activities are not transparent, safe or justified. In Ukraine alone, the US has set up 16 bio-labs. Why does the US need so many labs all over the world? What activities are carried out in those labs, including the one in Fort Detrick?”

More: https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-china-team-up-to-peddle-insane-us-covid-lab-theory

A group of scientists has called for a much more thorough review of lab security+virus handling procedures in #China, stating that the ⁦@WHO team was restricted from the outset by terms of reference pushing a zoonotic origin of the #coronavirus.

Stephen McDonell
@StephenMcDonell
China Correspondent BBC, after 9 years as ABC Beijing Bureau Chief. Bachelor of Arts, Wollongong University. MA (Journalism) U.T.S.

https://twitter.com/StephenMcDonell/status/1379857605225373696

You can read letter above yourself but it is a very strongly-worded criticism of the @WHO
investigation team’s processes and findings by a group of scientists who say that “no robust process for examining the origins of the pandemic has been established”. #coronavirus

They say there were “different evidentiary standards” for the four theories considered; that there is no solid evidence for the conclusion that a lab leak origin was “extremely unlikely”; that critical records and samples remain “inaccessible” etc.

They say the primary conclusion that an intermediary host animal path was the most likely origin of the #coronavirus remains “entirely theoretical”, meaning - at the very least - that other origin pathways must remain open. #China

+ calling for: a new team to carry out research in #China with broader specialist expertise; without any government having veto power re the team make up; a more robust process dealing with potential conflicts of interest like “prior professional association with laboratories”...

++calling for team to be able to interview relevant people “without the presence of government authorities”.

Calls for Further Inquiries Into Coronavirus Origins

A group of scientists and others who are critics of the W.H.O. team report want a broader investigation into the potential sources of the coronavirus pandemic, and a review of lab security in handling viruses.

More: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/07/science/virus-inquiries-pandemic-origins.html

The @WHO clarified today that the China-WHO origins of covid-19 team did not extensively assess the lab leak hypothesis.

And that WHO is ready to deploy future missions involving specialist experts to investigate a lab leak.

https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1376930950815363072
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1376934212851339265
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1376936129979686917
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1376940338699440136
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1376942634443345921

https://twitter.com/jpaceDC/status/1359841474993618945

How a leading anti-Trump group ignored a crisis in its ranks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Last June, the Lincoln Project was on a high.

Led by several prominent former Republican consultants, its slickly produced ads attacking President Donald Trump made it perhaps the best known of the so-called Never Trump organizations. The group tried to claim a higher moral ground in an effort to purge Trump from the GOP. Money flowed in by the tens of millions of dollars from donors eager to help.

But within the organization, a crisis was brewing.

In June 2020, members of the organization’s leadership were informed in writing and in subsequent phone calls of at least 10 specific allegations of harassment against co-founder John Weaver, including two involving Lincoln Project employees, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the situation. The email and phone calls raise questions about the Lincoln Project’s statement last month that it was “shocked” when accusations surfaced publicly this year. It’s also the first known suggestion that Weaver targeted a Lincoln Project staffer.

Despite the early warning, the group took no action against Weaver and pressed forward with its high-profile work. For the collection of GOP consultants and former officials, being anti-Trump was becoming very good for business. Of the $90 million Lincoln Project has raised, more than $50 million has gone to firms controlled by the group’s leaders.

More: https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-b14be5f06588b8f1d78125d4141394cb

Earlier tonight, former NCSC Director Bill Evanina was featured on @CBSNews
"60 Minutes" discussing China’s collection of U.S. healthcare data and the risks it poses to our privacy & economic / national security. Watch Part 1 of the segment at:


https://twitter.com/NCSCgov/status/1356058978992742400

China's push to control Americans' health care future

U.S. officials say the Chinese government is trying to collect Americans' DNA, and they believe a recent offer from a Chinese company for assistance in COVID-19 testing was suspicious. Jon Wertheim reports.

Article and video in here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biodata-dna-china-collection-60-minutes-2021-01-31/

China gene firm providing worldwide COVID tests worked with Chinese military

https://twitter.com/NCSCgov/status/1355987730841350147

Exclusive: China gene firm providing worldwide COVID tests worked with Chinese military

SYDNEY (Reuters) - BGI Group, the world’s largest genomics company, has worked with China’s military on research that ranges from mass testing for respiratory pathogens to brain science, a Reuters review of research, patent filings and other documents has found.

The review, of more than 40 publicly available documents and research papers in Chinese and English, shows BGI’s links to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) include research with China’s top military supercomputing experts. The extent of those links has not previously been reported.

BGI has sold millions of COVID-19 test kits outside China since the outbreak of the new coronavirus pandemic, including to Europe, Australia and the United States. Shares of BGI Genomics Co, the company’s subsidiary listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, have doubled in price over the past 12 months, giving it a market value of about $9 billion.

But top U.S. security officials have warned American labs against using Chinese tests because of concern China was seeking to gather foreign genetic data for its own research. BGI has denied that.

The documents reviewed by Reuters neither contradict nor support that U.S. suspicion. Still, the material shows that the links between the Chinese military and BGI run deeper than previously understood, illustrating how China has moved to integrate private technology companies into military-related research under President Xi Jinping.

More: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-genomics-military-exclusive/exclusive-china-gene-firm-providing-worldwide-covid-tests-worked-with-chinese-military-idUSKBN29Z0HA

Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe said in response to my reporting that had he known Mueller was not conducting the counterintelligence investigation into Trump, he would have pushed for the FBI to do it. He gave me this statement.

https://twitter.com/nytmike/status/1300107673015406594