Many of those who worked to interfere in American politics also played key roles in Russia's assault on Ukraine — a fact that is becoming increasingly clear as the war moves into its second year and new intelligence becomes public.
Take a look at a new report released by RUSI, a British government-affiliated think tank which has done great work over the past year analyzing various aspects of the Russia-Ukraine war.
This report is devoted to "unconventional operations" — that is, the role of Russian spies in Ukraine. Thanks to the events of the past eight years, it's a topic which has intersected with U.S. politics quite a bit. It also features new details regarding some Ukrainians who have cozied up to American political figures, and who have become TPM characters in the process.
Take Andrii Derkach, a former Ukrainian member of parliament who squired Rudy Giuliani around Kyiv in 2019. Derkach spent the run-up to the 2020 election spreading bizarre calumnies about alleged corruption involving President Biden in Ukraine, and also released supposed recordings of Biden speaking with Ukrainian officials while he was vice president.
Per the RUSI report, which says it relies on the results of a Ukrainian investigation, Derkach had been a Russian military intelligence asset since 2016.
The Ukrainian investigation found that Derkach received monthly payments of between $3 and $4 million from the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, to create "a network of private security firms which would assist in maintaining control in a number of towns by pathfinding and assisting Russian forces upon their arrival."
It's not news that Derkach was likely a Russian agent — the U.S. government has also called him that.
But the level of detail is striking, and suggests that Derkach was on the payroll of Russian military intelligence at the same time that he fed Giuliani the dirt that he sought in Ukraine, and when a DHL shipping receipt appeared in the House Intelligence Committee suggesting that a package went from Derkach to the office of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA).
The RUSI report frames the work of these Russian agents as part of a broader effort to weaken Western support for Kyiv in the years before the invasion and since.
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