Controversial Ukrainian legislator Andrei Derkach has close ties to Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, and a U.S. Democratic nominee Joe Biden was left alone earlier this summer by the intelligence community to help with ongoing efforts to weaken him.
Now, Darkach has been clearly labeled a Russian agent by the American government and allowed to try to influence the next election.
“Dresca was announced,” Treasury Secretary Steven Munuchin said in a statement on Thursday. And employs fraud. Maintains “close Russian agents active for over a decade” and close ties with Russian intelligence services.
“The United States will continue to use all the tools at its disposal to counter this Russian deactivation campaign and to maintain the integrity of our electoral system.”
The announcement by the US government on Thursday to publicly condemn Russia’s ongoing interference in the 2020 elections was an extraordinary move. It shows how the U.S. Some parts of the government are harassing Russia over its anti-Biden intervention, while Trump has openly acknowledged the Russian effort and has not spoken out against it.
The news also raises the bar for Gilliani, who collaborated with Derkach to spread anti-bidan material during Trump’s impeachment. The Treasury’s statement now means that Giuliani collaborated with an “active Russian agent”, which is precisely the type of behavior that led to allegations of a Trump-Russia alliance in the 2016 election. Asked about the news, Giuliani texted CNN, “Who cares.”
The Treasury Department said Dirkach has been running a “hidden influence campaign” for years, focusing on “cultivating false and unsubstantiated allegations concerning U.S. officials in the upcoming 2020 presidential election.”
According to the Treasury Department, Dirkach has been added to the list of specially designated citizens, meaning his assets have been blocked and “U.S. individuals are generally prohibited from dealing with him,” according to the Treasury Department.
Derkach is part of a small group of Ukrainian political figures who entered the 2020 election last year, promoting suspected corruption allegations against Biden and freeing alleged dioteps from Biden’s diplomatic career as vice president.
According to CNN reporting and public statements from Derkach, he has worked closely with Jillia to sharpen anti-Biden content, much of which has been accepted by Republican legislators and even right-wingers such as ONA.
Gilliani or O.N.N. No name was mentioned, but said Darkach targeted “leading U.S. individuals” and used “U.S. platforms” to spread their message.
Derkach did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment Thursday.
The recordings are of Biden’s dealings with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and appear to be authentic.
The material reinforces Biden’s claims that he promoted US interests and did nothing wrong in Ukraine. There is no evidence of malpractice on the tapes, and Biden maintains the campaign that the publication is a blasphemous Russian intervention against the former vice president.
Darkach’s role in the Russian mediation operation began “at least in late 2019” during the investigation into Trump’s impeachment, and continued into the middle of this year when he began releasing iDioTops, according to a Treasury statement.
Derkach was involved in “false and unsubstantiated statements” about U.S. officials, the statement said, referring to Biden, although no one was named in the news release.
“Significantly, as the Treasury Department acknowledges that Derkach is an active Russian agent with ga connections to the Russian intelligence services, and recognizes the statement that he propagates as ‘false and unsupported’, the President of the United States continued to push.” “Such false claims and objections,” the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, said in a statement Thursday.
Democrats have also accused Darkach of harassing Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson and Rip. Devin Nunes, a Republican, sent information to both, who have pushed for Biden’s investigation and have accepted dubious claims about the Ukraine deal. Johnson has denied receiving anything from Derkach, accusing Democrats of spreading Russian ambiguity with the accusation itself.
A group of Senate Democrats sent a letter to Munich last week, urging that the 2020 U.S. Requested to allow those who interfered in the election.
According to the Treasury Department, three Russian nationals, who were also approved on Thursday – Artem Lifshits, Anton Andreyev and Daria Aslanova – work in a factory called the Russian Troll Internet Research Agency (IRA), according to the Treasury Department.
Special Adviser Robert Mueller concluded that the IRA had interfered in the 2016 presidential election and aggressively promoted Trump’s candidacy on social media.
Jeremy Herbe of CNN contributed to the reporting.
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