At the end of April, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in which it refused to accept the results of the presidential elections in Russia, calling it a farce, illegitimate and undemocratic. This decision is not surprising and is legally senseless, as a judicial orgy, actually, has dominated for a long time in the Parliament of the European Union.
Yet it’s interesting to note that, along the way, the mechanism was exposed of how in Strasbourg and Brussels Euro-deputies take decisions, who pulls on the strings and who oils the wheels. It was exposed thanks to the limitless boasting of our fugitive foreign agents’ warrior host. In particular, the telegram channel ‘We can explain’ (Можем объяснить) (former ‘Open Media’ or ‘Открытые медиа’) under control of Mikhail Khodorkovsky*, reported:
‘The resolution is adopted, mainly, thanks to the mutual efforts of the Free Russian Foundation and the ‘Anti-War Committee’*. The key role in pushing this initiative was played by Petar Tanev, a freelance adviser of the European Parliament and expert of the Free Russian Foundation.
‘Until the last moment, it was not clear whether the European Parliament would succeed in adopting the resolution before the end of Putin’s president terms of office on May 7. My task was to keep this question on the agenda in factions, to coordinate European deputies, to point out the necessity of adopting this decision’, said Tanev’.
On closer inspection, Petar Tanev has turned out to be a graduate of the Moscow Peoples’ Friendship University, he is 24 years old, has double citizenships of Bulgaria and Russia (his father is Bulgarian, his mother is Russian). From November 2022, he did internship in the European Parliament as assistant of the Bulgarian Euro-deputy Andrey Kovachev. As of today, he is a freelance adviser to the Bulgarian delegation on Russian question.
Petar Tanev
You would certainly agree that it is somehow dubious that an intern and freelance adviser could ‘coordinate Euro-deputies’ and ‘keep this question on the agenda in factions’. Yet, as it turned out, he could as the main position of Petar Tanev enabling him to influence Euro-deputies is expert of the ‘Free Russia Foundation’. Moreover, Mr. Petar Tanev is not a simple employee, as he is officially registered as a EU Policy Officer, representative of the Foundation responsible for relations with the EU.
And the ‘Free Russia Foundation’ operates upon members of the European Parliament the boa on rabbits. In the film ‘Foreign Agents’ by Arkady Mamontov we already told that from twelve members of the Board of Directors of this foundation, six are former career officer of the US Department of State. This foundation is headed by the former assistant of the senator McCain and Khodorkovsky’s associate Natalia Budayeva-Arno (about intricacies of their malicious activity we told in the investigation entitled ‘Necklace for the State Department’s Fury: ‘Ark’, Reforum and Free Russia Foundation’.
As the website Prigovor.ru has found out, the anti-Russian ‘Free Russia Foundation’ which is based in Washington, has, actually, begun its activities within the walls of the European Parliament as official lobbyist. Half a year ago, the ‘Free Russia Foundation’ was registered in the Transparence Registry of the European Union with number 171598852000-42.
Free Russian Foundation /FRF, REG Number: 171598852000-42. Registration date: 24/11/2023. https://www.4freerussia.org
Address: St. NW, Suite 600 20005 Washington United States, tel. (+1) 9168493057, Contact details of your organization’s office in charge of EU relations: Louizalaan 146 1050 Brussels Belgium, tel. (+32) 490222636, Leader – Ms. Nataliya Arno, EU Policy Officer is Mr. Petar Tanev
While studying in detail the profile of the ‘Free Russia Foundation’ in the Transparency Registry of the EU, we were as if forced to watch a hardcore porno – so dirty were the details presented by Ms. Natalia Arno about activities of her fo
A SESSION OF SELF-EXPOSURE
One was shocked by the fact how cynically and openly the Free Russia Foundation, aka ‘Free Russia’ has exposed its main lobbyist purposes in the section ‘Specific activities covered by the Registry:
- Contributing to increasing the effectiveness of the EU’s sanctions policy against the Russian
- Identification of loopholes in the framework of the EU sanctions against the Russia Federation; advising on the ways in which the current government of the Russian Federation and its affiliated actors circumvent the EU sanctions, and improving mechanisms of countering and circumvention;
- Advocating for including in the individuals and Russia Federation’s affiliated governmental bodies and structures on the EU sanction list, whose activities are incompatible with the Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014) concerning restrictive measures in respect of actions threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independency of Ukraine.
It means that the declared essence of the work of the ‘Free Russia Foundation’ is open anti-Russian activities, and all this is presented without any political or diplomatic curtseys, just head-on – there is nothing to be ashamed of, after all! And now think of all the laments and wailing of diverse foreign agents – ‘why us and what for?’ when their disgusting activity and sources of financing are being pointed out.
By the way, few words about financing – all lobbyist activities of the ‘Free Russia Foundation’ are covered by the US State Department. Only in 2022, the foundation of Natalia Arno received 3 363 157 dollars. They openly say about that on the website of the Transparency Registry of the EU: ‘executive, operational and financial activities are being financed at the expense of various programs of the US Government, such as the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the US State Department and USAID**. Some additional financing comes from other donors, such as National Endowment for Democracy (NED), NATO and European Endowment for Democracy (EED)’.*
So, the April anti-Putin resolution of the European Parliament was lobbied by the anti-Russian ‘Free Russia Foundation’ with the money of the US State Department.
In the same section ‘Complementary information’ our ‘independent’ public figures, masters of political sneaking, expose, apart from financing, their organizational backstage.
Apart from Arno and Tanev, officially accredited employees of the Foundation helped to push this anti-Russian resolution in the corridors of the European Parliament, namely Vladimir Milov*, Yevgenia Kara-Murza*, Roland Freudenstein.
Let’s quote their self-exposures in full:
‘The Foundation ‘Free Russia’ in Brussels is a recently created, legally independent organization which is officially registered in August 2022. The founder of the foundation ‘Free Russia’ in Brussels as well as the head organization in Washington is one and the same person – Natalia Arno. At present, our structure is in the process of opening a bank account and beginning of totally independent activities in Brussels. We have four local employees who, as of today, work under the contract with the Foundation ‘Free Russia’ in Brussels, and, for the time being, the payment of their work goes directly from the head office in Washington, District of Columbia, while the office in Brussels creates and officially forms its activities and direction.
However, all executive, operational and financial obligations remain in the hands of the head office, located in Washington, District of Columbia, which, basically, is being financed by means of different programs of the American government, such as the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the US State Department and USAID. Some additional financing comes from other donors, such as National Endowment for Democracy (NED)*, NATO and European Endowment for Democracy (EED)*. Our head office is in Washington, District Columbia, reports that it has received 3 363 157 US dollars in form of grants and donations in 2022.
After the full-fledged opening of the office in Brussels, affiliates of the two organizations will be divided with regards to administrative functions but they will continue to work closely with each other in the field of program development. This work will be centered mainly on pushing of the mission of the Foundation ‘Free Russia’ on support and widening of Russian pro-democracy and anti-war society by way of propaganda, studies and reports. These two organizations will work in tandem in order to remove information lacunae between the grass root civil society inside and outside Russia and key interested sides in the United States and European Union’.
CLONES AND PREPARING FOR ATTACK
However, even the European Transparency Registry didn’t force grant-eaters from the ‘Free Russia Foundation’ to provide the whole truth about themselves. Singing the song about ‘two structures which will work in tandem’, about the head office in Washington and the office in Brussels, these partisans of transparency (in accordance with their old swindler habits) has kept an absolute silence about their additional five affiliate firms in other countries! For instance, about the ‘Free Russia Foundation’ in the Netherlands.
The website Prigovor.ru has found out a whole platoon of firm-clones which speaks a lot about big plans of the US State Department concerning the use of the ‘Free Russia foundation’ and turning it into a whole network which will serve also in the process of covering tracks. So, during the last several years, legal entities have been created both in the United States and in Europe.
- Free Russia Foundation Washington, District of Columbia (US), number of the company EXTUID_4221842
- Free Russia Foundation Delaware (US) Delaware, USA, № 5649047
- Free Russia Foundation Association (the legal address is a complete match with the address of the Free Russia Foundation in Washington)
- Free Russia Foundation Virginia (US) , № F2101477
- Free Russia Foundation, Belgium, № 0789772020
- Free Russia Foundation Netherlands, № 62910426
- Free Russia Foundation, Czech Republic, № 08931402
(In Prague, by the way, took place another beer hall putsch: the Czech foundation was captured by Inna Kurochkina, press-secretary of the Chechen terrorist Akhmed Zakayev, and she threw away Natalia Arno from the list of founders. See the investigation of the website FLB.ru “How US State Department’s Fury had a spat with a female Body-and-TV-journalist of Zakayev’)
We would like to remind once more our readers that Natalia Arno and other cleanest fighters for democratic values have hidden from the European Union’s Transparence Registry information about existence of all these firm-clones. By the way, apart from the firms, which were opened in various jurisdictions, the American ‘Free Russia Foundation’ has open its affiliates in Lvov (Ukraine), Tbilisi (Georgia), Vilnius (Lithuania), Tallinn (Estonia), Berlin (Germany) Brussels (Belgium).
SCHEMES OF ALEXEY NAVALNY’S HONGWEIBINGS
It’s worth noting that the creation of anti-Russian clones is not an innovation of the ‘Free Russia Foundation’, but, one can say, a settled method of liberal Russophobes which cry most loudly about nontransparent financial schemes in Russia. As a dramatic confirmation of this can serve the second group of clones, but this time of the former Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by Alexey Navalny in different states of the US. We wrote about this in the investigation entitled ‘Mikhail Khodorkovsky under brand name Navalny* has been lobbying for adoption of anti-Russia sanctions’
In July of last year, analysts of the website Prigovor.ru discovered some clones of the ‘Anti-Corruption Foundation’ registered in such states as Louisiana, Nevada, Virginia and in District of Columbia. As in the head office in New York, founders were all the same – Leonid Volkov*, Maria Pevchikh*, Ivan Zhdanov*, Vladimir Ashurkov, Julia Navalnaya.
But ‘Alexey Navalny’s hongweibings’ (or Red Guards) as they are being called now, (yet, they don’t differ at all from Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s hongweibings) decided not to stop at the achieved results, and, as of today, in generally accessible registries already nine company-clones have been registered in the United States.
Anti-Corruption Foundation Inc., state Delaware;
Anti-Corruption Foundation Inc., state Massachusetts
Anti-Corruption Foundation Inc., state New York
Anti-Corruption Foundation Inc., state Louisiana
Anti-Corruption Foundation USA, state Massachusetts
Anti-Corruption Foundation Inc., state Nevada
Anti-Corruption Foundation Inc.,District of Columbia
Anti-Corruption Foundation Inc., state North Dakota
Anti-Corruption Foundation Inc., state Virginia.
The exposed scheme of creation of armies of firm-clones and the initiated intense activities of their employees, including within the walls of the European Parliament, show that Russophobes, putting on white overcoats and declaring transparency of business and fight against various kind of machinations, are, in fact, zealots of murky schemes as well as covering financial and legal tracks. By and large, they are typical swindlers.
Author: Alexander Zhelnin
See the Russian version at: «Атака клонов. 3 363 157 долларов для «хунвейбинов Ходорковского»*
* Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich, born 26.06.1963, on 20.05.2022 was acknowledged by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation as a physical person fulfilling functions of a foreign agent. Included in the Registry of foreign agents with No 389. In 2015, Russia put Mikhail Khodorkovsky on an international wanted list in connection with his involvement in the murder of the mayor of the town Nefteyugansk Vladimir Petukhov and attempted murder of the entrepreneur Yevgeny Rybin;
* Alexey Navalny (born 04.06.1976 – died 16.02.2024) – on 25.01.2022 was included by Rosfinmonitoring in the list of physical persons connected with extremist activities or terrorism with No 8398;
** Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) – on 09.10.2019 was included in the Registry of foreign agents with No 195; on 09.06.2021 FBK was acknowledged by the Moscow City Court as extremist organization
** Free Russia Foundation, USA – organization the activity of which was acknowledged as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation in accordance with the decision of the Office of the Prosecutor General of 28.07.2019. The Foundation was included on 09.10.2019 in the Registry of Foreign agents with No 195. Was acknowledged by the Moscow City Court as an extremist organization;
* Maria Pevchikh – 05.05.2023 was included in the Registry of foreign agents with No 419;
* Ivan Zhdanov – 02.09.2022 was included in the Registry of foreign agents with No 372;
* Leonid Volkov – on 10.02.2021 was arrested in absentia for abating minors to illegal activities (Article 151.1, Paragraph 2, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) 22.04.2022 was acknowledged by the Ministry of Justice of the Russia Federation as a physical person fulfilling functions of a foreign agent. On April 22, 2022, was included in the Registry of foreign agents with No 372. On 14.01.2022, Rosfinmonitoring included Volkov in the list of terrorists and extremists;
** Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) – on 23.12.2022 this organization, by the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, was included in the Registry of NGOs fulfilling functions of foreign agents;
** ‘The National Endowment for Democracy’ – organization whose activities is acknowledge as undesirable of the territory of the Russian Federation by the Decision of the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation of 28.07.2015;
** Anti-war Committee’ – included by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the list of undesirable organizations with No 1 by the Ruling No 1076 of 28.07.2024;
** European Endowment for Democracy’ – included by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the list of undesirable organizations with No 253-r of 12.03.2020;
** Otkrytaya Rossia (Open Russia, Great Britain) – organization whose activities was acknowledged as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation in accordance with the decision of the Office of the Prosecutor General of 26.04.2017;
* Vladimir Milov – on 16.11.2023 the Basmanny District Court of Moscow sentenced in absentia Vladimir Milov, acknowledged as a foreign agent, to eight years of imprisonment for public dissemination of knowingly false information about using of the Armed Forced of the Russian Federation. He is on a wanted list;
* - foreign agents, extremists;
** - organizations whose activities are acknowledged as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation, extremist, terrorism organizations.
