A spokesman for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday denied Russia has collected compromising information on Trump and dismissed news reports as a “complete fabrication and utter nonsense”.  Dmitry Peskov insisted that the Kremlin “does not engage in collecting compromising material”.

In the material quoted, the URL goes directly to The Guardian article in which both denials appeared.

Well, here’s a still recent header that contradicts the point: “Foes of Russia Say Child Pornography Is Planted to Ruin Them” (The New York Times, December 9, 2016).

“The whole affair is Kafkaesque,” Mr. Bukovsky said in an interview. “You not only have to prove you are not guilty but that you are innocent.” He insisted that he was the victim of a new and particularly noxious form of an old K.G.B. dirty trick known as kompromat, the fabrication and planting of compromising or illegal material.

Old-style kompromat featured doctored photographs, planted drugs, grainy videos of liaisons with prostitutes hired by the K.G.B., and a wide range of other primitive entrapment techniques.

In Reference, the RAND article, “Beyond the Headlines: RAND’s Christopher Paul Discusses the Russian ‘Firehose of Falsehood'”, December 13, 2017, contains a summary of KGB/(FSB) methods in Russia’s massive perversion of information intended to scramble reasoning and politically divide and diminish political coherence in the EU and NATO states.

Incidentally, BackChannel’s sources have suggested the Kremlin employs more than 800,000 Russians in its Information Warfare capacity.  What that may mean for those invested in integrity and truth-telling worldwide, and whether for business, government, or personal conscience, is that Russia maintains a veritable army of professed liars whose paid mission is to confuse, disinform, and disrupt the processes of reason itself in each mind across hundreds of millions of souls.

For near corroboration of the above-cited figure, BackChannels directs the reader to Owen Matthews article in Politico: “Vladimir Putin resurrects the KGB” (September 28, 2016).

Shadows

In the world in which the latest Trump scandal is unfolding, there appears both a natural limit to what the public may know with certainty and a stranger-than-fiction aspect that fairly begs credulity.  Nonetheless: as regards President Elect Trump, the American electorate certainly heard the ” . . . grab them by the pussy” comment released as an information grenade only weeks before the general election, and it has by now accumulated awareness of the President’s character in business in ways possibly unsurpassed in history.  If ever an American President were examined like an organism, this one has been diced, sliced, smeared, and laid out on the slide bed of the highest resolution political microscope ever imagined.

The multiple images of damage — offhand remarks; a relationship with the world’s foremost political consultant to dictatorships (Paul Manafort); family relationships that go back to the Soviet Era and include fluency in Russian — then too, the family is immensely gifted with multilingual talent; possible Russian real estate interests as a matter of “business empire” deeply invested in real estate development — may continue to accumulate even though the truth remains sketchy — or held close by governments plunged into a different kind of war.

Trump’s “Russian Phantoms” — Manafort, Manafort-Kilimnik (relationship), Millian and any related business that has or may come to light — have already dogged the incoming Administration, and more may come to light as the Inauguration approaches.

Searches applied while developing this post: “KGB, Kompromat”; “Russian Influence Operations”; “Trump, Compromised”; “Trump, Russian Fluency”; “Trump Family, Russian Fluency”.

Reference

Bilingual Kidspot.  “President Donald Trump and his Multilingual Family.”  November 9, 2016.

Borger, Julian.  “John McCain passes dossier alleging secret Trump-Russia contacts to FBI.”  The Guardian, January 11, 2017.

“The ultimate goal of Kremlin hostile influence and disinformation operations is to weaken its opponents’ will to resist,” Jakub Janda, deputy director of nonpartisan think tank European Values, explained in an email from Prague. “Simply to manipulate the West, its politicians and its societies to stop resisting invasions of the Russian Federation to foreign countries.

In Europe, the East StratCom Task Force issues a “Disinformation Review” every week, giving a round-up of pro-Kremlin disinformation in Europe and beyond.

Eakin, Britain.  “Experts Dissect Russian Disinformation in the U.S. Election.”  Courthouse News, January 10, 2017.

In its most lurid allegation, the report alleges that Trump defiled a hotel suite in which the Obamas had stayed during a Moscow visit. Trump allegedly brought prostitutes to the Ritz Carlton suite, bugged by the FSB, the KGB’s successor. There, Trump allegedly ordered the prostitutes to perform “golden showers” in front of him.

Groll, Elias.  “Explosive, But Unsubstantiated, Intel Dossier Alleges Russia has “Kompromat” on Trump.”  The Cable, Foreign Policy, January 10, 2017.

“The whole affair is Kafkaesque,” Mr. Bukovsky said in an interview. “You not only have to prove you are not guilty but that you are innocent.” He insisted that he was the victim of a new and particularly noxious form of an old K.G.B. dirty trick known as kompromat, the fabrication and planting of compromising or illegal material.

Old-style kompromat featured doctored photographs, planted drugs, grainy videos of liaisons with prostitutes hired by the K.G.B., and a wide range of other primitive entrapment techniques.

Higgens, Andrew.  “Foes of Russia Say Child Pornography Is Planted to Ruin Them.”  The New York Times, December 9, 2016.

Holland, Steve.  “Trump says Russia did not try to compromise him, assails spy agencies.”  Reuters, January 11, 2017.

Landay, Jonathan and John Walcott.  “Trump given unverified reports that Russia had damaging details about him.”  Reuters, January 11, 2017.

Levitz, Eric.  “Intel Chiefs Presented Trump With Claims That Russia Has “Compromised” Him.” New York, January 10, 2017.

Matthews, Owen.  “Vladimir Putin resurrects the KGB.”  Politico, September 28, 2016.

RAND Corporation.  “Information Operations” & “Beyond the Headlines: RAND’s Christopher Paul Discusses the Russian ‘Firehose of Falsehood'”, December 13, 2017.

West, Tara.  “Melania Trump Makes History as First Immigrant First Lady, Fluent in Five Languages.”  Inquisitor, November 9, 2016.

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