Looks like US Intelligence may have been onto guys like Konstantin Rykov and Artem Klyushin
Since last July, I've been following closely the exploits of a Russian named Konstantin Rykov. Rykov is no ordinary Russian, but rather a former member of parliament for Putin's United Russia party and subsequently someone who's been described as a social media propagandist for the Kremlin (even reportedly being named a "trusted confidant" of the Russian government). In July, I had stumbled across a Facebook posting of Rykov wherein which he supposedly confessed to running a campaign from Russia to influence US voters towards Trump. He claimed he was inspired to do this by a picture of Trump he received on Election Day 2012, and also cited to use of Wikileaks and Cambridge Analytica in his efforts (at the time of the post, Cambridge Analytica's role in the Trump campaign was not widely known).
I then soon became acquainted with a close associate of Rykov named Artem Klyushin. Klyushin is either an oligarch himself or an associate of oligarch and also claims to have been associated with the Kremlin as a member of certain boards for the Russian government. Klyushin is also interesting because he personally accompanied Donald Trump around Moscow in November 2013 with his then wife, Yulya Alferova during the Miss Universe pageant. After the pageant, both Klyushin and Alferova begun to heavily promote Trump as a presidential candidate over social media long before he officially announced his campaign. After the election Klyushin would later brag over Twitter, "Without my intervention, Trump would not have won."
On Election Night 2016, Rykov and Klyushin threw a party celebrating Trump's victory.
I didn't see any mention of Rykov and Klyushin's exploits in the media until last November, when Seth Abramson started to discuss them over his heavily followed Twitter account, as well as stories from Raw Story and independent journalists like Scott Stedman. Still, beyond those individuals, the supposed open confessions of interference in the US election by these notorious figures over social media has gotten little media coverage.
I've been reading the book Russian Roulette by Michael Isakoff and David Corn, and it is both absolutely breathtaking in its level of research as well as infuriating that this sordid episode in US history took place. Neither Rykov nor Klyushin are mentioned in the book by name, but I did come across one interesting passage (an excerpt of which was published in Mother Jones):
High fives in Moscow. In the weeks after the election, the intelligence community reviewed intelligence previously gathered and concluded by early December that the Russian operation had aimed not just to foment chaos but to elect Trump. As one administration official later explained, “We vacuum up a lot of intelligence that is not exploited in real time. Things sat in databases until queried. Not until after the election did analysts go into these databases and find a lot of stuff that changed the assessments. Plus, intelligence picked up certain Russians high-fiving after the election.” And weeks earlier, before Election Day, one top-secret intelligence report circulated among administration officials reporting that in July, following WikiLeaks’ dump of Democratic Party emails stolen by Russian hackers, Kremlin officials were congratulating themselves on a job well done. “The Russians were talking, telling one another, ‘great job,’” an official who reviewed the report later said. “It was pretty specific. They were celebrating their success.”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/george-papadopoulos-claimed-trump-encouraged-his-efforts-to-establish-a-russian-backchannel/
So as I had suspected, it's very possible that intelligence had been aware of the postings of Rykov and Klyushin after all. What value, if any, they have is yet to be seen.
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My original DU post on Rykov:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029322103
Scott Stedman piece on Rykov and Klyushin:
https://medium.com/@ScottMStedman/kremlin-propagandist-boasted-of-his-hacking-efforts-strongly-implied-colluding-with-trump-team-in-a905104965a1
Party thrown by Rykov and Klyushin on Election Night 2016 (Rykov is seen celebrating Trump's victory at around 7:07 in the video while Klyushin walks by in the background):
Music video titled "Russian Hacker" confessing to hacking of the US election which was circulated over social media and starred Rykov's photogenic associate Maria Katasonova:
= new reply since forum marked as read
Take for example a July 7, 2016 post which features a Russian language article about Carter Page's speech in Moscow, the first of two he would give that year.
Rykov writes:
Clearly, the lecture in nes was a cover-up and Carter page came to Moscow for other reasons. The impression is still very positive. Imagine how excited old man Майкл Makfol will be.
Then, under the comments section, he has this interaction with one of his followers:
Yulia Nikolaevskaya Wow. How nice to hear that. I wonder if trump will become president, will they retain such rhetoric towards Russia?
Константин Рыков He's come to scout to understand the reaction to Donald.
Yulia Nikolaevskaya So, just in case, you pet us? Why does he need our reaction to Donald?
Константин Рыков Юлия Nikolaevskaâ let me talk about this later post write advanced.. topic important
Yulia Nikolaevskaya Ok
