Tag: Aleksandr Torshin

The Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher would tell you he’s just a regular guy who loves his country and wishes he had more time to go surfing. But for 30 years, his southern California constituents have also dubbed him “crazy Dana”. Putin “put me down in a millisecond”, Rohrabacher recalled years later. “His muscles are just unbelievable.” Trump's acting attorney general involved in firm that scammed veterans out of life savings Read more He’s notorious for making an ill-advised link between “dinosaur flatulence” and global warming; for his open disdain of homosexuals and undocumented immigrants; for welcoming a notorious Holocaust denier to Washington; and for thinking that the Oklahoma City bombing – widely regarded as a conspiracy of homegrown far-right radicals – was an Islamist plot cooked up by Middle Eastern radicals in the Philippines. His constituents don’t like his embrace of Donald Trump – they narrowly preferred Hillary Clinton in 2016. “You know he’s a tough guy and he’s supposed to be a tough guy, that’s what the Russian people want,” Rohrabacher once said of Putin. But he, like the president, has also become ensnared in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and is unlikely to shake himself loose just because he is leaving office. Several meetings with Maria Butina, now charged with being a Russian agent, and at least one meeting with Butina’s associate, Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank who sought to set up a back-channel meeting between Putin and Trump during the campaign. “They are not concerned about Russia. “It’s time our elected officials put country and community first,” Rouda told supporters on election night, to cheers and applause.

Senior members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) met the wife of the Russian billionaire who allegedly gave financial support to a woman accused of being a secret agent for Moscow in the US. The NRA members met Svetlana Nikolaeva, who is the head of a gun company that supplies sniper rifles to the Russian military and intelligence services, during a trip to Moscow during the 2016 election campaign. Accused spy Maria Butina met with Russia's former US ambassador Read more Nikolaeva’s husband, Konstantin Nikolaev, allegedly provided funding to Maria Butina, a young Russian woman charged with carrying out an illicit spying operation in Washington. Nikolaev reportedly once invested in his wife’s gun company. US prosecutors allege Butina’s activities were directed by Alexander Torshin, a senior Russian state banker and an NRA member. Nikolaev has been involved in several business projects connected to allies of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president. Sacha Baron Cohen's scheme to arm toddlers isn't far from reality Read more Nikolaev has been named in several Russian media reports in recent years as an early investor in Orsis’s parent company. In December 2015, an NRA delegation including Pete Brownell, then the NRA’s first vice-president, and David Keene, a past NRA president, visited Russia for an expedition partly funded by Right to Bear Arms, a Russian pro-gun group run by Butina with help from Torshin, her alleged government handler. Rogozin’s son was previously an executive at Orsis. The Guardian disclosed earlier this month that a former chief of staff to Putin had a previously unreported investment in American Ethane.

(July 17) AP WASHINGTON – A Russian national accused of secretly conspiring against the U.S. by infiltrating political organizations, including the National Rifle Association, was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury. The charges are separate from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The indictment released Tuesday by a federal grand jury details Butina entering the U.S. in 2016 on a student visa, on which she declared she'd formerly worked for a Russian official, who isn't named in the document. More: Wisconsin Gov. She has been active with the NRA in recent years and is credited for creating a Russian version of the gun-rights organization, which officials have pointed to as a way for her to gain contacts and supporters. A March report issued by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee referred to the public reporting about Butina and Torshin, claiming that Butina "sought to facilitate meetings with Trump campaign officials and between President Putin and candidate Trump during the election." Prosecutors allege Butina would send reports, seek direction and receive orders from the Russian official during the plot, including sending a report where she guided the official on ways to start a dialogue with U.S. politicians. Butina's attorney, Robert Driscoll, denied the government's claim of her work as an agent of the Russian government. Since her home was searched by the FBI in April, Driscoll said Butina has "repeatedly" offered to cooperate with federal investigators. Contributing: Kevin Johnson