More Details on Sham Election Observers

The personalities who turned out to validate Russia's election in Ukraine all fit a similar pattern

I know we just had VESPERS, but guess what? We’re doing it again next week WITH A SPECIAL GUEST.

Join us Thursday, October 5, at noon Eastern (6pm Europe) for a chat with Mike Rothschild, author of JEWISH SPACE LASERS (a look into conspiracy theories about the Rothschilds) and THE STORM IS UPON US (about QAnon). We’ll chat about how conspiracy theories get started, how they become entrenched, and what we should do to tackle them. Pew pew! (That’s what I imagine Jewish space lasers sound like.) Reminder: VESPERS is for paid subscribers only.

Another bonus for paid subscribers: Also next week, I’ll be posting a deep dive into a new FBI whistleblower complaint that provides great details about how Russian intelligence works and how it relates to House Republicans attempts to impeach President Biden.

Don’t miss out!

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ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT

Last week, we took a close look at George Preston Kline IV and his role as both an election observer in Russia’s illegal election in occupied Ukraine and as a lawyer trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the United States. If anyone in Nashville needs a lawyer, please don’t call him.

This week, we’re going to look at two other Americans who served as election observers in those same illegal elections in Ukraine.

Steve Gill has confirmed that he went to eastern Ukraine to observe Russia’s election there. Like Preston Kline, Gill is from Tennessee. (Taylor Swift: DO SOMETHING!) He is a vocal Trump supporter and right-wing radio host and is a regular commentator on RT, a Russian state-run propaganda channel.

The Tennessee Holler asked Gill about his participation in an election that every country with any amount of rule of law has called illegal. You can read his full response here, but I’m going to highlight a few of his main points.

• Gill criticized the US government’s calling it a “sham election,” claiming the US government has no evidence to draw that conclusion. He added that CNN, the New York Times, and other media outlets were not there to report on the elections, so who can really say they were a sham? This is wild logic. In fact, there’s no logic to it at all. No media outlets went to observe the elections because the elections were illegal, and if media outlets covered them, that would lend them the air of being legitimate, which they are not. It’s like if CNN went to cover a bank robbery and reported, “There seems to be a run on the bank today, many people eager to take out their money.”

• Gill said he was 25 kilometers from the front lines and that there was no massive military presence there or “any evidence of that area of Ukraine being ‘occupied.’” Yeah, no evidence of it being occupied except for all the Russians holding an election there! Also, Gill himself refers to that area as Ukraine. Furthermore, to get there, he had to enter Ukraine with Russian help. Why? Because it’s occupied, you moron!

• Gill also said the election was very transparent and that it would have been very hard to cheat. Indeed, he said he brainstormed about ways to cheat and just couldn’t come up with any good ideas.

Let me recall here a fun story about how, in Russia’s 2011 parliamentary election, results totaled more than 100 percent. Here’s how it went down: the Kremlin sent “news” channel Rossiya-24 instructions about what percentage to show for United Russia, Vladimir Putin’s party. The editor at Rossiya-24 diligently wrote down the percentage, then asked what numbers to list for the other parties. The Kremlin rep said to leave them as is. The editor did. And voila! Just like that, they had election results of 146 percent.

Why count 100 percent of the votes when you can count 146 percent of the votes?

The third American (along with Preston Kline and Gill) to serve as an election observer was Wyatt Reed, who writes for Sputnik (another Russian state-run propaganda outlet) and The Grayzone, a far-left media outlet that regularly supports authoritarian governments, including those of Russia, China, and Syria. And just in case you’re not sure who is pulling the strings at Grayzone, its founder—Max Blumenthal—and one of its writers—Aaron Maté—served as briefers on behalf of Russia at a United Nations meeting.

As for Gill, he has consistently pushed the “Ukraine is full of Nazis” lie, along with every other piece of Kremlin propaganda.

He has done interviews with, among others:

• Tara Reade, who accused Joe Biden of raping her then defected to Russia, where she was greeted by convicted Russian spy Mariia Butina.

• The Donbas Devushka, aka Sarah Bils, a former US Navy non-commissioned officer who is under investigation for posting leaked classified Pentagon documents online and who runs a number of pro-Kremlin social media accounts. For more on the Donbas Devushka, see this Rant!

Well, that's not good.

I’ve lost count of how many pro-Russia personalities we’ve covered in my Rants and my Foreign Influence Operations course. We know these media ecosystems are manipulated and financed by Russia and its intelligence services. And I haven’t even gotten into the list of “election observers” from Europe. I’ll just touch on a few of those personalities.

The two Spaniards who are listed, Enrique Refoyo and Fernando Moragón, are both far-right media personalities who promote pro-Russia, anti-Europe policies. Andre Chanclu, a French citizen on the list, is president of Collectif France-Russia and co-founder of the France-Donbass Committee. These organizations have no internet presence except facebook pages. As I have covered in my course, such organizations often serve as cover for Russian intelligence operations. See here and here for examples.

CLASS 7: CASE STUDIES OF RUSSIAN INFLUENCE OPERATIONS

CLASS 8: A LITTLE PENNE ALLA VODKA

Then there’s Giorgio Deschi, listed as an observer from Italy, who was head of an organization called the Free State of Trieste, which aimed to have Trieste secede from Italy and be independent. That’s another constant theme of Russia’s information warfare: a push to break up Europe.

I kind of feel like I’m beating a dead horse at this point. You get it. Everyone who served as an election observer is a stooge for Russian intelligence. Witting or unwitting? I’ll let you decide.

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THE WEEK’S LINKS

A roundup of stories you should be reading

UNITED STATES

The Ongoing National Security Threats Posed by Senator Bob Menendez (Just Security)

Tucker Carlson: The American Face of Authoritarian Propaganda (The Atlantic)

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Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?

Look at that beautiful smile! I look pretty happy, too.