MOSCOW – Russia’s criminal prosecution authorities have expressed their appreciation for the indictments published in Washington on Monday [October 30] of the alleged U.S. criminals Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, and the admitted criminal, George Papadopoulos.
The Russians have also requested cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and special prosecutor Robert Mueller III to identify three Russian criminals who are suspected, according to the U.S. court papers, of the crimes of pretending to be a niece of President Vladimir Putin; of inventing their acquaintance with the Russian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko; and of fabricating a Foreign Ministry invitation to Donald Trump to make an official visit to Russia during run-up to the presidential election of 2016.
Sources familiar with the thinking of Yury Chaika, Russia’s prosecutor-general, acknowledge that under Russian law, pretending without obtaining money or other material gain, is more difficult to prosecute in a Russian court than in a U.S. court. “Hustling, as you call it in America,” said one of the sources, “is an immoral practice. In Russian it’s called lying, but we don’t have enough jails for Russians who do it, nor clinics for those who allow themselves to be deceived. But America is a rich country with more jails. If Mr Papadopoulos is to be imprisoned for inventing stories, we aren’t sure if his Russian accomplices will suffer the same fate under our constitution and criminal code. We request the names from the FBI which collected them, so that our police can follow up.”
Chaika has been writing frequently these days to Washington. Last week, he confirmed on national television: “I have just sent two letters to my counterpart, the new U.S. attorney general. The first letter contains a request to launch a criminal case against the Ziff brothers and Mr. Browder, while the second concerns the Magnitsky Act.” Chaika was referring to Russian government evidence of fraud and tax evasion by William Browder, a fugitive [from Russian law] currently living in the UK, who has also renounced his U.S. citizenship. Chaika was also referring to U.S. Government evidence that Ziff family entities have been engaged in foreign bribery, money laundering, tax evasion, and investments in Browder financial operations…
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