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Is a Top American Diplomat a Russian Agent?
The Interpreter Magazine ^ | 4 Nov. 2014 | John R. Schindler

Posted on 11/04/2014 6:17:33 PM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans

Is a Top American Diplomat a Russian Agent?

John R. Schindler November 4, 2014

November 3, 2014 - Today the Ukrainian news website GORDON ran an interview with the Russian businessman and sometime politician Konstantin Borovoy. A harsh critic of Vladimir Putin — he recently said Russia’s president is “mentally unstable” while a year ago he pronounced the collapse of Putin’s corrupt dictatorship to be “inevitable” — Borovoy is something of a gadfly. A parliamentarian of independent views in the Yeltsin era, he served as an intermediary between Moscow and the rebels in the First Chechen War, and was assessed as “a respected and influential Duma deputy” by one savvy Western expert, in part due to his staunch opposition to the takeover of Russia by the “special services,” especially the Federal Security Service (FSB), during the Putin years.

Hence Borovoy’s statements are not to be rejected out of hand as the ravings of a madman. In the GORDON interview, he lambasts Ukraine’s government for having faith in the West as it faces protracted war at Putin’s hands: don’t put faith in NATO and the European Union, he warns Kyiv, “because they do not want a large-scale military conflict.” Borovoy explains that he has assembled experienced cadres of experts — unnamed “military and political experts” — who, like himself, hope to assist Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as he stands up to Putin’s aggression.

One of the major obstacles, Borovoy asserts, is that Putin has secret friends in high places not just across Europe but inside NATO itself, Kremlin “agents of influence” who subvert Western defenses. In particular, he focuses on one well-placed figure — NATO’s deputy secretary general, who, he explains, previously was America’s ambassador in Moscow. Without naming him, this is unmistakably Sandy Vershbow, a career diplomat with a distinguished reputation, having served not only in Moscow from 2001 to 2005, but as the U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 1998 to 2001. Before being sent to Brussels again to serve as the Atlantic Alliance’s number-two civilian official, Vershbow was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. When it comes to Alliance matters and Russian affairs, there are few American officials more experienced than Sandy Vershbow.

Of the ambassador’s tenure in Moscow, Borovoy has this to say:

He established an unprecedented intimacy with former top officials of the KGB and the current leaders of the Russian FSB. For some time his residence in Moscow called “the club of former KGB officers.” They say that this was one reason for his leaving Russia.

To call these charges explosive may be an understatement. I have no idea if they are true or just a scurrilous rumor. This is Russia, after all, where provocation is a way of life. Is this a nasty lie or something one of those connected “military and political experts” shared with Borovoy? I am personally acquainted with a couple cases in recent years when U.S. diplomats in Russia got themselves snared in FSB nets and into trouble, so anything is possible. Borovoy is a reasonably sober character and, more importantly, a sincere Putin opponent, which would make his motivation here difficult to discern if he seeks to malign a top NATO and American official.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: diplomat; europeanunion; johnrschindler; johnschindler; kgb; nato; russia; sandyvershbow; spy; ukraine; vershbow
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1 posted on 11/04/2014 6:17:33 PM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

Is a president an Islamic mole leading our government at this very moment?


2 posted on 11/04/2014 6:18:23 PM PST by DoughtyOne (Dunam, Duncan, man what infections these folks brought over.)
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To: DoughtyOne
Read Trevour Loudon's "Obama Files." You can google for his website. Loudon was the guy who exposed Van Jones' communist ties. He has also done a significant amount of research into Obama's communist ties as well, such as through Frank Marshall Davis, Obama's self-proclaimed mentor, who has a rather thick FBI file.
3 posted on 11/04/2014 6:23:07 PM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

An intriguing story - takes one back to the Cold War.


4 posted on 11/04/2014 6:25:01 PM PST by BlackVeil ('The past is never dead. It's not even past.' William Faulkner)
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To: BlackVeil

There’s no need to go “back” to the Cold War. The Cold War came forward and met with us.


5 posted on 11/04/2014 6:31:24 PM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: DoughtyOne

My thoughts also: Appointed over there ( Russia, NATO) in 1998 (Clinton!), he resigned when the patriots came topower in 2001.

Then when Obola got power in 2009 as our first Muslim, anti-US, pro-socialist resident, he becomes our link to Russia, eh?


6 posted on 11/04/2014 6:32:26 PM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE

Right now, I almost try not to think about our exposure. It’s just too damn depressing.


7 posted on 11/04/2014 6:39:08 PM PST by DoughtyOne (Dunam, Duncan, man what infections these folks brought over.)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

Sandy Vershbow an FSB agent?:) LOL. And you quote no less but Borovoi on that. Don’t you have a confession of ‘former spy’ Litvinenko about Vershbow? It seems like all we need is an opinion from Mickey Mouse for confirmation.


8 posted on 11/04/2014 6:39:33 PM PST by wetphoenix
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE

I would put money on John Kerry, but nobody seems to want to take the bet. Even if he isn’t a spy, there is no doubt he loves (in a physical way) commies.


9 posted on 11/04/2014 6:47:16 PM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

             

10 posted on 11/04/2014 6:49:13 PM PST by tomkat (crossed fingers & dry powder)
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To: tomkat

Love that...it never gets old.


11 posted on 11/04/2014 6:50:06 PM PST by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
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To: Jane Long
Truly an American hero.

His vilification back then, and the metastasising ever since of the totalitarian cancer he battled on our behalf, have made me an implacable enemy of the left in all its treasonous guises.

12 posted on 11/04/2014 7:05:50 PM PST by tomkat (crossed fingers & dry powder)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans


13 posted on 11/04/2014 7:12:02 PM PST by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: wetphoenix
Sandy Vershbow an FSB agent?:) LOL. And you quote no less but Borovoi on that. Don’t you have a confession of ‘former spy’ Litvinenko about Vershbow? It seems like all we need is an opinion from Mickey Mouse for confirmation.

Interesting that our local Russkie propagandist (Freepers, see what flag this guy, who joined around the same time things started to flare up in Ukraine, has flying. It is well known that the Russkies have hired an army of internet trolls targeting major western websites. No reason to think FR would be exluded) is quick to raise doubt about Russia having Vershbow as an agent.

14 posted on 11/04/2014 7:20:29 PM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: wetphoenix; Greetings_Puny_Humans
It seems like all we need is an opinion from Mickey Mouse for confirmation.


15 posted on 11/04/2014 7:21:10 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE

Ambassador to Russia 2001-2005 GWBush— who said he’d looked in Putin’s eyes and “I can work with this man”. Idiotic.


16 posted on 11/04/2014 7:26:36 PM PST by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: John S Mosby

Hey, he was right.

Putin is a dictator, immoral, amoral, totally committed to Russia (and its control over the nearest countries, but not as a “Union” but as a single Russian country.)

But, unlike Obola, Rice, Clinton, and Holder and their like, he is upfront about it.


17 posted on 11/04/2014 7:34:42 PM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE

By “committed to Russia,” do you mean he is a Russian patriot? Hard to reconcile with the KGB regime in Moscow which, when it isn’t looting Russia and other countries, is killing people. One might as well say that Stalin or Lenin were “committed to Russia” when they killed between 20 to 60 million people, with the 20 only being the smallest possible number, and the least likely.


18 posted on 11/04/2014 8:13:11 PM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

Nothing new, kinda like the forties, where people on the USSR’s payroll were all over the place.


19 posted on 11/04/2014 8:14:32 PM PST by Bringbackthedraft
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Comment #20 Removed by Moderator


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