Is Mueller Actually Looking Into Russian Oligarch Deripaska?

On April 2, Mueller filed a response to Manafort’s motion to dismiss the indictment against him. Contained within the response is the single mention of one name:

“[Manafort was] an individual with long ties to a Russia-backed Ukrainian politician. … Open-source reporting also has described business arrangements between Manafort and ‘a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin.’”

On Nov. 4, an article appeared in The New York Times regarding Deripaska that almost seemed as if Deripaska had written it himself. Within the article are not-so-subtle hints as to what Deripaska is willing to negotiate:

This wouldn’t be the first time that Deripaska has used the media as an avenue of defense. The detailed article by The Hill’s Solomon describing Deripaska’s involvement with the FBI in the search for retired FBI agent Robert Levinson provides a good example. The title of that article, “Mueller May Have a Conflict—and It Leads Directly to a Russian Oligarch,” provides a less-than-subtle hint. The article cites a number of individuals who’ve questioned Deripaska’s involvement

Deripaska’s ongoing involvement throughout this lengthy sequence of events provides ample justification for his concern over the direction of Mueller’s investigation. It may be that some roads do lead back to Russia. But it seems that Deripaska, not Trump, provides the primary path.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/is-mueller-probe-of-manafort-actually-looking-into-russian-oligarch-deripaska_2720188.html

>>3989637

>>3989792

I think it's more likely he was a Saudi operative, with non-official cover, who was cut loose after MbS took over.

Russia's Fading Siloviki

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia looked more like the American Wild West

than a once-global Eurasian power. There were few clear rules and ample opportunities for financial

and political gain — legal and otherwise — as well as a number of shrewd, larger-than-life personalities

who could take advantage of those opportunities. Before Vladimir Putin took control of the government

in 1999, an array of factions fought for control of the country’s wealth, industries and politics, principal

among them the siloviki, “The Family” and the oligarchs

Siloviki is a term used in Russia for men of power. The faction consists of former KGB and security

service personnel, most of whom are Russian nationalists who want to see the country return to its

former glory. In the 1990s, the siloviki typically controlled the Foreign and Interior ministries and the

KGB’s successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB). Then-President Boris Yeltsin feared the group

would overthrow him and, in a preemptive move, restructured the siloviki’s engines — the FSB,

military and other security institutions — thus keeping them out of real power until 1999.

The siloviki are the only faction cohesive enough to influence Putin and powerful enough, with the military behind them, to control the population. The oligarchs are fiercely distrusted by the people and have historically valued their self-interests above national interests. The reformers' ideology was shattered during the disastrous shock therapy of the early 1990s. Fradkov and Fridman's group has submitted to Putin's authority in order to keep some power in Russia. The siloviki are the only ones who have not allowed economics or politics to get in the way of their defining ideology and course for Russia. But with the siloviki's presence fading, the only powerful figure left for people to look to is Putin himself. Do not think Putin or his successor will manage to smother the siloviki altogether, however. Though powerful groups in Russia come and go, the one that still lingers is the siloviki. They have never been truly purged, and neither has their uniting idea of nationalism, their threats of military force or their intimidating intelligence methods.

https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/russias-fading-siloviki