This is one of those rare cases where there's stuff related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (and American fifth columns helping it) that's actually deeply IN my wheelhouse, so @briankarem here's some more info for you. A thread: 1/x
So, Hanick is somewhat familiar, in that he was one of the people responsible for Fox News becoming a thing, and used to be a producer for Hannity's show. And then he left, to join up...with one Konstantin Malofeev 2/x
salon.com/2018/04/19/a-f…
What he did with Malofeev was start essentially a Russian Orthodox-nationalist version of Christian Nationalist "news with views" networks (a bit less Fox, quite a bit more in the vein of OANN or even American Family Radio) And Malofeev is...a *very* familiar name 3/x
So a lot of us in the "counter-Christian-Nationalist" community have followed a certain group for about a decade called the World Congress of Families that's been a real nexus between Christian Nationalists in the US (and Europe) and Putin's regime: https://t.co/vee418zoY7 4/x
rightwingwatch.org/organizations/…
And, wouldn't you know it, Malofeev has been INTIMATELY involved in turning Christian Nationalists from a mere Fifth Column...to a Fifth Column for Putin: https://t.co/UaiWyh3gsO https://t.co/mR25D3PQwq https://t.co/Hg5x0JjViM 5/x
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
newsweek.com/how-evangelica…
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018…
Malofeev is one of the major funders of WCF, and forged a lot of links between Christian Nationalists in the US, Russia's government (and the Russian Orthodox church), and racist-right groups in Europe before he got hit with Magnitsky Act sanctions https://t.co/hBteTSet4T 6/x
twocare.org/the-american-r…
Malofeev himself is a piece of work. In addition to being besties with Putin, he's...apparently an actual Russian monarchist (who wants to re-establish the tsar as an absolute monarch): https://t.co/xFpvSUtjII And he's VERY involved in the Ukraine mess. 7/x
slate.com/news-and-polit…
In fact, Malofeev not only bankrolled the initial invasion of the Donbas in Ukraine, but also had one of the employees of his firm as a general, and he even explicitly encouraged generals to strike: https://t.co/UmrWq6Pxa8 8/x
jamestown.org/program/hot-is…
And as I've written before, there's...some actual religious nationalism going on with the Ukranian invasion, including an actual schism in the Greek Orthodox Church over Russian nationalism and Russian Orthodox groups wanting to be the "Third Rome" 9/x
And yes, this ties into actual neofascism too in Russia, specifically Aleksandr Dugin (whom I've written about). Turns out Malofeev has close connections with Dugin too: https://t.co/bH7N8GHmiA AND Hanick has connections with Manafort, and Malofeev w/ racist right in US 10/x
Also apparent links with an actual participant in the Great Sedition on 6 January 2021: https://t.co/aFqNLaNbX2 11/x
And Dugin linkage to Malofeev is important, because pretty much...again, actual religio-fascism (in the style of the Romanian Iron Guard) is involved, and Putin seems to be using Dugin's playbook to a *T* https://t.co/oE4JtfKZtP 12/x
And, well, I'm not the only one who noticed (even as far back as a month ago) that...an awful lot of the people who have had Putin's ears seem to be...of a distinctly religio-fascist bent https://t.co/8bxyb2DI4J 13/x
And here's some other folks' writings on Hanick's relationship with Malofeev and his setup of essentially a Christian Nationalist TV channel in Russia: https://t.co/ravtkXoeX0 14/x
One thing that hasn't yet been brought up in press on Hanick's arrest is he also set up an actual Christian Nationalist lobbying group in Russia on pretty much an identical mold of the likes of Family Research Council, only with more tsars: https://t.co/MACMOyWAlN 15/x
Oh, and yeah, they were also literally planning a genocide of LGBTQIA people with far-right sorts all over Europe in 2014 (yes, the sort of ghost-writing that led to both Russia's anti-LGBTQIA legislation and Uganda's "kill the gays" bill): https://t.co/hxCBrS7Ew0 16/x
There is also at least circumstantial evidence that the Christian Nationalist network (via Hanick) may have well had connections with Trump in that almost identical language was used by Trump and the TV channel https://t.co/s7EfNbbCP9 17/x
And @ScottMStedman did a bang-up history of Hanick and Malofeev's little venture in Russia: https://t.co/t85ORax5CU 18/x
Back to Malofeev. He's attended conferences as well with far-right legislators in Europe trying to essentially create a far-right coalition of little Quislings throughout Europe while Russia took "a piece of Crimea, a piece of the Donbas": https://t.co/ixxrx0KXOs 19/x
ft.com/content/844815…
And again...deeply connected to Christian Nationalists here in the US and their interminable efforts to create a Gay-Free State: https://t.co/GuEvg1AAQ3 20/x
It gets especially interesting with Hanick, who...apparently even made the mistake of *lying* to the FBI on whether he was violating Magnitsky Act sanctions (Note: The Fine Business-Suited Individuals HATE it when you lie to them) https://t.co/1Mu4kZ2YBQ 21/x
And even Mother Jones was sounding the specific alarm regarding Malofeev and connections to WCF as early as 2014, even giving a convenient chart of players...and yes, Jack Hanick's on it too https://t.co/Dk0aHxlTOm 22/x
motherjones.com/politics/2014/…
so tl;dr yes this all actually plays in surprisingly how Christian Nationalists have been turned into Putin's Fifth Column here in the US, and I would STRONGLY recommend @SDNYnews @DOJCrimDiv to start looking *SERIOUSLY* into "religious right" linkages to Russia 23/end
