Listen, someone just wrote to me. It seems he has uncovered a serious anti-state conspiracy. This is an extremely serious matter. Very. You probably remember the debate over whether United Russia is "the party of crooks and thieves." Yevgeny Fyodorov of United Russia, illustrating his claim that Americans manipulate politicians in Russia, cited WikiLeaks. Supposedly, CIA operatives are sabotaging the national payment system through their agents of influence. You can start watching at 29:30
If you don't want to watch it, here's the transcript: FYODOROV: Do you keep expecting facts from me? Fine, I'll give you some. Again, I won't cite anyone except the American ambassador and his staff. WikiLeaks, the discussion of the law on the national payment system, just as an example: the kind of national payment system Russia has brings in $4 billion a year. Accordingly, United Russia starts raising the issue of changing this law, and the ambassador writes back to Washington (as WikiLeaks revealed) saying that he is, as it were, asking people to exert influence, listing exactly whom, point by point, so that this does not happen. That's how this struggle works. PRONKO: Wait, Yevgeny, I ask this somewhat cautiously, but still I want to ask you the following. Are the people the U.S. ambassador refers to members of the United Russia party? FYODOROV: No. PRONKO: But they are influential people? FYODOROV: Of course! PRONKO: Yet they are not members of United Russia. FYODOROV: Just read it, it's all available in translation now, please. Four billion a year! And there are loads of cases like this! PRONKO: Can you say who these influential people are? FYODOROV: Come on, read it yourself. This is just one example. PRONKO: Well, are they people from the presidential administration, the government apparatus?.. These aren't just ordinary people walking down the street, right? FYODOROV: I'm telling you again, this is about how we are manipulated. That's how the system works. Read the full text: finam.fm/archive-view/3719/ So, the person who wrote to me decided to look into it. After all, this is serious. What follows is a quote from his letter: The document in question can be found, among other places, here: The ambassador "asks people to exert influence, listing exactly whom" in the following words: 213.251.145.96/cable/2010/02/10MOSCOW228.html We recommend that senior USG officials also take advantage of meetings with their Russian counterparts, including through the Bilateral Presidential Commission, to press the GOR to change the draft text to ensure U.S. payment companies are not adversely affected. USG means United States Government. That is, "senior USG officials" would be "senior officials of the U.S. government," and "their Russian counterparts" means "their Russian colleagues." The Bilateral Presidential Commission is the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, also known as the Medvedev-Obama Commission (ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%9C%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0-%D0%9E%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BC%D1%8B). GOR means Government of Russia. So here they are, these Russian counterparts, these influential people, members of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, whom the U.S. government is supposedly manipulating: • First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration Vladislav Y. Surkov **• Minister for Emergency Situations Sergei K. Shoigu **• Minister of Education and Science Andrei A. Fursenko **• Minister of Energy Sergei I. Shmatko **• Minister of Health Tatyana A. Golikova **• Minister of Agriculture Yelena B. Skrynnik **• Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei A. Ryabkov **• Deputy Minister of Economic Development Andrei A. Slepnev **• Director of the Federal Drug Control Service Viktor P. Ivanov **• Head of Rosatom Sergei V. Kiriyenko **• Head of Roscosmos Anatoly N. Perminov **• Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail E. Shvydkoi **• Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cooperation in Combating Terrorism, Ambassador-at-Large Alexei E. Safonov **We should all thank Yevgeny Fyodorov for exposing this dangerous anti-state conspiracy and uncovering the U.S. agent network. In Yevgeny, we have a remarkably brave United Russia member, since he was the first to declare that Surkov and Shoigu dance to the tune of their American masters. I hope he has already contacted the FSB (Russia's security service) so that these wreckers and saboteurs can be arrested. P.S. The contest for a political poster on the theme "United Russia — the party of crooks and thieves" is taking place here.
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