Russia in relation to the United States is practicing the strategy of a mouse trying to gnaw through the building from the inside. Recently, more and more new information has appeared about how Russia, with the help of its proteges, infiltrates the FBI, CIA and Congress..

This month's most sensational news was the arrest of former high-ranking FBI official Charles McGonigal, 54.. He is accused of links with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to Putin.. According to the indictment, McGonigal took money from Deripaska to launder them and to investigate the oligarch's competitors.. Deripaska is under sanctions, and McGonigal's activities were a direct violation of them.

When McGonigal served in the FBI, it was he who was assigned to investigate the activities of Russian oligarchs and the case of Deripaska, who is trying to find loopholes for violating sanctions.. (Note that Deripaska was an associate of politician Paul Manafort, who in 2016 led the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. In 2018, Manafort was convicted of a number of crimes related to his relationship with Russia.. Trump pardoned him.

According to the indictment, McGonigal, as a consultant, tried to help remove Deripaska's name from the sanctions list.. Apparently, McGonigal's activities were more broadly meant to undermine the effect of economic sanctions imposed on wealthy Russians after Russia's invasion of Ukraine..

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McGonigal worked for the FBI and CIA for 22 years and rose to one of the most important positions in US counterintelligence.. As her high-ranking employee, he had access to a lot of classified information.. For example, received sanctions lists long before the sanctions came into force. McGonigal had extensive knowledge of investigations into foreign spies and US citizens suspected of working for foreign governments.. He was involved in the most resonant cases: for example, in 2010 he led the investigation of WikiLeaks. While working for the CIA, McGonigal served as an expert on Russian intelligence activities targeting the United States and on US work in recruiting Russian spies..

McGonigal was obviously a treasure trove of classified information, and it's easy to imagine the horror of his colleagues in the FBI and CIA when they realized who they were dealing with and how much information could have leaked and probably leaked to the enemy's camp..

Apparently, McGonigal is not an ideological ally of Putin - he was led by ordinary greed, which led him to cooperate for money with Albania, and, possibly, with China.

To date, McGonigal has not been charged with espionage, but the amount of information in his possession could not but be of interest to foreign countries with which he secretly cooperated.. This story, no doubt, casts a shadow on such respected American institutions as the FBI and CIA..

Another sad story of this month is connected with the Russian contacts of the new congressman from the state of New York (Long Island and Queens counties) George Santos, who wrote absolutely all aspects of his biography and kept silent about his fortune and dark connections..

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During his campaign, Santos claimed that after graduating from college in New York, he became "

As it turned out after his election victory, the congressman did not graduate from any university, did not work in prestigious financial companies, did not inherit real estate, and did not save cats or dogs.. The details of his personal life also turned out to be fake..

He turned out to be not Jewish, his relatives did not escape the Holocaust, his mother was not in one of the Twin Towers during the infamous September 11 attacks, but was at that time in Brazil. Even his sexual orientation (he introduced himself as gay) was not entirely reliable.

The image played by Santos was not accidental - he was ideally suited to the voters of the suburbs of New York. While the education and work experience allegedly gained by Santos should have represented a conservative approach in matters such as taxation or crime control, his personal experience indicated support for many liberal values \u200b\u200bthat are more acceptable in the New York suburbs than the standard views..

But all this, as it turned out, was a hoax from beginning to end.. Moreover, the government departments that began investigating the unexpected appearance of large funds from Santos (previously without money even for rent), discovered his connections with a certain Andrew Intrater, a businessman who maintains close business relations with his cousin, Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who is under. Intrater contributed a significant amount to the Santos campaign, but this does not explain all the funds Santos has.

Not surprisingly, even before getting into Congress, Santos was already repeating Russian propaganda: “Listen, if Ukrainians really hated Russia so much, then the eastern part of Ukraine would not welcome Russians in their territories. They feel more Russian than Ukrainian,” he said in an interview with the Washington Post.. This statement was clearly ignored by the voters of Santos, or it did not embarrass them..

In Congress, Santos, despite campaign promises of moderation, immediately sided with the right-wing conservatives, whom Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney dubbed "

It is very likely that investigations into Santos' finances will show that he not only deceived voters by pretending not to be who he really is, but also violated laws regarding political campaign finance. If found to be violating funding laws, he will be expelled from Congress and sent to prison..

The situation is more complicated with the “Putin wing”, consisting of about two dozen congressmen who vote on Ukraine issues in the way Putin would like.. Their motivation is still unclear..

Russian penetration of key US institutions is very alarming, but there is also a positive element to the stories of Santos and McGonigal.. The examples of Santos and McGonigal should be a wake-up call for voters who do not pay attention to the attitude of officials towards Russia.

From these stories it is clear that the Russian Federation, which the far-right Americans have been ready to look at with approval in recent years, continues to be an enemy of America, doing everything possible to undermine the work of the institutions of democracy and security of the United States - the Congress, the CIA and the FBI..

In addition, both of these stories indicate that everything secret in the United States sooner or later becomes clear, and the American state machine, although it fails, is not as badly broken as Russia would like..

Read more articles by Anna Brodsky-Krotkina at the link.