The headlines about Russia, Putin and spies

• “KGB SPY Trained in the Art of Seduction.”

Valentine’s Day last week is responsible for this fluffy piece about a Russian woman purporting to have been a Russian honey-trapper— i.e. a seducer of intelligence targets for the purpose of blackmail.

In fact, the business of espionage is all about seduction. A professional intelligence officer seduces his/her targets in a nonsexual way to convince them to betray their country and provide secrets even though it might lead to their execution. Only occasionally does that extend to sexual seduction, a practice favored by Russian intelligence when offers of cash don’t do nicely.

A few decades ago, former CIA officer Miles Copeland, who I interviewed for Rolling Stone magazine in 1986, entrusted me with an unpublished manuscript he penned entitled “The Cupid Game,” a manual in the art of seducing those targeted for recruitment. Although unclassified, it is red hot.

Another master of seduction was my friend Walt Perry (many years gone, along with Miles), who originated, conceived and executed sting operations for the IRS in addition to creating a training course the Revenuers called Sting U. I have his manual too. Never published, never will be.

Both were instructive for seducing my own targets, including CIA traitor Edward Lee Howard and murderer Ira Einhorn, into believing they could get a book published and maybe become a bestselling author while my true aim was luring these international fugitives home to face the music.

And then there’s Ed Howard’s “Spy’s Guide to Central Europe” with chapters on tradecraft.

Leaves me wondering what other sub rosa manuscripts written through the ages will never see the light of day.

• “Former FBI Agent’s Side

Work Puts Bureau Under New Scrutiny.”

It is alleged that former counterintelligence chieftain

Charles McGonigal intervened to ensure Alexandra Fokin was provided an internship with the New York City Police Department at a time when she was rumored to be a Russian intelligence officer.

Alexandra’s father, Evgeny Fokin, was a Russian diplomat and most certainly a KGB officer operating under diplomatic cover when first assigned to the Soviet consulate in San Francisco during the late 1980s.

It was through Evgeny that Mr. McGonigal met sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Derispaska and, after retiring from the FBI in 2018, became a $41,990-permonth security consultant for Deripaska. Simply taking money from a sanctioned Russian was a crime. Which means at that point the Russians had Mr. McGonigal by the short-and-curlies.

Question: Does Mr. McGonigal also link to the mysterious death of a Russian consular officer?

The facts in this death:

Who: Sergei Krivov, the consular officer.

Where: The Russian Consulate in New York City.

When: Nov. 8, 2016.

How: “Blunt force trauma” to the head.

Why: Mr. Krivov was said to be a “duty commander” at the consulate with access to Signals Intelligence through a crypto key used for transmitting secret messages to Moscow.

Buzz Feed News tried at the time to investigate and met brick walls everywhere from NYPD to the Russian Foreign Ministry to the U.S. State Department.

Questions: 1) Did the FBI recruit Mr. Krivov and through him gain access to Russian SIGINT?

2) If so, was Mr. Krivov murdered because the Russians discovered he was passing secrets to the FBI?

3) Was it Mr. McGonigal who outed Mr. Krivov to Russia’s FSB?

• “The Albanian Shakedown: A New Twist in the FBI’S McGonigal Scandal.”

This piece asserts that Charles McGonigal engaged in a major shakedown, for personal profit, telling wealthy Albanians that

Juvenile stabbed on Shoreline Drive

BARBARA they would be put into jeopardy by the U.S. government if they did not pay him millions of dollars.

“The message was clear: Pay me or I’ll destroy your life.”

They apparently paid him well. Then McGonigal endeavored to extend his shakedowns into Macedonia and Montenegro.

The $65,000 (make that $65 million) question: Where is the brazhort?

• “British Intel Caught FBI Spy Chief Secretly Meeting a Russian in London.”

This would have been Britain’s domestic security service, MI5, conducting routine surveillance of a Russian national suspected of being up to no good — i.e., spying. And, lo and behold, who comes along to meet the suspect but Charlie McGonigal!

According to Business Insider, the Brits then alerted the FBI’s legal attaché at the US Embassy in London (standard procedure — and thus a can of worms was opened.

Meetings between a senior American counterintelligence official (not authorized by his bosses) and a suspect Russian are not happenstance. “There’s a long lead time,” an intel source told Business Insider. Mr. McGonigal would have known that being observed by MI5 was a risk. He was probably deploying a strategy of hiding in plain sight, arrogantly believing his seniority would overcome suspicion.

A former senior British intelligence officer provided me with his perspective: “It is very unlikely this was a meeting caught by physical surveillance. It is much more likely MI5 had a source close to (Russian oligarch Oleg) Derispaska or they picked this meeting up on a tele-tap.”

• “Fired Russian General Vladimir Makarov Dies in Apparent Suicide.”

Just another “suicide” committed by serial killer Vladimir Putin.

And another as …

• “Top Putin Official Plunges 160 Feet to Her Death From High Rise Building.”

Who: Marina Yankina, recently removed chief of the financial support department of the Defense Ministry.

Where: St. Petersburg, Russia.

When: Feb. 16.

Why: “Suicide” supposedly due to “depression” (from being fired by Putin last month).

“Death by falling from a building is the surest way of getting away with murder,” said Clair George, former CIA spymaster.

And the next to fall may be …

• “Top Russian Retired General Says Putin is Leading His Country to Defeat and Humiliation in Ukraine.”

Reports the (U.K.) Daily Mail: “Retired army colonel-general Leonid Ivashov called for the president’s resignation a year ago over a ‘criminal’ policy in ‘provoking’ an ‘artificial’ conflict, foreseeing it would trigger disaster.”

Said General Ivashov last week, “Russia is paying the price for the Putin era’s demoting of military professions, instead bringing in secret services cronies and even alcohol and furniture experts to key military positions.”

Brave soul he, obviously speaking the truth because …

• “ ‘This Isn’t Russian Roulette, it’s Like Suicide of the Lemmings’: Putin’s Marine Brigade of 5,000 Men is all but Destroyed in Brutal Battle.”

The non-lemming Russians are those who evaded conscription and fled the other direction as …

• “Russians Abandon Wartime Russia in Historic Exodus.”

Up to a million young Russians (the well-educated smart ones) have put on their running shoes and turned their backs on Russia in favor of resettling, mostly in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Turkey and Armenia.

Whether from death or desertion, Russia faces a “Lost Generation” not unlike post-World War One.

• “Chairman of Joint Chiefs Claims Putin Has Been Defeated ‘Strategically, Operationally and Tactically’ and is Now a ‘Global Pariah.’ ”

Little wonder Mad Vlad now desires to strike out at foreign leaders who banded against him, because …

WASHINGTON WHISPER

According to one of our Intel sources in D.C., President Putin desires to extend his assassination reach to “unfriendly” foreign leaders.

It is well known that his No. 1 target is Volodymyr Zelensky. But several assassination attempts over the past year have failed to eliminate the Ukrainian president.

Far less known is that Mr. Putin has also ordered the assassinations of Polish President Andrzej Duda, U.N. SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. (The first two are currently being planned and prepared; an assassination of Boris was eventually ruled out.) The demented despot apparently wants to demonstrate his reach.

Mr. Putin also wants to destabilize Moldova (in between Ukraine and Romania) and, as such, has ordered the assassination of Moldovan President Maia Sandi and replaced him with a Kremlin puppet. This comes after President Sandu revealed “The Russian plan (to annex Moldova) includes sabotage and military trained people disguised as civilians to carry out violent actions, attacks on government buildings and taking hostages.”

Indeed, the U.S. intelligence community assesses that Moldova is Mr. Putin’s next target after Ukraine.

And we are also told Mr. Putin has no Plan C if his new offensive against Ukraine fails.

Unless THIS is Plan C…

• “Russia Deploys Ships Armed With Tactical Nuclear Weapons For First Time in 30 Years.”

A Norwegian Intelligence Service report: “The key part of the nuclear potential is on the submarines and surface ships of the Northern Fleet. Tactical nuclear weapons are a particularly serious threat in several operational scenarios in which NATO countries may be involved.

“It cannot be ruled out,” the report continues, “that a localized war could escalate into a wider conflict with direct military involvement of Russia, the United States, NATO and Norway.”

Other side of the coin from an intelligence source in Washington: “This is a released leak from Russia to ramp up pressure as part of their influence operation.”

But at the Munich Security Conference this past weekend…

• “It’s the End of the World as We Know it.”

Echoes of Munich 1938 (prelude to World War II) as Vice President Kamala Harris invokes Nuremberg 2.0 and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg declares, “What is happening in Europe today could happen in Asia tomorrow” while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirms his warning with, “Let me assure the audience that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory.”

• “The Potential Horrors of What a Nuclear Winter Would Really Be Like—as Scientists Call For ‘Urgent’ Public Education.”

OK, let’s say there is a nuclear attack on the United States, and you make it to Northern California, Oregon, Idaho or Maine.

Congratulations!

But having escaped radioactive fallout you are now on the cusp of a whole new world — a very dangerous one.

Assuming that 4,000 nukes are detonated, the amount of ash and soot in the atmosphere from blast and fires will cause darkness (no sunlight) and

TRAFFIC, CRIME AND FIRE BLOTTER

A Sunday afternoon fight in Santa Barbara led to one man being stabbed and ending up in the hospital, police announced.

incident was reported to police at p.m. Sunday, when multiple witnesses called the Santa Barbara Police Combined freezing temperatures (a 10-year “nuclear winter”) that results in crop failure and lack of foodstuff leading to famines around the globe.

Communications Center to report a fight in progress occurring in the 800 block of Shoreline Drive, police said.

Multiple officers responded to the scene.

While the initial investigation was occurring, officers learned a male juvenile victim arrived at the hospital. The juvenile sustained what appears to be a stab wound to his abdomen that was reported to be non-life threatening and was being treated at Cottage Hospital.

The only countries where humanity can survive an abrupt sunlight-reducing catastrophe — such as a nuclear exchange or eruption of a super volcano or our planet being struck by an asteroid — are Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Only in these countries, concludes the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University (UK), will human civilization have the resources to reboot.

Which leads us to…

• “The Worst Places to be if Nuclear War Breaks Out Between Russia and the U.S.A.”

According to FEMA and the National Resource Defense Council, the worst places are everywhere in the United States, closely followed by everywhere in the United Kingdom.

• “Chinese Spies Co-Opted Private Investigator For Info on Dissidents.”

A Brooklyn, N.Y., court has indicted a California-based private investigator, alleging he investigated Chinese dissidents in the U.S. on behalf of the Chinese government.

Derrick Taylor, a 25-year veteran of Homeland Security, accessed sensitive data including passport and flight records from former colleagues still in government and allegedly passed this information to his client, the Chinese government.

These days, countries like China and Russia do not need to recruit spies. They simply hire local PIs to hunt down the data they desire. Works like a charm.

Mr. Taylor to U.S. government security employee: “Is there a quick way that I can check if some guy’s departed to China?”

Security employee: “He was admitted into the U.S. until 11/26/2021 with a B2 Visa.”

Mr. Taylor: “Thank you brother! Do you smoke cigars or what’s your favorite tequila?”

Talk about cost-effective. Good intel for pennies on the dollar.

Kudos To Santa Barbara Police

Police answered a call from a downtown bar about an inebriated patron intent on driving home but who got talked out of it by attentive staff before a police officer reached the scene.

Officer Kyle Crooks was professional, polite and even demonstrated kindness by summoning a taxi and assisting the patron into it — in addition to offering bandages after he noticed the patron had fallen and cut himself.

This is a side of law enforcement you never read about. But for a few bullies who sneak through hiring procedures and give police a bad name, this is the norm among our nation’s police force, though it should be stated that the goodwill shown by Officer Crooks, given the circumstances, was beyond the call of duty and deserves our admiration.

Kudos also to Jill’s Place, whose staff took appropriate action, thus ensuring the safety of Santa Barbara’s streets.

CHUCKLE OF THE WEEK

Is Montecito the new Mecca for royal rejects?

• “Prince Andrew is ‘Keeping an Eye on’ Harry, Meghan’s Life Abroad.”

Disgraced, stripped of his royal and military honors and recently bounced from palace pad, Randy Andy is said to be considering a new life and business for himself in the USA.

Ready up a room, Harry and Megs, Uncle Drew may come acalling.

Perhaps he will open a teddy bear shop on Coast Village road to share his suspected case of ursusagalmatophilia (a fetish for teddy bears). Someone should phone the writers of “South Park”!

Robert Eringer is a longtime Montecito author with vast experience in investigative journalism. He welcomes questions or comments at reringer@gmail. com.

Currently, no arrests have been made in connection with the disturbance and this is believed to be an isolated incident, police said. This case is currently under active investigation. If anyone has information pertaining to this investigation, police ask you to contact the Santa Barbara Police Department at 805-8972371.

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