Thread by @grantstern

*** THREAD ****

This is the real reason why Russia's Taganskaya mafia calls Alexander Torshin the Godfather.

He's got a private army

Torshin used those credentials to impress the NRA and infiltrate them as part of the #TrumpRussia election attacks.

thesternfacts.com/exclusive-buti…

The Vityaz are a prestigious former brigade of the Russian Ministry of Interior, which have been reorganized into three parts, two of them private.

- A battalion of regulars in RosGvard, Putin's praetorian guard.

- A spetznaz training center
- A private security company

Alexander Torshin frequently shares photos of himself with Vityaz, calling them "his people" and he frequently appears with their Commander, Col. Sergey Lysyuk, who is a Hero of the Russian Federation and Butina spent a considerable amount of time with them too.

Keep in mind that Maria Butina's position with Alexander Torshin was "special assistant"

justice.gov/opa/press-rele…

Long before Alexander Torshin met Butina, he had another "assistant," only someone with more experience:

Colonel Sergey Lysyuk

Here's the 2007 article in Bratishka where he explains that, "You can not save [money] on spetznaz. That's what I say," after saying he's Torshin's guy

Here's a 2012 photo of Alexander Torshin meeting with his two assistants, Maria Butina and Col. Lysyuk, and another from 2013 where the old soldier is accepting an award at Butina's Right to Bear Arms All-Russia Congress meeting on Oct. 31, 2013.

Col. Lysyuk entertained another very prominent visitor between those two meetings with Maria Butina, the American actor turned Putin's envoy, Steven Seagal.

Russia went into full outreach mode in advance of invading Ukraine.

center-vityaz.com/articles/merop…

Maria Butina's All-Russian conference had an unusual amount of English language propaganda that year, and two very special American visitors, US Person 1 and former NRA president David Keene.

Why would an all-Russian group oppose @Bradybuzz?