Thread by @hannahgais

pro-Kremlin propagandist Charles Bausman fled to Russia after he entered the Capitol on Jan. 6

there, he's re-emerged as a political commentator. among his collaborators is a man identified as an FSB "co-optee" in a recent declassified report

my latest

splcenter.org/hatewatch/2023…

in March, Bausman launched an online-only show called "Open Microphone" with Maxim Grigoriev, the FSB "co-optee." I'm not sure what's going on with the project (it's mainly on Telegram), but Grigoriev's foundation received Russian government funding for a project by the same name

there's a lot of interviews here, but here's another highlight: Bausman joined an once-Prigozhin-tied organization — called, yes, the "FBI" — to complain about how he's stuck in Russia because he might be arrested in the United States for his role in the Capitol riot.

I reached out to the Foundation to Battle Injustice through the only contact form on their website — for "dissidents" — but didn't receive a response about how they intend to carry on operations after Prigozhin's death.

I FOIA'd Bausman's trash bill for some reason

Bausman and Grigoriev are among some of the people pushing an extraordinarily niche initiative to encourage people from NATO countries to move to Russia. "woke" culture runs rampant there, apparently.

there's more on that in Part 1: splcenter.org/hatewatch/2023…

a big shout out to a lot of people here (especially @MichaelEHayden's past reporting on Bausman), but also again a deep thanks to @NataliaAntonova for her help on translation/fact checking this.

@MichaelEHayden @NataliaAntonova I'll do a newsletter on why the US far-right loves Russia at some point, but since I started gathering string for this and pt. 1 over a year ago, I'm going to go chill for a moment thanks