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Michael Weiss Profile picture
@michaeldweiss
Oct 30 • 3 tweets • 1 min read • Read on X
Well why, you may well inquire, is the former number two in the Russian Orthodox Church at a shooting range at FSB headquarters in Moscow, firing a standard-issue Makarov pistol? Does this perhaps suggest a connection between the Russian security services and the ROC -- something Ukraine has long alleged? (Hilarion later became the number one in the ROC in Hungary, thanks to his ties to Viktor Orban, who only wants peace in Europe.)
From @panyiszabolcs's newsletter: "Then came 2024, when Hilarion became embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal: his former cell attendant, George Suzuki, accused him of unwanted sexual advances and flaunting a lavish lifestyle, backing the claims with photos and recordings. Hilarion was reprimanded and sent home — only to reappear in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, replacing a priest expelled for aiding Russian espionage from the Church of Saint Peter and Paul. More recently, Suzuki has made new allegations linking Hilarion to Semjén and to Russian oligarchs and claims of Hilarion receiving bags of cash. Suzuki also claimed that although Hilarion is still officially assigned to the Czech Republic, he actually continues to spend time in Hungary."
@panyiszabolcs These must be the "shared conservative values" between Russia and America Kirill Dmitriev and Anna Paulina Luna keep banging on about (as it were).

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More from @michaeldweiss

Michael Weiss Profile picture
Oct 28
New: I acquired the private memoir of Gen. Alexander Zorin, a senior GRU officer who was Putin's envoy to Syria and is now leading POW exchanges with Ukraine. A feature film, "Porcelain Soldier," is set to debut in Russia next month, all about Zorin's adventures -- sort of a Stierlitz meets Bourne production, which was green-lit by former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-…Image
In all, I've acquired over a thousand pages of documents: Zorin's 186-page memoir, which he titled "The Negotiator" (watch your back, Sam Jackson), some of the ancillary production material for the movie, and five iterations of the screenplay, each more cartoonish in plot and dialogue than the last. The first draft is actually rather nuanced and ends with Zorin weeping upon learning a rebel commander he persuaded to evacuate was subsequently killed by the Russian army after Zorin gave his word that would not happen. (Who says the GRU is a heartless organization?)
The memoir is a fascinating portrait of the life of a still-active Russian spy, made more fascinating because in his pursuit of self-aggrandizement Zorin inadvertently reveals things his masters in Moscow might not like. These include the sorry state of the Russian Air Force in Syria (as in Ukraine, jet pilots used store-bought Garmin GPS devices to navigate, causing near-miss mid-air collisions and much else). The shoot-first-ask-questions-never disposition of racist Russian military commanders. And the Mad Hatter illogic of Russian disinformation schemes about Syrian chemical weapons attacks.Image
Read 9 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Oct 22
Re: Trump's denial of the WSJ story, read this paragraph twice. Transferring authorization from Hegseth to Grynkewich is almost the scoop itself. Cuts Elbridge Colby out of the process, and one wonders how and why this decision was taken -- note, taken before the Ze visit to the WH -- given all Cheese's unflattering press. Trump recently called him "J.D.'s guy." (Second screenshot from prior WSJ piece on Colby pausing deep strike authorization under this review process.) wsj.com/politics/natio…Image
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Not the first time Grynkewich v. Colby has popped up. When PURL was announced, Grynkewich was the guy named running point with DoD (logical enough given he's SACEUR). This was around the time of the Colby memo diverting USAI kit meant for Ukraine back into U.S. stockpiles. cnn.com/2025/08/08/pol…Image
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Which led to articles such as this one in The Hill: Image
Read 4 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Oct 22
Suspected the timing of Storm Shadows over Bryansk wasn’t a coincidence. Image
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Story: wsj.com/politics/natio…
“The unannounced U.S. move to enable Kyiv to use the missile in Russia comes after authority for supporting such attacks was recently transferred from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon to the top U.S. general in Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who also serves as NATO commander.”
Read 4 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Sep 20
Steve Witkoff's Public Financial Disclosure form, which he filed late, is unsigned by any ethics official. It also falsely states Witkoff held no federal position before June of this year. He did not divest from relevant assets before he started his diplomatic job, as he was supposed to. And note the company at the heart of the big @nytimes investigation into his questionable business dealings with the Emiratis concerning World Liberty Financial, "a cryptocurrency start-up founded by the Witkoffs and Trumps." On page 23 of Witkoff's disclosure, World Liberty Financial is given with no value listed. nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/…Image
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Why is this document unsigned or certified by any government ethics official? Does this mean that no one has actually conducted the conflict of interest assessment and associated divestitures normally required before an official can start the job?
Why does it only cover the period from 6/30 through now? Where is the disclosure for January through the end of June?
Read 6 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Aug 24
Elbridge Colby has hindered Ukraine's ability to defend itself at least four times since he joined the Pentagon. The most recent example: wsj.com/politics/natio…Image
Earlier this month: edition.cnn.com/2025/08/08/pol…Image
Frrom July: apnews.com/article/ukrain…Image
Read 4 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Jul 26
Quite a lot of revisionism now. But Miller helped lead the CIA team and is a registered Republican. Note, too, the self-evident conclusion that it was not possible to determine the full impact of the influence operation on American voters. Intel practitioners were a lot more careful and judicious than cable news pundits in 2016-2017. nbcnews.com/politics/natio…Image
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One of the sleights of hand Gabbard, et al. are pulling is to conflate in the popular imagination the compromise of “election infrastructure” and vote altering with the hack-and-leak operation targeting the DNC, DCCC and Podesta. The latter was ratified in Mueller’s grand jury indictments of the dozen GRU officers from Units 26165/74455. The former was never alleged in any ICA, although the Senate Intel Committee investigation, overseen by Marco Rubio, noted Russian attempts to “probe” election infrastructure and some successful efforts to exfiltrate voter data from multiple states, albeit without any impact on the election outcome itself. Case in point:Image
Note ODNI's rendering of the highlighted text. Someone reading only that rendering might reasonably conclude the Russians didn't use any cyber means at all to meddle in the 2016 election -- unless that someone were provided a specific definition of what was being downplayed here. The PDB's highlighted text provides that definition: "manipulate computer-enabled election infrastructure." Literally the next sentence attests to Russia "probably" using cyber means to hack into campaign party servers -- which it did, and then leaked such data via Guccifer 2.0 and Wikileaks, with the intent of influence the American electorate.
Read 6 tweets

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