FALL PLAY? D.C. police have said they have no reason to suspect foul play in the case of Dan Rapoport who fell to his death from a luxury apartment building in D.C. last month. Others are not so sure. Rapoport was born in Latvia and later became a U.S. citizen. Politico says he made a fortune in Moscow until running afoul of Russian officials. So, he moved back to the States a decade ago and was apparently living pretty well, eventually selling his $5.5 million house in DC to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Rapoport was also an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a supporter of Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny. DC officials think he killed himself, but don’t blame us for that being a little hard to swallow. Putin’s critics have a propensity to be propelled from open windows. Shortly after Rapoport’s death, a Russian Telegram channel was peddling a story about his dog being found nearby with a suicide note and cash attached…a detail that Rapoport’s wife says is not true. So, why are Russian media sites spreading such stories? Maybe there’s a little more here to be investigated.
DER WILKOMMEN MAT: The German publication Der Spiegel recently uncovered details of a frequent visitor to their country – someone who seems to have failed to attract much attention from their government. It seems a Russian woman named Katerina Tikhonova has made more than 20 visits to Germany in recent years accompanied by armed bodyguards. While her name may not be familiar, her father’s is: Vladimir Putin. One of the striking aspects of the story is that German government officials are said to have been unaware of the visits. One official told the magazine that he would have liked to have had a heads up. Spiegel quotes former CIA officer (and Cipher Brief expert) John Sipher noting that “the policy of the (German) government as it relates to Russia has been: 'No waves.' No one in power seemingly wanted to find out things about Russia because it might cause an unwanted confrontation. So, why should anyone scrutinize Putin's daughter?" The apparent reason that Katerina was traveling was to be with her long-time main squeeze (and possible baby-daddy) Igor Zelensky. We’ve mentioned the gent whose last name probably gives Vlad the willies, before. But we didn’t know about all the frequent flyer miles Katerina was racking up.
GEM OF A STORY: The fine folks at Bellingcat have done it again, digging up some amazing details which seem to expose Russian spying efforts against NATO – details that NATO seems to have missed. It is a long-involved story you’ll want to immerse yourself in – but here are some highlights. A woman whose passport identified her as Maria Adela Kuhfledt Rivera was living in Naples, Italy and appeared to be a successful jewelry designer. She supposedly was born in Peru. But Bellingcat demonstrates that she almost certainly was a Russian illegal who established herself as a successful member of Naples society and a frequent hobnobber with NATO officials. She was active in Naples for about a decade – and then departed suddenly after another Bellingcat investigation found that Russia’s GRU had been issuing their operatives passports with consecutive numbers…and hers was in that batch. Exactly what she was doing in Naples and why – remains unclear. But Bellingcat (working with several other publications) have once again uncovered some interesting details.
HEIRESS ERROR: What is it with these mysterious women? The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette went all ‘Bellingcat’ on us recently, uncovering the story of a woman claiming to be a European heiress going by the name of Ann de Rothschild, who sweet talked her way into Mar-a-Lago for unknown reasons. The Gazette says she was really Inna Yashchyshyn, a Russian-speaking, Ukrainian-born, 33-year-old daughter of an Illinois truck driver. It’s unclear what she wanted from Mar-a-Lago, but she reportedly managed to get close to former President Donald Trump and Senator Lindsey Graham and spent a lot of time around the upscale resort. Once again, the media seem to be ahead of government investigators. The FBI was so interested in the story that the paper apparently turned over their records and findings (including copies of two fake passports) to the Bureau. Maybe she was looking for some house cleaning work. We hear there are a lot of things just laying around down there.
SGT. SCRAM: Staff Sergeant Ryan San Juan is not the kind of Marine to blow his own horn, well maybe he is – but not in a braggadocious way. San Juan joined the Marines with the idea of playing clarinet in Marine Corps bands – which he has done. But in keeping with the longstanding spirit of “every Marine is a rifleman”, in between assignments with various bands, he also served as a member of the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group which provides physical security at U.S. diplomatic facilities worldwide. And that is how the musician went down in the record books. In June 2021, he was dispatched to Kabul, Afghanistan and ended up helping facilitate the short-fused evacuation through Hamid Karzai International Airport. After a brief stop at Quantico, SSGT San Juan got a new set of orders to the U.S. embassy in Kiev, Ukraine where, after a short stay, he was called on to help pull off yet another Embassy bug out. Marine Corp Times notes that the musician is proud of playing a role in the evacuations but finds himself the butt of a lot of jokes. If you are ever at a U.S. Embassy overseas and see a Marine report for duty carrying a clarinet – we recommend you start packing.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
BATHROOM HUMOR: There are many unpleasant things exposed following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, among them is a Russian fixation on toilets. Viewed as the spoils of war, Russian soldiers have often been seen carrying off captured toilets. But further analysis shows that the fixation goes beyond fixtures. Russian TV talking heads are darkly warning that Europeans will soon be experiencing toilet paper shortages. One of their main presenters, Olga Skabeyeva, suggested that Germans should buy Chinese-produced toilet paper with President Biden’s face on it – to “express their attitude” regarding sanctions policy. The discussion sparked a lot of chatter about the not so Charmin challenges of living in Russia where, according to the Twittersphere, the first domestic toilet paper factory was not built until 1969. Prior to that, many residents relied on newspapers – since there was also a Sears catalog shortage.
THE DON’T MAKE WARS LIKE THEY USED TO: The folks at the U.S. Naval Institute regularly mine their archives for interesting historical nuggets. Last Saturday, they had a good one. On that day - August 27th, in 1896 - Britain went to war with Zanzibar. The Royal Navy sank the only ship in Zanzibar’s fleet and the Sultan of Zanzibar who had rebelled against British rule surrendered – 38 minutes after the war began. Making the Anglo-Zanzibar War the shortest in history.
HURRY UP -BEFORE THE SMOKE CLEARS: Bombard us with news tips by sending them to TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
