Interrogations and searches: the FBI is investigating the activities of the Russian diaspora in the United States

Is the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots of the USA just a cultural group? Or something more? The American branch of an important Russian diaspora organization is under investigation by the FBI, according to five sources. Sources said The Daily Beastthat the investigation included the interrogation of dozens of people, as well as searches of their homes and offices.

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The group studied, the Coordinating Council of Compatriot Russian Organizations in the United States (COORC), is part of a network of organizations committed to advancing the interests of Russian speakers around the world. Some experts say the network could be used as a limited source of soft power to advance Kremlin interests.

“Diaspora networks like these serve to strengthen ties between diasporas and homelands—that’s their primary function,” said George Washington University professor Marlene Laruelle. “And to a lesser extent [they] create citizen groups that can promote some of the Russian narratives, adapted to each local context, but this function does not work well.”

The full scope or focus of the study remains unclear. But one source claimed that the investigation included "many visits and many questions to community members across the country." According to two people interviewed by the FBI in 2020, these questions suggested an interest in how KSORS manages its funds.

“The agents were polite, friendly,” one Russian interviewed by the FBI told The Daily Beast. — A lot of people were interviewed. I don't know the exact number, but it's a lot. From different states."

Another FBI interviewee told a similar story: “Yes! People from the FBI came to me. But it wasn't very serious. We didn't get a translator and we used Google. It was funny. The questions were formal, they were not interested in anything except the financial side of KSORS. But I had very little contact with KSORS and knew nothing. Received no money. And I don't believe there was a lot of money there. "

Critics among the Russian-speaking diaspora in the US argue that the KSORS became increasingly hostile amid escalating tensions during the Russian occupation of Crimea.

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Former KSORS chairman Igor Baboshkin told The Daily Beast that after a unanimous re-election, he was unceremoniously removed from his post after refusing to sign a statement in support of the Russian occupation of Crimea.

“In 2014, when I left this organization, the Russian embassy took over and accepted other people who agreed to support Russia as a fifth column,” Baboshkin noted, using the term for a subversive, underground foreign network. “They organized a Fifth Column of people who were ready to work with the Russian embassy.”

These Coordinating Councils channel resources towards cultural initiatives that champion Russian history and understanding among peoples, but there may be a fine line between light-hearted cultural celebrations and advancing the political agenda, Jamestown Foundation analyst explained and ForumDaily journalist Ksenia Kirillova.

“The most difficult thing here is to distinguish where the “innocent” events dedicated to the popularization of Russian literature, language, honoring dates from the common history of peoples, and so on, end and destructive “information operations” begin,” Ksenia noted.

Of particular concern to some in the Russian-speaking community was the emergence of camps throughout the United States dedicated to the military aspects of Soviet history. Footage from one camp in 2017, organized by current member of the KSORS, Igor Kochan, shows men dressed in Soviet military-style clothes lining up for a gun salute with officers in blue NKVD-style caps. The camp was created to pay tribute to the "Immortal Regiment" in memory of those who died fighting the Nazis in World War II. Footage from another camp near Sacramento shows children marching and being trained to use firearms.

Anton Konev, a member of KSORS, who spoke to The Daily Beast on the phone, said that it was about "the reconstruction of the civil war and the reconstruction of the Second World War." According to him, Soviet themes are "part of history" and not ideological commitments. Konev also challenged Baboshkin's allegations, insisting that the latter was removed from office as a result of the elections, and not the actions of the embassy.

In 2018, the FBI sent investigators to Seattle to question activists organizing Immortal Regiment events about the financial accounts and transactions associated with the movement and the groups involved. (One source, for example, recalled specific discussions with the FBI “about KSORS and the Immortal Regiment.”)

Antonov denied any FBI investigation into KSORS, calling such allegations "yellow journalism."

The central figure in the 2018 investigation, current KSORS member Sergei Gladysh, told The Daily Beast: “I can say that the FBI has regularly visited people in the Russian-American community for many years ... even long before 2018. However, I have not heard anyone being detained or accused of any wrongdoing. "

Gladysh confirmed that he is now in Russia on business. Another KSORS member, Anna Vernaya, said that she is also in Russia, but will return to the US later this year. Konev told The Daily Beast that the current chairmen of KSORS Elena Branson and Igor Kochan are also in Russia and are engaged in family affairs.

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Elena Branson is listed by KSORS as the president of New York's Russian Center, headquartered in a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment on Central Park West that sold for just under a million dollars at the end of March. Branson, Kochan and other members of the 10-member KSORS board either did not respond to email inquiries or declined to comment.

On May 25, political analyst Sergei Markov, associated with the Kremlin, posted a photo of himself at a table with a sign bearing the name "Igor Kochan." Markov's post in Russian says: "More and more people who have previously left abroad are returning to Russia," citing as reasons "the economy, a pandemic, the destruction of the European way of life there" and "a new type of political repression."

The FBI declined to comment, "It is normal policy not to confirm or deny an investigation."

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