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Tommy_Carcetti

(43,085 posts)
Wed May 2, 2018, 12:20 PM May 2018

PART FOUR: Assessing Russian propogandist Konstantin Rykov's pro-Trump "confession"

**PART ONE can be found here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210416264

**PART TWO can be found here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210416302

**PART THREE can be found here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210430029

“Trump will smash America as we know it, we’ve got nothing to lose."--Konstantin Rykov, as reported in The Economist, September 8, 2016.

https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21706541-kremlin-prefers-trump-victory-its-feelings-are-mixed-brazen-meddling



The dubious-minded question asked by the Washington Post's Avi Selk--regarding Seth Abramson having brought Konstantin Rykov's purported Facebook confession to light--is a fair one: "Would those involved in a Kremlin-orchestrated plot to put Trump in the White House really spill the beans unprompted on Facebook?"

A fair answer might be that people with only a casual familiarity with Rykov have a flawed understanding of who he is and what type of mindset consumes him. By all appearances, Rykov seems to be a denizen of the dark web, running brothels and orchestrating subversive influence campaigns over social media. In the West, such individuals are counter-cultural and steadfastly do all that they can to shield their privacy, deeds and their very identities from open scrutiny and legal liability.

Rykov, however, is not operating out of the West. Rykov is operating out of Russia for the express purposes of furthering Russian interests.

In sum, Rykov's mindset is more of Al Qaeda than it is Anonymous.

In the end, Rykov is a Russian Ultra-Nationalist, no more and no less. Looking over his social media postings, he professes a steadfast loyalty and enthusiasm towards the Russian state, both pre- and post-Soviet. The fact that his personal hero is Yuri Gagarin should not be ignored; Gagarin's historic first spaceflight--beating the Americans to the punch--arguably represented the pinnacle of scientific achievement during the Soviet years and was a huge matter of civic pride. And Rykov has been known to exhibit legitimate displays of Russian patriotic fervor; when the Russian ambassador to Turkey was gunned down in December 2016, he angrily proclaimed about those involved in the plot, "You are fucking dead!"

And when protests against Vladimir Putin erupted in Moscow in 2011 (which were openly praised by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), Rykov declared, "I've counted my cartridges. I have three clips. I'll take 30 or so liberals with me. I want to die for Russia tomorrow."

Konstantin Rykov is by nature an extremist, and while in the years following September 11th Americans have been trained to think of extremists as being stodgy, uptight religious fundamentalists , there is nothing that prohibits extremists of displaying the more casual, tech savvy "anything goes" attitude that young Silicon Valley tech gurus or internet hackers might display.

But most importantly, not only is Rykov an extremist, he is a state-sponsored extremist. He is a ally--and arguably a direct agent--of the Kremlin who is doing the express bidding of the Russian government. Accordingly, so long as he stays within his Russian safe space, he can act with full impunity and without any type of repercussions whatsoever. Given the kleptocracy that surrounds Russia, Putin's government is not going to suddenly crack down on the people who act to advance its interests.

So when one views Rykov as an extremist, one should consider that most extremist organizations thrive not on keeping their deeds secret, but boasting of their actions in furtherance of their agenda (e.g. ISIS claiming responsibility for a terrorist act).

One illustration of Rykov's zeal to punish perceived traitors to the Russian regime would be how in December 2015 he bragged over Facebook of having infiltrated the offices of the Echo of Moscow, a private media venture that has been critical of the Kremlin at times. Rykov claimed that people working on his behalf had gained access to emails and electronics of Echo staff and as a result numerous persons employed there would be subjected to further prosecution. While such violative actions in the United States might be considered unfathomable, in Vladimir Putin's Russia Rykov was given free rein to do his tricks.

The bottom line is that Konstantin Rykov has no incentive to conceal or hide his activities, and every incentive to brag about them in furtherance of his mission.

But what strikes one most about Konstantin Rykov is the paradox that surrounds him. Here we have someone who is not afraid to openly boast about his exploits for Mother Russia in full detail, but someone who keeps his own personal life a close, guarded secret. On his social media pages, you'll not find any pictures of his children, romantic partners, parents, or virtually any other significant individuals in his personal life apart from his work partners. One can find only tiny breadcrumbs of details of Rykov's personal life on the internet.

So who is Konstantin Rykov?



According to his Wikipedia page, he was born May 27, 1979. Naturally, this means he grew in the socially turbulent times where the Soviet Union collapsed and was replaced by the Russian Federation, and on Facebook he spoke fondly of his days as a member of the Soviet youth Pioneer program.

It's not clear who Rykov's parents were. Interestingly enough, there was an Oleg Rykov who worked for the KGB in the 1980s developing computer systems for the Soviet government and later butted heads with Mikhail Lesin (a Russian government official who died in the US in 2015 under suspicious circumstances). However, with Rykov presumably being a fairly common surname in Russia, it's impossible at this point to see if Konstantin is of any relation to Oleg.

Rykov claimed on Facebook his first job was at the age of 10, where he sold candy and cigarettes to people on the streets of Moscow. As the Daily Dot profile on Rykov's Dosug online prostitute service mentioned, Rykov visited the United States around 1995 and by 1998 he was already making a name for himself as being a key figure of the development of the internet community in Russia.

Based on his Facebook posts from 2012, Rykov has/had either a wife or romantic partner named Maria ("Masha" ), although it's unlikely that it's the same Maria as Maria Katasonova, his far younger partner-in-crime in social media activities in recent years. He has at least two children, a daughter named Katya and a son who was born in November 2012. He also has referenced having a younger brother in his social media posts.

One surprising fact about Rykov is that he claims to have authored a children's book titled The Invisible World. Related artwork on Rykov's Facebook page reveals the protagonist of the book to be a young girl with colorfully braided hair. Rykov also professes to be a fan of numerous western-produced television shows such as House of Cards and Game of Thrones.

But as humanizing as this all might seem for Konstantin Rykov, one cannot put aside his inherent extremist nature and unsavory aspects of his business. There is no better example of this than the volatile nature of his relationship with a former associate by the name of Anton Nossik.

***

On the surface, Anton Nossik was the exact opposite of everything Konstantin Rykov was. He was an observant Jew who spoke fluent English and fashioned himself as an intellectual and a liberal. He hardly seemed like someone who would pair up with a fervent Russian ultra-nationalist, but from the time they started working together in 1998 all the way through the following decade, the two were as thick as thieves.

Together, Rykov and Nossik helped develop the network of Russian bloggers who would weigh in on Russian news and policy. Nossik's personal blog on the Livejournal blogging website would soon become one of the most popular in Russia. He would become known as the "Godfather of the Russian internet."

As the 2007 Washington Post article on Rykov points out, Nossik helped arranged for funding of Rykov's projects via Putin's domestic policy advisor Vladislav Surkov.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/27/AR2007102701384_2.html

And both Nossik and Rykov were in attendance at the Kremlin for then President Dmitri Medvedev's 2011 forum of "Internet Community Representatives."

However, Nossik and Rykov's friendship suffered a rather dramatic schism by the time 2012 came around. According to a March 2012 article in Open Democracy magazine, in January 2012 Nossik accused Rykov of orchestrating a hack on the Livejournal wesbite and accused him of being used by the Kremlin in attacking Russian bloggers.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/node/65058/author/gerard-toal

Nossik subsequently became more and more openly critical of the Kremlin, alleging they were increasingly involved in a crackdown of internet speech and oppression. He came to the defense of the band Pussy Riot, who were imprisoned for their vocal protests against the Putin regime.

The Kremlin appeared to have taken note of Nossik's advocacy. In October 2015, Nossik authored a blog entry regarding Russian military actions in Syria which essentially advocated a scorched-earth strategy for the Russians, lives of civilians be damned. While undoubtedly a harsh position to take, it was still pretty much in line with the reality of what Russia was doing in Syria. Yet, it was supposedly that post by Nossik--and not the dozens of posts before taking the Kremlin to task for clamping down on online speech--that caused Nossik to be arrested for "extremism."

Nossik was convicted and in October 2016 was scheduled to be sentenced for his offenses. He faced a likely prison sentence of two years. But on October 2, 2016, something extraordinary happened. Nossik's old friend turned bitter rival Konstantin Rykov weighed in on Facebook.

Rykov visciously attacked Nossik as a "professional scoundrel and slanderer, " "Judas," an "envious and vile hypocrite" and said that he had "personally deceived me and betrayed me" numerous occasions in the past.



And then, amazingly enough, Rykov advocates that Nossik not be imprisoned, claiming Nossik "would have nothing to do" in prison. Such a sentiment echoed in the court; the judge in Nossik's case ultimately chose to fine Nossik for his offenses without any prison time.

While that might have been the end of the Nossik-Rykov saga, it wasn't. Soon after the US elections, it appeared there was a reconciliation of sorts between Rykov and his old friend. Rykov claimed he and Nossik had agreed to work on a "joint television project". And on May 8, 2017, Nossik showed up at a party hosted by Rykov and Maria Katasonova celebrating French candidate Marine La Pen as she faced off against Emmanuel Macron in that country's presidential elections.



Two months later, on July 9, 2017, Anton Nossik suddenly died while staying in a vacation house outside of Moscow with unspecified "friends." The stated cause of death for the 51 year old--who on all outward appearances looked to have been in good health--was a heart attack.

To be fair, sometimes a heart attack is just a heart attack. There has never been any sort of formal accusations of foul play in Nossik's death. But in a country where far too many government critics have turned up dead under suspicious circumstances, Nossik's unexpected death has raised more than a couple of eyebrows. And Rykov's bizarre behavior towards Nossik--brutally excoriating him and yet asking for leniency on his sentence, and then making sudden, unexplained overtures towards reconciliation--also makes one wonder how genuine and legitimate the level of Rykov's "forgiveness" towards his Putin-critic colleague really was.

**PART FIVE (CONCLUSION) can be found here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210567386
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PART FOUR: Assessing Russian propogandist Konstantin Rykov's pro-Trump "confession" (Original Post) Tommy_Carcetti May 2018 OP
Shameless kick. nt Tommy_Carcetti May 2018 #1
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