The Justice Department (DOJ) has indicted five Russian citizens and two Americans on conspiracy and other charges in what appears to be a move aimed at potentially stockpiling bargaining chips for future swap deals with Moscow.
“It is good to see that the Biden administration has begun to more aggressively prosecute Russian criminals who violate the law and ultimately undermine the security of the United States because, thus far, they have only made bad deals with the Russians,” Rebekah Koffler, president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting and a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, he told Fox News Digital.
“The problem is, with regards to the recent indictments of five Russians and two US citizens of Russian descent, the FBI and Justice Department pulled the trigger too soon, suggesting that there may be other motivations behind this.” .
The Justice Department has yet to arrest all of the people named in the indictment, saying instead that authorities have only three of the defendants in custody.
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The seven individuals are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States of its enforcement of export controls and economic sanctions, conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, smuggling and failure to comply with regulations relating to the transportation of electronics.
Brittney Griner, in red, on the asphalt while Viktor Bout, with the envelope, passes by.
(AP)
More specifically, the prime suspects are charged with money laundering on behalf of the Russian government and conspiracy to obtain military-grade and dual-use technology for use in Russia’s defense sector, as well as smuggling sniper rifle ammunition.
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Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said her department has demonstrated “once again that we will relentlessly prosecute those who support the Russian war machine by evading sanctions and export controls.”
Marc Fogel, left, Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan
(Getty Images)
But the timing of the prosecution — before the full arrest of all those charged — could indicate motivations other than getting a victory for the Justice Department, according to Koffler.
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“Perhaps, the White House is under pressure to extract Paul Whelan — the Marine the US government has deprioritized, even though he should have been swapped before Griner — and they’re looking at prisoner exchange options,” Koffler said.
Lisa Monaco, Deputy Attorney General, left, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Vanita Gupta, Associate Attorney General, during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC on November 30, 2022.
(Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The recent Griner-Bout prisoner swap was completely asymmetrical, favoring Russia,” Koffler continued. “Biden gifted Putin a dangerous criminal who conspired to kill Americans in exchange for a famous athlete, and last year the Biden administration gave up the high-profile and highly skilled cybercriminal Viktor Burkov, who defrauded American consumers and businesses to the tune of $20 million.”
The FBI argued that going after these men allowed the United States to disrupt the movement of dangerous technologies — including quantum computers and hypersonic weapons — that could aid Russia and other rogue nations in their military operations.
Instead, Koffler explained that premature arraignment will only give those four remaining defendants time to bury their heads and evade custody, and that “we’ll never get them.”
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“Instead of running an offensive counterintelligence operation against this crime network, either by turning some of these characters inside out and making them work for us as double agents, or by sabotaging the supply chain through which the Russians illegally obtain the military-grade technology they lack, we just did the usual – shame the Russians by disrupting the US/FBI operation and publicizing it,” he said.
The National Security Council referred all questions to the DOJ, which did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital by the time of publication.
