Bigwigs, Bucks & Biolabs: US Establishment Has a Lot of Skeletons in Ukraine's Closet, Analyst Says

President Joe Biden still expects the US Senate's "okay" for the House-passed $40 billion military aid package for Ukraine, after Republican Senator Rand Paul blocked the bill on 12 May. The question is, however, what exactly the US establishment is protecting in Ukraine, notes Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel.

While Joe Biden is insisting that his major objectives are to exhaust Russia, protect Ukraine's democracy and strengthen US national security, American conservative observers are growing increasingly sceptical. According to them, the $40 billion package is unlikely to stop Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from targeting opposition journalists, while Biden's escalation of the conflict may lead to an all-out conflict between the US and Russia.

The enthusiasm demonstrated by the Biden administration and some established American politicians over Ukraine could possibly stem not from their security concerns or love for democracy but from vested interests linked either to the US defence industry or Ukrainian businesses, according to Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel.

"Too many relatives of prominent American politicians have been playing around in Ukraine with highly suspect oligarchs," the analyst suggests. "Some of these have taken off-market compensation and/or been given sweetheart investment opportunities. Rather than performing proper diligence on their Ukrainian partners, they may have been seduced by seemingly easy money."

Hunter Biden & Ukrainian Tycoons

To illustrate his point, Ortel recalls that the president's son, Hunter Biden, had served on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which belongs to controversial oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, former minister of ecology and natural resources of Ukraine.

Besides that, The New York Post alleged in October 2020 that Hunter's Ukraine contact, Vadym Pozharskyi, was a "fixer" for some other shady Ukrainian oligarchs. One of them, Igor Kolomoisky, was linked to Burisma through myriad offshore companies, according to the Post. Citing emails from Hunter's notorious "laptop from hell," the newspaper suggested that Pozharskyi could have met Joe Biden.

On 24 March 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed, citing documents obtained during the Russian special operation in Ukraine, that Hunter Biden-linked firm Rosemont Seneca maintained "close ties" with the US defence contractors, including Metabiota and Black & Veatch (B&V), and participated in the financing of the Pentagon's biological programme in Ukraine. The Daily Mail confirmed on 25 March that the First Son "helped secure millions of dollars of funding" for Metabiota, a Department of Defense contractor which worked in Ukraine, specialising in research on pandemic-causing diseases "that could be used as bioweapons".

The Clintons and Pinchuk

Yet another Ukrainian oligarch, Victor Pinchuck – a son-in-law of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma – is well known for his ties to Hillary and Bill Clinton, according to Ortel. He notes that the Clinton Foundation began working inside Ukraine with Victor Pinchuk and his wife Elena Pinchuk in around 2004 or 2005.

In September 2013, less than five months before the 2014 February coup d'etat in Kiev, Pinchuk held the 10 Yalta Annual Meeting, hosting many foreign leaders, including Hillary and Bill Clinton, pushing for Ukraine's integration into "Wider Europe".

After the coup, Pinchuk continued to cooperate with the Clintons. In total, he donated between 10 and 25 million dollars to their charity. "The largest tranches from the Pinchuk Foundation to the Clinton Foundation were held in 2015 and 2016," exactly at the time of Hillary's presidential run, as CyberBerkut, a hacker group, alleged on 12 July 2017.

Moreover, just two weeks before Hillary Clinton officially announced her decision to run for the presidency, Victor Pinchuk "relentlessly" sought to meet Bill Clinton, wanting him to "show support for Ukraine," as one of the Podesta emails published by WikiLeaks indicated. According to Ortel, the aforementioned episodes resemble nothing so much as influence peddling and potential "pay-to-play" schemes. The Wall Street analyst believes that the interests of some US political actors could be still intertwined with those of notorious Ukrainian tycoons.

Democrats Involvement in Ukraine's Biolab Activities

Meanwhile, on 11 May, the Russian MoD continued to report on the extent of US military biological activities in Ukraine, citing documents and other materials obtained in the course of the special operation.

The MoD has found that senior Democratic Party politicians were the chief "ideologists" of America's illegal operations in Ukraine-based biological laboratories. Furthermore, they have involved major multinational biotech companies in their activities, according to Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defence Troops.

Former US President Barack Obama "in 2005 entered into partnership agreements with Ukraine to launch military biological programmes in the country," noted the military official, adding that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "initiated the adoption of the American strategy to counter biological threats and contributed to the legalisation of dual-use research". Then Vice President Joe Biden "coordinated the activities of the military biological program and was involved in financial machinations in Ukraine", according to the MoD.

Kirillov revealed that the US executive branch worked to create a "legislative framework to finance military biological research directly from the federal budget", as well as with funds of non-government organisations (NGOs) controlled by the leadership of the Democratic Party. These entities include charitable foundations affiliated with the Clinton family, the Rockefellers, George Soros, and the Bidens, according to the MoD. Global pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Moderna, Merck, and Pentagon-affiliated biotech firm Gilead, have also become involved in these controversial "public-private" partnership schemes, the Russian military said on Wednesday.

"US specialists are working [in Ukraine] on the testing of new medicines, bypassing international safety standards. As a result, Western companies seriously reduce the costs of research programmes and gain significant competitive advantages," Kirillov emphasised.

Earlier, the Russian MoD revealed that a network of more than 30 biological laboratories had been established in Ukraine, working in the interests of the Pentagon. Despite the Biden administration initially denying the MoD report, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland acknowledged that biological research facilities indeed exist in Ukraine and that the US is striving to prevent Russia's access to them.

"Modern Ukraine is a nation where corruption is endemic," says Ortel. "Vast sums 'disappear' there even as contraband and people traffic through its borders. So, there is a need to convert illegally obtained money into clean assets such as real estate and securities that are domiciled outside Ukraine's borders. In this laundering effort, well-connected foreign politicians can play vital roles. For Deep State globalists, Ukraine is a nation that can, in theory, be used to needle Russia. These globalists can work with multilateral lending and aid organisations to promote large projects and then divert portions thereof for personal, political and statecraft purposes."

The US establishment's figures have lots of skeletons in Ukraine's closet which could at least partially explain their readiness to funnel more money and weapons to the Eastern European country to keep these secrets on the hush, according to the Wall Street analyst.