While channel surfing over the weekend, I chanced upon the John Frankenheimer tour-de-force The Manchurian Candidate (1964), the story of Raymond Shaw, a Korean War medal of honor winner whose story of heroism is a cover after having been captured and programmed by his Chinese handlers to become an assassin.  The communists’ end game is to create chaos during a presidential election in hopes of installing a president sympathetic to the Russian government.

While attempts to disrupt the 2016 federal election did not include brain-washed assassins, one might say there was a cadre of Manchurian candidates in the form of Russian internet trolls, hackers and agents of the Kremlin who were in contact with Trump campaign officials.  But, today I want to focus on one player who may have been a test case for a more long-term, sophisticated effort by the Russian government to influence U.S. elections for decades to come.

His name is Len Blavatnik, a dual U.S.-U.K citizen born in Ukraine.  In the 1970’s, Blavatnik’s family emigrated to the U.S. from the Soviet Union.  Following the collapse of the Soviet empire, he returned to Russia.

According to the Dallas Morning News, in 2015 and 2016, Blavatnik “pumped $6.35 million into GOP political action committees, with millions of dollars going to top Republican leaders including Sens. Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham.”  Such personal contributions by an American citizen, even one with dual citizenship, are legal unless the funds are coming from a foreign source or spending is directed by a foreign national.  To date, there is no indication Blavatnik has violated the law.  However, some underground news sources have questioned whether Republican silence on the Trump/Russia issue has been bought with campaign contributions from donors with strong Russian ties.

So why did I wait several days to make this connection?  Because it was a story on today’s cable news which made me wonder if Blavatnik was just a beta test for a more sinister plan.  NBC News correspondent Cynthia McFadden reported on a company called “Miami-Mama” which arranges for pregnant Russian women to obtain visitor visas in order to give birth to their children in the United States.  Under the “birthright clause” of the U.S. Constitution, the Russian women are not violating any law as long as do not lie about the purpose of their visit.

Once they reach the age of 18, all these children of “birthing tourists” will have the rights of any U.S. citizen including the right to vote and make campaign contributions.  Maybe the election we need to be more worried about was not 2016, but 2034 when all of these Miami-churian Candidates can become the next Len Blavatniks.

Postcript:  Not that this story needs to get any stranger, The Daily Beast reports several of the Russian companies that arrange the “birthing tourism” packages, at costs between $50,000 and $100,000, advertise participants will be housed in Trump properties in South Florida (“Russians Flock to Trump Properties to Give Birth to U.S. Citizens,” September 6, 2017).  As Michael Wolff so elegantly said in a Hollywood Reporter article promoting his book Fire and Fury, “You can’t make this sh** up!”  (It does make one wonder if Trump would be more sympathetic toward the Dreamers and birthright children from Latin America if they too patronized Trump properties.)

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP