Exposed: How Russia’s bioweapons claims thrust Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian ties back into the spotlight

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Hunter Biden is accused of using his father’s position as a senator, vice president and president for financial gain by various US politicians, media outlets, and Russia. (Democratic National Convention/AFP file photo)
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Hunter Biden is accused of using his father’s position as a senator, vice president and president for financial gain by various US politicians, media outlets, and Russia. (AFP)
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Updated 27 March 2022
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Exposed: How Russia’s bioweapons claims thrust Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian ties back into the spotlight

  • Russia alleges Joe Biden’s second son was directly involved in US plans to deploy weapons of mass destruction
  • Poll finds 66% of likely voters believe the questions raised by Hunter Biden’s leaked emails are “important”

CHICAGO: When US President Joe Biden accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday of preparing to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, he inadvertently lifted the lid on a long-simmering scandal involving his son, Hunter Biden.

At a White House briefing on March 21, President Biden said Putin’s “back is against the wall” in Ukraine and that he may orchestrate a “false flag” operation to justify the use of outlawed weapons against civilian and military targets.

“We’ve seen it before,” said President Biden. “He’s run a lot of false-flag operations. Whenever he starts talking about something he thinks NATO, Ukraine, or the United States is about to do, it means he’s getting ready to do it.”

The Kremlin responded to Joe Biden’s statements by accusing his son of helping to facilitate a biological weapons program in Ukraine, thus putting Hunter Biden’s scandalous business dealings when his father was the US vice president back in the public limelight. But more on that, later.

Conservative critics allege the president’s second son partnered with his uncle James Biden to exploit Joe Biden’s political influence, first as a long-serving Delaware senator and later as a two-term vice president to Barack Obama, to gain lucrative contracts in Ukraine — allegations that both deny.

Few in the mainstream media ran the story when it first emerged. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter even blocked posts referencing the allegations, including stories by the conservative-leaning New York Post, prior to the 2020 election.

The controversy first went public after Hunter Biden took his personal laptop to a Delaware computer repair store in April 2019 — the same month his father officially launched his bid for the presidency — but forgot to pick it up.

Legally, the laptop became the property of the store’s owner, who took its contents, including thousands of Hunter Biden’s personal emails, and turned them over to Republican activists.

Those emails, according to several published accounts, include lurid details of a decadent lifestyle, as well as information pertaining to Hunter Biden’s multi-million-dollar foreign contracts with China and Ukraine.

In 2014, Hunter Biden joined Ukraine’s state-owned natural gas company Burisma as a $1 million-per-year consultant. Less than a month after his then-vice president father visited Ukraine and met Burisma executives in April that year, the lucrative contracts began rolling in.




Then-US Vice President, Joe Biden gestures as he delivers on July 22, 2009 an address to the people of Ukraine in Kyiv, a speech to reaffirm US support for the country’s ambitions to integrate more with the West. (AFP/File Photo)

Burisma itself has been plagued by allegations of corruption. Furthermore, critics claim Hunter Biden lacked the necessary qualifications to consult for the firm — except for the fact that his father was vice president and involved in developing Ukraine policy.

A top US diplomat, stationed in Kiev in a classified email sent to the State Department in 2016, warned that Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine while his father was still vice president “undercut” anti-corruption efforts in the country.

The email, dated Nov. 22, 2016, was written by George Kent, who was at the time the deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Ukraine.

He detailed a discussion about a “saga” surrounding the case against Mykola Zlochevsky, a former Ukrainian natural resources minister and founder of Burisma Holdings, according to the email.

A New York Post report of Oct. 4, 2020, quoting Hunter Biden’s laptop emails, claimed Zlochevsky “introduced Vice President Joe Biden to a top executive at Burisma less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company.”

The meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, allegedly sent Hunter Biden on April 17, 2015, about a year after Hunter joined the Burisma board.

In 2017, Hunter also joined the board of the China-based private equity fund Bohai Harvest RST of Shanghai Equity Investment Fund Management Co. with a 10 percent stake.

BHR was founded in 2013 by Bohai Industrial Investment Fund Management Co., which is controlled by the Bank of China. Its founders included Hunter Biden’s investment firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners.

It is not unusual for the children of powerful US politicians to end up in top jobs or to be accused of profiting from their parents’ political clout.

FASTFACT

* “Beautiful Things,” a memoir by Hunter Biden published in 2021 by Gallery Books, has been described as equal parts family saga, grief narrative and addict’s howl.

President Donald Trump’s sons and daughter were constantly in the news for what opponents called “influence peddling” while he was in office and since.

Several investigations are ongoing into the dealings of Trump’s children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., including one launched this January by the New York attorney general.

In their turn, Republicans in Congress introduced a resolution on Oct. 15, 2019, that provided specific details culled from the laptop and demanded an investigation into Hunter Biden’s Ukraine dealings.

In the final weeks before the November 2020 presidential election, President Biden dismissed the allegations against his son, branding them nothing more than “Russian disinformation” and “a last-ditch effort to smear me and my family.”

However, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa of California’s 50th District, who has led the charge to expose Hunter Biden’s role in Ukraine and China, told Arab News there was more than enough evidence to warrant a Congressional probe.

Issa said the exposé could be bigger than Watergate, the scandal that brought down former President Richard Nixon in 1974.




At a White House briefing on March 21, President Biden said Putin’s “back is against the wall” in Ukraine and that he may orchestrate a “false flag” operation to justify the use of outlawed weapons against civilian and military targets. (AFP/File Photo)

“This is the scandal that Big Tech and the Democrat industrial complex wish would go away,” said Issa. “They know what they did, and of course they think they’ve gotten away with it. That’s why it’s critical that we not squander the opportunity for accountability.

“What I can’t live with is the fact that Facebook and Twitter and the most major media players shut down the truth with the help of more than 50 of the most informed people in the intelligence world all saying they concluded this was false information.

“That is a conspiracy of monumental size. This is the most consequential political scandal since Watergate, and it deserves an investigation in Congress no less robust and no less bipartisan than that one.”

When Joe Biden accused Moscow this week of preparing to use biological or chemical weapons, the Russians entered the Hunter Biden fray, leveraging the corruption allegations to accuse the US president’s son of funding the production of biological weapons in Ukraine.

Igor Kirillov, head of radiation, chemical and biological defenses at the Russian defense ministry, said on Thursday that Hunter Biden was directly involved in US plans to deploy weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine.

Kirillov accused him of bankrolling “the Pentagon’s biological weapons program in Ukraine” through an investment fund, the Kremlin-backed Sputnik International news agency reported.

“Incoming materials have allowed us to trace the scheme of interaction between US government bodies and Ukraine’s biolabs,” Kirillov told a media briefing.

“The involvement in the financing of these activities by structures close to the current US leadership, in particular the Rosemont Seneca investment fund managed by Hunter Biden, draws attention to itself. The scale of the program is impressive.”




Liberal media quickly came to President Biden’s defense following the Russian allegation USAID and the CDC, with the backing of liberal philanthropist George Soros, were responsible for the establishment of 31 laboratories at 14 locations across Ukraine. (AFP/File Photo)

Citing a common conspiracy theory deployed by Russian state-backed media outlets, Kirillov reportedly said USAID and the CDC, with the backing of liberal philanthropist George Soros, were responsible for the establishment of 31 laboratories at 14 locations across Ukraine.

There is no credible evidence to justify the claim.

Liberal media quickly came to President Biden’s defense following the Russian allegation. Julia Davis, a columnist for the Daily Beast, tweeted: “If you thought Russian propaganda was ever ‘sophisticated,’ I hate to break it to you: it was always quite stupid. Still is. Here is their latest gem: Hunter Biden funded bio-labs in Ukraine. Handcrafted for Fox News.”

However, Russia’s accusations have fueled public interest in Hunter Biden’s Ukraine dealings. A Rasmussen poll released this week reported 66 percent of likely US voters believe the questions raised by Hunter Biden’s leaked emails are “important.”

The allegations have also renewed Republican resolve to push for an investigation, which is likely to cost the Democrats in November’s midterm elections.




Republican Congressman Darrell Issa of California’s 50th District, who has led the charge to expose Hunter Biden’s role in Ukraine and China. (Supplied)

“Big Tech, the mainstream media and the Democrats’ deep state intelligence community want to either rewrite the history of their collusion — or erase it entirely,” Issa told Arab News.

“We’re not going to let them do that. These letters are putting everyone on notice: Real accountability is going to happen. And we won’t rest until the full truth is known.

“We already know for a fact that Big Tech colluded with some of the nation’s most powerful media and most influential Democrat partisan in the intelligence community to suppress the truth, stop the public access to fact-based journalism, and cover up Biden family scandals.”

The White House did not respond to requests from Arab News for comment.


More than 30 dead in Brazil bus and truck collision

Updated 21 December 2024
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More than 30 dead in Brazil bus and truck collision

  • The exact death toll remains uncertain due to the condition of the bodies, which were burned beyond recognition
  • Initially, firefighters reported the bus, carrying 45 passengers, had a tire blowout, causing driver to lose control

A packed bus collided with a truck and burst into flames early on Saturday in Brazil, killing more than 30 people, the fire department said.
After completing the removal of victims from a major highway near the town of Teofilo Otoni in Minas Gerais, the state’s fire department estimated the number of fatalities between 32 and 35, including at least one child.
The exact death toll remains uncertain due to the condition of the bodies, which were burned beyond recognition.
Confirmation will likely depend on forensic work by the Civil Police, the department said in a statement.
A forensic investigation will also be required to determine the accident’s cause, as differing accounts were gathered from witness testimonies, it added.
Initially, firefighters reported the bus, carrying 45 passengers, had a tire blowout, causing the driver to lose control before colliding with an oncoming truck on the BR-116 federal highway, a major route connecting Brazil’s densely populated southeast to the poorer northeast.
However, witnesses also reported that a granite block the truck was transporting came loose, fell on the road and caused the collision with the bus, said the fire department.
“Only the forensic investigation will confirm the true version,” it added.
The bus departed from Sao Paulo and was headed to the state of Bahia.
Firefighters said they rescued 13 passengers from the wrecked bus. Three occupants of a car that also collided and was trapped under the truck survived the accident.


Indian man denies hospital rape and murder of doctor

Updated 21 December 2024
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Indian man denies hospital rape and murder of doctor

  • The discovery of the doctor’s bloodied body at a government hospital in Kolkata on August 9 sparked nationwide anger
  • The gruesome nature of the attack drew comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus

KOLKATA: An Indian man on trial for raping and murdering a 31-year-old doctor has pleaded not guilty, his lawyer said Saturday, a crime that appalled the nation and triggered wide-scale protests.
The discovery of the doctor’s bloodied body at a government hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata on August 9 sparked nationwide anger at the chronic issue of violence against women.
Sanjoy Roy, 33, the lone accused in the case, pleaded not guilty before the judge in a closed court on Friday in Kolkata, his lawyer Sourav Bandyopadhyay told AFP.
“I am not guilty, your honor, I have been framed,” Roy told the court, Bandyopadhyay said, repeating his client’s words.
Roy, a civic volunteer in the hospital, was arrested the day after the murder and has been held in custody since.
He would potentially face the death penalty if convicted.
The court began hearings on November 11, listening to evidence from some 50 witnesses, but it was on Friday that Roy took the stand.
“Judge Anirban Das questioned him with more than 100 questions during the six-hour-long in camera deposition, that continued until late in the evening,” Bandyopadhyay said.
Roy had earlier proclaimed his innocence to the public while screaming from a prison van outside the court before a hearing in November.
Doctors in Kolkata went on strike for weeks in response to the brutal attack.
Tens of thousands of ordinary Indians joined in the protests, which focused anger on the lack of measures for female doctors to work without fear.
India’s Supreme Court has ordered a national task force to examine how to bolster security for health care workers, saying the brutality of the killing had “shocked the conscience of the nation.”
The gruesome nature of the attack drew comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus, which also sparked weeks of nationwide protests.
The trial continues. The next hearing is set for January 2, 2025.


Russia’s UK embassy denounces G7 loans to Ukraine as ‘fraudulent scheme’

Updated 21 December 2024
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Russia’s UK embassy denounces G7 loans to Ukraine as ‘fraudulent scheme’

  • Britain said in October it would lend Ukraine 2.26 billion pounds as part of a much larger loan from the Group of Seven nations backed by frozen Russian central bank assets

LONDON: The Russian embassy in London on Saturday described Britain’s planned transfer to Ukraine of more than 2 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) backed by frozen Russian assets as a “fraudulent scheme.”
Britain said in October it would lend Ukraine 2.26 billion pounds as part of a much larger loan from the Group of Seven nations backed by frozen Russian central bank assets to help buy weapons and rebuild damaged infrastructure.
The loans were agreed in July by leaders of the G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US — along with top officials from the European Union, where most of the Russian assets frozen as a result of the war are held.
“We are closely following UK authorities’ efforts aimed at implementing a fraudulent scheme of expropriating incomes from Russian state assets ‘frozen’ in the EU,” the Russian embassy in London said on social media.
British Defense Minister John Healey said the money would be solely for Ukraine’s military and could be used to help develop drones capable of traveling further than some long-range missiles.
The embassy added: “The elaborate legislative choreography fails to conceal the illegitimate nature of this arrangement.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry last week described the US transfer to Ukraine of its share of the G7’s $50 billion in loans as “simply robbery.”


Death toll in German Christmas market car-ramming rises to five, more than 200 injured

Updated 21 December 2024
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Death toll in German Christmas market car-ramming rises to five, more than 200 injured

  • Source: Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the attacker
  • Germany’s domestic intelligence agency declined to comment on the ongoing investigation

MAGDEBURG, Germany: At least five people were killed in a car-ramming attack at a German Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg that also left more than 200 injured, officials said, and a Saudi man was arrested on suspicion of driving a car into the crowd.

The Friday evening attack on market visitors gathered to celebrate the pre-Christmas season comes amid a fierce debate over security and migration during an election campaign in Germany, where the far right is polling strongly.

“What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in the central city, part of the former East Germany, where he laid a white rose at a church in honor of the victims.

“We have now learnt that over 200 people have been injured,” he added. “Almost 40 are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”

German authorities are investigating a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who has lived in Germany for almost two decades in connection with the car-ramming. Police searched his home overnight.

The motive remained unclear and police have not yet named the suspect. He has been named in German media as Taleb A.

A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the attacker after he posted extremist views on his personal X account that threatened peace and security.

Der Spiegel reported that the suspect had sympathized with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The magazine did not say where it got the information.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.

Germany’s FAZ newspaper said it interviewed the suspect in 2019, describing him as an anti-Islam activist.

“People like me, who have an Islamic background but are no longer believers, are met with neither understanding nor tolerance by Muslims here,” he was quoted as saying. “I am history’s most aggressive critic of Islam. If you don’t believe me, ask the Arabs.”

Andrea Reis, who had been at the market on Friday, returned on Saturday with her daughter Julia to lay a candle by the church overlooking the site. She said that had it not been for a matter of moments, they may have been in the car’s path.

“I said, ‘let’s go and get a sausage’, but my daughter said ‘no let’s keep walking around’. If we’d stayed where we were we’d have been in the car’s path,” she said.

Tears ran down her face as she described the scene. “Children screaming, crying for mama. You can’t forget that,” she said.

Scholz’s Social Democrats are trailing both the far-right AfD and the frontrunner conservative opposition in opinion polls ahead of snap elections set for Feb. 23.

The AfD, which enjoys particularly strong support in the former East, has led calls for a crackdown on migration to the country.

Its chancellor candidate Alice Weidel and co-leader Tino Chrupalla issued a statement on Saturday condemning the attack.

“The terrible attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg in the middle of the peaceful pre-Christmas period has shaken us,” they said.

A leading Social Democrat lawmaker in the Bundestag parliament warned against jumping to conclusions and said it appeared the attacker did not have an Islamist motive.

“Now we have to wait for the investigations. It seems that things are different here than was initially assumed,” Dirk Wiese told the Rheinische Post newspaper.


Pope Francis slams ‘cruelty’ of strike killing Gaza children

Updated 21 December 2024
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Pope Francis slams ‘cruelty’ of strike killing Gaza children

  • ‘Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war. I want to say it because it touches my heart’
  • The Holy See has recognized the State of Palestine since 2013, with which it maintains diplomatic relations

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the bombing of children in Gaza as “cruelty,” a day after the territory’s rescue agency said an Israeli air strike killed seven children from one family.

Gaza’s civil defense rescue agency reported that an Israeli air strike killed 10 members of a family on Friday in the northern part of the territory, including seven children.

“Yesterday they did not allow the Patriarch (of Jerusalem) into Gaza as promised. Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war,” he told members of the government of the Holy See.

“I want to say it because it touches my heart.”

Violence in the Gaza Strip continues to rock the coastal territory more than 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war, even as international mediators work to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants.

The Israeli military said it had struck “several terrorists who were operating in a military structure belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization and posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the area.”

“According to an initial examination, the reported number of casualties resulting from the strike does not align with the information held by the IDF,” it added.

Francis, 88, has called for peace since Hamas’s unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, and the Israeli retaliatory campaign in Gaza.

In recent weeks he has hardened his remarks against the Israeli offensive.

At the end of November, he said that “the invader’s arrogance... prevails over dialogue” in “Palestine,” a rare position that contrasts with the tradition of neutrality of the Holy See.

In extracts from a forthcoming book published in November, he called for a “careful” study as to whether the situation in Gaza “corresponds to the technical definition” of genocide, an accusation firmly rejected by Israel.

The Holy See has recognized the State of Palestine since 2013, with which it maintains diplomatic relations, and it supports the two-state solution.