Did you know that there was a ‘prototype’ kind of ‘Kremlin collusion’ story involving Mitt Romney? Yeah – this Mitt Romney:
Gather ’round children, and let me tell you another scary tale of Russian cults.
If you look for references on Nostradamus and Russia, in a historical espionage sense — you are likely to come across references to Helene Blavatsky and Aum Shinrikyo. Shinrikyo was/is a Japanese doomsday cult which conducted Sarin gas attacks in Japan in 1994 and 1995.
Aum notably enjoyed high level support from Russian operatives, most specifically former Russian Security Council leader and First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Oleg Lobov (and potentially Duma Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov).
As my ‘Nostradamus Ratios‘ paper shows, there is quite a high interest in Nostradamus in Japan in general, and it has been covered as a phenomenon in mainstream news. So the Nostradamus part might not mean much. But this story has Russia all over it.
The Aum Shinrikyo cult invested in Moscow-Japan University, which seems to have been a way for Lobov to personally enrich himself.
It is acknowledged that the cult purchased a Russian military helicopter; and conducted chemical weapons testing and uranium mining operations enabled by Russian technical specialists at the remote Banjawarn Station ranch in Australia. Cult members may even have received Spetsnaz training. They discussed procuring and using Ebola as a bio-weapon on Russian radio.
Oleg Lobov remained in power after the Japan attacks, even being promoted in 1996 by Yeltsin. Lobov was an architect of the Chechen conflicts of Yeltsin, which evolved into the Chechen strategy of Putin. (Alexander Litvinenko alleged that Russia trained Ayman Al Zawahiri around this time as well in Chechnya / Dagestan.)
Up to half of the members of Aum Shinrikyo lived in Russia by some estimates, though the number has dwindled. Anyway, it is yet another potential occultist organization linked to Russia which prominently showcases Nostradamus and theoretically links to the same networks of strategy which we use today to explain Russian involvement in 9/11, ISIS, etc (via ‘double games‘ in the Caucasus).
Where this all comes back to Mitt Romney is that Oleg Lobov and other Russians are alleged to have been close to Romney via mutual involvement in an organization known as Kairos Development International based in Michigan. These claims come from a woman named Debbie Skousen who is an apparently scorned ex-wife of Kairos senior consultant Samuel Skousen.
Samuel Skousen is apparently related closely to Cleon Skousen who was a Mormon conspiracy theorist at one time accused in Congress of repeating Khruschev talking points in a strange anti-communist context (p. 5/14). Romney has certainly been called out in this sense for his philosophical connections to the Skousens by mainstream conservatives (and liberals too).
However, this is quite possibly a deceptive kind of insight. Think about the pattern. There have honestly been ‘character assassinations’ of many Presidential candidates traced to Russian connections since at least the 2000s. These kinds of connections may be aired by Russia to damage the candidates intentionally, damage election prospects, and prevent them from being elected.
To recap, Al Gore was accused of being a pawn of Russian asset Armand Hammer. John Kerry was said to embrace Soviet disinformation. The Romney-Lobov stories popped up in both 2008 and 2012. Of course you have the “Trump collusion” narrative too, and don’t forget Hillary and Uranium One.
Not to say that Skousen’s clearly biased background story isn’t true. If there is such a connection, it may show a lapse in judgement as much as it may show ‘conspiracy’. It seems just as likely that these figures ‘get close’ to such politicians to taint their image in the public sphere as anyone is actually ‘colluding’ with Russia. Perhaps it is what it looks like. But perhaps it is a kind of ‘information attack’ which Russia employs (guilt by association). Being a high level intelligence figure, Lobov may have gotten his hands dirty on purpose (much like how some Russian oligarchs may have done so related to Donald Trump).
The trend of accusations is certainly not limited in any case to Republican or Democratic candidates. More likely that wealthy/powerful people aren’t always careful about the company they keep in business and social spheres which can make them compromised pretty easily. For example, making (the already morally compromised) Trump look bad may be quite similar to what was attempted with Romney.