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chocolatpi

(7,888 posts)
Fri Aug 12, 2022, 04:43 PM Aug 2022

"Russia Insider, founder Charles Bausman"

I've saved this article for a reason.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2021/09/23/jan-6-video-suggests-russia-insider-entered-capitol

SPLC Southern Poverty Law Center

Jan. 6 Video Suggests "Russia Insider" Entered Capitol


September 23, 2021
Michael Edison Hayden

Russia Insider founder Charles Bausman breached the walls of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, according to research conducted by a Europe-based open-source intelligence (OSINT) group into video captured during the insurrection.

The findings by the OSINT group build on Hatewatch reporting showing that Bausman traveled to Washington, D.C., on the day of the insurrection, then disappeared from his home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and reemerged in Moscow. In the months since, he has served as a talking head on Russian television, commenting on American affairs with a reactionary point of view. Hatewatch previously noted that Bausman claimed on a Russian Orthodox Christian-themed television station to have stopped short at the Capitol’s balustrades without entering the building. Footage obtained by the OSINT group, in which a man bearing a strong resemblance to Bausman is visible inside the Capitol, appears to contradict his account.

The OSINT group, whose members choose to remain anonymous, goes by the name “Blue Hatz.” A person who operates a Twitter account associated with the group described them to Hatewatch as “an independent international team of 15 ‘OSINTers’ and investigators from Europe, Russia, Ukraine and US” who have been using found footage to identify those who breached the Capitol building on Jan. 6. In the Russian television interviews, Bausman claims to be a journalist covering the events of Jan. 6, rather than a pro-Trump demonstrator. But the man the OSINT group believes to be Bausman – shown in side-by-side images in a tweet they published – can be seen wearing a red, Trump-branded hat, blending in with other supporters of the 45th president inside a hallway. The video shows the man strolling and taking video with his cell phone as rioters move through the Capitol building.

Hatewatch emailed Bausman for a response to the OSINT group’s findings, but he did not reply. The enigmatic propagandist has not spoken to Hatewatch since more than a year ago, when we first started reporting out his connections to other American white supremacists. Then, he told Hatewatch from the door of his Lancaster home that he did not want to speak to the media. Hatewatch sent the apparent images of Bausman inside the Capitol building to five people who interacted with him in and around Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he lived from November 2018 until shortly after Jan. 6. All five of them told Hatewatch the man pictured in the footage unearthed by the OSINT group looked like Bausman to them.

“[We agree] that this is Charles. When I looked at the photo again it appears he is inside the [Capitol building]. I wonder if the FBI identified him?” one of the sources wrote to Hatewatch by text.
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