Russia is investigating a potential CIA link to the Crocus City Center terrorist attack amidst revelations about Burisma and Cofer Black’s involvement with a Latvian bank.

Real life often surpasses the drama of movies. In a recent development from Moscow, the State organization responsible for investigating significant crimes disclosed that the Ukrainian company Burisma had ties to financing terrorists.

Russia’s top investigative body announced Tuesday that it has launched a criminal probe into senior officials in the United States and NATO member countries who are suspected of “financing terrorism.”

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it has “established” that money from commercial organizations had been used to “eliminate prominent political and public figures” inside and outside Russia in recent years, as well as to “inflict economic damage” against the country. . . .

The top law enforcement body named the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings as one of the implicated organizations. U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden served as a member of Burisma’s board of directors between 2014 and 2019.

This revelation may not be entirely surprising, particularly given previous knowledge about Hunter Biden’s involvement. However, it raises questions about connections to the CIA. Notably, the name Cofer Black emerges.

International Energy Group Burisma has expanded its Board of Directors to include an expert in the field of security and strategic development. Joseph Cofer Black, a former Director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center and Ambassador at Large for counter-terrorism recently joined the Board as an independent director at Burisma Group. Ambassador Black resigned from public service in 2005 after a 30 year career  and is considered a  leading expert and significant figure on  U.S. and international security issues.  

Interestingly, Cofer Black, a seasoned CIA officer with no prior experience in the oil and gas sector beyond personal use, found himself appointed to the board of Burisma alongside Hunter Biden. Before this, he secured a position on the board of a Latvian Bank.

The extraordinary meeting of the shareholders of joint-stock company Baltic International Bank (‘the Bank’) was held on 11 October 2016 where decisions on changes in the composition of the Bank’s Supervisory Board were adopted.

Joseph Cofer Black has been invited to join the existing members of the Bank’s Supervisory Board– Valērijs Belokoņs, Vlada Belokoņa, Andris Ozoliņš and Dr. Hans – Friedrich Von Ploetz – as of November 1, 2016.

Cofer Black was ostensibly chosen for the bank’s board due to his background in counter-terrorism. In an interview with DELFI, a business magazine, he claimed expertise in terrorist financing.

What does counterterrorism have in common with banking? How much time do you have? Actually [they are] shockingly similar. I spent the last 12 years of my time [at the CIA] in counterterrorism, but before that I worked in other fields [of intelligence]. An important thing in counterterrorism is what we now call financial counterterrorism. At the beginning of my career, there was little if any combating of terrorism in the financial area. It was my responsibility, but I wasn’t very eager to get into it, because it’s timeconsuming, labor-intensive and expensive. In that time you are trying to outsmart and stop terrorists before they kill people.

However, it appears that Cofer’s presence did not assist the Latvian bank in addressing this issue. In 2018, the bank faced fines.

Latvia’s financial regulator, the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FKTK) said December 6 it was imposing a 1.5 million euro fine on Baltic International Bank (BIB) “for deficiencies in the Bank’s internal control system.”. . .

“In 2018 the FKTK carried out an on-site inspection of the Bank, as well as a targeted inspection, during which the FCMC identified that the Bank’s internal control system does not fully comply to the regulatory requirements governing the prevention of money laundering and terrorism and proliferation financing (hereinafter – AML/CTPF),” the FKTK said.

“The Bank had not established an adequate internal control system to meet its risks in the field of prevention of money laundering and terrorism and proliferation financing, which would ensure effective compliance with the regulatory requirements,” it added, explaning that “in several cases” the bank had not taken sufficient measures to make certain that a beneficial owner indicated was the beneficial owner; had not obtained documentation and had not taken necessary measures to make certain of the origin of financial means in its customer accounts and had not documented conclusions; had not ensured appropriate and high-quality enhanced customer due diligence; had not duly decided on termination of business relationships with customers and, in a particularly damning comment “had not paid sufficient and special attention to untypical large, complex, inter-related transactions with no apparent economic purpose or clear legal purpose.”

Considering the allegations made by Russia’s Investigative Committee, if Cofer Black served on the Burisma Board during the period when funds were allegedly transferred to groups with terrorist ties, it’s understandable why Russia might suspect CIA involvement, even indirectly, in terrorist activities within Russia.