Kash Patel's ties to a Russian operation

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's choice to be director of the FBI, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Last week Mother Jones reported that Kash Patel—Trump’s nominee for FBI Director—received a $25,000 payment from Global Tree Pictures, a film company run by Kremlin propagandist Igor Lopatonok. Hours later it was confirmed by The Washington Post, This connection is alarming because it highlights a direct overlap between U.S. politics and Russia’s propaganda operations. Patel, who is now slated to lead the FBI, participated in a six-part documentary series titled All the President’s Men: The Conspiracy Against Trump. Airing on Tucker Carlson’s online network—a platform known for its right-wing and Kremlin narratives—and made incendiary remarks, including a promise to “shut down the FBI headquarters building and open it up as a museum to the ‘deep state.’” Given that the FBI is one of Russia’s chief adversaries, Patel’s comments and plans for the FBI directly serve Russian interests, raising serious national security concerns.

The Patel–Lopatonok Connection

When I read the Washington Post story about Kash Patel’s financial disclosure revealing the $25,000 payment from Global Tree Pictures, my first response was: What exactly is behind this relationship?

The answer may lie in the long track record of Igor Lopatonok, a propagandist filmmaker whose work has consistently adhered to Kremlin-approved narratives. For more than a decade, Lopatonok has pitched—and at times produced—films that whitewash authoritarian dictators like Lukashenko, Nazarbayev, and Aliyev. By presenting these figures in slick, Hollywood-style productions, he attempted to lend them global legitimacy while, simultaneously, sowing “deep state” conspiracy theories against the West.

Working on projects for Russia—often in collaboration with Oliver Stone on propaganda films like Ukraine on Fire and Revealing Ukraine—Lopatonok’s operations have been part of a wider Russian effort to undermine Ukraine’s democratic aspirations and disseminate disinformation. His propaganda film claimed, for example, that the heroic Maidan movement was not a genuine grassroots uprising by over a million Ukrainians organizing daily protests against a treasonous government, but rather a coup orchestrated by the CIA—first disseminated by Moscow. Notably, Lopatonok was granted Russian citizenship in February 2021—just after President Biden took office—an interesting timing for sure.

And it’s his connections that make his association with Patel so troubling.

Medvedchuk and the Funding of Russia’s Malign Influence Operations

An investigation by OCCRP revealed that Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk—a key Kremlin proxy—may have financed one of Lopatonok’s completed films about Ukraine. Medvedchuk, a pro-Kremlin businessman and former Ukrainian lawmaker who was tried for treason, has also leveraged his extensive network to interfere in European elections and remains central to Moscow’s influence operations. His close ties to the Kremlin are underscored by the fact that Putin became godfather to his youngest daughter, Darya, in 2004. Furthermore, sources I spoke with over a decade ago allege that Lopatonok laundered money for Medvedchuk—an individual whose importance to Russia is hard to overstate.

Medvedchuk is so valuable to the Kremlin that, in a high-profile prisoner swap, more than 200 Ukrainians were exchanged for him along with 55 Russian citizens. And, as a reminder, before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Medvedchuk and four of his associates conspired to violently overthrow the Ukrainian government in a coup timed to coincide with Russia’s invasion.

The Kremlin’s Broader Operations

These connections between U.S. political figures and propagandists like Lopatonok and Medvedchuk illustrate a coordinated strategy by Russian intelligence. Last year, Vsquare reviewed leaked documents from the Kremlin-controlled propaganda center, SDA Agency revealing that operations such as “The Other Ukraine” and networks like “Voice of Europe” were created in Moscow as part of an effort to erode Western support for Ukraine and to subvert democratic institutions by undermining public trust.

Meanwhile, investigations last year by Polish and Czech authorities uncovered that the “Voice of Europe” website was used as a vehicle to pay politicians—handing out cash or cryptocurrency in covert meetings in Prague—to influence European elections. Intelligence reports suggested that politicians in Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Hungary were targeted ahead of these elections. In parallel, the “Doppelganger” operation further amplified Medvedchuk’s disinformation across multiple platforms, saturating the media landscape with pro-Kremlin propaganda. In this scheme, even Members of the European Parliament were reportedly paid to disseminate disinformation. Following the seizure of €48,500 and $36,000 from network associates in the Czech Republic and Poland, EU sanctions were imposed on both the outlet and Medvedchuk, while Belgian police later raided the EU Parliament office and the home of an assistant to an MEP involved in the transactions. The Czech Republic accused voiceofeurope.com of orchestrating a pro-Russian influence operation, noting that Viktor Medvedchuk covertly financed these efforts.

Also, an EU intelligence source claimed that both “The Other Ukraine” and Voice of Europe were developed in early 2023 within Russia’s Presidential Administration office of Sergey Kiriyenko—indicted by the U.S. for running malign influence operations.

Kremlin Meddling in U.S. Politics

Simultaneously, last year, Moscow was carrying out multiple operations to interfere in U.S. elections and discredit President Biden—particularly on Ukraine-related issues.

Notably, Russian agent Andrii Derkach—an associate of Medvedchuk and a former Ukrainian MP under U.S. sanctions for his role in the 2020 U.S. election operations and accused of treason in Ukraine—surfaced in Belarus early last year and was interviewed in Minsk by Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos.

Simona, the wife of ex-Trump adviser George Papadopoulos—indicted by Robert Mueller for his role in Russia’s 2016 election interference—is a close associate of Lopatonok and is connected to the documentary series All the President’s Men: The Conspiracy Against Trump, in which Kash Patel was paid to appear.

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Conclusion

This is a scandal that deserves serious national attention. A candidate for FBI Director has been financially linked to a Kremlin network actively engaged in operations against the West, and that connection raises significant questions. The FBI is charged with protecting America from foreign espionage and subversion, and its soon-to-be leader participated in one of Russia’s operations—even if only unwittingly. Patel’s ties to Lopatonok are extremely disturbing, and Senate Democrats—and all of us—need to raise attention to this scandal and raise the alarm.

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