Senior State Department staffer Darren Beattie, a passionate Putin supporter behind the move to dismantle a key agency fighting Russian propaganda, is married to a Russian woman whose uncle is a longtime Kremlin ally, according to The Telegraph.
Yulia Kirillova grew up in Moscow, studied abroad in North America, and married Beattie in 2021 in Florida. She moved to D.C. in January. Her uncle Sergei Cherniko is a drinks magnate who had an estimated net worth of $150 million in 2005. That year, he served in Russia’s ministry of natural resources and was then deputy governor of Siberia’s Nenets region. Cherniko later served in Putin’s civic chamber from 2008 to 2010.
The relationship raises even greater scrutiny around Beattie’s April decision to eliminate the Global Engagement Center, a State Department office tasked with dealing with Russian disinformation campaigns. Beattie has been a staunch supporter of Putin, setting himself apart from the traditional conservative right in Bannon-esque fashion.
Another scandal a whiff of which would topple any Democrat, or even a Republican in decades past, which today will not even move the needle.
Conservatives will see this and say “of course he’s a russian asset, you cant trust any of the deep state actors to actually protect Americans” or some variation of “its perfectly normal he has a mail order bride who is the daughter of a russian magnate and Kremlin member, the fact you think this is evidence proves how easily you believe msm lies”
As someone who frequents a dive bar in a red area, yes, this is exactly the things they say.