Washington Post and USAToday post irresonsible fake news about a Russian American, a U.S. citizen who (allegedly) died on a Russian military plane on the way to Sirya - Part I

On December 27, 2016, USA Today published its reporter Susan Miller's article called "Cherished Russian charity worker among dead in plane crash".  The alleged crash (Russian authorities vehemently deny that the plane went down due to an explosion on board, or because it was struck down by a missile) occurred on December 25, 2016.

The plane that went down, the outdated TU-154 which was taken off civil air routes long time ago, was allegedly heading to Syria, carrying the famous "Alexandrov" military choir and dancing team (here is the Alexandrov choir's performance of a song "Nightingales, don't wake up soldiers"), military officials, Russian journalists from Pro-Putin Russian TV channels - and, allegedly, the "cherished Russian charity worker" and her supplies.

Of course, the plane was a military plane going into a war zone, and it is naïve to think that Russia would publicly own up to what the plane was really carrying.

Susan Miller, according to the USA Today website, is the USA Today's staff writer.  I do not know whether Susan Miller does or does not know the Russian language, to check out all sources before she ran her story, but she ran her story just two days after the crash - and obviously did not verify a lot of information about the "cherished Russian charity worker" that are in English, are located in the U.S. and are public records.

On December 28, 2016, Washington Post published Andrew Roth's article "The Russian aid worker and ‘saint’ who died on the military flight to Syria".  The alleged death, according to Russian news sources, occurred on December 25, 2016, 3 days prior to Andrew Roth's article.

Andrew Roth is a Washington Post's reporter in Moscow,

so he MUST know both the English and the Russian language.

Moreover, being a reporter from a major American news source, Andrew Roth has a lot of financial and logistic resources at his disposal, on both sides of the pond, so to say, both in Russia and especially in America, to fact-check his information.

During our day and age where we see a lot of chest-pounding and finger-pointing by the mass media about fake news about top political leaders (or candidates for such top posts) in the U.S., these two articles slipped through without much fanfare.

After all, who in the U.S. really cares to check facts about a "cherished Russian charity worker" who (allegedly, according to the official Russian military sources) died on a Russian military plane heading towards Syria?

So, it took Susan Miller of USA Today 2 days to do research for her article, and 3 days for the Russian-speaking Andrew Roth to do post his article.  That was not nearly enough to make inquiries under the Freedom of Information Law (state and federal) with U.S. authorities to verify their claims about the "cherished Russian worker".

As an individual who regularly files, and fights to get, public records through Freedom of Information law under state and federal statutes, I know that the turnaround, even when information is requested by e-mail, is weeks and months, not days.

So, why is it so important for the American readers that these two articles contained unverified and fake information?

Because the "cherished Russian charity worker" was actually an American citizen Elizaveta (Elizabeth) Glinka, who has an interestingly close connections to Vladimir Putin and his closest entourage who secured for her protection and safety "corridors" to go into the areas of the Ukraine occupied by the militants from where she took Ukranian children (reportedly, including orphans that are in the custody of the Ukranian government), without permission from the children's custodian the Ukrainian government and transported them, allegedly for "treatment", not to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, but to Moscow.

These acts qualify as an international child kidnapping, and for that, Elisabeth Glinka should have been in the cross-hairs of Interpol, especially that, reportedly, the fate of the orphan Ukranian children illegally transported by Glinka to Russia remains unknown.

After one of her "rescue trips" to the Ukraine with the backing of the top echelons of Putin's administration, which Glinka did not deny, Glinka paid back to Putin and his government by happily reporting to the public that "she did not see Russian troops" where she was.

Glinka's "charity fund" was given by Putin a large building in Moscow, for nothing - a prime piece of real estate worth tens of thousands of dollars in rent, or millions of dollars to buy, and that was done at the very same time when many hospitals in Russia, including in Moscow, were closing, and doctors fired, for "lack of funds".

Then, Glinka was given awards by Putin, most recently - several days before that plane crash, where Glinka theatrically stated that she might die and not return from where she is going - right before that actually happened.

What is also very interesting, and perfectly researchable by these two journalists, is that Elizabeth Glinka was the wife of an American citizen and of an American attorney Gleb Glinka of Cabot, Vermont, who has vast political connections in the U.S. government, including connections with Vermont state officials, with federal judiciary, with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Task Force and the U.S. Justice Department and an interesting history in military "hotspots" around the globe.

American citizen and attorney Gleb Glinka is living in Moscow now and running there a Moscow office of a Vermont law firm Glinka & Schwidde,

as well as teaching, as an adjunct professor, in the Moscow State University, a position that he could not possibly get without a Russian academic degree of a "candidate of legal sciences", and a "doctor of legal sciences" - not the same as the Juris Doctor Gleb Glinka has.

Here is the website of Gleb Glinka's law firm in the U.S.

Its advertisement states that:

Glinka's law firm "serve[s] clients across Vermont, including Rutland, Vermont and throughout Rutland County, Bennington County and Addison County".

How does Glinka serve his clients in Addison County, Vermont, from his Moscow office, and why he even needs a Moscow office if his law firm, by its own advertisement, only works in the U.S., nobody knows.

It is even more interesting that, while Gleb Glinka first indicated a desire to bury his wife in the U.S. where their adult children live, he then changed his mind and buried Elizabeth Glinka, an American citizen, with much fanfare, after a closed-coffin church service, at the 16th century Novodevichy Convent in Moscow, a UNESCO World heritage site, where Russian top celebrities and government officials are buried, and where, reportedly, burial is next in prestige only next to burial near the Kremlin walls.

It is notable that Andrew Roth, the reporter of Washington post who wrote an article about Glinka as a "Russian charity worker", was not included into the entourage of reporters on that military plane - and none of foreign reporters were allowed there.

It is also notable that the official media in Russia has been breeding and winding up anti-American sentiments in the country's population for a very long time now, to the point that it has become a common joke on the Russian-speaking social media that "that bad guy Obama peed in the hallway of our apartment building again" - because anything and everything bad that was happening in Russia, from food in the stores, to how municipal buildings are maintained or how municipal transportation works, was blamed by Russian officials on the United States.

By the way, now the going common joke is that there are the same number of letters in the name "Trump" as in the name "Obama", so overpainting the Obama-blaming slogans into Trump-blaming slogans in Russia will not cost the officials too much, to continue to blame their incompetence on the U.S.

In the recent 3 years, Russia viciously clamped down on any non-governmental organizations, including charities, that were either run by foreigners or with participation of foreigners, or had foreign capital.

Against that background, it is unique that, while foreign journalists were not allowed on that military plane, the American citizen Elizabeth Glinka and wife of the American citizen Gleb Glinka who has considerable ties to American government  - see Gleb Glinka's accomplishments, ties to the government and appointment to the position of director of a prestigious ABA project in Russia paraded on the American Bar Association's website:

was allowed on a top-secret Russian military plane, then disappeared without a trace (days after stating that she may disappear - which she never stated before many of her many similar trips to war zones), and was (allegedly) buried in a closed coffin not in the country where her children live and where she is a citizen, but in Russia, and buried as a prominent Russian government official.

As this article will further show, the murky history of Elizabeth Glinka's connections to Putin, and of Gleb Glinka's connections to the U.S. and Russian government - and the couple's capitalizing on both - also includes building of the "Dr. Liza's" (that's how Elizabeth Glinka is well known and "cherished" in Russia) PR image on fabricated facts - a lot of them, as my personal Freedom of Information law inquiries with relevant American public agencies confirmed as far back as in 2014, the responses of such agencies were posted on a public Facebook group where "Dr Liza" was included as a member, explanations were requested from "Dr Liza" - but were never provided.

So, let's note the connections of Gleb Glinka to the government in the U.S.

• After graduating from a prestigious and highly ranked (and expensive) private Beasley School of Law at Temple University; and
• after doing a no-less prestigious Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship at Georgetown School of Law; Gleb Glinka
• Represented the Secretary of the State of Vermont in 1982-1985 Jim Douglas

who has later become Governor of the State of Vermont in 2003 and served as Governor until 2011;

• after representing the Vermont Secretary of State and future governor for 3 years, Gleb Glinka went to "serve" as law clerk of a federal bankruptcy judge for the District of Vermont for 2 years, from 1985 to 1987;
• A Russian official media source TASS reports that Elizabeth Glinka left Russia for the U.S. with her husband Gleb Glinka in 1986, during Gleb Glinka's employment as a law clerk for a U.S. Bankruptcy judge

This piece from an article in the official Russian press about "Dr. Liza" states that Elizabeth Glinka

"Has left for the U.S. in 1986 with her husband, American attorney with Russian heritage Gleb Glinka.  Worked in American hospices.  According to media sources, was a founder of an American Fund Vale Hospice International".

I made inquiries with Medicare/Medicaid officials about any public records whether "Vale Hospice International" ever operated as a hospice - because hospices in the U.S. are usually funded by Medicaid and Medicare payments, and there must be a paper trail.

Not only the "Vale Hospice International" never had any dealings with Medicaid and Medicare, but its financial statements indicate that it never operated as a hospice either.

Here is some information about "Vale Hospice International" from an American nonprofit database guidestar.org:

Vale Hospice International is registered at 81 Glinka Rd at Cabot Vt 05647.

Its 2014 financial report claims over $20,000 in liabilities and $0 in assets, and the Chief Officer Elizabeth Glinka with a mailing address of :

No records are available from government organizations that regulate hospice care in the U.S., that could prove that Vale Hospice International was ever involved in hospice activity in the U.S.

Its "official" address of 81 Glinka Rd., Cabot, VT, is actually the address of a "prominent" bankruptcy law firm Glinka & Walls, here is how it looks:

So, Vale Hospice International is just a shell used by Elizabeth Glinka to launch her PR image and political career in Russia.

The murky advertisement of Gleb Glinka's "law firms" would give any conscientious journalist a pause.

Unverified publication of shameful fabrications Elizabeth Glinka's "American" background upon which her PR-image in Russia was based was totally unworthy of any conscientious journalist.

Did Washington Post reporter Andrew Roth spend any time making any legwork and filing any inquiries with relevant primary sources before he published this statement:

I did.  In 2014.

In 2014, when Elizabeth Glinka was very much alive and boosting her PR campaign that there are no Russian troops in the Ukraine where she illegally travelled to illegally kidnap Ukranian children (and for God knows what other reasons), I have made official inquiries with the Dartmouth Medical School, with all the last names that Glinka was using (Sidorova, Poskriobysheva) and all transliteration variations of her first name (Lisa, Liza, Elizabeth, Elisabeth and Elizaveta).

According to the response of Darmouth Medical School, Dr. Lisa never graduated from that school.

As I mentioned above, Dr. Lisa's "Vale Hospice International" never operated as a hospice, at least there is no track record with Medicaid and Medicare - and its listed address is in a decrepit building in rural Cabot, VT which is also the official address of her husband's law firm.

Medical profession is a highly regulated profession in the U.S.

In  2014, I filed Freedom of Information requests with appropriate Vermont state licensing authorities for physicians, nurses and hospital and hospice administrators, as well as with authorities that train hospice specialists.

Dr. Lisa was never licensed or certified as any kind of medical professional or hospice specialist in Vermont, and thus the claims that she is an American doctor or an American "activist in palliative care" is fake news.

It is also fake news that Dr. Liza opened the first hospice in Kiev in 2001.

Reportedly, Ukranian public records show that the hospice that Elizabeth Glinka allegedly opened in Kiev in 2001, existed since 1997 and was funded by the government.

Moreover, as far back as in 2011 Elizabeth Glinka was criticized in Russia for:

• her penchant for luxury accessories, and flouting a $2,000 bag during a visit to a dying patient, while claiming that "she lives in a dump with homeless people";
• posting extremely personal pictures - with herself, of course, there, as Mother Theresa - of vulnerable, homeless, sick and dying people, capitalizing on their misery;
  

Yet, a more sinister side of Elizabeth Glinka's activity is still waiting for international investigations.

That is - whether Elizabeth Glinka was herself, or aided, illegal organ trafficking.

Elizabeth Glinka has reportedly graduated from the Moscow 2d Medical Institute with a degree in pediatric anesthesiology and emergency care. 

The American Bar Association's accolade to her husband Gleb Glinka places Gleb Glinka - and his wife - repeatedly, into war zones where illegal organ trade was rife:

To me, as a person trained in criminal law, fabricated PR image of Dr Liza, her training, her own and her husband's connections in high places in both the Russian and the American government (this is only the first article of several I intend to run exploring these connections), her active engagement with vulnerable populations, both in Russia and in various spots outside Russia, that evade registration or whose disappearance is difficult to trace:

• the homeless or lonely invalids in Russia;
• the orphan children in the war zone in the Ukranian territory occupied by the militants;
• Bosnia & Herzegovina;
• Serbia;
• Georgia; and now
• Syria - "Dr. Liza" allegedly died when she was allegedly on a plane (initially, ITAR-TASS, in reliance on sources close to Elizabeth Glinka, claimed that she did not board that plane) that was allegedly brining medication to children of Aleppo - after Russian aviation leveled Aleppo, together with those children)

all of that allows to raise a question whether Dr. Liza did much more than, as a prominent Russian politologist Belkovsky said, promoted herself on the blood of Donbass.

The question is - was "Dr. Liza" in fact "Dr. Mengele" and was she involved in illegal organ trafficking, and specifically, in children's organ trafficking.

War zones are the usual source of organ traffickers, where people can conveniently disappear without a trace.

In all war zones where Dr. Liza was active, illegal organ traffic was reported.

In Syria, where Dr. Liza was heading, after the bombardment of Aleppo razed the city and left many people killed, wounded and vanished, organ traffic is reportedly flourishing, and that is especially so in refugee camps.

Dr. Liza had the training, the backing of authorities to go, under protection of the military or the militants, where other people cannot go, had powerful connections in the U.S. and the Russian governments that could cover about any misdeed (and I will continue to publish her and her husband's ties to government officials), and the opportunity to engage in organ trafficking. 

Her PR image of Russian Mother Theresa could clearly be just a cover.

By the way, there was already a muddy story in Ekaterinburg (Russia) involving a disappearance of a retired woman, a lone owner of an apartment, who was abducted and whose body was later found, while her apartment was claimed by the friend of Ekaterinburg mayor Eugeniy Roizman, Glinka's friend, with whom Elizabeth Glinka tried to make a hospice - but stopped her efforts after publicity surrounding the murder.  The actual perpetrator of the murder is serving a 16-year sentence.  His accomplices were never found or charged.

It is obviously easier to make people disappear in a war zone than in Russia, even a lawless Russia where Glinka's husband Gleb Glinka, with the help of the American Bar Association and his friends in the U.S. Government, was, ironically, pretending to bring the "rule of law".

It is likely that that's exactly why Glinka switched her efforts from helping children in the vast Russia, her native country and the native cou to allegedly helping children in the war-torn Ukraine, and then in Syria.

In 2011, Dr. Liza was criticized, among other things, for improperly gaining publicity off human misery, and for falsely claiming unavailability of shelters for the homeless, in order to draw attention - and funds - to herself and her organization.

In 2012, Dr. Liza was interrogated by tax authorities regarding activities of her "Fair Help" fund.

In the same 2012, by a direct executive order of President Putin, Elizabeth Glinka was included into the "Presidential Council on Human Rights".   That happened after Glinka's husband was apparently wining and dining officials on both sides, the U.S. and Russia, through the ABA ROLI project.

In 2013, Dr. Liza's fund was targeted by authorities - as all other organizations where either foreign capital was used, or foreigners worked - as "international agents".  Elizabeth Glinka complained directly to Putin - and Putin personally called the investigation off.  From Glinka's fund only, but not from other similar "international agent" organizations, such as human rights organizations. 

In the same 2013, Dr. Liza's "Fair Help" fund reportedly used 67% of collected funds for its own maintenance, while, had it registered as a truly charitable fund, it would have been required to restrict the use of funds for its own maintenance to only 20%.

In May of 2014, Red Cross representatives were taken hostage in Donetsk by the militants. Elizabeth Glinka, who was at the time in Donetsk, confirmed the attack.

The hostages were held by the militants and released, after being robbed of medications that they brought to Donetsk, and taking those medications to an undisclosed location.

In June of 2014 Dr. Liza went to Donetsk again, disappeared, communications with her were "cut off" for nearly a week, then reappeared, and never told where she was, why communications were cut off and what was she doing when there were no communications.

In October of 2014, the International Red Cross refused to back "Dr. Liza" who allegedly brought a "humanitarian cargo" into the war zone inside Ukraine, since there was no ways of authenticating what will be really brought by Dr. Liza into the Ukraine under the guise of that "humanitarian cargo".

Actually, each time a "humanitarian convoy" would come into the Ukraine, the militants renewed their military operations with renewed vigor - and renewed supplies in munition and military equipment.

Of course, Dr. Liza claimed that she was bringing a cargo for "both sides of the conflict" and that the Red Cross "refused to help" in a situation of a humanitarian emergency.

There appears to be a lot of unreported history in these reports. 

From 2014 to 2016, Dr. Liza was repeatedly given support by Putin's administration to get into the Ukraine in order to get out Ukranian children without permission of Ukranian authorities, there are multiple reports about that in the media, see here, and here - where it is reported that the Ukranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs prohibited taking Ukranian children out of the country without official permission from Ukranian authorities.

Dr. Liza still continued to illegally take Ukranian children out of the country and, reportedly, took around 500 children out of the Ukraine through territories occupied by the militants, and the fate of these children is unknown.

In 2015, Dr. Liza was caught boasting on Twitter about the bronze roses stolen by the militants from the Donetsk public park as a gift from the Donetsk militants that she claimed was made out of artillery shells.

Elizabeth Glinka's post said, in Russian: "I was given some roses.  Two of them are cast out of a splinter of a howitzer projectile, the third - from a Grad splinter.  September 1st in Donetsk" (the links are mine, explaining what a Grad missile and a howitzer is).  The date stamp on the posting: September 1, 2015 at 5:38.

Did the two American journalists, Andrew Roth of Washington Post, and Susan Miller of USA Today, have access to information I have?

Of course.  If I did, from my home computer, they surely have more financial, communications and logistical resources to dig information than I do.

Did they have enough time to get inquiries with the American agencies that have custody of the records pertaining to Elizabeth Glinka (from IRS to Medicaid/Medicare, the Darmouth College of Medicine in Vermont, and the immigration and licensing authorities)?  Like I did in 2014?

And to receive, like I did, responses indicating that there are NO records - none - confirming any claims that Dr. Liza made about her alleged accomplishments, education or activities in the U.S.?

Of course, not.

Not in 2 or 3 days which they considered enough to do research for a publication about "Dr. Liza".

Maybe, in the view of their employers, the story about "Dr. Liza"
was not worth the time or money to do more extensive research.

Yet, if that is their opinion, at the very least, they should not have run FALSE news.

And what they said in their publications - that Dr. Lisa received medical education and was engaged in hospice "activism" in the U.S. (the basis of her PR image in Russia) - is FALSE.

With all the chest-pounding and finger-pointing about fake news in the mainstream media, apparently, the mainstream media is starting to generate those fake news and promote them.

In January of 2017 Elizabeth Glinka was awarded, allegedly posthumously, a medal of the Russian Investigative Committee (which nobody knew existed before it was awarded to her), with an indication that the Russian Investigative Committee will continue to help Glinka's "fund" "Fair Help" "accomplish its mission" - a unique favor, considering that Russian healthcare sector is underfunded, with hospitals closing, doctors fired, and cancer patients, including people as prominent as an retired army general, killing themselves for lack of pain medication.

The Russian Investigative Committee is known to rather persecute human rights activist than promote human rights.  A medal from such an entity to an American citizen, "cherished Russian charity worker", tells volumes to a rationally thinking reader.

From my point of view, it is extremely interesting how one married couple could milk their political connections with both American and Russian authorities to the point of bringing population of Russia into a frenzy of grief over an obvious fraud, with requests to canonize "Dr. Liza", and multi-hundred-thousand people petitions, as well as applications of Russian Senators, to strip of citizenship or incarcerate a journalist who dared not to mourn Dr. Liza properly.

And, the role of the American Bar Association that appointed Glinka's husband to the position in Moscow to promote "the rule of law" in Russia, as well as American public officials, especially judges who participated in that "promotion", are extremely interesting to explore and report.

In my experience as an investigative journalist about the American legal profession, if you suspect something extremely dirty about an American judge or well-connected lawyer, you will still miss the mark - because it may turn out to be much dirtier than you could ever dare think.

I do not know whether Dr. Liza died and buried in the Novodevichiy Convent or whether the closed-coffin burial service was yet another fake PR campaign, and, as many commentators said on social media, Dr. Liza has completed her plastic surgery and retired to enjoy her spoils for the rest of her life.

And, I do not know whether Dr. Liza engaged in organ trafficking - even though that appears to be very likely judging by her many fabrications and her many qualifications, opportunity and motive - greed, which reflected itself in expensive tastes that Dr. Liza could not conceal when clutching a $2,000 bag while visiting a dying indigent patient, and while presenting herself as person putting no value.

I will continue publication of articles about the interesting connections and activities of the "Russian charity worker" American citizen Elizabeth Glinka, her husband, ABA-praised attorney, friend of judges and Governors, Gleb Glinka, and the many charities Gleb Glinka has spawned with his wife and his friends, American judges and other prominent public officials.

Apparently, Washington Post and USA Today were afraid to touch upon that sticky subject, instead resorting to report regurgitated fake news about Dr. Liza.

Which is why people in the U.S. start to believe less and less, if at all, to the corrupt mainstream media, and more and more to news reported on the social media and blogs.

As I said above, I will continue my investigation and publications about Dr. Liza and her husband, American attorney Gleb Glinka, and his American and Russian entourage.

There was actually a third (or, a first-in-time) publication, actually - in the Boston Globe.

On December 25, 2016, Boston Globe published an article "Doctor killed in Russian military plane crash had Vermont ties".

The publication mentioned that the alleged doctor described in the article was married to a Cabot, VT attorney Gleb Glinka. 

The publication said nothing whether

• "Dr. Liza" received medical education in the U.S.,
• did hospice work in the U.S.,
• had an American citizenship (that would raise all kinds of questions of what the heck she was doing on a Russian military plane going to Syria where no other foreigners or representatives of foreign press were allowed), or
• that her husband has been a director of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative in Moscow, an organization that has been, for several years,
• bridging the way to American law firms in Moscow,
• promoting pet nonprofits
• founded by American judges and, likely,
• funded by American attorneys who wanted to drum up business in front of such judges, and
• ferrying Russian and American judges back and forth between the U.S. and Russian resort destinations.

It was obvious by the timing of the publication - on the day of the crash - that the Boston Globe journalists did no fact-checking and no documentary inquiries before running their story either. 

Talking about "fake news".

I will continue covering the interesting ties of Gleb Glinka and Elisabeth Glinka to the top echelons of power in the U.S. and America and their impact on the "rule of law" in both countries.

Stay tuned.