Dubious

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Justice Thomas’ Wife: Why This Ginni Must Be Put Back In The Bottle Sep 15, 2022

Show notes

Is the pope trying to curtail a Vatican organization affiliated with Clarence and Ginni Thomas, right wing judges, and developing world dictators?

We're talking about Opus Dei, the Catholic Information Network, Leonard Leo, Ginni and Clarence Thomas, and incidentally in the context of this story, the Order of the Knights of Malta. If you like our content please become a patron to get our exclusive premium episodes, as well as our public episodes ad-free.

Ginni Thomas has led a life in adherence to various cults. She started with Lifespring, a self-help cult which was sued into bankruptcy in the late 1980s and early 1990s after a string of accidental deaths related to their activities. From there she worked with a series of "deprogramming" organizations which strayed into kidnapping-for-hire in their efforts to forcibly remove the relatives of wealthy families from other cults. Today, Ginni's cult is the assortment of far-right American political interests which use her husband's name and influence to try and coalesce into a singular political vision. One of those interests is a secretive organization of wealthy Catholic donors named Opus Dei, which was also featured in Dan Brown's novel The DaVinci Code. 1

Opus Dei was formed during the Spanish Civil War by a priest named Josemaría Escrivá. From its outset, it has been an advocate of far-right governments, from Franco's Spain to various military dictatorships in South America. They were rumored to be involved in the Argentine military dictatorship during the Falklands War, which indirectly caused the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, after which that bank's chairman Roberto Calvi was found hanging from the Blackfriar Bridge in London with bricks in his pockets and $14,000 in cash in his jacket. The bricks signified his rumored membership in another secret organization: the Masonic lodge Propaganda Due.

In America, Opus Dei is behind money which flows into far-right political causes, particularly those related to the appointment of federal judges. The organization's American functions are run by a man named Leonard Leo, who was Trump's primary judicial consultant. Leo was also a consultant to the George W. Bush administration on the selection of justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts. 2

The Order of the Knights of Malta are unfortunate victims in this story. The current pope stuck them with the most prominent far-right priest in America, Cardinal Raymond Burke, when he demoted that priest from the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's equivalent of a supreme court back in 2014. The pope fired Burke again and reinstated Albrecht von Boeselager, the former chancellor of the Order who Burke and its Grand Master had purged for distributing condoms and morning-after birth control pills in the Myanmar region.

More recently, the pope has ordered all vatican organizations to deposit their funds into the Vatican Bank within the next 30 days, and demoted the chief clergy officer in Opus Dei from a bishop to a priest. The pope has also widely banned the Latin mass, another favorite cultural argument of Cardinal Burke. Perhaps the pope is curtailing Opus Dei specifically? 3

Episode #Dubimeter: 15

1. The Long Crusade of Clarence and Ginni Thomas. The New York Times Magazine. February 2022. ⇤

2. A Conservative activist's behind-the-scenes campaign to remake the nation's courts. The Washington Post. May 2019. ⇤

3. Christian Right Seeks Renewal in Deepening Catholic-Protestant Alliance. Political Research Associates. July 2013. ⇤

The End Of An Era and The New King For Climate: What’s Next For The British Monarchy? Sep 09, 2022

Show notes

After 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Windsor passed away at 96, surrounded by her family at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

Whether you’re a monarchist or not, you have to admit that Elizabeth Regina II – Lilibet et as Prince Phillip used to call her - was a magnificent monarch and also a most capable and beloved mother figure for the British people. She was also The United Kingdom's longest reigning monarch. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our bonus episodes and our public episodes ad-free. 1, 2

Now, the UK has a new king: King Charles III. Camilla became Queen Consort and William, the heir to the throne, is now Duke of Cornwall and will become Duke of Windsor. Prince George is second in line to the throne.

When her father George VI died in February 1952, Elizabeth—then 25 years old—became queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (known today as Sri Lanka), as well as Head of the Commonwealth. During her reign, she had 15 Prime Ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss.

The Queen’s coronation in 1953 and her marriage to Prince Phillip, the birth of her 4 children (King Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew Duke of York and Prince Edward Earl of Wessex), the celebrations of her Silver, Golden, Diamond, and Platinum jubilees in 1977, 2002, 2012, and 2022, are some of the important milestones of her life. She had several residences: Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Balmoral Castle, Holyrood Place, Sandringham Estate, and Hillsborough Castle. King Charles also has several homes: Clarence House, Highgrove, Birkhall and Llwynywermod.

King Charles III has a passion for gardening, plants and green spaces and was way ahead of his time with his care for the environment, a worry he expressed in his 1970 speech in which he warns about plastic, pollution and the dangers of climate change. He also loves sustainable architecture and built an eco-town called Pundbury on the outskirts of Dorchester, in Dorset. He enjoys organic farming and products, which he has been growing since before the word “organic” became fashionable. 3, 4, 5,

1. Anneta Konstantindes. American tourists once met the Queen and had no idea who she was — so she played a joke on them. Business Insider India. June 2022. ⇤

2. British Royal Films Youtube channel. Queen Elizabeth cracks a joke!. Youtube. March 2009. ⇤

3. The Royal Family Youtube channel. The Prince of Wales reflects on 50 years since his first speech on the environment. Youtube. February 2020. ⇤

4. Royal Institue of British Architects Facebook page. Next month marks 30 years since Prince Charles’s (in)famous ‘Carbuncle’ speech.... Facebook. April 2014. ⇤

5. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the 150th anniversary of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Royal Gala Evening at Hampton Court Palace. Prince of Wales Official Website. May 1984. ⇤

The Purge: What’s Going On at CNN? Sep 08, 2022

Show notes

New masters, new direction: CNN fired Brian Stelter and cancelled his show Reliable Sources (which was on the air for 30 years) and then, on September 2nd, John Harwood, was pushed out the door as well.

Cable News Network was the brainchild of Ted Turner and it was based on a revolutionary concept at the time, a concept that changed the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. CNN was the world’s first 24-hour television news network, and it made its debut on June 1st 1980 from its HQ in Atlanta Georgia.

As we said in the intro, in its first years of operation, CNN lost money and was ridiculed as the Chicken Noodle Network but they started growing, covering events all over the world LIVE and their audience grew. If you like our content, please become a patron.

John Malone is a right-leaning billionaire libertarian, close friend of the Murdoch family, and key Warner Bros Discovery board member. In 2021, CNN at AT&T spined off and combined Warner Media with Discovery, so now CNN is a Warner Bros Discovery WBD entity. And with this change of corporate hands, came a new board and .. new masters.

Both Brian Stelter and John Harwood described Donald Trump as a “demagogue” in their last appearances on the network. 1, 2

John Malone, a Fox News fan and Trump donor, has deep and longstanding ties with David Zaslav, the CEO of WBD. In an interview with CNBC in 2021, John Malone said, “I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing.” 3

He proposed a model:

“Fox News, in my opinion, has followed an interesting trajectory of trying to have ‘news’ news, I mean some actual journalism, embedded in a program schedule of all opinions.” Hen also said, according to Vox, that “a time of change” is coming..

Is CNN turning into Fox News Light? Malone has denied he is “directly involved” in any decisions about CNN, but multiple current and former staffers who spoke to journalists are indicating that Malone is indirectly dictating an agenda to Chris Licht, the newly installed CNN boss. 4

1. Brian Stelter. Brian Stelter speaks about cancellation of his CNN show 'Reliable Sources'. Youtube. August 2022. ⇤

2. Ramon Antonio Vargas. Correspondent abruptly leaves CNN after calling Trump a ‘demagogue’. The Guardian. September 2022. ⇤

3. Amanda Northrop. Why billionaire John Malone’s shadow looms over CNN. Vox. August 2022. ⇤

4. Adam Parkhomenko. Tweet: The new head of CNN met with Congressional Republicans and is now checking off their to do list. Twitter. September 2022. ⇤

Anna de Rothschild, The Fake Russian Speaking Heiress Who Infiltrated Mar A Lago: Is She A Spy? Aug 30, 2022

Show notes

The FBI's investigation into Inna Yashchyshyn, a woman with 4 passports and suspicious background, who befriended Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham, and mingled with 45’s most inner circle.

Inna Yashchyshyn, who presented herself as fake heiress Anna de Rothschild, was born in Ukraine, has American, Canadian, Russian and Ukrainian passports and a Florida driver’s license and the authorities have no idea when she entered the country. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our premium bonus episodes, as well as our public episodes ad-free. 1

Obviously, Inna Yashchyshyn is no member of the famous Rothschild banking dynasty but under that assumed persona she managed to infiltrate Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida residence – where top secret HUMINT and SIGNALS intelligence were illegally kept in an unsecured room, with just a lock on the door.

The timing of fake banking dynasty heiress Anna de Rothschild’s presence at Mar-A-Lago, where she played gold with Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham and ingratiated herself into the former’s president inner circle, is suspicious: she first started to go there in May 2021.

According to the New York Times, the CIA sent a top secret cable to chiefs of station – in all countries - warning them that too many agents were dying or were being turned into double agents.. So they should be extremely cautious. The cable said that the CIA knew exactly how many were executed but they have no idea how many were turned. 2

Inna Yashchyshyn is the daughter of an Illinois truck driver, which makes her marriage to her now ex-husband Sergey Golubev even more dubious: he said she married her to get a green card. 3

The FBI is also looking into her charity, United Hearts of Mercy, after the Sûreté du Québec Police Provincielle du Canada have launched investigations into Yashchyshyn’s dealings too, also related to this foundation which claims to help immigrant families. In fact, this was a money laundering scam. Stripe, the money processing app, suspected fraud and halted the funds for the campaign – a campaign which was also supposed to help families devastated by the COVID pandemic.

The United Hearts Charity of which Inna Yashchyshyn was president, was founded together with Valeriy Tarasenko, a Moscow-raised businessman who also has a very unclear background. 4

In this episode we discuss the possibility of Inna Yashchyshyn being a spy, knowing the honey pot strategy is used by foreign intelligence services such as Putin’s SVR and GRU.

1. Michael Sallah, Jonathan Silver, Kevin Hall, and Brian Fitzpatrick. Inventing Anna: The Tale of a Fake Heiress, Mar-a-Lago, and an FBI Investigation. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. August 2022. ⇤

2. Julian E. Barnes and Adam Goldman. Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants. New York Times. October 2021. ⇤

3. Harriet Alexander and Nikki Schwab. Ex-husband of Ukrainian fraudster who posed as de Rothschild heiress to infiltrate Mar-a-Lago and meet Trump: Says former wife - who faces FBI probe 'needed a green card'. Daily Mail. August 2022. ⇤

4. Inna Yashchyshyn. United Hearts of Mercy - Facebook Non-Profit Page. Facebook. October 2016. ⇤

Hushpuppi: Scamfluencer Extraordinaire and Uncrowned King of the Yahoo Boys Aug 25, 2022

Show notes

Known by his millions of followers as the Billionaire Gucci Master, Ramon Abbas started his rags to riches fraudster career in Nigeria, evolving from phishing emails to defrauding international banks and corporations of $350 M.

There are influencers, there are scammers, there are scamfluencers and then there is the godfluencer: Hushpuppi. We're discussing the rise of Ramon from the internet cafes of Lagos, Nigeria to the penthouse suites of the Palazzo Versace in Dubai... and predictably eventually to a US prison. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our two premium episodes every month, as well as our public episodes ad-free.

Hushpuppi and his co-conspirators in various email phishing scams: Samson Oyekunle, Vincent Chibuzo, and Abdul-Rahman Juma, Ghaleb Alaumary, and Nigeria's "super cop" Abba Kyari, perpetrated email frauds throughout the world, from middle-man banks in Mexico to compromised accounts in an investment bank in Malta, and even to the French equivalent of the US Securities Exchange Commission, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, and English Premiere League football clubs. 1, 2, 3

Team Hush wasn't one of those small time Nigerian Prince email scam crews. They were talented social engineers capable of talking their "magas", Nigerian slang for "gullible marks" out of hundreds of thousands of dollars per transaction. Rather than rely on cold-emailing millions of people they would insert themselves into corporate and government email networks, and then observe their day to day transactions to custom-design scams that would fly under an accounting auditor's radar.

WIth the ill-gotten money Hushpuppi lived large: a penthouse in Dubai, helicopter rides around the Greek Isles, private jet rides to his destinations, and multi-hundred thousand dollar watches and cars. He was even a guest of the Louis Vuitton PR department at Fashion Week in Paris, and "customer of the year" in the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Versace store. 4

When he was finally arrested by Dubai police (who also documented their swat raid on Hushpuppi's penthouse for social media in a highly over-produced video), dozens of phones and laptos were seized along with 7 million dollars in cars and 40 million dollars in cash. 5

And old habits die hard, most recently a new charge has been added to Hushpuppi's rap sheet in the US. The FBI has charged him with obtaining $430,000 dollars in fraudulent COVID relief loans granted to victims of identity theft, after which Hushpuppi would sell the debit cards containing the loan funds that were sent out by the US Government.

Episode #DubiMeter = 11

1. Evan Ratliff. The Fall of the Billionaire Gucci Master. Bloomberg. June 2021. ⇤

2. Evan Ratliff and William Clowes. How Instagram’s ‘Billionaire Gucci Master’ Sank Nigeria’s Super Cop. Bloomberg. February 2022. ⇤

3. Ivan Martin. How BOV hackers got away with €13 million. Times of Malta. February 2019. ⇤

4. Segun Adewole. How Hushpuppi bought Richard Mille wristwatch worn on Instagram. Punch. July 2021. ⇤

5. Dubai Media Office Twitter account. Hushpuppi arrest video. Twitter. June 2020. ⇤

Mini Dubisode: The Car Bomb Assassination of Darya Dugina - Who Ordered The Hit? Aug 22, 2022

Show notes

After the Toyota Land Cruiser Daria Dugina was driving exploded on a road 20 miles west of Moscow and burst into flames, Russia has opened a murder investigation into her assassination.

According to TASS, When Dugina "turned onto the Mozhaiskoye road near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemi, there was an explosion, the car caught fire immediately. Forensic experts, investigators and experts in explosive engineering are inspecting the scene and they have found or concluded that approximately 400 grams of TNT were used to cause the explosion. If you like our content please become a patron to get our premium episodes and our public episodes ad-free. 1

Daria’s father is Alexander Dugin, a right wing extremist and ultranationalist, is the figure who “inspired” and advised Putin to invade Ukraine. He helped lay the ideological foundation for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and is referred to as “Putin’s brain” or “the architect of the Ukraine invasion”. He allegedly is Putin’s spiritual advisor, based on his roots in the orthodox church. 2

Darya Dugina’s father invented the concept of Eurasianism – a new flavor of fascism. He is to Putin what Steve Bannon / Alex Jones is to Trump.

In March 2022, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Daria Dugina for her contribution to an article on the United World International website suggesting that Ukraine would "perish" if it is admitted to NATO. Dugina was UWI's chief editor. She also claimed that the atrocities of Bucha were American propaganda, chosen because of the phonological similarity to "butcher," a word she linked to US President Biden calling Putin a "butcher" earlier in March. 3

We are considering three theories regarding who’s behind the assassination of Darya Dugina, based on one simple question: who stands to gain from her death?

Ukraine did it – we explain why that is not the case, in fact this is the last thing Ukraine would do

An inside Russian opposition faction did it to destabilize Putin’s regime and cause unrest – this theory doesn’t hold water either in our opinion.

Putin’s FSB did it, on his orders as he did with the Moscow apartment bombings, the Moscow theater hostage crisis, Litvinenko, Boris Nemtsov and Anna Politkovskaya.

What would Putin stand to gain?

Re-energizing popular support for his continued invasion of Ukraine
A pretext to escalate tragedies in Ukraine
A pretext to justify those war crimes and attacks, as being payback or a response to this assassination – to his people and to the western leaders, United Nations etc
Creating a martyr, a new symbol to galvanize the troops
An opportunity for him to make some strong worded statements, to come out as a powerful, strong leader who has to double down on killing Ukrainians to keep his own people safe
Lastly, a great opportunity to use the grieving father, Aleksandr Dugin, the architect of the war in Ukraine, as a megaphone for his propaganda serving his political goals.

Episode #DubiMeter 9.5

1. Russia Opens Murder Investigation After Blast Kills Daughter of Putin Ally. New York Times. August 2022. ⇤

2. Mohammed Tawfeeq, Josh Pennington, Jonny Hallam and Tara John. Car bomb kills daughter of 'spiritual guide' to Putin's Ukraine invasion. CNN. August 2022. ⇤

3. Annabelle Timsit and Rachel Pannett. A Putin ally’s daughter was killed near Russia’s capital. Washington Post. August 2022. ⇤

The Staircase 2.0: The Unusual Circumstances of Ivana Trump’s Death And Her Golf Course Burial Aug 18, 2022

Show notes

On July 14, 45’s first wife was found at the bottom of the stairs, unconscious and unresponsive in her Manhattan home.

On July 20 her body was laid to rest at Donald Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club in what some described as a “pauper’s grave”, not far from the first hole. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our premium episodes, as well as our public episodes ad-free.

Mother of Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric, Ivana Trump was 73 years old. An employee found her and called 911 at 1:40 pm. The autopsy was conducted in less than 24 hours and her death was ruled “an accident”, the official cause of death being “blunt force trauma to her torso”. 1

She deserves to be remembered not only as Trump’s first wife. She was a New York socialite, model and author but she was also an athlete who made the Czech skiing Olympics team. Ivana Trump was her own person: a mother, an author, fashion designer and New York socialite.

In the first half we focus on Ivana’s life before she met Donald Trump, as there are some tragic aspects like the death of the man she loved, George Staidl, a playwright and lyricist who died in a car crash, and her fourth husband, Italian actor Rossano Rubicondi who passed away at 49 with melanoma (a type of skin cancer).

Ivana Maria Zelnickova was an educated woman with a master’s degree in Physical Education and she was a fighter: she fled from communism in her native country (then Czechoslovakia, part of the USSR) and built a new life for herself, starting off in Canada and then immigrating here, to the United States.

In the second half we discuss the details of her death and the timing. Ivana passed away on July 14. Donald Trump and his three adult children were going be deposed the next day, separately, as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation into the Trump Organization. The depositions were postponed.

We also discuss her golf course burial in an austere grave and the attempt by Donal Trump to designate the area as a cemetery to get a tax break. A cemetery in New Jersey avoids property, income, and sales tax, the holy tax trinity. 2, 3

Donald Trump is also selling an “eternal membership” for the Bedminster National Golf Club: people play to play and when they pass, they can be buried close to Ivana if they pay extra. 4

Ivana also loved dogs. Funeral guests and others, in lieu of flowers, were asked to donate to Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Florida and to “help save the lives of dogs that are in desperate need.” The charity was picked by her ex-husband and children, and this seems to be another of Trump’s schemes where the money is not really going where they say it’s going.

Ivana’s own dog, Tiger, is now living with her assistant.

Episode #DubiMeter = 9

1. Kanishka Singh and Daniel Trotta. Ivana Trump, First Wife of Donald Trump Who Helped Build his Empire, Dies at 73. Reuters. July 2022. ⇤

2. Hamish Mitchell Twitter account. Tweet: Pics of Ivana Trump's Grave. Twitter. July 2022. ⇤

3. Edward Helmore. Will Ivana Help Donald Trump with Tax Breaks from Beyond the Grave?. The Guardian. July 2022. ⇤

4. Sinéad Baker and Tom Porter. Trump's PAC Asked Fans to Donate Money While Announcing His Ex-wife Ivana's Death. Business Insider. July 2022. ⇤

The Merchant of Death: Who is Viktor Bout? Aug 11, 2022

Show notes

A translator and spy turned international arms dealer, Viktor Bout is to be part of a proposed prisoner swap between the US and Russia for the return of Americans Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.

Griner was found guilty on drug smuggling charges by a Russian court, and convicted to 9 years in a penal colony after 1 milligram of cannabis oil, prescribed by her American doctor, was found in her vaping pen in her luggage in Moscow. The charges are obviously a political play by Putin in response to Ukraine sanctions. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our extra premium episodes every month, as well as our public episodes ad-free. 1

Trevor Reed, a former marine who was also imprisoned in Russia after allegedly attacking a policeman, another Kremlin fabricated story, was recently released in a successful prisoner swap and he said that Brittney Griner will experience "serious threats" to her health if she is sent to a labor camp.

Moscow asked for a second Russian to be added to the mix for this proposed swap, an FSB agent, Vadim Krasikov, a Russian spy / murderer, who was convicted in Germany for carrying out a killing on behalf of Russia, an act the judges called “state terrorism.”

It is hard to separate fact from fiction in Bout’s resume. He’s believed to have been born in 1967 in then-Soviet Tajikistan. He studied as a linguist at Moscow-based Soviet Military Institute for Foreign Languages, a training school for officers, diplomats, and in many cases, spies. He learned Portuguese and he then started his career with the Red Army as a translator in Angola. 2

When the Soviet Union broke up, arms were scattered across the 15 new nations created by the dissolution, especially Bulgaria. These countries had neither the money to pay an army nor the infrastructure to keep the weapons they’d inherited. Viktor saw an opportunity. He assembled a fleet of ex-Soviet cargo planes, massive Antonov and Ilyushin aircraft, and began shipping arms and other goods all over the world. He set up a freight charter in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and soon became the inspiration for Lord of War, an exceptional movie featuring Eamonn Walker, Nicholas Cage, Jared Leto and Ethan Hawke. Bout kept company with African warlords and dictators such as Jean-Pierre Bemba, Masavenya and Jonas Savimbi.

After 9/11, the US needed scapegoats and Bout fit the bill. By entrapment, he was captured in Bangkok, Thailand and extradited to the US where he was convicted of aiding terrorists. The judge's opinion coincides with ours: “Until DEA went after Bout, he had not committed a crime chargeable in an American court in all his years as an arms dealer. And but for the DEA approach made through this determined sting operation, there is no reason to believe that Bout would have ever committed the charges brought against him.” 3, 4

Merchant of Death DubiMiter – 9.5

1. Mike Eckel. Merchant Of Death. Lord Of War. The McDonald's Of Arms Trafficking: Who Is Viktor Bout?. Radio Free Europe. August 2022. ⇤

2. The Notorious Mr. Bout. Market Road Films. January 2014. ⇤

3. Benjamin Weiser and Colin Moynihan. Conduit to Arms Sting, a Star Witness Apologizes for His Crimes. New York Times. May 2012. ⇤

4. United States of America v. Viktor Bout. International Crimes Database. February 2012. ⇤

The Queen's Mother In Law: Princess Alice and Her Incredible Life Story Aug 04, 2022

Show notes

Born congenitally deaf and wrongly regarded as “slow” on account of her disability, Princess Alice of Battenberg chose a life of service to the poor and marginalized.

Despite the many tragedies in her life she volunteered to help the wounded in WW1 and WW2, she almost got arrested by the Gestapo for saving Jewish families during the Holocaust, became a nun, was sterilized by Sigmund Freud after erroneously being diagnosed as a schizophrenic and died poor, after selling all her jewelry and possessions to help those less fortunate. If you like our content, please become a patron to unlock our premium episodes ad-free.

Princess Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie of Battenberg of Greece and Denmark was the mother of Prince Philip, and mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II. A great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alice was born in Windsor Castle on Feb 25th 1885 and grew up in Great Britain, Germany and Malta. A Hessian princess by birth, she was a member of the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Despite the stigma attached to her illness, she learned to lip-read and speak in English, German and French by the time she was 8 years old.

After her marriage, Princess Alice became involved in charity work, while her husband Prince Andrew continued his career in the military. In 1908, she visited Russia for the wedding of Grand Duchess Marie of Russia and Prince William of Sweden. While there, she talked with her aunt Grand duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna who was at the time working on plans for the foundation of a religious order of nurses.

In 1913, King George V awarded her the Royal Red Cross in for her service helping the wounded. Princess Alice and her children were forced to shelter in the palace cellars during the bombardment of Athens by the French on 1 December 1916. They had to escape unrest in Greece twice, very traumatic experiences for her. 1

In France, Princess Alice became active in a charity organization for Greek refugees. She became deeply religious and, in October 1928, converted to the Greek Orthodox Church. Then her mental health started declining and Princess Alice was forcibly removed from her family and placed in an asylum, Sigmund Freud recommended “X-raying her ovaries in order to kill off her libido" and induce early menopause as treatment for “schizophrenia”.

During WW2 she sheltered Jewish refugees, including the Cohen family, and helped them escape death, and for this she is recognised as “Righteous Among The Nations” by Israel's Holocaust memorial institution, Yad Vashem. In 2010, the Princess Alice was posthumously named a Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government.

Her nursing order of nuns was named Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary. Princess Alice was also a chain smoker and played canasta.

She passed away at Buckingham Palace on December 5 1969. She left no possessions, as she had given everything away to the poor.

Initially her remains were placed in the Royal Crypt in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, but before she died she had expressed her wish to be buried at the Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Ghethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem near her beloved aunt Elizabeth who was made a Russian orthodox saint, we think Princess Alice should be made one too. 2

1. Philip Chrysopoulos. Princess Alice, Philip’s Mother, and Her Life of Philanthropy in Greece. Greek Reporter. July 2022. ⇤

2. Timeline Documentaries. The Other Queen Mother: The Forgotten WW2 Hero: The Queen's Mother in Law. Youtube. August 2018. ⇤

Putin’s Private Life: The Wife, The Children, and The Girlfriends Jul 28, 2022

Show notes

All about the secretive private life of Vladimir Putin: his wives, girlfriends, children, and how they fit into his empire.

If you like our content, please become a patron to get our premium episodes and our public episodes ad free!

In this episode we put together the puzzle that is Putin’s private life. We discuss his first marriage with Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Ocheretnaya (ex Putina), their honeymoon in Ukraine, the birth of their two daughters that Mariya Vladimirovna Vorontsova and Katerina (or Yekaterina) Tikhonova – Masha and Katya, the divorce of Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila. 1

We also look into their post separation relationships: Lyudmila as since remarried a Russian entrepreneur/oligarch 21 years her junior named Artur Ocheretny and Putin has had a series of relationships, the first with Svetlana Krivonogikh, a shareholder in a major Russian bank, who also owns the elite property and a St Petersburg erotic nightspot. They allegedly have a child together, 18 years old Luiza Rozova (Elizaveta Krivonogikh). He then met and allegedly secretly married gymnast Alina Maratovna Kabaeva (also named Kabayeva by some sources). They allegedly have for children together, who are now living in Switzerland with their mother. 2

All of this leads to our episode about how friends and family of the Putins do not just jet set to ski resorts in the Swiss Alps, but also play crucial roles in overseeing the family wealth which is controlled by the state, and guarded by the FSB.

1. Laurel Wamsley. Putin's Daughters Were Just Sanctioned. Here's What We Know About Them. NPR. April 2022. ⇤

2. Vladimir Putin's 'Girlfriend' Sparks New Pregnancy Rumours. Telegraph. May 2015. ⇤

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