Erik Prince Establishes Kremlin Backchannel in Seychelles Meeting with Putin Ally

| Importance: 5/10 | Status: confirmed

Erik Prince, founder of military contractor Blackwater and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, met with Putin ally Kirill Dmitriev in Seychelles to establish back channel between incoming Trump administration and Kremlin. George Nader told Dmitriev that Prince “is designated by Steve [Bannon] to meet you!” Meeting used private military contractor rather than official diplomatic channels for sensitive international negotiations. Separately, Kushner asked Russian Ambassador Kislyak if they could communicate using secure facilities at Russian Embassy, proposing to bypass U.S. intelligence entirely.

Key Actors

Erik Prince Kirill Dmitriev George Nader Steve Bannon Jared Kushner Sergey Kislyak

Tags

backchannel privatization diplomatic-bypass russian-connections blackwater kleptocracy

Sources (3)

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