By Riley Waggaman, Substack, 6/14/24

On June 3, US Customs and Border Protection officers seized Scott Ritter’s passport as he was boarding a flight to Istanbul en route to Russia. The former UN weapons inspector was booked to speak at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum before embarking on a 40-day tour of Russia organized by Alexander Zyryanov, the head of the Novosibirsk Region Development Corporation.

Zyryanov was also prevented from traveling to St. Petersburg: The Novosibirsk FSB arrested him just a few hours before Ritter was supposed to fly out of JFK International Airport.

While the confiscation of Ritter’s passport has received extensive coverage in alternative media (and rightfully so), there is a conspicuous lack of discussion in independent media about Zyryanov’s curiously timed detention.

I hope that this blog post will help remedy this odd information blackout.

— Riley

“We want to have you as our guest”

How did a businessman from Novosibirsk come to be Ritter’s point man in Russia?

In a July 5, 2023 interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, Zyryanov said he had been following Ritter for the “last 2-3 years” and decided to contact him upon learning of Ritter’s “dream” of visiting Russia:

I wrote him a letter saying, “Scott, I invite you, I will show you Russia without embellishment, as it really is. We want to have you as our guest.”

And he replied that he really wanted to come, but it would be difficult. He wrote: “It will be very difficult for me to live in America if I just fly. But if my book about the history of relations between America and the USSR during the disarmament of the 80s was published in Russia, then it would be easier for me, there would be fewer complaints from the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI and everyone else.”

He sent his book in English. Our professional translators translated it, and then I spent six months looking for where to publish it. And so I went to the Komsomolskaya Pravda Publishing House. They successfully released the book, met Scott and took him to 12 cities and regions of Russia.

Zyryanov paid for everything himself. He claims he sold his “empty apartment” to finance the book’s publication and Ritter’s 12-city tour.

Ritter’s March 2023 trip was followed by even more ambitious plans: Zyryanov told Komsomolskaya Pravda that he was working with Ritter to bring influential Americans to Russia, including Tucker Carlson (who later traveled to Moscow to interview Putin in February of this year).

Ritter returned to Russia at the end of December. During his 24-day trip, he gave numerous interviews to Russian media, and recounted his visits to Chechnya, Crimea, Zaporozhe, Kherson, Lugansk, and Donetsk in a series of articles published by RT.

While Ritter was making splashes in Russian media, Zyryanov was reaching English-language audiences. With the help of an interpreter, he appeared alongside Ritter on Andrew Napolitano’s “Judging Freedom” program on January 11. A week later, he participated in a special edition of Ritter’s “Ask the Inspector” livestream.

“He’s like Tom Cruise in Hollywood,” Zyryanov said of Ritter while answering questions on “Ask the Inspector” about their time together in Russia.

Within four months of Ritter’s return to the US, Zyryanov had already organized another—and even more ambitious—tour of Russia for his American friend. On May 23, Ritter revealed that he would soon embark on an “epic journey” across the Russian Federation:

The announcement included a slideshow highlighting Ritter’s close friendship with Zyryanov.

“Friendship is the glue that holds relationships together, whether it be among nations or between individuals. […] I will be returning to Russia in June and July to continue the project of friendship that Alexander and I embarked on last year.”

A week later, Ritter began marketing a “challenge coin” with proceeds “going to help fund the costs associated with the making of a three-part documentary film, Waging Peace, which covers the three journey’s undertaken by Scott Ritter in his search for the Russian soul and the ‘real’ Russia.” The coin featured Ritter, his podcast co-host Jeff Norman, and Zyryanov.

If you visit ScottRitter.com you can still purchase the coin for $50—but you will not find any mention of the arrest of his “dear friend” who is prominently featured on the collectable. You will have to look elsewhere for that information.

“What kind of bribe are we talking about here?”

Zyryanov was arrested on June 3 and charged with taking a bribe in the form of “various services”.

Prosecutors claim he asked two businessmen to pay 9.5 million rubles to promote a film festival hosted by the Development Corporation. In return, they purportedly received “priority” contracts worth over 60 million rubles. Zyryanov is accused of using the arrangement to receive “personal PR” in the media.

Zyryanov expressed bafflement at the charges brought against him, noting that the film festival in question was intended as a Putin reelection campaign event that had been approved by both the Kremlin and the Central Election Commission. He told reporters who came to his court hearing:

How can it be a bribe to hold an event, namely the Family Film Festival, agreed upon by the presidential administration, approved by the election headquarters of a candidate for head of state and held under an agreement with the Central Election Commission? The media coverage did not contain information about my identity. As part of the festival, we showed 53 films to city residents, more than 3,000 spectators attended the event. What kind of bribe are we talking about here? I’ve held dozens of events, including sports and culture. Four times I organized the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Northern Military District, which was financed by businessmen. Can this also be considered a bribe?

Zyryanov isn’t the only VIP who has been targeted by the Novosibirsk FSB in recent weeks. His arrest coincided with the detention of several other high-profile businessmen and politicians in Novosibirsk, prompting media speculation that Zyryanov had fallen victim to an “intra-elite” feud ahead of next year’s regional elections.

At his arraignment hearing, Zyryanov denied his guilt and claimed that his arrest by the FSB Directorate for the Novosibirsk Region had been “ordered” by “one of the regional leaders”.

“Since November, they have been hinting to me that it would be a good idea to leave my position, because one of the leaders of the region is interested in promoting his protégé,” the head of the Development Corporation told reporters.

As one local media outlet explained:

In March, immediately after the end of the presidential campaign, the security forces revived the temporarily subdued machine of arrests of Novosibirsk officials , deputies, representatives of government and para-government structures. The number of arrests went into dozens when on the morning of June 3, law enforcement officers came for those involved in new criminal cases, among whom was the head of the Novosibirsk Region Development Corporation, Alexander Zyryanov.

The interests of several influential alliances converge and collide in the region. […] The claim that we are witnessing a conflict among elites is clearly supported by the words of Alexander Zyryanov himself at his court hearing, although he did not utter the name of the Chairman of the Legislative Assembly Andrei Shimkiv or Governor Andrei Travnikov. The head of the Corporation simply said: “since November they hinted that it would be a good idea to leave my position, because one of the leaders of the region wanted his protégé to take it.”

[…]

The development corporation works with commercial structures and is focused on attracting investment to the region. On March 15 and 16—that is, on the days of voting for the President of Russia—the organization hosted a film festival, Family Traditions, at the Pobeda cinema. What is the connection between investments, elections and this event? The connection is that the re-elected Vladimir Putin declared 2024 the Year of the Family, and the Development Corporation organized a film festival in support of the presidential nomination and presented it in advance at a meeting of the election headquarters.

Overcoming the demographic crisis is one of the government’s priorities. The business and political community in the region is asking the question: what did the Development Corporation do wrong by attracting private “partners” in support of the “Year of the Family”? By opening a domain with the self-explanatory name “family-filmfestival.rf”, you can read: “2024 has been declared the Year of the Family and the Novosibirsk Region Development Corporation supports this initiative, therefore, together with its partners, it is organizing a festival where all family members will find something to their liking.”

Local media also collected reactions from regional politicians who expressed support for Zyryanov and puzzlement over the allegations against him.

Russian news reports about Zyryanov’s arrest pointed to the fact that the businessman had personally traveled to East Ukraine to deliver supplies to Russian troops.

Zyryanov will remain in pre-trial detention until August 2. The court denied his request for house arrest so that he could take care of his 78-year-old mother, who is recovering from two strokes. His alleged co-conspirators in the case were released.

“This is an internal Russian thing, none of my business”

Ritter has remained tight-lipped about his “dear friend’s” arrest, choosing either to ignore his detention altogether or employ ambiguous language while mentioning it in passing.

In his first media appearance after having his passport seized, Ritter had the following exchange with Andrew Napolitano:

Napolitano: Was I with you?

Ritter: No, you weren’t. Actually, you weren’t with me because I made a phone call to you earlier in the morning recommending that you not travel to Russia. And it had nothing to do with what happened to me and everything to do with what happened to our sponsor, Alexander Zyryanov, who from my standpoint tragically was placed under arrest in Novosibirsk on his way to St. Petersburg.

Here’s the clip: [Clip available at original article]

Ritter suggested returning to this topic later. They never did.

Hours later, Ritter participated in a livestream with his podcast co-host Jeff Norman.

About 25 minutes into their discussion, Ritter decided to promote a “challenge coin” (featuring Zyryanov’s portrait) that he was selling to raise funds for his trip to Russia:

This coin is not a symbol of a failed trip. This coin is now the symbol of resistance. This is the resistance coin … We need a war chest. We need to raise money so that we can do this trip. […] The Russian government is 100% behind us. They want this project to succeed. They believe in this project. They have affirmed that.

But Ritter made no mention of Zyryanov’s arrest.

Here’s the clip: [Clip available at original article]

Fifteen minutes later into the livestream, Ritter confirmed that he had advised Andrew Napolitano against flying to Russia—but said he wasn’t in a position to explain why:

This morning I called the judge and recommended that the judge not get on the airplane. There’s reasons for that and I’ll address those later when I’m able to address those. It has nothing to do with me or the judge or this trip.

The clip: [Clip available at original article]

Ritter’s most forthright comments about Zyryanov were made in a discussion with Jimmy Dore published on June 5:

The tour that I was going to take with the documentary film crew is sponsored by a Russian who I consider to be a very close friend, Alexander Zyryanov, and he’s the director of what’s known as the investment development agency of Novosibirsk. Yesterday morning I got a notification that he was arrested and charged with corruption. He denies the charges. This is an internal Russian thing, none of my business.

Here’s the clip: [Clip available at original article]

On June 11, RT.com published an article by Ritter that mentioned his Russia adventures with Zyryanov. An uninformed reader might deduce from the article that Zyryanov was a free man walking around Novosibirsk as happy as a clam.

If RT is your #1 place for Questioning More, you would never know that Zyryanov was arrested because RT’s coverage of Ritter being prevented from traveling to Russia makes no mention of the fact that Ritter’s Russian sponsor was arrested by the FSB.

My scientific research (“watching Scott Ritter livestreams”) ended on June 9 so if there have been relevant updates since then please let me know in the comments section and provide a link and the timestamp and I will update this blog post accordingly.

I have also searched in vain for an official statement from Ritter about Zyryanov’s arrest, but have turned up absolutely nothing. But again, I vow to promptly update this blog post if someone can point me to such a statement.

A few closing thoughts.

What the heck is going on here?

I have a few questions.

1. If Zyryanov’s arrest has “nothing to do” with Ritter, why is it that the Novosibirsk businessman was arrested just hours before Ritter and Napolitano were scheduled to board a flight to Russia, causing Ritter to panic and urge Napolitano to cancel his trip to St. Petersburg? The timing is mere coincidence?
2. Ritter uses his friendship with Zyryanov to promote his “message of peace” and encourage US-Russia rapprochement. You could even say that Zyryanov is a key part of the “Ritter brand”. Their relationship is supposed to serve as an example for Washington and Moscow. So how exactly is Zyryanov’s arrest “none of Ritter’s business”? That makes zero sense.
3. If Ritter doesn’t want to involve himself in an “internal Russia thing”—even if this “thing” involves his “dear friend” being arrested for highly dubious reasons—maybe he shouldn’t be selling coins featuring Zyryanov’s portrait? By doing so he is making Zyryanov his “business” in the most literal sense of the word. Or no? What am I missing here?
4. If Ritter still has the “full support” of the Russian government, is he doing everything in his power behind the scenes to secure the release of his friend, and will he use his considerable social media presence to shine a light on Zyryanov’s case, which is already facing questions in Russian media?

There are about 10,000 other questions that need to be asked. For example, how is it possible that a key player Ritter’s “waging peace” campaign was tossed into prison by the FSB just hours before Ritter was slated to begin a very expensive 40-day tour of Russia?

What does this mean?

I 100% condemn the seizure of Scott Ritter’s passport. As readers of the blog know, your correspondent is not keen on passports or other forms of cattle tags.

It’s true that I very strongly disagree with Scott Ritter’s assessment of the Not-War in Ukraine, but that is totally irrelevant. He should be allowed to travel freely and say whatever he wants. Is the State Department really so frightened by Ritter’s weekly prediction that the Russian military is about to liberate Odessa? If so, that is sad.

And it is sad that two friends are being kept apart by rival spook states. Or maybe something else is going on here?

But if Ritter’s friendship with Zyryanov really is supposed to “serve as the foundation for a similar relationship between [the US and Russia]”, we are in big huge trouble.

That’s just my personal opinion, though.

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