Guest post by ROBERT KRAYCHIK
It is Cold War redux in America. People from Eastern Europe often targeted and painted as villains. In this escalating, toxic and highly polarizing narrative of Trump-Russia election meddling probe wild conspiracy theories abound. Americans of East European origin are often labeled as suspicious “Russians”, tarred by the press and reduced to spy novel caricatures. Ruthless gangs of cyberbullies and Internet trolls are now operating under the guise of zealous “citizen journalists”, often instigating their career counterparts into action. There is little fact checking and even less regard for newsworthiness of half-baked conspiracy theories.
Complicit in this red scare is our media, which often cheerleads for this deceitful narrative every chance it gets, becoming a state propaganda arm for the extreme left faction in our government. Even if you subscribe to the idea that Russia did meddle OUR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND ALTERED ITS OUTCOME, THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE OF THE RED SCARE IS TREMENDOUS AND IS UNDERMINING OUR CORE VALUES.
Russian Americans or those from Eastern Europe with names that sound Russian are often innocent victims of the anti-Russia media focus. They are noncombatants pulled into the media-driven frenzy of McCarthyite paranoia, the new red scare, or putrid yellow, so-called “journalism. As a journalist and someone whose parents immigrated from the Soviet Union, I harbor deep resentment for this type of dirty politics, and ethnic attacks.
There are many examples of what I am describing, but one recent smear campaign stood out. As I have been researching for this article, I came across several sloppy hit pieces written in rapid succession by a McClatchy DC reporter, Kevin Hall. Hall targeted a prominent California businessman with a long history of leadership in the Republican Party.
His name is Yuri Vanetik and he is a politically well-connected immigrant whose parents brought him over from the Soviet Union as a child. What struck me as particularly strange about the obvious smear stories was that they did not seem newsworthy. Other than innuendo upon innuendo and personal attacks, they seemed to be driven by inferences and disdain for Yuri’s East European heritage.
The initially article seemed to suggest that Yuri Vanetik was somehow suspicious and had dubious affiliations because his social media displayed pictures of him with powerful politicians; another “story” scraped Vanetik’s social media yet again and discussed a civil lawsuit he was involved in some 5 years ago with Farmers & Merchants Bank on behalf of another major GOP donor, and yet another suggested that he had registered under FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) for a foreign businessman from Ukraine, regurgitating various half-baked suspicions from previous articles. All were an obvious hatchet jobs, and even had they been factually accurate, were poorly written about virtually nothing. They had one thing in common: they oozed meanness and pandered to the red scare hyped by the Russia election probe.
I decided to speak with Yuri Vanetik. Vanetik was not difficult to reach and he agreed to talk to me in connection with my story after I explained that I am a journalist and that my own parents also immigrated from the USSR. Vanetik agreed to be interviewed, and albeit somewhat guardedly, responded to many of my questions. He explained that among pictures with politicians, he posted on social media pictures and information reflecting his love for nature, sports, poetry and music. I followed up with my own investigation to verify the veracity of Vanetik’s claims and explanations that the McClatchy stories were mostly factually incorrect. I was surprised to learn that in addition to ambiguous insinuations and ad hominem attacks, many of the allegations of fact in Kevin Hall’s articles were, indeed, false or distorted to mislead the reader and vilify Vanetik.
I have learned that Yuri Vanetik emigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union in the 1970s. It would be more accurate to say that his family immigrated when he was a small child. His family was from Ukraine, not Russia. If you haven’t noticed, Ukraine is fighting a war with Russia. Vanetik has been a successful businessman in multiple fields, has a law degree, and a business degree from prestigious universities in California. For many years Vanetik has been a political and civic activist, taking on multiple leadership roles in the top GOP circles. In the last several years, Vanetik has taken up the advocacy business in Washington, D.C., taking advantage of his knowledge of East European culture, his relationships in Eastern Europe, and his passion for American politics. Describing himself as a libertarian, Vanetik claims that patriotism drives his engagement in political campaigns. All this is completely normal and legal – of course.
By virtue of devoting almost 20 years to political and civic activism, Vanetik developing relationships with power brokers in D.C. and has over the years had his picture taken with prominent politicians (both republicans and democrats), again, as many Americans do. Participating in the political process and being photographed with politicians is also entirely legal.
Vanetik explained that over the years he has been involved in many businesses. Some have been successful while others did not get off the ground or eventually failed. Everyone knows that many venture backed businesses fail, and in itself this is not nefarious in any way. Occasionally, he would end up in a lawsuit. In America suing someone over a business dispute or being named in a lawsuit is not unusual and typically not newsworthy.
Yet, McClatchy’s Kevin Hall decided to paint Vanetik is a shady person with some unspecified, covert agenda. Yet, beyond insinuations, Hall offers no verifiable facts to back his efforts to smear Vanetik. Hall is listed as a financial investigative journalist, although his stories about Vanetik have nothing to do with financial investigations and show virtually no understanding of politics or business.
There was no crime, no unethical behavior, no law enforcement investigation or any other investigation. No, there was simply a Russian-sounding name (Ukrainian actually for those ignorant of Eastern Europe), and support for certain Republican politicians. That was enough…torpedoes in the water.
Vanetik was tight-lipped when I asked him if he intended to take legal action in connection to the McClatchy attack stories. He told me that he is weighing his options and assessing damages to his reputation and business.
Let’s go into a few allegations Hall made in his stories that turned out to be false or misleading. First, Hall makes a big deal of Vanetik’s ‘Russian-sounding’ name and him being a ‘Soviet emigre’. For a tolerant liberal, this seems highly discriminatory. Vanetik is an American lawyer and businessman. Hall uses this sinister moniker to transition into a misleading regurgitation of Vanetik’s past, where he was involved in civil litigation arising out of business disputes, as most businessmen have. Yuri Vanetik found himself in this situation close to a decade ago. He is appealing a civil judgment arising out of a business dispute. Again, this is completely non-newsworthy.
Hall said Vanetik was not ‘valedictorian’ of his class at UC Berkeley. This was a pathetic, intellectually dishonest effort by Hall as he desperately parsed through a long list of Vanetik’s accomplishments trying to find something wrong. He could not. I conducted my own investigation into Vanetik’s education. There was no exaggeration of any kind. Vanetik graduated in 1991 Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa with Highest Honors and was a commencement speaker at his graduation. Berkeley has not used the world ‘valedictorian’ in quite some time, so technically correct, but obviously exculpatory information was omitted, again clearly intentionally. I have verified his education and confirmed that he graduated with highest honors from Berkeley. He sent me copies of his diplomas that show that he was a Phi Beta Kappa, and he explained that he was number one in his major upon graduation and was the commencement speaker. His speech referenced Francis Fukuyama’s essay, The End of History, as an illustration that liberal democracy has succeeded as the dominant force in the world. His professional bio on his company’s website summarizes his achievements and does not state that he was a valedictorian. With prominent presence on the web, some other versions of his biography did list him as a valedictorian. The word valedictorian typically defines a student, having the highest academic achievements of the class, who delivers the valedictory at a graduation ceremony. Vanetik delivered a speech at his graduation in 1991 and was the top student in his major. I have reached out to the former Chair of his department, Professor Charles McClain, who has confirmed this fact.
Vanetik graduated from a yearlong executive graduate management program at UCLA’s Anderson Business School, in addition to law school at UC Hastings. Hall, I guess, believes that this does not meet his ‘smell test, and alleged Vanetik faked his academic record on his “official” website.
It gets worse.
Hall alleges Vanetik has a ‘shell company’ in Wyoming. In case he hadn’t noticed, there are many jurisdictions in America where businesses are established for tax reasons-Delaware, Florida, Texas, and Nevada come to mind. This is not a crime and does not mean it is a ‘shell company’. These are lawfully operating businesses. I did not bother contacting the Wyoming Secretary of State because Hall’s claim that Wyoming companies are set up for nefarious purposes is ridiculous on its face.
Hall alleges Vanetik ‘opened an office’ to lobby in Ukraine. He never did.
HALL CLAIMS THAT VANETIK HAS QUESTIONABLE “ASSOCIATES”. VANETIK CLAIMS THAT HE HAS NOT HAD CONTACTS WITH PEOPLE HALL LISTED AS VANETIK’S BUSINESS ASSOCIATES FOR OVER A DECADE AND HAS NEVER BEEN IN BUSINESS WITH THEM, OTHER THAN ONE PERSON, WHO WAS VANETIK’S LAWYER FOR MANY YEARS. LOOKING AT VANETIK’S AFFILIATIONS IN THE WORLD OF PHILANTHROPY AND BUSINESS AND POLICY LEADERSHIP, I BELIEVE THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE.
Hall and his cohorts at McClatchy describe ‘delinquent’ debts on corporate credit cards. The debts were paid and since when is credit card debt a crime, or sinister?
Hall suggests Vanetik’s FARA filings were deficient, although never contacted Vanetik’s attorney to get the truth. The filings are all up to speed. In FACT, I LEARNED THAT VANETIK WENT OUT OF HIS WAY AND FILED FOR CLIENTS THAT WERE REFERRED TO A MAJOR DC LOBBY FIRM BECAUSE HE ATTENDED SEVERAL MEETINGS AND WANTED TO DEMONSTRATE BEST PRACTICES AND DISCLOSE EVEN TANGENTIAL INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICAL ADVOCACY.
The list goes on and on and on, intentional misrepresentation of the facts, all done to paint a negative, sinister picture of an American citizen who is patriotic, successful, well educated, and well intentioned.
Hall makes a big deal of Vanetik being photographed with Republican leaders in the House and Senate and arranging meetings for his clients and business partners. This is not a crime. It is part and parcel of the advocacy business and this is what politically connected people, business leaders, lawyers, tend to do.
McClatchy and Hall’s hit pieces are unethical, inaccurate, and malicious. Other than the red scare, we can only speculate what else led Kevin Hall to target Vanetik with such malice and reckless abandon.
Americans should not have to suffer because they have a Russian-sounding name. But this doesn’t matter to the rabid, impeachment-seeking Marxists in our media.
It’s time they suffered some of their own medicine.
Robert Kraychik is a freelance journalist. He writes for Breitbart New, The Daily Wire,and many other prominent conservative publications.
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