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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| ANNNNND, Another One..... Pro-Moscow ‘Donbas Girl’ actually US Navy vet, caught leaking DOD docs |
| 2023-04-19 |
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] US Navy vet-turned tropical fish seller-turned pro-Moscow propagandist faces DOJ probe over posting leaked Pentagon documents
A prominent pro-Kremlin propagandist has been unmasked as a 37-year-old Navy veteran and tropical fish seller from New Jersey. Divorcee Sarah Bils is known to her 100,000 devoted fans online as 'Donbas Devushka', or Donbas Girl. She posed as a Russian Jew from the occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk and a geopolitics expert. On her Telegram account, a popular messaging service in Russia and Ukraine, she claims to participating in 'Russian-style information warfare.' It recently shared some of the documents allegedly leaked by US National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who was charged with two offenses on Friday. Sarah Bils claimed to be a Russian Jew living in Luhansk and documenting alleged 'war crimes' committed by the Ukrainian army. Teixeira, 21, will next appear in court on Wednesday as Department of Justice investigators continue their probe into how he got access to such top secret information. She is now being investigated by the Department of Justice as part of the probe into how leaked Pentagon documents appeared online. Bils, who had security clearance, denied that she was involved in helping Teixeira. 'I obviously know the gravity of top-secret classified materials,' she was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying. The 37-year-old also posted videos and podcasts online that faithfully parroted pro-Moscow talking points and tried to raise money for the Russian army. They have been praised by pro-Kremlin military bloggers in Russia, such as the highly influential Rybar Telegram channel. Bils claimed that in 2014, the time of the first Russian invasion, she had been travelling between the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and eastern Ukraine. She alleged that the Ukrainian army was killing people in Luhansk, a city in the Russian-occupied Donbas region of the country. Bils left the military last year but after being demoted. No reasons were given in the official records for her demotion. One of the leaked documents outlined how Ukraine's stockpile of missiles was running out and required urgent supplies from Kyiv's Western allies. She has also posted under the pseudonyms Mila Medvedev, Luganskforlife, CheburekiVibes, MeatballSubZero, YuGopnik, and GhostofLugansk. But Bils is in fact a former aviation electronics technician with the US Navy and she served at Whitby Island in Washington State. Her real identity was revealed by volunteers from the North Atlantic Fella Organization, which raises funds for Ukraine and fights disinformation online. The Ukrainian group was able to unmask Bils thanks to yet another unusual side hustle that she had. Aside from serving in the Navy, she also ran a business selling tropical fish and imported food from Poland. Bils had appeared in a popular podcast about fish tanks in June 2020 that proved to be her undoing. It allowed NAFO to match up her voice and home interiors to her postings as Donbas Devushka. She left the military in November last year with an honorable discharge but only after being demoted. DailyMail.com has approached the US Navy for comment. Her Twitter account has now been locked, but her YouTube channel where she interviews pro-Kremlin commentators remains online. |
| Posted by:Mullah Richard |
| #17 I knew him when he was just Bad |
| Posted by: Frank G 2023-04-19 20:16 |
| #16 |
| Posted by: Frank G 2023-04-19 20:15 |
| #15 The Incredible Mr. badanov. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2023-04-19 17:00 |
| #14 Slot of hand wringing about the leaker, but not what's been leaked: we're being lied to about how our billions are wasted on a losing cause and how there are US boots on the ground |
| Posted by: Regular joe 2023-04-19 15:45 |
| #13 My favorite college sportsball matchup: Unknown State vs Never Hearda U. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-04-19 14:12 |
| #12 I thought Badanov taught at Wossamotta U. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2023-04-19 14:10 |
| #11 badanov is a professor at Rantburg University, not Columbia. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2023-04-19 13:34 |
| #10 is Badanov a professor at Columbia university I took that as an insult |
| Posted by: Frank G 2023-04-19 13:25 |
| #9 is Badanov a professor at Columbia university Whoa! badanov, you’re moving up in the world! Tanks, professional journalist, machinist, war gamer, and collector of languages just to satisfy your ‘satiable curiosity — so many options of subjects to profess, O Best Beloved. Being mistaken for a professor is easily enough done, though. Back when I was the littlest lab technician (as measured in a number of different ways, especially in California) in the very big multinational corporation, the linguistic habits I’d picked up as a child of the Ivory Tower led to my being asked regularly what I’d done my PhD in, and me with only an MRS. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2023-04-19 12:51 |
| #8 I knew from the get go there was something fishy about this story. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2023-04-19 12:28 |
| #7 Six comments in, and this article already is a Classic. |
| Posted by: badanov 2023-04-19 11:23 |
| #6 Here's THE question, is Badanov a professor at Columbia university? If he is, he needs to be deported. That guy is an influence agent of the Russian FSB, at least he's a Russian and has that excuse, this woman is a typical, right wing nutcase that thinks Russia is preferable to the USA, except they want to live in the USA for some weird logic. |
| Posted by: Slish Angunter7690 2023-04-19 10:55 |
| #5 I think another angle is, just because it's stamped TS from the Pentagone does not mean it isn't fishwrap. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-04-19 09:44 |
| #4 ^ "Coulda been a fishmonger." |
| Posted by: badanov 2023-04-19 09:43 |
| #3 New Jersey tropical fish seller turned Russian propagandist - badanov, is that you? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2023-04-19 09:26 |
| #2 So she was caught in a fishing expedition. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2023-04-19 09:25 |
| #1 match up her voice and home interiors Scary, but not surprising, I guess. Jethro Gibbs must have come out of retirement. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2023-04-19 08:16 |