The mask isn’t slipping anymore—it’s been thrown in the trash. Florida Congresswoman Ana Paulina Luna just did something that would have ended careers a decade ago: she publicly solicited documents from the Kremlin, received them from Russia’s ambassador, thanked Moscow on Twitter, and promised to publish whatever they handed her. No CIA vetting. No intelligence community review. Just a direct pipeline from Putin’s regime into the U.S. Congress.
And Lev Parnas, who sat in rooms with these exact people when they ran this playbook in 2019, says what we’re watching now is the 2016 operation moved from the shadows into daylight.
The Document Drop
Luna announced she received a 350-page Soviet-era report on the JFK assassination directly from Russia’s ambassador to Washington. She called it “of massive historical significance” and promised translation and public release after “expert review.” Within hours, Kirill Dmitriev—Putin’s economic envoy who was investigated during the Mueller probe—amplified her statement as evidence of “productive U.S.-Russia dialogue.”
This should sound familiar. It’s exactly what happened in 2019 when Lev Parnas and Rudy Giuliani pushed Russian disinformation through congressional Republicans to attack Joe Biden. The difference now is they’re doing it openly. No backchannels. No coded language. Luna is thanking Moscow by name and treating sanctioned war criminals like legitimate diplomatic partners.
“Back then, when I put a picture out of Senator Johnson or Rudy Giuliani standing with Andrei Derkach, a sanctioned Russian agent, they all were like no, no, no,” Lev told us. “Now you fast forward. They’re doing it on Twitter.”
The Normalization Letter
On October 8th, Luna sent a letter on congressional letterhead announcing her scheduled meeting with Kirill Dmitriev. She wrote about fostering “conversations of peace and trade between Russia and the United States,” claiming “our two countries do not need to be enemies.”
Notice what she emphasized: “Trade” appeared twice. “Peace” appeared once. Missing entirely: any mention of Ukraine’s 30,000 abducted children, the ongoing invasion, or Russia’s systematic war crimes.
Lev knows Dmitriev’s history intimately. “Kirill Dmitriev was born in Kiev, Ukraine during the Soviet Union, just like myself. He came to the United States, went to Ivy League schools, married a woman who is partners with Putin’s daughter, then went back to Russia to head the Russian Direct Investment Fund. In 2017, he met Jared Kushner in Saudi Arabia. That’s where this all started.”
The connection between Dmitriev, Kushner, and Steve Witkoff runs through decades of Russian capital flowing into American real estate, technology startups, and political campaigns. Leon Black sat on the RDIF board. Stephen Schwarzman maintained connections. This isn’t conspiracy theory—Lev was there. “I was sent by Giuliani and Trump to help with the Russian and Ukrainian vote in Israel when Netanyahu was running. I was working with Huckabee, with Netanyahu’s son Yair. There was no daylight between me and all these people.”
The Theater of War
While Luna schedules meetings with Putin’s envoys, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood in Brussels threatening Russia with American firepower. Trump floated Tomahawk deliveries to Ukraine. Russian MiG-31s violated Estonian airspace. The war drums are loud.
But Dmitriev doesn’t seem worried. His Twitter feed tells the real story. Two hours before our show, he defended Steve Witkoff against “fake news” about stepping back from the administration. He praised Trump’s team. He attacked critics. He amplified Luna’s JFK document announcement.
“If Donald Trump was upset with Vladimir Putin for one second, trust me, Kirill Dmitriev would not be flying over here to meet with Ana Paulina Luna,” Lev explained. “Trust me, Steve Witkoff would not be going to Moscow. Trust me, Melania would not be maintaining direct communication with Putin. Watch their body language. Watch their actions. Forget what comes out of their mouth.”
The chaos serves a purpose. NATO countries stockpile weapons for their own defense instead of sending them to Ukraine. European allies grow uncertain about American support. Russia gains time to grind forward in the east. Delay becomes strategy. Distraction becomes policy.
The Endgame
Luna’s document stunt isn’t isolated. It’s the culmination of Trump’s post-Alaska summit strategy to rehabilitate Russia’s international standing. The plan depends on Ukraine’s eventual collapse, allowing Trump to broker a “peace deal” that hands Putin territorial gains while opening trade relationships that benefit American oligarchs invested in Ukrainian resources.
“This was supposed to happen in Ukraine just like it happened in Gaza,” Lev said. “Ukraine was supposed to be the Palestinians. They were supposed to take it down. That’s why Trump keeps saying he thought this would be the quickest war—because Putin promised him Russia would roll through in weeks.”
But Ukraine held. Zelenskyy didn’t fold. The timeline collapsed. So now Trump’s team works to normalize Russian relations anyway, hoping exhaustion and reduced Western support will eventually break Ukrainian resolve.
Every meeting between congressional Republicans and Putin’s envoys moves that normalization forward. Every document exchange. Every softening of rhetoric. Luna isn’t a rogue actor—she’s the pilot program for how Russian influence will operate in Trump’s second term. Out in the open. Shameless. Betting that Americans have stopped paying attention.
“What you’re seeing here is nothing compared to the manipulation in Europe,” Lev warned. “Telegram is the number one app there. Russia has bought media, social media, entire political parties. They have decades of money and control we’re only beginning to understand here.”
The infrastructure for Russian influence no longer operates in shadows. Ana Paulina Luna accepts documents from Moscow’s ambassador. Trump’s advisers shuttle between Washington and Moscow. Sanctioned officials tweet support for administration policies. And Lev Parnas, who helped run this operation before his conscience caught up with him, is trying to warn anyone who’ll listen that what once required backchannels now happens on congressional letterhead.
The bear is at our door. Are we going to open it for him?
The FiveStack is available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Advertising inquiries email next@narativ.org. The FiveStack is a co-production of deanblundell.substack.com and narativ.org.
Thank you
, , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video with and ! Join me for my next live video in the app.
