U.S. houses searched by FBI agents 'abandoned' - Russian businessman Deripaska

MOSCOW. Oct 20 (Interfax) - The houses in Washington and New York that were raided by FBI agents yesterday are abandoned, Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska said on Telegram.

NBC News said on Tuesday, citing a representative of the FBI, that Deripaska's houses in Washington and New York were searched. The businessman's spokesperson, Larisa Belyayeva, said later that these houses do not belong to Deripaska himself, but to his relatives. According to Belyayeva, FBI agents raided these houses on the basis of warrants linked to U.S. sanctions.

Deripaska has been under U.S. sanctions since April 2018.

"Watching all that is happening at the moment, I can't stop feeling puzzled by this extreme stupidity of a certain part of the American establishment - which sometimes reminds me of our beau monde from the Central Bank - as it continues to persistently hype this story about the allegedly colossal role of the Russians in the U.S. presidential election in 2016," Deripaska said in an emotional post, at the same time not missing the chance to traditionally take a swipe at the monetary policy of the Russian Central Bank, which he views as excessively tough.

"It's time to admit the obvious: [former U.S. President Donald] Trump won, but, of course, not without help! He was helped by these stupid people from Washington who drove their voters so nuts that they were ready to vote for anyone at all - even for an operatic character who is not mired in bribes from representatives of the Clinton clan. It's convenient to feed all sorts of nonsense to their voters - brought up on Hollywood films about the terrible Russians - for another ten years. Of course, they don't want to stop, but they'll have to," Deripaska said.

"I want to ask: did they find much of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's money in these abandoned houses yesterday? Did they manage to snack on the spoiled jam from the closets or a couple of bottles of vodka pinched during the search in the best traditions of the bolshevist Shvonders?" Deripaska said, referring to a character from Mikhkail Bulgakov's 1925 novella Heart of a Dog who is a supporter of the new Soviet order.