An hysterical Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich charged on Sept. 1 that Russia’s intelligence service carried out an “impressive intelligence operation” to leak audio tapes of Karina Milei, sister of President Javier Milei, who is implicated in a lucrative kickback scheme involving the Suizo Argentina pharmaceutical company that sold medicine to the National Agency for the Disabled (ANDIS). Audio recordings made by the former head of ANDIS detailing Karina Milei’s role surfaced on Aug. 20 and caused an uproar, but a more recent leak of an audio of Karina Milei herself, taped inside the Casa Rosada presidential palace, badly destabilized the President and his cabinet. Panic, paranoia, and tense internal faction fights and disputes reportedly dominate the environment inside the palace.
Hence the clutching at straws. According to Página 12 on Sept. 1, Bullrich told a radio interviewer that the government has denounced “people linked to the Russian intelligence services” for leaking the audios of Karina Milei taped inside the Casa Rosada, but then added there could have been “Venezuelan involvement as well.” A moment later she admitted, “actually anyone could have made the tapes.” In any case, she said, that such a tape was made inside the presidential palace was “unprecedented and incredible,” leaving the government “defenseless.” It’s all a clear electoral ploy, she added, to destabilize the government just before the Sept. 7 legislative elections in Buenos Aires province.
