Pro-Putin Communist Elected in Vermont
Christopher Helali — International Secretary of the American Communist Party — won a 2024 write-in election for High Bailiff of Orange County, Vermont: an unpaid office whose one job is arresting the county sheriff. He now lives in Moscow. On June 4, 2026, he confirmed to TASS that he wrote Vladimir Putin a four-page letter requesting Russian citizenship, citing his “work in the Donbas.” In July 2026 he surfaced in Iran with a journalist delegation during the U.S. air campaign — interviews in the Tehran Times, broadcasts with RT. He is still High Bailiff: Vermont’s Secretary of State confirms the office carries no residency requirement. And there’s a Vermont thread underneath it — Helali’s close friend (his words, on Iranian state TV) is Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia protest leader arrested by ICE at his Vermont citizenship interview in April 2025, whose case drew a million-dollar legal defense fund launched with the state treasurer and senate leadership on stage. Mahdawi has now been ordered deported; his appeal is pending.
The obvious response is that this is one eccentric in an obscure office. Maybe. But an elected American law-enforcement official holding office from Moscow, with a citizenship request on Putin’s desk and a broadcast position in Tehran, is an access map — and the question a professional analyst asks isn’t “is he crazy?” It’s “whose interests does this sequence serve, and who is he one handshake away from back home?” That part is Part 2.
I’m Eric Garland. I’ve spent 30 years in strategic intelligence practice, and I’m personally sanctioned by the Russian Federation for my work on Russian intelligence operations — so I follow the pro-Moscow traffic with some interest. On Game Theory Today I walk through the questions a professional analyst actually asks about the news, not the answers you’re handed.
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SOURCES
TASS — Helali confirms Russian-citizenship request in letter to Putin — June 4, 2026
White River Valley Herald — “A High Bailiff Abroad: From Russia, Helali Talks OC Role”; VT Secretary of State: no residency requirement — September 25, 2025
VTDigger — state leaders launch immigration legal defense fund with Mahdawi — May 8, 2025; fund passes $1 million — June 15, 2026; Mahdawi faces new deportation order — June 11, 2026
AP / PBS NewsHour — Mahdawi arrested by ICE at citizenship interview, Colchester, VT — April 14, 2025
Windsor (VT) Police Department report, 2015, via federal court filing — reported weapons/Hezbollah claims (disputed; discounted by the district court) — surfaced May 2025
Tehran Times — Helali interview from Iran — July 2026
MEMRI TV — Helali on Iranian state television re: Mahdawi (“close friend”; “freer and safer in Moscow”)
American Communist Party (X) — High Bailiff election announcement — November 2024
