February 23, 2024: Russian Digest
Top stories I'm keeping an eye on!
February 23, 2024
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Ukraine war latest: Ukraine shoots down another Russian A-50 aircraft over Azov Sea, Air Force says
The Ukrainian Air Force downed a rare Russian A-50 early warning and control aircraft over the Azov Sea on the evening of Feb. 23, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk reported.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency confirmed the aircraft had been downed as a result of a joint operation with the Air Force. The downing is "another serious blow" to Russia's military capabilities, the agency said.
Oleshchuk posted on Telegram at around at 8 p.m. local time (UTC+2) to thank "all those who ensured the result."
Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported minutes later that "an unidentified aircraft crashed in the Kanevskoy District in Krasnodar Krai."
A second report from RIA Novosti said that two aircraft had crashed in the area, causing a large fire to break out at the crash site. A third update at around 9 p.m. UTC+2 time claimed that there had in fact only been one aircraft involved in the crash.
Read More at Kyiv Independent
Biden announces over 500 new sanctions for Russia's war in Ukraine and Navalny death
The United States is imposing sanctions on more than 500 targets connected to Russia's war machine and the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the government said Friday.
The White House announced the move a day before the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions focus on Russia's core financial infrastructure, as well as people and entities in other countries the U.S. says are helping supply Russia with critical technology and equipment, and to evade sanctions.
In a statement issued by the White House, President Biden said Ukraine is "running out of ammunition." He called on the House of Representatives to approve new military aid for Ukraine, which is being blocked by Republicans.
Read More at NPR
Sanctions for show: Russian oil sales to China, India single main driver of Ukraine invasion
As Western sanctions designed to cripple Russian energy exports barely slow them down, the Kremlin continues to make enough money to keep its war against Ukraine going indefinitely, just by selling oil to China and India.
After pivoting away from Europe, Moscow found enthusiastic buyers in Beijing and New Delhi. By exploiting loopholes, Western reluctance to crack down, and a shadow fleet of decrepit oil tankers, Russia was projected to make around $180 billion from oil exports in 2023, compared to $110 billion in 2021.
The earnings are Moscow’s single greatest financial lifeline and the main driver of the full-scale invasion. A U.S. defense official told Reuters in mid-February that Moscow has spent $211 billion on the war since February 2022.
Oil money pays for weapons, ammunition, and high enlistment bonuses that keep the army topped up with 25,000 men per month to replace the 20,000 it loses on average in its war against Ukraine, according to Viktor Kevliuk, a military expert with the Center for Defense Strategies.
With steady oil production and much of the Russian economy retooled for total war, this pattern is set to continue, likely resulting in the attrition of Ukraine’s Armed Forces and the country requiring even more weapons from allies over time.
Moscow has been able to boost revenues largely because Western sanctions on the Russian energy sector are shortsighted, full of loopholes, and there is a lack of enthusiasm to enforce them, according to expert interviews and analysis by the Kyiv Independent.
Read More at Kyiv Independent
Putin banked €1B last year from EU fuel buys despite ban
Simple loophole in the EU’s ban on Russian oil allowed Moscow’s fuel to enter the bloc through foreign refineries.
The EU last year added €1 billion to Vladimir Putin’s war chest through fuel purchases despite sweeping bans on Russian oil, a new study shared with POLITICO found.
In 2023, the EU bought an estimated 35 million barrels of refined fuels — mostly diesel — originating at least in part from Russia, according to the analysis by NGO Global Witness based on Kpler shipping data.
These purchases were allowed through a gaping and now well-known loophole: Despite the EU ban on nearly all Russian oil imports, countries can still legally buy Moscow’s crude as long as it’s first refined into fuels elsewhere. The result is a steady flow of Russian fuel entering to the EU via places like India and Turkey — and lots of money flowing back to the Kremlin.
Read More at Politico
France blames Russia’s FSB for anti-Semitic Star of David graffiti campaign
France believes that Russia's security service FSB was behind a campaign in which Star of David graffiti were daubed on buildings in and around Paris last autumn, a French source said Friday.
French prosecutors reported in November that 60 such stars had been found in the capital and surrounding suburbs weeks into the war between Israel and Hamas, with the graffiti being interpreted as a threat to Jews.
A Moldovan couple was arrested in the case and their alleged handler, a pro-Russian Moldovan businessman, was identified, according to the source who has knowledge of the investigation and who declined to be named.
Moldova was a Soviet republic before its independence in 1991.
France's international security service DGSI believes the operation was run by the FSB's fifth division that undertakes international operations, the source said, quoting from a secret internal note that was first revealed by the Le Monde newspaper.
The FSB is the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB.
Read More at France 24
Indicted ex-FBI informant’s lawyers may be trying to help him flee the US, judge says
A federal judge in California said Friday that he believes defense attorneys for Alexander Smirnov may be trying to “facilitate his absconding from the United States.”
Smirnov, the former FBI informant indicted for lying about President Joe Biden’s family and their alleged dealings in Ukraine, was released from custody by a judge in Nevada earlier this week, but then quickly re-arrested by the FBI. His second arrest Thursday was on a new warrant for the exact same charges.
Prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to keep Smirnov detained after the first hearing and have repeatedly argued that he poses a flight risk, particularly because he claims to have a significant number of foreign contacts abroad.
In a brief order, district Judge Otis Wright, who will oversee the criminal case against Smirnov in California, raised the possibility that Smirnov’s defense lawyers might be trying to make it easier for him to flee the United States.
Read More at CNN
Security forces delivered an “ultimatum” to Navalny’s mother
Opposition politician Alexei Navalny will be buried in a colony unless his mother agrees to hold a secret ceremony, Navalny's press secretary Kira Yarmysh said.
“The investigator called Alexei’s mother and gave him an ultimatum. Either she agrees to a secret funeral without a public farewell within 3 hours, or Alexei will be buried in a colony. She refused to negotiate with the Investigative Committee because they do not have the authority to decide how and where she should bury her son,” Yarmysh wrote.
According to her, Lyudmila Navalnaya demands that the security forces comply with the law and give her her son’s body with medical documents. “She insists that the authorities allow the funeral and memorial service to be held in accordance with customs,” Yarmysh added.
Previously, Navalnaya reported that investigators showed her the politician’s body, but refused to hand it over and demanded a secret funeral, otherwise threatening to delay the process of handing over the body as much as possible.
“They want it to be done secretly, without saying goodbye. They want to take me to the outskirts of the cemetery, to a fresh grave, and say: here lies your son. I don't agree with this. I want you, to whom Alexey is dear, for whom his death was a personal tragedy, to have the opportunity to say goodbye to him. I'm recording this video because they started threatening me. Looking into my eyes, they say that if I don't agree to a secret funeral, they will do something with my son's body. Investigator Voropaev openly told me: time is not on your side, the corpse is decomposing,” she said.
According to Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh, “the medical report on death shown to Alexei Navalny’s mother stated that the causes of death were natural.”
Via Moscow Times
International Operation Targets Notorious LockBit Ransomware Group
Law enforcement from 10 countries have dismantled the criminal operation of the world’s most prolific and harmful Russia-based ransomware group LockBit at every level, Europol stated on Tuesday.
According to the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA), LockBit ransomware attacks targeted thousands of victims worldwide, resulting in losses amounting to billions of pounds, dollars, and euros in both ransom payments and recovery costs.
LockBit operated on a “ransomware-as-a-service” model, providing a platform for a global network of hackers, known as affiliates, to launch attacks. When a victim’s network was infected, LockBit malicious software would steal data and encrypt systems, demanding ransom payments in cryptocurrency to decrypt files and prevent data from being published.
The international crackdown was the result of a complex investigation led by the NCA, as part of Operation Cronos, an international task force coordinated by Europol and Eurojust.
Read More at OCCRP
Leaked Files Show the Secret World of China’s Hackers for Hire
The hackers offered a menu of services, at a variety of prices.
A local government in southwest China paid less than $15,000 for access to the private website of traffic police in Vietnam. Software that helped run disinformation campaigns and hack accounts on X cost $100,000. For $278,000 Chinese customers could get a trove of personal information behind social media accounts on platforms like Telegram and Facebook.
The offerings, detailed in leaked documents, were a portion of the hacking tools and data caches sold by a Chinese security firm called I-Soon, one of the hundreds of enterprising companies that support China’s aggressive state-sponsored hacking efforts. The work is part of a campaign to break into the websites of foreign governments and telecommunications firms.
The materials, which were posted to a public website last week, revealed an eight-year effort to target databases and tap communications in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India and elsewhere in Asia. The files also showed a campaign to closely monitor the activities of ethnic minorities in China and online gambling companies.
The data included records of apparent correspondence between employees, lists of targets and material showing off cyberattack tools. Three cybersecurity experts interviewed by The New York Times said the documents appeared to be authentic.
Read More at NYT
