Russian Digest
Top weekly stories I'm keeping an eye on
Ukrainians are vanishing into Russia. These people track them down
The last time Nadezhda Yevdokimova saw her husband was nearly three years ago, when he was dragged from their car by Russian soldiers at a checkpoint in northeastern Ukraine littered with corpses and burned-out tanks.
That winter, after months of excruciating silence, Nadezhda, now in Europe, received a call from an unknown Russian number. Her husband, Vlad, was alive, said the voice on the phone, and was now being held in a prison inside Russia. The stranger had found her name and number on a tiny scrap of paper, smuggled out of Vlad’s cell in a spool of thread.
Nadezhda would later discover that the man who called her that day was part of a constellation of volunteers and insiders in Russia risking their lives — occasionally for money, but usually for nothing — to pass on crucial information about the Ukrainians who have vanished into Russia’s sprawling penal system.
Read More at the Washington Post
Musk calls for shutting down US-funded outlets Radio Free Europe, Voice of America
Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Feb. 9 called for shutting down U.S.-funded media outlets Radio Free Europe and Voice of America.
Responding to comments by U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions Richard Grenell, Musk wrote on X: "Yes, shut them down. Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy). Nobody listens to them anymore. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money."
"Radio Free Europe and Voice of America are media outlets paid for by the American taxpayers. It is state-owned media. These outlets are filled with far-left activists," Grenell reportedly said on Feb. 9. "I’ve worked with these reporters for decades. It’s a relic of the past. We don’t need government-paid media outlets."
Both Elon Musk and Richard Grenell have voiced strong opposition to government funding of media organizations, arguing that taxpayer money should not be used to support these outlets.
Read More at Kyiv Independent
Trump says he has spoken to Putin about ending the Ukraine war, NY Post reports
U.S. President Donald Trump said he has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone about ending the war in Ukraine, the New York Post reported, the first officially acknowledged conversation between Putin and a U.S president since early 2022.
Trump, who has promised to end the war but not yet set out in public how he would do so, said last week that the United States was talking to both the Russians and Ukrainians about resolving the conflict, but he gave no additional details.
Read More at Reuters
Germany reportedly suspects Russia after drone sightings over key airbase
Mysterious drones have repeatedly infiltrated a German base where Ukrainian troops train on Patriot systems, sparking an espionage probe and exposing gaps in Berlin’s air defense.
The German military is investigating suspected Russian espionage after six drone sightings over an airbase in the northern town of Schwesing, where Ukrainian soldiers are trained on Patriot missile defense systems, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.
Between Jan. 9 and 29, unidentified drones repeatedly entered restricted airspace above the Luftwaffe facility in Schwesing, according to the report. Despite deploying electronic countermeasures, including the HP47 jammer, Bundeswehr forces failed to bring them down or locate their operators, it said.
The German military has now classified the incidents as potential espionage and alerted intelligence services, Süddeutsche said. The newspaper said the Bundeswehr confirmed the drone sightings over Schwesing without confirming further details.
Read More at Politico
Baltic states switch to European power grid, ending Russia ties
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania completed a switch from Russia's electricity grid to the EU's system on Sunday, severing Soviet-era ties amid heightened security after the suspected sabotage of several subsea cables and pipelines.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the move, years in the planning, as marking a new era of freedom for the region, in a speech at a ceremony in Vilnius alongside the leaders of the three countries and the Polish president.
"These chains of power lines linking you to hostile neighbours will be a thing of the past," von der Leyen said.
Debated for many years, the complex switch away from the grid of their former Soviet imperial overlord gained momentum following Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It is designed to integrate the three Baltic nations more closely with the European Union and to boost the region's energy security.
Read More at Reuters
Fake video about USAID shutdown shared by Elon Musk garners over 13 million views in record success for Kremlin-backed disinfo campaign
The Kremlin-linked bot network known as “Matryoshka” has achieved its biggest success to date: a fake video claiming that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) paid celebrities for trips to Ukraine has amassed more than 13 million views, while a thread summarizing the fabricated clip has gained an additional 12 million — meaning the reach of the original false narrative is now over 25 million.
The video, reposted by Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr., was exposed and shared with The Insider by the “Bot Blocker” project (@antibot4navalny).
Read More at The Insider
Orban, Le Pen hail Trump at far-right 'Patriots' summit in Madrid
Leaders of far-right parties in the European Parliament's third-largest voting bloc, Patriots for Europe, praised Donald Trump's return to power at a gathering in Madrid on Saturday held under the slogan "Make Europe Great Again".
The event featured Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Italian deputy premier Matteo Salvini, as well as the leaders of France's National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen, and the Netherlands' PVV party, Geert Wilders.
"The Trump tornado has changed the world in just a few weeks ... yesterday we were heretics, today we're mainstream," Orban told around 2,000 supporters, most of whom waved Spanish flags.
All the speakers railed against immigration and most called for a new "Reconquista", a reference to the Medieval re-conquest of Muslim-controlled parts of the Iberian Peninsula by Christian kingdoms.
Read More at Reuters
North Korea to Start Producing Attack Drones Together with Russia
Russia has provided North Korea with technical assistance to develop several types of combat drones, which Pyongyang plans to begin mass production this year, sources told the Japanese broadcaster NHK. According to them, this was part of an agreement under which the DPRK sent its troops to help Russia in the war with Ukraine. At the same time, the publication's sources noted that Russia does not want to help North Korea develop nuclear weapons, fearing the reaction of the United States and China.
According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea has stepped up drone production after Kim Jong-un personally inspected a kamikaze drone test in November and ordered mass production of the weapon. The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believes that Pyongyang views the war with Ukraine as a testing ground for its own military potential. This has already borne fruit. According to Reuters sources, North Korea has managed to improve the accuracy of its K-23, K-23A and K-24 short-range ballistic missiles, which it has transferred to the Russian army for use on the battlefield. Thus, the shells began to hit their intended target with a deviation of 50-100 meters, while the initial "error" was 1-3 km.
However, the combat skills of the North Korean military still leave much to be desired. It is known that they are actively fighting in the Kursk region, which Putin is trying to recapture from Ukraine before the start of negotiations with US President Donald Trump. Kyiv is going to use the captured Russian territories as a trump card to carry out an exchange. As of mid-January, the DPRK lost about 4 thousand soldiers in battle, or a third of the soldiers sent to Russia, including about a thousand killed, the BBC Russian Service reported, citing Western intelligence data. The main reason was the lack of combat experience and cover. Ukrainian servicemen claim that the North Koreans are used for so-called "meat assaults", sending them to capture fortified positions through minefields and under heavy fire. At the same time, the infantry operates autonomously without support in the form of artillery, drones and tanks. Kim's soldiers are almost never captured: the wounded often detonate themselves with grenades, and those who surrender are finished off by Russian drones.
According to the NYT, it was North Korea that initiated sending its troops to participate in the military actions against Ukraine. The group included special forces, about 500 officers, and three generals. Pyongyang is counting on future gratitude from Moscow in the form of missile, nuclear, and other technologies, diplomatic support in the confrontation with the West, and other assistance in the event of a crisis, US intelligence sources noted. In addition to soldiers and missiles, North Korea supplies Russia with ammunition and howitzers.
Read More at The Moscow Times
German authorities suspect Russian sabotage in anti-Greens election attacks
German authorities suspect the Kremlin of orchestrating a sabotage campaign targeting hundreds of vehicles to stoke anti-Green party sentiment ahead of the election.
Hundreds of cars across several German states appear to have been deliberately sabotaged — their exhaust pipes filled with construction foam and stickers featuring the Greens' chancellor candidate alongside the slogan "Be greener".
This was not a campaign gimmick gone wrong, however. German authorities suspect Russia to be behind the attacks.
More than 270 vehicles in Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Brandenburg, and Bavaria are believed to have been targeted, seemingly to stoke anti-Green sentiment during the election campaign.
Initially, investigators suspected radical climate activists. However, Der Spiegel reports that in December last year, three men from southern Germany suddenly came under scrutiny.
Read More at Euronews
German court orders X to hand over election data in legal blow to Musk’s platform
Researchers win a legal battle against the platform formerly known as Twitter, securing crucial access to social media data to probe potential election interference.
A German court handed Elon Musk’s X a legal defeat, ruling that the platform must immediately provide researchers with access to data on politically related content ahead of the country’s Feb. 23 election.
The court decision, seen by POLITICO, was issued Thursday and marks one of the first major judicial tests of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), raising fresh questions about X’s compliance with European regulations ahead of Germany’s federal election.
The lawsuit, brought earlier this week by Democracy Reporting International (DRI) and the Society for Civil Rights (GFF), accused X of blocking efforts to track potential election interference by not granting them access to key engagement data — including likes, shares and visibility metrics — that other platforms made available to researchers.
Read More at Politico
Lithuania raises nearly €900,000 in one week to buy drones for Ukraine
Ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Lithuania is once again holding the solidarity campaign Radarom!, raising nearly €900,000 in just one week.
Source: Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT, as reported by European Pravda
Details: The campaign’s organizers reported that Lithuanian citizens and businesses had donated €887,225 by Sunday morning on 9 February.
Two-thirds of the funds raised will be used to purchase drones and anti-drone systems produced in Lithuania, while the remaining third will be allocated for equipment manufactured in Ukraine.
Read More at Ukrainian Pravda
OCCRP Investigation….
European Ships Keep Russia’s Shadow Fleet Afloat
To sustain its oil exports, Russia has been drawing on a network of old tankers it sources from private sellers around the world. A new analysis by Follow the Money and OCCRP shows that Western shipowners have earned at least $6.3 billion selling hundreds of aging tankers on to shell companies, from where they make their way into the shadow fleet.
Read More at OCCRP
In Russia, a high-ranking official and an Investigative Committee colonel fell out of a window on the same day
Artur Pryakhin, head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for Karelia, was found dead in Petrozavodsk. The body was discovered near the agency's building on the Varkaus embankment. The Investigative Committee reported that 56-year-old Pryakhin fell from a fifth-floor window on February 4. It was not specified whether this was the official's office. A TASS source in law enforcement claims that Pryakhin committed suicide, and Izvestia reported that he allegedly left a suicide note in which he apologized to his wife and asked not to blame anyone.
Pryakhin served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for about 15 years in the units combating economic crimes. In 2014, he was appointed head of the Karelian department of the FAS. Kommersant notes that under the official, the department participated in several high-profile investigations of cartel agreements. One of the cases concerned the companies Market Pharm, PIK, Rosmedkomplekt and Etalon-Trading. They were suspected of collusion in holding electronic auctions for the supply of medical equipment for the Karelian Ministry of Health for 47 million rubles. Another case involved three pharmaceutical companies from St. Petersburg (purchase of drugs for 74.6 million rubles). And in 2016, the service discovered a cartel agreement during an auction for the organization of children's recreation involving the Syamozero park hotel, in which 14 schoolchildren died.
After Pryakhin, also on February 4, Colonel of the Investigative Committee, Deputy Head of the Forensic Science Department Alexey Zubkov fell from the window of the building of the forensic center of the Investigative Committee on Stroiteley Street in Moscow. He received moderate injuries and was taken to the Pirogov Center. According to sources of the "VChK-OGPU", after the fall, Zubkov remained conscious. He said that he went into the service toilet on the fourth floor, where there was no one, and what happened next, he no longer remembers. On February 5, the Investigative Committee was supposed to hold a final board meeting. Zubkov's colleagues suggested that he could have been stressed in connection with this since his superiors were at the scene of the incident - First Deputy Director of the SEC Alexander Sobolev and General of the Main Directorate of the Criminal Investigation Department Anatoly Sazonov.
Via Moscow Times
Explosion on oil tanker at Russian port prompts investigation
An explosion occurred on an oil tanker at the Ust-Luga port in northwest Russia in the morning of Feb. 9, prompting an evacuation of the crew, according to the country's Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport (Rosmorrechflot). Authorities have launched an investigation into the incident.
Rosmorrechflot reported on Telegram that the blast took place in the engine room of the Koala, a vessel docked at the port west of St. Petersburg. While the explosion forced crew members to leave the ship, officials said that no oil spill or cargo leak had occurred. The ship was not at risk of sinking, they added.
The incident follows a series of tanker-related accidents in recent months. In December, two oil tankers were wrecked in the Black Sea, causing a large fuel spill that continues to wash up along the shoreline.
Read More at Kyiv Independent
Russian soldier accused of war crimes in Bucha appointed deputy minister in Orenburg Region
Authorities in Russia’s Orenburg Region have appointed Nursultan Mussagaleev, a participant in the war in Ukraine who has been accused of committing war crimes in Bucha, as acting deputy minister of regional and information policy. Regional governor Denis Pasler made the announcement via his Telegram channel earlier today. According to the post:
“Nursultan is a native of [the Orenburg Region’s] Novosergiyevsky District, a participant in the ‘special military operation,’ a Hero of Russia, and a recipient of three Orders of Courage as well as the Medal of the Order ‘For Merit to the Fatherland’ (2nd class) with swords. He completed an internship at the ministry as part of the ‘Time of Heroes’ program, established by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Read More at The Insider
The Russian TV Star Who Became the Voice of the Kremlin
For tens of millions of television viewers across Russia’s 11 time zones, Sunday night means tuning in to watch Dmitry Kiselyov.
The country’s most influential news anchor, Kiselyov has for over a decade interpreted world events for the nation, as Walter Cronkite or Dan Rather once did for the U.S. His weekly current affairs show, “News of the Week,” at first glance seems similar to any news bulletin on CNN or the BBC, with its tense intro music and opening sequence showing a large ticking clock.
The message he broadcasts is anything but.
Read More at WSJ
A Russian spy ship caught fire off Syria’s coast, officials say. Here’s audio of its broadcasts
The man is insistent: Our ship is in difficulty, so keep your distance, he instructs another vessel over the radio.
“Warship on your course,” he says. “I am drifting. I’m not under command.”
The broadcast, according to military officials, came from a Russian spy ship, the Kildin, as the vessel packed with intelligence-gathering equipment drifted temporarily out of control off the Syrian coast on Jan. 23, with flames and black fumes rising from its smokestack.
The Associated Press obtained audio of the broadcast, as well as video and photos showing the blaze, that three military officials said were gathered by a ship from a NATO nation operating nearby. The officials, also from a NATO country, spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the fire and radio transmission that Russian authorities haven’t publicly reported.
The audio provides an unusual peek inside Russia’s fleet of spy ships that NATO nations are watching closely because of concerns that Moscow might sabotage underwater cables and pipelines amid tensions over the war in Ukraine. Even though the Kildin was in trouble, the secretive ship didn’t respond to an offer of help from the NATO vessel, the officials said.
Read More at AP
Wow
Musk & trump totally in bed with putin
Charge them with treason now and 20 years no bail
This is an excellent source for tracking info that has not be reported in US outlets,