Russian Digest
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Finland Clears Last Hurdle to Joining NATO
Finland won final approval on Thursday to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after decades of nonalignment, a major shift in the balance of power between the West and Russia that was set off by the invasion of Ukraine.
The Turkish Parliament cast the last vote needed for Finland’s entry into NATO, meaning that the alliance’s border with Russia will double. It is a diplomatic and strategic defeat for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who made clear when Russia invaded Ukraine that he was intent on blocking NATO’s eastward expansion.
With Finland in its fold, NATO will be in a stronger position to deter Moscow’s aggression, gaining access to a strong military, as well as Finnish airspace, ports and sea lanes. The alliance will also be better able to defend the Baltic nations and the Arctic, said Matti Pesu, a security expert with the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/30/world/europe/finland-nato-turkey.html
Russia lists US as its main security threat in new foreign policy doctrine
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a decree on a new version of the Russian Foreign Policy Concept, which lists the US as the main security threat to Russia and "the just development of mankind."
"Moscow considers Washington's course as the main source of risks for its own and international security, for peace and the just development of mankind as a whole," the document read.
"The new concept of foreign policy provides for the possibility of symmetrical and asymmetric measures in response to unfriendly actions against the Russian Federation," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after presenting Putin with the updated doctrine.
The 42-page document outlines the main objectives of Moscow’s foreign policy, among which are the strengthening of the military cooperation with allies and elimination of US dominance in world affairs.
The document made no direct mention of Ukraine even as Russia continues its full-scale invasion of the country, but did say that "Moscow is stepping up the process of registration within the framework of international law of its state border and jurisdiction over the territories it controls."
"The main goal in the near abroad is to turn the region into a zone of peace, good neighborliness and prosperity," it continued.
According to the document, Moscow also sees "risks of aggravating conflicts involving large countries, as well as their escalation into a local or global war. The factor of strength increasingly determines relations between countries."
Russia will also focus on deepening ties with India and China as well as increasing cooperation with Latin American countries.
"We are much closer to war." FSB military counterintelligence took up the case of WSJ journalist Gershkovich
The case of The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested Thursday on charges of espionage, is being handled by the military counterintelligence agency of the FSB, two people familiar with the matter told The Moscow Times.
According to one of them, a current government official, and in the past an employee of the special services, a special group of counterintelligence officers from Moscow was sent to Yekaterinburg to detain Gershkovich.
“This is a high-profile case, so the Department of Military Counterintelligence of the FSB dealt with it. Moscow operatives have much more experience in such cases than the regionals,” the source explained.
He added that according to the logic of the special services, the resonance of the case is not due to the fact that Gershkovich is a journalist, but to the fact that he is a US citizen. And his arrest - the first such case since 1986 - is a signal that a new milestone is coming in Russian-American relations, The Moscow Times sources are unanimous.
“Now they basically have nothing to do here. The United States has long been a party to the conflict, they supply Ukrainians with Abrams. So let everyone go back home. And our people will also leave. We have become much closer to the war, so we need to reduce the number of contacts,” said a senior government official.
According to him, Gershkovich, who has lived in Russia for more than 6 years, may in the future become a participant in an exchange for one of the arrested or convicted Russians abroad.
If the Kremlin really views Gershkovich as a figure for an exchange, then this cannot happen immediately - only after he is convicted, points out lawyer Anna Savitskaya, who represented the interests of Russian Igor Sutyagin accused of treason, who was exchanged for a group of "Russian spies" during led by Anna Chapman in 2010.
The Moscow Times source in the Kremlin links Gershkovich's arrest with sanctions against Russian media.
“This is an answer. Our media have been banned in major countries. And this is a message in style - and it’s not good for you to do it here, ”he explains, adding that there are no prospects for restoring relations with the United States in the near future, which means that the work of foreign media in Russia will be at least difficult.
“Perhaps it will be like in Soviet times. Perhaps in some other way. But the fact that it will not be an open and trusting relationship is for sure. And it will be long enough. In war as in war,” said the Kremlin official.
US urges all Americans including journalists to leave Russia immediately
In light of the arrest of a US journalist in Russia, White House Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council John Kirby is urging Americans in Russia to leave immediately.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/03/31/kirby-russia-americans-leave-now-amanpour-vpx.cnn
Secret trove offers rare look into Russian cyberwar ambitions
More than 5,000 pages of documents from a Moscow-based contractor offer unusual glimpses into planning and training for security services, including the notorious hacking group Sandworm
Russian intelligence agencies worked with a Moscow-based defense contractor to strengthen their ability to launch cyberattacks, sow disinformation and surveil sections of the internet, according to thousands of pages of confidential corporate documents.
The documents detail a suite of computer programs and databases that would allow Russia’s intelligence agencies and hacking groups to better find vulnerabilities, coordinate attacks and control online activity. The documents suggest the firm was supporting operations including both social media disinformation and training to remotely disrupt real-world targets, such as sea, air and rail control systems.
An anonymous person provided the documents from the contractor, NTC Vulkan, to a German reporter after expressing outrage about Russia’s attack on Ukraine. The leak, an unusual occurrence for Russia’s secretive military industrial complex, demonstrates another unintended consequence of President Vladimir Putin’s decision to take his country to war.
Officials from five Western intelligence agencies and several independent cybersecurity companies said they believe the documents are authentic, after reviewing excerpts at the request of The Washington Post and several partner news organizations.
These officials and experts could not find definitive evidence that the systems have been deployed by Russia or been used in specific cyberattacks, but the documents describe testing and payments for work done by Vulkan for the Russian security services and several associated research institutes. The company has both government and civilian clients.
The trove offers a rare window into the secret corporate dealings of Russia’s military and spy agencies, including work for the notorious government hacking group Sandworm. U.S. officials have accused Sandworm of twice causing power blackouts in Ukraine, disrupting the Opening Ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics and launching NotPetya, the most economically destructive malware in history.
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Important Stories translation: Who creates programs for the Russian special services to isolate the Internet, spy on users and promote propaganda articles
Translation of Important Stories Investigation:
Just days after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung was contacted by an anonymous source. He said that he wanted to share documents about spyware, which is being developed by order of the Russian special services. “I decided to give you this information because of the events in Ukraine,” he immediately explained his motivation.
Later, the source handed over to journalists an archive of documents about a little-known IT company from Moscow: “The GRU and the FSB are behind it,” he explained. This is how we ended up with the archive of Vulkan, a small company that, on behalf of the Ministry of Defense, the FSB, and the Foreign Intelligence Service, develops software for Russian cyberattacks, managing a troll factory and isolating the Internet.
Finland says Russia spy operations weakened in Nordic nation
Expulsions of Russian intelligence officers and visa refusals have substantially weakened Moscow’s intelligence operations in neighboring Finland in the past year, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service said Thursday.
The intelligence agency, known by the abbreviation SUPO, said in a statement that Russian intelligence has been “squeezed” in the Nordic country because of the agency’s ability to compromise spy operations in 2022.
“The Russian intelligence station (in Finland) shrank to about half of its former size last year,” SUPO Director Antti Pelttari said, adding that the main reason for the decline were expulsions of suspected spies and visa refusals on the advice of his agency.
The falling number of intelligence officers and restrictions on travel across the Russian-Finland border amid Moscow’s war in Ukraine have significantly undermined operating conditions for Russian spies in Finland, SUPO said.
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https://apnews.com/article/finland-russia-intelligence-spying-supo-6571d239fbd96aca5496492276c2cf9d
Secret Service tours N.Y. courthouse to prepare for Trump arraignment
Former president Donald Trump plans to fly to New York on Monday and stay overnight before appearing in a specially secured Manhattan courthouse to be arraigned on still-unspecified criminal charges, people briefed on the arrangements said.
The first-ever indictment of a former president — who is also a 2024 White House hopeful — brings unusual security challenges to the courthouse complex in Lower Manhattan, even as it continues to roil the political landscape.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/03/31/trump-arraignment-secret-service/
A Short History of Spy Swaps
WITH ANY LUCK, Evan Gershkovich will spend only a few weeks in Lefortovo Prison, the 142-year-old hulk on Moscow’s east side where many a Russian who’s run afoul of state security has perished from a bullet to the head. It’s also been the home of Westerners accused of spying. Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, is just the latest, but in a sign of the times, he’s the first American journalist to be arrested on espionage charges since 1986, in the depths of the Cold War.
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