Russian Digest
Top daily stories I'm keeping an eye on!
Social-Media Account Overseen by Former Navy Noncommissioned Officer Helped Spread Secrets
An American administrator of the Donbas Girl blogger network uses a pro-Russian persona across online platforms
A social-media account overseen by a former U.S. Navy noncommissioned officer—a prominent online voice supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine—played a key role in the spread of intelligence documents allegedly leaked by Airman First Class Jack Teixeira.
A purported Russian blogger known as Donbass Devushka, which translates as Donbas Girl, reposted the files from obscure online chat rooms. The blog is the face of a network of pro-Kremlin social-media, podcasting, merchandise and fundraising accounts. But the person who hosted podcasts as Donbass Devushka and oversees these accounts is a Washington-state-based former U.S. enlisted aviation electronics technician whose real name is Sarah Bils.
Russia first intervened in the Donbas part of eastern Ukraine in 2014, and most of the recent fighting has focused on that area.
Ms. Bils, 37 years old, served at the U.S. naval air station on Whidbey Island until late last year, even as the accounts she had established and supervised glorified the Russian military and the paramilitary Wagner Group. They are among the most widely followed English-language social-media outlets promoting Russia’s views.
In an interview Saturday at her home in Oak Harbor, Wash., Ms. Bils said she is an administrator of the Donbass Devushka persona, and acknowledged raising funds and hosting podcasts under that name. She added, however, that she is one of 15 people “all over the world” involved in running the Donbass Devushka network. Ms. Bils declined to identify these people.
On April 5, the Donbass Devushka Telegram account posted four of the allegedly leaked classified documents to its 65,000 followers, according to a screenshot seen by The Wall Street Journal. That led several large Russian social-media accounts to pick up on the documents, after which the Pentagon launched an investigation. Ms. Bils says another administrator posted the four files.
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The defense took 112 photos of Russian vessels near the Nord Stream pipes just days before they were blown up
Four days before the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipes, a Danish patrol boat took 112 photos of Russian vessels during a patrol focusing on the area around the explosions, according to a decision from the Defense Command on a request for access to documents from Information
The defense is in possession of 112 images "of an intelligence nature" of Russian vessels, which were taken by the Danish patrol boat P524 Nymfen, four days before the Nord Stream pipes were blown up. At least this is how one must understand a decision from the Defense Command on a request for access to documents from Information.
The pictures were taken during a patrol which, judging by the sailing pattern, focused on the area where the explosions took place a few days later.
Information asked for access "to the photos and video recordings of Russian vessels that were taken on 22 September 2022 on board from the P524 Nymfen".
To this, the Defense Command replies that it has "identified 112 photos and no video recordings that are covered by your file access request".
Access to documents will not be granted to the photos, as they "are part of the intelligence work, which is why they are exempt from access to documents," states the response from the Defense Command. But it appears that 112 photos are covered by Information's request, which specifically targeted photos and videos of "Russian ships".
On the contrary, the Defense Command has refused to have any photos or video recordings of American vessels taken by Nymfen on the same day.
Six Russian vessels
The Danish analyst Oliver Alexander has previously, in collaboration with the German media T-Online, presented information indicating that a Russian special vessel with a mini-submarine on board may have been in the area , apparently at the same time as Nymfen patrolled the area on the 22nd. September 2022.
The information presented by Oliver Alexander and the German media suggests that the Russian navy may have had up to six vessels in the area.
One of them was the special ship SS-750, which is equipped with a mini-submarine of the type AS-26. It can reach a depth of 1,000 metres, has a crew of five and grabber arms that can lift and move objects weighing up to 50 kilos. In addition, two Russian rescue tugs with cranes on board may have been in the area on 22 September.
And finally, the information suggests that there may have been three more Russian naval vessels on the cruise, namely the intelligence vessel Syzran, the frigate Yaroslav Mudry and a corvette of the Steregushchiy class.
According to Johannes Riber, who is a war captain and military analyst at the Defense Academy, the Russian ships are of such a size that they could well have carried out the operation at the wires.
"If those ships have been there, then it has been physically possible for them to carry out the blasting," he says.
He emphasizes that he only knows about the alleged location of the Russian ships from the German article and therefore cannot assess whether it was them that were photographed.
In general, however, photos are not taken if it is not essential.
"You only take pictures of something if it is of investigative or intelligence interest," says Johannes Riber.
Several countries had vessels in the area
Information has asked the Defense Command whether it was the six Russian vessels that P524 Nymfen observed, and whether it is possible to get more details about what the Nymfen observed on 22 September 2022 east of Bornholm, but here the answer is simply that the Defense Command did not have further to add.
Previously, the Defense Command responded by email to Information's question that Nymfen's sailing pattern on 22 September 2022 "does not differ from other Defense patrols in Danish waters." The nymph's patrolling this day is therefore within the normal range'.
Satellite photo and other information show that some of the Russian naval vessels left the Russian naval port of Kaliningrad on September 21, 2022 and headed for Bornholm. The vessels were sailing with AIS turned off, which is normally transmitted by larger vessels and displays various data about the vessel, including position, speed, direction, name and identification numbers.
Because the vessels sailed with AIS turned off, it is not possible to find information about their voyages in the databases where AIS data is collected.
However, if the Russian vessels maintained their course and speed from the departure in Kaliningrad, they reached the area of the explosion of the Nord Stream 1 pipes on September 21, 2022 at eight o'clock in the evening. It coincides in terms of time with the Nymfen sailing out of Rødbyhavn heading towards the area at this time.
Nymfen was at the time the Danish naval vessel closest to Bornholm. The Danish patrol boat only reached the area almost half a day later, on the morning of September 22.
As Information has previously described, several other countries in addition to Denmark showed interest in the area east of Bornholm on 22 September 2022.
Sweden sent a surveillance plane that deviated from its normal operational route at Gotland to fly south to Bornholm. Shortly after the surveillance aircraft arrived in the area, the Swedish corvette Visby sailed from Karlskrona at high speed towards the area east of Bornholm.
Information has asked the naval staff in the Swedish defense if they can state what the corvette Visby observed. Here the answer is that "the Swedish navy carries out surveillance along the Swedish coast all year round and around the clock. Which vessels we have at sea and what they do is not something we comment on.'
Danish patrol boat took an unusual route
In addition to the Danish and Swedish vessels, two US Navy vessels that were on their way out of the Baltic Sea changed course to sail past the area. In addition, the German intelligence ship A52 Oste interrupted an exercise off Latvia to sail towards the same area. A Polish surveillance plane was also in the area.
"That the Nymfen took these 112 photos helps explain why the patrol boat took the relatively unusual route out near the area of the Nord Stream explosions on September 22 and possibly also why the Swedish ship also sailed quickly down there," says the analyst Oliver Alexander for information.
"It would be really interesting to know which vessels the photos are of, as well as where and when the photos were taken. It has been possible to track unusual Russian ships sailing in the direction of Bornholm, but there are still many gaps.'
It is only the second time in the past five years that the Danish navy has been present in the area where the Nord Stream 1 gas pipes were later blown up, according to AIS data that Oliver Alexander has previously presented.
The first time was in March last year, when the Danish frigate F363 Niels Juel and the patrol vessel P523 Najaden sailed out to the site. Satellite photo indicates that the two Danish vessels were in the area to repel a Russian frigate of the Neustrashimy class.
The gas pipes Nord Stream 1 and 2 were blown up on 26 September last year. There is still no official explanation as to who was behind the sabotage. Investigations into the sabotage are taking place in Denmark, Sweden and Germany.
Russia has, among other things in the UN Security Council, put pressure on Denmark, Sweden and Germany to gain access to the investigation and has asked that it be transferred to and gathered under the Security Council.
Wagner ex-commanders tell Russian opposition media of their war crimes in Ukraine, Kyiv launches investigation
Two former mercenaries of Russia's state-backed Wagner Group told Russian opposition media outlet Gulagu.net how they had allegedly killed dozens of Ukrainian civilians, including children, as well as prisoners of war when fighting in Donetsk Oblast.
Ex-prisoners Azamat Uldarov and Alexey Savichev were recruited by Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin to take part in Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the publication.
They were "personally pardoned" by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2022.
"We were ordered to clean up and destroy everyone (in Soledar and Bakhmut). We came with 150 Wagner fighters killing everyone (on our way) - women, men, elderly, and children, including small, five-year-olds," Uldarov said in a video interview with Gulagu.net published on April 17.
According to Uldarov, Prigozhin personally gave the order to do it, which the ex-mercenary called "cleaning up," as well as ordered not to take anyone prisoner or negotiate, "but only to kill."
Uldarov admitted he gave a command to kill "300-400" civilians sheltering in a basement of an apartment building, among whom were 40 children.
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The State Duma proposed to confiscate cash rubles and foreign currency from Russians
State Duma deputy Anatoly Wasserman has prepared a bill that will allow the state to confiscate cash savings from citizens, the amount of which exceeds 15 trillion rubles.
According to Interfax, the Wasserman law will oblige Russians to report to the Federal Tax Service in cash in rubles and foreign currency if their amount exceeds 1 million rubles.
The owners of savings "under the mattress", according to the idea of the deputy from "Fair Russia", will need to explain the origin of the funds.
"Keeping cash in rubles or foreign currency in an amount equivalent to or exceeding one million rubles, without notifying the tax authority, including indicating the origin of the funds, is punishable by a fine in the amount of illegally stored funds in the double amount, as well as by confiscation of all illegally stored funds," - Interfax quotes Wasserman's bill.
In the explanatory note, the deputy explains: "Large amounts of cash kept by citizens, as a rule, are the result of activities in the shadow or even" black "sector of the economy." To combat the "shadow rich" Wasserman proposes to introduce a new article of the Criminal Code - 187.1 (illegal circulation of funds).
A notification to the Federal Tax Service about the presence of “cash” in the amount of more than 1 million rubles, according to the bill, will need to be submitted no later than a week after the citizen has funds. The document can be submitted in person, by mail, or online.
As of January 2023, Russians held 28% of their savings, or 15.722 trillion rubles, in cash, according to Rosstat.
Of this amount, two-thirds - 10.546 trillion rubles - falls on rubles. And the rest - 5.242 trillion rubles - for cash foreign currency. Since the beginning of 2022, the cash savings of Russian citizens have increased by 1.442 trillion rubles.
"Digital Gulag". Under the pretext of electronic subpoenas, Russia will introduce total surveillance of the population
The electronic subpoena law, signed into law by President Vladimir Putin last week, will create a "superbase" of population data in Russia, The Bell reports, citing sources familiar with the development of government information systems.
The unified register of persons liable for military service, which the law requires to create as part of the digitalization of military registration and enlistment offices, will start working closer to the autumn, as officials of the Ministry of Digital Development stated, but its functions will be much wider than those declared, sources say.
According to the law, a large array of personal data will be included in the register - from a passport and TIN to the actual place of residence and health information. But in reality, there will be even more of them, and the FSB structures will be engaged in maintaining the “base”, says a source of The Bell.
“On the sly, they want to make a superdatabase, where all possible information per person will be collected,” he explains. — It is a long-standing dream to collect everything in one place. They wanted to do this for a long time, but it did not work out, because different bodies were not eager to exchange data with each other.”
"Big Brother" will track, among other things, data on banking transactions and the movements of citizens. And although the law does not directly oblige banks to share information about payments, taxi services have similar information, which is already required to share the archive of passenger trips with the FSB. At the end of March, the FSB demanded round-the-clock access to the geolocation of taxi cars, as well as to bank card data used by customers.
Obviously, we are talking not just about changes in the organization of conscription for military service, but about the creation of a large-scale mechanism for digital control over citizens, political scientist Tatyana Stanovaya notes.
“The digital gulag that was talked about so much during the pandemic is now taking shape,” she writes: the traditional system of state coercion is being reformatted, while basic rights such as freedom of movement, the right to work, and the inviolability of private property are being curtailed.
The law, we recall, allows you to prohibit leaving the country after sending the summons through the "Gosuslugi", and in case of failure to appear within 20 days - to deprive the right to drive a car, conduct business and make real estate transactions.
By regulating access to the rights and benefits of each individual citizen, the authorities hope to form a “loyal digital majority” and create a situation where falling out of the system will mean “social death,” Stanovaya believes: “Subsequently, this approach may spread to other areas, building a state system total digital surveillance, coercion, and punishment.
Bank of Cyprus closes accounts for Russians
Russian citizens are facing growing problems with banking services in Cyprus, the largest "offshore" for Russian capital, where before the war there was $ 212 billion of Russian origin.
Bank of Cyprus - the largest in the country - has begun sending notifications to customers from Russia about the closure of accounts, BFM reports.
"Letters of happiness" from the bank are tax residents of the Russian Federation, those who receive income from the sanctions business in Russia, as well as holders of a type F residence permit - that is, those who received it as a result of buying real estate on the island.
Service termination notices also come to Russians who are in Cyprus on a tourist visa. The conditions are the same for everyone: two months are allotted for the implementation of the account closing procedure.
“The trend is on the top. (And) it won’t get better in the near future,” says portfolio manager Alexander Krapivko: the Cypriot president regularly meets with the US ambassador, and the States insist that “loopholes” to circumvent sanctions against Russia be closed.
“The story of Cyprus is not unique,” recalls Oleg Abelev, head of the analytical department at Ricom-Trust. Last week, Emirates NBD (ENBD), the second largest bank in the United Arab Emirates, announced the blocking of Russian accounts.
The bank intends to introduce separate, segregated accounts for Russian clients, where investment income will be credited. In this case, it will be impossible to withdraw money from such an account. “Something similar, quite possibly, will be in Cyprus, the same algorithm of actions. In order to withdraw money to a separate account, a Russian citizen will need to prove the origin of these funds, that they were not received from a sanctioned business, ”says Abelev.
According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, at the end of 2023, Russians held $94.3 billion in foreign accounts. Against the background of the war, mass mobilization and a wave of emigration that claimed up to a million people from the country, Russian citizens withdrew a record $63.6 billion from the country last year.
https://www.bfm.ru/news/523348
F.B.I. Arrests Two on Charges Tied to Chinese Police Outpost in New York
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged the men with conspiring with the People’s Republic of China and destroying evidence in connection with a Chinese police outpost in Lower Manhattan.
Two men were arrested early Monday on federal charges accusing them of conspiring to act as agents of the People’s Republic of China in connection with a police outpost it operated in Manhattan’s Chinatown, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The outpost was one of more than 100 Chinese police operations around the world that have unnerved diplomats and intelligence officials. The case represents the first time criminal charges have been brought in connection with such a police outpost, one of the people said.
The case against the men, Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, grew out of an investigation by the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn into the Chinatown outpost, which conducted police operations without jurisdiction or diplomatic approval.
Last fall, F.B.I. counterintelligence agents searched the outpost’s offices, located on the third floor of a nondescript building at 107 East Broadway, indicating an escalation in the global dispute over China’s efforts to police its diaspora far beyond its borders.
Charges were also unveiled in two related cases: one against 34 Chinese police officers accused of harassing Chinese nationals who lived in the New York area, and another against eight Chinese officials accused of directing a Zoom employee based in China to remove dissidents from the platform.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/nyregion/fbi-chinese-police-outpost-nyc.html
40 Officers of China’s National Police Charged in Transnational Repression Schemes Targeting U.S. Residents
Defendants Accused of Creating Fake Social Media Accounts to Harass PRC Dissidents, and Working with Employees of a U.S. Telecommunications Company to Remove Dissidents from Company’s Platform
Two criminal complaints filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York were unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging 44 defendants with various crimes related to efforts by the national police of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) – to harass Chinese nationals residing in the New York metropolitan area and elsewhere in the United States. The defendants, including 40 MPS officers and two officials in the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), allegedly perpetrated transnational repression schemes targeting U.S. residents whose political views and actions are disfavored by the PRC government, such as advocating for democracy in the PRC.
In the two schemes, the defendants created and used fake social media accounts to harass and intimidate PRC dissidents residing abroad and sought to suppress the dissidents’ free speech on the platform of a U.S. telecommunications company (Company-1). The defendants charged in these schemes are believed to reside in the PRC or elsewhere in Asia and remain at large.
“These cases demonstrate the lengths the PRC government will go to silence and harass U.S. persons who exercise their fundamental rights to speak out against PRC oppression, including by unlawfully exploiting a U.S.-based technology company,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “These actions violate our laws and are an affront to our democratic values and basic human rights.”
“China’s Ministry of Public Security used operatives to target people of Chinese descent who had the courage to speak out against the Chinese Communist Party – in one case by covertly spreading propaganda to undermine confidence in our democratic processes and, in another, by suppressing U.S. video conferencing users’ free speech,” said Acting Assistant Director Kurt Ronnow of the FBI Counterintelligence Division. “We aren’t going to tolerate CCP repression – its efforts to threaten, harass, and intimidate people – here in the United States. The FBI will continue to confront the Chinese government’s efforts to violate our laws and repress the rights and freedoms of people in our country.”
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‘The State Will Eat You': Russia Enters The Era Of The Treason Verdict
In a case that has attracted international condemnation, Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza has been sentenced to 25 years in prison -- the harshest punishment ever handed down to a Kremlin opponent in the post-Soviet era -- on charges stemming mainly from his outspoken criticism of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
The lion’s share of his sentence -- 18 years -- was for alleged “state treason,” a charge that is being used more and more often across Russia. In his closing statement in court on April 10, Kara-Murza warned of the turn President Vladimir Putin has taken, evoking the license given to prosecutors and the secret police during the Great Terror under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
“I’ve been surprised by how far my trial, in its secrecy and contempt for legal norms, has surpassed even the ‘trials’ of Soviet dissidents in the 1960s and 1970s,” he said. “And that’s not even to mention the harsh sentence requested by the prosecution or the talk of ‘enemies of the state.’ In this respect, we’ve gone far beyond the 1970s – all the way back to the 1930s. As a historian, for me this is an occasion for reflection.”
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https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-state-treason-stalin-era-ukraine-war/32367548.html
Russia’s influence operations across Africa are now on full display in Sudan. For years, Wagner Group and other Russian units have been running influence operations, siphoning resources, and causing instability in the region. What is happening in Sudan may spread across Africa, to countries under Kremlin influence…..
Hospitals and Aid Groups Become Targets as Sudan Fighting Intensifies
Civilians are caught in the cross-fire, and two rival generals vying for power made it clear their forces had no intention of standing down.
As two rival generals, each with his own army, grappled for power in Sudan on Monday, even hospitals trying to tend to the swelling numbers of wounded were no longer havens.
At one overwhelmed medical center, the morning began with shelling. Then, members of a paramilitary force barged inside, ordered newborns and other patients to be evacuated, and began taking up positions, one doctor said.
“The hospital turned into a battlefield,” said the doctor, Musab Khojali, an emergency room physician at the Police Hospital in Burri, northeast of the capital, Khartoum.
Many other hospitals were also reported to have come under attack on Monday, the third day of fighting in Sudan.
The death toll has risen to at least 180, with about 1,800 others injured.
The two generals, who together seized power in a coup in 2021, have now turned against each other — rebuffing all attempts by mediators who for months had been pressing them to unite their fighting forces under one umbrella, relinquish power and allow a transition to civilian rule.
Amid growing reports of random violence and looting, concerns grew that the fighting might embroil other nations in the region, including Egypt, which has troops in the country, as well as Chad, Ethiopia and Libya. Russia has also been trying to make inroads in Sudan, and members of the Kremlin-affiliated Wagner private military company are posted there.
Leaders from around the world called for a cease-fire, but it was not clear who, if anyone, was in control of Sudan, Africa’s third-largest country, by area.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/world/africa/sudan-khartoum-fighting.html
The EU's ambassador in Sudan, Aidan O'Hara, has been assaulted at his home in Khartoum, which is gripped by deadly fighting between rival forces.
The Irish diplomat was not "seriously hurt", Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin has confirmed.
Mr Martin described the attack as a "gross violation of obligations to protect diplomats".
Around 185 people have been killed and more than 1,800 injured in three days of fighting, according to the UN.
The city has seen air strikes, shelling and heavy small-arms fire.
Both the army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claim to control key sites in Khartoum, where residents have been sheltering from explosions.
Mr Martin described the ambassador as an "outstanding Irish and European diplomat who is serving the EU under the most difficult circumstances".
"We thank him for his service and call for an urgent cessation of violence in Sudan, and resumption of dialogue," he said.
Earlier, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted that the security of diplomatic premises and staff was a "primary responsibility" of the Sudanese authorities.
EU spokeswoman Nabila Massrali told AFP news agency the EU delegation had not been evacuated from Khartoum following the attack. Staff security was the priority and security measures were being assessed, she added.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65306695
A must read CNN investigation of Russia’s operations in Sudan…
Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine
CNN Exclusive by Nima Elbagir, Barbara Arvanitidis, Tamara Qiblawi, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Mohammed Abo Al Gheit and Darya Tarasova Video by Alex Platt and Mark Baron Graphics by Sarah-Grace Mankarious, Marco Chacón, Natalie Croker and Henrik Pettersson
Days after Moscow launched its bloody war on Ukraine, a Russian cargo plane stood on a Khartoum runway, a strip of tarmac surrounded by red-orange sand. The aircraft’s manifest stated it was loaded with cookies. Sudan rarely, if ever, exports cookies.
A heated debate transpired between officials in a back office of Khartoum International Airport. They feared that inspecting the plane would vex the country’s increasingly pro-Russian military leadership. Multiple previous attempts to intercept suspicious Russian carriers had been stopped. Ultimately, however, the officials decided to board the plane.
Inside the hold, colorful boxes of cookies stretched out before them. Hidden just beneath were wooden crates of Sudan’s most precious resource. Gold. Roughly one ton of it.
This incident in February – recounted by multiple official Sudanese sources to CNN – is one of at least 16 known Russian gold smuggling flights out of Sudan, Africa’s third largest producer of the precious metal, over the last year and a half.
Multiple interviews with high-level Sudanese and US officials and troves of documents reviewed by CNN paint a picture of an elaborate Russian scheme to plunder Sudan’s riches in a bid to fortify Russia against increasingly robust Western sanctions and to buttress Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
The evidence also suggests that Russia has colluded with Sudan’s beleaguered military leadership, enabling billions of dollars in gold to bypass the Sudanese state and to deprive the poverty-stricken country of hundreds of millions in state revenue.
In exchange, Russia has lent powerful political and military backing to Sudan’s increasingly unpopular military leadership as it violently quashes the country’s pro-democracy movement.
Former and current US officials told CNN that Russia actively supported Sudan’s 2021 military coup which overthrew a transitional civilian government, dealing a devastating blow to the Sudanese pro-democracy movement that had toppled President Omar al-Bashir two years earlier.
“We’ve long known Russia is exploiting Sudan’s natural resources,” one former US official familiar with the matter told CNN. “In order to maintain access to those resources Russia encouraged the military coup.”
“As the rest of the world closed in on [Russia], they have a lot to gain from this relationship with Sudan’s generals and from helping the generals remain in power,” the former official added. “That ‘help’ runs the gamut from training and intelligence support to jointly benefiting from Sudan’s stolen gold.”
At the heart of this quid pro quo between Moscow and Sudan’s military junta is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and key ally of President Vladimir Putin.
The heavily sanctioned 61-year-old controls a shadowy network of companies that includes Wagner, a paramilitary group linked to alleged torture, mass killings and looting in several war-torn countries including Syria and the Central African Republic (CAR). Prigozhin denies links to Wagner.
In Sudan, Prigozhin’s main vehicle is a US-sanctioned company called Meroe Gold – a subsidiary of Prigozhin owned M-invest – which extracts gold while providing weapons and training to the country’s army and paramilitaries, according to invoices seen by CNN.
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https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/29/africa/sudan-russia-gold-investigation-cmd-intl/index.html
After American’s Killing in Syria, F.B.I. Builds War Crimes Case Against Top Officials
The inquiry aims to hold to account Syrian officials considered key architects of a brutal system of detention and torture that has flourished under President Bashar al-Assad.
For months, guards at a Syrian prison brutally tortured an American aid worker and threatened to kill her loved ones. She eventually caved to their demands, confessing to crimes she did not commit. A trial that lasted no more than a few minutes followed, and she was ordered executed in late 2016.
Human rights workers and politicians were outraged when the American government stayed noticeably silent about the death of the aid worker, Layla Shweikani, 26. Her case never received the same level of attention as those of other American citizens captured abroad, including Austin Tice, a freelance journalist covering the war in Syria who was abducted outside Damascus in 2012; Jason Rezaian, a correspondent for The Washington Post, who described being subjected to psychological abuse and sleep deprivation after he was released from an Iranian prison in 2016; and Brittney Griner, a professional basketball star who was imprisoned for nearly a year in Russia.
But for five years, the Justice Department has been quietly investigating Ms. Shweikani’s killing, led by the U.S. attorney in Chicago, according to four people with knowledge of the inquiry. F.B.I. agents traveled to Europe and the Middle East to collect troves of evidence and interview potential witnesses, including the man who may have buried Ms. Shweikani. Federal prosecutors convened a grand jury, which has been hearing evidence.
The inquiry, which has not been previously reported, aims to bring to account top Syrian officials considered key architects of a ruthless system of detention and torture that has flourished under President Bashar al-Assad: Jamil Hassan, the head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate when Ms. Shweikani disappeared, and Ali Mamlouk, then the head of Syria’s National Security Bureau intelligence service.
Read More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/us/politics/justice-department-syria-war-crimes.html
Thank you for all you do, Olga!