Russian Digest

Zelensky accuses Russia of targeting grain facilities

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of carrying out further attacks on the country’s ports and grain infrastructure overnight, targeting the south in particular. The military’s southern command released photos of the damage caused when fires started at industrial and port facilities, while the Ukrainian Defense Ministry tweeted Wednesday that a grain silo in the inland port of Izmail — a key alternative to Black Sea ports for Ukrainian exports — was damaged. Russia has repeatedly targeted port facilities since withdrawing from a U.N.-backed grain deal last month, blocking vital exports to many countries.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia is moving forward, the Pentagon’s spokesman said in response to media questions about whether Ukraine has made significant gains. “It has and will continue to be a tough fight for them,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters.

Living in ‘uncertainty and despair’: How war affects mental health of Ukrainians

Viktoriia Borodai can not recall the last time she experienced "real joy."

She has lived in "uncertainty and despair" ever since Russia's all-out war forced her to flee Kramatorsk, her hometown in Donetsk Oblast, last March.

Seeking shelter in different towns across Ukraine and watching how Russian troops bombard her beloved hometown emotionally drained Borodai so badly that she now struggles to get out of bed in the morning.

She also cries a lot when watching the news or thinking about her life before the war.

"I feel how strongly the war has affected my mental health. I don't know how everyone else is doing, but I don't feel well," Borodai told the Kyiv Independent.

"It is difficult for me psychologically. In recent months, I have been thinking of turning to a psychiatrist or taking antidepressants," she says.

Borodai is not the only one who struggles: Russia's all-out invasion left millions of Ukrainians displaced. Many have lost their loved ones or faced violence while living under Russian occupation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that 22% of people who have "experienced war or other conflicts in the previous 10 years will have depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia."

As for Ukraine, WHO expects that roughly 9.6 million people "may have a mental health condition."

In June last year, Health Minister Viktor Liashko forecasted that around 15 million Ukrainians would need psychological support in the future, and up to 4 million would require prescribed medical treatment.

In Russia and annexed Crimea, there were at least 28 attempts to set fire to military enlistment offices in five days

Over the past five days - from July 29 to August 2 - in Russia and annexed Crimea, at least 28 attempts were made to set fire to military commissariats and other facilities associated with the Russian Defense Ministry. Most arsons occurred in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, and in Podolsk the same military enlistment office was set on fire twice. In many cases, the suspects said that they were deceived by swindlers who presented themselves as FSB officers. Many of the detainees believed that by setting fire to the military registration and enlistment offices, they were helping to catch real criminals. This is the largest attack on military registration and enlistment offices since mobilization was announced in September 2022 in Russia.

https://meduza.io/feature/2023/08/02/v-rossii-i-anneksirovannom-krymu-za-pyat-dney-ne-menshe-28-raz-pytalis-podzhech-voenkomaty

Zorba the thief: How the Serniya smuggling network and a Greek mathematician helped the FSB buy military technology

On May 9, 59-year-old Greek academic and businessman Nikolaos (“Nikos”) Bogonikolos was arrested in Paris. A United States federal court in Brooklyn has charged him with assisting Russian organizations in evading sanctions, such as by purchasing lasers, transistors, and NATO tactical antennas while claiming they were intended for private pleasure yachts in the Netherlands. The Serniya network, with whom he collaborated, had Russian clients, including FSB and SVR suppliers who owned a villa on the French Cote d'Azur and held Maltese citizenship. The Insider has exposed the entire Serniya smuggling network and identified the FSB and SVR military units involved in acquiring the equipment by analyzing open-source Russian government data, customs operations, and government contracts.

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https://theins.ru/en/politics/263930

A simple and elegant scheme Billionaires Deripaska, Mikhelson, and Gutseriev all provide financial incentives for Russia’s contract soldiers going to Ukraine

A number of industrial companies owned by Russian billionaire oligarchs Oleg Deripaska, Leonid Mikhelson, Sergey Gordeev, and Mikhail Gutseriev are involved in a scheme for providing financial incentives to contract soldiers willing to take part in the war on Ukraine. Maria Zholobova and Anastasia Korotkova, investigative journalists, working for the independent news outlet iStories, spoke with contract servicemen (called “volunteers” by the Russian authorities), as well as military recruiters, whose phone numbers link them to corporations like Deripaska’s Rusal, Mikhelson’s Novatek, and other industrial giants. Here’s the gist of their investigation, just released by iStories.

One of the contract servicemen who spoke to iStories was Igor Sergienko, a platoon commander in the Russian army’s Sokol (“Falcon”) battalion, where he is known by the nom-de-guerre “Shershen” (“Hornet.”) Sergienko’s salary comes from two sources: 200,000 rubles a month (or just over $2,000) is paid to him by the Russian Defense Ministry, while another 100,000 comes from a sponsor he describes as a “company in the military-industrial complex.”

Neither Sergienko nor his recruiter, who also agreed to speak with the journalists, wanted to say more about the sponsor company’s identity. But the phone numbers given by the recruiter as contact information for prospective conscripts led the authors of the investigation to Rusal Management, a subsidiary of Oleg Deripaska’s Rusal. Another phone number provided by the recruiter for employment questions also belongs to Rusal Management. In the recruiter’s own words, Rusal’s military incentive scheme works like this:

We onboard a new employee the day before he signs a military contract, and next, we suspend his contract with us, which leaves us legal grounds to pay him a stipend while he’s in the combat zone.

Sergienko’s employment record shows that in October 2022 he was hired by Ruslan, a private security company whose bank records reflect payments to mercenaries. According to iStories, Ruslan’s only clients in 2022 were two Deripaska-affiliated corporations.

Tensions high on NATO’s border with Belarus after Wagner troops move closer

Poland will deploy more troops at the border with Belarus after it accused Minsk of violating its airspace, raising tensions between the NATO member and a key Kremlin ally in an increasingly volatile security landscape in Europe.

Warsaw said two Belarusian helicopters allegedly violated the Polish airspace during training exercises on Tuesday, which the Belarusian defense ministry vehemently denied and dismissed as “far-fetched.”

This came amid increased activity near a thin strip of land between Poland and Lithuania, known as the Suwalki gap or corridor, which troops from the Russian mercenary group Wagner are moving toward in an apparent attempt to increase pressure on NATO and EU members.

PMC Wagner is recruiting mercenaries in Russia despite Prigozhin's statement about the termination of recruitment

PMC Wagner continues to recruit mercenaries in Russia, despite the statement of the founder Yevgeny Prigozhin to stop recruiting, while the main direction for sending trained fighters to Africa. This was found out by "Important Stories," the correspondent of the publication under the guise of a "volunteer" got into a profile chat where the fighters communicate with each other, and also tried to sign up for a PMC through a Novosibirsk organization.

Prigozhin claimed that he was not experiencing a "deficit in personnel," according to him, a new recruitment will begin when "the Motherland needs to create a new (additional)" group." According to his statement, now PMC mercenaries are present only in Africa and Belarus.

However, journalists found messages in chats that PMCs would resume recruitment in August. One of the ex-mercenaries, who had already fought in Africa and Ukraine, told the publication that recruitment had already resumed through the Orthodox Paratrooper sports club in Omsk and one of the PMC points in Novosibirsk.

When the correspondent tried to get into a new wave of recruitment, the Omsk "Paratrooper" said that PMC Wagner had banned all recruitment in the Russian Federation, so it would not be possible to join. However, the Novosibirsk organization of veterans "Force Unity of Siberia," which is the official representative of the PMC, said that the new recruitment takes place on Fridays. The journalist was offered to come to the office with sneakers and a sports uniform and pass the physical training standards. Representatives also warned that a PMC candidate should not have a criminal record, chronic diseases, and debts on the basis of the Federal Bailiff Service. In addition, a potential “Wagnerian” must have a military specialty and a passport, because the main direction of recruitment is African countries.

Another mercenary, with whom the correspondent spoke, said that, in fact, recruitment centers distribute the areas of work of militants after the selection. So, according to him, recruits can be sent, including to the war in Ukraine. However, recruiters did not confirm this information to the publication.

During a conversation with a recruiter, the correspondent was offered to go to the “Northern Military District zone” without signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense from PMC Redut, associated with Gazprom.

“The commander signed [a contract] with the Ministry of Defense, but nothing has changed with us, you sign a Redutov contract for six months, we don’t belong to the Ministry of Defense,” said the recruiter of the Wolves detachment of PMC Redut.

In the Central African Republic (CAR) on Sunday, July 30, voting in a referendum to change the constitution. The amendments, in particular, remove the restriction prohibiting holding the presidency for more than two consecutive terms. Thanks to this, the current head of state, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, will again be able to participate in the elections. Also, the presidential term will increase from five to seven years, and the Senate will be abolished. The opposition sharply criticizes the amendments to the Constitution. Touadéra first assumed the presidency of the Central African Republic in 2016. Shortly after coming to power, he turned to Russia for help in the fight against the rebels, and since 2017, Wagner PMC mercenaries have been supporting the CAR forces in the fight against armed rebels. In 2020, Touadera was re-elected for a second term, but Wagner PMC mercenaries still continue to stay in the African country and earn millions of dollars.

On July 18, Prigozhin and Wagner PMC commander Dmitry Utkin spoke to the mercenaries at their camp in Belarus. Prigozhin said that in the near future, the Wagnerites would fight in Africa, but they could return to Ukraine when they were sure that they "would not be forced to shame themselves and their combat experience."

After the military riot that Yevgeny Prigozhin staged in the Russian regions, including in Rostov-on-Don, together with Wagner PMC mercenaries, Putin admitted that the PMC was fully supported by the state. During their "camp on Moscow," PMC fighters shot down 1 plane and 6 helicopters of the Russian army, officially the number of dead was not reported, according to media reports, we are talking about at least 13 military personnel. As a result, Prigozhin, after an agreement with Alexander Lukashenko, "left for Belarus", the Russian state media spoke about the meeting between Prigozhin and Putin in the Kremlin that took place soon. For example, the propagandist of "Russia 1" Ernest Mackevicius stated that the conversation showed "the president's desire to see the most objective picture of events possible, receiving first-hand information." According to the propagandist, it was precisely such a policy that helped the Russian leadership "to cope with the rebellion."

https://theins.ru/news/263960

Turkey Urges Russia To Avoid Escalation After Drone Strikes Damage Ukrainian Ports

Russian drone strikes damaged grain facilities at the Ukrainian ports of Izmayil and Odesa overnight, authorities said on August 2, prompting Turkey to call on the Kremlin to avoid escalating the already high tensions in and around the Black Sea.

Ukrainian authorities said that a grain silo was damaged in Izmayil, one of the two Danube ports that Ukraine has been using to export its grain since Moscow last month refused to extend a Turkey- and UN-brokered deal that had allowed the export of Ukrainian grain and other produce by sea.

"Another elevator in the port of Izmayil, Odesa region, was damaged by Russians. Ukrainian grain has the potential to feed millions of people worldwide," the Ukrainian Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter.

Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that there were almost 40,000 tons of grain in the warehouses and elevators in Izmayil.

Kubrakov said the grain was expected by African countries, China, and Israel, adding that the sea station and infrastructure of the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company, the key Ukrainian freight carrier on the Danube, were damaged.

Izmayil is located some 15 kilometers north of Tulcea, a major Danube port of NATO-member Romania. Last week, Russian drones struck Reni, the other Danube port used by Ukraine to export grain. Reni is some 200 meters across the Danube from Romania.

In Odesa, Russian drones struck grain storage facilities, regional Governor Oleh Kiper reported.

"As a result of the attack, fires broke out at port facilities and at industrial infrastructure objectives in the region, and a [grain] elevator was damaged," Kiper wrote on Telegram.

Odesa, Ukraine's main Black Sea port, has been increasingly subjected to Russian shelling and drone attacks since Russia's withdrawal from the grain deal.

Romania accuses Russia of war crimes over Danube grain port bombing

Russia attacks Ukrainian port of Izmail on the River Danube, a key route for grain exports through the Black Sea.

Romania's president has condemned Russia's attacks on ports on the Danube as unacceptable and war crimes.

On Wednesday morning, Russia attacked Ukrainian grain ports at Izmail on the River Danube, a short distance from Romania. A grain warehouse, a passenger building and an elevator for loading grain were damaged, the BBC reported. No casualties were reported.

The attacks were "unacceptable," Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on social media. "These are war crimes and they further affect UA's [Ukraine's] capacity to transfer their food products towards those in need in the world."

Russians are massively offered to purchase Kyrgyz passports at Avito

On the bulletin board "Avito" Russians began to offer passports of Kyrgyzstan. The cost of the service for obtaining it varies from 270,000 to 890,000 rubles. Clients are promised full service: a meeting at the airport, filing documents out of turn, the passport itself, bank cards, driver's licenses, ID cards, transfer of citizenship by inheritance, and visas to Europe and the USA. The term for issuing a passport is allegedly up to six months.

At the same time, some assistants launch referral programs. The seller named “lawyer Pavel Alexandrovich” offers a cashback of 5,000 rubles for each potential Kyrgyz brought to him.

Citizenships of Georgia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan are practically not offered on Avito, and the search returned only a few ads for potential citizens of Armenia.

Kyrgyzstan is very popular with Russians. In the latest presidential decree on admission to the citizenship of Kyrgyzstan, there were about fifty residents of the capital region and the same number of people from other parts of Russia.

The names of the recipients of the passports do not resemble Kyrgyz, and many turned out to be part of the Russian elite. The Kyrgyz passport was received by Dmitry Zelenin, the full namesake of the former governor of the Tver region, the full namesake of Natalia Barshchevskaya, the daughter of Mikhail Barshchevsky, the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian government in the highest judicial instances. The probable sons of the owner of the Fragrant World alcohol network Valery Zadorin, Alexander, and Mikhail, also received Kyrgyz citizenship. The passport of Kyrgyzstan was also received by the full namesake of Anton Shkurenka, the co-founder of the Bitzlato crypto exchange, who was under investigation in the US and the EU.

Officially, Kyrgyzstan does not recognize dual citizenship. The Kyrgyz can have two passports only if the authorities are not aware of the document of the second state. In total, almost 2,000 people received citizenship last year.

https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2023/08/02/rossiyanam-massovo-predlagayut-priobresti-kirgizskie-pasporta-na-avito-a50841

France is investigating suspected smuggling to China and Russia of advanced chip technology

French magistrates have filed preliminary charges against two Chinese citizens and two other people from France in an investigation of a leading chip supplier whose advanced technology with possible military uses was reportedly smuggled to China and Russia, allegedly skirting sanctions and export controls.

The probe of Ommic, a Paris-region semiconductor manufacturer now in American hands, was launched by France’s national prosecution service that specializes in cases involving arms proliferation.

The probe is now being led by magistrates investigating suspected illegal exports, forgery, and other suspected crimes, according to a French judicial official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of secrecy laws that cover magistrates’ probes.

The official said four people — two French, two Chinese — have been placed under formal investigation since March. That means magistrates believe there is considerable evidence of potential crimes but want more time to investigate.

Two of the four people face preliminary charges of handing over protected know-how to a foreign power, the judicial official said. The official and the prosecution service, which also specializes in terrorism cases, refused to go into greater detail about the investigation.

The newspaper Le Parisien first reported on the case. It said investigators have uncovered nearly 12 million euros (more than $13 million) worth of suspected exports of technology.

It said the company’s French manager is suspected of having personally delivered chips to Russian clients. It said products were also exported to Chinese armament manufacturers with the help of forged paperwork.

The newspaper said a Beijing-based Chinese businessman with ties to China’s defense industry bought a majority stake and took control of Ommic in 2018.

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