Russian Digest
Top stories I'm keeping an eye on!
Poland announced the elimination of the network of Russian spies
Polish intelligence agencies have neutralized a spy network working for Russia, RMF reports citing the Internal Security Agency. Six foreigners from the eastern border were detained, suspected of preparing sabotage on the railway.
According to intelligence agencies, the attackers installed hidden cameras on the most important routes and transmitted the image to the Web. Among other things, they recorded traffic on the railway sections near the airport in Jasionka near Rzeszow, where Western weapons and ammunition arrive before being sent to Ukraine.
In connection with the operation to capture spies, employees of the services and the police of Poland were put on high alert. The security of key critical infrastructure facilities has also been strengthened.
The former deputy head of the Military Counterintelligence Service, Maciej Matysiak, believes that, first of all, Russia tried to obtain data on the quantity and type of equipment entering Ukraine from the West in order to assess how much the coalition of countries supporting Kyiv is fulfilling its promises and how significant this assistance is. In addition, such information can be used to take countermeasures to prevent equipment from reaching its destination, including sabotage, sabotage, and destruction, Matysiak believes.
Read More:
https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2023/03/15/polsha-zayavila-olikvidatsii-seti- rossiiskih-shpionov-a36875
Russian forces have reached the MQ-9 crash site, US officials say
From CNN's Oren Liebermann
The Russians have reached the MQ-9 crash site in the Black Sea, according to two US officials, as the Kremlin promises to attempt to recover the US surveillance drone.
Russia’s Navy has several ships in the Black Sea, including ships based in Crimean ports, which would have placed them in an advantageous position to attempt to recover the US MQ-9 Reaper drone after its encounter with Russian fighter jets on Tuesday.
The drone came down in international waters approximately 70 miles southwest of Crimea, one of the officials said. It is unclear if Russia was able to recover any of the wreckage from the drone when they arrived at the crash site.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby would not confirm that Russians were at the site. He reiterated however that the US took steps to make it "impossible" for Russia to acquire any useful information from the drone's remnants.
"Whatever's left of that that's floating will probably be flight control surfaces, that kind of thing," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "Probably nothing of real intrinsic value to them in terms of re-engineering or anything like that. We're not overly concerned about whatever they might get their hands on."
He added: "It's our property and they have no business recovering anything."
The Russian Security Council Secretary said Wednesday that Russia will try to obtain the drone wreckage to study it.
“I don’t know if we will be able to get it or not, but we need to do it... And we will definitely look into it,” said Nikolai Patrushev on on Russian state TV Rossiya 1.
The drone landed in a part of the Black Sea that’s likely almost a mile deep, Gen. Mark A. Milley said, making any recovery effort extremely difficult. The US also has no Navy ships in the Black Sea, compounding the challenges in any US recovery attempt.
Read More:
https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-03-15-23/index.html
Investigation: Leaked document exposes Kremlin's 10-year plan to undermine Moldova
As Russia is waging war in Ukraine, it also seeks to increase its already strong influence in Moldova, a nation of 2.6 million people that borders Ukraine and the EU.
According to a leaked document obtained by an international consortium of media outlets, including the Kyiv Independent, Moscow is planning to gain vast control over the country by 2030.
A Western intelligence source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Kremlin's Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation had allegedly created the document, titled "Strategic goals of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Moldova," in 2021.
According to the document, Russia’s key goals are to ensure that Moldovan policymakers and society, in general, have a negative attitude toward NATO and that the country has a strong presence of pro-Russian influence groups in politics and the economy.
The document envisions Transnistria remaining a breakaway region with Russian troops still stationed there. Russian media should have a wide presence in Moldova, while the Russian language in the country must have an official status.
One of the so-called "realistic 10-year goals" is to "counter the attempts of external actors" – like neighboring Romania, other EU member states, or the U.S. – "to interfere in the internal affairs of Moldova, strengthen the influence of NATO, and weaken the positions of Russia."
As a counterweight, the document envisions Moldova’s deeper involvement in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Moscow's version of NATO, and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union.
"The document treats Moldova as a pliable satellite over which (Russia) can exercise control and influence while seeking to block Western influence," David Kramer, former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, said.
Read More:
https://kyivindependent.com/investigations/leaked-document-exposes-kremlins-10-year-plan-to-undermine-moldova
Crypto ‘Mixer’ Laundered $700 Million For Customers, Including Russian And North Korean Spies, DOJ Says
An international law enforcement operation has taken down ChipMixer, a dark web “mixer” that helped criminals launder over $700 million, Europol and other policing agencies announced on Wednesday. Amongst its users were North Korean hackers and Russian spies, according to the Department of Justice.
ChipMixer charged a small fee to take in clients’ cryptocurrency and spread it across different accounts, in order to complicate law enforcement tracking of criminal proceeds, police said. In total, it processed $3 billion, nearly a billion of which has been traced to crimes, including ransomware incidents and darknet market drug sales, the DOJ said.
ChipMixer domains have been taken down, nearly $50 million seized, and the DOJ has charged Minh Quốc Nguyễn, 49, of Hanoi, Vietnam, with allegedly operating the service since 2017.
Tom Robinson, founder of cryptocurrency tracking company Elliptic, said it was a “very significant” takedown. “Chipmixer was the largest centralized mixer in operation,” he told Forbes. He pointed to its use by the Lazarus Group, one of North Korea’s most notorious hacking groups, accused of major crypto thefts. That included a breach of Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge last year, which saw $540 million stolen, and a hack of Harmony’s Horizon Bridge in 2020, when $100 million went missing.
The DOJ also claimed Russia’s GRU intelligence agency was a ChipMixer user. In a complaint filed on Wednesday against Nguyễn, the agency’s APT28 group, also known as Fancy Bear, “used ChipMixer to obfuscate the origin of the funds that were used to purchase infrastructure for their ‘Drovorub’ malware.” The Department of Defense previously analyzed the malware, saying it was for persistent surveillance of an infected device. Amongst APT28’s previous victims is the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which was infamously hacked in the lead up to the 2016 election.
Read More:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2023/03/15/us-shuts-down-crypto-mixer-chipmixer-used-by-russian-and-north-korea-spies/?sh=30792d855721
Serbia’s far right seizes on Putin’s war to push retaking Kosovo
Serbia’s ultra-nationalists are using Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to galvanize their campaign against Kosovo’s independence — and anti-war activists are getting caught in the crossfire.
Politicians on Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s right flank have sniffed out an opportunity to tie Russia’s war on Ukraine to their desire to swallow up Kosovo, even as Vučić engages in EU-brokered negotiations to partially normalize relations with Kosovo, the independence of which neither Belgrade nor Moscow recognize.
A victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine is a stepping stone to Serbia regaining Kosovo, according to Miša Vacić, the leader of the highly nationalistic, pro-Kremlin Serbian Right political party.
Read More:
https://www.politico.eu/article/serbia-far-right-vladimir-putin-war-ukraine-kosovo/
Exclusive: Expelled Russian Diplomats With Spy Links Resurface In Serbia
In the months following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine last year, hundreds of Russian diplomats were expelled or blacklisted by European Union member states, several of which cited alleged espionage by the banished emissaries.
At least three of these diplomats have now resurfaced as accredited Russian diplomats in Serbia, including two with links to Russian intelligence, a months-long investigation by RFE/RL has found.
A fourth diplomat currently at the Russian Embassy in Belgrade left his post at Moscow's embassy in Helsinki two months after Finland announced it was expelling Russian diplomats in response to the Ukraine invasion.
Russia has boosted its diplomatic presence in Serbia since the wave of expulsions by EU countries last year, with a total of 62 accredited diplomats compared to 54 in March 2022, an analysis of diplomatic rosters maintained by the Serbian Foreign Ministry shows.
Unlike most European countries, Serbia has not imposed sanctions on Moscow after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the war against Ukraine that entered its second year last month.
While Serbia aspires to join the European Union, the government of President Aleksandar Vucic has sought to maintain its traditionally strong ties with Russia, which shares its Orthodox Christian heritage and has backed Belgrade in multiple disputes with the West.
Read More:
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-serbia-home-spies-expelled-diplomats/32310285.html
The mercenaries of Wagner's PMC, commissioned by Medvedev, planned to assassinate Italian Defense Minister Crozetto, - Il Foglio
Italian intelligence last week informed the country's government that the Kremlin was allegedly planning an assassination attempt on Defense Minister Guido Crozetto, for which a reward of $15 million was set.
According to the article, the concern of the Italian special services was caused by the "outbursts of anger" of the former president of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, who last year called Crozetto a "rare fool" for saying that if Russian tanks entered Kyiv, the Third World War would begin.
Rome also believes that Medvedev, as the deputy secretary of the Security Council of Russia and close to Vladimir Putin, has an influence on decision-making.
Italian special services, according to Il Foglio, intercepted the request of the ex-president of the Russian Federation to assassinate the Minister of Defense for 15 million dollars, which was allegedly addressed to Wagner's private military company. The "Wagnerians" could carry out an attempt with the help of one of their two cells in Europe (the publication also writes about them with reference to intelligence) - in Serbia or Estonia.
Il Foglio's material indicated that Medvedev's request for an assassination attempt on Crosetto was submitted even before the latest statements by the Italian minister, who accused Wagner's PMC of inciting the migration crisis in Europe.
In response, the leader of the Wagnerites, Yevgeny Prigozhin, called the head of the Italian Ministry of Defense a "scumbag" and urged him to pay attention to his own country.