Russian Digest
Top daily stories I'm keeping an eye on!
Russia formally charges detained American reporter with espionage, according to state media.
Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal correspondent jailed in Moscow, was formally charged with espionage on Friday, according to Russian state media.
The Tass news agency cited an unidentified law enforcement source about the steps taken by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., and said Mr. Gershkovich had denied the accusation.
“The F.S.B. investigation charged Gershkovich with espionage in the interests of his country,” the news agency quoted its source as saying, echoing the statement issued by Russia’s security police agency at the time the 31-year-old reporter was first detained.
“He categorically denied all accusations and stated that he was engaged in journalistic activities in Russia,” the source was quoted as saying. The source declined to comment further because the case was marked “top secret,” according to Tass.
Read More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/world/europe/evan-gershkovich-charged-espionage-russia.html
New Batch of Classified Documents Appears on Social Media Sites
Secret documents that appear to detail American national security secrets on Ukraine, the Middle East and China have surfaced online.
A new batch of classified documents that appear to detail American national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media sites on Friday, alarming the Pentagon and adding turmoil to a situation that seemed to have caught the Biden administration off guard.
The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.
The latest documents were found on Twitter and other sites on Friday, a day after senior Biden administration officials said they were investigating a potential leak of classified Ukrainian war plans, include an alarming assessment of Ukraine’s faltering air defense capabilities. One slide, dated Feb. 23, is labeled “Secret/NoForn,” meaning it was not meant to be shared with foreign countries.
The Justice Department said it had opened an investigation into the leaks and was in communication with the Defense Department but declined to comment further.
Read More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/us/politics/classified-documents-leak.html
Ukraine's intelligence dismisses classified war documents leaked online as 'fake'
Ukrainian military intelligence said that the supposed classified war documents recently leaked online were forged by Russia.
Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind the leak, undisclosed U.S. officials told Reuters on April 7.
"In recent decades, the most successful operations of the Russian special services took place in Photoshop," Ukraine's Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate spokesperson Andrii Yusov said on national television on April 7.
According to the New York Times, classified documents detailing U.S. and NATO plans for supplying aid to arm Ukraine for the upcoming counteroffensive were posted this week on Twitter and Telegram. Senior U.S. officials told the newspaper that this prompted an investigation by Pentagon.
The documents do not reveal details of when, how, or where Ukraine intends to launch its counteroffensive and are reportedly five weeks old.
According to military analysts with whom the New York Times spoke, the documents were likely modified from their original format, understating the casualties on the Russian side and overstating those on the Ukrainian side.
Read More:
https://kyivindependent.com/ukraines-intelligence-ukraine-war-document-leaked-online-fake/
Russia likely behind U.S. military document leak, U.S. officials say
Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind the leak of several classified U.S. military documents posted on social media that offer a partial, month-old snapshot of the war in Ukraine, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday.
The documents appear to have been altered to lower the number of casualties suffered by Russian forces, the U.S. officials said, adding their assessments were informal and separate from an investigation into the leak itself.
Read More:
Twitter removed restrictions from the accounts of the Kremlin, the Russian Foreign Ministry and Russian state propaganda
Twitter removed restrictions from Russian government accounts after the social network was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk. This was noticed by The Telegraph.
Last April, weeks after Russia's war in Ukraine broke out, Twitter announced that Russian government accounts would not be recommended in search, on the home page, or elsewhere on the social network. The measure was also supposed to affect accounts affiliated with the Russian authorities.
However, these restrictions have now been lifted. Users can see in the recommendations the accounts of the administration of the President of Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry, and the Russian Embassy in the UK. In addition, tweets from Russian government accounts appeared in the algorithmically-driven "For You" Twitter feed for the newly created account.
The former Twitter chief confirmed to The Telegraph that this could only happen because of the lifting of last year's measures. “It is highly unlikely that this change would have happened by accident or without the knowledge and management of the company,” he told the publication.
Last week, it became known that Twitter lifted restrictions on Russian state propaganda accounts. So, among the recommended tweets, users will again be able to see Russia Today publications. The social network introduced restrictions against the publication back in 2020, recalls The Telegraph.
Moreover, a study of the source code of Twitter, which Musk published the day before, showed that the social network underestimates the rating of publications about the war in Ukraine. This means that they are less likely to come across in the user's feed.
Elon Musk bought Twitter on October 27, closing the deal for $44 billion. He then dissolved the board of directors, fired top managers, and became the sole head of the company. The billionaire also promised an "amnesty" for blocked accounts.
Mykines Corporation: The UK business that shipped $1.2bn of electronics to Russia
A British business registered to a terraced house in a north London suburb appears to have arranged the sale of about $1.2bn of electronics into Russia since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine at the start of 2022. Mykines Corporation LLP, a company based in the London borough of Enfield, is listed in Russian records as having sent shipments including semiconductors, servers, laptops, computer components, telecoms network equipment, and consumer electronics. The records list brands ranging from Huawei and H3C to Intel, AMD, Apple, and Samsung. According to these customs filings, at least $982mn of the goods listed as sent by Mykines are subject to restrictions on export by UK companies or individuals to Russia. The sale of these goods to Russia without permission from the UK authorities may constitute a breach of its sanctions, even though the goods shipped by Mykines entered Russia from other countries — largely China. These findings raise questions over the effectiveness of the attempts to clamp down on Russia’s ability to obtain critical technologies used by the country’s military-industrial complex. The raw data analyzed by the Financial Times was obtained from Maxim Mironov, a professor at IE Business School in Madrid who is an expert on the analysis of customs flows. A subset of the records was corroborated by comparison to data from ImportGenius, a commercial customs data provider.
Read More:
https://www.ft.com/content/bdd8c518-bf10-4c9c-b53b-bfbe512e2e92
The Iron Curtain returns
The Bell: Mishustin closed the free exit from the country for high-ranking government officials. There are no such restrictions in the Kremlin
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin actually closed the borders for his subordinates, The Bell found out. High-ranking government officials can now travel abroad only on official business and with the permission of the prime minister. At the same time, there are no such strict rules in the presidential administration.
What's happened?
In connection with the war, Russian civil servants and employees of state-owned companies have significantly fewer opportunities to travel. And it's not just about the sanctions of the West, which were introduced against many. For example, the leadership of the Central Bank last summer "strongly recommended" its employees to refrain from traveling to "unfriendly" countries until "special instructions", wrote The Bell. But since then, the situation has worsened for some civil servants. The most serious approach to the issue came from the government, according to two sources of The Bell, who are familiar with the new working conditions for officials.
Recently, virtually all government leaders - from ministers, chiefs of staff (and their deputies), ending with heads of departments - can travel abroad only by individual decisions and in agreement with the prime minister, and only as part of the operational need, The Bell interlocutors say.
At the same time, there are no such strict restrictions for employees of the Presidential Administration, both say. One of them explains the difference in restrictions for employees of the Kremlin and the government by Mishustin's "special zeal". However, the majority of Kremlin employees “are not even trying” to leave somewhere, Current Time wrote in March (acknowledged by a foreign agent), citing a source close to the administration. Another interlocutor of the channel objected that some Kremlin employees over the past year quite calmly traveled to “neutral” countries, and the head of the Kremlin administration Anton Vaino could personally sign permission for such a trip.
How civil servants are gradually becoming restricted to travel abroad
Evidence that it is becoming increasingly difficult for officials and employees of state-owned companies to leave the country is growing.
Parts of civil servants and employees of state corporations were ordered to hand over their foreign passports, wrote Carnegie.
Federal and regional officials, as well as representatives of government agencies, were banned from leaving Russia for the New Year holidays, the Nesting edition wrote. Many employees abroad may “misuse the information they have about Russian industry and its condition against the backdrop of a special operation,” quoted an anonymous official. Before the war, only employees of law enforcement agencies and civil servants with the first level of access to classified information faced such restrictions.
According to the Financial Times, Russian intelligence services began to confiscate passports not only from high-ranking officials and secret bearers but also from middle-ranking officials and managers of state-owned companies who do not have access to classified information. “Paranoia about leaks and flight abroad is gripping the Putin regime,” the publication wrote this week. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to the FT the tightening of restrictions on foreign travel for workers in sensitive industries. “In some, they are formalized, and in some, they depend on specific decisions regarding specific employees,” the publication quotes him.
The categories of “first departments” or personnel subject to the travel ban are seized both official and personal passports, and in the database of the border service there are “flags” opposite their names, wrote journalist Pyotr Kozlov. Alexei Kudrin's trips to Israel last year and the departure of Anatoly Chubais were personally coordinated by Vladimir Putin.
At the time of publication, Peskov and Mishustin's representative did not respond to The Bell's request.
"Hole" in the Russian budget for the year of the war reached 7 trillion rubles
Russia's federal budget remains in deep deficit, the Ministry of Finance reported on Friday.
According to the results of the first quarter, government revenues decreased by 21%, to 5.7 trillion rubles.
Oil and gas tax collections collapsed by 45% after Gazprom cut off gas to European countries, and Russian oil flows turned to the East at the price of discounts of tens of dollars per barrel.
Non-oil and gas revenues sank by 3.5%, over the past year, to RUB 4 trillion. At the same time, budget expenditures jumped by 34%, to 8 trillion rubles, of which about a third fell on "secret articles."
For three months, the budget received a deficit of 2.4 trillion rubles. And although in March, for the first time since November last year, government revenues exceeded spending, the monthly surplus - 181 billion rubles - only slightly reduced the "hole" in the treasury, which at the beginning of the year set a record since the late 1990s.
The cumulative total over the past 12 months, the federal budget deficit has reached 7 trillion rubles or nearly $90 billion at the current exchange rate, MMI analysts say.
In an attempt to find money, the authorities introduced a “voluntary-compulsory” collection of 300 billion rubles from large companies, began selling yuan from gold from the National Welfare Fund, and also sharply increased tax pressure on businesses. Last year, FTS inspectors conducted more than 10 thousand inspections, and 95% of them ended in tax claims - their total amount increased by 1.8 times and reached a record 686 billion rubles.
It is obvious that in this way the authorities solve the problem of budget revenues, Alfa-Bank analysts write. Last year, skyrocketing energy prices helped the government make ends meet and smooth out the sanctions shock to the economy. "But it won't happen this year," says Alexandra Prokopenko, a former CBR official who left Russia after the war broke out.
“In 2023, there are no signs that Russia will receive additional revenues,” she says. In the coming years, a "very likely scenario" would be to raise taxes for the corporate sector, Alfa-Bank believes.
The Ministry of Finance drew up the budget on the basis that Russian oil would cost $70, while Gazprom would continue pumping gas to Europe in pre-war volumes. The treasury deficit is planned at the level of 2.9 trillion rubles, but in reality, it will be at least 5 trillion, MMI predicts.
“Oil and gas revenues of the budget will recover in the coming months, thanks to a weak ruble” and a change in the formula for calculating oil taxes, says Bloomberg Economics economist Alexander Isakov.
Nevertheless, the government is unlikely to be able to meet the deficit of 2% of GDP, but it is unlikely to receive more than 3% of GDP, he believes.
'Just the way the Nazis did': Evidence suggests Russians are stealing art from Ukraine on a World War II scale
“Our research suggests that this looting is state-sponsored by Russia,” said a researcher at the Smithsonian Institution, which is preparing a report on the massive scale of the theft.
Last fall, Ukrainian troops were closing in on Kherson, rolling back Russian forces who had seized the city after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.
At the Kherson Regional Art Museum, a team of armed Russians in civilian clothes arrived along with several large trucks and buses. Over five days, they hauled away more than 11,000 pieces of art, including paintings, sculptures, graphics and other works from Ukraine and around the world, said Alina Dotsenko, the director of the museum.
The theft, verified by human rights monitors and independent scholars, was not an isolated incident.
A growing body of evidence suggests Russian forces are systematically stealing art and cultural artifacts from Ukraine on a scale not seen in Europe since the Nazi plunder of World War II, according to researchers and experts documenting the damage.
The theft includes precious Scythian gold jewelry dating to the fourth century B.C., ancient coins and thousands of paintings from museums and private collections, researchers said. Some art and cultural sites have been severely damaged and destroyed, including centuries-old Orthodox Christian churches, libraries and paintings by one of Ukraine’s most beloved artists, Maria Prymachenko, whose work was hailed by Pablo Picasso as an “artistic miracle.”
The organized campaign of looting and destruction, targeting hundreds of cultural monuments, churches, and museums, appears aimed at wiping out Ukraine’s history and cultural identity, experts said.
Read More:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-stealing-art-ukraine-nazi-level-world-war-2-rcna77879
Ukraine Aid From Chelsea Sale (oligarch Roman Abramovich) Delayed as Approval Process Drags
A foundation being set up to aid Ukraine with £2.34 billion ($2.9 billion) in proceeds from Roman Abramovich’s sale of Chelsea FC is nearly ready to go with a proposed chair lined up, but UK government approval is taking longer than expected.
“We’re ready to go and we’re just waiting for approval,” said Mike Penrose, the former Unicef UK chief executive who is acting CEO for the new foundation. “There are complexities and delays based around political approval both between the UK and the EU and within the UK.”
Penrose said his team had completed all the paperwork needed to set up the foundation, including proposing the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Secretary General Jan Egeland as chairman and an international shortlist of candidates for a seven-member board. He declined to disclose names, saying they’re all people who have been in the charity sector for a long time. Penrose said he has drawn up a shortlist of investment managers to oversee the money.
“We aren’t going to make any decisions until we know the money’s coming,” Penrose said. “We don’t want to end up with a charity but no money.”
Last year, the UK government released about £200,000 to fund the legal and administrative costs of establishing the charity and hire experts to develop a plan to deploy the funds. The foundation plans to focus on humanitarian projects supporting medical, educational and shelter programs for Ukrainians, Penrose said.
Abramovich, a Russian businessman worth more than $7.5 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, sold the London-based football club to a consortium led by American investor Todd Boehly in May 2022, after he was sanctioned by Britain and the European Union over his alleged links to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Nearly a year on from the sale, the funds remain frozen in a UK bank account and none of them have reached Ukraine.
The UK Foreign Office declined to comment.
The EU has provided the relevant parties with legal clarity on how its own sanctions apply, and there is no further work expected to be needed from their side, a person familiar with the matter said.
The second deputy who declared himself a "volunteer" changed his mind about going to war
Yaroslav Frolov, a member of the United Russia Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk Legislative Assembly, volunteered for the front in September last year. However, he never went to war with Ukraine, the Taiga.Info publication drew attention.
Frolov was supposed to go to the combat zone back in February as part of the Vega battalion. The deputy told VN.ru that he had no combat experience, but he graduated from the military department, while studying at the Novosibirsk Medical Institute, passed military training, and took the oath. According to Frolov, he even has the rank of captain of the reserve medical service.
However, the deputy is still in Novosibirsk, as follows from the posts in his profile on VKontakte. For example, on April 7, Frolov participated in a meeting of the commission of the regional parliament on ecology.
In early February, MK Novosibirsk drew attention to the fact that Frolov never left for the war zone. Then the commander of the Vega battalion, the first vice-speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk Region, Andrey Panferov, explained that the deputy "will leave Novosibirsk in the coming days, after the transfer of cases in hospital No. 34, which he directs."
Frolov said that he volunteered for the front, following the example of "senior fellow deputies." Before him, State Duma deputy Dmitry Savelyev and Vice Speaker of the City Council Yevgeny Yakovenko joined the Vega battalion.
However, Saveliev, like Frolov, did not reach the front. He boarded a train to Ukraine, but got off at the Chany station (a village in the Novosibirsk region), after which he flew to Moscow by plane, Taiga.Info reported.