Russian Digest
Top stories I'm keeping an eye on!
Airman Charged in Leak of Classified Documents
Jack Teixeira, 21, was granted a top-secret security clearance in 2021, which was required for his job, the Justice Department complaint said.
The Justice Department on Friday filed criminal charges against Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, accusing him of leaking U.S. classified documents that detailed everything from Ukraine battlefield assessments to covert surveillance of American allies.
A day after his arrest by federal agents, Airman First Class Teixeira appeared in a Boston courtroom on Friday morning, handcuffed and wearing a beige prison uniform. He was charged with two separate counts related to the unauthorized handling of classified materials and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years if convicted.
Judge Paul G. Levenson ordered Airman Teixeira, who did not enter a plea, to remain in custody and scheduled a follow-up hearing on Wednesday.
In an 11-page complaint unsealed after the hearing, an F.B.I. special agent with the bureau’s counterintelligence division in Washington detailed much of what has already been reported publicly: that Airman Teixeira used his access to sensitive information as a computer network specialist to post documents bearing top secret markings to an online gaming chat group.
Read More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/us/politics/jack-teixeira-classified-documents-leak.html
Images of leaked classified documents were posted to at least two Discord chatrooms
Images of the leaked classified documents were posted to at least two chatrooms on Discord, a social media platform popular with video gamers, according to a CNN review of Discord posts and interviews with its users.
The leaks began months ago on the first chatroom, called Thug Shaker Central, that Jack Teixeira allegedly oversaw, multiple US officials told CNN. An FBI affidavit unsealed Friday corroborates this timeline.
Teixeira, a 21-year-old airman with the Massachusetts Air National Guard, made his first appearance in federal court in Boston Friday morning following his arrest by the FBI in North Dighton, Massachusetts, the day before.
According to charging documents, Teixeira held a top secret security clearance and allegedly began posting information about the documents online around December 2022, and photos of documents in January.
Read More:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/14/politics/discord-chatrooms-leaked-pentagon-documents/index.html
Update: 2-year-old child among 8 killed, 21 injured in Russian missile strike on Sloviansk
The death toll in the April 14 Russian missile strike on Sloviansk has risen to eight, Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on national television. Twenty people have also been reported injured.
A two-year-old child rescued from under the rubble died in trasport to the hospital, according to the Prosecutor General's Office.
Kyrylenko originally reported that one person had been killed and five injured after several strikes launched by Russian forces against Sloviansk.
The death toll later rose to five with 15 people reported injured, according to Kyrylenko.
The casualty numbers may continue to rise.
According to preliminary data, Russian forces launched S-300 missiles at Sloviansk at 4:00 p.m. local time. The repurposed air defense missiles are known for their inaccuracy and have become Russia's weapon of choice for attacks on cities at this range.
The strikes targeted residential areas of Sloviansk, causing damage to high-rise apartment buildings, private homes, businesses, and cars.
Responding to the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, "For every act of terrorism, there will be fair accountability. We will not leave any trace of Russia on our land. And we will not leave any enemy unpunished."
https://kyivindependent.com/sloviansk-update-6-people-dead/
Putin signed the law on electronic subpoenas
The law on the creation of a unified register of military records, which also provides for the sending of electronic subpoenas, was signed by Vladimir Putin. The document has already been published on the Official Internet Portal of Legal Information.
According to the new rules, subpoenas will be sent to those liable for military service in paper form and at the same time in electronic form through the State Services portal. The summons is considered delivered immediately after it appears in the user's personal account. In addition, the summons will be entered in a unified register - after seven days it will be considered handed over to a person liable for military service, regardless of whether he knows that he received the summons.
A citizen who has received a summons will be automatically banned from leaving the country, the ban will be in effect until the person liable for military service appears at the military registration and enlistment office. If he does not come there within 20 days after the date specified in the agenda, he will be deprived of his rights, in particular, he will not be able to make real estate transactions, register individual entrepreneurs, or receive loans ... For details about what the new law threatens Russians, see parsing The Insider.
The bill on a unified register was adopted by the State Duma immediately on April 11, in three readings at once. The next day it was approved by the Federation Council. April 14 - signed by the President.
The Military Ombudsman project has launched a hotline on Telegram regarding new rules for serving subpoenas.
Hong Kong and China supplied $570 million worth of US chips to Russia after the start of the war
The United States banned the supply of semiconductors to Russia, but this did not prevent the emergence of shell companies in Hong Kong and China that arrange their re-export. Among the chips received by Russia after the start of the war are very expensive ones, which, according to experts, are used in military equipment.
Between February 24 and December 31, 2022, Russian customs recorded 3,292 transactions worth at least $100,000 in semiconductor imports totaling $740 million, according to an investigation by the Japanese publication Nikkei Asia. It received customs data from Indian research companies Export Genius and Cybex Exim.
The vast majority of these shipments came from chips from American companies - Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Texas Instruments, and many others, Nikkei notes. At the same time, 1774 transactions with chips from the United States were carried out through Hong Kong or mainland China. Their registration was carried out by small and medium-sized firms, some of which were registered after the Russian invasion of Ukraine (fortunately, you can open a company in Hong Kong for only $19). The total amount of these transactions amounted to $570 million.
Over the same period in 2021, only 230 transactions with American chips worth only $51 million went from China and Hong Kong to Russia.
There were also smaller shipments, up to $100,000, so as a result, from the beginning of the war to the end of 2022, Russia imported less than $1.1 billion in semiconductor products, including about $900 million in American imports, according to data obtained by Nikkei.
Some chips were quite expensive, such as the one organized by Hong Kong's Agu Information Technology, for more than $10,000 each. "A large number of high-performance semiconductors are needed to control missiles and defense systems," Junichi Nishiyama, a senior researcher at the Institute of Advanced Engineering in military technology, told Nikkei.
Agu Information Technology was listed on Hong Kong's corporate registry in April 2022. Its website says "Servers, networking equipment, and components direct from the manufacturer." The company says it buys products from Intel and Samsung.
From September to December 2022, Agu exported six shipments worth at least $100,000 to Russian equipment wholesaler Mistral, which did not conduct significant business in 2021. The total value of shipments was $18.7 million, some microprocessors were priced at $13 000.
Arriving at the registered address of Agu, the Nikkei correspondent found an apartment building; there were several offices on the lower floors, but no signs pointing to Agu. Moreover, the firm is not among the official distributors of Intel, whose representative told Nikkei Asia that the American company has no data on transactions with Agu.
Another major supplier of chips to Russia is DEXP International. In October and November, she sent at least 13 shipments worth $2.5 million to the Russian company Atlas. DEXP was registered in Hong Kong in 2018; according to the registry, until May 2022, all of its shares were owned by a Russian. Atlas is owned by Dmitry Alekseev, founder of electronics retailer DNS Group, Nikkei writes, and both companies are registered at the same address. Since the outbreak of the war, Atlas has imported $49 million worth of semiconductors in 235 deals worth at least $100,000 each.
Many Hong Kong companies supplying chips to Russia have offices in Shenzhen, a major technology and port center in mainland China near Hong Kong. Shenzhen is also a huge trading center for wires and other electronic products, and Hong Kong companies may be sending supplies through it because there are "weak customs controls," a spokesman for a Japanese trading company told Nikkei.
‘Keep your head down’ — Americans in Russia tread carefully after arrest of US journalist
If Americans in Russia were worried before, they now have an extra reason to be concerned.
The arrest of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has sent ripples of alarm through the community of American journalists in Russia, leaving many in the country wondering who, if anyone, might be next.
Gershkovich was seized by FSB security service officers in late March while on assignment in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. He now faces a 20-year prison sentence for espionage. The U.S. government says he has been “wrongfully detained.”
Though the Kremlin insists that he was “caught red-handed” violating Russian law, the arrest has widely been interpreted as a warning signal to either foreign journalists, or Americans — or both.
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The Case of the Missing $1.4 Billion: How Hugo Chávez’s Handshake Deals With Belarus Left Venezuela A Legacy of Wasted Public Funds
Leaked documents show how Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, struck several wasteful deals — including one that allowed Belarus to avoid paying for $1.4 billion in oil it received from Venezuela.
Key Findings
Hugo Chávez personally struck an oil deal with Alexander Lukashenko in 2010 that allowed Belarus to receive large amounts of Venezuelan oil without paying for it.
The deal required Belarus to pay for 80 percent of each oil shipment after delivery. A planned follow-up agreement to handle the remaining payment was never finalized.
This allowed Belarus to receive an estimated $1.4 billion in Venezuelan oil that hasn’t been paid for to this day.
Thousands of apartments contracted from a Belarusian state-controlled company were never built, although Venezuela paid the equivalent of at least $120 million for the construction.
Factories set up by the two countries to make trucks and tractors have lagged far behind production targets.
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Norway: expelled Russian diplomats worked for FSB, GRU, and SVR
Norway's security police PST claims that the 15 Russian embassy employees recently declared personae non gratae worked for Russian intelligence, Reuters reported on Friday.
According to PST counterintelligence chief Inger Haugland, the diplomats' real employers were Russian foreign intelligence agencies GRU and SVR as well as the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
While working under the guise of embassy staff, they actually sought to recruit sources, intercept communications, and buy advanced technology.
“This lowers the threat from Russian intelligence in Norway by permanently reducing the number of intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover”, Reuters cites Haugland.
On Thursday, Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared 15 employees of the Russian embassy in Oslo personae non gratae. They will have to leave the country as soon as possible. The press release stated that the activities of said persons had been monitored over time and added that Norway will refuse visas to intelligence officers wishing to enter the country.
Putin, the Satanic Wimp
Signs are emerging that there is deep worry among Russia’s wealthy and powerful about their future.
We hear very little from senior Russians speaking en clair, offering their true thoughts on events inside the country and their leader, Vladimir Putin.
That spell of silence was broken in March when a purported wiretapped discussion was posted on YouTube by an unknown source. It has caused much comment and (according to the Russian investigative website, Istories) an FSB investigation ahead of unspecified “action.”
The recording indicates a less-than-admiring view of Putin, who is described as Satan and as a lowlife, among other things. The exchanges between the music producer, Iosif Prigozhin (no relation to the Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin) and former senator of the Federation Council, the billionaire Farkhed Akhmedov, may of course be atypical for the Russian elite. But if they express anything close to a mainstream opinion among the wealthy and powerful, Russia’s most privileged people are frustrated, angry, and deeply worried about the future.
The 35-minute expletive-laced recording includes complaints over sanctions and fears about where Russia may be heading (one comment refers to a future fascist, military dictatorship.) But it’s also notable for what the men do not mention — Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, mass war crimes, the kidnapping of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children, and strategic military targeting of innocent civilians.
Read More:
https://cepa.org/article/putin-the-satanic-wimp/
I agree 100%. It’s absurd kids have clearance to America’s top secrets especially when not even assigned to that area of intelligence
Seems to be the problem is the frequency these clearances are give out. As an IT person I’ve been declined for many job due to the fact I did not have a clearance .. and yet they hand them out to kids who don’t know up from down -- nor have the ability to understand the seriousness of the information they work with