Russian Digest
Top stories I'm keeping an eye on
Prosecutor General’s Office records over 76,500 Russian war crimes, crimes of aggression in Ukraine
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said on March 28 that the Russian military has committed 76,753 war crimes and crimes of aggression in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s all-out war.
Ukrainian law enforcement agencies also said that Russia’s war against Ukraine has killed at least 465 children and wounded at least 943 since Feb. 24, 2022.
According to Prosecutor General’s Office, 647 suspects allegedly responsible for those crimes are the Russian soldiers and the country’s political leadership.
Earlier, the U.S. supported the creation of a hybrid tribunal to punish Russian war crimes.
“The United States considered in detail all the pros and cons of each (kind of tribunal) and came to the conclusion that the most effective way to ensure responsibility for crimes of aggression involves the creation of an internationalized court within the judicial system of Ukraine,” U.S. State Department Global Criminal Justice Ambassador Beth Van Schaak said, as quoted by VOA.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said on March 28 that the Russian military has committed 76,753 war crimes and crimes of aggression in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s all-out war.
Ukrainian law enforcement agencies also said that Russia’s war against Ukraine has killed at least 465 children and wounded at least 943 since Feb. 24, 2022.
According to Prosecutor General’s Office, 647 suspects allegedly responsible for those crimes are the Russian soldiers and the country’s political leadership.
Earlier, the U.S. supported the creation of a hybrid tribunal to punish Russian war crimes.
“The United States considered in detail all the pros and cons of each (kind of tribunal) and came to the conclusion that the most effective way to ensure responsibility for crimes of aggression involves the creation of an internationalized court within the judicial system of Ukraine,” U.S. State Department Global Criminal Justice Ambassador Beth Van Schaak said, as quoted by VOA.
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The second head of the Russian Guard in a week was detained for taking bribes
Operatives of the Investigative Committee and the Federal Security Service detained Colonel Sergei Volkov, head of the Naval Directorate of the Russian Guard, who is suspected of supplying low-quality and faulty weapons at obviously inflated prices, said State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein.
A criminal case was initiated under Article 286 of the Criminal Code on abuse of office with causing grave consequences. The total damage to the budget amounted to almost 400 million rubles. Searches were conducted at home and in Volkov's office. The colonel faces up to 10 years in prison.
Khinshtein noted that a large-scale corruption scheme was uncovered by the employees of the Russian Guard's own security. The collected materials were handed over to the investigating authorities and the military prosecutor's office. The deputy warned that the matter would not end with Volkov's detention, and the colonel's "accomplices and patrons" would face the same fate.
A week ago, it became known about the initiation of a criminal case against the deputy commander of the Central District of the troops of the Russian Guard, Major General Vadim Dragomiretsky, who confessed to systematically receiving “kickbacks” during the reconstruction of one of the military units in the Moscow region.
The general was accused of taking bribes and exceeding his authority. The amount was called 19 million rubles. In addition to Dragomiretsky, Colonel Kochiev, head of the district base for storing material resources, was also involved in the criminal scheme. He was also arrested and is now in jail.
On January 13, the head of the ICR, Alexander Bastrykin, announced the completion of an investigation into the case of ten employees of the Russian Guard about bribes and fraud at the Defense Technologies Corporation. It was about the theft of 240 million rubles allocated for the purchase of special equipment for the protection of the ports of Sabetta, Dikson, and Dudinka on the Northern Sea Route. In addition to the National Guard, the heads of the corporation are also involved. As part of the case, funds and property of the defendants were seized for a total amount of 889 million rubles, 110 thousand dollars, and 26 thousand euros.
The company of Peskov's daughter in the year of the war increased revenue by 70 times
Centrum Moscow, which is owned by Elizaveta Peskova, daughter of Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, increased its revenue 70 times in the year of the war with Ukraine, earning a record 137 million rubles. This was found out by "Layout" by examining the financial statements of the company.
The main clients of the company listed on the website are the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Moscow government, the Federal Agency for Fishery, and other government agencies.
In 2021, Peskov's daughter's company earned 70 times less - 1.9 million rubles. Prior to this, Centrum Moscow earned only a few hundred thousand rubles a year. It also became known that in 2022 the company for the first time showed a profit of 24 million rubles, before that it was either unprofitable or did not generate income.
Centrum Moscow has been designing and creating exhibition spaces and expositions since 2004 but has been active only in recent years. At SPIEF, Centrum Moscow designed the Made in Russia exposition. Peskova owns 30% of the company, and another 70% belongs to a certain Evgeny Litvinov, who holds the post of general director of the company.
In April 2022, Peskov was surprised that sanctions were also imposed on his children. He said that this is a confirmation of unfriendly steps towards Russia. According to him, after the imposition of sanctions, the children "suddenly realized" that everything he told them was true. Peskov's daughter herself called the sanctions imposed on her "unfair" because she had nothing to do with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “For me, this is completely unfair and unreasonable. I was very surprised because it is strange to impose sanctions on a person who is 24 years old and who has nothing to do with the situation. I'm upset because I want to travel and I love different cultures," Peskova said.
China-linked Russian body armor is landing on the battlefield in Ukraine
A Russian body armor manufacturer is importing Chinese components for its vests — some of which are being used on the battlefield in Ukraine, according to trade data, photographs, and Ukrainians who say they’ve recovered the vests from the front lines.
In 2022, multiple Chinese companies, including one linked to the government in Beijing, sent parts for body armor manufacturing to Klass, a Russian manufacturer of body armor with ties to the country’s national guard and law enforcement, according to customs and trade data obtained by POLITICO from Import Genius, a customs data aggregator.
Armored vests produced by the company are being used by Russian troops in Ukraine, according to photos and videos posted online, and Ukrainians who are selling the vests on eBay say they took them from the battlefield.
While it’s unclear if the Russian military’s use of the Klass vests is widespread, it is the first confirmation that Chinese-made protective equipment is being used by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
The new information highlights how Russia continues to rely on China for help propping up its war effort in Ukraine despite western pressure on Beijing to scale back its support for Moscow.
The revelation also raises questions about how the U.S. plans to address with Beijing the issue of “dual-use items” — commercial equipment that can also be used for military purposes.
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https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/28/russian-body-armor-china-00089114
The government will begin to close state institutions across Russia after the collapse of budget revenues
The Russian authorities are discussing the possibility of a new large-scale optimization of state institutions across the country against the backdrop of a sharp drop in budget revenues, the deficit of which by mid-March exceeded 3 trillion rubles.
The Ministry of Finance proposed to the government to reduce the number of federal state institutions (FKU) - the most numerous type of state structures, the maintenance of which costs the state 1.8 trillion rubles every year.
According to RBC with reference to the draft final report of the Ministry of Finance for 2022, it is proposed to put all financial institutions under the knife, except for those that are under the jurisdiction of law enforcement agencies. This measure, as noted by the Ministry of Finance, will help "increase the efficiency of budget spending." As of March 21, according to the department's statistics, they almost doubled their income: 7 trillion rubles against 3.7 trillion.
According to Rosstat, as of January 1, 2023, 9,024 federal state government institutions were registered in Russia. Among them are research institutes, think tanks, archives, museums, clinics, and hospitals attached to ministries and departments, as well as, for example, leper colonies, anti-plague centers, and psychiatric hospitals. Military commissariats, pre-trial detention centers, institutions of the Federal Migration Service, and the Federal Customs Service also have the status of FKU.
Most state-owned institutions are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (2402), the Ministry of Justice (1958), the Federal Penitentiary Service (1724), the Ministry of Finance (918), the Ministry of Defense (985) and the Federal Tax Service (634). As planned by the Ministry of Finance, part of the staffing in these structures will be cut, which will help raise the salaries of the remaining employees.
PKU cuts could be “quite large,” said Vladimir Klimanov, director of the Institute for Public Finance Reform. Subsequently, the process may affect other government agencies, the expert adds.
It is becoming more and more difficult for the budget to maintain the bloated apparatus of institutions that are not intended to generate income and only serve the “parent” ministries and departments.
According to the results of January-February, it lost half of its oil and gas revenues and every fourth ruble in terms of total revenues. The hole in the budget, which the Ministry of Finance planned at the level of 3 trillion rubles, could almost double by the end of the year, Deutsche Bank analysts believe.
The government will receive less than 1.5-2 trillion rubles due to falling prices for Russian oil and a reduction in its production, and another 500 billion due to "too optimistic forecasts for the economy," bank analysts warn.
https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2023/03/28/kompaniya-dochki-peskova-uvelichila-viruchku-v-70-raz-za-god-voini-a38286
Italy suspects Kremlin involvement in Russian manager exfiltration
Artem Uss easily escaped house arrest in Milan and might already be in Moscow. An all-too-efficient operation, aided by a complex network of helpers, that has Rome considering whether Moscow’s intelligence services were involved
The art of exfiltration? Last week, Russian manager Artem Uss – who was under house arrest near Milan and awaiting extradition to the United States – managed to flee undetected and has disappeared from the authorities’ sight. Having investigated the dynamics of the well-planned escape, enquirers now suspect that Russian secret services might have played a role.
Washington had accused the manager of smuggling oil from Venezuela, violating an embargo, and purchasing high-end technological products and weapons on behalf of Russia, conceivably for use in the war against Ukraine.
According to La Stampa, the US Department of Justice had also sent a letter to the Italian Ministry of Justice, suggesting keeping Mr. Uss in detention due to the high risk of evasion.
The attorney general did consider this: it originally had opposed house arrest, which was requested by the manager’s lawyers, but then reconsidered, estimating that the timing of the Supreme Court’s decision on the matter would probably have taken longer than the extradition procedure.
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https://decode39.com/6275/italy-suspects-kremlin-russia-fugitive/
DOJ Indictment
Five Russian Nationals and Two Oil Traders Charged in Global Sanctions Evasion and Money Laundering Scheme
A 12-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York charging five Russian nationals, Yury Orekhov, Artem Uss, Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, also known as “Lana Neumann,” Timofey Telegin and Sergey Tulyakov with various charges related to a global procurement, smuggling and money laundering network. Also charged were Juan Fernando Serrano Ponce, also known as “Juanfe Serrano” and Juan Carlos Soto, who brokered illicit oil deals for Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, as part of the scheme. On October 17, 2022, Orekhov was arrested in Germany and Uss was arrested in Italy, both at the request of the United States, and will undergo extradition proceedings.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Jonathan Carson, Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement, New York Field Office, and Andrew Adams, Director, Task Force KleptoCapture announced the charges.
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Israeli Disinformation Expert Linked to Faked Bank Accounts in Serbian Smear Campaign
A leaked report sheds light on the source of a mysterious media attack on the Serbian president’s political rival.
Key Findings
A pro-government media campaign targeting former Belgrade mayor Dragan Đilas was based on a “global bank scan” report obtained by journalists.
Disinformation group ‘Team Jorge’ was likely behind the report used by the Serbian officials.
‘Team Jorge’ leader Tal Hanan has previously been investigated for selling forged financial intelligence to a Swiss spy for $88,000.
As Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić embarked on an official visit to the United Arab Emirates in March 2021, he was under scrutiny due to recent revelations about his government’s ties to a murderous organized crime group. But as is his custom, Vučić instead went on the attack, using an opportunity of an interview with friendly media outlet TV Pink to address another subject.
Vučić suggested that a political rival, former Belgrade Mayor Dragan Đilas, was behind the accusations. Vučić then claimed Đilas had illegally stashed his wealth in banks around the world, and predicted that more details would surface shortly.
Six days later, Serbian pro-government newspapers began publishing stories about Đilas’ supposed offshore accounts.
“Đilas hiding money in Mauritius and Switzerland: on 12th of December 2020 he had almost 6.4 million euros in bank accounts in these two countries,” claimed a front-page story in the Serbian pro-government daily Večernje Novosti.
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