Russian Digest
Top daily stories I'm keeping an eye on!
Fleet of Russian spy ships has been gathering intelligence in Nordic waters, investigation finds
Russia is using civilian vessels to survey critical Nordic infrastructure.
That's according to Swedish public service tv SVT's investigative program Uppdrag Granskning. Together with other Nordic public broadcasters DR, NRK, and YLE, they have investigated how Russia carries out espionage on the Nordic nations.
Using data analysis, surveillance of radio communications, and sources in the security services, around 50 suspected Russian spy ships which have been active in Nordic waters were identified
Russia has a fleet of suspected spy ships operating in Nordic waters as part of a program for the potential sabotage of underwater cables and wind farms in the region, according to a joint investigation by the public broadcasters of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
The broadcasters used data analysis, intercepted radio communications and intelligence sources to show how around 50 boats had been gathering intelligence for the past 10 years, using underwater surveillance equipment to map key sites for potential sabotage, Norway’s NRK and Sweden’s SVT reported.
The Russian vessels have been sailing past military training areas, important oil and gas fields, small airports, deep-water quays, and strategically important hubs for the Norwegian Armed Forces, according to NRK. The investigation also said Russian ships appear suddenly following NATO exercises. Norway and Denmark are founding members of NATO, while Finland joined earlier this month – to Moscow’s displeasure – and Sweden is seeking to follow suit.
One ship at the center of the investigation, the Admiral Vladimirsky, is officially used for underwater research expeditions, but is, according to the report, a Russian spy ship. The broadcasters tracked the boat’s movements and found it had traveled for a month through Nordic waters with its transmitter turned off to remain hidden, sailing close to wind farms, as well as through naval training areas of the Swedish Armed Forces, SVT reported.
When a TV crew from Danish public broadcaster DR approached the ship on the sea between Sweden and Denmark, a masked man emerged on deck who appeared to be wearing body armor and armed with an assault rifle, with the incident caught on camera.
Read More:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/19/europe/russia-spy-ships-nordic-waters-intl/index.html
Cyprus to set up national sanctions implementation unit
The Cypriot government on April 19 announced that it will set up a national sanctions implementation unit, according to a Cyprus Mail report.
President Nikos Christodoulides will work with the U.K.-based sanctions unit to establish this new department.
According to the Cypriot government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis, President Christodoulides also asked for a course of action in regard to recent US and UK sanctions.
The statement came in response to a new round of sanctions issued by the U.S. and U.K. on April 12 that included 23 Cypriot citizens and 20 Cypriot companies.
The sanctioned individuals and companies were determined to have “knowingly assisted,” Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov.
Cypriot authorities will coordinate with the U.S. and the U.K. regarding sanctions in the future, according to President Letymbiotis.
https://kyivindependent.com/cyprus-sets-up-national-sanctions-implementation-unit/
"The government is out of control." "Hole" in the Russian budget has reached almost 5 trillion rubles
The Russian government continues to rapidly increase budget spending, despite a two-fold collapse in tax revenues from oil and gas.
From the beginning of the year to April 19, the Russian Ministry of Finance spent 10.144 trillion rubles, according to the data of the Electronic Budget system.
Treasury revenues on the same date amounted to 5.373 trillion rubles. Thus, almost every second ruble spent by the government remained without tax revenue, and the deficit reached 4.77 trillion rubles, which is 1.6 times higher than the annual plan.
After the April tax collection, which will take place at the end of the month, the size of the “hole” in the treasury will decrease. However, the April data still "turned out to be shocking," MMI analysts write.
In less than three weeks of the month, the Ministry of Finance spent 2.1 trillion rubles - almost the same as for the whole of March (2.3 trillion). At the same time, in January and February, the budget spending was about 100 billion rubles a day, in March it slowed down to 75 billion, and in April this amount jumped to 122 billion rubles.
“The government is spending money like crazy,” MMI analysts are surprised: in the week from April 11 to 17 alone, budget spending reached 1.14 trillion rubles, or 162 billion rubles a day, which is twice the average for March.
The surge in spending is associated with “advance funding,” Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin explained in March, speaking at the State Duma. According to him, "part of the costs" was decided to be postponed to the beginning of the year, so that "the conclusion of contracts would not stand."
First of all, we are talking about the production of weapons for the army, which is bogged down in the war with Ukraine and has lost more than 10 thousand units of military equipment since the beginning of the invasion. The 2023 budget provides for a record 10 trillion rubles, or a third of all expenditures, to finance the army and law enforcement agencies.
It is not yet clear whether the government is spending funds to finance its direct liabilities, or whether the increase in spending reflects the transfer of funds from the federal budget to the budgets of the subjects and social funds, said Natalia Orlova, chief economist at Alfa-Bank.
Russian regions experienced a sharp decline in tax collections late last year, and five of them experienced a full-blown revenue collapse. Thus, in the fourth quarter, the Tyumen region missed every second ruble of taxes: fees fell by 48.9%. Incomes of the Krasnoyarsk Territory fell by 39%, Murmansk Region - by 33%, Khakassia - by 32%, and Kemerovo Region - by 30%.
To meet the spending plan, the Finance Ministry needs to spend an average of 2.4 trillion rubles a month, Orlova estimates. But this is hardly possible, MMI analysts believe: average spending needs to be reduced by more than one and a half times - to 76.5 billion rubles a day.
The FSB conducts checks in the Moscow police departments. This is due to the “leakage” of these security officials to the citizens of Ukraine
Employees of the FSB and the Main Directorate of Internal Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conduct inspections at police stations in the Central District of Moscow. This is reported by RBC, TASS, and Baza.
“Operational activities took place in almost all police departments of the Central District. The inspectors carried out seizures of documentation and computer information,” a source told RBC.
According to media reports, the checks are related to the leakage of data from Russian security officials. Unknown people could get other people's passwords to enter internal systems, from where the data was downloaded, the interlocutor of RBC said. “It is assumed that among the customers were citizens of Ukraine,” the source added.
According to Baza, checks in the Moscow police department and police department have been going on for several weeks. The source of the telegram channel claims that the data leak of the security forces was discovered back in the spring. In order to determine its source, the investigators responded to an advertisement for “breakthrough” services on the “darknet.”
It turned out that the services for a paid "breakthrough" were provided by employees of the capital's Internal Affairs Directorate for the Central Administrative District, writes "Baza". In addition, “employees distributed orders for punching through different districts and other districts,” and their colleagues might not know that they were collecting information on demand from the “darknet.”
Germany rethinks China’s Hamburg port deal as further doubts raised
Further doubts loom over the fate of a controversial plan to sell parts of a Hamburg port terminal to China, amid pressure for Berlin to rethink its ties to Beijing.
A new internal report by the German economy ministry, obtained by POLITICO, accuses the Hamburg port operating company of failing to properly register the terminal in question as “critical infrastructure,” which would have changed the scope of the deal.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, pushed the deal through last October for Chinese state company Cosco to buy a minority stake in the Tollerort terminal in the Hamburg port, ahead of a state visit to China. But this came amid objections within his three-party coalition government, with members of the Green party and liberal FDP expressing concerns about undue Chinese influence.
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Moldova Expels Russian Embassy Employee Over 'Inappropriate Behavior' At Chisinau Airport
Moldova has expelled an employee of the Russian Embassy over “inappropriate behavior” earlier this week at the airport in Chisinau after Moldova barred a Russian delegation from entering the country.
Moldova on April 19 summoned Russian Ambassador Oleg Vasnetsov to the Foreign Ministry to be informed that the employee was being expelled.
Vasnetsov was summoned after a government meeting in which Prime Minister Dorin Recean asked the authorities to consider withdrawing the airport access cards of two Russian Embassy employees and declaring one of them persona non grata.
Moldovan government spokesman Daniel Voda said the two employees of the embassy behaved “inappropriately” at the Chisinau airport after Moldova barred entry to a Russian delegation led by Tatarstan's leader Rustam Minnikhanov. The delegation landed in Chisinau on April 17 to bolster support for the pro-Moscow leader of an autonomous Moldovan territory.
"The prime minister highlighted that inappropriate behavior on the part of foreign officials in relation to our authorities is not tolerated," Voda said without describing the behavior or explaining why only one of the two was expelled.
Read More:
https://www.rferl.org/a/moldova-russia-diplomats-expelled/32370374.html
Russian spies are using Tinder to ensnare German soldiers and politicians to get them to disclose Ukraine war secrets, counterintelligence warns
Russian spies are using Tinder to pursue intelligence about the Ukraine war, Germany warned.
Spies are targeting German soldiers and politicians, the country's counterintelligence service said.
Intelligence services like Russia's appear to be using the dating app to seek intel and recruits.
Russian spies are using Tinder to target German politicians and soldiers in order to get intelligence related to the war in Ukraine, according to German counterintelligence.
German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported that Russian agents are specifically looking on the dating app for politicians and members of the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces, to try to "recruit them as sources of information."
This is according to Germany's Military Counterintelligence Service, known by the acronym MAD.
MAD confirmed to Welt am Sonntag that "members of other intelligence services (e.g. Russia) use social media to specifically establish contacts with members of the Bundeswehr" to try to get information and maybe even recruit them.
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New life sentences for high treason in Russia, with Kremlin deciding what constitutes ‘high treason’
The Russian parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, has approved amendments to the country’s Criminal Code to introduce life sentences for those convicted of high treason, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on April 18.
Russia’s totalitarian regime can now consider anything that diverges from the Kremlin’s ideology to be treason.
Russian courts can now sentence anyone to life imprisonment for espionage, providing foreigners with information designated as a state secret, or defecting to the enemy.
Other examples where one could find themselves in prison for life include providing financial, logistical, consulting, or other assistance to the state whose activities are directed against Russia.
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Cyprus Firm Helped Sanctioned Russian Oligarch Move Funds
Cypriot corporate service provider MeritServus helped Konstantin Malofeev, an oligarch sanctioned for his support of Russian-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, transfer debt worth tens of millions of dollars even after he was blacklisted, leaked documents show.
Key Findings
MeritServus set up the Cypriot company Tinello Investments Limited in 2005 and held the company’s shares on behalf of Malofeev, via a trust deed, until 2017 — keeping Malofeev effectively in charge of the company but his name off its books.
Between 2014, when Malofeev was sanctioned, and 2017, when it dropped him as a client, MeritServus signed paperwork that helped the oligarch move loans between his Cyprus shell firm and his other companies, despite EU and U.S. sanctions.
Experts said the loan deals likely meant both MeritServus and Malofeev’s Cypriot company had violated sanctions.
Russian investor-turned-propagandist Konstantin Malofeev was able to shuffle tens of millions of dollars worth of debt between his shell companies with the help of a Cypriot corporate services provider despite being sanctioned by the European Union and the U.S., leaked documents show.
MeritServus’ relationship with Malofeev, as well as other sanctioned Russian oligarchs linked to President Vladimir Putin, is detailed in a leak of internal company files released by the whistleblower group Distributed Denial of Secrets. It is the latest example of compliance failures revealed by the leaked documents. MeritServus and its managing director were sanctioned by the U.K. last week for acting for Roman Abramovich. OCCRP reported on MeritServus’ link to Abramovich in January.
Read More:
https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/cyprus-firm-helped-sanctioned-russian-oligarch-move-funds
Isn’t any sentence in Russia potentially a life sentence? Sadly, I don’t expect Navalny or Kara-Murza to survive their imprisonments.