Tag: Russia

Feb 26, 2022. (3:31 a.m. CET) SWIFT Preparing to Comply With Russian Measures  “We are engaging with European authorities to understand the details of the entities that will be subject to the new measures,” the organization said in an email. “We are preparing to comply upon legal instruction.” Feb 26, 2022. (2:12 a.m. CET) Elon Musk Activates Starlink Satellites for Ukraine  Feb 25, 2022. (8:03 p.m. CET) Abramovich Hands Over ‘Stewardship’ of Chelsea  Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich said he would hand…

Ukraine ‘hits airfield in Russia’ with missile strike in latest blow to Putin’s forces after shooting down six helicopters and killing or capturing 800 troops around 10am local time (8am GMT) with several buildings on the site engulfed in flames. (DailyMail) Ukraine claims it has RECAPTURED airport on outskirts of Kyiv from Russian special forces, claims defense minister, as President Zelensky says 137 of his soldiers have been killed fighting Putin’s troops  The airport is seen as a vital asset…

A number of states and international actors have unveiled further sanctions measures on Russia in relation to its activities in or in relation to Ukraine. In a previous post, we outlined the initial measures imposed by the US and UK on Russia in relation to its recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk. We consider below the further actions taken by the US, EU, UK, and Australia in this regard. US On 22 February 2022, the US issued the following additional sanctions…

Named: Tom Barrack, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Donald Trump

Ukrainians’ distrust of the courts is higher than of any other government body. The Kyiv District Administrative Court has become the epitome of injustice and corruption in Ukraine.

On Monday, the Intercept published a classified internal NSA document noting that Russian military intelligence mounted an operation to hack at least one US voting software supplier—which provided software related to voter registration files—in the months prior to last year’s presidential contest. It has previously been reported that Russia attempted to hack into voter registration systems, but this NSA document provides details of how one such operation occurred.

According to the Intercept:

The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated, analyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the US election and voting infrastructure. The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the most detailed US government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.

While the document provides a rare window into the NSA’s understanding of the mechanics of Russian hacking, it does not show the underlying “raw” intelligence on which the analysis is based. A US intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive.

The report indicates that Russian hacking may have penetrated further into US voting systems than was previously understood. It states unequivocally in its summary statement that it was Russian military intelligence, specifically the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, that conducted the cyber attacks described in the document:

Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate actors … executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016, evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions. … The actors likely used data obtained from that operation to … launch a voter registration-themed spear-phishing campaign targeting U.S. local government organizations.

Go read the whole thing.