Tag: Russia

The value of frozen Russian private assets under sanctions increased from 18.9 billion euros in December to 24.1 billion euros in late May, the newspaper said. As many as 1,473 individuals and 205 firms from Russia have been sanctioned by the EU, German media added. After the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Western countries have imposed comprehensive sanctions against Russia, including the freezing of nearly half of the country’s foreign currency reserves – amounting to about $300 billion. The European Union alone has frozen assets of Russian entities and individuals worth dozens of billions of dollars under 10 packages of sanctions.

The court ruled that the initial money laundering suspicions were insufficient to warrant the searches at Usmanov’s premises in the first place. The judges also pointed to some “serious deficiencies” in the search warrants requested by Frankfurt’s Public Prosecutor’s Office at the time. Suspicions against Usmanov were based on allegations that were too vague, the court declared. The assumption that his assets – which are worth billions of dollars – were the result of some “crimes committed in Russia,” coupled…

In March, Der Spiegel claimed a yacht called ‘Andromeda’ had allegedly been used by a team of divers to sabotage the Nord Stream pipelines. The publication cited the discovery of traces of explosives in the cabin of the vessel and fake identification documents that were used in the hiring of the boat.  The outlet’s most recent report indicates that metadata from an email sent to enquire about the renting of the yacht “leads to Ukraine.” The president of a presumed…

MOSCOW – Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has started withdrawing its forces from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and transferring its positions there to regular Russian troops, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video published on Thursday. “We are withdrawing the units from Bakhmut. From today at five in the morning, May 25 until June 1, most of the units will rebase to camps in the rear. We are handing our positions to the military,” he said. The video was…

Russia moved ahead on Thursday with a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, whose leader said the warheads were already on the move, in the Kremlin’s first deployment of such bombs outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. The U.S. State Department denounced the deployment plan, but said Waacshington had no intention of altering its position on strategic nuclear weapons or seen any signs Russia was preparing to use a nuclear weapon. Russian President Vladimir…

European Union officials are considering whether to send Ukraine profits generated from Russian assets frozen within the bloc, the Financial Times has reported, citing people familiar with the discussions. EU member states and European Commission officials convened on Wednesday to examine how they might move funds held at Euroclear, the world’s largest settlement house, over to Ukraine, as Russian-owned assets there have accrued interest since they were first frozen. Targeted under an unprecedented Western sanctions campaign, the Russian assets stuck at…

WASHINGTON – The United States on Wednesday announced the approval of a US$285 million (S$385 million) sale of a National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (“NASAMS”) air defence system and related equipment to Ukraine as Kyiv seeks to boost protection against Russian strikes. “Ukraine has an urgent need to increase its capabilities to defend against Russian missile strikes and aircraft,” the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement. “Acquiring and effectively deploying this capability will enhance Ukraine’s ability to…

Microsoft says a Chinese cyberespionage group it tracks as Volt Typhoon has been targeting critical infrastructure organizations across the United States, including Guam, since at least mid-2021. Their victims span a wide range of critical sectors, including government, maritime, communications, manufacturing, information technology, utilities, transportation, construction, and education. “Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that this Volt Typhoon campaign is pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises,” the…

WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor by revenue, said its products were used in an exercise near Alaska to consistently share military information across services and environments. The testing during Northern Edge, a biennial experiment put on by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, marked the first time “true” synchronization was demonstrated at such scale, the company said, hinting at its implications for the Defense Department’s connect-everything-everywhere campaign known as Joint All-Domain Command and Control. The department is pursuing JADC2…

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, on its first deployment under the aegis of a combatant commander, arrived Wednesday in Oslo. The flattop will remain in the Norwegian capital until Tuesday and then take part in drills with the Norwegian armed forces, reportedly in the Arctic. Norwegian military leaders say the training gives them “a unique opportunity to further develop cooperation and work more closely with our most important ally, the United States.” Described as the largest…

WASHINGTON — Boeing’s effort to build a new trainer aircraft for the Air Force is plagued by safety problems, schedule and testing delays, and the risk the T-7A Red Hawk could fall even further behind schedule, the Government Accountability Office said in a scathing report. Boeing’s relationship with the Air Force has also been strained by the T-7′s issues, GAO said in the May 18 report, with service officials describing their ties as “tenuous.” As the program proceeds and Boeing…

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States announced at a U.N. conference on Wednesday nearly $524 million in additional humanitarian aid for the Horn of Africa that aims to put a spotlight on the extreme effects of climate change and the worst drought in the region in 40 years — and the need for more than $5 billion. The U.N. has appealed for $7 billion and has received just $1.6 billion — far from enough to help the 43.3 million…

The U.S. government announced new sanctions against North Korea related to its army of illicit IT workers that have fraudulently gained employment to finance the regime’s weapons of mass destruction programs. North Korea maintains thousands of “highly skilled” IT workers around the world, primarily in China and Russia, which “generate revenue that contributes to its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs”, according to an announcement from the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday. These individuals, which in some…

OSLO – The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, sailed into Oslo on Wednesday, a first for such a US ship. It is a show of Nato force at a time of heightened tension between the regional alliance and Russia over the war in Ukraine. The ship and its crew will be conducting training exercises with the Norwegian armed forces along the country’s coast in the coming days, the Norwegian military said. “This visit is an important…

Russia has intercepted two US Air Force strategic bombers flying over the Baltic Sea. The Russian defense ministry said on Tuesday Russia had scrambled a Su-27 fighter jet to “prevent violations of the state border” by the American bombers, AFP reported. “After removing the foreign military aircraft from the Russian state border, the Russian fighter went back to its air base,” the ministry added. The statement said that “the flight of the Russian fighter was carried out in strict accordance with international…