Quantcast
Channel: Information operations – To Inform is to Influence
Viewing all 5256 articles
Browse latest View live

Spy chief doesn’t dispute reports Twitter sells data to Russia but not US

0
0

I have first-hand experience and knowledge of Russian influence in two other social media platforms, so this does not surprise me at all.

As a blogger I have many more freedoms than professional journalists, but I prefer to hold myself to the same standards of professionalism.  When I have confirmation, when I have proof, I will state it.  I just received confirmation of undue Russian influence on one social media platform, I’m working on that story now.  If anyone else has stories of Russian influence on any social media sites, please feel free to share.

If Twitter is selling analytical data to the Russians, even if it is RT, that is most certainly passed through to Russian intelligence. Aiding and abetting comes to mind, Twitter…  aiding and abetting.

</end editorial>


By Katie Bo Williams – 06/16/16 02:31 PM EDT

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Thursday pressed the head of the CIA on recent reports that Twitter has cut off U.S. intelligence agencies, but not a Russian news outlet, from an analytics service that monitors and sorts the world’s tweets in real time.

While he stopped short of actively confirming the reports, Director John Brennan said repeatedly that he “was not going to dispute them.”

“Is it disappointing to you that an American company would sell its product to Russia Today, a propaganda arm of the government of Russia, yet not cooperate with the United States intelligence community?” Cotton asked during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

“I’m disappointed that there is not more active cooperation consistent with our legal authorities that may be available from the U.S. private sector,” Brennan said.

Asked if he knew whether Russia Today is, as reported in the media, a client of the data mining software, Brennan replied that he could not say definitively.

“I believe so, I’m not certain of that. But I don’t have any information that they have been excluded from their services,” he said.

The service in question is run by an outside company called Dataminr, but Twitter owns about a 5 percent stake in the company and doesn’t authorize any other service to mine its entire stream of posts.

Dataminr sifts through hundreds of millions of daily tweets looking for patterns, cross-referencing posts with data like location and financial market information. It sends out alerts of unfolding events like terror attacks or political unrest.

For example, the service tipped off intelligence agencies about the December terrorist attacks in Paris shortly after they began.

In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter executives had barred Dataminr from offering its services to the intelligence community.

A senior intelligence official told the Journal that Twitter appeared to be worried about being seen as cooperating too closely with U.S. spy agencies.

Twitter says it has a longstanding policy of forbidding third-parties — including Dataminr — from selling data to government agencies for surveillance purposes. But, it said in a statement, the “data is largely public and the U.S. government may review public accounts on its own, like any user could.”


Filed under: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, CounterPropaganda, Information operations, Information Warfare, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, information warfare, Russia

Russia complains about NATO propaganda

0
0
Russia’s Man Card is hereby revoked

Please don’t get me wrong, but for being a country full of supposedly manly men, Russians sure sound like wusses.

*waah* It’s NATO propaganda.

*Sound of tearing up all of Russia’s man cards*

</end editorial>


Kremlin considers “Russian threat” rhetoric NATO propaganda

June 18, 14:52 UTC+3

According to Kremlin administration chief Sergey Ivanov it is aimed at gaining political and economic dividends

VLADIVOSTOK, June 18. /TASS/. Head of the Kremlin administration Sergey Ivanov says the information about alleged threats from Russia towards the Baltic countries is propaganda, the aim of which is to gain political and economic dividends. He has pointed to violation of the Russia-NATO basic approaches to relations in the alliance’s intentions to deploy additional forces in those countries.

“This is propaganda from beginning to end. I would say rough propaganda,” Ivanov said in an interview with the Vesti on Saturday weekly television program. “Authors (of claims of the kind) must have looked at maps of World War II to see how the Soviet Army was attacking across Suwalki, and as if nothing has changed, as a scientific and pseudo-scientific reason put it on the table.”

Statements of the kind emerge from a poor economic situation in the Baltic countries and the fleeing of people there.

“What is to be done? A well-known recipe: shout at the top of your voice about Russia’s upcoming attack, as it is only dreaming about enslaving the Baltic countries,” Ivanov said.

With such policies, NATO may draw additional forces to the countries.

“What would mean even one battalion or one brigade at a new location? Hundreds new jobs. Additional revenues. It is profitable economically,” he said.

The rotation basis of deployment, announced by NATO, violates the basic approaches in relations with Russia, he said.

“Well, what’s the difference: whether you have one unit permanently or it is being replaced every six months,” he continued. “So to say, for example, there were Spaniards, and then come the Portuguese. They arrived right the day following the Spaniards leave. The combat readiness is not affected. Changing the order of the addends does not change the sum, you know the rule from school lessons.”.

Source: http://tass.ru/en/politics/883299


Filed under: #RussiaFail, Information operations, Information Warfare, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, information warfare, Russia, Russian propaganda

The Stalinist model of development – the only project that Russia has to offer the world

0
0

Screen Shot 2016-06-19 at 1.07.42 PMThis article is being pushed by the Russian Foreign Ministry internally to Russians.

Russia officially views the United States and the United Kingdom as enemies. Individuals within the Russian government push hatred, as in this article being shared by a Russian official.

Russia is besieged on all sides but chooses to be bellicose, all to make Russia appear to be the victim.  It’s sad when Russia chooses to make the country and its people suffer because the Russian government wants to be the world’s bad boy.

Notice the source is cont.ws, a website with absolutely no accountability, where authors can publish in absolute anonymity, with pseudymns, with manufactured identities.  This is how Russia operates on all levels.

In this case, the author is Alexander Mikhailov, a PhD at the Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, but still publishes approximately two lengthy extremely pro-Russian articles per day on cont.ws.

</end editorial>


(translated by my Chrome browser from Russian)

by Alexander Mikhailov

We often hear from vsёpropalschikov that “Russia has no allies today” and that “we have turned away from everything.” This idea rests on a base of externally visible, but in need of clarification and analysis.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the world communist idea we were looking for allies, based on ideological lines. These allies are the countries or political movements and parties that are sympathetic to communism, or rather, as later became clear, just pretended to sympathize with the purpose of obtaining free resources and money from the USSR. And so yesterday’s allies immediately with the collapse of the Soviet Union became our enemies – for becoming our enemy and a vassal of the US debt can not give, and what’s more with impudent a face to shout to the world about the “Soviet occupation” and to demand all the craziest “compensation” in the solid US currency, but eating!

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is in a difficult situation: it has lost its ideological basis of the socialist speakers. A Russian young reformers, under the “strict” supervision of the American secret services have copied the American model for Third World countries. This American program – a model known in blagosfere as “the destroyer of economies” will inevitably lead to a sharp drop in living standards. What is inevitable, in turn, has led to the transformation of people’s sentiment of veneration and love for the United States to Polga rejection and hatred.

The US, for its part, and do not hurry to conclude a new democratic Russia in his arms and just in case incredulously expanded NATO’s borders farther eastward, intending to digest Russia only in part and only after it finally cease to be dangerous. In this situation, Russia has remained alone in the nineties: it yesterday’s opponents do not want to become real friends (the trampled our “pink dream”), and from the allies of yesterday we are turned away in disgust. This universality of the socialist idea was discarded, and the national idea is not developed.

In such a situation it is difficult to talk about friends, even in theory: they occur only when the country offers another clear and coherent common model, geopolitical plan, or at least – at least – a coherent and consistent own national strategy, with respect to which could be determined. Alas, nothing of the kind in Russia did not exist, and we were alone in a strange and rapidly changing world. To talk about friends or definitively renounce such, it was necessary to make a basic decision about themselves. Now this decision finally produced through trial and error.

The main problem of the Western “democracies” in their fundamental predatory nature, the essence of a robber and a thief – and now everyone in the world is clear and understandable on their own sad experience.Therefore, everything non-Western countries were in a similar situation, as well as Russia. And once Russia decided in its relations with the West, immediately it turned out that all of the non-Western countries in the world, our friends in misfortune – all in the same way as Russia robbed, spat upon and humiliated by the West, led by the United States.

Politics begins where the pair “friend-enemy” is defined clearly. So we got on the strategic vision its clear political line under the code name “multipolar world”

What tactical decisions here are theoretically possible?

Russia can either join some existing supranational project, or to tighten and push his own project, the competitive compared to other supranational models. isolationist option for Russia is not real due to the millennial imperial nature of the Russian state. And so when they say, well fenced off by a fence from the Ukraine, the Baltic States, etc.. Etc.. Etc.. Russophobian regimes that are in fact due to the death of Russia.

Giving your Russian land on the outskirts of the empire (temporarily find themselves outside its borders) at the mercy of the Western predators, we will inevitably lose and Russia, because the predators will eat forever. There is the nature of predator to devour and digest = Russian border regions, it will inevitably devour and Russia! NATO expansion – it is the very predator devouring Western Russian border regions.

Existing projects are supranational.

The first project: the global American empire, the so-called.. “Benevolent empire» ( «benevolent Empire») Keygana R. and W. Kristol. This project is implemented by the United States since the 90s of the last century and includes a unipolar amerikanotsentrichny peace and universal prevalence of the liberal-democratic American socio-economic and political model. In this “global American empire” Russia today is not at all given to any place.

Eurasian continent, in the spirit of geopolitical constructions of modern American strategists, is seen as an “object” external control as controlled territory, which by definition should not have even a ghost of independence.American hegemony involves desovereignization major regional powers of the fragmentation along national lines and the establishment of their strategic potential of direct American control. This applies both to the field of strategic weapons and nuclear facilities (where they exist), and to the field of economics, which deals with the external control over the most important sectors of the multinationals and especially the area of natural resources and energy.

It is clear that this project has already suffered a worldwide debacle and twitching of the US administration to save it in the form of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and preparing for transatlantic trade and investment partnership contract – just the agony of the project.

The second project was assumed by our politbomondom in a United Europe “from Lisbon to Vladivostok.” This project is not as global, as an American, but it is beyond the scope of a single country – not even the largest. Here in the foreground civilizational criterion: Europe is conceived as “a single large space,” with specific economic, cultural and political order.

By this space may join some neighboring countries with a similar socio-economic structure, adopting European standards. The European plan is not universal, but at the same time supranational. It is addressed not to all countries, Europe and its neighbors digests slowly, carefully watching the process and hesitate before turning to the project too problematic geopolitical realities – such as Turkey.

And then it turned out that Russia in its geopolitical and civilizational format in scope and strategic power does not fit into the existing Europe. It must be taken as an axiom. It follows that Europe will automatically become, if not an enemy, then certainly geopolitical rival for sure! European plan did not include Russia initially – and this was our mistake as geopolitical imposed in this project for over a decade – all zero years!

For Europe, Russia – a “thing-in-itself”, something terrible and incomprehensible, from which the best stay away. But aggression against Russia The European Union has no plans to: in Brussels, in fact, is not against us are no plans – one historically millennial fear that they are constantly pushing into the arms of the Americans. Europe today is torn by two fundamental contradictions: the fear of the growing Russian military power, backed up by all the Chinese intensifying economic union with Russia on the one hand. And the American economic and military expansion on the other. And American expansion is very unpredictable for Europe and destructive, is fraught with a full-scale civil war over its entire territory. In the same in Europe (especially in England) are well aware that sooner or later Russia will return to its suburbs, and showed her the bill for years of humiliation and plunder of the nineties.

The third project – Chinese “silk road”. In many respects it is already underway. This is certainly the BRICS and other associations with Chinese participation in Eurasia. Here Russia paid a very large place of the main partner and equal participant. It should be understood that, as its implementation and, accordingly, scrapping and disposal of other global projects – China’s role will increase and decrease the role of Russia in a small Russian force of human resources. But then everything depends on it is us – is whether the political will of the Russian elite sharply increase the human resource of Russia – that is, to boost the birth rate in the country, create the appropriate conditions, or such will not be.

The fourth project – Islamic. It is, of course, largely the brainchild of the American project, and today is a threat primarily to European and Chinese projects. With the death of the American project – it will collapse, and Islamic, that is obvious.

So, we must acknowledge that for Russia there is no leader in the existing “large projects”, and, by definition, can not be in other people’s projects. It is necessary to create the project. And really for the whole history of Russia nothing close by its substantial power of the Stalinist project, we were not offered the world! And today we can offer only this project – all other attempts in this direction such as the Orthodox (nation) on the basis of capitalism, the Russian world on the basis of capitalism is doomed to failure, even within Russia, as capitalism – is the Russian oligarchs and the liberal domineering model that already exists in all projects at their own religious and economic bases. Moreover, even in Russia the project frame of orthodox liberal oligarchy in the vertical of power is doomed to speedy destruction, because already completely cut off and the people of Russia is unacceptable.

However, the time to think no longer exists, it is necessary to take domestic fundamental and practical steps for the implementation on the newest level of technology Stalin’s economic and political project.

Today, this project is the “absolute enemy” – this is the United States and the American neo-imperialism, which in any case is implementing the project at the expense of Russia and directed strictly against the preservation of its sovereignty and identity (see the book Brzezinski, “The Grand Chessboard” and the doctrine II. . Wolfowitz).

In the outside world, we have learned to fight back from the United States.Our diplomacy uses the “axis of friendship” against the United States in the following areas: Russia – Europe Russia – the Islamic world, Russia – China.Without going into any project, balancing between the poles, Russia is interested in is to keep each of them in the overall system of opposing US unipolar aspirations. This gives us time today on the internal transformation – and the most important thing is not to lose time.

Today it is already clear that our main unifying idea – it’s the Russian world.Just Russian world where, including the equitable distribution of national product! And here is a direct contradiction with the current economic and political system imposed upon us in the 90s. Russian world, the Russian people have almost “digest” that we imposed on the American system of values, as before “digested” Christianity – having made the revolution of 1917.And then “digested” and Trotskyite-Khrushchev’s version of Marxism and 1991.

Just Stalin the deep essence of Russian civilization millennia understood like no other – and use it for the good of the country. Hence, such a phenomenal economic and civilizational progress USSR during the Stalin period, and so it was hard Trotskyists – Westerners to destroy this system (as much as 30 years destroyed). And in total = they will not succeed = today we inevitably come to the Stalinist model of political and economic structure of the country. People already ready for it – and the elite will be forced to adapt to the will of the people – or against her will NATIONAL red wheel of terror in 1937 !!!

Source: https://cont.ws/post/298298


Filed under: #RussiaFail, Information operations, Information Warfare, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, propaganda, Russia, Russian propaganda

Seeking Russian Influence in Social Media Statements

0
0

I am working on several stories about undue Russian influence in Social Media.

We already have multiple confirmed and documented cases, we are seeking more.

Social media are listed below, but not limited to:

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • WhatsApp
  • QQ
  • WeChat
  • QZone
  • Tumblr
  • Instagram
  • Baidu
  • Skype
  • Viber
  • Sina Weibo
  • Line
  • Snapchat
  • Google+
  • Others…

Most of our cases involve Russian trolls receiving protection by the Social Media platform employees, despite multiple complaints against the Russian trolls. We also have multiple cases of anti-Russian actions resulting in profile and account suspensions and deletions.

Please leave a comment below or send me an email to joel_harding @ yahoo.com

We need your assistance and appreciate your help!


Filed under: #RussiaFail, CounterPropaganda, Information operations, Information Warfare, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, CounterPropaganda, propaganda, Russia, Russian propaganda

Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber slides off runway

0
0
Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber slides off runway (с) Yuri Borisov

A Tu-22M3 (RF-94146, 10 red) strategic bomber has overshot the runway after taking off in Russia’s Far East, resulting in injuries to several crewmembers.

A special commission from the Air Force command arrived at the scene to investigate the incident.  The incident was kept secret.

According to the Russian Aerospace Force, a  Tu-22M3 strategic bomber with tail number 10 “red” and the RF-94146 registration has been upgraded at Kazan Aircraft Production Association (KAPO) n.a. Gorbunov.

The aircraft upgrade by the government unit formerly known as the Tupolev Design Bureau is part of Russia’s $400 billion modernization program. In addition to outfitting its troops with the newest equipment, the Kremlin has placed orders for fifth-generation jets, advanced nuclear and diesel submarines, and state-of-the-art missile-defense systems.

The Tu-22M3 is a heavy missile carrier with a large flight radius and a heavy payload. A single Tu-22M3 sortie could deliver ordnance against dozens of positions.

Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber slides off runway (с) Yuri Borisov
Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber slides off runway (с) Yuri Borisov
Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber slides off runway (с) Yuri Borisov
Source: http://defence-blog.com/news/russian-tu-22m3-strategic-bomber-slides-off-runway.html 

Filed under: #RussiaFail, Information operations, Information Warfare, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, CounterPropaganda, information warfare, Russia, Russian propaganda

Russian exceptionalism in the church

0
0

Anonymous expert analysis.


The break between the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches is extremely bitter after the Kiev Patriarch said Putin was in league with Satan in 2014.  In the meantime, the Rus church leadership drives in limousines and is pampered by Putin’s regime. Ukrainians keep saying the ROC leadership has been literally bought and acts as an arm of the state, as Russia never properly separated church from the state prior to 1917. There is a mountain of essays on the web arguing the leadership of the ROC is completely bought by the regime.

The reality is that Putin does appear to be using a compliant ROC as a propaganda and influence tool inside and outside Russia. The subject has not received the attention it deserves, likely as Western media do not appear to understand that in the Slavic world the orthodox churches have much greater influence than churches do in the Western world. Our media gets wound up when a radical Muslim cleric calls us immoral and evil but care not if the ROC says the exactly the same thing.

The division of church and state in the West was for good reasons – politics and religion do not mix well – the earthly corruptions of power are usually too strong to resist.

The Orthodox Church is holding its first council, a conclave of bishops, in over a millenium. Historical essays below provide the full backstory. To his eternal credit Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople (fluent in 8 languages plus PhD) is attempting to repair a millenium long schism in this church, no mean feat given the historical fractiousness of this church since the fall of the Roman Empire.

A major argument in the Orthodox Church was whether Constantinople, now Istanbul, should remain the seat of the Patriarch – after the fall of the Byzantine Empire to Turkey in 1453CE, Russian Tsars have incessantly sought to assume the title of Caesar of the Roman Empire, which is, of course, the origin of the title of Tsar (slavicised Caesar).

It appears a major effort is now under way by the Russian Orthodox Church to determine the shape of the future Orthodox Church worldwide, it seems much at odds with what most of the others in the Orthodox Church would like it to be. The Russian Orthodox Church has actively advocated the “Russkiy Mir” concept, and vocally supported Putin.

Another triumph for Russian exceptionalism.

In the midst of this ecclesiastical chaos, the Ukrainians are lobbying for return to independent or autocephalous status as their church existed before its absorption during the Russian occupation in 1686CE, 330 years ago.

The Patriarch, The Pope, Ukraine And The Disintegration Of ‘The Russian World’ – Forbes
Putin is under Satan’s influence: leader of Kiev Orthodox Church | Reuters

The Russian Orthodox Church Acts As Putin’s ‘Soft Power’ In Ukraine – Business Insider
Putin uses church as foreign-policy tool
Putin to Obama: You’re Turning the USA Into a Godless Sewer

Orthodoxy and Ukraine: As Orthodox leaders gather in Crete, Ukraine calls for an independent church | The Economist ONLY a few hours ago, Orthodox Christian bishops from many countries were preparing smoothly enough for an historic gathering in Crete which although diminished by some last-minute withdrawals will still be a huge landmark in the history of eastern Christianity.

Who is sponsoring a rift within Orthodox church? – read on – uatoday.tv The Holy and Great Council: Who is causing the rift?

Eugene Liapin | Sabotage of the Council: what happened? Apparently, Constantinople became disillusioned with its policy of concessions in relation to the Moscow Patriarchate. Even if he again will meet the requirements of the Clean alley and friendly to him the churches, there is no guarantee that in the future they will refrain from new ultimatums. By and large, you can endlessly delay Cathedral, literally sinking preparation for it in endless conciliation meetings. This, in fact, the ROC’s strategy is. After all, until the matter is not closed to the Cathedral – positive or negative – he will hold to Constantinople to take decisive steps for the integration of yet non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox communities in the world. This is recognized in most of the Moscow Patriarchate. “Cathedral <…> will no longer be a factor motivating the current restraint Fanara in two cases: or if it takes place, or if it will be canceled. That is, if you decide to Phanar: “The venture failed. For trying to thank you. But it will not be repeated in our lifetimes. ” And then switch to another solution of strategic tasks. Ukrainian. The only way to avoid it – leave the Cathedral in the “near future”, “- says in his typical manner Deacon Andrei Kuraev. However, this policy contains a great risk. For a long time between the Phanar and clean lane there was an agreement: non-interference in the Ukrainian church affairs in exchange for loyalty to the holding of the Pan-Orthodox Council. And breaking their end of the bargain, the Moscow Patriarchate thereby unleashed Constantinople. Bartholomew also at risk – it just writes the Greek press. But in his case, the ratio of losses and gains fundamentally different. Constantinople maintains a high chance of reconciliation almost all Orthodox Churches, who now oppose him. Between them there are no insurmountable contradictions. In addition, the ancient practice of the Orthodox world shows that local churches can recognize the decisions of the Council and after the fact, after some years – it was even with the Ecumenical Councils. The only exception – the ROC. Ignoring her position on the transfer of the Cathedral of Crete and especially the possible granting of autocephaly Kiev may aggravate relations to the limit. But in this case, Constantinople will be loyal and powerful ally – an independent Ukrainian church with potential 10,000 parishes.

Ukrainian parliament asks Ecumenical Patriarch for autocephality for Orthodox Church in Ukraine 16.06.16 12:29 – Ukrainian parliament asks Ecumenical Patriarch for autocephality for Orthodox Church in Ukraine Ukrainian MPs have supported an address to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on providing autocephality for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. View news.

 
Orthodox Churches’ Council, Centuries in Making, Falters as Russia Exits – The New York Times The Moscow Patriarchate’s decision highlighted tensions between the Russian branch and a rival leadership based in Istanbul.

Orthodox world heading toward a new schism | EUROMAIDAN PRESSEuromaidan Press |The decisions of the Bulgarian, Serbian and Antioch Orthodox churches not to attend the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church chaired by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on Crete later this week and a declaration by the Russian Orthodox Church that it won’t accept any decisions taken by that body threaten to create a new schism in the Orthodox world. Rosbalt commentator Ivan Preobrazhensky argues that the danger of a schism has become more likely because the Ecumenical Patriarch has shown no signs of backing away from the project of an all-Orthodox assembly, the first in a millennium, and insists that its decisions will be obligatory for all in the Eastern church.

Rifts Divide Orthodox World Ahead of Historic Summit – Georgia Today on the Web

Autocephaly for Ukraine’s Orthodox Church: MPs address Ecumenical Patriarch – read on – uatoday.tv Ukraine Today

Ukrainian parliament asks Ecumenical Patriarch for autocephality for Orthodox Church in Ukraine 16.06.16 12:29 – Ukrainian parliament asks Ecumenical Patriarch for autocephality for Orthodox Church in Ukraine Ukrainian MPs have supported an address to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on providing autocephality for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. View news.

Ukraine’s Rada Urges Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Separation From Moscow Ukrainian lawmakers have approved an appeal to the worldwide head of the Orthodox Church asking him to recognize the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence from Moscow.

Ukrainian faithful and clergy ask Ecumenical Patriarch to help unite Ukrainian Orthodoxy – read on – uatoday.tv Open letter to Bartholomew I published on the eve of meeting of all of the world’s Orthodox churches. Just two days before the first Holy and Great Council of world’s orthodox churches in a millennium on the Greek island of Crete, Ukraine’s congregation and priesthood published a petition asking His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to facilitate the unification of Ukraine’s orthodox churches.


Filed under: Corruption, Information operations, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, Corruption, Russia, Russian Orthodox Church, Russian propaganda

Russia vs. the Orthodox World, Part Dva

0
0

More anonymous expert analysis, to continue this discussion.

Just to reassure you, gentle reader, this is not an only recent theme:

The Russian Orthodox Church is definitely one more tool in the Russian Information Warfare toolbox. It solidifies a very shaky ideological foundation and inculcates the church, and therefore the state, into Russian citizen’s psyche.

Update:  Breaking news:

Thousand Years down the Line: How the Orthodox Council happening now in Greece can change the world

</end editorial>


This continues to generate traffic – it will be interesting to see what falls out of it in the absence of Russia and its supporters.

Trust the Russians to even corrupt their church – amazing.


Orthodoxy and Ukraine: As Orthodox leaders gather in Crete, Ukraine calls for an independent church | The Economist ONLY a few hours ago, Orthodox Christian bishops from many countries were preparing smoothly enough for an historic gathering in Crete which although diminished by some last-minute withdrawals will still be a huge landmark in the history of eastern Christianity.

Eugene Liapin | Sabotage of the Council: what happened? Apparently, Constantinople became disillusioned with its policy of concessions in relation to the Moscow Patriarchate. Even if he again will meet the requirements of the Clean alley and friendly to him the churches, there is no guarantee that in the future they will refrain from new ultimatums. By and large, you can endlessly delay Cathedral, literally sinking preparation for it in endless conciliation meetings. This, in fact, the ROC’s strategy is. After all, until the matter is not closed to the Cathedral – positive or negative – he will hold to Constantinople to take decisive steps for the integration of yet non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox communities in the world. This is recognized in most of the Moscow Patriarchate. “Cathedral <…> will no longer be a factor motivating the current restraint Fanara in two cases: or if it takes place, or if it will be canceled. That is, if you decide to Phanar: “The venture failed. For trying to thank you. But it will not be repeated in our lifetimes. ” And then switch to another solution of strategic tasks. Ukrainian. The only way to avoid it – leave the Cathedral in the “near future”, “- says in his typical manner Deacon Andrei Kuraev. However, this policy contains a great risk. For a long time between the Phanar and clean lane there was an agreement: non-interference in the Ukrainian church affairs in exchange for loyalty to the holding of the Pan-Orthodox Council. And breaking their end of the bargain, the Moscow Patriarchate thereby unleashed Constantinople. Bartholomew also at risk – it just writes the Greek press. But in his case, the ratio of losses and gains fundamentally different. Constantinople maintains a high chance of reconciliation almost all Orthodox Churches, who now oppose him. Between them there are no insurmountable contradictions. In addition, the ancient practice of the Orthodox world shows that local churches can recognize the decisions of the Council and after the fact, after some years – it was even with the Ecumenical Councils. The only exception – the ROC. Ignoring her position on the transfer of the Cathedral of Crete and especially the possible granting of autocephaly Kiev may aggravate relations to the limit. But in this case, Constantinople will be loyal and powerful ally – an independent Ukrainian church with potential 10,000 parishes.

Ukrainian parliament asks Ecumenical Patriarch for autocephality for Orthodox Church in Ukraine 16.06.16 12:29 – Ukrainian parliament asks Ecumenical Patriarch for autocephality for Orthodox Church in Ukraine Ukrainian MPs have supported an address to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on providing autocephality for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. View news.

Ukraine’s Rada Urges Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Separation From Moscow Ukrainian lawmakers have approved an appeal to the worldwide head of the Orthodox Church asking him to recognize the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s independence from Moscow.

Ukraine to get several million euros worth of donations from Holy See – read on – uatoday.tv Vatican is eager to help the victims of violence in eastern Ukraine – Cardinal Pietro Pazolini

Orthodox Church Leaders Meet Despite Russian Boycott Leaders of the world’s Orthodox Christian churches have gathered for the first time in more than 1,200 years despite a boycott by the Russian church and three others.

Orthodox church leaders meet despite Russian boycott | UNIAN Leaders of the world’s Orthodox Christian churches have gathered for the first time in more than 1,200 years despite a boycott by the Russian church and three others, according to Radio Liberty. News 20 June from UNIAN.

World Orthodox Leaders Meet Despite Russia’s Absence – ABC News World Orthodox Leaders Meet Despite Russia’s Absence

Ukraine dispute absent from Orthodox synod agenda | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Eastern Orthodox Christian populations in Ukraine are split along political lines.

AP: Attempt to hold pan-Orthodox synod stalls over disputes – read on – uatoday.tv Ukraine Today

Historic Orthodox council stalls after Russia pulls out – BBC News A historic attempt to bring together the leaders of the world’s Orthodox churches stalls after the Russian church rejected a last-minute appeal to attend.

Ukrainian faithful and clergy ask Ecumenical Patriarch to help unite Ukrainian Orthodoxy – read on – uatoday.tvUkraine Today

Ukrainian Orthodox Christians celebrate Holy Trinity Day on June 19 (photos) – read on – uatoday.tv Ukraine celebrates Holy Trinity

Historical and Spiritual Univ Monastery -Euromaidan Press | Univ Monastery is located near the village of Univ, about 50 kilometres from Lviv (western Ukraine). There are historical reasons to believe that it was built in the thirteenth century. Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky often visited Univ Lavra, and Ivan Vishensky, the famous philosopher monk, wrote one of his polemical works within its walls.

 


Filed under: #RussiaFail, Information operations Tagged: #RussiaFail, Corruption, information warfare, propaganda, Russia, Russian propaganda

Pro-Russian Bias at Twitter

0
0

RT News, an arm of the Russian government, is fine to Twitter, but not the CIA.

RT News works hand in glove with Russian  intelligence.

US-based social media are scared stiff of being perceived as pro-Western, which would be bad for business in Russia and some other countries. They wish to appear as impartial but have tilted the balance so that it favors one party.

All we ask for is a level playing field and equal application of the media’s terms of use, which have contractual value. This isn’t the case on other social media which we intend to highlight.


Twitter Picks Russia Over the U.S.

The company cuts off the CIA. But selling data to Vladimir Putin? That’s fine., by L. Gordon Crovitz

In The Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2016 5:04 p.m. ET

Silicon Valley’s hostility to U.S. intelligence and law enforcement reached a new low last week when Twitter rejected the Central Intelligence Agency as a customer for data based on its tweets—while continuing to serve an entity controlled by Vladimir Putin.

The Wall Street Journal broke the news that Twitter decided U.S. intelligence services could no longer buy services from Dataminr, which has a unique relationship with Twitter. Dataminr is the only company Twitter allows to have access to its full stream of hundreds of millions of daily tweets and sell the resulting intelligence to customers. Dataminr applies “big data” algorithms to identify unusual developments in real time. Customers who can profit from knowing about events instantly, such as hedge funds and news publishers, pay a hefty price for the alerts.

For the past two years, Dataminr provided its service to the CIA under a pilot program. The CIA and Dataminr then negotiated a contract to continue the service, but sources say Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey vetoed the contract at the last minute because he objects to the “optics” of continuing to help intelligence agencies. It’s unclear what happens to a small agreement Dataminr previously made with the Department of Homeland Security. With the new policy dictated by Twitter, Dataminr should drop the claim on its website that it includes “clients in the public sector, providing information first when there are lives at stake.”

Among the customers still getting the Dataminr alerts is RT, the broadcaster created and funded by the Russian government. Vladimir Putin has said that the government runs RT to “try to break the Anglo-Saxon monopoly on the global information streams.” RT disclosed it is a Dataminr customer in its news account of Twitter barring the CIA. Agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service, formerly known as the KGB, have full access via RT to the alerts now being denied to the CIA.

A former top U.S. counterterrorism official last week explained to me the significance of the alerts Twitter has withdrawn. He said Dataminr informed intelligence agencies before the news broke about the Islamist attacks in San Bernardino, Paris and Brussels. “These real-time tactical warnings are especially useful in the case of multiple attacks when even if we only get a little bit of warning, it can make a big difference,” he said. “Dataminr alerted us ahead of the news in these cases by 15 minutes to half an hour, which meant we could make more effective responses to the attacks.”

The CIA owns 5% of Dataminr, through its In-Q-Tel venture-capital arm (Twitter also owns 5%). This is one of several investments the agency has in startups tracking open-source information such as tweets. A spokesman for the CIA reacted to the loss of the Twitter data by saying data from tweets were “critical in providing indications of pending plots” by Islamic State and al Qaeda.

The CIA’s No. 2 official, David Cohen, explained in a speech at Cornell in September that Islamic State’s “tweets and other social media messages publicizing their activities often produce information that, especially in the aggregate, provides real intelligence value.”

Twitter defended its decision by saying it doesn’t allow its data to be used for “surveillance purposes.” This is nonsense: Dataminr performs no surveillance, because there is nothing private about the tweets it mines for data. In any case, Dataminr uses the public information from Twitter to identify events, not to collect information about individual people.

Twitter’s argument raised eyebrows even among those usually sympathetic to arguments for privacy over security. “If Dataminr simply sorts public knowledge, then denying the intelligence community that information makes little sense,” explained Wired magazine. “If, on the other hand, Dataminr provides a level of insight that should only be accessible with a warrant, giving that same information to an unregulated hedge fund seems problematic.”

Unlike Twitter, Apple at least claimed to be protecting user privacy when it refused to help the FBI gain access to the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists. But contrary to the dire warnings of Apple CEO Tim Cook about creating a “backdoor,” no privacy violations have been reported in the weeks since the FBI used third-party software to hack into the San Bernardino iPhone.

Silicon Valley seems to think consumers want it to pick fights with U.S. intelligence and law enforcement. Tech companies may be right that “optics” matter, but the optics now are that Twitter and Apple willfully interfere with America’s security even when no one’s privacy is at risk.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-picks-russia-over-the-u-s-1463346268

 


Filed under: Information operations, Information Warfare, Russia Tagged: information warfare, Russia, Russian propaganda, Twitter, Twitter bias

Russian hackers sell 33 million Twitter passwords online

0
0

Twitter established a business relationship with the Russian government, and how are they repaid?

I wonder how much of what you write on Twitter is shared with Russian intelligence?  Do you know what semantic analysis and a resultant pattern analysis would expose about you?  I do.

</end editorial>


Usernames and passwords of almost 33 million Twitter users have been obtained by a Russian hacker and put up for sale online.

The leak, which covers a tenth of Twitter’s users, comes after several high-profile Twitter accounts including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and singer Katy Perry were broken into.

Twitter denied that its own security had been breached, but said it was checking to see if accounts had been compromised by other huge password leaks.

The data for sale online may have come from hackers checking Twitter usernames against email and password combinations from security breaches at Myspace and LinkedIn.

Mark Zuckerberg
Twitter accounts of people including Mark Zuckerberg have been affected CREDIT: AP

Millions of passwords from both social networks have been put up for sale on the dark web in recent weeks that were obtained in hacks that date back to 2011. Since many people re-use passwords across the web, a trial and error approach on other social networks could result in many successful attacks.

It is believed that trying LinkedIn and Myspace passwords on Twitter accounts is how several celebrity Twitter accounts have been hacked into over the last week.

A hacking group called OurMine accessed Zuckerberg’s account this week, revealing that his password had been “dadada”. Rock group Tenacious D’s account was breached resulting in a Jack Black death hoax, and others including Lana Del Rey and Keith Richards were affected.

A spokesman for Twitter said it is “confident” that it hasn’t been hacked.

“We are confident that these usernames and credentials were not obtained by a Twitter data breach – our systems have not been breached,” the company said. “In fact, we’ve been working to help keep accounts protected by checking our data against what’s been shared from recent other password leaks.”

Security blog LeakedSource said the data contained 32.9m records. The hacker is reportedly selling the data for 10 bitcoins (£4,000).

Richard Parris, head of cybersecurity company Intercede, said the incidents show that passwords are “no longer fit” for purpose.

“Passwords and usernames need to be consigned to the dusty archives of yesteryear,” said Parris. “Online platforms hold masses of sensitive personal data about millions of consumers, and should not be relying on outdated password authentication.”

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/06/09/russian-hackers-sell-33-million-twitter-passwords-online/


Filed under: Information operations, Information Warfare, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, Russia, Russian intelligence, Russian propaganda, Twitter fail

Russia vs. World in Sport (2)

0
0

Anonymous expert analysis.

Vitaly Mutko has not been killed yet, he must have some blackmail material on Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

Russia is the world’s pariah in multiple areas, they have added sports to geopolitics.

I keep thinking Russia might want to pause to replace its shovel. The hole is deep and getting deeper. It almost seems like Russia is messing up intentionally, so they can blame Putin when they throw him out.  They’ll revise his legacy in 70 years.

</end editorial>


This gets better by the day ….


The Daily Vertical: Russia’s ‘Real Men’ (Transcript) The Daily Vertical is a video primer for Russia-watchers that appearsMonday through Friday.

The Daily Vertical: Dope, Lies, And Guns (Transcript) The Daily Vertical is a video primer for Russia-watchers that appearsMonday through Friday.

Russian special forces storm the French bastion of Lillsk — FT.com

“After Marseille Europe can understand Russian hybrid methods, used in Ukraine” – watch on – uatoday.tv Russian aggression puts Ukraine among most dangerous countries in the world

Russian hooligans attack Spanish tourists outside Cologne Cathedral  Violence which has marred Euro 2016 spread from France to Germany when Russian hooligans set upon Spanish tourists outside Cologne Cathedral.

Russian Soccer Fans Detained In Cologne ‘Face Up To 10 Years In Jail’Six Russian soccer fans detained in Germany for allegedly beating up three Spanish tourists in the city of Cologne face up to 10 years in prison, the Russian Embassy in Berlin says.

The Guardian view on Russian football hooligans: politics at play | Editorial | Opinion | The Guardian Editorial: Whether it encouraged it or not, Putin’s regime is trying to capitalise on the violence of its football fans – as another ingredient of its clash with the west

Russia stripped of 2012 Olympic gold, Australia is new champion – read on – uatoday.tvRussian race walker Sergey Kirdyapkin has been stripped of his Olympic Gold

‘Shame They Didn’t Croak’: Russian ‘Young Leader’ Outrages With Homophobic Rant After Orlando Massacre The head of a Russian NGO with ties to a regional government has triggered a firestorm with a homophobic rant that enthusiastically supported the massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida — and regretted that dozens of the wounded “didn’t croak.”

Putin’s Orlando Response Shows Russia Doesn’t Always Want to Be America’s Enemy The massacre in Orlando is…

 


Filed under: #RussiaFail, Information operations, Information Warfare, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, information warfare, Russia, Russian propaganda

Russian Sports Minister Mutko Cries About The IAAF

0
0
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko reacts during an interview in Moscow, Russia, May 24, 2016. REUTERS/SERGEI KARPUKHIN/FILE PHOTO

Prediction, Russia will host its own competition and invite other countries to abandon the Rio Olympics.

*waah*

Ghana and Vietnam might show up.

</end editorial>


Sun Jun 19, 2016 10:02am EDT

Russian sports minister says IAAF should be disbanded: R-Sport

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Sunday the world athletics governing body, the IAAF, has unfairly shifted blame for the doping scandal onto Russia’s athletics federation and should be disbanded, R-Sport news agency reported.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Saturday backed the IAAF’s decision to extend its ban on Russia for systematic doping, ending any slim hopes that Russian athletes might have had of competing at the Rio Games in August.

The decision is being contested by the Russian athletes: race-walkers Denis Nizhegorodov and Svetlana Vasilyeva launched an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over the decision to uphold the doping ban, which would bar them from competing in Rio, All Sport news agency reported.

The agency quoted Andrey Mitkov, a sports agent, as saying that the “class action” appeal will de delivered to the court in Lausanne on Tuesday.

The president of the IAAF Sebastian Coe has said that Russia has made some progress in tackling the use of prohibited substances by athletes, but it was “not enough” to lift the ban.

“In essence, by shifting the responsibility to the All-Russia Athletics Federation, they have exonerated themselves from responsibility. The IAAF should be disbanded,” Mutko was quoted as saying on Sunday.

The IAAF suspended Russia last year over concerns its athletes were guilty of systematic doping.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Andrew Bolton)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sport-doping-russia-iaaf-idUSKCN0Z50E6


Filed under: #RussiaFail, Information operations, Information Warfare, Russia Tagged: #RussiaLies, CounterPropaganda, Russia, Russian propaganda

Russian propagandists hacked. Part 1. Zenin: assistance to terrorists, offshore dealings and European vacations

0
0

By | on 06/11/2016

Source: https://informnapalm.org/en/part-1-hacked/

In early June, the alliance of Ukrainian hacker groups FalconsFlame, Trinity and Ruh8  transferred to  InformNapalm  international community a vast array of data extracted from hacked mail boxes and cloud storages of Russian journalists and propagandists. All of them are information warfare soldiers in the hybrid Russian aggression against Ukraine. InformNapalm volunteers do not share the ideology of mass data publications in the style of WikiLeaks. Therefore, we will be publishing the data in distinct portions, after a careful analysis. The decision about the publication or handover of data for further processing to the intelligence agencies of Ukraine and other countries  will be taken for each portion of information individually.

In this investigation, we will focus on a few interesting details about the work of Sergey Zenin, a journalist and propagandist in the service of the state-owned Channel One of the Russian Federation. The preface to this publication showcases his role in the information assistance to Russian terrorists waging war in Donbas, therefore all of the information published below shall be regarded as a countermeasure to his propaganda activity.

Russian media and leadership routinely use anti-European rhetoric, and in a recent speech to the residents of the occupied Crimea the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that “there was no money” and advised citizens to “hang in there and take care”. Therefore, we will also touch on the offshore dealings of Russian propagandists. We believe that the ubiquitous cronyism of the current Russian regime is one the main reasons why “there is no money” for the ordinary Russian folks.

Sergey Zenin, date of birth June, 19 1971, residing at: Moscow, Kosmodamianskaya embankment, 46-50, Building 1, apt. 177. According to the certificate of state registration, the apartment occupied by Zenin has a floor area of 111.4 square meters and is co-owned in equal shares by him and his son.

Background information: an apartment in the same house, but with an area of 76 square meters   costs  25.3 million rubles, therefore Zenin’s apartment could be roughly valued at 450,000 euros.

Travel passport:   72 No3942168,   valid until 04.04.2023. Sergey is employed as a correspondent for Channel One. We could not establish his pen name, but let it be “Grandma is not afraid” for the time.

Driver’s license:   77YE 057047. He has three cars: Land Rover Range Rover Sport, registration number   N999XO177, MERCEDES-BENZ CLA 250 4Matic (presumably in lease),  registration number   T572KK750   and MERCEDES-BENZ GLK (registered to his civilian wife).

IMG_1270

IMG_1220IMG_1137IMG_1138IMG_6932

Selection_020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to expensive cars, Zenin loves expensive travel. It is ironic, but he did not go to freshly annexed Crimea for the summer vacations of 2014, but rather decided to take a holiday in Europe.

Blowing tens of thousands of euros on a holiday is not a problem for a Channel One journalist, though his official monthly salary is just about 1300 euros. Zenin booked a villa near Aix-en-Provence for two-weeks for mere 5,000 euros, berating his travel agent “not to book any britophile huts overgrown with bushes, teeming with mosquitoes and with fucking wash basins for swimming pools”.

Selection_016

Selection_014

Selection_015Selection_011

Selection_013Selection_012Selection_010Selection_009Selection_008

IMG_1450

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps, Zenin got rich while working for the notorious Russia Today channel, where he researched the topic of the NSA (US intelligence agency) monitoring the cyberspace. He was on this project from November 2013 to January 2014. One of his e-mails contains an attachment with the draft summary of the dispatch (ANB.docx – download link). Here are a few screen shots:

Selection_021Selection_022Selection_023

 

 

 

 

The main objective of the project is to “show how far the United States have gone in their fight against imaginary terrorism, and how dangerous are the games of NSA with digital technologies”. It is noteworthy, that the draft mentions as consultant in the project an employee of ESET Russia, a company which has been recently implicated in assistance to Russian terrorists in Donbas. Read more: ESET Antivirus Company in Service of Donbas Terrorists and ESET Antivirus Company responded to accusations of assistance to the DPR pro-Russian terrorists.

Judging by his e-mail exchange, Zenin resigned from RT on May 8, 2014, apparently as a result of the workplace conflict with Pavel Baidukov. Immediately after discharge, he bought a new car Land Rover Range Rover Sport. Probably out of grief.

His first trip to the occupied territory of Ukraine dates back to June 2014, where he already acts as a reporter for Channel One. At this time, Zenin, as he puts it, “in anticipation of the arrival of very impolite people” and already having an accreditation of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) terrorist organization, gets interested in obtaining an accreditation from SBU, the Ukrainian security agency.

Selection_024

Why are journalists of the Russian Channel One get accreditation from DPR first, and only then think of the need to get accredited by Ukraine? Why do they go hand in hand with the militants on camera and are not wearing a well visible inscription “PRESS”? These questions are rather rhetorical.

Communications with Moscow editorial office cost handsomely. In July alone, his number +380977607003 (Ukrainian mobile operator “Kyivstar”) made international calls to the amount of 1812.53 UAH, cost of calls within Ukraine were more modest – only 207.40 UAH. SMS-service cost 444.04 UAH.

After the extreme trip to Ukraine, Zenin decides to spend August 2014 in Europe and flies to Marseille, France. And later he goes through Moscow to Geneva, Switzerland. While in Moscow, he makes the following note: “Out: 1,4814$. Outstanding for tomorrow or Friday: 13,536$. That will be: 28,350 or 30%.”

Selection_025

The credit card statement reveals some details of Zenin’s stay in Europe: French resorts of Mandelieu-La-Napoule and Cannes, and then Swiss Geneva.

Selection_026

In September 2014, after a holiday on the French Riviera, Zenin goes on another “Ukrainian mission”, where he professionally spins for Russian propaganda machine, masking the facts of Russian military aggression. Journalist Zenin (DPR accreditation No116) completely overlooks the participation of more than 70 units of the Russian Armed Forces and Interior Ministry in the fighting in the Donbas, which by contrast, are very conspicuous to the Ukrainian journalists and volunteers. Read more investigationshere.

While ordinary Russians celebrate annexation of the Crimea and rejoice at the “revenge on the Ukies” for Odessa, leading Russian propagandists lounge on Cote d’Azur, drive expensive cars and choose apartments in Moscow. And what happened to the apartment of that grandma in a Donetsk apartment house? Channel One could not care less, because money has no smell for Russian journalists-propagandists, especially when it is a lot of money. If necessary for the sake of an impressive image, they will not hesitate to arrange another firing position in an apartment house; “the grandma is not afraid” after all…

P.S. The hackers of FalconsFlameTrinity, Ruh8 groups provided us with a very large array of data covering the work and the entrails of Russian propaganda machine. We will be dishing out the information in portions, so stay tuned for more investigations. We congratulate Russian propagandist journos with the Journalist Day in Ukraine. Wishing them to break a leg. 🙂


This publication was prepared by the volunteers of the InformNapalm international community.

(CC BY) ) information specially prepared for InformNapalm.org website, an active link to the authors and our project is  obligatory for any reprint or further use of the material.

We call on our readers to actively share our publications on social networks. Broad public awareness of these investigations is a major factor in the information and actual warfare.
donate


Filed under: #RussiaFail, CounterPropaganda, Information operations, Information Warfare, Propaganda, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, counter-propaganda, CounterPropaganda, propaganda, Russia, Russian propaganda, Ukraine

Russian propagandists hacked. Part 2: Reuters reporter discussing MH17 reports

0
0

By | on 06/19/2016

Source: https://informnapalm.org/en/part-2-hacked/

Through the alliance of Ukrainian hacker groups FalconsFlame, Trinity and Рух8, we received access to a massive array of data on Russian propagandist journalists. Volunteers of the InformNapalminternational community analyzed the data from several hacked mail boxes of Russian journalists. In one of the mail boxes belonging to Sergey Zenin, a reporter of the Russian Channel One, we found a very strange message.

Read more: Russian propagandists hacked. Part 1. Zenin: assistance to terrorists, offshore dealings and European vacations

On November 29, 2014 Sergey Zenin received a message from one Anton Zverevantzverev@gmail.com (Sat, Nov 29, 2014 12:21:22 +0300), apparently a Reuters Moscow bureau reporter (DPR accreditation # 232 according to the Myrotvorets list). The message contains transcripts of several interviews about the downed Malaysian MH17 flight. We analyze the message and comment on the retrieved correspondence to show what the militants were saying about of the crash of the MH17 and which parts of their interviews made it to the publication.

Quote 1:

This pair of jets (two Ukrainian Su-25) tailed that Boeing on purpose, they even appeared on the radars on purpose, flew low to be seen, and switched on all the navigation. I’m sure they were flying without navigation, just by on-board instruments, or maybe even by the sun… I am more than sure, they were waiting for an attack with the Igla MANPADS [editor’s note: Igla – a Russian man-portable air defense system], and just when the attack began, they bonked this Boeing. These Su’s hit the Boeing. The militia, Oplot [editor’s note: a pro-Russian armed group] began to target them, and they just wacked the Boeing. Was there a MANPADS shot? Yep. So, blame the Boeing on the rebels. In fact, they (Su-25) used the on-board cannon”

Comment from InformNapalm: this is one of the first versions by the Russian side about the attack of a Ukrainian Su-25, closely retold. It does not take into account the altitude range of Igla MANPADS and the ceiling height of the Su-25.

Quote 2:

“And then calls started – “the target has been hit”. First it was said that a Su has been hit… Not everyone can distinguish at the height of even five kilometers, if it is a Su or a civilian plane. Visually, without special skills, you just can not tell. And from there, shit like this started going around – the target hit, but it had a long fall, and then, thirty minutes later – Ok, the “bird” has dropped. I was somehow sure that the call and the talk was about one of the Su’s. But it turned out, that it was not the Su hit, but that this Su hit that Boeing”

Comment from InformNapalm: apparently the interviewee was at that time somewhere in the area and at least witnessed the first reaction to the downed aircraft.

Quote 3:

“We were right there, when it was wacked, it was close to sunset, we were just starting to move out of Snizhne. The cell signal was generally lousy there at that time, Life [editor’s note: Ukrainian telecoms operator] went down at once, MTS [editor’s note: Ukrainian subsidiary of a Russian telecoms operator] still worked. And so I got a call on MTS, they said – the “bird” got wacked. And when I asked – where did you shoot from, he says – from Debaltseve. In general, all these Su’s were pounded from the Debaltseve post, because at the time, there were MANPADS only in Luhansk, in Debaltseve and Donetsk. And there was another mobile group working, they were just spotted in Zuhres. There were no MANPADS anywhere else. But we all know that MANPADS does not reach more than six (kilometers), or even more than five. Then, when we were moving, we did not even move, we were standing there, at that Shakhtarsk checkpoint, you know? We were at this checkpoint, and saw this cow falling. The sound it made was sick, then I realized that it was the wrong “bird”. I only could not figure out then, why and how a MANPADS could hit a Boeing. After analyzing all the events, it appears that it was hit by that pair of jets. They just had launched that pair on purpose to get our guys going, to make them use Iglas.

Comment from InformNapalm: here it gets interesting. The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) at the time had a shortage of MANPADS to counteract the Ukrainian aviation. The interviewee was “standing” in the area of the “Shakhtarsk checkpoint”. Most likely, he means one of the checkpoints on the H21 Donetsk-Luhansk road near Shakhtarsk. That must have been the reason for sending the Buk missile system to this area.

Why is the interviewee so adamant about the operation of two Ukrainian aircraft? At the time the Ukrainian Air Force often used pairs of Su-25s. The day before the MN17 was downed, on July 16, representatives of the DPR claimed that they had shot down two Su-25 of the Ukrainian Air Force in the area of Snizhne. The next day, the Ukrainian authorities analyzed the attack and claimed that the aircraft were fired at from the Russian territory.

Quote 4 (here, for the first time we see a fairly direct question from the journalist):

Journalist: On that day, did the Buk come from Russia?

“Yes, it was so. Yes, it was traveling. Buk traveled through the Severny border point. But that Buk was destined for Savur-Mohyla. Savur-Mohyla was hard-put then.”

“But the Buk rocket could not hit the Boeing, different ceilings, Buk’s altitude range is up to 6.5 kilometers. Purely by chance, targeting the Su and getting the Boeing … it is not possible. My opinion, it is not possible.”

“I do not rule out, that perhaps there was a shot from Buk. That Buk was already here, waiting to target that pair. There it was (Buk), yes, it was there.”

Comment from InformNapalm: the answer is divided into three paragraphs, each in separate quotes. These could be answers from three different people, none of them denying the presence of a Buk launcher there. The interviewee(s) do not know from memory the technical capabilities of Buk and therefore are not aware that it was designed to target any aircraft at almost any altitude.

It is mentioned here that the Buk entered through the Severny border point, which Ukrainian border guards were forced to abandon around June 5-10. This means that the version of the Buk having come through Luhansk Region to Donetsk Region receives another confirmation here.

Quote 5 (judging by the layout, it could contain answers of five different people):

Journalist: Was the Buk attack targeting the Su-25?

“Yep. “The Su’s pulled the fuck out of there. It (the attack) was half an hour before the downing. Wacked.”

“(The Buk was) between Snizhne and Krasny Luch … Village of Chervone, means “red” in Russian… After this winding road, there is this patch and two large power pylons. There, this shit was standing. Not in Krasny Luch it was.”

Comment from InformNapalm: this passage could refer to the city of Krasny Luch in Luhansk Region, which is a city of 125,000 inhabitants, but in these quotes they mostly discuss villages. However, in Donetsk Region there is the village of Krasny Luch, situated near the city of Torez, and probably near the Buk rocket launch site. Between them, there is another village called Krasny Oktyabr in Russian or Chervony Zhovten in Ukrainian. Could that be the “Chervone village” referred to in one of the quotes, near which this Buk was stationed according to the latest investigations?

“The aviation was such a fucking annoyance, that is why this Buk appeared. Good people pulled together and found a volunteer who drove the Buk here.”

“Of that Buk deployment – yes, we knew of it. Most likely, it was this Buk that they were pulling out. And of that Buk coming in, they also knew, to be honest. It’s because the Buk was routed through Uralo-Kavkaz. There are two roads there. When you come from Severny (a border point on the border with the Russian Federation), there you can, before reaching Sukhodilsk, turn towards Uralo-Kavkaz and through Uralo-Kavkaz, right through the edge of Krasnodon, slip to Sverdlovsk. But this road is very risky, you do the slipping right under the nose of the Ukies. They did not hold this turn at Uralo-Kavkaz then, but their positions were there, and they clearly saw everything that moved on that road. Another safer way was through Sukhodilsk, but there were Ukies too. So when our hardware trundled to Sukhodilsk, it got hit with Ukrainian Grad [editor’s note: a multiple launch rocket artillery system]. And when it was hit, the Buk passed by the low road, through Uralo-Kavkaz. I know that it was even towed along the reserve road. The reload vehicle and the launcher itself. And the late Odessa (Vostok battalion), chief of counterintelligence, he was towing the parcel.

Comment from InformNapalm: this is a very interesting answer. Again, the entry of the Buk from Russian territory through the Severny border point into Luhansk Region is discussed. Further, they are trying to get this Buk to the area of active combat, but are hindered by the Ukrainian Army holding the road to Sukhodilsk under fire control. As a result, the Buk had to go on some “reserve low road through Uralo-Kavkaz”.

The equipment was convoyed by the chief of counterintelligence of the Vostok battalion with the call sign Odessa, who as of 29 November 2014 is referred to by the interviewee as already dead. There were and are many militants with the call sign “Odessa” in the DPR and LPR armed groups. Records of Myrotvorets alone contain more than 10 militants with this callsign, but they are either alive, or are unlikely to be on the level of counterintelligence chiefs. However, in the summer of 2014 there was at least one militant with this call sign in the Vostok battalion. He held some senior position and assisted in releasing several Ukrainian POW’s held by the DPR counterintelligence.

“At that time the militia … did not know how to use it (Buk) … To look at it, everything was Russian there, only they had no fucking idea how to use it all”

Comment from InformNapalm: does this imply that the operators were from Russia as well?

Quote 6 (apparently, it contains answers from three different people):

Journalist: Did the Buks have Russian operators?

“Well, yes, there were.”

“They wacked it from the Su’s, it’s a fact. That Buk did not hit the Su’s then, and in parallel during the day, a Su was hit before midday. It is possible, that it was this Buk, that hit that Su.”

“That Buk, yes, there was a Buk deployed, yes, it was positioned behind Krasny Luch, but from where it stood to where the Boeing fell, the distance is very small, straight distance 15-17 kilometers, it could not do it, you know … It’s like that Buk wacked the Boeing and this Boeing just dropped like a stone, it’s the only way it turns out. But there must have been inertia of the fall, the inertia of moving forward must have remained all the same.”

Comment from InformNapalm: one of the interviewees is apparently quoting Russian television again, with the version about the attack Ukrainian Su’s. However, again, a Buk positioned near Krasny Luch is mentioned.

Quote 7 (apparently, it contains answers from six different people):

Journalist: What is the probability that the Boeing was shot down by a Buk?

“About 3-5 (percent). It can not be excluded, of course. But the likelihood that it was accidentally wacked by a Buk is 3-5 percent. It was wacked from these Su’s, it’s a fact. The probability is 98 percent here”

“And if it was wacked with Buk, like in case it hit one wing, there would have been no fuselage left as such, there would simply have been not so many bodies to recover … If it was wacked by the Buk, the explosion in the sky … would have been awesome… The warhead element of this rocket is awesome.”

“For the guidance system, there were also Russian experts there, Russian operators, I think they would not have hit the wing, they would have hit the fuselage, would have hit the radar, and the Buk would have been guided to the radar anyways. There is no other way.”

“Shooting with a Buk into the sky and not hitting the Su’s, but hitting the Boeing instead – this is nonsense.”

“I’m keeping to the view that this is a provocation, this pair of Su’s was specially scrambled to make the militia fire at air targets.”

“They were trying to provoke us to deploy a Buk, yes, that morning their aviation was working. One of the Su’s got downed, three hours before the incident. At 10 AM the first bird got downed, and then the second bird, a big, fat, goose. It was a provocation to start us firing at the planes, and we got active.”

Conclusions: let us put aside the speculations in these answers, which are almost direct quotes of the Russian version about the Ukrainian Su’s. Let us keep in mind, that the day before, there was an attack on the Ukrainian pair of SU-24/25 in the area. Let us also take into account that the interviewees do not understand the Buk’s altitude range and operational altitudes of Su-24/25. In the bottom line of these responses there are the following important factual details:

  • there was some Buk there
  • Ukrainian aircraft operated actively in the area, and militants needed a weapon to deal with Ukrainian aircraft
  • that Buk was brought into the territory of Ukraine from Russia through the Severny border point in Luhansk Region
  • that Buk was brought in by a “reserve route” to bypass the sections on the road to Sukhodilsk which were under fire control of the Ukrainian army
  • that Buk was convoyed by the chief of counterintelligence of the Vostok battalion with the callsign Odessa, who as of November 2014 had been apparently already liquidated
  • that Buk launcher was operated by Russian specialists.

In mid-July 2014 the situation in the war zone was difficult for the militants. The Ukrainian army was still stationed at Izvaryne border point, all of the border with Russia in Donetsk Region was controlled by Ukraine, and border point Severny in Luhansk Region was the only reliable way to deliver equipment from Russia. After crossing the border from Russia into Ukraine at the Severny border point, the equipment had to move towards Sukhodilsk and then through Krasnodon towards Donetsk Region, skirting the Ukrainian army positions on the border. However, the road to Sukhodilsk was under fire control of the Ukrainian army units stationed near Luhansk.

Зона АТО на 16-17 июля 2014 года

As a result, a more risky route was selected. Immediately after crossing the border, the convoy kept as close as possible to the border near the town of Uralo-Kavkaz, bypassing Krasnodon on the east side and avoiding the Ukrainian units near Izvaryne.

Interestingly, the journalist of Channel One Sergey Zenin almost immediately (Sat, 29 Nov 2014 12:43:41 +0300) responded to this message:

Ответ Сергея Зенина по MH17 и происхождению БУКа

Anton,))), this seems to be a bit over the top. Tuborg is not the chief of intelligence of an army or even a battalion to have such info. His testimony, when he was stationed around Shakhtarsk, it’s valuable for real. As for Odessa, we need to ask Skif, and as for the Russian crew of the Buk, I do not even know whom to ask))) It seems to me, that all this is lies in the filed of psychiatry. But it reads as an interesting blockbuster. The question is, what do you want: an investigation or a blockbuster? Do you have any higher ranking people who say the same things? Or is Tuborg the one and only “witness” we have? 

The answer reveals that the interview was taken from someone with the callsign “Tuborg”, who was at that time near Shakhtarsk. About the fate of “Odessa”, Zenin recommends asking someone with the callsign “Skif”, which is the callsign of the Vostok battalion commander Alexander Khodakovsky.

Александр "Скиф" Ходаковский в статье российской ТРК "Звезда"

Moreover, immediately after the downing of MH17, Reuters (Anton Zverev again) interviewed Khodakovsky, who admitted the presence of a Buk launcher which came from the LPR side:

It looks like this was the first and most truthful response of the DPR representatives.

Reuters reporter Anton Zverev eventually interviewed residents of Chervonyi Zhovten, who confirmed to him that they had seen the launch of a Buk rocket from the area of Snizhne. The article appeared on Reuters on March 12, 2015, after this communication with the Channel One journalist.

Some passages hint that the article features some material from the message of November 29:

“Russian and separatist officials have said that Ukrainian military aircraft were overhead at the time the Malaysian airliner came down. They have said that if an anti-aircraft missile was launched in the vicinity, it was to bring down a Ukrainian warplane. They have also suggested a Ukrainian fighter aircraft may have shot down the Malaysian airliner.”

“A former rebel from the separatist Vostok battalion, who for security reasons asked to be identified only by his first name, Igor, told Reuters that a BUK battery was in Chervonyi Zhovten on July 17, and he himself was not far from the village.”

However, for some reason the quotes about the transportation of a Russian Buk and about the possible role of the Russian crew were not included in this report:

“Taken together, the accounts do not conclusively prove the missile launched from near Chervonyi Zhovten was the one that brought down the airliner, because none of the villagers saw it actually being launched.

Nor could they shed light on a contention of officials in Kiev and in Western states, that the BUK missile battery was brought in from Russia and was operated by a Russian crew. Moscow has denied its military is active in eastern Ukraine.”

Статья в Reuters не проливает свет на то, откуда пришел БУК и чей он

A pretty strange conclusion on the part of Reuters in this article, as several months earlier local militants told this reporter an entirely different story. The article mentions, however, that the journalists once again visited Donbas in February. Perhaps, there were updates to the investigation and new comments were received. However, the published text contained only neutral language, making it difficult for the Western reader to draw any conclusions.

Ultimately, the readers never learned about the movement of the Buk through the Severny border point from Russia to Ukraine, about the road to Sukhodilsk being under fire control of the Ukrainian Army, about the use of the “reserve route” and about the role of the militant with the callsign Odessa in the transportation of the Russian Buk.

The role of Sergey Zenin, a journalist of the Channel One, also remains unclear. What kind of help in this investigation could have been provided by this Russian journalist and propagandist, whose real task is to conceal Russia’s participation in the war in Donbas? It is a very strange correspondence that leaves too many questions.

Read more OSINT investigations on MH17 by InformNapalm international volunteer community:

1. The Last Haul of the Russian Soldier to MH17

2. “Joker” reveals the Volvo truck that carried the BUK missile system for MH17

3. Russian Air Defense Officer Got a St. George’s Cross IV Degree: Was It for MH17 or Ukrainian Su-25 and An-26?

4. Legacy of Ancestors: Mother Is a Former KGB Staff, Son Is the Commander of the 53rd Brigade Which Downed MH17

We call on our readers to actively share our publications on social networks, forums and in the media. Broad public awareness of these investigations is a major factor in the information and actual warfare.


This material was prepared for publication by the InformNapalm international volunteer community on the basis of information provided by the cyber alliance FalconsFlame, Trinity and Ruh8.

(CC BY 4.0) This information has been specially prepared for InformNapalm.org, an active link to the authors and our project is obligatory for any reprint or further public use of the material.

If you appreciate the work of this community, you can provide targeted assistance to the project for the purchase of equipment for OSINT investigators by clicking on the link below.

donate2


Filed under: #RussiaFail, CounterPropaganda, Information operations, Information Warfare, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine Tagged: #RussiaLies, CounterPropaganda, information warfare, propaganda, Russia, Russian propaganda, Ukraine

My Obsessive Little MV-lehti Trolls

0
0

I was quite amazed when an article at MV-lehti, “Joel Harding Troll Investigation Project“, discussing my blog piece “Seeking Russian Influence in Social Media Statements” was published within an hour.

These Finnish FSB-sponsored Neo-Nazi Hate-Group trolls, and that’s the very truncated description, were overwhelmed that I am doing research in the same field as their favorite female Finnish reporter.  I’m amazed they had enough awareness to notice my blog article. I’m glad they subscribed.

But even a pseudo news site like http://mvlehti.net/ should have the moral decency to not list my email address.

They then continue on to list the names, photos, and bona fides of several of my current and departed friends. Ooh, they can google, too.  So far I’m underwhelmed.

MV-lehti is obsessed with me, but the contrary is not true. They continue to publish smear pieces which only their Russian troll friends read and mocking friends in Finnish law enforcement share with me, laughingly.  MV-lehti is but a sub-section in a chapter of a future article.  I’m waiting for them to have an original thought not copied from the Russian troll handbook.

Since they cannot decipher my motivation, funding, or the like, I’ll tell you. This is being done on my own time with a group of mostly US professionals doing the same.

Truth.  I know that is a strange concept for MV-lehti to grapple with, but that is what we seek to uncover.

We’re exposing Russian information warfare, globally, and their social media use is but one more tool in a toolbox.  Just as MV-lehti is just another tiny little Russian troll group that is disappointed every time they look down to pee.

Butthurt. MV-Lehti is.  *waah*


Filed under: #RussiaFail, CounterPropaganda, Information operations, Information Warfare, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, CounterPropaganda, information warfare, Russian propaganda

FSB Information Warfare Specialist: Russia will Quickly Establish Private Military Units

0
0
Andrei Manoilo Photo: Jaanus Piirsalu

Jaanus Piirsalu

Diplomaatia – Diplomaatia.ee No 154/155 • June 2016, Russia

The Baltic States form too small a region for a serious confrontation between Russia and the US to arise there, said Andrei Manoilo, one of the top information- and hybrid-warfare experts in Moscow with an FSB background, in an interview for Diplomaatia.

In the 2000s, Manoilo worked in the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) as an information-warfare specialist mainly focusing on the Middle East, but he has also worked in the Nordic countries. According to Manoilo, he worked on developing measures to counter “information aggression”. In 2013, together with colleagues, he published a monograph about information warfare. Later Manoilo also worked in the FSB on the “colour” revolutions. Since 2012 he has been working at Moscow State University as Lecturer in Political Science, and is a member of the scientific advisory board to the Security Council of Russia, which makes the country’s most important national security decisions. According to Russian media, Manoilo also advises the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

The annual conference of the Russian Academy of Military Science [expert council, established by presidential decree in 1994, that brings together leading scientists from all Russian power structures and is funded entirely from the state budget–JP] has become a very important indicative event in the Russian military sphere. An example is the presentation in 2013 by the Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, in which he formulated all the principles of hybrid warfare that the Kremlin later used, first in the Crimea and then in eastern Ukraine. A year later Gerasimov further developed his thesis at the same event. At this year’s conference in February in Moscow, Gerasimov dedicated a lot of time to how “colour” revolutions threaten Russia. You were one of the presenters at the conference. How great does the Russian administration still consider the threat from colour revolutions? How seriously does the Kremlin take this, especially two years after the Maidan events?

Gerasimov mainly discussed opposing colour revolutions outside Russia. He regarded them as an element of hybrid warfare. He believes such attempted coups need to be opposed because if they take place as colour revolutions, they inevitably bring about the onset of hybrid warfare. Gerasimov always has a very systematic approach to such questions. His presentation was not broadcast and its full text was not published, but I can tell you that the basis of his planning was immensely detailed. He presented his plan about resisting colour revolutions exactly like a military operation is planned.

Do I understand correctly that he presented a specific plan that Russia should follow if another colour revolution occurs somewhere close to the Russian border?

That is correct. [While discussing a side-topic during the interview, Manoilo mentions in passing that the Russian General Staff is currently making serious preparations to avert a colour revolution in Syria.–JP]

But what has a revolution got to do with the army, the military forces, even if it is a colour revolution? It is not an invasion of a country that the army needs to defend.

That is a reasonable question. If colour revolutions take place with the help of coup technology, it is a matter for the police and security services. However, it all comes down to the fact that there is an element in the technology of carrying out colour revolutions—the moment the revolution transitions to the active phase. Usually one incident signals the beginning of mass protests: public self-immolation or protesting the [results of] presidential elections. When people protest spontaneously, there are never immediate massive protests as in colour revolutions; instead, people initially gather in small groups, which start to create larger groups until they form demonstrations. This takes at least a month. With colour revolutions, however, as soon as the incident occurs, it signals the protesters to take to the streets all over the city led by their activists, which means that this protesting electorate has been formed earlier and is only waiting for the signal.

This is preceded by recruitment and building of a city-wide hierarchy of protest cells, where each cell has its own leader, who does not know the leaders or members of other cells, only his direct superior. This system is very similar to how Al-Qaeda is structured or how the underground boyevik units operated in the Northern Caucasus. Their requirements for conspiracy are the same. It is very difficult to fight such organisations, which act as networks, because destroying one cell does not take you to the next.

Let us assume that is the case but still, what has this got to do with the army? Why should the army fight colour revolutions?

It has to do with the army because such organisations can be fought only with agency work, by blending into them unnoticed. Military intelligence has acquired these methods excellently. The army has this type of experience and it is exactly what Gerasimov was talking about.

So they [military intelligence, i.e. the GRU in Russia] have the knowledge, experience and skills to fight colour revolutions?

Of course.

In short, General Gerasimov is convinced that potential colour revolutions close to Russia’s borders can and must be prevented by hybrid warfare. What did Gerasimov have in mind when he said “the general headquarters [of the Russian armed forces] has changed its views of modern warfare”?

He was talking about how wars nowadays have a hybrid character and it is impossible to imagine using classical military force without hybrid measures. These days there is no warfare that is not hybrid. Such wars begin long before war is officially declared and end long after a peace treaty has been signed. They begin in the form of information warfare, diversionary acts and guerrilla warfare, and this is what the headquarters level proceeds from in planning modern warfare—this is what Gerasimov meant. Among other things, this means that defence attachés need to be excellent specialists in information warfare, influencing the public and psychological operations. In this aspect Gerasimov is absolutely right.

So a modern army, including Russia’s, needs more and more experts in what used to be civil areas?

Yes, specialists without epaulettes.

There are probably many “specialists without epaulettes” acting in eastern Ukraine.

I do not know about that. But the proportion of people without epaulettes is growing fast in the [Russian] military.

At General Gerasimov’s initiative, the growing role of private military corporations in Russia was also widely discussed at this event. How should they operate in cooperation with Russian armed forces and other power structures? Has Russia decided to move in the direction of using more of them in future conflicts beyond Russia’s borders?

Private military corporations [PMCs] are largely an invention of hybrid warfare. In my opinion, they are just a new type of mercenaries. The Russian Duma is currently discussing a law on the status of PMCs. The Americans use PMCs widely in modern military conflicts because they perform tasks that neither the Department of State nor the Pentagon can carry out for various reasons. In this sense it is an inevitable development. It is also evident in Syria. [An interesting related detail: much has been written in the Russian media about Russia’s most well-known, albeit for now unofficial, PMC unit, which is led by a former officer going by the name of Wagner. This unit has operated in eastern Ukraine but most actively in Syria. According to the influential St Petersburg-based website fontanka.ru, which published a detailed investigation about Wagner’s unit, the man behind the name is 46-year-old Dmitry Utkin, a reserve Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian special forces, who in 2013 served in the Independent Spetsnaz Detachment of the 2nd Independent Brigade of the GRU as commanding officer of its subdivision in Pechory—a few kilometres from the Estonian border.—JP]

If the Duma adopts the law and allows the use of PMCs in Russia’s interests, how will this change Russia’s strategy for foreign conflicts? What new options does it open up for you?

It creates new possibilities to participate in military conflicts in their active phase while not risking military involvement at the state level. Not risking the lives of the soldiers of your own army is a typical hybrid-warfare tactic. The aim of the world powers is to fight foreign armies. This guarantees that they will not clash with each other, until a certain moment of course. An ideal future war would be two PMCs doing the fighting—if, of course, international law regarding PMCs does not change, if they do not realise that it is in fact a screen to legalise mercenaries.

If this law is adopted, official PMCs will probably be established quite fast in Russia?

Certainly. Unfortunately, there are numerous tensions between Russia and the West and the option to use PMCs would be considered in such cases in the future if necessary. Hybrid warfare without PMCs is probably not even possible anymore. The speciality of hybrid warfare is that direct confrontation between the main opponents is only a worst-case scenario. In hybrid warfare, world powers monitor each other’s strength, potential, and readiness to protect their interests, usually on the battlefields of the developing world. At the moment, Ukraine and Syria are typical such fields but they are not the only ones.

Could the Baltic States be in that category?

The Baltic States are too small for that. I don’t want to offend anyone, but the Americans are very good at manipulating the Baltics. As the Baltic States are very small, they can be easily scared. This panic will later spread to larger European countries as well. Then they of course turn to the US for help, which enables the Americans to set the condition for the Europeans that they finally need to pay the famous two per cent [the target to spend 2% of GDP on defence—JP], as you all promised.

In your presentation at the conference, you said that Russia needed to have its own forces, measures and technological arsenal for hybrid warfare. Is Russia’s current arsenal really not sufficient?

Of course they have their own arsenal. I meant “their own” in the sense that it should not duplicate the Americans’ tools. We are talking of asymmetric means against the Americans and NATO. We need to act differently from the Americans so that they do not understand our logic.

Could it be said that Russia has its own model and strategy for hybrid warfare?

It could. It does now. I cannot reveal it in detail but I can recommend reading a textbook, published a year ago by Moscow State University, titled very simply Hybrid Warfare, which our political scientists study. [The group of authors of the 190-page monograph was led by the Dean of Moscow State University’s Faculty of Political Science, Andrey Shutov, but the best-known author is Doctor of Political Science and former president of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin, who is famous for his extremely conservative views.–JP]

An important aspect of hybrid warfare is non-military activities. To what extent has the Russian foreign ministry adjusted to the strategy or even tactics of hybrid warfare, in your opinion as a former FSB information-warfare specialist?

In the past two years, Russian diplomacy has made a giant leap forward in development. This is best seen in relations with the US, which is still a major power and can implement a deterrent policy against Russia and China simultaneously. Russia’s power does not even come close. But we have learned asymmetric action and this is a strong advantage for Russia right now. The US clearly has difficulties with predicting Russia’s activities; they still proceed from some very simplified models but Russia is already behaving differently. Russian diplomacy and everyone connected to making foreign-policy decisions in general take into account the detailed psychology of US leaders. Russia is well aware of their inclinations, the decision-making patterns in various situations. We already know perfectly well how [US president Barack] Obama and [US Secretary of State] John Kerry will act even before they get into a situation that they need to resolve. Meanwhile, nobody knows how [Russian president Vladimir] Putin will act. The West is constantly trying to fit Putin into some standard mould and predict how he might behave, but he behaves differently. There is a pattern for Putin’s behaviour but it is different from what the West believes it to be.

What is it then?

You know, unpredictable behaviour is also in fact an element of predictability. Putin’s behaviour always remains within the confines of logic. Retrospective analysis of his behaviour shows us very simple logic there. Yes, it could be said that he has applied the style of domestic policy from the 2000s, where he often made seemingly very unexpected decisions, to making foreign-policy decisions as well.

In today’s circumstances, where all warfare is already hybrid, the Americans are still betting too much on brute force, on the fact that force can resolve any kind of issue. But it is no longer the most important thing in the world. It is no longer important to strike a mighty blow from the outset; instead you need to have very fine fencing skills. Russian diplomacy is trying to strike by fencing like that.

Do you believe Russian foreign policy is too asymmetric for the Americans and that they are incapable of adjusting to it?

Yes, the Americans are still expecting symmetric responses from us, expecting that we respond to a strike with a strike. You know, we are very lucky to have Sergey [Lavrov] as foreign minister. He is a Gorchakov-style diplomat and leader of the department of foreign policy in Russia. [Alexander Gorchakov, born in 1798 in Haapsalu, studied at the same school as Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and was his friend. In the second half of the 19th century, Gorchakov led the Russian Empire’s foreign ministry for 25 years, making Russia a very influential country in Europe.–JP] Lavrov participates actively in making foreign-policy decisions in Russia. He has created a very strong think tank and team in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Who are the key people in Lavrov’s team in the ministry?

The most important body in Lavrov’s ministry is the General Secretariat, which prepares specific decisions. It is a headquarters but not a very public structure. [Since autumn 2014, the director of the General Secretariat has been Pavel Kuznetsov, who in 1999–2004 worked as a counsellor in the Russian Embassy in Tallinn.–JP] All diplomats who work there are very experienced and they are mainly Lavrov’s age. Some of them were Primakov’s advisers when he turned his plane around over the Atlantic. [In a famous incident, the then Russian foreign minister (and former Director of Foreign Intelligence) Yevgeny Primakov was heading to the US for an official visit in March 1999 and ordered the plane to turn around over the Atlantic when he heard that NATO aircraft had attacked Serbia without notifying Russia. This incident is considered a turning point in Russian–US relations since the end of the Cold War.–JP)

Source: http://www.diplomaatia.ee/en/article/fsb-information-warfare-specialist-russia-will-quickly-establish-private-military-units/


Filed under: Information operations

A Shining Example of Russian Propaganda

0
0
Manure for the Masses

A good friend sent me the link to this Sputnik propaganda.  I read through the article but I couldn’t shake the subtle negative feeling I got.

So I did some searching.  I read through and I first thought, cool, they’re basically telling the same story. Then I began noticing words changing, replacements, entire positive paragraphs missing, and the context changed.

First, I will give the original US version from http://breakingdefense.com/2016/06/space-command-readies-for-war-with-space-enterprise-vision/, then I will show the fabricated, plagiarized version from Sputnik News at http://sputniknews.com/world/20160621/1041648568/new-vision-innovates-space-warfare.html.

Space Command Readies For War With ‘Space Enterprise Vision’

n June 20, 2016 at 4:01 AM

then

Space Weapons: US Seeks to Innovate How America Fights Beyond the Stars

01:11 21.06.2016 (updated 03:22 21.06.2016)

Remarks: First, the US version does not mention weapons, which imbues very hostile taint to the article.  Second, there is a named author whereas the Russian version is completely anonymous.  There is no accountability in anonymity, therefore the Russian version has no credibility. 

WASHINGTON: Air Force Space Command has created a blueprint for fighting and winning wars in space, known by the innocuous title of the Space Enterprise Vision.

then

The Air Force Space Command has devised a new framework for interstellar warfare called Space Enterprise Vision (SEV).

Remarks:  Nowhere in the US statement is “warfare beyond the stars” or Intersteller warfare” even mentioned.  It is warfare in the domain of space in relation to earth. 

As I get to this point I realize the two articles are too lengthy for me to do a paragraph by paragraph comparison, but the Russian obvious 1 – plagiarized the article without giving credit, and 2 – changed words, deleted entire paragraphs and moved entire paragraphs around.

The most humorous insertion in the Sputnik article is to say the US must have air superiority…

“The first thing you have to do to gain air superiority is make sure you can fly where you need to fly, that means we have to take down an enemy air defense system, and in order to take down an integrated air defense system you have to do a lot more than send an F-22 in,” he said.

Bottom line, some parts of this article were absolutely plagiarized, verbatim, from the article by Breaking Defense, without attribution, and then quotes are attributed to a USAF General which are most likely entirely fabricated.

Just for grins and giggles I’m going to write to General Hyten and see if those are his exact words or not.

So, dear reader, I suggest you take the time to look at both articles and give them a good side by side comparison.

Sputnik Fail, #SputnikFail, and #RussiaFail.


Filed under: #RussiaFail, CounterPropaganda, Information operations, Information Warfare, Propaganda, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, information warfare, propaganda, Russia, Russian propaganda

Welcome To LinkedIn… Where Terms and Conditions May (not) Apply

0
0

Originally posted at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/welcome-linkedin-where-terms-conditions-may-apply-james-berger?trk=mp-author-card but LinkedIn is removing many articles without explanation or notification.

</end editorial>


Global Competitive Intelligence Specialist – Attorney

Jun 21, 2016

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY: SOME REFLECTIONS ON LINKEDIN’S CONTENT CHOICES FOLLOWING TODAY’S UNEXPLAINED DELETION OF MY PULSE ARTICLE

As I noted in an Update several hours ago, a Pulse Article I published on June 6, 2016 disappeared this afternoon without justification or explanation. The piece, entitled “GONE WITH THE TRUTH: LinkedIn, Lies & Libel,” had attracted many thousands of viewers, numerous “likes,” hundreds of comments and had been shared widely across 25 LinkedIn groups. Nevertheless, LinkedIn (or perhaps a troll/hacker that LinkedIn’s security team failed to apprehend) made the decision that LinkedIn’s Members should not be permitted to read my analysis, evaluate my arguments or continue their own related discussions. That’s right: according to the censors, my essay was so wildly out-of-step with LinkedIn’s core commitments to professionalism and trust, they had no choice but to protect YOUR EYES from MY WORDS. The result:

So who am I and how did I wind up authoring this work of absolute evil? Well, as it turns out, neither answer is as exciting as one might imagine. First, I am a lawyer currently representing a man named Charles Leven, a retired high-ranking Officer in the Central Intelligence Agency who honorably served his nation for more than three decades.

Second, my article detailed a recent incident in which another LinkedIn Member, Ms. Yana Dianova, a member of the Russian International Affairs Council (“RIAC”), used LinkedIn for the express purpose of defaming my client. Specifically, she repeatedly stated the lie that Mr. Leven had committed theft while acting in his official capacity for the government of the United States of America.

To be clear, what I recounted was not an allegation of lying. It was a fact-based narrative backed up with extensive primary source evidence (all easily accessible as exhibits and/or links); screenshots of Ms. Dianova’s statements; and screenshot’s of Mr. Leven’s rebuttals. Also included was a publicly issued declaration from another LinkedIn Member who had originally posted an “unusually” similar version of Ms. Dianova’s lie but, upon learning the truth, apologized to Mr. Leven, retracted his prior comments and explained the precise origin of his misconduct: that he had been duped by “Russian propaganda.”

Ms. Dianova has even admitted having previously read acknowledgments from highly placed US and Russian intelligence sources pointing out that the charges against Mr. Leven were instead discredited detritus left-over from a failed Russian plot. Nevertheless, despite being given numerous opportunities by Mr. Leven to cease and desist, Ms. Dianova persisted in publicly sharing her lie right here on LinkedIn: a social network with approximately 430 million global Members.

There is a specific legal term for what Ms. Dianova did: LIBEL.

And I used it.

Consequently, without hesitation or reservation, I formally confess: I, James C. Berger, published a carefully researched Pulse article that was entirely truthful and completely consistent with my ethical obligations as an attorney. I AM GUILTY AS CHARGED.

So now that we’ve had a chance to consider what LinkedIn won’t allow its Members to see, it only seems fair to ponder a few examples of what LinkedIn BOTH ALLOWS AND REFUSES TO REMOVE:

HOW ABOUT ISLAMIST AND RACIST PROPAGANDA? SURE! NO PROBLEM!

BUT WAIT… ISN’T THERE SOMETHING IN LINKEDIN’S USER AGREEMENT (SECTION 8.2) ABOUT POSTS LIKE THIS NEXT ONE? 

YOU MAY NEED TO ZOOM IN HERE, BUT BELOW ARE THREE CLASSIC EXAMPLES OF “ACCEPTABLE” LINKEDIN CONTENT (THE ONE IN THE MIDDLE FROM A CONSPIRACY THREAD PORTRAYING MICHELLE OBAMA AS A TRANSVESTITE AND PRESIDENT OBAMA AS A GAY KENYAN SEEKING TO IMPOSE SHARIA LAW ON THE COUNTRY…)

WITH THIS NEXT SCREENSHOT, PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE LINKEDIN MEMBER COMMENTS BENEATH THE GRUESOME IMAGERY – THOSE ARE YOUR FELLOW LINKEDIN MEMBERS OPINING THAT SYRIA’S GENOCIDE WAS CAUSED BY “GAY ZIONIST TROLLS,” “GAY LOVERS,” AND THEIR “GAY REGIME…”

AGAIN, PLEASE ENLARGE TO VIEW THIS FULL-ON “EXPLOSION” OF NON-BANNED LINKEDIN CONTENT

HOW DOES THIS GUY EXPRESS HIS PROFESSIONALISM? BY CLAIMING THAT THOSE WHO PRESENT DIRECT EVIDENCE OF STATE-SPONSORED ANTI-SEMITISM ARE MERELY “CONJURING FANTASIES…”

HMM… I WONDER IF THIS IMAGE WAS POSTED BY A LINKEDIN MEMBER COMMITTED TO THE MISSION STATEMENT – OR COULD IT BE THEY JUST WANTED TO GET A WHOLE BUNCH OF CHEAP “LIKES?”

NOT TOTALLY SURE, BUT IT SORTA SEEMS LIKE SOMEBODY HERE MIGHT BE USING LINKEDIN TO EXPRESS THEIR – UH – SLIGHT DISLIKE FOR JEWS

AND IF YOU WERE WORRIED THAT LINKEDIN RESERVES THIS TYPE OF MATERIAL SOLELY FOR JEWS, NO NEED FOR ALARM…

KEEP IN MIND THAT THE ABOVE CONSTITUTES JUST A TINY AND RANDOM SELECTION OF CONTENT THAT LINKEDIN DID NOT AND DOES NOT CENSOR.

YET REJOICE AND GIVE THANKS! YOU’VE ALL BEEN SAVED! (WELL FROM MY ARTICLE, AT LEAST)

FINAL NOTE: I am extremely grateful that a copy of my original article was reprinted by the excellent blog “To Inform Is To Influence,” owned and written by a former LinkedIn Member, Joel Harding. Mr. Harding has spent more than 35 years working on national security issues, first serving as an enlisted Special Operations soldier, then as a military intelligence officer and presently as an author/analyst. Just this past week, Mr. Harding’s entire LinkedIn account was erased following the submission of lies about his profile to LinkedIn (coincidentally) by the SAME person featured in my article (Ms. Yana Dianova)… In a separate piece, I will soon be presenting detailed evidence concerning that incident in addition to looking at other examples of unjustifiable retaliatory conduct – all undertaken against the exact types of admirable professionals LinkedIn was originally designed to support. I’ll also be examining three key questions:

(1) WHAT WOULD POSSIBLY MOTIVATE LINKEDIN SO OBVIOUSLY TO ABANDON ITS VALUES?

(2) HOW DO TROLLS (ESPECIALLY THOSE FUNDED BY FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS LIKE THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION) INFLUENCE THIS NETWORK?

(3) DO MICROSOFT’S SHAREHOLDERS HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THEY’VE ACTUALLY JUST PURCHASED WITH THEIR $26 BILLION?

— Kind regards, James C. Berger, Esq.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/welcome-linkedin-where-terms-conditions-may-apply-james-berger?trk=mp-author-card


Filed under: Corruption, Information operations, social media Tagged: Corruption, social media

Russia-backed broadcaster RT cuts footage proving use of incendiary ‘cluster bombs’ in Syria

0
0
Footage showing what analysts identified as RBK-500 ZAB-2.5SM cluster bombs loaded on a Russian jet at Khmeimim air base in Syria on 18 June 2016 Russia Today/YouTube

The headline should read: “RT hides Proof of Russian use of banned munitions”.

The four-second clip is at the :45 mark of the YouTube video below.

VVP, please slap your propaganda guy in the head. He needs to hire some professionals. Better yet, just stop your propaganda, it makes you look bad.

</end editorial>


Russia-backed broadcaster RT cuts footage proving use of incendiary ‘cluster bombs’ in Syria

Russia Today has been accused of censoring footage of Russian jets in Syria to cover up the use of incendiary “cluster bombs”.

Footage broadcast from Khmeimim airbase on Saturday appeared to show a plane loaded with munitions of a similar type that were dropped on US-backed rebels last week.

The four-second clip, included in a package on Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu meeting Bashar al-Assad, shows bombs marked RBK-500 ZAB 2.5SM on a Su-34 jet.

 

Analysts from the Conflict Intelligence Team swiftly identified them as “cluster bombs”, which the Russian defence ministry has repeatedly denied using in the face of mounting evidence, and accused Russia Today’ (RT) of “covering up war crimes”.

The metal shell contains incendiary submunitions, which ignite while falling but are not defined as cluster bombs under international law as they do not contain explosives.

After the findings were published online, the relevant clip was cut from footage on YouTube, but was later restored following news reports and discussion on social media.

An editorial note below the video made no mention of the weapon, saying the frame had been removed over “concern for personnel safety” because of the pilot’s close-up, although he had his back to the camera.

“Upon re-evaluation it was deemed that the frame did not pose any risks; it had since been restored and the video is up in its original cut,” the RT statement said.

Evidence has previously been found of RBK-500 bombs – which can carry either explosive or incendiary submunitions – being dropped by Russian forces in the rebel-held town of Maaret-al-Nouman, in Binin and elsewhere in the country’s civil war.

The use of cluster munitions has been banned by more than 100 countries because of the widespread and indiscriminate damage they cause, dropping “bomblets” over wide areas that can fail to explode and become a long-term threat to civilians.

Russia and Syria are not party to a UN convention banning cluster bombs but signed another agreement on “excessively injurious or indiscriminate” weapons, which prohibits their use in civilian or residential areas.

The US also refused to ban the munitions, claiming eliminating its stockpiles would “put the lives of its soldiers and those of its coalition partners at risk”, while British-made cluster bombs have been found after Saudi-led strikes in Yemen.

Mary Wareham, the advocacy director at Human Rights Watch’s arms division, told The Independent the use of incendiary munitions like the RBK-500 ZAB 2.5SM can also be illegal.

“The UN convention prohibits dropping incendiary weapons on civilian areas and that’s what appears to by happening in Syria,” she added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights publishedphotos appearing to show the tail section of an RBK-500 cluster bomb at a camp for the coalition-backed New Syrian Army, where several fighters had been killed in an air raid on Thursday.

The attack in al-Tanf, where rebel groups armed and trained by the US-led coalition are fighting Isis, sparked a new diplomatic row between Washington and Moscow amid continuing division over Vladimir Putin’s support for the Assad regime.

Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, said Russian and American officials held a video conference on Saturday to avoid “accidents and misunderstandings” as both nations continue their air campaigns.

He said that Russia had disregarded US attempts to inform the air force “through proper channels” that its targets were part of anti-Isis forces and part of a truce, with Russian planes reportedly bombing the air base after American jets approached in an attempt to contact pilots.

al-tanf-cluster-bomb.jpg
An image showing what appears to be the tail of a RBK-500 cluster bomb following Russian air strikes on US-backed rebels in al-Tanf, Syria, on 16 June 2016 (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)

Russian defence ministry claimed the base it targeted was “more than 300 km away” from territory controlled by opposition groups covered by the cessation of hostilities.

“The American party has not presented coordinates of regions of activity of opposition controlled by the US,” a statement said. “This caused impossibility to correct actions of the Russian aviation.”

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are among the groups criticising Russia’s deployment of cluster bombs, noting a surge in their appearance in Syria since it joined the conflict in September.

An Amnesty International report recorded evidence of civilian casualties, saying the use of the “inherently indiscriminate” weapons in densely populated areas violated international law.

In response to the claims, Russia’s defence ministry spokesperson hit out at “fakes and clichés” and issued a denial.

“Russian aircraft in Syria do not use cluster munitions and such weapons are not stored at the Hmeymim air base,” Major General Igor Konashenkov was quoted as saying in December.

Russian jets and bombers have been flying out of the base, in regime-held Latakia province, since Putin launched the campaign to support the Assad regime in September.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/russia-today-syria-war-cluster-bomb-footage-censorship-video-vladimir-putin-a7093141.html


Filed under: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, CounterPropaganda, Information operations, Information Warfare, Propaganda, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, CounterPropaganda, information warfare, propaganda, Russia, Russian propaganda, Syria

Russian Hackers Behind DNC Breach to Influence U.S. Election

0
0

Russia is either tacitly approving this or implicitly directing this.  The heat is on Hillary Clinton but the blowback should also include Russia. Obviously Russia has its fingers inside American politics, they are breaking the rules.

I have to wonder, what did Hillary do to make Russia so angry?

Russian hacker leaks over 260 internal Democratic Party files on Hillary Clinton

Russian Hackers Behind DNC Breach to Influence U.S. Election

RESEARCHERS: Yes, Russia really did hack the Democratic National Congress | Business Insider

“The hacker responsible for breaching the computer networks of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has released a fresh trove of 261 internal files, donor lists and memos – largely focused on presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The data dump, leaked by a suspected Russian state-sponsored hacker dubbed “Guccifer 2.0”, consists of a password-protected cache of 261 separate documents in PDF, Word and Excel formats. It comes after two previous releases which included Democratic Party records and a strategic playbook compiled on presidential hopeful Donald Trump.”


Filed under: CounterPropaganda, Information operations, Information Warfare, Propaganda, Russia Tagged: #RussiaFail, #RussiaLies, CounterPropaganda, information warfare, propaganda, Russia, Russian propaganda

Attention FBI and Interpol: Ilja Janitskin is breaking copyright law

0
0
Ilja Janitskin

Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. For your viewing and sharing purposes, I share with you a compilation of months of work, dedicated to exposing the illicit activities of one Ilja Janitskin, the founder of MV-lehti, currently hiding in Spain.  He is hiding in the open because the extradition laws in Spain are so difficult to ship him back to Finland.

By the way, the MV in MV-lehti is Mitä Vittua??!! which means What the Fuck? It is an FSB funded Neo-Nazi hate group in Finland, with a plethora of websites, none worthy other than to know they cater to the lowest, lowest, lowest common denominator.

http://mitavittua.net, a Torrent Track site also called UnionPeer, is illegally sharing Torrent files to download movies produced both in the US and abroad.

By the way, at the same IP address, Ilja Janitskin has more websites, one of which is a prostitution service in Barcelona, Spain.

http://www.statscrop.com/www/barcelonavipescort.com

http://www.escortsbarcelona.com

That address is Godaddy.com ID 146, it’s the same number as Mvlehti.net domain. Registered to Ilja Janitskin, and the same number as barcelonavipescort.com

Source: http://whoadmin.com/barcelonavipescort.com.html

More Ilja Janitskin troll websites:
1. http://whatdaafuck.com (MV-lehti.net in English)
2. http://mitavittua.net (Its illigal torrent files)
3.http://finleaks.org
4. https://certificatedetails.com/5d46b28dc44b741cbbedf573b63ab7388f759e7e/112118ed5459d3e694eb9387468b4a0db915/ssl7159.cloudflare.com

Fingerprints for those websites

5. https://certificatedetails.com/40096167f0bc83714fde12082c6fd4d42b763d96/3033aecda9568158b038d6eea14b2279/sni38048.cloudflaressl.com

Domain Name: WHATDAAFUCK.COM
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, LLC
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 146
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Name Server: LIZ.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
Name Server: RUDY.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 23-sep-2015
Creation Date: 22-sep-2014
Expiration Date: 22-sep-2016

While we’re exposing Ilja Janitskin, please allow me to expose a program illegally running and scraping user information on Facebook (which is not legal by Facebook rules).

Inteltrix
Below is a full list from Finland, what are doing is spying, it is about 2.2 million Finnish people , all details collected from Facebook.
We believe they are also spying in the US. https://i.imgur.com/soT4fGT.png
Finland people names,address,phone number URL http://tqj4i7g4nx4ddbo6.onion/u/src/15568036334.txt
When you go MVlehti.net site,  a popup window allows its Facebook API that is a derivative of the Inteltrix.com program.  That program finds your IP and if you click that, you will “like” Mvlehti.net on Facebook site, then they know  who you are what you like etc..
Inteltrix.com is now online, in Finland and in the US, before that it was in the Russian Federation.

Inteltrix.com

Updated : 2016-05-20

Technicals Data

IP-based Geolocation of Inteltrix.com: United States | Arizona | Scottsdale
DNS Status : Online
Domain Name: INTELTRIX.COM
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Registrant Name: Ilja Janitskin
Registrant Organization: K1 Solutions S.L.
DNSSEC: unsigned

Source: http://wa-com.com/inteltrix.com

Ilja collected 2,223,925 profiles:  http://pastebin.com/raw/DrU0d2jf

Ilja is a naughty boy, hiding his internet actions through a VPN.

We watched his source code at uberuutiset.fi

<div style=”display: table; margin: 0px auto;”><a href=”https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/buy-vpn/janitskin” title=”Buy VPN”><img border=”0″src=”https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/affiliates/banners/iw_banner01.jpg” alt=”Buy VPN”></a>

A few of the articles about mv-lehti:

Headline: What the %*?! Fuck, Ilja Janitskin http://www.image.fi/image-lehti/mita-vittua-ilja-janitskin  In this story the owner and founder of MV-lehti Ilja Janitskin was interviewed for the first time about MV-lehti and he tells that he believes Jewish control the media and that originally he put the site up “as a joke”. He also says he revenges to people who disagree with him by publishing stories about them. The story also tells he is a former member of criminal motorcycle gang Bandidos and thatJanitskin has 4 sentences of violently abusing (like maybe beating them up or something, the story doesnt tell) and one sentence in cocaine abuse. Also he tells he was hanging out with celebrities late 90’s and beginning of 20′.

Hate page earns big money with ads of known Finnish companies http://www.kaleva.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/vihasivusto-tienaa-isoja-tuloja-tunnettujen-suomalaisyritysten-mainoksilla/693237/ This story from the early days of MV tells that there had been already 5 police reports about suspected libels made by some targets of MV. The story tells Janitskin has many violent crime sentences 2001-2011. The number of people reading MV-lehti has been even 800,000, but dropped to half the next week. Also ad expert tells that he estimates that MV can earn even 16,000 euros a week with the ads shown on MV-lehti and with the numbers of readers it has (according to reader statistics).
Cynical moneymaking http://blogit.image.fi/uuninpankkopoikasakutimonen/2015/03/20/kyynista-rahastusta/ This very expert blogger Saku Timonen publishes Ilja Janitskin‘s Facebook-postings which show how rudely he abuses people to achieve his goals and how horribly he talks about even people who help him. Janitskin says “some facts are wrong but nevermind – any publicity is good publicity”.
Otavamedia and Sanoma (media companies) start court process against MV-lehti http://www.journalisti.fi/artikkelit/2015/9/0.22648400-143927588024/ This article is about two large media companies starting a process about copyright and immaterial right problems -MV-lehti has republished many medias material without a permission.
This is how pro-Russia trolls manipulate Finns online – Check the list of forums favoured by propagandists http://kioski.yle.fi/omat/troll-piece-2-english
An article revealing troll tactics and troll contents. Listed is MV-lehti as pro-Russia propaganda spreading online page along with Johan Bäckman’s blog and many other troll sites.
Headline: Police became interested in giant register/database: One of the registered people to HS: “I took my phone number off Facebook” http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/a1450333991505 The article tells that central criminal police is investigating MV-lehti, because Ilja Janitskin seems to have been scraping Facebook and making illegal registries / lists of people, their addresses and phonenumbers. Janitskin himself says his company has not collected anyone’s contact information, yet done some marketing tools. Journalist contacted one of the people who was registered, because a journalist found their info from the lists that someone leaked online. The person’s “like” at some Facebook group was registered, too along with her contact info.
Stop MV-lehti campaign wants lies to stop http://www.ts.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/845732/Loppu+MVlehdelle+kampanja+haluaa+valheiden+loppuvan Political parties youth organizations started a campaign “Stop MV-lehti”. They started to inform big companies that their ads bought from Google go to MV-lehti online page and asked the companies to join in boycott and stop advertising in MV-lehti. Many companies said they didn’t know and took off their ads.
http://uusimaanpuolustus.blogspot.fi/2016/03/disinformaation-kentalla-tapahtuu.html This is the best security politics blogger in Finland, by Rysky Riiheläinen. He writes about Russian information influencing and speculates about various cases and how Johan Bäckman and Ilja Janitskin might be connected. He tells that Bäckman spreads links to MV-lehti and describes Janitskin‘s and Bäckman’s activities further.
Police started investigation of Johan Bäckman and Ilja Janitskin http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2016030221205667_uu.shtmlThis latest story is about aan exceptional case. The police says it investigates Johan Bäckman and Ilja Janitskin of suspected crimes targeted at Yle reporter Jessikka Aro, and suspected crimes are persecution, libels and serious libels – Finnish criminal law separates libels from serious libels. Usually serious libels are for example lying about someone or spreading information that is meant to harm someone and cause general disgust.
Police investigates MV-lehti, tens of police reports filed http://www.marmai.fi/uutiset/poliisi-tutkii-mv-lehtea-rikosilmoituksia-tehty-kymmenia-6547418 In this article it says that police are now investigating all the police reports filed by citizens about MV-lehti. Police is also tightening their co-operation with the prosecutor while investigating the site. Police also encourages everyone who has been a crime by MV-lehti to contact their local police and file a report.

Filed under: CounterPropaganda, Facebook, Finland, Information operations, Information Warfare Tagged: CounterPropaganda, Finland, Ilja Janitskin, information warfare
Viewing all 5256 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images