Russia used Trump's intelligence sharing to try to assassinate Chechen dissidents in Europe, sources say

https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-used-us-intel-sharing-to-pursue-chechnya-dissidents-sources-2020-7?r=DE&IR=T

July 14, 2020

Russia uses an information-sharing process with the US to target Chechen dissidents, sources told Insider.

The US and Russia have shared more information during the Trump presidency, the result of a directive from the White House.

But Russia mainly seeks out information about those who flee the rule of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

"The Russians regularly abuse the process of sharing information by spamming us with notices about people they know perfectly well are under police protection because of their threats," one source said.

Russia routinely exploited a US policy of increased information sharing to target Chechen dissidents, according to three law-enforcement and intelligence officials in Europe.

The practice emerged after the Trump administration backed a policy of sharing more secret information with Russia, in hope of strengthening relations.

Sources told Insider Russia routinely sought information on its targets of choice — dissidents who fled the rule of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. The US appears to have received little in return.

It is an open secret that Russia pursues Chechen dissidents and kills them, and sometimes seeks Western help in doing so.

The officials Insider spoke with confirmed the existence of the modern-day US-Russian arrangement after a former US intelligence official described it on the JustSecurity blog.

He said intelligence officials considered it pointless but pursued it anyway on the orders of the Trump administration.

"There was a consistent push for CT cooperation with Moscow, coming from the White House, despite near universal belief within the IC that this effort would be one sided and end up being a waste of time and energy," the former US official, Marc Polymeropoulos, said, referring to counterterrorism and the intelligence community as CT and IC, respectively.

The deal led to the arrests of several people accused of planning attacks in St. Petersburg, Russia, The Daily Beast reported.

However, Insider's sources said Russia's attempt to uphold its side of the bargain was one-sided and self-serving.

All three sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to discuss the subject publicly. Insider knows their identities.

The sources said most of the information that came from the Russians as "help" were thinly veiled requests for information on the whereabouts of Chechen and other Muslim Russian dissidents.

The dissidents in question had fled the decadelong wars in and around Chechnya to claim asylum in Europe.

A French police source told Insider: "The Russians regularly abuse the process of sharing information by spamming us with notices about people they know perfectly well are under police protection because of their threats."

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not have permission to brief the media, is investigating the stabbing death of Imran Aliev, an anti-Putin and anti-Kadyrov blogger who lived under police protection in Belgium.

He said: "The Russian mentality is that any Chechen who wants independence from Moscow or opposes Kadyrov is an Islamic extremist terrorist just the same as ISIS and needs to be killed.

"It's a mix of fishing, intimidation, and setting an atmosphere to make it easier to pressure someone else to turn them over later. It also allows an alibi for them to shrug when they end up murdered."

More than a dozen Chechen activists have been killed in Europe since 2004, with Russian or Chechen suspects linked to either Russian intelligence or Kadyrov's forces in multiple cases.

Another NATO military intelligence official who regularly deals with Russian intelligence matters confirmed the nature of Russia's activity.

He said NATO had limited some parts of its relationship with the US because of its closeness to Russia. Specifically some worried that US officials would send them its intelligence.

The official also spoke anonymously because he lacked permission to speak publicly. He said: "I don't want to say we locked the Americans out, but we certainly noticed the very public leak of intelligence to the Russians in 2017.

"This is why key protections of intelligence information are in place. You can't always count on your friends to keep secrets."

The NATO official said Russia volunteered little useful information on Russians fighting in Syria, despite more of its citizens fighting in that war than any non-Arab nation.

He said Russia instead focused its energies on Chechen targets.

"If we have this good information-sharing relationship, and there's all these Chechen terrorists out there, why do we only get info and requests on bloggers and retired fighters from the 1990s?" the official said. "What about all these Chechens and Dagestanis in Idlib? Lots of these guys seem to have military training; the Russians must have something on them. What about Malhama Tactical?"

A third source, an intelligence official with a central European NATO member, also confirmed Russia's requests focus on Chechens.

"They use the intelligence-sharing system like they used Interpol: It's a threat," he said. "It's like the movie 'The Godfather.' You have to spread the rumor to everyone that he's dirty before you kill him. That way everyone thinks he probably had it coming."

Mitch Prothero

Mord på dissidenter skrämmer tjetjener i EU-länder: "De hittar oss ändå och skjuter oss som hundar"

https://svenska.yle.fi/artikel/2020/07/09/mord-pa-dissidenter-skrammer-tjetjener-i-eu-lander-de-hittar-oss-anda-och-skjuter

9  juli 2020

Tre mord på tjetjenska dissidenter har satt skräck i deras landsmän bosatta i EU-länder, rapporterar The Guardian. Likheterna mellan fallen ger orsak att misstänka att spåren leder till Groznyj och den tjetjenska presidenten Ramzan Kadyrov, kanske vidare till Moskva.

I lördags sköts en man till döds på en parkeringsplats utanför Österrikes huvudstad Wien.

Tre skott avfyrades på nära avstånd, ett träffade offret i huvudet och han dog omedelbart, uppger den österrikiska polisen.

Mordet har slagit skräck i tjetjener bosatta i EU-länder.

- Alla är rädda. Vi lämnade alla Tjetjenien för att försöka hitta säkerhet och glömma vårt hem, men de hittar oss ändå och skjuter oss som hundar, sade en tjetjen med asyl i Österrike, som kände offret, till the Guardian.

Gärningsmannen, som greps kort efter skjutningen, var i landet med ryskt pass under falsk identitet.

Österrikisk polis har inte ännu uppgett något uppenbart motiv till dådet.

Angreppet utanför Wien var ändå redan det fjärde på ett år, det tredje med dödligt utfall, mot tjetjenska dissidenter där spåren verkar leda till Groznyj och Tjetjeniens fruktade president Ramzan Kadyrov och kanske vidare till Moskva.

"Anzor från Wien"

Trots att österrikiska polisen enligt praxis bara har kallat offret "Martin B" tog det inte länge innan hans verkliga identitet bekräftades.

Offret var Mamikhan Umarov, en före detta tjetjensk rebell med asyl i Österrike som på sistone har gjort sig känd på Youtube under namnet Anzor från Wien.

Umarovs videoklipp har bestått av utläggningar mot Kadyrov och hans regim.

Presidenten anklagas för att ha sålt sin själ till Rysslands Vladimir Putin och förtrycka tjetjenerna i utbyte mot makt och rikedom.

Även om den offentliga kritiken kan vara nog för att ha väckt Kadyrovs ilska, tros det ligga också andra motiv bakom mordet.

Umarov ska enligt hans nära vänner ha samarbetet med den Österrikiska säkerhetstjänsten för att hindra angrepp som det han själv råkade ut för.

- Anzor träffade folk från Tjetjenien som planerade lönnmord och spelade in samtalen. De gavs sedan till underrättelsetjänsten. Han sade att han hade samarbetat med dem det senaste årtiondet, säger the Guardians källa.

Berlin, Lille, Gävle och Wien

Den senaste serien av mord och mordförsök mot tjetjener i EU-länder under liknande omständigheter börjar i Berlin i Augusti 2019.

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili skjuts inför flera vittnen i Kliener Tiergarten.

Gärningsmannen grips kort därpå, är nu åtalad men har vägrat samarbeta med myndigheter.

Han var i landet under ryskt pass, som myndigheterna anser har skrivits ut under falsk identitet.

Två ryska diplomater utvisades ur Tyskland på grund av ryska myndigheters ovilja att samarbeta med utredningen.

I januari dödas Kadyrov-kritiska bloggaren Imran Aliev i sitt hotellrum i Lille i Frankrike. Han knivhuggs upprepade gånger i hals och nacke varpå gärningsmannen skär upp hans hals. Gärningsmannen identifieras, men först efter att han har flytt till Ryssland, uppger fransk polis.

I juli i år skjuts Umarov i Österrike, men före det sker ytterligare en attack, i Gävle i Sverige, där det tilltänkta offret överlever.

"De har min mor"

Tumso Abdurakhmanov, också han Kadyrov-kritisk bloggare, angrips av en man i sitt hem i Gävle i slutet av februari.

Abdurakhmanov skadas, men lyckas ändå övermanna angriparen i det slagsmål som följer och ringa polis.

I ett klipp Abdurakhmanov har filmat precis efter attacken frågar han ut angriparen.

Daudov har kommit med ett dolt mordhot: Vi kommer att hitta dig och döda dig. Det finns inget annat sätt att tolka det där ordet på tjetjenska, chir. Det betyder blodsfejd.

Mannen svarar att han kommer från Moskva, att uppdraget kommer från Groznyj, men att avsikten inte var att döda Abdurakhmanov.

Mannen säger också att "de" har hans mor.

I polisförhör har varken gärningsmannen, eller en kvinna som grips något senare misstänkt för att ha hjälpt honom utföra angreppet, sagt något till polisen.

Sveriges Radio har lyckats identifiera gärningsmannen med Abdurakhmanovs hjälp.

Det är frågan om en rysk medborgare från Tjetjenien.

Herre över Tjetjenien

Ramzan Kadyrov har styrt den ryska republiken Tjetjenien sedan 2007, tre år efter att hans far och den före detta presidenten mördades i ett bombdåd.

Båda var tidigare rebeller i kampen om tjetjensk självständighet, men bytte sida i utbyte mot att familjen Kadyrov fick makten över den länge krigsdrabbade republiken.

Under Kadyrov har Tjetjenien blivit vad många människorättsgrupper kallar ett svart hål för mänskliga rättigheter.

Kadyrov har lyckats göra slut på årtionden av våldsamt motstånd och terrordåd mot Ryssland, men de brutala metoder han anklagas för begränsar sig inte till dem Ryssland anser vara terrorister.

Hans säkerhetsstyrkor anklagas för utbredd tortyr, våldtäkter, försvinnanden, kidnappningar, summariska avrättningar och förföljelser mot bland annat aktivister, oppositionella, personliga fiender och sexuella- och andra minoriteter.

Kadyrovs inblandning misstänks också i mord på ryska dissidenter, bland annat mördades journalisten Anna Politkovskaja och oppositionsledaren Boris Nemtsov av män med kopplingar till de tjetjenska säkerhetsstyrkorna.

Kadyrov har samtidigt lyckats göra sig och sin närmaste krets ofantligt rika.

Tiotals mord utomlands

Utöver människorättsbrotten anklagas Kadyrov också för att ha beordrat en rad lönnmord på sina meningsmotståndare utomlands.

Sedan år 2007 har en rad mord eller mordförsök där Kadyrovs inblandning misstänks utförts i Norge, Sverige, Österrike, Frankrike, Turkiet, Dubai, Tyskland, Georgien och Qatar.

Kadyrov själv förnekar att han skulle ha skickat några mördare efter sina fiender, men samtidigt har han och hans närmaste många gånger öppet hotat dissidenter och fiender utomlands med våldsam död.

I fallet Abdurakhmanov utlyste talmannen för det tjetjenska parlamentet och Kadyrovs högra hand Magomed Daudov, "Chir", en blodsfejd mot bloggaren och kallade honom "min och mina bröders fiende".

- Daudov har kommit med ett dolt mordhot: Vi kommer att hitta dig och döda dig. Det finns inget annat sätt att tolka det där ordet på tjetjenska, chir. Det betyder blodsfejd, sade Abdurakhmanov då.

Ryskt samarbete

I alla mord och mordförsök som har ägt rum på sistone i Europa upprepar sig samma mönster.

Gärningsmän med riktiga ryska pass men med falska identiteter begår mord på tjetjenska dissidenter och vägrar samarbeta med polisen då de grips.

Den tyska polisen sade att gärningsmannen bakom Berlinmordet "betedde sig som ett proffs" under förhören.

I alla fall där utredningen har framskridit misstänks politiska motiv och i alla fall har ryska myndigheter vägrat samarbeta med utredarna.

Både i Europa bosatta tjetjener, lokala myndigheter som talar anonymt och experter ser att spåren klart leder till Groznyj och Kadyrovs säkerhetsapparat.

Frågan är om spåren leder vidare till Moskva.

Det faktum att gärningsmännen har använt ryska pass under falska namn, i likhet med de misstänka gärningsmännen bakom mordförsöket på avhopparen Sergej Skripal, tyder enligt många experter på att morden åtminstone har fått godkännande av någon rysk underrättelsetjänst.

I ett av fallen, mordet i Berlin, misstänker ändå utredarna att en rysk underrättelsetjänst inte bara hjälpte med pass, utan direkt beordrade mordet.

Djupare samarbete, eller att Kadyrovs säkerhetsapparat utförde en del av morden enligt Moskvas önskemål är inte uteslutet, menar experter.

Två av de tjetjener som mördades sen augusti 2019 deltog aktivt i kriget mot Ryssland under 90-talet och 2000-talets början, före familjen Kadyrov bytte sida och det som blev över av rebellerna togs över av militanta islamister.

En utredning Bellingcat har utför tydde på att ryska FSB hade kännedom om och troligen deltog i planeringen av mordet i Berlin.

Både ryska och tjetjenska regeringen har förnekat någon inblandning i morden.

Källor: The Guardian, Radio Free Europe, The Times, Sveriges Radio, ORF, CNN, agenda.ge, Bellingcat, Business Insider

Rysk journalist dömd för att ha "rättfärdigat terrorism" – första gången lagen tillämpas mot en journalist

https://svenska.yle.fi/artikel/2020/07/06/rysk-journalist-domd-for-att-ha-rattfardigat-terrorism-forsta-gangen-lagen

6 juli 2020

I ett kontroversiellt rättsfall har journalisten Svetlana Prokopjeva dömts betala drygt 6 000 euro i böter för att ha "rättfärdigat terrorism". Fallet härrör från hennes inlägg i en radiosändning, som även publicerades som en webbtext, och har väckt kraftiga motreaktioner. Prokopjeva tänker överklaga domen.

– Jag väntade mig inte att bli friad. Vi kommer att överklaga, berättade Prokopjeva för journalister strax efter att domen hade fallit på måndag.

En militärdomstol i staden Pskov, nära den estniska gränsen, dömde Prokopjeva att betala 500 000 rubel i böter, alltså drygt 6 000 euro. Paragrafen "rättfärdigande av terrorism" kan ge upp till sju års fängelse, och i det här fallet hade åklagaren yrkat på sex år. Dessutom ville åklagaren porta Prokopjeva från journalistyrket i fyra år, något som hon lättat konstaterade att inte hände.

– Den största vinsten var att jag inte förbjöds att utöva mitt yrke.

Svetlana Prokopjeva jobbar för Radio Svoboda (RFE/RL), som finansieras av kongressen i USA och som ryska myndigheter har kategoriserat som en "utländsk agent".

Den ryska staten har tillämpat paragrafen om rättfärdigande av terrorism mot flera internetanvändare de senaste åren, men Prokopjevas fall är det första där lagen tillämpas mot arbetet en journalist utfört.

Självmordsbombning och regeringskritik

Bakgrunden till rättsfallet ligger i ett självmordsattentat i slutet av 2018, då en 17-åring sprängde sig själv utanför säkerhetstjänsten FSB:s byggnad i Archangelsk. Den unga mannen dog själv och tre tjänstemän vid FSB skadades.

I Moskva Ekos direktsändning hävdade journalisten Prokopjeva att attentatet var ett resultat av det rådande politiska klimatet i Ryssland. Hon påstod att staten med sitt handlande själv har fostrat en generation medborgare som strider mot den. Hennes inlägg i sändningen publicerades senare också på en sajt i Pskov.

Åklagaren ansåg att Prokopjeva rättfärdigade terrorism. En förundersökning mot henne inleddes i februari 2019 och rättegången började för en knapp månad sedan. I en intervju med Meduza säger hon att åtalet är nonsens, och kritiserar att tillkallade experter inte urskiljt exakt var i hennes inlägg hon gjort sig skyldig till det påstådda rättfärdigandet av terrorism.

Nationell och internationell kritik

"Skäms!" och "Hon är inte skyldig!" utropade Prokopjevas anhängare i rättssalen, då domen förkunnades på måndagen. Demonstranter hade också samlats utanför domstolen, och i fredags grep polisen flera demonstranter utanför säkerhetstjänsten FSB:s högkvarter i Moskva.

Fallet mot Prokopjeva har gett upphov till mindre demonstrationer runtom i Ryssland, och tiotals ryska journalister har uttryckt sitt stöd för Prokopjeva. Landets människorättsråd har å sin sida kallat åtalet "absurt".

Medborgarorganisationerna Memorial, Human Rights Watch, Reportrar utan gränser, European Federation of Journalists och Committee to Protect Journalists har alla riktat kritik mot åtalet.

Dessutom har Organisationen för säkerhet och samarbete i Europa (OSCE) kritiserat fallet, och för några dagar sedan krävde EU:s talesperson att åtalet skulle läggas ned.

Svetlana Prokopjeva anser att åtalet mot henne är politiskt och ämnar kämpa emot. Hon tänker överklaga sin dom, stanna kvar i landet och vägrar låta sig tystas.

– Jag räds inte att kritisera regeringen. Jag räds inte att kritisera polisen eller säkerhetstjänsten. För jag vet hur verkligt fasansfullt det blir om jag inte säger emot, om ingen säger emot.

Källor: AFP, RFE/RL, Meduza, Yle

Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/us/politics/russia-afghanistan-bounties.html

June 26, 2020

The Trump administration has been deliberating for months about what to do about a stunning intelligence assessment.

WASHINGTON — American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter.

The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year.

Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion.

The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options — starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said.

An operation to incentivize the killing of American and other NATO troops would be a significant and provocative escalation of what American and Afghan officials have said is Russian support for the Taliban, and it would be the first time the Russian spy unit was known to have orchestrated attacks on Western troops.

Any involvement with the Taliban that resulted in the deaths of American troops would also be a huge escalation of Russia’s so-called hybrid war against the United States, a strategy of destabilizing adversaries through a combination of such tactics as cyberattacks, the spread of fake news and covert and deniable military operations.

The Kremlin had not been made aware of the accusations, said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. “If someone makes them, we’ll respond,” Mr. Peskov said.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, denied that the insurgents have “any such relations with any intelligence agency” and called the report an attempt to defame them.

“These kinds of deals with the Russian intelligence agency are baseless — our target killings and assassinations were ongoing in years before, and we did it on our own resources,” he said. “That changed after our deal with the Americans, and their lives are secure and we don’t attack them.”

Spokespeople at the National Security Council, the Pentagon, the State Department and the C.I.A. declined to comment.

The officials familiar with the intelligence did not explain the White House delay in deciding how to respond to the intelligence about Russia.

While some of his closest advisers, like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have counseled more hawkish policies toward Russia, Mr. Trump has adopted an accommodating stance toward Moscow.

At a summit in 2018 in Helsinki, Finland, Mr. Trump strongly suggested that he believed Mr. Putin’s denial that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 presidential election, despite broad agreement within the American intelligence establishment that it did. Mr. Trump criticized a bill imposing sanctions on Russia when he signed it into law after Congress passed it by veto-proof majorities. And he has repeatedly made statements that undermined the NATO alliance as a bulwark against Russian aggression in Europe.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the delicate intelligence and internal deliberations. They said the intelligence had been treated as a closely held secret, but the administration expanded briefings about it this week — including sharing information about it with the British government, whose forces are among those said to have been targeted.

The intelligence assessment is said to be based at least in part on interrogations of captured Afghan militants and criminals. The officials did not describe the mechanics of the Russian operation, such as how targets were picked or how money changed hands. It is also not clear whether Russian operatives had deployed inside Afghanistan or met with their Taliban counterparts elsewhere.

The revelations came into focus inside the Trump administration at a delicate and distracted time. Although officials collected the intelligence earlier in the year, the interagency meeting at the White House took place as the coronavirus pandemic was becoming a crisis and parts of the country were shutting down.

Moreover, as Mr. Trump seeks re-election in November, he wants to strike a peace deal with the Taliban to end the Afghanistan war.

Both American and Afghan officials have previously accused Russia of providing small arms and other support to the Taliban that amounts to destabilizing activity, although Russian government officials have dismissed such claims as “idle gossip” and baseless.

“We share some interests with Russia in Afghanistan, and clearly they’re acting to undermine our interests as well,” Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the commander of American forces in Afghanistan at the time, said in a 2018 interview with the BBC.

Though coalition troops suffered a spate of combat casualties last summer and early fall, only a few have since been killed. Four Americans were killed in combat in early 2020, but the Taliban have not attacked American positions since a February agreement.

American troops have also sharply reduced their movement outside military bases because of the coronavirus, reducing their exposure to attack.

While officials were said to be confident about the intelligence that Russian operatives offered and paid bounties to Afghan militants for killing Americans, they have greater uncertainty about how high in the Russian government the covert operation was authorized and what its aim may be.

Some officials have theorized that the Russians may be seeking revenge on NATO forces for a 2018 battle in Syria in which the American military killed several hundred pro-Syrian forces, including numerous Russian mercenaries, as they advanced on an American outpost. Officials have also suggested that the Russians may have been trying to derail peace talks to keep the United States bogged down in Afghanistan. But the motivation remains murky.

The officials briefed on the matter said the government had assessed the operation to be the handiwork of Unit 29155, an arm of Russia’s military intelligence agency, known widely as the G.R.U. The unit is linked to the March 2018 nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury, England, of Sergei Skripal, a former G.R.U. officer who had worked for British intelligence and then defected, and his daughter.

Western intelligence officials say the unit, which has operated for more than a decade, has been charged by the Kremlin with carrying out a campaign to destabilize the West through subversion, sabotage and assassination. In addition to the 2018 poisoning, the unit was behind an attempted coup in Montenegro in 2016 and the poisoning of an arms manufacturer in Bulgaria a year earlier.

American intelligence officials say the G.R.U. was at the center of Moscow’s covert efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. In the months before that election, American officials say, two G.R.U. cyberunits, known as 26165 and 74455, hacked into Democratic Party servers and then used WikiLeaks to publish embarrassing internal communications.

In part because those efforts were aimed at helping tilt the election in Mr. Trump’s favor, his handling of issues related to Russia and Mr. Putin has come under particular scrutiny. The special counsel investigation found that the Trump campaign welcomed Russia’s intervention and expected to benefit from it, but found insufficient evidence to establish that his associates had engaged in any criminal conspiracy with Moscow.

Operations involving Unit 29155 tend to be much more violent than those involving the cyberunits. Its officers are often decorated military veterans with years of service, in some cases dating to the Soviet Union’s failed war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Never before has the unit been accused of orchestrating attacks on Western soldiers, but officials briefed on its operations say it has been active in Afghanistan for many years.

Though Russia declared the Taliban a terrorist organization in 2003, relations between them have been warming in recent years. Taliban officials have traveled to Moscow for peace talks with other prominent Afghans, including the former president, Hamid Karzai. The talks have excluded representatives from the current Afghan government as well as anyone from the United States, and at times they have seemed to work at crosscurrents with American efforts to bring an end to the conflict.

The disclosure comes at a time when Mr. Trump has said he would invite Mr. Putin to an expanded meeting of the Group of 7 nations, but tensions between American and Russian militaries are running high.

In several recent episodes, in international territory and airspace from off the coast of Alaska to the Black and Mediterranean Seas, combat planes from each country have scrambled to intercept military aircraft from the other.

By Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt and Michael Schwirtz

Deutsche Neonazis üben Terrorkampf in Sankt Petersburg

https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/rechtsextreme-lager-deutsche-neonazis-ueben-terrorkampf-in-sankt-petersburg_id_12067019.html

5. Juni 2020

Militante deutsche Rechtsextremisten absolvieren nach einem Bericht des Nachrichtenmagazins FOCUS in einem russischen Lager bei Sankt Petersburg eine paramilitärische Ausbildung.

Mehrere Lehrgangsteilnehmer sollen Mitglieder der vom Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz beobachteten Parteien "Junge Nationalisten" und "Der III. Weg" sein, schreibt FOCUS unter Berufung auf Sicherheitskreise.

Betreiber des Camps mit dem Namen "Partisan" ist die rechtsextremistische "Russische Reichsbewegung", die nach eigenen Angaben für die "Vorherrschaft der weißen Rasse" kämpft. Das US-Außenministerium setzte die radikale christlich-orthodoxe Vereinigung Anfang April auf eine Warnliste internationaler Terror-Gruppen.

Wie FOCUS weiter schreibt, werden die deutschen Lehrgangsteilnehmer im „Partisan“-Lager im Umgang mit Waffen und Sprengstoff trainiert sowie im militärischen Nahkampf ausgebildet. Etliche Absolventen, darunter auch Schweden und Finnen, schließen sich später russischen Milizen in der Ostukraine an.

Behörden: Putin weiß von den Camps und duldet sie

Deutsche Sicherheitsbehörden sind laut FOCUS über das Training junger Rechtsextremisten in Rußland informiert, können angeblich aber aus rechtlichen Gründen die Reisen nach Sankt Petersburg nicht untersagen. Die Behörden gehen davon aus, daß Rußlands Präsident Putin über Camps dieser Art informiert ist und sie mindestens duldet.

How Russian Propaganda Showed Up in an Italian Murder Trial

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/world/europe/russia-italy-propaganda.html

December 17, 2019

The evidence has raised alarms about the extent to which fake news, having infiltrated the West’s media and elections, is penetrating its courts.

ROME — Few disputed the guilt of Vitaly Markiv, a Ukrainian who also holds Italian citizenship, when an Italian court sentenced him to 24 years in prison this summer.

Most of the evidence showing that he had helped coordinate an artillery strike in a conflict zone of his native country, killing an Italian war photographer, had been retrieved from his electronic devices.

But it raised eyebrows when the court released its reasoning in the fall showing that among the evidence presented by Italian prosecutors were reports from publications that are generally considered outlets for Russian propaganda.

Experts say the inclusion of two videos from Russia Today, plus a report on the website Russkaya Vesna that the Ukrainian government said was false, raised questions about the extent to which fake news, after infiltrating the West’s news media and elections, is now penetrating its courts.

“Contamination is by its nature expansive,” said Luciano Floridi, a professor of philosophy and the ethics of information at Oxford who has studied the effects of disinformation. And it can easily spread from media and politics to the judiciary, he added.

Prosecutors said they did not consider the Russia Today reports decisive in the verdict, and members of the jury are not permitted to discuss what convinced them of Mr. Markiv’s guilt.

But the inclusion in court of the propaganda and disinformation, regardless of its persuasiveness, has raised alarm with experts and some politicians.

In November,  the Ukrainian government, which was made a co-defendant in the case and thus liable for economic damages, appealed the decision. It has engaged in its own propaganda war with Russia and has routinely blamed Russian disinformation for anything that puts its military in a bad light.

This month, the liberal party, More Europe, argued that the trial was tainted by “hearsay and prejudices” and asked the European Union to send observers to the appeal trial, which is expected to begin this spring.

Mr. Markiv, now 30, left Italy to take part in the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv in 2014. When the war erupted in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region a few months later, he joined Ukraine’s National Guard to fight against Russian separatist forces.

While a guardsman, prosecutors charged, he helped coordinate an attack by a Ukrainian Army unit against a group of civilians. Among the group was the Italian photographer Andrea Rocchelli, 30, who was killed by the artillery fire along with other journalists on May 24, 2014.

For two years, an inquiry by investigators in Pavia, Mr. Rocchelli’s hometown, led nowhere, because of a lack of cooperation from the Ukrainian authorities, said the prosecutor in the case, Andrea Zanoncelli.

But in the summer of 2016, Mr. Zanoncelli said, a Google search led him to an article published by Italy’s leading daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera.

It was a purported interview with an unidentified captain from the Ukrainian army stationed in the area.

“Don’t come here, it’s a strategic area,” the captain was quoted as saying. “Usually we don’t shoot toward the city or at civilians, but as soon as we see anything move, we fire heavy artillery. That’s what happened with the two journalists and their interpreter.”

The prosecutor saw it as an admission of guilt, despite Italian journalism’s usual lack of rigor.

When the police questioned the article’s author, the journalist told them that the purported interview was a compilation of remarks she had heard in a conversation between the soldier and a photographer.

The Italian police subsequently determined that the anonymous army captain was Mr. Markiv.

The Italian authorities began tapping Mr. Markiv’s conversations with his mother in Italy to gain evidence. They arrested him and charged him with murder as he returned to a Bologna airport in June 2017.

The case drew high-profile lawyers and became a rallying cry for press freedom. A senator from Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party defended Mr. Markiv. The former left-wing mayor of Milan represented two prominent media guilds, which presented themselves as injured parties, on behalf of the photojournalist.

Among the evidence presented were videos described as “open source,” “found on YouTube” or “from a local TV station,” all of which bore the logo of Russia Today and are still found on its YouTube channel.

The ruling also cites an article in Russkaya Vesna, alleging that Ukraine’s Interior Ministry conspired with Mr. Markiv’s fellow guardsmen to protect him.

It included a document, purportedly leaked from the Ukrainian authorities, instructing Mr. Markiv’s comrades to testify in his favor.

The Ukrainian government said the document was a forgery.

“Our interior minister intervened personally to make it clear that the thing was fake,” said Yaroslav Moshkola, an official from the Ukrainian Embassy in Rome. “It’s very strange that the court accepted this document.”

The conviction of Mr. Markiv caused outrage in Ukraine. Media outlets and nationalist politicians have sought to exonerate him by discrediting the Italian legal system with claims that the trial in Pavia was tainted by “anti-Ukrainian” bias and Russian propaganda.

The prosecutor, Mr. Zanoncelli, said that the article was not pivotal in discrediting the witnesses called by the defense. “They were disproved because they contradicted one another,” he said.

As for the document it cited, he said that “it was never clear how genuine it was” and that he had presented it “to show this thing existed, so that the court could evaluate it.”

The jurors wrote in the final ruling that Mr. Markiv’s fellow guardsmen “were instructed to give pre-agreed answers” and that the Russkaya Vesna article “contains some elements that seemed to be pointing toward the truth.”

Without addressing Mr. Markiv’s guilt or innocence, Serena Quattrocolo, a law professor at Eastern Piedmont University whose expertise is in the digital distortion of evidence in court, said that more broadly, the inclusion of material found online from disputable sources in Italian courts was “part of an unsettling scenario and of larger problem.”

Russia has spread disinformation online as a part of a broader strategy to destabilize the West. The United States Department of Justice has accused a Russian organization linked to the Kremlin of meddling in the 2016 elections.

Russian-backed groups carried out a disinformation campaign in Europe ahead of the European Union elections in May, according to a report issued by the European Commission. And Kremlin-backed influence networks targeting African countries were recently discovered and taken down by Facebook. Analysts believe the networks could serve as a test for next year’s elections in the United States.

Italy is particularly vulnerable. According to Italy’s Authority of Communication, disinformation is growing in the country, although it has not been directly linked to Russia. The lines between mainstream outlets and propaganda are often blurred.

The current chair of Italy’s state television broadcaster RAI has spread conspiracy theories online and has been frequently interviewed by Russia Today and Sputnik.

In September, the private broadcaster Mediaset aired a “deep fake video,” which used seamless visual effects to doctor speech by former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

The appearance of Russian propaganda in court crosses a new threshold, a challenge for which Italy may not be fully prepared.

Mr. Markiv is appealing the verdict, which also demanded that Ukraine pay reparations to Mr. Rocchelli’s parents, widow and young son and to the two journalists’ guilds.

Paolo Perucchini, who heads one of those guilds, the Lombardy journalists association, praised the verdict as a demonstration that “information is valued in our country.”

Asked about the inclusion of anonymously sourced reporting and Russia Today into evidence, he seemed unbothered.

“It’s not up to me to decide if Russia Today spreads fake news,” he said. “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”

Anna Momigliano