Mission involving two Russian and four Chinese aircraft signals stronger military ties between Moscow and Beijing
Russian and Chinese bombers have flown a joint patrol mission over the western Pacific in a show of increasingly close military ties between Moscow and Beijing.
The Russian military said a pair of its Tu-95 strategic bombers and four Chinese H-6K bombers flew over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Russian opposition leader publishes transcript of call with FSB operative allegedly involved in attempt to kill him
On Monday Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny published a telephone call he had with FSB operative Konstantin Kudryavtsev, who was allegedly part of the FSB team, which in August poisoned Navalny when he travelled to Siberia.
Navalny survived after the plane he fell sick on was diverted to a nearby airport and he received quick medical attention. He rang Kudryavtsev from Germany last week, pretending to be an aide to a top FSB official.
Continue reading...Posing as ‘Maxim Ustinov’, a fictional aide for a top FSB general, Navalny phoned Konstantin Kudryavtsev and asked for details of the operation, demanding to know what had gone wrong. Unaware that he was being spoofed, Kudryavtsev apparently confirmed the FSB was behind the poisoning and said his colleagues had applied novichok to the inner seams of the opposition leader’s boxer shorts, when Navalny was staying in the Siberian city of Tomsk
Continue reading...Step would allow Tehran to come back into compliance with deal, so long as US sanctions were lifted
EU foreign ministers have agreed not to set fresh preconditions on a revival of the Iran nuclear deal, believing Tehran and Washington should be able to come back into full compliance with the agreement without at this stage needing to accept to extend or strengthen it.
The step removes one of the potential roadblocks to Iran coming back into compliance with the existing deal, so long as the US lifts its sanctions and complies with UN resolutions.
Continue reading...Opposition leader apparently dupes spy agency worker into revealing role in novichok plot
One of the operatives allegedly involved in the attempt to kill Alexei Navalny has confessed to his role in the plot, and has revealed that the Russian opposition leader was apparently poisoned via his underwear.
Navalny phoned two members of the team from Russia’s FSB spy agency, which allegedly tried to murder him. One recognised him immediately and hung up. The second operative, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, was seemingly duped into thinking he was talking to an aide working for a top FSB general.
Continue reading...As president-elect Joe Biden weighed options to punish Russia for its suspected hacking of US government agencies and companies, one leading Republican accused Moscow of “acting with impunity” and others called for retaliatory strikes.
Related: Trump attempt to overturn election is 'nutty and loopy', Romney says
Continue reading...Secretary of state blames Russia for worst-ever US government hack as Kremlin denies involvement and Trump stays silent
Mike Pompeo has become the first member of the Trump administration to blame Russia for wide-ranging hacks of US government agencies and private companies.
Related: US scrambling to understand fallout of suspected Russia hack
Continue reading...Secretary of state is first in administration to point to Russia but Trump attacks media over reports
Not long after Mike Pompeo became the first member of the Trump administration to blame Russia for wide-ranging hacks of US government agencies and private companies which have sent Washington scrambling to fill the breach, the president sought to play the hack down.
Related: US scrambling to understand fallout of suspected Russia hack
Continue reading...At least six government departments breached in likely Russian intelligence operation thought to have begun in March
The US government is still in the dark over how deeply Russian hackers penetrated its networks during the worst ever cyber attack on federal agencies, members of Congress warned on Friday.
At least six government departments were breached in a likely Russian intelligence operation thought to have begun in March. Although there is no evidence that classified networks were compromised, it is not known what the hackers may have stolen or how long it will take to purge them.
Continue reading...Analysis: new president must find a way to contain such hyper-aggressive behaviour from Moscow
It is Joe Biden’s biggest foreign policy headache. As well as confronting the Covid pandemic, the president-elect has to deal with a more familiar problem: Russia. Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election cast a shadow over US politics for four long years.
And now the Kremlin appears to have struck again. This week details emerged of an unprecedented cyber-attack against US government departments. Beginning in March, suspected Russian hackers penetrated Washington’s signature institutions.
Continue reading...Located south of the Arctic Circle, in Russia’s far east, Yakutsk is known for its severe climate
Continue reading...Analysis: amid constitutional changes and Navalny poisoning, Russian president strives to maintain power
For a man who has spent much of 2020 in social isolation, it has been a busy year for Vladimir Putin. He changed Russia’s constitution to allow himself to stay in power potentially until 2036; acted to retain influence over his “near abroad” as protests erupted in Belarus and conflict flared in Nagorno-Karabakh; and, according to a wealth of evidence released this week, ordered the assassination of his leading political opponent with a chemical weapon.
As news breaks of one of the biggest and most significant hacks of the US government in history, with Russia the prime suspect, it seems that Putin and his intelligence services may have retained their appetite for audacious, controversial moves, six years after the annexation of Crimea and four years after the alleged interference to aid Donald Trump’s election campaign.
Continue reading...Russian president denies Bellingcat’s claim Russia dispatched hit squad as he holds end-of-year press event
Vladimir Putin has denied Russia was behind the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, calling a recent investigation by Bellingcat a “falsification”.
“Who needs to poison him,” he said during a nationally televised press conference, denying that Russia’s FSB spy agency was involved. “If they’d wanted to [poison him] then they probably would have finished the job.”
Continue reading...Intrigue surrounds what may have been exposed, from nuclear secrets to Covid vaccine data to next-generation weapons systems
Some of America’s most deeply held institutional secrets may have been stolen in a large hacking operation being blamed on elite Russian government operatives.
Intrigue surrounds what may have been exposed, from nuclear secrets to Covid-19 vaccine data to next-generation weapons systems.
Continue reading...Analysis: trade in stolen data is a boon for investigators and a headache for Kremlin
In early 2019, the journalist Andrei Zakharov managed to buy his own phone and banking records in a groundbreaking investigation into Russia’s thriving markets in stolen personal data, in which law enforcement and telecoms employees can be contracted anonymously to dip into their systems and pull out sensitive details on anyone.
A year and a half later, investigators from Bellingcat and the Insider used some of the same tools and clever analysis to out a secret FSB team that had been tasked with killing Alexei Navalny using a novichok nerve agent.
Continue reading...Analysis: eavesdropping on high-value targets is labour intensive so hackers may not have made most of access
If there is one silver lining to the months-long global cyber-espionage campaign discovered when a prominent cybersecurity firm learned it had been breached, it might be that the sheer numbers of potentially compromised entities offers them some protection.
By compromising one piece of security software – a security tool called Orion developed by the Texan company SolarWinds – the attackers gained access to an extraordinary array of potential targets in the US alone: more than 425 of the Fortune 500 list of top companies; all of the top 10 telecommunications companies; all five branches of the military; and all of the top five accounting firms.
Continue reading...Telecoms and travel data shows activist was shadowed on multiple trips before his poisoning in August, Bellingcat reports
An undercover hit squad working for Russia’s FSB spy agency poisoned the opposition activist Alexei Navalny in August, after shadowing him on multiple previous trips, the investigative website Bellingcat has claimed.
Citing “voluminous” telecoms and travel data, Bellingcat reported that the squad had secretly tracked Navalny since 2017. The operation apparently began after he announced plans to stand against Vladimir Putin in presidential elections.
Continue reading...FBI to investigate after treasury and commerce departments believed to have been targeted
Suspected Russian hackers have carried out the biggest cyber-raid against the US for more than five years, US officials have said, targeting key government networks including the Treasury and commerce departments.
The hackers were able to monitor internal email traffic and may have compromised other government bodies, in what is being described as a highly sophisticated state-level attack. The situation is so grave it led on Saturday to a national security council meeting at the White House.
Continue reading...Our foreign correspondents reflect on the practical and cultural importance of fluency in a country’s native tongue
During the worst of the coronavirus outbreak in China, people described to us deeply personal and traumatic experiences – losing their parents, suffering the death of a child, being harassed and intimidated for trying to speak out. Having these conversations in Mandarin was important not just for capturing nuance and detail but for a sense of empathy.
Continue reading...UK and Russian scientists to explore whether vaccines given together improves efficacy
UK and Russian scientists are to test whether combining shots of the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines could result in better protection than two doses of the same one.
Trials will start by the end of the year, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which funded the development of the Sputnik V vaccine by Russia’s Gamaleya Institute, said on Friday. AstraZeneca confirmed that it was considering how it could assess combinations of different vaccines, and would soon begin exploring with the Gamaleya Institute whether their two vaccines could be successfully combined.
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