News Feed Brief summaries of major developments throughout the week: Russian airstrikes on civilians, Putin says Union State with Belarus grows stronger, and a shakeup at Sakhalin-2
💽 Google reportedly facilitated data harvesting by a sanctioned Russian ad firm:
Google may have provided Sberbank-owned RuTarget (a sanctioned Russian ad company) with unique mobile phone IDs, IP addresses, location information, and details about users’ interests and online activity, according to a new report by ProPublica. The digital ad analysis firm Adalytics identified close to 700 examples of RuTarget receiving user data from Google after the company was added to a U.S. Treasury list of sanctioned entities on February 24. “The data sharing between Google and RuTarget stopped four months later on June 23, the day ProPublica contacted Google about the activity.”
🕊️ ‘Adjusting’ the Kaliningrad standoff:
EU officials are developing a new sanctions package that would “include adjustments to rules around the transit of sanctioned goods to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad,” sources told Bloomberg, which also reported that policymakers have raised concerns that Lithuania “could be pressured into allowing banned goods to transit through the country to Kaliningrad.” Moscow has threatened to retaliate against Lithuania if it continues to the block rail and truck transport of goods like steel.
🏒 Future NHL player lands at Russian draft board instead of Philadelphia:
Police officers intercepted ice hockey player Ivan Fedotov outside an ice rink in St. Petersburg on Friday and delivered him to a military draft board. There are conflicting and poorly sourced reports now circulating about the nature of Fedotov’s detention, but the local news outlet Fontanka says he’s been charged with an unspecified misdemeanor. According to earlier reports, the hockey player could face felony prosecution for draft evasion due to his plans to quit the Moscow’s CSKA hockey team and take a goalie position with the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL. (CSKA is an ice hockey club of the Russian Army, and its members are officially considered military personnel, complicating any contract terminations by players.)
⚖️ Donetsk charges two more foreign fighters with ‘mercenary’ work:
Officials in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic have charged another two British nationals, Dylan Hilly and Andrew Hill, with illegal mercenary activity and attempting to stage a coup. (The DNR recently convicted three other captured foreign combatants and issued death sentences.) Russia’s Defense Ministry previously reported that Hill surrendered to Russian troops in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region while fighting in the Ukrainian military without a formal contract. According to the state news agency RIA Novosti, Hill is suspected of assisting in the destruction of a Russian APC that killed at least two Russian servicemen. Less is known about Dylan Hilly, but one source told TASS that he was captured in Mariupol with a Ukrainian infantry brigade.
🤝 Putin says Western pressure strengthens Russian-Belarusian Union State:
At a forum on Friday, Vladimir Putin stated that Western pressure is “accelerating the unification process” between Russia and Belarus. The president explained that sanctions and other Transatlantic policies force Moscow and Minsk to work together to minimize economic damage and maximize production. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in turn, said in a video message that former Soviet republics should seek “alignment” with the Union State “if they want to preserve their sovereignty and independence, of course.” (In 2019, Moscow restarted negotiations with Minsk to integrate Russia and Belarus more closely, returning to discussions from the 1990s about a shared parliament, constitution, and currency.)
🚨 More than a dozen killed in attack on Odesa:
A Russian airstrike near Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa on Friday hit an apartment building and a resort, killing at least 19 people, according to local officials. The attack occurred just hours after Moscow withdrew troops from the nearby Snake Island in what the Defense Ministry called a “goodwill gesture.”
💰 Money trouble:
Russia’s new 100-ruble banknotes could take years to roll out completely due to banking equipment manufacturers’ withdrawal from the Russian market, Kommersant reported.
According to the newspaper, Russia’s ATMs, payment terminals, and cash registers need to be “taught” — programmed — to recognize the new notes. This is usually done by the equipment’s manufacturers, but the companies NCR and Diebold Nixdorf, which manufacture 60 percent of Russia’s ATMs, have suspected servicing of Russian equipment.
🏙️ That’ll show the West:
The online polls are currently open for Moscow residents to decide which area in the city to rename after the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic. Voters are given three choices:
- The territory surrounding the British Embassy
- The territory surrounding the German Embassy
- The territory surrounding the Lithuanian Embassy (unless the authorities have in mind the Belgian Embassy, which is nearby;)
There’s also a fourth option: voters can opt to “leave the choice up to specialists.”
The area around the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was renamed “Donetsk People’s Republic Square” last month.
🛢️ A Sakhalin-2 shakeup:
The Kremlin is testing the loyalty of foreign investors in the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas development project (Shell, Mitsui, and Mitsubishi). A new executive order signed by Vladimir Putin transfers the assets of Sakhalin Energy to state property and invites the old consortium’s foreign participants to act as shareholders in the new state company. If they refuse, however, their shares will be sold, and the proceeds (minus “damages”) will be frozen in Russian bank accounts.
🪖 Longer hours and more obligations for defense contractors:
The Russian government has submitted a draft law to the State Duma that would regulate provisions for the military during “counterterrorism and other operations outside Russian territory.” The legislation would grant the federal government the power to introduce “special economic measures” related to these provisions, permitting additional overtime work, overnight work, weekend and holiday work, and paid vacation. The draft law would also revoke Russian legal entities’ right to refuse contracts for procurement and defense orders when the work concerns military operations abroad.
No comments:
Post a Comment