Russia

Archived

Thousands of North Koreans are entering Russia, posing as students on “practical training” but instead coming to labor under slave-like conditions [...] The practice directly violates UN sanctions — sanctions that Russia itself has agreed to. The workers toil six days a week, sometimes for up to 20 hours a day, while their wages are divided between the North Korean regime and Russian companies. Among those profiting from the forced labor system is an organization linked to Artem Chaika, the son of Russia’s former prosecutor general.

[...]

Pyongyang uses its labor force as a vital source of hard currency. In 2015, Marzuki Darusman, the former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, reported that foreign employers paid the regime in Pyongyang “significantly higher amounts” than the workers themselves were told they were earning, allowing the government to collect an estimated $1.2 to $2.3 billion annually.

Meanwhile, the workers themselves often received little or nothing in exchange for working grueling shifts of up to 20 hours a day — all while living in conditions of constant surveillance and with insufficient food. In one of his messages, Tkachuk noted that each group of North Korean workers must include a designated “senior” supervisor — a minder tasked with overseeing and controlling the group on behalf of the regime.

[...]

According to Cedric Ryngaert, Head of the Department of International Law at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, given the findings of The Insider’s investigation are correct, Russia is likely to violate UN Security Council resolutions 2375 and 2397, both adopted in 2017. These resolutions, among other conditions, require member states to stop issuing work permits to North Korean labourers and repatriate all of them to their home country within 2 years.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37083862

Archived

The head of one of Russia’s largest steel producers has warned of imminent production cuts and plant closures in the country’s steel industry as a strengthening ruble and high interest rates choke off demand and profitability.

The steel industry, which employs more than 600,000 workers and accounts for roughly 10% of Russia’s export revenues, has long been a pillar of the nation’s heavy industry.

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday, Severstal CEO Alexander Shevelev said the industry could be unable to sell up to 6 million metric tons of steel this year, nearly 10% of last year’s total output.

The current forecast for domestic steel consumption predicts that demand could fall from 43-45 million tons to just 39 million tons this year, he said.

“That’s effectively the disappearance of an entire industry’s worth of demand,” Shevelev said.

At the same time, exporting steel has become unprofitable due to the sharp appreciation of the ruble.

“The industry … today is practically unable to export metal products, because it is economically unviable,” Shevelev said.

[...]

Meanwhile, Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov warned Thursday that Russia's economy is teetering on the "brink of recession", casting a downbeat tone over the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), a key event aimed at attracting investment to the country.

Speaking on the second day of the forum, Reshetnikov said "current business sentiment and indicators" point to a looming downturn.

"Overall, I think we are on the brink of a recession," he told journalists. "Everything else depends on our decisions," he added, urging Russia's Central Bank to show "a little love for the economy."

Russia's economy has been marked by volatility since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with growth now slowing after a period when record defense spending led to "overheating."

[...]

Archived

Russia’s Finance Ministry is aggressively increasing its borrowing in a bid to cover growing fiscal gaps and hedge against an increasingly uncertain economic future as military spending surges and oil and gas revenues slump.

Six months into 2025, the ministry has already borrowed more than 2.7 trillion rubles (approximately $35 billion), or 56% of its annual borrowing plan.

This week alone, it raised 195 billion rubles (around $2.5 billion) through two new issues of government bonds, known as OFZs, hitting its second-quarter fundraising target of 1.3 trillion rubles (about $16.9 billion).

Russia is paying steep yields — 15.2% on six-year bonds and 15.5% on 11-year debt — amid high interest rates aimed at taming inflation.

[...]

Foreign direct investment in Russia fell to just $3.3 billion in 2024, its lowest level since 2001, according to new data published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The data, released during Russia's flagship St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, shows a 62.8% decline in investment between 2023 and 2024 and a 50% drop from the pre-war year of 2021, when Russia attracted $38.8 billion.

Even if the war were to end tomorrow, few serious businesses would consider Russia as an attractive investment destination given the political risks that would remain, Sergei Aleksashenko, a former deputy governor of the Russian Central Bank who now lives abroad, told Reuters.

According to the Central Bank itself, foreign investment in Russia’s non-financial sectors has declined by 57% over the past three years. Total accumulated FDI fell from $497.7 billion at the start of 2022 to $216 billion as of January 2025, the lowest level since 2009.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37018296

Archived

Russia poses a direct threat to the European Union through acts of sabotage and cyberattacks, but its massive military spending suggests that President Vladimir Putin also plans to use his armed forces elsewhere in the future, the EU’s top diplomat warned on Wednesday.

“Russia is already a direct threat to the European Union,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. She listed a series of Russian airspace violations, provocative military exercises, and attacks on energy grids, pipelines and undersea cables.

Kallas noted that Russia is already spending more on defense than the EU’s 27 nations combined, and this year will invest more “on defense than its own health care, education and social policy combined.”

[...]

The acts of sabotage and cyberattacks are mostly aimed at undermining European support for Ukraine, military officers and experts have said.

But concern is mounting in Europe that Russia could try to test NATO’s Article 5 security guarantee — the pledge that an attack on any one of the allies would be met with a collective response from all 32.

In 2021, NATO allies acknowledged that significant and cumulative cyberattacks might, in certain circumstances, also be considered an armed attack that could lead them to invoke Article 5, but so far no action has been taken.

[...]

Meanwhile, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that Nato members will discuss new operational concepts to respond immediately to a Russian military attack - including counterstrikes inside Russia - at the Nato summit later this month.

“The new concept is that if Russia is coming, then we will bring the war to Russia. That's what we are talking about,” Tsahkna said. “We have no time then to discuss whether we can use one of the other weapons or whatever. We have no time. We need to act within the first minutes and hours.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37003414

From grenade-throwing contests to marching drills, Pasha Talankin filmed how his school was being used as a military recruiting centre. Now the teacher turned film-maker is in hiding.

Archived

[...]

The teacher, Pasha Talankin, was talking to himself, facing his own crossroads, terrified of his own secret plan. Or, rather, talking to every one of us who wonder: what if an accident of history put me, little me, in a situation where I had a moral choice, where to do the right thing risked not just my comfort but my life?

[...]

His documentary, Mr Nobody Against Putin, is a cross between School of Rock and Nineteen Eighty-Four, a surprisingly funny study of how authoritarian regimes break the spirit of all except the most unlikely and pig-headed. It’s at first about a place that couldn’t be further from our minds: a school community in Karabash, a place Russians regard as the back end of nowhere. Yet it’s also relevant to us all: when Mr Nobody Against Putin won the jury prize for international documentary at the Sundance Film Festival the audience gave a standing ovation, many talking of their own concerns of a future where they could be asked to say things they did not believe. Partly produced by a team from the BBC, the film gets its UK premiere at Sheffield DocFest today. I say to Talankin I hope he accepts my definition of him as heroic.

[...]

[Edit typo.]

In 2024, Russian pharmacies had 134 fewer essential drugs than the year before. Of these, about 15% treat cancer. The remaining are antibiotics, anticonvulsants, immunosuppressants, insulin for pregnant women and drugs for migraines, allergies, tuberculosis, HIV, malaria and so on.

[...]

For example, Endoxan, used as chemotherapy and to suppress the immune system, disappeared in May 2024, as did other drugs used in the treatment of lung and biliary tract cancer.

Last summer, doctors and patients complained about a shortage of the laxative Senade, which is included in the official list of essential drugs.

In October, many regions ran short of antibiotics with different active ingredients.

In November, immunoglobulin, which is extremely important for pregnant women with the Rh negative blood type, disappeared across almost all of Russia.

Meanwhile, even in Moscow and St Petersburg there was a serious shortage of saline solution for several months. For example, in the northern capital’s clinics the wait for procedures with saline solution took up to two months, and pharmacies had only ampoules of 5-10 milliliters.

[...]

Sanctions, restrictions and the (poor) quality of generics have led to the emergence of a real black market for brand-name, original drugs. Suppliers buy batches of them in Turkey, India and European countries and then sell them through messenger chats.

[...]

The most popular drugs on the internet are those for cancer treatment. This is unsurprising: most antitumor drugs cannot be found in pharmacies anymore.

[...]

The Russian consultancy RNC Pharma estimates the cost of imported drugs increased a third in 2024.

[...]

Prices have risen for the most common therapies as well, such as over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs and asthma drugs. The reason is that many locally produced medications are made with imported components, which have become much more expensive.

[...]

Meanwhile, Russia produces many cheap generics, for which reason, however, brand-name drugs are leaving the country due to low selling prices. Another problem is that Russian generics do not undergo the required cycle of clinical trials. Their real efficacy is unknown, and they often have many more side effects.

This is the case not only for cancer drugs but also, for example, HIV drugs. In addition, Russia does not produce combination drugs, meaning patients on local treatment regimens need to take several pills at once instead of one, which is much less convenient.

[...]

In the prevailing conditions, patients with orphan diseases find themselves in a hopeless situation. Their drugs are often very expensive, and almost no family can afford them on their own, even though they mean the difference between life and death.

In 2024, 77% of orphan disease patients complained about difficulties in obtaining drugs.

[...]

Prices [for medications] will rise further and there will be even fewer medications on shelves – a fact acknowledged even by official Russian sources.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36864816

Archived

During his official visit to Austria, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disclosed that Russia had proposed exchanging abducted Ukrainian children for captured Russian soldiers—a proposal he firmly rejected, as was reported on June 16.

Speaking at a joint press conference [...], Zelenskyy stated: “We do not exchange them for anything. It is absolutely unfair. Frankly speaking, this is madness, which the Russians, by the way, proposed: we give them military personnel, and they give us children.” The Ukrainian president emphasized that such exchanges are legally and morally unacceptable, underscoring that kidnapped children are victims of Russian aggression, not subjects of negotiation.

Zelenskyy further stressed that Russia’s deportation of Ukrainian children constitutes a war crime. The International Criminal Court has previously issued arrest warrants for Russian officials, including leader Vladimir Putin, over the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia. Kyiv estimates that over 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Earlier, Ukraine rescued five more children abducted by Russia, including minors who had been held in reeducation camps and subjected to military training.

[...]

Investigations reveal a system of indoctrination of children abducted by Russia. [...] Ukraine has identified over 150 locations where Russia is holding or has relocated abducted Ukrainian children, including families involved in illegal adoptions. These are around 40 camps, over 40 adoptive families, more than 50 educational institutions, and several Russian state-run facilities—spread across Russia and the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

These forced relocations are part of what human rights groups call a state policy of Russification. Children are placed in camps or foster families, issued Russian passports, and compelled to forget their heritage. Some are enrolled in military schools, others are sent deep into Russia, given new biographies as if their pasts never existed.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36830782

Archived

Director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, has claimed that Ukraine and the United Kingdom are allegedly preparing acts of sabotage in the Baltic Sea. It is another disinformation campaign from the Kremlin, according to Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council.

"Ukraine, together with the British, is preparing provocations in the Baltic Sea. One of the scenarios involves staging a fake Russian torpedo attack on a US Navy ship," Naryshkin said.

However, Kovalenko dismissed these claims as false.

"Naryshkin from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service keeps doing the only thing he knows - fabricating nonsense. This time, he invented a fake story about Ukraine and the UK preparing sabotage operations in the Baltic Sea. And this is the same Naryshkin who organized cable sabotage against NATO using ships of the tanker fleet," he said.

[...]

"So now Naryshkin comes up with nonsense and provocations to win favor with Putin. Only Russia is capable of planning sabotage in the Baltic, as it has done before," the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation notes.

[...]

On December 25 of last year, it was reported that underwater communication cables between Estonia and Finland had been damaged.

Arto Pahkin, a representative of Finnish electricity transmission system operator Fingrid, noted that two vessels were in the area at the time the connection was severed.

Later, it emerged that Finnish authorities were investigating an oil tanker suspected of being part of Russia's so-called shadow fleet.

According to media reports, by stopping the Russian shadow fleet tanker, Finland may have prevented several more serious sabotage operations.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36828391

Archived

What started with masked soldiers in Crimea and covert proxies in Donbas has evolved into a complex, multi-layered hybrid strategy employed by the Kremlin against the West. Over the past decade, the Kremlin has refined its Soviet-inherited playbook of active measures, combining coordinated campaigns of subversion, sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation to weaken democratic institutions, undermine public trust, and fracture European and Euro-Atlantic unity. It has stepped up its funding of anti-establishment parties across the EU while deploying covert operatives and disinformation strategies to maximize its reach without triggering open confrontation.

Documented attacks increased fourfold between 2022 and 2023 and threefold in 2024 compared to 2023. In this regard, the Kremlin has increased both the range of targets, from critical infrastructure to transportation hubs, and the tactics used, including explosives and improvised tools. This evident escalation reflects the Kremlin’s shift towards more aggressive and adaptable hybrid disruption tactics, designed to remain just below the threshold of triggering a unified European response.

[...]

Poland, Ukraine’s leading supporter and a central hub for NATO logistics, has become a primary target of the Kremlin’s hybrid attacks against critical infrastructure. One striking example came in May 2025, when Polish authorities confirmed that Russian intelligence was behind the fire that destroyed the large shopping centre in Warsaw the previous year, damaging over 1,400 shops and service outlets.

[...]

Numerous instances of Russian hybrid attacks have been recorded across the Baltic states and Romania. The Kremlin has directed these attacks against critical infrastructure, undersea cables and electoral systems.

[...]

In March 2025, Kremlin-linked agents conducted an arson attack on an IKEA store in Lithuania, along with the Russian sabotage of the Baltic Sea cable system, disrupting the country’s internet connectivity.

[...]

Since 2024, Estonia has seen a notable spike in cyberattacks against critical infrastructure. In particular, there has been an increase in satellite-based cyberattacks, which have disrupted the operations of airport infrastructure. Currently, the country is working actively to track the Kremlin’s “shadow fleet”.

[...]

Romania is one of the recent stark examples of the Kremlin’s application of modern hybrid warfare tools. In December 2024, the country’s constitutional court annulled the 2024 presidential election after the country’s intelligence services confirmed Russian interference via fake social media accounts and cyberattacks on election systems.

[...]

A western response should not remain purely defensive. It has to counter the Kremlin’s hybrid attacks that fall below the threshold of triggering a unified European response and incorporate offensive measures. This way, the West can ensure that the Kremlin is discouraged and, if necessary, respond with targeted retaliatory actions against its covert operations, particularly across the EU member states. Otherwise, the Kremlin will continue leveraging hybrid warfare tools to undermine democracies in the West.

The case has been forwarded for criminal charges. A child could be prosecuted as an adult. Defend this, tankies.

crosspostato da: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36743462

Archived

Finnish authorities have accused senior officers of a Russia-linked vessel that damaged undersea cables last year between Finland and Estonia of criminal offenses related to the wreckage.

They say the oil tanker, the Eagle S, dragged its anchor to damage the Estlink-2 power cable and communication links between Finland and Estonia on Dec. 25. The Kremlin previously denied involvement in damaging the infrastructure, which provides power and communication for thousands of Europeans.

The Eagle S is flagged in the Cook Islands, but has been described by Finnish customs officials and the European Union’s executive commission as part of Russia’s shadow fleet of fuel tankers. Those are aging vessels with obscure ownership, acquired to evade Western sanctions amid the war in Ukraine and operating without Western-regulated insurance.

[...]

The Eagle S was carrying 35,000 tons of oil and investigators allege it left a drag trail with its anchor for almost 100 kilometers (62 miles) on the sea bed before it was stopped and escorted to the vicinity of a Finnish port.

The senior officers, whose names were not made public, were the master, the chief mate and the second mate, Finnish police said.

[...]

The investigators’ findings have been referred to Finnish prosecutors for possible charges.

[...]

The damage to the Estlink 2, which can provide about half of the electricity needs for Estonia in winter, did not disrupt service, although it did drive up energy prices in the Baltic nations.

The cable is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) long and is located at a depth of 90 meters (295 feet) at its deepest point, across one of the busiest shipping lanes in Europe.

The undersea cables and pipelines that crisscross the sea link Nordic, Baltic and central European countries, promote trade, energy security and, in some cases, reduce dependence on Russian energy resources.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36624735

Archived

[...]

One Russian government official [said that after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he asked his son, who was studying in the U.K. at the time, to come back to Russia out of fear that he would face repression for being a Russian citizen. However, the official admitted that he still wished his son could complete his education in the West.

Another official said she sent her daughter to study at a school in the European Union. The daughter later enrolled in university in that country and now refuses to return to Russia.

[Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity.]

While officials go to great lengths to keep these stories under wraps, especially after the invasion of Ukraine put renewed scrutiny on their families’ whereabouts, there are plenty of examples that we know about.

[...]

The sons of Vladimir Yakunin, the former head of state-owned Russian Railways and a former Putin ally and KGB officer, live and do business abroad.

[...]

Svetlana Gradvol, the eldest child of Bashkortostan’s head Radiy Khabirov, has lived in Austria for many years. A graduate of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Gradvol is married to an Austrian finance professional and owns a photo studio in the Austrian capital, according to information obtained by regional news outlet Prufy.

Gradvol’s younger sister, Rita Khabirova, is also based abroad. Having graduated from King’s College London in 2020, she still lives in London and works in the marketing department of the skincare brand Skin + Me, according to an investigation by Navalny LIVE.

[...]

If these relatives were ordinary people not born into families with status and wealth (which is, in many cases, acquired through corruption), their lives would look very different.

For one, the quality of education in an average school in Russia’s regions is quite different than what you’d get at a private school abroad.

[...]

Even high-scoring school graduates from Russian regions are more likely to enroll in lower-ranked and lesser-known universities due to a lack of knowledge about the higher education system or financial barriers.

[...]

And that’s not to mention matters of basic infrastructure. At least 3,900 schools in Russia are not equipped with a sewage system, according to data analytics project To Be Precise. In the republics of Sakha and Dagestan, sewage systems are absent from as many as 41% of all school buildings; in Tyva, that is true for more than half of all schools.

[...]

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russian lawmakers have repeatedly tried to ban politicians and officials’ children from studying abroad, a gesture likely aimed at convincing the public that the elites are standing with the Russian people in wartime.

“If you want to change the world, start with yourself. Deputies, mayors and officials not only shouldn’t have foreign citizenship or property abroad — their relatives, including their children, shouldn’t be living or studying abroad either,” State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in 2023.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36544659

Archived

More than 100,000 Russian families have contacted a Ukrainian-run initiative in search of information about missing Russian soldiers, Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of the Prisoners of War (POWs) said on June 12.

[...]

The initiative, called "I Want to Find" (Russian: "Хочу найти"), has received 100,324 requests from Russian citizens seeking answers about relatives who vanished while serving in Russia's military, the Coordination Headquarters said.

The actual number of missing Russian troops is believed to be significantly higher. Since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has largely concealed the scale of its military losses, forcing many families to search independently, Ukrainian officials said.

In May 2025 alone, the project received a record 12,320 inquiries — the highest monthly figure since the program began in January 2024.

[...]

The Kremlin has not commented on the figures.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36534778

Archived

[...]

Since [Russia's] full-scale invasion in 2022, dozens of teenagers in Ukraine and at least 12 teens elsewhere in Europe – in Germany, Poland, Britain and Lithuania – have been arrested in Russia-linked cases of sabotage and spying. [Canadian teenager Laken] Pavan’s case [...] sheds light on these covert Russian operations and their cryptocurrency trail. [Pavan pleaded guilty to charges of helping Russian intelligence and was sentenced in December 2024 in Poland. Pavan, who turned 18 a few weeks after his arrest, is now serving a 20-month sentence in a Polish prison on the outskirts of Radom, a city 100 kilometres south of the capital.]

The answer to why Moscow has resorted to using untrained agents lies in the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats and operatives from Europe after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. To plug the hole in their operations, Russian intelligence services have shifted to recruiting common criminals or individuals with little spycraft experience, said a senior NATO official. His statement echoed comments last year from Germany’s domestic security service. Two European security experts said teenagers are recruited because they’re vulnerable, low-cost, and often in need of money.

“These are, in many cases, not trained intelligence professionals,” the NATO official said on condition of anonymity to describe the clandestine operations.

The official expects more Russian hybrid warfare, which combines physical warfare with non-military tactics used to undermine an adversary’s security and sow distrust and confusion. “One of the main objectives of the Russian hybrid campaign is to undercut support for Ukraine, and that is both politically, in terms of creating disquiet amongst the population, but also very practically, in terms of the actual concrete support going to Ukraine,” he said.

[...]

The bitcoin transactions in the court documents allowed [investigators] to trace the payments, revealing transfers across several wallets. The analysis identified one large cryptocurrency wallet that financed the two wallets which paid bitcoin directly to Pavan. That big wallet has processed over $600 million since its creation in June 2022, four months after the start of the war in Ukraine, the analysis found. [Investigators] could not ascertain who operates the large upstream wallet.

European officials have pointed to Russia for sabotage including cyberattacks and arson, attempted assassinations, as well as espionage in countries allied with Ukraine. Moscow denies involvement and has called such allegations “ empty” and unproven. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, known as the SVR, did not comment directly on Pavan’s case and accused Europe of blindly supporting “the Kyiv regime's terrorist methods.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36511553

Archived

The chief of Germany’s foreign intelligence service warned that his agency has “concrete” evidence that Russia is planning an attack on Nato territory.

Bruno Kahl, the outgoing head of Germany’s federal intelligence service (BND), said in a rare interview that Russian leadership no longer believes Nato’s article 5 guarantee of mutual assistance will be honoured — and may seek to test it.

“We are very sure, and we have intelligence evidence to back this up, that [Russia’s full-scale invasion of] Ukraine is only one step on Russia’s path towards the west,” he told a podcast of German outlet Table Briefings.

Kahl qualified that “this doesn’t mean that we expect large tank battalions to roll from the east to the west.”

Kahl said: “We see that Nato is supposed to be tested in its mutual assistance promise. There are people in Moscow who don’t believe that Nato’s article 5 still works.”

[...]

While the war is still confined to Ukrainian territory, the German internal secret service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), has warned that Moscow is increasingly extending the conflict to western countries through cyberwarfare and espionage.

Russia has in particular taken to deploying so-called low-level agents to commit acts of sabotage, according to the BfV annual report, which was presented in Berlin on Wednesday. They are believed to have been deployed to plant incendiary devices in parcels, which caused a series of fires in European logistics hubs last year.

“We have noticed that Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has led to our cyber and espionage defences being increasingly tested,” Sinan Selim, vice-president of the BfV, said.