WTF Community

3. Russia

3. Russia

3.1. Relationship with Trump

  • 10/29/2013 - Putin gives award to Aras Agalarov, an individual Trump seems to associate with. Source
  • 12/17/2015 - Putin Says Russia Would ‘Welcome’ a Trump Presidency, claims he is the absolute front-runner. Source
  • 11/25/2016 – Experts say Russian propaganda helped spread fake news during election, favoring Trump. Source
  • 06/17/2016 – Putin was invited to attend Trump’s Miss Universe pageant but had to decline last minute, instead sending a gift. Source
  • 7/27/2017 - Russia’s troll factories were, at one point, likely being paid by the Kremlin to spread pro-Trump propaganda on social media. Source
  • 11/10/2016 - Russia confirms it had communication with Trump during campaign. Source
  • 12/02/16 -Truth about Manafort coming out seemed to anger Russia, they blame Ukraine for “sabotaging Trump”. Source
  • 2/13/2017- Russia denies any talks with US about lifting sanctions in a peculiar tweet. Source *Small note on why that tweet may be peculiar. Source
  • 2/15/2017 – Russia now denies it had communication with Trump. (Post Flynn Resignation.) Source
  • 2/27/2017 - Russia looks to exploit white house “turbulence” analysts say. Source
  • 3/17/2017 - Russian elite invested nearly $100 million in Trump buildings. Source
  • 4/4/2017 - Russian Hackers Are Working To Amplify Donald Trump’s Wiretapping Claim, Expert Warns. Source
  • 4/27/2017 - Facebook found fake accounts leaking stolen info to sway presidential election in favor of Trump. Source
  • 5/24/2017 - American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence. Source
  • 5/22/2017 - Russian Embassy Twitter tweets sputnik article “Russia is seeking to return its diplomatic property in #US🇺🇸 asap. Otherwise, we will have to take counter measures” Source
  • 5/30/2017 - Putin claims of Russian hacking of US election are lies and an excuse made up by the Democrats. Source
  • 5/30/2017 - Russian government officials discussed having potentially “derogatory” information about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and some of his top aides in conversations intercepted by US intelligence during the 2016 election. One source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussion centered on whether the Russians had leverage over Trump’s inner circle. The source said the intercepted communications suggested to US intelligence that Russians believed “they had the ability to influence the administration through the derogatory information.” Source
  • 5/31/2017 - Putin aide threatens retaliation if Trump doesn’t “adjust” Obama administration sanctions + punishments for hacking. Source
  • 6/1/2017 - Shifting from his previous blanket denials, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia suggested on Thursday that “patriotically minded” private Russian hackers could have been involved in cyberattacks last year that meddled in the United States presidential election. Source
  • 6/7/2017 - The Kremlin said there was still no firm date set for the first meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, but that if it did happen the media were likely to be excluded, the Izvestia newspaper said on Wednesday. Source

3.2. Sergey Kislyak (Russian Ambassador)

3.2.1 Relationship with Trump Campaign

  • 2/9/2017 - Kislyak spoke with Flynn in regards to sanctions in December. Source
  • 3/2/2017 – Kislyak spoke with JD. Gordon and Carter Page at the Rep. National convention as well as additional Trump campaign members. Source
  • 3/2/2017 – Kislyak spoke with Kushner and Flynn at Trump tower in December 2016. Source
  • 3/7/2017 - Kislyak had met with Trump in April prior to a foreign policy speech which called for warmer relations with Russia. Source
  • 3/9/2017 - Russian ambassador denied meeting with Trump or campaign officials in October speech. Source
  • 5/31/2017 - Investigators on the Hill are requesting additional information, including schedules from Sessions, a source with knowledge tells CNN. They are focusing on whether such a meeting took place April 27, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. This meeting would be the third Sessions had not reported. Source

3.2.2 Relationship with Russia

  • 3/2/2017 - Kislyak is considered by US intelligence to be one of Russia’s top spies* and spy -*recruiters in Washington. Source
  • 3/2/2017 - Russia denies its US ambassador is a spy. Source

3.3. Involvement in the Flynn Scandal

  • 2/20/2017 – Kremlin denies any knowledge of Ukraine peace plan with Trump Administration Source

3.4. Reaction to Dossier

  • 1/11/2017 - Russia denies the claims in the Dossier. Source
  • 2/1/2017 - Russia purges people in charge of intel (FSB). Multiple arrests/charges of treason following the Dossier leak and new sanctions. Source
  • 3/16/2017 – Additional FSB members charged with Treason following new FBI announcements. Source

3.5. Deaths possibly related to the Dossier

3.5.1. Oleg Erovinkin

  • 1/27/2017 - (ex-KGB chief and Aide to Igor Sechin who now heads Rosneft) who was suspected of helping with Dossier is found dead in his car. Source

3.5.2. Vitaly Churkin

  • 8/2/2016 - Churkin had met with Trump twice. First time was inviting him to the USSR in 1986. Source
  • 10/11/2016 – Churkin oddly defends Trump at the UN. "A senior U.N. diplomat familiar with the discussion said Churkin specifically “condemned the fact that Zeid mentioned Trump.” (Churkin denies this happened) Source
  • 2/21/2017 - Medical examiners who performed an autopsy on Russia’s ambassador to the UN said Tuesday that more tests are needed to determine how and why he fell ill in his office and later died. Source
  • 3/10/2017 – State Dept asked NYC Medical Examiner not to disclose cause of death of Russian UN ambassador who died last month. Source (nyt tweet until article is posted)

3.5.3. Alex Oronov

  • 3/4/2017 - Oronov is said to be who organized the peace plan set up by Cohen, Sater and Flynn. He’s also the father-in-law of Michael Cohen’s brother and is a partner in a business the Cohen brother’s set up in Ukraine. Source

3.5.4 Deaths of Russian Diplomats (That may or may not be Dossier related)

  • 12/20/2016 - Petr Polshikov, Russian Diplomat, found in his home with a gunshot wound to the head. Source
  • 12/27/2016 - Yves Chandelon, Nato Auditor General found in his car with gunshot wound to the head. Source
  • 1/10/2017 – Andrey Malanin, head of consular section, found dead in his apartment under mysterious circumstances. Source
  • 1/19/2017 - Andrei Karlov, the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, was assassinated by Mevlüt Mert Altıntaşan, an off-duty Turkish police officer. Source
  • 2/17/2017 – Sergei Krivov, Russian security agent in charge of “Prevention of Sabotage” falls from a building under mysterious circumstances. Source
  • 3/23/2017 - Denis Voronenkov A former Russian parliamentarian who fled to Ukraine and harshly criticized the Russian authorities has been shot dead in Kiev. Source
  • 4/5/2017 - Russian Senator Vadim Tyulpanov dies after reportedly slipping and falling in a bath. Source (Russian Language)

3.6. Rosneft

  • 8/30/2011 - MOSCOW — Exxon Mobil won a coveted prize in the global petroleum industry Tuesday with an agreement to explore for oil in a Russian portion of the Arctic Ocean that is being opened for drilling even as Alaskan waters remain mostly off limits. (In Partnership with Rosneft). Source
  • 6/20/2013 - The slump widened the valuation gap between Rosneft and the global oil producers it wants to emulate and may stymie Russia’s plans to sell a further 19 percent of the company. Source
  • 8/19/2016 - Sanctions on Russia have crippled the Russian economy. Source
  • 12/12/2016 - Exxon (Tillerson) has numerous deals with Rosneft and potentially hundreds of billions tied up by sanctions. Source
  • 12/15/2016 - Medvedev lowers share price by 5 percent, but did not update Rosneft contract. Source (Russian Language)
  • 1/25/2017 - Russia sells 19.5% Rosneft, identity of purchaser is unknown (as mentioned in Dossier). Source
    • 1/27/2017 - DOSSIER - CEO of Rosneft Sechin supposedly offered former Trump Advisor Page brokerage of 19% in exchange for sanctions being lifted. . Source DOSSIER
  • 1/25/2017 - Rosneft looking into buying large subsidiary of VEB. Source (Russian Language)
  • 3/9/2017 - Rosneft, an oil corporation majority-owned by the Russian government, says it has the right to claim an ownership stake in U.S. oil company Citgo Petroleum if Citgo’s cash-strapped parent company defaults on billions in loans. Source

3.7. Global Influence

3.7.1 General

  • 6/2/2015 - From a nondescript office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, an army of well-paid “trolls” has tried to wreak havoc all around the Internet — and in real-life American communities. Source
  • 3/23/2017 - Bulgarian officials say a former Russian spy advised pro-Moscow party on how to manipulate voters as part of Kremlin’s effort to regain influence in Eastern Europe; a 30-page dossier. Source
  • 4/12/2017 - Russia is engaged in a full-scale shadow war in Europe. Source
  • 4/18/2017 - Russia tried to gain access to twitter accounts from members of DoD through malicious links. Source
  • 6/2/2017 - Putin: It would be nice for Russia if NATO were ‘falling apart’. Source
  • 6/2/2017 - Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed deep opposition to the idea of Sweden joining NATO, calling its potential membership of the U.S.-led alliance a “threat” that would need to be “eliminated.” Source
  • 6/5/2017 - Russian government hackers carried out a cyberattack against one U.S. voting software vendor last August and launched a spear-phishing attack targeting local U.S. organizations days before the 2016 U.S. election, according to a highly classified report within the National Security Agency. Source
  • 6/7/2017 - US investigators believe Russian hackers breached Qatar’s state news agency and planted a fake news report that contributed to a crisis among the US’ closest Gulf allies, according to US officials briefed on the investigation. Source
  • 6/13/2017 - Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported. In Illinois, investigators found evidence that cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data. The hackers accessed software designed to be used by poll workers on Election Day, and in at least one state accessed a campaign finance database. Details of the wave of attacks, in the summer and fall of 2016, were provided by three people with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation into the matter. In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states, one of them said. Source

3.7.2 Lepen

  • 2/19/2016 - Marine Le Pen’s National Front party is reaching out to Russian banks for the 25 million euros ($27.7 million) it needs to bankroll its 2017 presidential campaign. Source
  • 2/3/2017 - Militants, trolls and media-savvy activists are giving the far-right candidate an edge. Source
  • 2/17/2017 - “We’re on the verge of a new global order,” said Maria Katasonova, the public face of a Russian campaign to back the National Front leader in the coming French election. “Marine will become president,” Katasonova predicted confidently. Source
  • 3/24/2017 - LePen meets with Putin. Source
  • 3/24/2017 - If elected Le Pen will mull swift lifting of Russian sanctions. Source
  • 3/24/2017 - The Russian president promised that Russia will not influence the presidential elections in France Source(Russian Language)
  • 3/24/2017 - Multiple russian outlets claim Russia will support lepen, and then delete/reverse that messaging. Source
  • 4/5/2017 - #Macronleaks hashtag promoting the Russian hacking of French candidate Macron started with alt-right twitter users. Source
  • 4/5/2017 - Wikileaks actively promotes the hack of Macron emails. Source
  • 4/14/2017 - Facebook says it has targeted 30,000 fake accounts linked to France ahead of the country’s presidential election, as part of a worldwide effort against misinformation. Source
  • 4/20/2017 - Almost one in four of the internet links shared by French users of social media in the run-up to elections were related to fake news, much of which favoured anti-EU candidates and showed traces of Russian influence, according to a new study. Source
  • 4/20/2017 - LePen had met with Russian Businessman at Trump Tower. Source
  • 4/21/2017 - French voters are being deluged with false stories on social media ahead of the country’s presidential election, though the onslaught of “junk news” is not as severe as that during last year’s U.S. presidential campaign, according to a study by Oxford University researchers. Source
  • 4/21/2017 - Trump tweets “Another terrorist attack in Paris. The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!” which appears to insinuating support for LePen Source
  • 4/23/2017 - Social media accounts previously seen promoting Trump were now actively promoting Lepen. Source
  • 4/24/2017 - The campaign of the French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has been targeted by what appear to be the same Russian operatives responsible for hacks of Democratic campaign officials before last year’s American presidential election, a cybersecurity firm warns in a new report. Source
  • 4/30/2017 - Lepen had signed a 3 Million Euro loan with Russian bank in June 2016. She has a history of loans from Russian banks. Source
  • 5/9/2017 - The National Security Agency in Washington picked up the signs. So did Emmanuel Macron’s bare-bones technology team. And mindful of what happened in the American presidential campaign, the team created dozens of false email accounts, complete with phony documents, to confuse the attackers. Source

3.7.3 Farage

  • 4/12/2017 - Foreign governments such as Russia and China may have been involved in the collapse of a voter registration website in the run-up to the EU referendum, a committee of MPs has claimed. Source

3.8. Misc

3.8.1 General

  • 3/3/2016 - Russia hacked Ukraine’s power grid. Source
  • 10/19/2016 - Finland is becoming increasingly worried about what it sees as Russian propaganda against it, including Russian questioning about the legality of its 1917 independence. Source
  • 10/21/2016 - At least three American states have turned down Russian requests to monitor polling locations during the election. Source
  • 12/15/2016 - The U.S. agency charged with ensuring that voting machines meet security standards was itself penetrated by a Russian hacker after the November elections, according to a security firm working with law enforcement on the matter. Source
  • 2/2/2017 - A Russian MP was certain enough of a Trump win he told his son, a notorious Russian hacker, to refuse a plea deal. "“It seems like the political relationships are getting better,” he told his girlfriend that day. “Trump will be their president. He and Putin seem to be getting along.” Source
  • 3/7/2017 - The leader of the California independence movement lives in Russia. Source
  • 3/15/2017 - Two officers with the Russian intelligence service FSB — at least one them from a unit designed to fight cybercrime — directed a far-reaching hacking and espionage scheme that targeted Yahoo users. Source
    • 3/15/2017 – You can read the official US charges here : Source
  • 3/23/2017 - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova seems to warn about possible leaks on Obama happening if leaks don’t stop in Washington. Source
  • 3/24/2017 - A group of congressional Republicans is teaming up with Russia-backed politicians in Eastern Europe with the shared goal of stopping a common enemy: billionaire financier George Soros. Source
  • 4/1/2017 - Russia posts April Fools prank about election interference. Source
  • 4/3/2017 - In 2014 Over a 24-hour period, top U.S. cyber defenders engaged in a pitched battle with Russian hackers who had breached the unclassified State Department computer system and displayed an unprecedented level of aggression that experts warn is likely to be turned against the private sector. Source
  • 4/6/2017 - A Network Of Russian-Language News Sites Is Secretly Owned By Kremlin, Investigation Finds. Source
  • 4/17/2017 - The leader of ‘Calexit’ just announced he’s abandoning the movement and settling permanently in Russia. Source
  • 4/24/2017 - Denmark says Russia hacked defence ministry emails. Source
  • 4/27/2017 - Large chunks of network traffic belonging to MasterCard, Visa, and more than two dozen other financial services companies were briefly routed through a Russian government-controlled telecom under unexplained circumstances that renew lingering questions about the trust and reliability of some of the most sensitive Internet communications. Source
  • 5/9/2017 - Clint Watts writes about the next likely influence campaign by Russia; Germany. Source
  • 5/10/2017 - A powerful Russian crime syndicate that’s accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars around the world appears to have also flowed millions through nearly 30 Canadian bank accounts.A CBC News investigation has spent months tracking down some of the individuals and companies attached to those accounts and found the $2 million sent to Canada was spread among recipients ranging from a boxing manager in Montreal to a construction company in Calgary. Source
  • 5/12/2017 - The Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian power grids have all been targeted by Russia undergoing a series of limited Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) over the last few years that may be probing for weaknesses.
  • 5/13/2017 - Russian money-laundering details remain in the dark as US settles fraud case. The case aimed to expose how Russian mobsters allegedly stole $230 million and hid some of the cash in New York City real estate. Also sure to come up was the suspicious death of the Russian lawyer who exposed the alleged fraud, though US prosecutors weren’t alleging that the defendants were behind it. Source
  • 5/23/2017 - A member of the Federal Election Commission is calling on the agency to investigate whether Russian agents paid for Facebook ads to spread damaging stories about Hillary Clinton ahead of last fall’s presidential election. Source
  • 5/29/2017 - Ukraine’s intelligence agency is searching the offices of Yandex, a Russia-based Internet company best known for its search engine. Ukrainian authorities earlier this month blocked access to Yandex as well as to several major Russian social media websites. President Petro Poroshenko said the move was made in response to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and continuing interference in eastern Ukraine. [Source]http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/offices-search-engine-yandex-raided-ukraine-47701450?cid=share_addthis_widget)
  • 5/30/2017 - FBI accuses Yevgeniy Nikulin of hacking LinkedIn, Formspring and Dropbox, and Russia has also filed extradition request. A Russian suspected hacker has moved a step closer to being sent to the US as a Czech judge gave tentative approval for an extradition to go ahead, during a court hearing held inside a high-security prison in Prague. He can be extradited to either the US or RussiaSource