Note: The U.S. earlier this month urged Americans to avoid crowds in Moscow, warning of "imminent" attacks, including on concerts. But Russian President Putin dismissed the idea, accusing the west of trying to “intimidate and destabilize our society”
Yesterday the Rachel Maddow Show featured my scoop on a Russian disinformation op: Fake news sites meant to look legitimate sharing allegedly "leaked" audio of 2 US officials discussing backing Russian opposition. Take watch, and read:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/victoria-nuland-and-jim-obrien-impersonated-in-russian-influence-hoax
Victoria Nuland and Jim O’Brien Impersonated in Russian Influence Hoax
A new Russian disinformation plot features some laughably bad attempts at impersonating U.S. officials—but it could still be very dangerous.
News: Hostages Yelena Trupanob, 50, and Irena Tati, 73, who emigrated from Russia, were released from captivity today, a hostage family spokesperson tells me. They were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz—but Yelena’s son, Sasha, 28, and his girlfriend Sapir Cohen, 29, remain captive.
Here is an illustration from @thedailybeast (with flight path from Flightradar24) of the flight that crashed, suspected to have Wagner boss Prigozhin aboard, just weeks after he marched on Moscow, believed to be the largest public challenge to Putin's hold on power in years:
Jinchao Wei, on the other hand, seemed well aware about his intelligence work for Beijing: According to his indictment, he couldn't help but blab. “Jinchao Wei told another U.S. Navy sailor that he had been asked to spy for the PRC”
A few notes... Wenheng Zhao seemed curious about motivations from the Chinese intelligence officer's side, according to the indictment: He asked why the officer wanted the info on a large scale US military exercise.
The officer claimed it was to help make investment decisions:
📸 DOD has images of the Chinese spy balloon shot down on Feb. 4. Images are from Feb. 10.
The images show sailors assigned to Assault Craft Unit 4 preparing material recovered for transport to federal agents at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek. Photo credit: Ryan Seelbach
New: Satellite images of Ukraine show the graves in Mariupol have been expanded. See below, March versus November. Maxar notes the satellite imagery shows "a significant expansion of the number of graves."
Russia also has built a new military compound.
Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies
