#russian-military-intelligence

#russian-military-intelligence

Many of the foundations that have underpinned Australia's security, prosperity and democracy are being tested: social cohesion is eroding, trust in institutions is declining, intolerance is growing, even truth itself is being undermined by conspiracy, mis- and disinformation.

Retired Army Special Forces officer Mike Nelson criticized Hegseth's rhetoric, stating, 'That's a necessary end to achieve goals through military force - you have to kill people to achieve them. That's not the end. It's a weird obsession with death for the sake of it.'

Using Hungarian public money - funnelled through legally insulated foundations partly funded by Russian oil revenues - Orbán has built a cross-border network of populist right think tanks, journalists and activists.

Russian military intelligence is recruiting young people online to carry out arson and other acts of sabotage across Europe. In this week's issue, Joshua Yaffa reports on the Kremlin's secret campaign to undermine the West's support for Ukraine-and breaks down how "single-use agents" are being deployed across the Continent. Some of their missions are small-putting up posters, or picking up a package-while others involve physical attacks, for example setting off explosives and starting fires.

Daniil Maksimovich Shchukin, 31, of Krasnodarskiy, Russia, led the two ransomware operations between early 2019 and mid-2021, involved in 130 extortion attempts.

A double agent, by contrast, is an intelligence asset who is knowingly and deliberately directed by one service to engage another in espionage. The controlling service uses that agent to feed information (called feed material) -true, false, or mixed-to the adversary. They do so to simultaneously study the adversary's tradecraft, collection priorities, and decision-making. In the Russian system, double agents also serve a bureaucratic function: they generate statistics, "success stories," and operational narratives that demonstrate effectiveness to political overseers and ultimately to Putin himself.

William Burns had travelled halfway around the world to speak with Vladimir Putin, but in the end he had to make do with a phone call. It was November 2021, and US intelligence agencies had been picking up signals in the preceding weeks that Putin could be planning to invade Ukraine. President Joe Biden dispatched Burns, his CIA director, to warn Putin that the economic and political consequences if he did so would be disastrous.

The SBU says the enemy has ramped up these operations, using phones, messaging apps, and even online dating platforms to trick people into carrying out dangerous acts. The SBU said, "During such operations, Russian agents telephone or message people, posing as employees of the SBU, the Main Intelligence Directorate, NABU, the National Police, and other law enforcement agencies." "The Security Service of Ukraine once again calls on citizens to maintain information hygiene and to exercise caution in contacts with unknown individuals," the SBU added.