[Guns N' Coffee]

♪ ♫ And now a word about preventing corporate travel disasters ♫ ♪

Six other Wagner members were on the plane alongside Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin when it crashed. They include Dmitry Utkin, second in command of the Wagner Group. Valery Chekalov, who was in charge of the non-military side of Wagner and Yevgeny Makaryan, Sergei Propustin, Alexander Totmin and Nikolai Matuseyev who were fighters and may have been Prigozhin's security detail.

With two planes available I wonder why all the executives were seated in the same plane? When even companies such as Coca-Cola and General Motors do not allow the top two executives to fly on the same plane; the US President and the Vice President never fly together; and even Mafia bosses don't travel together because they're worried about being killed together. Executive travel policies ensure that a company's key personnel do not travel on the same flight. The key concept being risk management allowing for business continuity.

If a plane crashes with too many decision makers on board a company's continued existence can be placed in jeopardy. With Putin's crosshairs on Prigozhin's back it would have made sense to split the passengers especially with a second airplane following along. I haven't heard any mention if any passengers were onboard the other plane.

[WonderMomma]

"Ukrainian soldier having Japanese sushi inside trench.

How many stars should the delivery man get?"

[Guns N' Coffee]

With Ret. Gen. David Petraeus

[Guns N' Coffee]

Originally Posted by Guns N' Coffee ↗

♪ ♫ And now a word about preventing corporate travel disasters ♫ ♪

Second plane update:

From Mark Krutov @kromark on X (Twitter)
"A few notes: 1)Second Prigozhin's plane (RA-02748) was bound from St. Pete to Moscow (not vice versa like RA-02795, which crashed). 2) This second plane strangely stopped transmitting any open data almost an hour ago after flying a weird path near Moscow."

[kellyhound]

Russia is intensifying its efforts to spread pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine messages in the United States and the West, using influence-laundering techniques to hide the efforts of its intelligence agencies to manipulate public opinion, according to a newly declassified American intelligence analysis.

Efforts by Russian intelligence agencies to shape public debate leading up to the 2016 U.S. election focused on methods designed to have short-term effects, like exacerbating tensions inside the United States through social media posts.

But the newly declassified U.S. analysis looks at how Russian intelligence services, in particular the Federal Security Service or F.S.B., have been secretly using allies inside nominally independent organizations to spread propaganda and cultivate ties with rising leaders, efforts that are intended to play out over long periods of time.

The intelligence analysis, which was declassified for public release, was described by U.S. officials who were authorized to disclose the information.

Russian influence operations may have been dealt something of a blow in the aftermath of Yevgeny V. Prigozhin’s mutiny against the Russian military leadership and subsequent apparent assassination. Mr. Prigozhin, in addition to running the Wagner group, a private military force, founded and funded the Internet Research Agency. Although the organization was dissolved last month — after Mr. Prigozhin’s failed rebellion — the I.R.A. had been involved in running one of the most prominent troll farms that supported the candidacy of Donald J. Trump during the 2016 election by criticizing Hillary Clinton.

But the information released by the United States on Friday is designed to show how much deeper Russian influence operations are than those efforts to sow dissent on the internet. Instead, the influence operations are focused on developing a network of young leaders who the Kremlin hopes will support Russia or spread pro-Russia messages in their home countries, efforts not unlike the Soviet Union’s spy agency’s work to develop ideological allies and informants around the world.

A U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the newly released material described a group of so-called co-optees, who claim to be acting independently but in fact have been used by Russian intelligence agents to conduct influence operations against the United States. These operations include programs designed to build support for Russia among Americans and Europeans along with blunter efforts like fake grass-roots protests. The newly released material focuses on four Russians who have worked with Russian intelligence, including Natalia Burlinova, who was named in a Justice Department indictment that was unsealed this year.

The indictment said Ms. Burlinova had conspired with the F.S.B. to recruit U.S. citizens from academic institutions to participate in the nongovernmental organization she founded, Creative Diplomacy. The organization bills itself as a public diplomacy program for aspiring leaders to facilitate dialogue with Russia. The organization says 80 people from a wide range of countries have attended its program.

After the indictment in June, the Treasury Department sanctioned two F.S.B. officers, including Yegor Sergeyevich Popov, who the government said was Ms. Burlinova’s handler. The Treasury Department said Mr. Popov oversaw Ms. Burlinova’s work and provided her a list of U.S. citizens to approach.

The declassified intelligence analysis said the F.S.B. had helped fund Creative Diplomacy and that it was a “grooming campaign” that Russian intelligence operatives used to build up a network of “future Western influencers” who the F.S.B. hoped would develop into Kremlin supporters.

The F.S.B. has tracked the activities of Creative Diplomacy’s alumni, some of whom have gone on to publish pro-Russia articles, the American officials said. While Ms. Burlinova has denied any ties to the Russian government, the U.S. intelligence disputed that claim.

One of the participants in Creative Diplomacy, an American who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said if he had known the program’s connections to Russian intelligence, he would not have participated. Still, he said he did not regret attending the program because it gave him a chance to speak to and question Russian officials he would not have met.

The pro-Russia slant of the program was no different than public diplomacy programs in other countries, he said, and some participants left with a worse — not better — opinion of Russia. The participant said he was not surprised to learn Ms. Burlinova was working with the F.S.B. But if the program was a Russian intelligence operation, he said, there was little for the U.S. government to be concerned about, given its ineffectiveness.

The declassified analysis singles out three others: Andrey Stepanenko, who worked for the F.S.B. from 2014 to 2019; Maksim Grigoryev, the director of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy, an organization the U.S. analysis says has spread anti-Ukrainian narratives on behalf of the Kremlin; and Anton Tsvetkov, the head of a group called Officers of Russia. The U.S. officials said Mr. Tsvetkov, at the direction of Russian intelligence, organized protests in Moscow, including one outside the U.S. Embassy.

Mr. Tsvetkov, at the behest of Russian intelligence, also organized protests against Bard College in New York State and its partnership with a St. Petersburg college; those actions eventually led to the New York school being banned in Russia by the Kremlin, which was fearful of Western influence on Russian universities. Since then, the intelligence analysis said, Mr. Tsvetkov has organized anti-Ukraine protests throughout 2022 outside various Western embassies in Russia.

[kellyhound]

Binance Delists Sanctioned Russian Banks From Peer-to-Peer Service.

Russian users of Binance were able to move money abroad through the service, which could present legal challenges for the exchange.

Binance has cut ties with five sanctioned Russian banks that were listed on the exchange’s peer-to-peer service to let users transfer funds in rubles - the country’s native currency.

This is due to a regular update of its system to comply with local and global regulatory standards and sanctions rules, Binance said.

[Faust]

I am actually waiting for IJubodrop to post the Ukraine friendly fire videos and for the others to try and doubt/downplay it

[WhiskeyOutpost]

Originally Posted by Faust ↗

I am actually waiting for IJubodrop to post the Ukraine friendly fire videos and for the others to try and doubt/downplay it

I've posted UA friendly fire videos before. No one cares Faust

What's interesting about a lot of Russian source videos is they're destroying a Russian vehicle which Ukrainians captured and are using it

[Guns N' Coffee]

[Roosta]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyOutpost ↗

This is coming from the guy who makes a point, posts articles to support said point, then realizes the article doesn't say that at all, as others point it out. 'Nuf said

This is a lesson for ol fausty to learn, & that is "Credibility" is paramount to an individual's word.

Pity that he doesn't understand or learn this from his blatant lies & thus evolve, hence why he's into the same repetitive broken record jonera that makes up his supposed wisdom of all things, to which I say, Get some medication boy !