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Michael Weiss Profile picture
@michaeldweiss
May 16, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Great investigation by @meduzaproject on how Russia's FSB has recruited ex-ISIS fighters to try to infiltrate Chechen and Tatar military units fighting for Ukraine: meduza.io/feature/2023/0…
More here: themoscowtimes.com/2023/05/16/rus…
Several years ago I did a long piece on how Russia instrumentalizes (back then one might have even said 'weaponizes') the very jihadists it claims to be fighting. thedailybeast.com/russias-double…
The FSB established a 'green corridor' to allow migration of known Islamists from the Caucasus to Syria via Turkey, knowing these fighters would join Jabhat al-Nusra (HTS) or ISIS.
The scheme was intended to alleviate threats during the Sochi Winter Olympics, drum up the terrorist quotient in Syria (thereby making Assad look more amenable to the West), and of course to create an agent network.
Former KGB spymaster Oleg Kalugin said this was a tried-and-true method for the Soviet/Russia services going back decades. Holy war is a problem, until it's useful.

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More from @michaeldweiss

Michael Weiss Profile picture
Apr 11
It's been a minute, but we have a new thread from "Karl," the Estonian military analyst, on the war in Ukraine. With @holger_r:
"Let’s start with the strategic view first. The U.S. has grown even more cautious and inept. Congress is exactly at the same place as the last time we spoke. For a brief moment, 1-2 weeks ago, it looked like they might be closer to a deal but today there is no certainty about it."
"The Republicans are still delaying. There’s no clarity about an aid package or a loan package or a combination of them. It’s the same as it was half a year ago. Ukraine has been losing territory on the eastern front unequivocally because of the stalled U.S. aid."
Read 27 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Mar 31
NEW: A yearlong investigation by @InsiderEng, @60Minutes and @derspiegel has uncovered evidence suggesting that Havana Syndrome may have its origin in the use of directed energy weapons wielded by the Russian GRU’s infamous Unit 29155.  theins.press/en/politics/27…
The Insider et al. have obtained intercepted Russian intelligence documents, travel logs, and call metadata, along with eyewitness testimony that challenges the US intelligence community assessment that it’s “very unlikely” Havana Syndrome is the work of a foreign adversary.
Senior members of Unit 29155 have received awards and political promotions for work related to the development of “non-lethal acoustic weapons.”
Read 14 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Mar 1
NEW: Jan Marsalek, the fugitive COO of disgraced company Wirecard, wasn't just behind Germany's biggest financial fraud in history. @InsiderEng can now reveal he was also a GRU agent for a decade. theins.press/en/politics/26…
Marsalek been living in Russia for more than four years, using a passport that belongs to an Orthodox priest from Lipetsk, Father Konstantin Baiazov. We have the fake passport.
Image
Image
Marsalek has been busy in Russia. He activated his own agent network of Bulgarian spies in the UK. They've all been arrested. .theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/s…
Read 29 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Feb 25
Best thing you'll read all weekend, on CIA-HUR cooperation. I'll highlight the key bits below: nytimes.com/2024/02/25/wor…
CIA "put in the plumbing" for a massive partnership with HUR, Ukrainian military intelligence, around 2015, after Poroshenko's election and the appoint of Gen. Valeriy Kondratyuk, formerly the head of CI at SBU, as HUR chief. Image
One instant payoff was that Ukrainians were more adept at recruiting Russians than Americans were: Image
Read 9 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Feb 13
Estonia's foreign intelligence report is out. A few highlights to follow 🧵: raport.valisluureamet.ee/2024/en/
"Russia has managed to recruit at least as many contract soldiers as needed to compensate for losses on the battlefield and create some new units, such as the 40th Army Corps and the 25th Combined Arms Army, both of which, however, are reported to be understaffed."
"In 2023, the Russian Armed Forces achieved only tactical victories but fell short of strategically significant territorial gains."
Read 56 tweets
Michael Weiss Profile picture
Feb 6
Exclusive: Andrey Kharchenko, one of the Russian attendees of a much-scrutinized 2018 meeting in a Moscow hotel with Lega leader Matteo Salvini's right-hand, is an FSB Fifth Service officer, @the_ins_ru today reveals. The meeting was to negotiate Russian funding of Lega.
The principal Italian at that event was Gianluca Savoini, Salvini's "sherpa to Russia." Savoini constantly travels to Russia, sometimes for no more than a day. He was a big reason Lega signed a partnership agreement with Putin's United Russia in 2017. Image
The Metropol affair was broken in the Italian press by @StefanoVergine and @GiovanniTizian. A recording of the meeting was then leaked to @BuzzFeed. Then the identities of all participants, including Kharchenko, was confirmed by @the_ins_ru, @bellingcat, etc.
Read 26 tweets

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