Ukraine News in brief. Saturday 15 July. [Ukrainian sources]

SATURDAY

Please scroll to view news items added during the day.

HEADLINES:
Russia sanctions could be lifted if Ukraine satisfied– Trump.  US Congress delayed sanctions on Russia. Kadyrov believes the United States is too weak to be an enemy of Russia.  "Very patient," Putin said, on whom the end of the war in the Donbas.  Russian officers recommended to stay away from the contact line in the Donbas to avoid losses.  Russian hackers suspected of attack on the power of Ireland.  ECHR found Russia responsible for human rights in Transnistria, Russia fears a repetition of Donbas.  Russia provokes a crisis in the Council of Europe: WHAT EXACTLY ARE 'KREMLIN TIES'?.  Hackers broke into the mail department head of domestic policy of Russia in the State Department.  In Georgia, on the border with the unrecognized South Ossetia protested against Russian aggression.

WEATHER:
Kyiv, Ukraine
21c / 70f HI | RealFeel® 21c / 70f
Sunny

On Friday, July 14 in the region of Shida Kartli in Georgia, directly at adminkordonu of unrecognized South Ossetia was an action called "Where is the real enemy."

This was reported by Jam News.

About a thousand residents of Tbilisi, as well as local protesters said they were protesting against the "creeping occupation of Georgia and Russia want to draw attention of the society of Georgia and the international community to the events in the conflict zone."

It is reported that on July 7 around the village of Bershueti Ossetian side scripting banner on which it was stated that there is a state border of South Ossetia.

This angered the Georgian authorities and criticism from international organizations.

On the morning of Friday in the village Bershueti arrived students and representatives of youth organizations. Protesters lined up along adminkordonu with South Ossetia from Georgia and EU flags in their hands.

hromadske.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українському

Hacked emails Robert Otto - head of department of internal Russian policy in the Department for Russia and Eurasia Bureau of Intelligence and Research Department of State.

This was reported by "Kommersant".

It is noted that the network got letters from his personal mailbox server to Gmail. Most of the letters of dedicated work.

Much of the correspondence up links to articles from the Russian media, which Otto shared with colleagues and friends, or those who send him. Often it is a reference to materials «Novaya Gazeta», The New Times, «Elephant", "Vedomosti" RBC, "Kommersant", "Echo of Moscow», Meduza, The Insider. Often there are links to analytical articles Carnegie Moscow Center.

The publication notes that Otto interest and post prominent political and public figures in social networks.

In his letters there are links to tweets head of the Center for Strategic Research (CSF) Alexei Kudrin, editor of "Echo of Moscow" Alexei Venediktov and head of MIA "Russia today" Margarita Simonyan. It also draws attention to page "VKontakte" ex-minister of defense self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic."

The State Department has not confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the letters. Also unclear was whether this case is isolated or hacking was part of a series of cyber attacks.

The day before the publication Foreign Policy reported on fracture mailbox, a senior US State Department unit responsible for intelligence activities in Russia. However, the official name and contents of the letters were not named.

hromadske.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українському

In the public domain was obtained by hackers mailing intelligence officer Office and the US State Department studies who specializes in Russia.

Reported publication Foreign Policy app , which is addressed to the Editor hacker under the name Johnnie Walker.

The writer said the recipients of the letters are "officers of the CIA and other intelligence agencies, the media, NGOs and international funds." Letters, he said, "contains information about who is responsible for the agenda in countries around the world."

Foreign Policy for security reasons was not called the name of the employee.

Interlocutor Foreign Policy, which corresponded with the victim of hackers called expert whose box was broken, "perhaps mainly in exploration in Russia throughout the US government."

"He knows more about what is going on there than any one else," - he stressed.

Some source publication believe that evil could be Russia, but others say that hacking into email Otto could be interested anyone. According to one of the interlocutors Foreign Policy, was recently broken-mail at least one expert from Russia scholar from Australia.

The Moscow newspaper "Kommersant" says that the staff member allegedly Ctr his name is Robert Otto.

According to the publication, much of the correspondence - a reference to the Russian media article that Otto and his addressees share with each other, as well as records in social networks Russian political and public figures of liberal Alexei Kudrin Igor Hirkina terrorists.

In correspondence, for example, assembled from open source profile on the head of the Presidential Administration of Anton Vine. Several letters dedicated to those who participated in the meetings of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin and move from the Kremlin to the Duma.

In turn the State Department refused to confirm or deny the authenticity of the letters and the fact of burglary.

Archive of the stolen messages posted July 10 on the website Pastebin.

espreso.tv , Original in Ukrainian / на українському

"Crimean problem" can be solved in the near future even provided the overthrow of Vladimir Putin in Russia.

This was said in an interview on the radio "Echo of Moscow" Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

"I do not see a way to solve the problems of the Crimean and does not believe it can be solved Bulk President, President Putin or any other president in the foreseeable future," - said.

According to Navalny, almost no territorial conflict in modern history can not be solved through diplomatic channels.

" Well, I have repeatedly said this as Northern Cyprus, like Gibraltar, as the Japanese islands or Falkland Islands is a problem that has no solution. I, as president, I can guarantee one thing - that I will bring it fair referendum, I will try normalize the situation. to this referendum and trilateral commission together with the European Union we will try to involve Ukraine", - he said.

"Frankly, that's if you do not dissemble, I doubt that Ukraine recognizes the referendum. That is, until a tangle of contradictions quite classic, here, in Israel and in Palestine. It is that, well, nobody could do and could not even come close. So I think that all of us will long suffer Crimean residents will suffer, investment in Crimea will go. I will answer this question many, many, many years until doing politics, but no prospects not seen "- summed up oppositionist.

As reported by "Apostrophe", formerly known leader of the Russian group "Leningrad" Sergey Fears the TV channel "rain" put on origin Russia occupied Crimea.

apostrophe.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українському

U.S. President Donald Trump says he is ready to cancel economic sanctions imposed against Russia after it launched aggression in Ukraine if an agreement is reached to Ukraine’s “satisfaction,” Politico reported.

In general, Trump sent mixed signals about U.S. sanctions against Russia in a conversation with reporters released by the White House on Thursday, according to Politico. Trump's comments came as the House struggles for a way forward on a Russia sanctions bill that cleared the Senate with 98 votes last month. Trump sidestepped a question about whether he would sign the new sanctions package if it reaches his desk but declared his support for existing penalties against Moscow.

"We have very heavy sanctions on Russia right now," Trump told reporters on Air Force One in what was originally an off-the-record conversation Wednesday night, according to excerpts released by the White House. "I would not and have never even thought about taking them off. Somebody said, Donald Trump wants to — I don’t want to take them off."

"I would never take the sanctions off until something is worked out to our satisfaction and everybody’s satisfaction in Syria and in Ukraine," Trump said, adding later: "I’ve made great deals. That’s what I do. Why would I take sanctions off without getting anything?"...................

unian.info/politics

Republicans in the House of Representatives proposes to merge the bill on new sanctions against Russia with sanctions against North Korea, thus delaying the passage of the document for signature to the President.

It is reported by Reuters , informs Tsenzor.NET.

The agency recalled that the bill on sanctions against Russia have been adopted by the Senate on June 15.

Before the adoption of the document in the House Republican leaders said that there was a technical problem with the text of the bill. However, after the Senate introduced amendments, the issue has not budged.

On Friday, Republicans have proposed to finalize the bill so as to include the new sanctions against North Korea.

Democrats rejected this proposal because I believe that the way the Republicans want to delay sanctions against Russia.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українському

Moscow has been intensifying its efforts to destabilize Ukraine. Mr. Putin has been reluctant to deploy large military forces, but fighting in Eastern Ukraine claims five or six lives a week, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Putin is stymied by Ukraine’s growing military capability and frustrated by signs of its economic recovery, both results of the ongoing reforms, WSJ reports. For Vladimir Putin, this is unacceptable as Russia is paying a large economic price because of Western sanctions. It also faces a growing threat of social discontent in the impoverished parts of Ukraine it controls. With 1.8 million residents internally displaced on Ukraine-controlled soil and 600,000 resettled in Russia, the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk “peoples republics” have a combined population of more than 3.5 million. Many are retirees dependent on Ukrainian state pension payments. Others are miners and industrial workers whose plants were deeply integrated into the Ukrainian economy.

Mr. Putin’s response has been to step up the aggression. The first five months of 2017 saw a steep increase in attacks on hospitals, schools, factories and other civilian targets, resulting in 44 fatalities. Terrorist bombings and assassinations in Kyiv and elsewhere have become commonplace. On June 27 and 28 car bombs killed two colonels from Ukraine’s security service. Among other cases, in late March an assassin from Russian-annexed Crimea killed a former Russian parliamentarian and Putin critic who had received asylum in Ukraine. Russia is also accelerating the integration of occupied Donbas into Russia. On Feb. 18, Mr. Putin issued a decree enabling Russian state and private institutions to accept passports and other identity documents issued by the self-styled “DPR” and “LPR.”.....................

Access complete text of the editorial:  unian.info/politics In English

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov believes the United States is too weak to be an enemy of Russia.
He told the TV channel HBO, reports Tsenzor.NET citing RFE / RL.

"America has a policy against Russia, against the leadership of the country" - said Kadyrov. "They know that I am ready to give his life for Russia, and I have a good army that is able to attack and defend. Let's see what someone will."

Asked whether he believes that the United States is an enemy of Russia, Kadyrov said: "America is not strong enough to be considered an enemy of. We have a strong state, moreover, we - nuclear state."

Kadyrov said that nuclear power RF enough to withstand the world.

"Even if the Russian state was completely destroyed our nuclear missiles would be issued automatically - he said. - We ask the world to its knees."

Edition of HBO Real Sports, dedicated to Chechnya under Ramzan Kadyrov, and in particular in the Republic of MMA, will be released on Tuesday, 18 July.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українському

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the conclusion of the war in the Donbas is dependent on the patience of local residents.

This was reported by the Kremlin press service.

"We have a patient people. When I say" we ", I mean, and Russia, and Ukraine. You know my position, said many times on this matter. I believe that we are one people, and the difference is almost no no. There cultural, linguistic coloring slightly different. And, for me, for example, the uniqueness of the Ukrainian culture, in my opinion, it is very well worth it. it is, indeed, a rich culture. But in general, in fact, that one people. And it is very patient ", - Putin said, answering the question, how much will last war in the Donbass.

He acknowledged that the situation in the Donbas deteriorates.

"How long it will last in Ukraine, I can not say, but the situation is, of course, is getting worse, you know it." - said Putin.

According to him, it depends on the people themselves.

"How long will it last? I do not know. It depends on the people who live there, how long they will endure. But I very much hope that it once over, and over this time, God forbid, bloodless, in the course of democratic processes, and the restoration of our natural relations", - said Russian President.

At the same time, he said that after the rupture of economic ties between the two countries "affected, above all, Ukraine".



As reported by the "Observer", previously explained Peskov Putin's attack on "Russophobia" in Ukraine.

obozrevatel.com, Original in Russian / На русском

The command of the Russian-terrorist forces on Donbass to minimize losses recommends to limit the presence of Russian officers at the contact line.

As Tsenzor.NET referring to the Intelligence Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, command 1 (Donetsk) and 2 (Lugansk) AK Armed Forces individual orders recommended to limit military personnel stay Armed Forces 10km zone from the contact line.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українському

Hackers probably related to the Russian authorities have made cyber attacks on the energy sector in Ireland.

As Tsenzor.NET referring to "rain" , writes about The Times , citing analysts in the field of security.

According to the publication, the attack on the Council for electricity supply (ESB) was implemented last month. The hackers sent an email containing malicious software.

No grid malfunction was detected. According to experts, hackers could steal proprietary information, including passwords.

Analysts believe that Ireland was used as a testing ground for cyberwar that is Department of the General Staff of Russia. According to them, such tactics have been used in the recent attack on US power.

Recall US authorities suspect Russian hackers in a recent cyber attacks on several plants, including nuclear in Kansas. The source believes that the purpose of hackers may have compromised the country's electricity.

ua.censor.net.ua, Original in Ukrainian / на українському

Russia is involved in cyber attacks on power grids of Ireland and Britain.

This writes the British newspaper The Times, citing analysts security systems.

It is noted that hackers supported by the Russian government, attacked the power network in order to penetrate the national network management system in some parts of the UK.

According to analysts, hackers are going to penetrate the energy sector in the Republic of Ireland, which may enable them to influence the work of the network in Northern Ireland.

In June linked to Russian intelligence hackers attacked the computer systems of the electricity supply in Ireland. They sent employees of agencies that have access to a system control grid emails with malware.

Now signs of disturbances in the grid available, but hackers could steal passwords and data security systems to power the UK. Currently this problem yzuaet Irish National Cybersecurity Center.

Experts believe that Ireland is used as a test site for cyberwar Russia and possibly one of several EU countries. Reporters noted that the Irish against computer systems used tactics similar attack against US energy companies.

As reported by "Apostrophe" recent edition of The Washington Post found out about the hacking of on the computer systems of American nuclear and energy companies.

apostrophe.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українському

Russian authorities fear a repetition of the precedent created by the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case "Ilascu and others against Moldova and Russia", which in Russia was responsible for human rights violations in the territory of unrecognized Transnistria (Moldova).

As Tsenzor.NET, this in his article for ZN.UA writes Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe Dmitry Kuleba.

According to him, the Council of Europe is believed that in this case, Russian President Vladimir Putin opposes the ECHR.

"In the judgment of 2004 was an established fact that Russia exercises effective control on Transnistria, and therefore responsible for human rights violations in the unrecognized region of Moldova. Just imagine the legal implications of this doctrine in a heap abuse cases human rights in Donbass and you will understand the causes of personal animosity Russian president, "- concluded the diplomat.

Recall 4 December 2015 State Duma adopted the law giving the Constitutional Court the right to recognize it impossible to execute in the decisions of international courts.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українському

Russia is trying to provoke a crisis in the Council of Europe to improve their position in the organization.

As Tsenzor.NET , writes about this in his article for ZN.UA Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe Dmitry Kuleba.

The diplomat points out that on June 30 Moscow announced its decision to stop payment of its contribution to the Council of Europe in 2017 to unconditionally restore full powers of the Russian delegation to PACE. According to him, so the Kremlin is trying to regain the initiative in the organization. And if that fails, then start the process of paralysis in the same way as in the OSCE.

The author notes that the Council of Europe is going through a stage of relations with Russia, which already has survived a number of its member states. The acute phase of the crisis experienced as the OSCE.

"If the Council of Europe can stand pressure and protect its institutional value and integrity, the strategic perspective, Russia depart. But tactically, no matter how developed subsequent events, each new course may improve or worsen the position of Russia or its opponents, while the position of the Council of Europe consistently worse "- the article says.

Kuleba describes two scenarios of the current crisis, one of which involves the Russian conditions.

"Let's take a scenario in which Russia returned to the PACE. The money coming into the budget. The legitimacy of elected top officials of the organization are not questioned. Formal rules unity and dialogue. In reality, starts a domino effect. Assembly turns into a scene of Armageddon, and each state -term organization receives a clear message: do not care how terrible your actions as a result you forgive all the same, "- he points out.

"There is another scenario. In some European countries to discuss the version that risky prank Russians in the Council of Europe aims to ensure that in the future two to three years Russia forcibly expelled from the organization for violating the statute. In this case, in January, Russia will not return to PACE. This means that the Council of Europe really defends its values, and does not think like them more expensive to trade the seeming stability ", - said the diplomat.

Recall of delegation still under PACE sanctions that were imposed on it in April 2014 after the occupation of the Crimea. According to the resolution, the Russian MPs were denied the right to vote in PACE and the right to be represented in its governing bodies.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українському

Is every Russian really an agent of the Kremlin? Of course not. But we can never really know for sure, not least because they might become one, retroactively.
On its surface, the Donald Trump Jr. affair seems as bizarre as its cast of characters. A Russian corporate lawyer who Trump Jr. believed possessed Russian government kompromat—compromising information—on the Clinton campaign. A Russian-Azerbaijani pop star, Emin Agalarov, whose publicist made the connection with Trump Jr., and who himself is the son of the so-called “Trump of Russia,” billionaire property tycoon Aras Agalarov.

Was Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met Trump Jr., an agent of the Kremlin, or an opportunist shilling for a client? She herself has denied connections to the Russian government, and told NBC News that she neither had nor sought damaging information on Clinton. But in fact she need not be one or the other. In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, everyone is potentially “hybrid”: both who they seem to be, and, at the same time, an instrument of the government.

It seems inconceivable that a state would use people like this as its instruments, when it has diplomats, spies, and other professionals at its disposal. But this is pro forma for the Kremlin. And until Western nations come to terms with this, they will continue getting flummoxed by the Russians in their midst.

On its face, Putin’s Russia looks like any other country. It has all the familiar institutions: a cabinet and ministries, a two-chamber parliament, a constitution, courts, cops, and consulates. In practice, things are very different. Putin continued the work of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin—who shelled his own parliament to resolve a constitutional crisis—in hollowing out the institutions of Russia. In their place, especially at the top of the system, we have something that almost resembles a royal court.

This is bad news for many people. For example, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a legend in international diplomatic circles, has no real relationship with Putin. So, despite his years of service and undoubted, if irascible competence, his influence on foreign policy is, in fact, negligible.

But this creates an opening for others. What has emerged is an “adhocracy,” in which people find themselves tapped for roles as and when needed. What matters is not your formal job, nor your official place in the pecking order, so much as your personal connections, especially to Putin himself, and how useful and agreeable you can be. When the Kremlin wanted to build a new palace for Putin, for example, or needed funds for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, rather than raising taxes, it turned to the rich oligarchs and expected them to “contribute.” After all, everyone knew that this was the price for staying in business.

These habits extend into geopolitics and even war. When the Kremlin was preparing to seize Crimea and realized it didn’t have the necessary agents in place, it turned to ultra-nationalist business magnate Konstantin Malofeyev to broker an alliance with local politicians and underworld figures, and essentially hand Putin the keys to the peninsula.

These hybrid relationships extend to virtually every arena of state business. The state media is an engine of propaganda. Private banks and businesspeople are, for the most part, exactly who and what they appear to be, but they are used to funnel money to sympathetic foreign parties and politicians when the Kremlin pleases. Increasingly, we even see organized crime being used as a tool of subversion in Europe. Policy for entire regions is farmed out to trusted henchmen. Syria seems to be in the hands of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu; former political operator Vladislav Surkov is Putin’s point man for Ukraine; the Balkans seems to have been handed to Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev.

In this context, the idea of Veselnitskaya as a deniable intermediary is not entirely implausible. But the kompromat never seems to have materialized. Rather, by Donald Jr.’s account she was making insubstantial promises to secure a meeting to push her real agenda: campaigning against the 2012 Magnitsky Act, which blacklists certain Russians accused of human rights abuses connected with a particularly infamous fraud case. In the years since, it has expanded to other officials involved in similar incidents around the world.

For the past four years, Veselnitskaya has been a bitter enemy of the Magnitsky Act. She has also, presumably not coincidentally, been representing Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, who was accused of laundering profits from the original crime which prompted the Act. In May, his company agreed to pay almost $6 million to settle the case before it went to trial.

But in Russia’s adhocracy, a nobody can become somebody if they suddenly seem useful. The cliché about Putin-as-methodical-chess-player, plotting his geopolitical game ten moves in advance, is far from the truth. Instead, he and his administration are opportunists. They have a broad sense of what they want: to make Russia great again, to assert its place in the world, and block any attempts to control it by keeping the West divided, distracted, and demoralized. They will act when they spot a chance to advance that agenda.

But this also means that there are all kinds of groups, agencies, individuals, and political entrepreneurs, who carry out their own schemes, in the hope that, if they are successful, they will earn the only currency that really matters in Russia: the Kremlin’s favor.

Here is the distinctive complexity of the new Russia. There is no public evidence as of this writing that Veselnitskaya has formal ties to Russia’s federal government or Putin himself. With clients like Katsyv, connections like the Agalarovs, and a background working with the Moscow regional government, though, she knows how the system works. She could have been an agent of the government, she could simply have been working her own and her client’s agenda, but she could just as easily have dwelled somewhere in between. After all, had Veselnitskaya really managed to break the Magnitsky Act, she would have gained powerful and grateful friends in Moscow. If she had wormed her way into the Trump campaign, that is undoubtedly something that would have then interested the Kremlin.

On the one hand, this campaign of entrepreneurial, self-starter subversion presents the Kremlin with considerable advantages. It weaponizes the imaginations of all sorts of ambitious Russians, creating a host of small-scale activities that the Kremlin can use if they work, deny if not. For a state seemingly unconcerned with bringing about any specific, positive change—let alone win any friends—but rather spreading chaos and uncertainty, this is a powerful asset.

But this also means that Russia is increasingly becoming something of a pariah. Is every Russian really an agent of the Kremlin? Of course not. But we can never really know for sure, not least because they might become one, retroactively. Every Russian company could be or become a channel for dirty Kremlin cash; every diplomat a spy; every journalist a propagandist. We have to understand, in this age of “hybrid warfare,” that everything in Russia is, in some way, potentially hybrid. The Kremlin sees everything and everyone as a resource to be drawn on by the state if need be.

This is why such contacts as Veselnitskaya’s matter. In many ways, it doesn’t matter whether she was acting as an agent of the Kremlin or on her own, because had her overtures come to anything, it is highly unlikely Moscow would not have then sought to use her. Indeed, she might well have shopped her access to the Trump campaign to a Kremlin always eager to reward that kind of success.

None of this means we should treat every Russian as a threat. It does mean, however, that everyone needs to understand the murky ambiguities of this modern political war, in which today’s private citizen can easily be tomorrow’s Kremlin source. Not to understand this, as would seem the case for Trump Jr., is startlingly naïve at best, dangerously foolish at worst.

en.censor.net.ua