#Шпионские_скандалы
🇦🇹🇷🇺 24 августа Австрия впервые объявила персоной нон-грата российского дипломата.
Как сообщает Kronen Zeitung, он на протяжении многих лет занимался промышленным шпионажем в IT-компании, о чем сообщил гражданин Австрии, назвавший российского дипломата своим куратором.
В ответ МИД России сегодня выслал посла Австрии Йоханнеса Айгнера

🇸🇰🇳🇴🇷🇺 Ранее по подозрению в шпионаже российские дипломаты были высланы из Словакии и Норвегии.

🇳🇴 19 августа МИД Норвегии объявил «персоной нон грата» торгового представителя посольства России в Осло Александра Стекольщикова, после того, как гражданин Норвегии индийского происхождения Харшарн Сингх Татгар признался на допросе, что передавал информацию российскому дипломату и получал от него за это деньги.
Татгар был арестован в субботу, 15 августа, во время встречи с российским дипломатом в пиццерии в Сагене в Осло
https://twitter.com/PSTnorge/status/1295284714044104709

🇸🇰🇩🇪 10 августа трех российских дипломатов выслала Словакия — за злоупотребление словацкими визами во время убийства в Берлине
🇨🇿 Ранее на «засилье» российских «шпионов» с диппаспортами жаловались власти Чехии.

🇺🇸🇷🇺 21 августа в Вирджинии был арестован бывший «зеленый берет» Питер Рафаэль Дзибински Деббинс, 15 лет снабжавший сведениями российскую разведку.
Спецназовец передавал российским разведчикам секретную информацию о химических подразделениях и подразделениях спецназа, а оставив службу в 2008, предоставил агентам российской разведки имена и информацию о сослуживцах, которых можно было завербовать", говорится в обвинительном заключении Министерства Юстиции
Мать Деббинса родилась в Советском Союзе, а со своей женой Деббинс познакомился в Челябинске, где они поженились в 1997 году, пишет The Guardian
После окончания колледжа в Миннесоте, Деббинс вернулся в Россию, где российская разведка присвоила ему кодовое имя «Икар Лесников».
После начала военной службы в США в 1998 Деббинс был направлен в Южную Корею в качестве лейтенанта 4-й химической роты. Находясь в отпуске, он поехал в Россию, где предоставил своим контактам во внешней разведке "информацию по вопросам обороны США". «Деббинс стремился помочь России, поскольку считал себя верным сыном России», - говорится в судебных документах.
Покинув армию в 2008, Деббинс, недовольный своей военной карьерой, вернулся в РФ, с намерением открыть свой бизнес. "В итоге он работал в составе команды, созданной офицером ГРУ, и продолжал предоставлять разведывательную информацию о миссиях своего подразделения в Грузии и Азербайджане" (CBS)

🇺🇸🇨🇳 Накануне ареста Деббинса, 14 августа на Гаваях был арестован бывший офицер ЦРУ Александр Юк Чинг Ма за шпионаж в пользу китайской разведки.
Согласно судебному заключению, в ЦРУ Ма работал более 30 лет назад — с 1982 по 1989, где "имел доступ к совершенно секретным документам", а продавать секреты начал в 2001-м
В 2004-м Ма устроился переводчиком в местное отделение ФБР в Гонолулу, где "крал, копировал и фотографировал секретные документы"...
Прокуроры заявили, что 85-летний родственник Ма, также бывший офицер ЦРУ, работал вместе с ним, чтобы продавать секреты китайцам. Однако "родственнику" объявление не предъявили...

Судя по тухлому делу с древними китайскими шпионами, китайская разведка работает значительно аккуратней российской...

#Spy_scandals
🇦🇹🇷🇺 On August 24, Austria for the first time declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata.
According to Kronen Zeitung, for many years he was engaged in industrial espionage in an IT company, as reported by Austrian citizen who called the Russian diplomat his curator.
In response, Russian Foreign Ministry today expelled Austrian Ambassador Johannes Aigner

🇸🇰🇳🇴🇷🇺 Earlier, Russian diplomats were expelled from Slovakia and Norway on suspicion of espionage.

🇳🇴 On August 19, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry declared Alexander Stekolshchikov, trade representative of the Russian Embassy in Oslo, "persona non grata", after a Norwegian citizen of Indian origin Harsharn Singh Tatgar admitted during interrogation that he passed industrial information to a Russian diplomat and received money from him for it.
Tatgar was arrested on Saturday, August 15, during a meeting with a Russian diplomat at a pizzeria in Sagena in Oslo
https://twitter.com/PSTnorge/status/1295284714044104709

🇸🇰🇩🇪 On August 10, three Russian diplomats were expelled by Slovakia — for abuse of Slovak visas during the murder in Berlin
🇨🇿 Earlier, the Czech authorities complained about the “dominance” of Russian “spies” with diplomatic passports.

🇺🇸🇷🇺 On August 21, a former US army green beret Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins living in northern Virginia has been arrested and charged with divulging military secrets about his unit’s activities during 15 years of contacts with Russian intelligence.
Debbins provided the Russian intelligence agents with information about his chemical and Special Forces units. In 2008, after leaving active duty service, Debbins also provided Russian intelligence agents with the names of, and information about former Special Forces team members who could be recruited," the indictment of Department of Justice says.
Debbins’ mother was born in USSR, and Debbins met his wife in Russian city of Chelyabinsk, where they were married in 1997, according to The Guardian
After graduating from college in Minnesota, Debbins returned to Russia in 1997, where he was assigned the code name, "Ikar Lesnikov," by Russian intelligence. He subsequently signed a statement under his code name saying he wished to "serve Russia."
After beginning U.S. active-duty service in 1998, Debbins was deployed to South Korea to serve as a lieutenant in the 4th Chemical Company. While on leave, he traveled to Russia and provided his contacts in the intelligence service with U.S. defense information. "Debbins sought to help Russia, as he considered himself a loyal son of Russia," the court documents say.
After leaving the army in 2008, Debbins, dissatisfied with his military career, returned to Russia with intention of opening his own business. "He ended up working as part of a front created by a GRU officer, and subsequently continued to provide them with information, including classified intelligence about his unit's missions in Georgia and Azerbaijan". (CBS)

🇺🇸🇨🇳 On the eve of Debbins' arrest, on August 14, former CIA officer Alexander Yuk Ching Ma was arrested in Hawaii for spying for Chinese intelligence.
According to court documents, Ma worked for the CIA more than 30 years ago — from 1982 to 1989, maintained a Top Secret clearance, and began selling secrets in 2001. Ma left the CIA in 1989 and lived and worked in Shanghai, China, before arriving in Hawaii in 2001.
In 2004, Ma got a job as interpreter at the local FBI office in Honolulu, where he "regularly copied, photographed and stole classified documents."
Prosecutors said that an 85-year-old relative of Ma's who was also a former CIA officer had worked alongside him to sell secrets to the Chinese, although the relative was not charged...

Judging by this case with ancient Chinese spies, Chinese intelligence is more skillful than Russian...

Recap 8/25/2020

1. Riot police stormed Paris bar over no social distancing while actual riots were taking place across the rest of the city.

2. Fury erupts outside Buckingham Palace as enraged crowds scream “paedophile” at gates.

3. Explosion destroys gas pipeline one day after Iran admits Natanz blast was deliberate. Explosions continue to rock the Middle East, and they have Iran and its allies increasingly on edge.

4. Massive protests and a torch rally was held in Muzaffarabad city of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) on Monday night to oppose the mega-dams to be constructed by Chinese firms on Neelum-Jhelum River. The protesters hailing from ''Darya Bachao, Muzaffarabad Bachao" (Save River, Save Muzaffarabad) Committee'' chanted slogans like "Neelum-Jhelum behne do, humein zinda rehne do" (let the Neelum and Jhelum rivers flow, let us live). The rally was attended by over a thousand people from the city and other parts of PoK.

5. Six killed in truck bomb explosion in northern Afghanistan. Taliban claims responsibility. "Six people, including an assailant, were killed and 32 people wounded after a Taliban militants' suicide truck bomb blast took place outside a special forces' camp in northern Afghanistan's Balkh province on Tuesday, an army source confirmed."

6. India is keeping its "military options" open if the ongoing diplomatic and military talks with China do not lead to a breakthrough in the stalled troop disengagement and de-escalation in eastern Ladakh. In a clear signal of intent to China, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said the Indian armed forces "remain prepared for military actions" if "peaceful efforts" through talks did not succeed in restoring the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as it existed in April. The statement appears aimed at conveying that a prolonged stand-off with Chinese troops camping in certain areas like Pangong and Depsang will not be acceptable.

7. The poison Navalny was given is from the same series as the Novichok with which Yulia and Sergei Skripals were poisoned. Alexei Navalny was poisoned, in his analysis they found a toxin from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors, said doctors from the Berlin clinic Charite. A class of such substances includes military poisons, the action of which can have long-term effects on humans, according to experts interviewed by the BBC. Among such poisons, for example, is Novichok, which poisoned former GRU officer Sergei Skripal in Great Britain. Mikhail Fremderman, a resuscitator at Haifa hospital (until 2014 - head of intensive care unit of the hospital 26 in St. Petersburg) explained to the BBC that "CHE is a group of phosphorus-organic substances that block the transmission of impulses through the nervous system." The CHE class can be conditionally divided into two groups: "There are substances that are limited, but are used for therapeutic purposes - eye practice, surgery. And there are chemical warfare agents. These are military poisons, very toxic. They also cause death in depending on the dosage.” Substances of this group are synthesized artificially, they can be both solid and liquid, the expert specified. "The drug with which Navalny was poisoned is from the same group as the military substances that have been used for a very long time - from sarin gas sprayed in Tokyo subway by Aum Shinrikyo sect to Novichok,” said Fremderman. ”It can be concluded that this is a deliberate poisoning - the use of a substance against a man from the arsenal of combat toxicology. These are drugs from a group that were used as chemical warfare agents to kill people in war." The press service of the Pirogov Resuscitation Center, whose specialists flew to Omsk for consultations, refused to answer BBC's questions and said that everything related to Navalny's poisoning will be commented on by the Center's specialists only after permission from the Russian Ministry of Health. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov today called the German poisoning data "empty noise" which the Kremlin does not intend to take seriously.

8. Bolshoi Utrish reserve burns near Anapa, emergency mode declared. Forest fire affected two settlements. More than 1000 tourists were evacuated from  emergency zone. Moreover, according to some sources, the evacuation is not free. According to Interfax, Il-76 plane took off from Ramenskoye near Moscow to Anapa with 42 tons of water on board, and a Be-200 amphibious aircraft was sent to Anapa from Krasnoyarsk.

9. Austria for the first time has declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata. According to Kronen Zeitung, for many years he was engaged in industrial espionage at an IT company, as reported by an Austrian citizen who called the Russian diplomat his curator. In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry has expelled Austrian Ambassador Johannes Aigner. Earlier, Russian diplomats were expelled from Slovakia and Norway on suspicion of espionage.

10. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry declared Alexander Stekolshchikov, trade representative of the Russian Embassy in Oslo, "persona non grata" after a Norwegian citizen of Indian origin, Harsharn Singh Tatgar, admitted during interrogation that he passed industrial information to a Russian diplomat and received money from him for it. Tatgar was arrested during a meeting with a Russian diplomat at a pizzeria in Sagena in Oslo.

11. Three Russian diplomats were expelled by Slovakia for abuse of Slovak visas during the murder in Berlin.

12. Earlier, the Czech authorities complained about the “dominance” of Russian “spies” with diplomatic passports.

13. A former US army green beret Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins living in northern Virginia has been arrested and charged with divulging military secrets about his unit’s activities during 15 years of contacts with Russian intelligence. Debbins provided the Russian intelligence agents with information about his chemical and Special Forces units.  In 2008, after leaving active duty service, Debbins also provided Russian intelligence agents with the names of, and information about former Special Forces team members who could be recruited," the indictment of Department of Justice  says. Debbins’ mother was born in USSR, and Debbins met his wife in Russian city of Chelyabinsk, where they were married in 1997, according to The Guardian. After graduating from college in Minnesota, Debbins returned to Russia in 1997, where he was assigned the code name, "Ikar Lesnikov," by Russian intelligence. He subsequently signed a statement under his code name saying he wished to "serve Russia." After beginning U.S. active-duty service in 1998, Debbins was deployed to South Korea to serve as a lieutenant in the 4th Chemical Company. While on leave, he traveled to Russia and provided his contacts in the intelligence service with U.S. defense information. "Debbins sought to help Russia, as he considered himself a loyal son of Russia," the court documents say. After leaving the army in 2008, Debbins, dissatisfied with his military career, returned to Russia with intention of opening his own business. "He ended up working as part of a front created by a GRU officer, and subsequently continued to provide them with information, including classified intelligence about his unit's missions in Georgia and Azerbaijan.”

14. Former CIA officer Alexander Yuk Ching Ma was arrested in Hawaii for spying for Chinese intelligence. According to court documents, Ma worked for the CIA more than 30 years ago — from 1982 to 1989, maintained a Top Secret clearance, and began selling secrets in 2001. Ma left the CIA in 1989 and lived and worked in Shanghai, China, before arriving in Hawaii in 2001. In 2004, Ma got a job as interpreter at the local FBI office in Honolulu, where he "regularly copied, photographed and stole classified documents." Prosecutors said that an 85-year-old relative of Ma's who was also a former CIA officer had worked alongside him to sell secrets to the Chinese, although the relative was not charged.

15. Facebook reportedly plans to sue Thailand's government over its demand that the company block users within the country from accessing a group critical of its king. Facebook blocked Thai users from accessing the group, which has one million users and has criticized the country's king amid pro-democracy protests.

16. For all the excitement over the next big thing in lithium-ion batteries, the simple fact is that plain old water is the only large scale, long duration energy storage medium available today in the US and in many other parts of the world. The challenge is that water batteries, aka pumped hydropower, require expensive new infrastructure, which limits their application. That could be about to change, and it looks like the US Department of Energy is determined to be the change maker.

17. Nano-diamond self-charging batteries could disrupt energy as we know it. California company NDB says its nano-diamond batteries will absolutely upend the energy equation, acting like tiny nuclear generators.

18. USS Lake Erie operates with multinational ships and USS Chung Hoon fires a missile during RIMPAC 2020, USS Greenville arrives in Diego Garcia and USS Seawolf stops near Tromsø, Norway.

19. A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket will launch the NROL-44 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Liftoff will occur from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. This will be 141st mission for United Launch Alliance and our 29th for the NRO. It is the 385th Delta launch since 1960, the 12th Delta IV Heavy and the 8th Heavy for the NRO.

20. Taiwan Military: “The Chinese army will probably carry out 2 anti-ship ballistic missile attacks towards the South China Sea on August 26 in the morning, from 2 different bases. The impact zone mentioned in NOTAM A3325 / 20 also coincides with maritime notification 0078.”

21. Satellite imagery analysis by artificial intelligence platform MioTech shows how China's worst floods in decades have damaged the country.

22. Victorian farmers have issued a desperate call to arms for Aussie workers as a looming shortage of seasonal labour due to coronavirus threatens this year’s harvests.

23. New Zealand: Lack of foreign workers a 'disaster' for agriculture, farmers say. “The Government has told us to put inexperienced people into these big machines, because anyone can drive a tractor.”

24. Brazil outage buoys Alumina amid fruitful smelter talks. Alumina is the latest Australian company to benefit from disruptions to commodity supply in Brazil and now predicts a shortage of alumina this year.

25. US Department of State on President Erdogan’s Meeting With Hamas Leadership: “The United States strongly objects to Turkish President Erdogan hosting two Hamas leaders in Istanbul on August 22.  Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU and both officials hosted by President Erdogan are Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The U.S. Rewards for Justice Program is seeking information about one of the individuals for his involvement in multiple terrorist attacks, hijackings, and kidnappings. President Erdogan’s continued outreach to this terrorist organization only serves to isolate Turkey from the international community, harms the interests of the Palestinian people, and undercuts global efforts to prevent terrorist attacks launched from Gaza."

26. Michael Morris, 66, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for his role in operating a massive international sex trafficking organization that was responsible for coercing hundreds of Thai women to engage in commercial sex acts across the United States.