The most recent complaint was filed yesterday by California-based
Gabriele Willis and Louisiana-based Kerreisha Davis. A lawyer from their
legal team at Girard Sharp LLP, Adam Polk, told Ars that it was an
important case to stop Meta from getting away with concealing ongoing
privacy invasions. In the complaint, the legal team pointed to prior
Meta misdeeds in gathering user information without consent, noting for
the court that a Federal Trade Commission investigation resulted in a $5 billion fine for Meta.
Facebook users sue Meta for bypassing beefy Apple security to spy on millions
by
Ashley Belanger
- Sep 22, 2022 6:28 pm UTC
Ashley Belanger
/ Ashley Belanger is the senior tech policy reporter at Ars Technica,
writing news and feature stories on tech policy and innovation. She is
based in Chicago.
5 - 6 minutes
A former Google engineer reported the risk, but Meta found no privacy concern.
Meta's business model depends on selling user data to advertisers,
and it seems that the owner of Facebook and Instagram sought new paths
to continue widely gathering data and to recover from the suddenly lost
revenue. Last month, a privacy researcher and former Google engineer, Felix Krause, alleged
that one way Meta sought to recover its losses was by directing any
link a user clicks in the app to open in-browser, where Krause reported
that Meta was able to inject a code, alter the external websites, and
track "anything you do on any website," including tracking passwords,
without user consent.
Now, within the past week, two class action lawsuits [1][2]
from three Facebook and iOS users—who point directly to Krause's
research—are suing Meta on behalf of all iOS users impacted, accusing
Meta of concealing privacy risks, circumventing iOS user privacy
choices, and intercepting, monitoring, and recording all activity on
third-party websites viewed in Facebook or Instagram's browser. This
includes form entries and screenshots granting Meta a secretive pipeline
through its in-app browser to access "personally identifiable
information, private health details, text entries, and other sensitive
confidential facts"—seemingly without users even knowing the data
collection is happening.
The most recent complaint was filed yesterday by California-based
Gabriele Willis and Louisiana-based Kerreisha Davis. A lawyer from their
legal team at Girard Sharp LLP, Adam Polk, told Ars that it was an
important case to stop Meta from getting away with concealing ongoing
privacy invasions. In the complaint, the legal team pointed to prior
Meta misdeeds in gathering user information without consent, noting for
the court that a Federal Trade Commission investigation resulted in a $5 billion fine for Meta.
"Merely using an app doesn't give the app company license to look
over your shoulder when you click on a link," Polk told Ars. "This
litigation seeks to hold Meta accountable for secretly monitoring
people's browsing activity through its in-app tracking even when they
haven't allowed Meta to do that."
Meta did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment. Krause told Ars he prefers not to comment. [Update:
A Meta spokesperson provided Ars with a statement: "These allegations
are without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously. We have
carefully designed our in-app browser to respect users' privacy choices,
including how data may be used for ads."]
Meta allegedly secretly tracks data
According to the complaints, which rely on the same facts, Krause's
research "revealed that Meta has been injecting code into third-party
websites, a practice that allows Meta to track users and intercept data
that would otherwise be unavailable to it."
To investigate the potential privacy issue, Krause built a website
called inappbrowser.com, where users could "detect whether a particular
in-app browser is injecting code into third-party websites." He compared
an app like Telegram, which doesn't inject JavaScript code into
third-party websites to track user data in its in-app browser, with the
Facebook app by tracking what happens in the HTML file when a user
clicks a link.
In the case of tests run on Facebook and Instagram apps, Krause reported
that the HTML file clearly showed that "Meta uses JavaScript to alter
websites and override its users' default privacy settings by directing
users to Facebook's in-app browser instead of their pre-programmed
default web browser."
The complaints note that this tactic of injecting code seemingly
employed by Meta to "eavesdrop" on users was originally known as a
JavaScript Injection Attack. The lawsuit defines that as instances where
"a threat actor injects malicious code directly into the client-side
JavaScript. This allows the threat actor to manipulate the website or
web application and collect sensitive data, such as personally
identifiable information (PII) or payment information."
"Meta now is using this coding tool to gain an advantage over its
competitors and, in relation to iOS users, preserve its ability to
intercept and track their communications," the complaint alleges.
According to the complaints, "Meta acknowledged that it tracks
Facebook users' in-app browsing activity" when Krause reported the issue
to its bug bounty program. The complaints say that Meta also confirmed
at that time that it uses data collected from in-app browsing for
targeted advertising. . ."
Rocket Report: SpaceX fires up seven Raptors; SpinLaunch raises big funding round
by
Eric Berger
- Sep 23, 2022 4:00am MST
Eric Berger /
Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering
everything from astronomy to private space to NASA, and author of the
book Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston.
7 - 9 minutes
This is the first time the Rocket Report has used the word "yeeted" in its history.
ArianeGroup seeks European funding to develop a reusable third stage for its launch vehicles.
ArianeGroup
Welcome to Edition 5.11 of the Rocket Report! Apologies for the lack of a report last week, but I was on assignment
with the crew of the forthcoming Polaris Dawn mission. The upside is
that this week's edition is extra-long—running to 2,500 words.
As always, we welcome reader submissions,
and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box
below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site).
Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift
rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the
calendar.
SpinLaunch raises $71 million. The company
developing a launch system that uses a centrifuge as a first stage
announced this week that it has raised $71 million, Space News reports.
This brings the total funding secured by the company to $150 million,
allowing it to develop a system that accelerates vehicles to hypersonic
speeds. After the vehicles are, for lack of a better word, yeeted
upward they use conventional rocket engines to reach space. SpinLaunch
says this approach can enable a much higher flight rate than
conventional rockets while also being more environmentally friendly.
Building a bigger centrifuge ... SpinLaunch built a smaller
version of its centrifuge at Spaceport America in New Mexico, 33 meters
in diameter, for suborbital tests. The company projects beginning
orbital launches with a much larger accelerator, 100 meters across, as
soon as 2026, and presumably the new funds will get it closer to that
goal. I am interested to see if this approach works, as it is
technically feasible. However, the challenges ahead of the company are
significant. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
European launch CEO takes shots at startups. In an interview with L'Echo,
CEO André-Hubert Roussel of Europe institutional launch developer
Ariane Group took aim at the numerous launch startups around Europe,
decrying the fact that these companies were pulling resources away from
Ariane. Roussel appeared to target German microlauncher companies Rocket
Factory Augsburg, Isar Aerospace, and HyImpulse in particular, although
he did not name them directly, the Europe in Space newsletter reports.
Bringing nothing to the table? ... Roussel complained that
these companies were duplicating what was already being done in launch
and that in supporting these companies Europe was encouraging
competition that brought "nothing" in terms of innovation to the table.
Frankly, this is a really lousy attitude to have toward one's
competition, and if I'm being honest it's hard not to root for the
upstarts against the established industry.
The easiest way to keep up with Eric Berger's space
reporting is to sign up for his newsletter, we'll collect his stories in
your inbox.
Some in Michigan worry spaceport talk is all hype.
After three years and $2.5 million in public dollars to study the
creation of a spaceport in northern Michigan, some state officials are
concerned about a lack of progress, Bridge Michigan reports.
The state is still awaiting a final report from the Michigan Launch
Initiative, a part of the nonprofit Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers’
Association, which was paid $2.5 million to study building launch sites.
The concerns focus on project leader Gavin Brown, who said he secured
the contract in 2019 after pitching it privately to former Gov. Rick
Snyder at the end of his administration.
Announcement coming soon? ... State Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann
Arbor) questioned whether Brown overpromised what he can deliver. “For
me, the most important thing is for the people to get value for the
investment,” Irwin said. “He’s now produced [work] that doesn’t seem to
be worth $2.5 million.” Brown remains bullish, telling the
publication that he’ll prove critics wrong and hinting that a big
announcement is coming soon. This echoes cautionary tales we heard in
other states that were promised great riches from new spaceports.
Skyrora to launch from Canada. Scotland-based Skyrora announced this week
that it would launch its Skyrora XL rocket from a spaceport under
development in Nova Scotia by Maritime Launch Services. The three-stage
rocket is designed to loft a maximum of 350 kg into low Earth orbit, and
Skyrora completed a successful second stage static hot fire test at
Machrihanish Airbase in Scotland in August.
A transatlantic partnership ... As part of the agreement,
Maritime Launch will purchase the vehicles and vehicle support staff
from Skyrora for its satellite clients. Spaceport Nova Scotia will
provide Skyrora a launch pad, ground and operations support, public
safety services, regulatory approvals, and mission integration
facilities and staff. Much work remains, but good luck to both.
(submitted by JS)
PLD Space nears suborbital test. A Spanish company
developing a small launch vehicle says it is ready to proceed with the
launch of a suborbital mission after completing a static-fire test. PLD
Space conducted a 122-second test of its Miura 1 rocket September 15 at a
company facility in Teruel, Spain, Space News reports.
That firing, called the full mission test, came after two earlier
static-fire tests lasting 5 and 20 seconds. The series of tests
confirmed the vehicle is ready for an actual flight.
A stepping stone to orbit ... With the static-fire test
campaign complete, PLD Space is ready to proceed with the first flight
of the suborbital vehicle. That launch is scheduled for as soon as
December from the El Arenosillo site in Southwestern Spain. “Our plan is
to do two test flights,” said Raúl Verdú, chief operating officer. PLD
Space has advertised the Miura 1 as a sounding rocket that can carry 100
kilograms to an altitude of 150 kilometers, generating up to four
minutes of microgravity time. Verdú said the primary purpose of Miura 1
is to demonstrate technology for its Miura 5 orbital launch vehicle
under development. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Revisiting the 2014 crash of SpaceShipTwo. On Medium, an author who analyzes plane crashes recently called attention
to Virgin Galactic's fatal crash eight years ago. On October 31, 2014,
an experimental space plane operating for Virgin Galactic abruptly
disintegrated at an altitude of nearly 17 km during a test flight,
scattering debris over a vast area of California’s Mojave Desert.
Although one of the two test pilots was killed, the other remarkably
survived, parachuting to safety against all odds.
Falling short of the stars ... The destruction of the VSS Enterprise
and the death of one of its pilots promised to be a major setback for
the commercial space flight industry, which was then, as now, in its
infancy. I included this item in the Rocket Report not to call down
scorn upon Virgin Galactic, but rather because it is an excellent
analysis after the fact, complete with sobering photographs. It's a
reminder of the challenges in this industry that we're all following
with such avidity.
Ariane Group unveils reusable stage concept. At the International Astronautical Congress in Paris this week, ArianeGroup revealed a proposal
for a Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration, or "Susie"
vehicle. Susie is an entirely reusable rocket stage project that
replaces the payload fairing and is capable of going into space and
carrying out many different types of missions there—whether automated or
crewed—and coming back to land on Earth.
A versatile vehicle ... According to ArianeGroup, Europe's
state-funded developer of rockets, Susie would be able to fly both the
new Ariane 64 rocket as well as a launcher of the following generation,
paving the way for fully reusable launchers in the future. Missions made
possible by Susie include towing, inspecting and upgrading satellites
and other payloads, and supplying fuel, food, and equipment to space
stations. It will also be able to carry out crew changeovers and
facilitate human in-orbit activities. There was no estimate of the
costs, which likely would be in the billions of euros over many years if
ArianeGroup won such a contract. The timing is perhaps not
coincidental, with France saying it is willing to pay 25 percent more for space activities.
OneWeb nearing launch on Indian rocket. OneWeb's
latest batch of 36 broadband satellites has arrived in India ahead of
plans to launch them next month on the country’s largest rocket, Space News reports. The
British startup anticipates the commercial arm of Indian space agency
ISRO will launch the satellites on a GSLV Mark 3 rocket in October. The
mission would be the first dedicated commercial launch for ISRO’s
NewSpace India Limited using GSLV Mark 3.
Pivoting away from Russia ... OneWeb has been unable to
expand its constellation since sanctions on Russia forced Arianespace to
suspend Soyuz launches in March. Arianespace had deployed 428 of
OneWeb’s planned 648 satellites before hitting the brakes on their
19-launch contract. Arianespace had planned to carry out six more Soyuz
missions to complete the constellation. OneWeb pivoted to India and
SpaceX to launch the remaining satellites it needs to provide global
services, which the operator said will take place across five missions
before the end of spring 2023. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Rocket Lab will test engines at Stennis. Rocket Lab announced this week
that it would test its new Archimedes engine at Stennis Space Center in
Mississippi. This is the engine that will power the company's proposed
Neutron vehicle, a medium-lift rocket with a reusable first stage and
payload fairing. (The company provided more information about Neutron
during an Investor Day presentation on Wednesday). The Archimedes Test
Complex will include exclusive use and development of existing
industrial NASA infrastructure and the center’s A-3 Test Stand for 10
years, with an option to extend the lease for 10 more years.
Modernizing in Mississippi ... "Creating a test complex from
scratch to the scale and complexity needed to test and develop
Archimedes would have had an inconceivably long lead time, so the fact
that we’ve secured Stennis and can leverage its existing infrastructure
and test stand puts us on the fast-track to Neutron’s first launch,"
said Rocket Lab Founder and CEO Peter Beck. It's great to see companies
like Rocket Lab, Relativity Space, and others utilize existing
facilities at Stennis, which is finding new life as a commercial
propulsion test bed. (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin). . ."
NRRI State Policies Tracker: Clean Energy and Climate Change Policies
Many states have adopted policies intended to meet commitments to
achieve major progress towards greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and
growth in the use of clean and renewable energy.
This map summarizes those state policies that have been formalized by
legislative and executive branch actions to date. The table shown below
the map lists each jurisdiction’s decisions that are summarized in the
map.
Readers are invited to notify NRRI of any changes to be included in
the Map and Table. Please email or phone NRRI staff with any corrections
or updates.
Sources for map (Updated August 30, 2021): American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, Energy Efficiency Resource Standards [Web page, retrieved August 2021]; Clean Energy States Alliance, Guide to 100% Clean Energy States [Web page, retrieved August 2021]; District of Columbia Department of Energy & Environment, Climate Action Planning [Web page], and Code of the District of Columbia, §34–1432 – Renewable energy portfolio standard; National Conference of State Legislatures, Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Targets and Market-based Policies [Web page, updated 3/11/2021]; National Conference of State Legislatures, State Renewable Portfolio Standards and Goals [Web page,
updated 8/13/2021]; North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center,
Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, Renewable Portfolio Standards and Clean Energy Standards [Map, Updated September 2020]; and United States Climate Alliance, Inventory of Climate and Clean Energy Policies—Policies by State [Web page, reporting 2019 status of states].
Summary of map data:
Fourteen jurisdictions have goals that include by not later than 2050 both:
(1) at least 75% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions; and, (2) at
least 75% of electricity production from renewable or combined renewable
and clean energy production. Those states are designated with green
shading plus green squares (100%) or circles (75% or more) on the map.
Jurisdictions with renewable or clean energy portfolio standards
but not greenhouse gas standards are indicated on the map with yellow
shading. Four of those, indicated by blue squares, have the goal of
achieving 100% renewable or combined renewable and clean electricity by
2050 or sooner.
Many of the goals address not only electricity production and use,
but also more broadly address greenhouse gas emissions from
transportation fuels, heating fuels, and in some jurisdictions also
industrial processes.
Climate Watch, managed by the World Resources Institute, tracks up-to-date information about countries that have adopted net-zero emissions goals,
by “law, policy, or high-level political pledge such as head of state
commitment.” As of December 2021, Climate Watch reports 81 countries,
representing very nearly 3/4 of global GHG emissions, have formally
communicated net-zero emissions goals.
For utility companies, publicly announced climate commitments
reportedly exceed existing state portfolio standard requirements by a
large margin. See: Godlevskaya, Diana, Christopher S. Galik, and Noah
Kaufman, “Major US electric utility climate pledges have the potential
to collectively reduce power sector emissions by one-third,” One Earth 4(12), 2021, 1741-1751, ISSN 2590-3322, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.11.008.
Jurisdiction1
GHG Policy2
Renewable or Clean Energy Portfolio Policy3
Comments & Recent Actions
Arkansas
Energy efficiency portfolio standard only.
Under Arkansas Code § 23-4-422,
public utilities (natural gas or electric) may propose and the
Commission may approve economic development rates that meet certain
conditions.
Commissioners voted 3-2 at the January Contingency Open Meeting
to not move forward with energy rules that would have required
Arizona’s regulated electric utilities to achieve 100% carbon-free
energy by 2070. Related documents can be found in the Corporation
Commission’s online docket at https://edocket.azcc.gov. Enter docket number RU-00000A-18-0284.
Separately, the three largest regulated electric utilities all set voluntary GHG commitments for major emissions reductions.
California
Carbon neutral by 2045
33% by December 31 2020, 50% by December 31, 2026, and 60%
renewable energy by December 31, 2030. 100% renewable and zero-carbon
resources, for retail electricity sales, by 2045 (California 100 Percent Clean Energy Act of 2018)
The pathway to 90% clean electricity is mostly clear. The last 10%, not so much
by
Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News
- Sep 22, 2022 2:46 pm UTC
Dan Gearino covers the midwestern United States, part of ICN’s National
Environment Reporting Network. His coverage deals with the business side
of the clean-energy transition and he writes ICN’s Inside Clean Energy
newsletter. He came to ICN in 2018 after a nine-year tenure at The
Columbus Dispatch, where he covered the business of energy. Before that,
he covered politics and business in Iowa and in New Hampshire. He grew
up in Warren County, Iowa, just south of Des Moines, and lives in
5 - 6 minutes
Six different approaches—with pros and cons—for getting to a 100% carbon-free grid
The United States gets about 40 percent of
its electricity from carbon-free sources, including renewables and
nuclear, and researchers have a pretty good idea of how to
cost-effectively get to about 90 percent.
But that last 10 percent? It gets expensive, and there is little agreement about how to do it.
A new paper in the journal Joule
identifies six approaches for achieving that last 10 percent, including
a reliance on wind and solar, a build-out of nuclear power, and
development of long-term energy storage using hydrogen.
This isn’t a matter of one pathway winning
out over the others, said Trieu Mai, the paper’s lead author and senior
energy researcher for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in
Golden, Colorado.
“A 100 percent carbon-free power system
will require a portfolio of resources,” he said. “But humility is needed
to accept that we don’t know what the optimal mix to solving the last
10 percent” is going to be.
The larger point, he said, is that
researchers and industry need to be doing the work now to figure out
which technologies are the most viable in order to meet the goal, set by
the Biden administration, to get to net-zero emissions in the
electricity sector by 2035.
Here are the six options from the paper, along with what I see as their pluses and minuses:
Wind and solar power with short-term energy storage and an expansion of interstate power lines.
Pluses: Low costs and the technology is already available. Minuses: To
be available around the clock, wind and solar need to work alongside
energy storage systems, so this is a package deal. Also, the country
will need a major expansion of interstate power lines to deliver wind
and solar, a prospect that is costly and politically fraught. And, the
growth of wind and solar requires a lot of open land, which has led to conflicts at the local level in communities that don’t want to host the projects.
Other renewables, including geothermal, hydropower, and biomass. Pluses:
The technologies are already available, and they can operate around the
clock. Minuses: Relatively high costs. Geothermal has limits in where
it can be built. Hydropower is vulnerable to falling water levels, and
construction of new hydropower plants could be a danger to ecosystems.
Biomass, which includes power plants that burn wood, is controversial
because of the loss of trees and a disagreement about whether it should
be considered a carbon-free energy source.
Nuclear, along with fossil fuels and carbon capture.
Pluses: Nuclear is a vital part of today’s mix of carbon-free
electricity, which shows how the technology could be used in a future
grid. Fossil fuel plants, if they could be retrofitted with carbon
capture technology, are well-suited to providing peak power. Both can
operate around the clock. Minuses: Nuclear is expensive and has a lot of
baggage in terms of safety concerns. As for carbon capture, the
technology has not been deployed successfully on a large scale, and it
has been dismissed by some analysts as too expensive and inefficient.
(The NREL report put these two resources in the same category because of
some common traits, including 24-7 capability and high upfront costs
and medium operational costs.)
Long-duration energy storage using hydrogen.
Pluses: The idea is that energy companies would use renewable energy to
produce hydrogen from water, and then the hydrogen could be stored in
vast caverns. During times of high electricity demand, the hydrogen
could be released and burned to power a gas turbine or a fuel cell. If
this could be done cheaply enough and stored in large enough quantities,
it’s an opportunity to replicate the role of natural gas power plants
in today’s grid. Minuses: Of all of the six, this may be the farthest
away from being ready for the market, so talk of its benefits and
drawbacks involve a lot of speculation.
Carbon dioxide removal.
Pluses: This covers a variety of approaches to removing carbon from the
environment, including direct air capture and tree-planting. Even if
this doesn’t end up being a major part of reducing emissions in the
electricity sector, it could be an essential in other sectors, like
heavy industry, that are more difficult to decarbonize. Minuses: Some
carbon removal technologies are expensive relative to other options, and
it’s not clear that they would work on the scale needed.
Reducing electricity demand.
Pluses: Low costs. As energy conservation advocates like to say, it is
much cheaper to conserve a kilowatt-hour than it is to generate one.
Minuses: Energy conservation measures, which include a gamut of programs
and technologies, can be complicated to implement and require buy-in
from policymakers and consumers.
The “last 10 percent” challenge is nothing new. What is new is the need to serve the last 10 percent with carbon-free resources.
In the current grid, more than one-third
of the country’s power plant capacity is needed to meet roughly the last
10 percent of demand, according to the NREL paper. This means there are
hundreds of power plants that sit idle most of the time but are an
essential resource for making sure that there is enough electricity to
meet demand on the hottest and coldest days of the year.
Much of this “peak power” is provided by
natural gas power plants, which can ramp up and down on short notice.
But those plants will need to close or find a way to store their
emissions in a carbon-free grid.
The paper is diplomatic as it wades into some of the most contentious debates in the energy world.
A growing segment of energy researchers
say that the electricity system can run on 100 percent renewable
energy, which would mean renewables and energy storage would provide the
last 10 percent. This approach sees no good reason to build new nuclear
plants or to use carbon capture systems on fossil fuel plants, citing
high costs and a variety of other concerns.
At the same time, a sizable group of
energy researchers maintain that nuclear and carbon capture are
essential parts of getting to carbon-free electricity. This side has
doubts about the ability of renewable sources to meet all needs, citing
concerns about the availability of land and the intermittent nature of
wind and solar. They note that wind and solar are not a low-cost option
when taking into account the amounts of storage and power line capacity
needed to make those resources reliable for meeting peak demand.
Mai acknowledged the strong feelings surrounding some of these questions.
“We just want people to recognize that
within each option, there are tradeoffs,” he said. “We recognize the
degree of uncertainty with all of these technologies, and we need to lay
that out on the table.”
Also, he pointed out that the paper is
asking a specific question about meeting the last 10 percent of
electricity demand and that there is a separate, and also important,
question about the right mix of resources for getting to 90 percent
carbon-free electricity.
To get to 90 percent, roughly double the
current share, he thinks wind, solar, and battery storage will play
major roles, along with additional interstate power lines.
So it’s possible to say that the country
should have much more renewable energy than it does today, and also say
that it’s an open question whether wind and solar are well-suited to
provide the last 10 percent.
Within all of this is something
encouraging: Researchers and energy companies have figured out how to
start the transition to 100 percent carbon-free electricity, and they
have a pretty good idea of what the in-between steps will look like.
Now, they are beginning to dig deep on how this journey to a carbon-free
grid may end.
Inside Clean Energy
is ICN’s weekly bulletin of news and analysis about the energy
transition. Send news tips and questions to
dan.gearino@insideclimatenews.org.
". . .Since the outbreak of hostilities, Ukraine has been trying to present
Russia’s actions to the ‘international community’ as an attack by a
great power on a small state that is unable to defeat the huge Russian
army because it has never had aggressive intentions either against the
Russian Federation or any other country. This statement is refuted by ‘Ukraine’s Military Security Strategy’, which states in black and white, for example, that KI’ve may enter into a war with the Russian Federation if Russia tries to “keep the Republic of Belarus in its sphere of political influence.”
The
goal of Ukraine’s accession to NATO is also clearly outlined. Of
course, as a sovereign state, Ukraine has the right to join any
international organization. But the issue is that Kiev sees the goal of
NATO membership as the US-led bloc’s participation in a war against
Russia. This has been confirmed by an adviser to the president of
Ukraine, Alexey Arestovich, who, in explaining the purpose of the
DEFENDER Europe 2021 exercises, stated that “in
the waters from the Baltic to the Black Sea, we are working out – let’s
not beat around the bush – how to carry out an armed conflict with
Russia, a war with Russia.”
Leaked documents expose Ukrainian attempts to destabilize Russia and draw NATO into a full-scale war with Moscow
By Olga Sukharevskaya, ex-Ukrainian diplomat
12 - 15 minutes
Plans concocted by the special services reveal Kiev’s aggressive strategy over many years
The best defense is a good offence. So goes one of the oldest principles of international relations.
And
as Ukrainian documents now at the disposal of the media show, Moscow
apparently had something to defend itself from when it launched its
offensive in Ukraine. Over the past eight years, Kiev’s military and
special services have been preparing numerous operations aimed at
undermining Russia’s international ties, and internal peace itself.
In June, a hacker Telegram channel dubbed ‘Beregini’ published the action plan
of the Information and Psychological Operations Department of the Armed
Forces of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SSO). According to
official information, the tasks of this unit include working with the
population of foreign countries, creating agent networks, and
infiltrating special services and military organizations to conduct
espionage and destroy people who pose a threat to the Ukrainian
government (including in other countries), as well as preparing coups
and the overthrow of regimes.
The SSO plan was prepared back in
2017, and this is just one of many similar secret documents created by
Ukrainian spooks. It was just one that became public. But the presence
of these plans and the real political and military steps taken by
Ukraine, which coincide with SSO programs to a surprising extent,
indicate that KI’ve has been actively carrying out anti-Russian
activities since at least 2014, when a Western-backed coup took place in
the country.
Sowers of Unrest
✓ When
studying the Ukrainian plan from 2017, the first thing that catches the
eye is the variety of operations aimed at creating a split in Russian
society.
Operation ‘Zaslon’ describes a scheme to influence the
family members of Donbass soldiers and militiamen, as well as Russian
army personnel. The operation’s main goals include blocking military
units and encouraging desertion and resignations in the militaries of
‘Eastern,’ the document’s code word for Russia and the Donbass
republics.
In the event of an outbreak of hostilities, a
transition to Operation ‘Bolotnaya Square’ was planned. This consists of
cultivating distrust of Russia’s military and political leadership
among the country’s population, as well as fomenting dissent “against the aggressive policy of the ‘Eastern’ president and his entourage,” in order to incite mass protests.
Ukraine’s
actual actions confirm the authenticity of these plans. Even after
Crimea’s reunification with Russia, Russian citizens could be found who
sided with Kiev.
It is noteworthy that in 2018, a fake news story
claiming that 300 people had died in a fire at Kemerovo’s Winter Cherry
shopping center originated in Ukraine. No less revealing is the story
of a Ukrainian Special Forces employee who called on Russians to protest against “pension genocide,” but forgot to change his Ukrainian IP address.
Goal: Undermine Morale
The number of Ukrainian sympathizers in Russia is unlikely to have increased this year. Sociological studies
indicate that citizens’ support for the Russian government has only
been growing. By the beginning of the summer, 72 percent of Russians
supported the military campaign, while Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s popularity rating had risen, settling at 82 percent.
But
if Ukraine has failed in killing support for the offensive, it doesn’t
mean it hasn’t tried. For example, the command of Ukraine’s Special
Operations Forces has been implementing the ‘Smuta’ project
since January of 2022. The documentation contains a detailed report on
materials published in the Russian media and social networks aimed at
destabilizing the country, provoking discontent among its population,
and discrediting the authorities.
After the outbreak of
hostilities, Operation ‘Steppe Wind’ was activated. As stated in the SSO
documents, its task is to demoralize the enemy and create tension
between the Russian military and DPR and LPR fighters. According to Oleg
Matveichev, a professor at the Higher School of Economics, “in
fact, there are about 80,000 accounts maintained by Ukrainian students
[on the Russian-language internet], but they pretend to be locals:
‘ordinary residents’ of Penza, Kurgan, Chita, and Khabarovsk.”
Relatives of Russian servicemen have been terrorized by telephone scammers who report the death of their loved ones in Ukraine or demand money
for their “release from captivity.” As reported by ombudsman Tatiana
Moskalkova, relatives of Russian soldiers have also received videos
showing prisoners being abused. The Ukrainian special services have created several Telegram channels,
where unverified data on Russian casualties and prisoners is published.
The Ombudsman also said she has received more than 100 appeals
concerning prisoners of war, of which about half have been confirmed.
‘Gentle Dew’ of Grads
Operation
‘Gentle Dew’, which is aimed at residents of territories not controlled
by Ukraine, deserves special mention. Its mission is to “form
pro-Ukrainian sentiment among the population of the occupied territories
and encourage protest movements directed against the ‘Eastern’ and the
occupation authorities.”
However, there has been no success
in implementing this plan. The main reason for this lies in the
difference between Kiev’s and the Donbass republics’ views on and
approaches to the possible reintegration of the regions with Ukraine. In
March 2021, President Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree approving a
‘Strategy for De-occupation and Reintegration of the Temporarily
Occupied Territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of
Sevastopol.’ The document, which consists of 158 paragraphs, will give
you an idea of how the authorities in Kiev intend to treat the residents
of the regions that have left Ukraine.
The document proposes to exclude persons who “were part of or collaborated with the occupation administrations”
from holding any position in government or civil service. This is a
very wide range of people, ranging from members of the 2014 referendum
commissions to teachers and doctors working in municipal schools and
hospitals. ‘De-occupation’ also involves extending the statute of
limitations on criminal cases that were conducted by Ukrainian police
before the referendum on the return of Crimea to Russia, as well as
pursuing criminal cases within the competence of the Security Service of
Ukraine.
Translated from legal to layman’s language, this means
purposeful persecution of all officials who worked in Crimea in February
2014, as well as participants in mass rallies supporting the
reunification of Crimea with Russia, volunteers who helped DPR and LPR
residents during the civil war, and so on.
While opening
opportunities for the residents of Crimea and Donbass to study at
Ukrainian universities, Kiev refuses to recognize any educational
documents obtained on the peninsula. The question of whether these
conditions will make residents of Crimea and Donbass want to return to
Ukraine is purely rhetorical.
While it is unknown whether the SSO intends to continue implementing
its plan to foster pro-Ukrainian sentiment among the residents of Crimea
and Donbass, we do know for sure that the Ukrainian side sharply
increased its attacks on cities in these regions after the start of
Russia’s Special Military Operation. So far, this ‘Gentle Dew’ has only fallen on the region in the form of MLRS Grad shells and Tochka U missiles.
On the Hills of Manchuria
Ukraine’s
SSO has also carried out several special operations in the foreign
policy field. One of them is operation ‘Caspian’, whose purpose is to
sow and deepen disagreements between the Russian Federation and certain
‘Fawn,’ which are presumably countries in the Caspian region. The
operation is to be considered successful if it leads to “actions indicating the refusal of ‘Fawn’ from interacting with ‘Eastern’.”
In
general, it is difficult to assess where the line lies between
Ukraine’s efforts to disrupt Russia’s relations with its partners and
the natural difficulties that arise in the dialogue between any
countries. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that during the riots that
took place in Kazakhstan in January this year, at least some of the
protesters’ actions were coordinated with Ukraine, where Kazakh oppositionists found refuge.
Operation
‘Manchurian Hills’ aims to worsen Russia’s diplomatic relations with
the countries of the Far East. This Ukrainian special services’ plan has
been designed to persuade Moscow that its eastern neighbors are
potential threats, thereby provoking Russia to increase its military
presence in the region.
If we analyze the content of the ‘Strategy of Ukraine’s Foreign Policy Activity’ adopted
in July 2021, we can see not the defensive, but the aggressively
offensive nature of Kiev’s foreign policy actions. For example, to offer
experience “acquired over years of countering Russian aggression”
to NATO countries and the Baltic-Black Sea region. Or to assist in
fighting Russian “disinformation” in neighboring countries, to support
the “people of Belarus,” to “democratize” Russia itself, and to
strengthen “pressure on and deterrence of the Russian Federation on the basis of a broad international coalition.” This, by the way, is also included in SSO plans called ‘The Voice of Reason’.
Even in bilateral relations, where Ukraine should seemingly focus on
developing trade, industrial cooperation, and cultural exchanges, the
Foreign Ministry is tasked with “ensuring support from African and Middle Eastern states in countering the aggression of the Russian Federation.”
Epilogue
Since
the outbreak of hostilities, Ukraine has been trying to present
Russia’s actions to the ‘international community’ as an attack by a
great power on a small state that is unable to defeat the huge Russian
army because it has never had aggressive intentions either against the
Russian Federation or any other country. This statement is refuted by ‘Ukraine’s Military Security Strategy’, which states in black and white, for example, that KI’ve may enter into a war with the Russian Federation if Russia tries to “keep the Republic of Belarus in its sphere of political influence.”
The
goal of Ukraine’s accession to NATO is also clearly outlined. Of
course, as a sovereign state, Ukraine has the right to join any
international organization. But the issue is that Kiev sees the goal of
NATO membership as the US-led bloc’s participation in a war against
Russia. This has been confirmed by an adviser to the president of
Ukraine, Alexey Arestovich, who, in explaining the purpose of the
DEFENDER Europe 2021 exercises, stated that “in
the waters from the Baltic to the Black Sea, we are working out – let’s
not beat around the bush – how to carry out an armed conflict with
Russia, a war with Russia.”
Although, back in 2017, the SSO
created a ‘Voice of Reason’ plan, which included a task to ensure that
“statements confirming readiness to negotiate a peaceful settlement of
the situation” appeared in the West. In fact, the West never rejected
this idea. After the outbreak of hostilities, it was Kiev that refused
peace talks, preferring to wage war with Russia. Ukrainian President
Vladimir Zelensky repeated
this policy line in Paris, stressing that the conditions for
negotiating with Russia hadn’t yet “matured,” as he wanted to take a
“stronger position.”
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