#PutinKills Unknown Soldiers in the Undeclared War

Sep 29 2015

During last week, we kept telling you that ‪#‎PutinKills‬ reminds us about ordinary people who became victims of Putin’s regime in Russia. Earlier today, Vladimir Putin delivered his speech at the UN General Assembly, and we would like to share with you one more story – the story of unknown Russian soldiers.

The Russian authorities claim that there are no Russian troops in Ukraine. We know it’s their biggest lie, Russian military actions in Ukraine were confirmed by many sources including both the “Putin. War” report and the Atlantic Council’s report “Hiding in plain sight: Putin’s war in Ukraine”.

At the same time, in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions Ukrainians have to bury Russian soldiers, the so-called ‘volunteers’ who were cheated by their commanders and under the pretext of ‘military exercises’ were brought to Ukraine and were forced to fight.

As a result, all those military men have no names, no ranks, no dates of birth on their graves. There are only their numbers or the nicknames under which they were known to colleagues. Their relatives can not come and say goodbye to their loved ones.

Even if the family managed to take the body, the Russian authorities prevent the disclosure of the losses of the Russian army in the Ukraine and the fact of participation of its soldiers in this war: military graves are hidden, and the names and dates of birth of the victims are replaced by numbers or nameless monuments.

Moreover, Russia has adopted the law, by which any fact of promulgation of the victims of the Russian invasion in Ukraine is a state crime.

This is our last blog dedicated to #PutinKills campaign. But we will continue to raise awareness about the crimes of Vladimir Putin’s regime. Stay with us – share the truth.

The Russian authorities claim that there are no Russian troops in Ukraine. We know it’s their biggest lie, Russian military actions in Ukraine were confirmed by many sources including both the “Putin. War” report and the Atlantic Council’s report “Hiding in plain sight: Putin’s war in Ukraine”.

At the same time, in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions Ukrainians have to bury Russian soldiers, the so-called ‘volunteers’ who were cheated by their commanders and under the pretext of ‘military exercises’ were brought to Ukraine and were forced to fight.

As a result, all those military men have no names, no ranks, no dates of birth on their graves. There are only their numbers or the nicknames under which they were known to colleagues. Their relatives can not come and say goodbye to their loved ones.

Even if the family managed to take the body, the Russian authorities prevent the disclosure of the losses of the Russian army in the Ukraine and the fact of participation of its soldiers in this war: military graves are hidden, and the names and dates of birth of the victims are replaced by numbers or nameless monuments.

Moreover, Russia has adopted the law, by which any fact of promulgation of the victims of the Russian invasion in Ukraine is a state crime.

This is our last blog dedicated to #PutinKills campaign. But we will continue to raise awareness about the crimes of Vladimir Putin’s regime. Stay with us – share the truth.

Free Russia Foundation supports a protest letter to CFR over a tainted donation from a Kremlin-connected oligarch Len Blavatnik

Oct 09 2019

Free Russia Foundation supports a protest letter to CFR over a tainted donation from a Kremlin-connected oligarch Len Blavatnik

More

Coalition For Sovereign Elections Calls on the OSCE to Highlight ‘Creeping Annexation’ of Georgia on the Upcoming Human Dimension Implementation Meeting

Sep 11 2019

On September 16, 2019, the “Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM)” will take place in Warsaw. More

To the attention of:

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Miroslav Lajčák
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President, George Tsereteli
OSCE Democratic Institutions and Human Rights office Director, Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir

September 10, 2019

APPEAL

On September 16, 2019, the “Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM)” will take place in Warsaw. This meeting serves as a platform for the 57 OSCE participating States, the OSCE Partners for Co-operation, OSCE structures, civil society, international organizations and other relevant actors to take stock of the implementation of OSCE human dimension commitments, discuss associated challenges, share good practices and make recommendations for further improvement.

The Working Group of the “Coalition for Sovereign Elections” – Georgia 2020, express it’s gratitude to the OSCE Permanent Council for the distributed statement covering current situation on the occupation lines in Georgia. At the same time we call on OSCE Leadership as well as the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to include “Ongoing aggression of the Kremlin in Georgia” in the Agenda of the Meeting and respectfully invite the Permanent Representative of Georgia to OSCE H.E. David Dondua to report on events taking place on the so-called border with occupied Tskhinvali region.

Since August 7, 2019 – the eleventh anniversary of the Russia-Georgia war – the occupation regime has been continuously carrying out illegal and unjustified provocations against Georgia. Since the beginning of August, a new wave of borderization and creeping annexation in the Gugutiantkari village has caused Georgian citizens to lose their homes again.

At the moment, the situation has gone beyond the level of provocations that Georgia is used to during the last 11 years of its occupation. The Kremlin-backed unrecognized regime has been directly threatening Georgia with a military conflict for several days, recalling the 2008 Russian-Georgian war. The threats come amid the process of borderization and kidnapping of Georgian citizens (nine people have been kidnapped since the beginning of the August). Soldiers and military equipment of the occupying forces have been stationed directly near the demarcation line.

Recently, occupying forces also closed the checkpoint between Tskhinvali region and territory under Georgian jurisdiction permanently prohibiting the free movement of local citizens. In the last few days, they moved their military point 1.2 kilometers further into Georgian territory, thus expanding their occupation line. The regime has published a map that totally differs from the one that was negotiated by all sides and that is still used by the EU Monitoring Mission. According to this map, more and more Georgian villages will be occupied.

The Russian forces, in cooperation with the KGB of the so-called South Ossetia implement described actions.

As a reminder, “security” of the occupied region of Georgia (so-called South Ossetia) is provided by the Russian Federation. Mr. Oleg Shiran, a former Russian “FSB” officer, heads the KGB of the occupied Tskhinvali region. This means that the Russian government is the only actor responsible for the violations of international law and direct aggression against Georgia. The fact that the new wave of aggression is controlled from the Kremlin is also clearly visible by the campaign of lies in the Russian media actively broadcasting news about “elections” in Abkhazia and “provocations of Georgians.”

Further, the Russian side itself is engaged in provocations. The situation is very tense, more than at any other time since the war in 2008. Georgia is working at all levels to de-escalate situation, as well as to inform the international community about the new developments of unjustified aggression from the side of occupying forces. Without an immediate and
unequivocal response from the international society, which includes the OSCE and other interested actors, the occupying regime will not stop unpunished provocations against a sovereign State.

We respectfully call on participants of the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting to highlight these topics during the conference in Warsaw and prepare joint statement and concrete recommendations for Georgian government as well as European institutions on new effective mechanisms to counter aggression of the Kremlin in Georgia and human rights violations that take place on the occupied territory and occupation lines.

The statement is issued on behalf of the “Coalition for Sovereign Elections”:

The working group of “Coalition for Sovereign Elections” consists of well-known Georgian experts, journalists, activists and NGO representatives and take focus on external influence in Georgia. 09.10.2019

Contact person: Egor Kuroptev, Director of the “Free Russia Foundation” on South Caucasus egor.kuroptev@4freerussia.org

Ambassador Valeri Chechelashvili – expert;
Mr. Andro Gotsiridze – Founder of the Cyber Security Studies and Education Center;
Mr. Egor Kuroptev – Representative of the Free Russia Foundation on South Caucasus; author of the Border Zone media project;
Mr. Volodymyr Kopchak – Head of the Southern Caucasian Branch of the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (CACDS);
Mr. Lasha Khatiashvili – affiliated analyst at the Georgian Strategic Analysis Center;
Mr. Nikolai Levshits – Fellow of the Free Russia Foundation;
Mr. Tengiz Pkhaladze – Senior Fellow of the International Centre for Geopolitical Studies;
Dr. Tornike Sharashenidze – Co-Founder of the Georgian Strategic Analysis Center;
Mr. Vladimer Svanadze – Chairman of the board at the Internet Development Initiative;
Mr. Gela Vasadze – Senior Fellow of the Georgia-Caucasus Strategic Studies Institute;
Mr. Nika Chitadze – expert;
Ms. Teona Akubardia.

Moscow and St. Petersburg Candidates Call on the OSCE to Monitor Regional Elections

Aug 22 2019

On 8 September 2019 Russia’s largest cities – Moscow and St. Petersburg – will hold elections, respectively, for the City Duma and municipal councils. More

Coalition for Sovereign Elections Calls International Community to Give Strong Immediate Reaction on Aggression of the Kremlin in Georgia

Aug 18 2019

Working group of the “Coalition for Sovereign Elections” calls International community to give strong immediate reaction on aggression of the Kremlin in Georgia. More

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 18, 2019

We call international community to give strong immediate and clear reaction on events taking place on the so-called border with occupied Tskhinvali region in Georgia. Russian FSB forces kidnapped eight Georgian citizens during the last 24 hours (Aug 17, 2019 – Aug 18, 2019). In parallel, from the 7th of August, Kremlin continues creeping occupation of Georgian territories. It’s unacceptable.

It’s already clear that this aggression is the provocation against Georgian people, as well as sovereignty of the country. Kremlin tries to destabilize situation in Georgia using all the possible tools: supported media outlets in Georgia as well as outside of the country; supported politicians and activists; nationalistic campaigns; propaganda; and now – direct aggression against Georgian people.

We express our gratitude to diplomats in Georgia for their reactions, but it’s not enough. We call leaders and governments of the Free World to express strong official positions in this regard. To develop sanctions list against the Kremlin and it’s allies to support Georgian territorial integrity and sovereignty. To call Security Council to discuss ongoing aggression of Russian government in Georgia. Immediately.

“Yesterday”, they placed their bases on Georgian territories. After – they did it in Crimea. What’s next? We call for immediate response to the Kremlin’s aggression in Georgia.

Statement is distributed on behalf of the working group of the
“Coalition for Sovereign Elections”:

Ambassador Valeri Chechelashvili – Senior Fellow of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies
Mr. Andro Gotsiridze – Founder of the Cyber Security Studies and Education Center
Mr. Egor Kuroptev – Representative of the Free Russia Foundation on South Caucasus; author of the Border Zone media project
Mr. Volodymyr Kopchak – Head of the Southern Caucasian Branch of the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (CACDS)
Mr. Lasha Khatiashvili – affiliated analyst at the Georgian Strategic Analysis Center
Mr. Nikolai Levshits – Fellow of the Free Russia Foundation
Mr. Tengiz Pkhaladze – Senior Fellow of the International Centre for Geopolitical Studies
Dr. Tornike Sharashenidze – Co-Founder of the Georgian Strategic Analysis Center
Mr. Vladimer Svanadze – Chairman of the board at the Internet Development Initiative
Mr. Gela Vasadze – Senior Fellow of the Georgia-Caucasus Strategic Studies Institute

Contact: Egor Kuroptev, Representative of the Free Russia Foundation on South Caucasus. Tbilisi, Georgia. 08.18.2019.

FRF has seen increased targeting by sophisticated cyber and legislative attacks by the Kremlin in recent months

Aug 15 2019

FRF was reportedly one of 30 organizations subjected to phishing attacks on the highly-encrypted ProtonMail servers and remains under a barrage of Kremlin propaganda amid massive protests in Moscow. More

FRF was reportedly one of 30 organizations subjected to phishing attacks on the highly-encrypted ProtonMail servers and remains under a barrage of Kremlin propaganda amid massive protests in Moscow.

In recent months, FRF email accounts associated with ProtonMail and Gmail have been under a barrage of sophisticated phishing attempts to gain access to our private account information. According to reports in Bellingcat and The Insider, themselves victims of this attack, FRF was one of 30 ProtonMail users that were targeted in attempted phishing hacks. The list of targets under attack by the sophisticated operation carried out against the Swiss-based mail service included NGOs and think tanks, including Free Russia Foundation (FRF), and investigative journalists/activist researchers that expose aggressive Russian intelligence operations against Western democracies. According to Bellingcat’s research, the most likely perpetrator behind this attack is the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, that has already been caught in multiple illegal hacking operations against the US and its EU allies. Reportedly, Swiss, French and Dutch law enforcement are investigating the details of the latest attack. In a statement by ProtonMail, it is suggested that the cyberattacks were carried out by “Fancy Bear,” which is commonly thought to be a front for the GRU.

Over the last few months, Kremlin propaganda networks have initiated a barrage of public and discreet attacks on FRF and its staff. This has included statements made by the General Prosecutor’s office that FRF, among other foreign groups, have been responsible for organizing recent rallies in Russia. While we applaud those facing down police brutality, the organic rallies of up to 60,000 Russians in Moscow and elsewhere have been in protest against the illegal removal of several non-Kremlin allied candidates from the Moscow city ballot; they were not organized by foreign actors.

FRF has also been the subject of several recent breathless news reports suggesting our promotion of democracy, led by Russians for Russians is somehow treasonous. This came on the heels of June 28, 2019 designation by the Ministry of Justice and the General Prosecutor’s office that FRF is an “undesirable” organization, one of 18 international organizations banned from direct activities in Russia. (FRF statement on the “undesirable” designation)

Rosfinmonitoring, Russian Financial service, absurdly attempted to accuse a member of FRF staff of being a suspect in financial transaction with ISIL (Islamic State). Ironically, this low-quality fabrication was revealed just at the time when FRF was finalizing its ground-breaking report “Misrule of Law” on the Kremlin’s interference in judicial and law enforcement processes in the West.

This spring, Russian State Duma officials and Kremlin-sponsored media falsely accused FRF of plotting and instigating anti-Russian protests in Tbilisi, Georgia, through our recently-opened office there.

“The fact that our analysts are targets of such illegal hacking and slander attacks alongside the best Western investigators of Russian aggression only confirms to us that we are doing the right thing as we expose the crimes of this kleptocratic regime. The whole world sees the brutality and stupidity of the Kremlin’s attempts to suppress genuine protests of tens of thousands of ordinary Muscovites and other Russian citizens. The Free Russia Foundation will continue its objective analysis of ongoing developments despite any attempts to impede our work,” said Natalia Arno, Founder and President of the FRF.

For more information, contact Natalia Arno at natalia.arno@4freerussia.org