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Russias security services are accusing Ukrainian spies of trying to recruit Crimeans en masse for a nefarious purpose: ruining the tourist season on the annexed peninsula.

Moscow took over Crimea in 2014 in a move that is still opposed by a majority of countries at the United Nations. Since then, Russia has attempted to transform the peninsulas reputation, hoping it will be seen asa tourism hub rather than a contested territory. Officials have called on Russians to visit the seaside region by the millions, and flashy ads that promise fun for the whole family air on Russian TV.

Read More: Russian agents detained in Ukraine after getting lost at sea during drill

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It is now more than halfway through July, however, and the Russian Security Services (FSB) claim Ukrainian chicanery might be to blame for the lackluster tourism figures this year. Russian tourism operators said earlier this month that just over a million Russians had visitted Crimea in the first half of 2017around a fifth of government annual projectionswhiledemand isdown versus last year by 30 percent.

Ukraine is not interested in Crimea having its tourist season, Viktor Palagin, the FSB chief in the region, told Russian news agency Interfax on Tuesday. They are setting up obstacles to this.

The plan, as Palagin tells it, involved Ukraines Security Services (SBU) and Defense Ministry, which have set up recruitment points on the administrative border between Crimea and the rest of Ukraine.

Crimeans are forced to pass through these points, Palagin said, without giving an example of where some of these are situated. Figures of influence in the de facto Russian authorities controlling the region are of particular interest, he said: More or less managers of even the lowest rung of the ladder face recruitment.

According to Palagin, the FSB receives requests and grants pardons for Crimean residents who have been accused of falling prey to foreign intelligence due to such recruitment points.

Fascinated with Palagins story, Russias RBC news channel asked a Crimean coach driver if he had spotted anything that resembles a recruitment point during his travels.

I have never seen any SBU recruitment points on the Crimea border, he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Nobody is even put through additional checks.

Some Ukrainians could not take Palagins claims seriously. Of course they are recruiting, one user wrote on Facebook. And whoever wont cooperate is shot.

I saw exactly that myself, another user wrote. They take you from your car and directly into the national guard. The user then listed a series of gruesome (and famously debunked) Russian accusations about life in Ukraine.

Yes, thats what were like, another user posted, while a fourth begged the question whether the FSB is then admitting that the SBU is better at spying, since SBU guys can turn FSB. Another briefly concluded: this is sad.

See original here:
Russian Security Forces Say Ukraine's Spies Are Ruining Summer In Crimea - Newsweek

Tougher talk from Washington.

When candidate Donald Trump made overtures to Russia during the 2016 election campaign, a grand bargain between the two nations -- U.S. acquiescence to Russian depredations in Ukraine in exchange for help in defeating Islamic State in Syria -- looked like a possible scenario under a Trump presidency. No one expected the U.S. to take a tougher line on Ukraine and yield Syria to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yet that's what appears to be going on now, but more by accident than as part of any consistent U.S. strategy.

When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson picked Kurt Volker as the U.S. special representative for Ukraine, he signaled a tougher approach toward Russia's Ukrainian adventures. An old friend of that biggest of Russia hawks, Senator John McCain, Volker traveled to eastern Ukraine andlaid outa set of views that will be highly inconvenient both to the Kremlin and to its longtime negotiating partners on the Ukraine crisis, Germany and France.

QuickTake Standoff in Ukraine

He said that, unlike under the Obama administration, the U.S. was no longer averse to supplying Ukraine with weapons -- something for which Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has long lobbied.The decision isn't made yet, but, according to Volker, it wouldn't "provoke Russia to do more than they are already doing, and it also isn't going to change any kind of balance that way." Instead, the weapons would allow Ukraine to defend itself against further Russian aggression. "Russia says it won't do that and isn't doing that, so then there should be no risk to anybody, if that's the case," Volker said.

He also appeared to buy the Ukrainian position on several important points of contention: That Russia alone is hindering the resolution of the conflict under the Minsk agreements, that it needs to pull out its forces before "a basis of governance going forward" is created in eastern Ukraine, and that it's the pro-Russian rebels who are blocking supplies to civilians in the regions from the rest of Ukraine. As the European negotiators -- and Victoria Nuland, Volker's predecessor as the State Department's point person on Ukraine -- well know, it's not as simple as that.

Ukraine has been unable to legislate on elections in the separatist-held areas, with the key political forces in Ukraine demanding that control of Ukraine's eastern border be restored to it first -- a condition not included in the Minsk agreement. And it's Ukrainian nationalists, with reluctant support from the government, who have cut off economic ties with the separatist regions.

Volker is an experienced diplomat, and his pointed message to Russia is no gaffe: It's the new U.S. policy of "more engagement," as Volker understands it. The idea appears to be a full revision of the Minsk agreement to force Russia to comply with Ukrainian demands, using arms supplies to Ukraine to raise the cost of continued conflict for Russia.

In Syria, by contrast, the Trump administration has been accommodating to Russia. The Central Intelligence Agency's line,pushedby Director Mike Pompeo, is to counteract Russian influence there, as well as the emerging Russia-Iran axis. But Trump clearly doesn't buy it: He hasdefundedthe CIA program thatarmed Syrian rebels fighting the Russian-supported regime, doing the opposite of what Volker appears to propose in Ukraine.

The U.S. policy in Syria is a continuation of Obama's -- effectively to let Russia deal with it. Russia, while paying lip service to Syria's integrity, has been working to split the country into regime-controlled and rebel-controlled areas, freezing the conflict as Minsk largely froze the one in eastern Ukraine. After fighting fiercely to gain more territory for the rebels at the expense of Islamic State, the U.S. appears happy to go along.

If Russian President Vladimir Putin engaged in Syria to strengthen his bargaining position on Ukraine --as many, myself included, suspected at the time -- he didn't quite get what he want. But what he's getting from the U.S. is even better for him -- and worse for U.S. strategic interests.

If the U.S. arms Ukraine, the Kremlin's propaganda claims that the eastern Ukrainian war is actually a proxy conflict with the U.S. which is trying to tear the Slavic community apart would be that much more credible and that much more support-mobilizing ahead of the 2018 presidential election. While increasing the cost of further support for the separatists, it would make themmore politically acceptable andcould lead to Russianrecognition of eastern Ukraine's puppet "people's republics," a collapse of Minsk and more deadly clashes, still as unlikely as ever to end in Ukraine's favor.Putin has tolerated the Minsk process, believing that time is on his side, but more U.S. meddling may prompt him to seek closure.

U.S. concessions in Syria, meanwhile, set Russia up as an equal to the U.S. in the Middle East. Local players must now deal with both sides. Turkey'sdecisionto buy Russia's S-400 anti-aircraft missiles, heavily advertised by the Kremlin during the Syrian conflict, is onerecent result.

Now, it appears the Trump administration wants to be more involvedin the former Soviet republic, where it has feweconomic or geopolitical interests, than in the Muslim world where Russia's influence is growing. Being tough on Russia everywhere would be a more consistent strategy -- one that McCain would advocate. Being relatively soft everywhere and only showing displeasure through economic sanctions, Obama-style, would also be a consistent, do-no-harm strategy. But current U.S. policies make little strategic sense.

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That's likely because there is no unified strategy behind all the different U.S. moves. Tillerson -- reportedly frustrated by his interactions with the Trump White House -- is trying to embrace the McCain and Obama models at once, perhaps because he has staffers from both camps who can sell their views convincingly to the novice foreign policy chief. The CIA is filled with Russia hawks, but Trump distrusts the intelligence community. Generals who lead theSyria military effort concentrate on beating Islamic State, not on the eventual political settlement, and Trump is tempted to go along with them because he promised to beat Islamic State, not to fix the Syrian state.

The U.S. is a rudderless giant aircraft carrier. Putin doesn't even need to outmaneuver it; he just has to move around it-- something he's uncommonly good at.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@bloomberg.net

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Trump's New Ukraine Envoy Changes the Tune - Bloomberg

In a story July 20, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Ukrainian journalist Volodymyr Volovodyuk was beaten to death in a June 12 attack. He was beaten but survived.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Year after reporter killed in Ukraine, no progress in probe

After a renowned journalist was killed last year in Ukraine's capital by a car bomb, the president promised all-out efforts to solve the case

By YURAS KARMANAU and DMYTRO VLASOV

Associated Press

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) After renowned journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed in a car bombing in central Kiev last year, Ukraine's president promised all-out efforts to solve the case. But as of Thursday's anniversary of his death, there has been no visible progress.

Instead, say Ukrainian journalists, the case is mired in either incompetence or deliberate inaction. In a country where violence against journalists is frequent, reporters feel more in danger than ever.

The killing of 44-year-old Sheremet, who was driving in central Kiev to appear on a morning radio show on July 20, 2016, was a shock that resonated far beyond Ukraine. The Belarusian native had received international awards and was widely lauded for bold reporting at home, where he was jailed for three months and then given a two-year prison suspended sentence in 1997. He later moved to Russia, where he worked for a TV station controlled by Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, then went to Ukraine to work at respected internet publication Ukrainska Pravda.

Ukrainska Pravda was long a thorn in the side of Ukraine's corruption-ridden elite. Its first editor, Heorhiy Gongadze, was found decapitated in 2000 and audio recordings later emerged that implicated then-President Leonid Kuchma in his killing.

The failure to find Sheremet's killer leaves Ukraine's journalists feeling imperiled.

"Lack of progress in the Sheremet case is better than any declaration to show how authorities really care about the safety of journalists," National Union of Journalists head Sergei Tomilenko said.

Sheremet's friends, colleagues and activists gathered Thursday morning around the time that Sheremet was killed. About 200 people laid flowers and left candles at the intersection where his car blew up before setting off to march to the presidential administration to express their frustration with the investigation. Some of the mourners spray-painted "Who killed Pavel?" on the sidewalk outside the presidential administration and plastered a posted with Sheremet's portrait at the entrance to National Police headquarters.

Police say the killing was committed carefully, making identifying suspects harder.

"Unfortunately, the criminal offense was committed with good quality, so the investigation has not yet found the person who can be reasonably suspected of involvement in the murder," Interior Ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko said.

In Washington, the State Department said it was regrettable no one had been held accountable. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. was urging Ukraine "to use all available resources to bring those responsible to justice."

Tomilenko's group told an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe freedom-of-speech conference last month that more than 800 journalists have faced violence or threats in Ukraine since 2014. Although about half the incidents were connected to the 2014 mass protests that drove a Moscow-friendly president into exile or with the conflicts in Crimea and eastern Ukraine that followed, about 400 cases have happened in the rest of the country.

Most recently, reporter Volodymyr Volovodyuk, who had investigated black-market trading in the central Vinnytsia region, was beaten on July 12.

None of these cases have been prosecuted.

"Impunity has become the norm," Tomilenko said. "The daily life of journalists is more like reports from the front."

After the 2014 uprising, Ukraine has increased its drive to become more integrated with Western Europe and to move out of Russia's sphere of influence. But Europe is often uneasy with Ukraine's disorder and corruption, and the Sheremet case adds to nervousness.

"Authorities say Russia is the prime suspect, but the lack of progress in the case, coupled with evidence pointing to possible Ukrainian involvement, weaken Kiev's credibility and suggest the need for an independent probe," the Committee To Protect Journalists international watchdog said in a recent report.

The evidence referred to by CPJ centers on a report put together by Sheremet's colleagues and other journalists, assisted by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

That investigation identified two people observed by security cameras as lurking near Sheremet's car the night before the blast, and identified one of them as a former agent of the national security service, the SBU. The SBU decline comment.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met with Sheremet's family last week and acknowledged that the probe had brought no results, but confirmed that he was "interested in a transparent investigation."

Yuras Karmanau reported from Minsk, Belarus. Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed to this report from Moscow.

See the article here:
Correction: Ukraine-Journalist Killed story - ABC News

BBC News

Ukraine braces for further cyber-attacks - BBC News BBC News A month on from the NotPetya attack, many in Ukraine are ready for further cyber-strikes. and more »

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Ukraine braces for further cyber-attacks - BBC News - BBC News

NORMAN, Oklahoma -

It's homecoming day forthe second and final wave of soldiers returning with the179th Infantryof the Oklahoma National Guard who had been helping security forces in the Ukraine for the past several months.

Nearly 250 members of the 45thInfantry Brigade Combat Teamwere deployed to Ukraine as part the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine (JMTG-U), where they provided training support for Ukrainian Forces.It's part of a larger effort to train the Ukrainian army and make it NATO interoperable by 2020.Ukrainian leaders believe the training will help them regain control of the eastern part of their country, under siege from Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

The 45th IBCT was the first of two six-month rotations to Ukraine.

"That's just how Oklahomans are," said Lt. Col. Scott Holt, deputy commander of the 45th IBCT. "They want to help people and they want to do the best they can to assist other folks.

The homecoming event for the Oklahoma National Guard members will take place at 1 p.m. at the Norman Armed Forces Reserve Center.

Read more:
45th IBCT Returning From Ukraine Today - news9.com KWTV