Russian Spies Evicted From NATO, Nemtsov Report Released

NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg revealed in an interview with The Guardian that NATO is reestablishing Cold War-era hotlines to the Kremlin and the Russian general staff in order to reduce risks of military escalation in the case of an incident. This decision comes in the wake of increasing Russian air activity over the Baltic, Norwegian, and Black Seas, as well as last month’s decision by NATO to restrict non-NATO member state’s diplomatic delegations at NATO’s Brussels headquarters to no more than 30 people. Russia is the only non-NATO country that has more than 30 delegates present at NATO headquarters. NATO officials estimate that about half of Russia’s delegation, estimated to be around 37-90 people, are believed to be working for Russian intelligence services.

A key element in worsening relations between NATO and Russia is purported Russian support for separatist rebels in Ukraine. As of yesterday, friends and colleagues of murdered Russian dissident Boris Nemtsov released Nemtsov’s last work, an investigative report on the civil war in Ukraine and how the separatist movement was allegedly orchestrated by the Russian government. Key allegations are that Russian soldiers and hired mercenaries posting as “volunteers” are active among the separatist fighters, and that Russia has been supplying the separatists with arms, spending over 53 billion rubles ($1 billion) to supply and reinforce the Donetsk and Luhansk rebels. The report names several separatist leaders as agents for the Kremlin, subordinate to Putin’ aide Vladislav Surkov. Other claims by the report is the significant financial loss incurred by Russian actions in Ukraine (estimated at 2 trillion rubles in salaries and 750 billion rubles in savings) as well as the deaths of at least 220 Russian soldiers so far.

The Nemtsov report claims that Russia has up to 10,000 troops active in Ukraine under the guise of “volunteers.” Evidence of direct Russian involvement in eastern Ukraine is supported by sightings of advanced Russian made weaponry in Ukraine developed after the end of the Cold War, such as the Pancir-S1 surface-to-air defense system and the Tornado-S multiple rocket launcher system.

It remains to be seen just how the Russian government will respond to the Nemtsov report, and for Nemtsov’s associates who finished and published the report. Russian opposition activist and report author, Illya Yashin, has confirmed that the website hosting an online edition of the report is currently experiencing a DdoS attack and that he and other authors working on the report have received threats.