The Russia and US National Smuggling Sammo-russian Military FSSB: a 16-count Indictment

According to the 16-count indictment, the defendants were associated with two Moscow companies that collaborated with the Russian Federal Security Service to purchase and smuggle items from the US to the Russian military.

“As alleged, the defendants perpetrated a sophisticated procurement network that illegally obtained sensitive U.S. technology to facilitate the Russian war machine,” Breon Peace, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement Tuesday. “Our Office will not rest in its vigorous pursuit of persons who unlawfully procure U.S. technology to be used in furtherance of Russia’s brutal war on democracy.”

Grinin, Skvortsova, Ippolitov and Livshits remain at large, according to the Justice Department, while Brayman, a permanent resident in the US, Yermolenko, a US citizen, and Konoshchenok, a Russian national, are in custody.

Based in the US, Brayman and Yermolenko would allegedly “fabricate shipping documents and invoices” to ship items around the world before they would eventually be sent to Russia, according to the DOJ.

The alleged FSB officer was arrested in Estonia last week after allegedly attempting to smuggle twenty cases of US-made sniper rifle ammunition into Russia in late November.

When Estonian law enforcement searched a warehouse allegedly used by Konoshchenok they discovered 375 pounds of US-made ammunition, according to the Justice Department. Proceedings to extradite Konoshchenok to the US will begin soon, US officials said.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/13/politics/russian-and-us-nationals-smuggling-ammo-russian-military-fsb/index.html

Investigating Iran’s Drone Parts 13: US-Companies and their Role in Combating the Iran-Dominated/Discovered Drone

Brayman has not been convicted of a crime at this point, his lawyer David Lazarus told CNN. “Like all defendants, Mr. Brayman is entitled to the presumption of innocence.”

According to the Ukrainian assessment, among the US-made components found in the drone were nearly two dozen parts built by Texas Instruments, including microcontrollers, voltage regulators, and digital signal controllers; a GPS module by Hemisphere GNSS; a microprocessor by NXP USA Inc.; and circuit board components by Analog Devices and Onsemi. Also discovered were components built by International Rectifier – now owned by the German company Infineon – and the Swiss company U-Blox.

The assessment, which was shared with US government officials late last year, illustrates the extent of the problem facing the Biden administration, which has vowed to shut down Iran’s production of drones that Russia is launching by the hundreds into Ukraine.

There are only a limited number of options to deal with the issue. The US imposes strict export control rules to stop Iran from getting high-end materials. Now US officials are looking at enhanced enforcement of those sanctions, encouraging companies to better monitor their own supply chains and, perhaps most importantly, trying to identify the third-party distributors taking these products and re-selling them to bad actors.

The Ukrainian intelligence assessment shows that despite sanctions, Iran is still using commercially available technology.

Sanctioned Iranian companies appear to be working around efforts to cut their supply of crucial components. For example, the company that built the downed drone, Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries Corporation (HESA), has been under US sanctions since 2008.

One major issue is that it is far easier for Russian and Iranian officials to set up shell companies to use to purchase the equipment and evade sanctions than it is for Western governments to uncover those front companies, which can sometimes take years, experts said.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/04/politics/iranian-drone-parts-13-us-companies-ukraine-russia/index.html

The Problem of Whack-a-Mole: How Do We Need to Reinforce the National Security Establishment? A Commentary from a Former Pentagon Official

This game is called Whack-a-Mole. And the United States government needs to get incredibly good at Whack-a- Mole, period,” said former Pentagon official Gregory Allen, who now serves as Director of the Artificial Intelligence Governance Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It had better become a core competency of the US national security establishment.

Allen said there is no substitute for robust in-house capabilities in the US government.

He cautioned that it is not an easy job. The microelectronics industry relies heavily on third party distributors and resellers that are difficult to track, and the microchips and other small devices ending up in so many of the Iranian and Russian drones are not only inexpensive and widely available, they are also easily hidden.

Is it because they like diamonds? Allen said something. “Because they’re small, lightweight, and worth a ton of money. And unfortunately, computer chips have similar properties.” Success won’t be measured in stopping 100% of transactions but in making it more difficult for bad actors to get what they need.

Zelensky also said that Ukraine had intelligence that Russia “is planning a prolonged attack with Shaheds,” betting that it will lead to the “exhaustion of our people, our air defense, our energy sector.”

The deputy director of operations at Conflict Armament Research said to CNN that sanctions would only be effective if governments monitored the parts that were used and how they got there.

“Iran and Russia are going to try to go around those sanctions and will try to change their acquisition channels,” Spleeters said. Getting in the field and opening up those systems is what we want to focus on.

Experts also told CNN that if the US government wants to beef up enforcement of the sanctions, it will need to devote more resources and hire more employees who can be on the ground to track the vendors and resellers of these products.

The Bureau of Industry Secuirty is one of the sleepy parts of the DC national security establishment that has not been thought about much by investors. “And now, suddenly, they’re at the forefront of national security technology competition, and they’re not being resourced remotely in that vein.”

CNN sent email requests for comment to all the companies that were identified by the Ukrainians. The six that responded emphasized that they condemn any unauthorized use of their products, while noting that combating the diversion and misuse of their semiconductors and other microelectronics is an industry-wide challenge that they are working to confront.

“TI is not selling any products into Russia, Belarus or Iran,” Texas Instruments said in a statement. ” TI complies with applicable laws in the countries we operate in, as well as partnering with law enforcement organizations as necessary and appropriate. We do not support and condone the use of our products in applications that aren’t designed for them.

Infineon condemns the Russian aggression against Ukraine and is very clear about it, according to a spokesman for the company. It is a blatant violation of international law and an attack on the values of humanity. It’s difficult to control consecutive sales in the whole lifetime of a product unless you’re a direct business. Nevertheless, we instruct our customers including distributors to only conduct consecutive sales in line with applicable rules.”

Analog Devices, a semiconductor company headquartered in Massachusetts, said in a statement that they are intensifying efforts “to identify and counter this activity, including implementing enhanced monitoring and audit processes, and taking enforcement action where appropriate…to help to reduce unauthorized resale, diversion, and unintended misuse of our products.”

Jacey Zuniga, director of corporate communications for the Austin, Texas-based semiconductor company NXP USA, said that the company “complies with all applicable export control restrictions and sanctions imposed by the countries in which we operate. Military applications are not a focus area for NXP. As a company we don’t agree with the use of our products for human rights violations.

Onsemi complies with the applicable export control and economic sanctions laws and regulations and does not sell directly or indirectly to Russia, Iran or any foreign military organizations. We cooperate with law enforcement and government agencies to demonstrate how Onsemi conducts business in accordance with all legal requirements and that we hold ourselves to the highest standards of ethical conduct.

Swiss semiconductor manufacturer U-Blox also said in a statement that its products are for commercial use only, and that the use of its products for Russian military equipment “is in clear breach of u-blox’s conditions of sale applicable to customers and distributors alike.”