cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6801893

Archived version

Poland, Israel and the United Kingdom have all taken steps to limit where Chinese-made EVs — and in some cases even U.S. models — can operate, reigniting debate over technology, trust and geopolitical risk.

Explaining the security logic behind these decisions, Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) specializing in Asia, said the issue must be understood in the context of China’s long-term industrial strategy.

...

Bachulska noted that China itself was among the first to treat connected vehicles as a security concern. “In 2021, Tesla was banned from entering certain sensitive facilities in China,” she said.

“That shows Beijing was already aware that these vehicles are not just cars — they are high-tech computers capable of collecting vast amounts of data.”

...

She argued that European caution reflects a broader erosion of political trust. “We are coming out of the idea that China would behave as a ‘responsible power’ and become more economically liberal,” Bachulska said. “In hindsight, that assumption hasn’t held.”

While much attention is focused on Chinese manufacturers, she added that the risks extend beyond any single country. “Any connected vehicle can be hacked or misused,” she said, warning that future threats may come from non-state actors as well as governments.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6801893

Archived version

Poland, Israel and the United Kingdom have all taken steps to limit where Chinese-made EVs — and in some cases even U.S. models — can operate, reigniting debate over technology, trust and geopolitical risk.

Explaining the security logic behind these decisions, Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) specializing in Asia, said the issue must be understood in the context of China’s long-term industrial strategy.

...

Bachulska noted that China itself was among the first to treat connected vehicles as a security concern. “In 2021, Tesla was banned from entering certain sensitive facilities in China,” she said.

“That shows Beijing was already aware that these vehicles are not just cars — they are high-tech computers capable of collecting vast amounts of data.”

...

She argued that European caution reflects a broader erosion of political trust. “We are coming out of the idea that China would behave as a ‘responsible power’ and become more economically liberal,” Bachulska said. “In hindsight, that assumption hasn’t held.”

While much attention is focused on Chinese manufacturers, she added that the risks extend beyond any single country. “Any connected vehicle can be hacked or misused,” she said, warning that future threats may come from non-state actors as well as governments.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6801893

Archived version

Poland, Israel and the United Kingdom have all taken steps to limit where Chinese-made EVs — and in some cases even U.S. models — can operate, reigniting debate over technology, trust and geopolitical risk.

Explaining the security logic behind these decisions, Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) specializing in Asia, said the issue must be understood in the context of China’s long-term industrial strategy.

...

Bachulska noted that China itself was among the first to treat connected vehicles as a security concern. “In 2021, Tesla was banned from entering certain sensitive facilities in China,” she said.

“That shows Beijing was already aware that these vehicles are not just cars — they are high-tech computers capable of collecting vast amounts of data.”

...

She argued that European caution reflects a broader erosion of political trust. “We are coming out of the idea that China would behave as a ‘responsible power’ and become more economically liberal,” Bachulska said. “In hindsight, that assumption hasn’t held.”

While much attention is focused on Chinese manufacturers, she added that the risks extend beyond any single country. “Any connected vehicle can be hacked or misused,” she said, warning that future threats may come from non-state actors as well as governments.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6798185

Archived version

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Warsaw is building three frigates at Gdynia on Poland’s northern Baltic coast and agreed to buy three Swedish submarines in November. It has also launched new minesweepers and started construction of a rescue ship to support submarine operations.

The acquisitions are intended to reverse decades of under-investment in the country’s navy, which operates one submarine, a Soviet-built vessel transferred to Poland in 1986, and two frigates built in the US in the 1970s.

...

Higher defence spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has mostly gone to the air force and the army, which is now the EU’s largest.

“The Russian threat is spreading and we cannot ignore now their hybrid warfare, as seen for example with the rupturing of cables,” said Paweł Bejda, Poland’s deputy defence minister. “Poland needs to be a very active participant in ensuring security in the Baltic Sea.”

Russia’s recent use of hybrid tactics has heightened concerns about Nato’s vulnerability in the Baltic Sea. While Russia’s Baltic fleet is based in neighbouring Kaliningrad, Poland and other states have accused Moscow of orchestrating sabotage attacks on undersea power and data cables, as well as launching drones that violated Nato’s airspace.

...

The frigate programme also comes as the UK and Poland aim to sign a new bilateral defence agreement in the coming months, after UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer launched talks during a visit to Warsaw last January.

The head of the Royal Navy, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, told the FT that Russia’s elite deep-sea sabotage unit was poised to deploy submersibles capable of damaging British seabed cables and pipelines.

While the politicians negotiated their bilateral agreement, Babcock’s Goldsack said: “It’s got to be to both countries’ advantages to have more than one shipyard that can operate on the same class of ships.”

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6798124

Archived version

Schoolchildren in Russia are to be taught how to assemble and operate drones in classes in basic homeland security and defence, state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday.

Russia’s Cabinet of Ministers approved training aids for schoolchildren including mock-up weapons, first aid kits, tents, night vision goggles and other military equipment, Mel.fm, a radio station which focuses on educational matters, said on Wednesday.

The teaching materials are now to include drone piloting systems and drone construction kits. Schools had previously purchased drone flight simulators, though those were only used in special classes and to instruct schoolchildren aged 16 and 17 in basic military training, Mel.fm continued.

...

In July 2025, the Russian exiled independent media outlet The Insider reported that hundreds of thousands of Russian schoolkids are building drones that kill Ukrainians:

Sixteen-year-old Vladislav builds UAVs that the Russian military uses for testing electronic warfare systems. Sasha, 13, teaches soldiers how to pilot drones and develops equipment for troops at the frontline. Meanwhile, Maksim, 17, has received a job offer from a lab “servicing the 'special military operation.'” This isn’t an episode of Black Mirror, but a real, state-sponsored scheme that harnesses the minds of Russia’s brightest children to attack Ukrainian cities. An investigation by The Insider reveals a sprawling network of government-backed organizations that has created a sophisticated pipeline of computer games, clubs, and competitions designed to turn hundreds of thousands of talented school students into military engineers.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6798185

Archived version

...

Warsaw is building three frigates at Gdynia on Poland’s northern Baltic coast and agreed to buy three Swedish submarines in November. It has also launched new minesweepers and started construction of a rescue ship to support submarine operations.

The acquisitions are intended to reverse decades of under-investment in the country’s navy, which operates one submarine, a Soviet-built vessel transferred to Poland in 1986, and two frigates built in the US in the 1970s.

...

Higher defence spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has mostly gone to the air force and the army, which is now the EU’s largest.

“The Russian threat is spreading and we cannot ignore now their hybrid warfare, as seen for example with the rupturing of cables,” said Paweł Bejda, Poland’s deputy defence minister. “Poland needs to be a very active participant in ensuring security in the Baltic Sea.”

Russia’s recent use of hybrid tactics has heightened concerns about Nato’s vulnerability in the Baltic Sea. While Russia’s Baltic fleet is based in neighbouring Kaliningrad, Poland and other states have accused Moscow of orchestrating sabotage attacks on undersea power and data cables, as well as launching drones that violated Nato’s airspace.

...

The frigate programme also comes as the UK and Poland aim to sign a new bilateral defence agreement in the coming months, after UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer launched talks during a visit to Warsaw last January.

The head of the Royal Navy, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, told the FT that Russia’s elite deep-sea sabotage unit was poised to deploy submersibles capable of damaging British seabed cables and pipelines.

While the politicians negotiated their bilateral agreement, Babcock’s Goldsack said: “It’s got to be to both countries’ advantages to have more than one shipyard that can operate on the same class of ships.”

Archived version

Schoolchildren in Russia are to be taught how to assemble and operate drones in classes in basic homeland security and defence, state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday.

Russia’s Cabinet of Ministers approved training aids for schoolchildren including mock-up weapons, first aid kits, tents, night vision goggles and other military equipment, Mel.fm, a radio station which focuses on educational matters, said on Wednesday.

The teaching materials are now to include drone piloting systems and drone construction kits. Schools had previously purchased drone flight simulators, though those were only used in special classes and to instruct schoolchildren aged 16 and 17 in basic military training, Mel.fm continued.

...

In July 2025, the Russian exiled independent media outlet The Insider reported that hundreds of thousands of Russian schoolkids are building drones that kill Ukrainians:

Sixteen-year-old Vladislav builds UAVs that the Russian military uses for testing electronic warfare systems. Sasha, 13, teaches soldiers how to pilot drones and develops equipment for troops at the frontline. Meanwhile, Maksim, 17, has received a job offer from a lab “servicing the 'special military operation.'” This isn’t an episode of Black Mirror, but a real, state-sponsored scheme that harnesses the minds of Russia’s brightest children to attack Ukrainian cities. An investigation by The Insider reveals a sprawling network of government-backed organizations that has created a sophisticated pipeline of computer games, clubs, and competitions designed to turn hundreds of thousands of talented school students into military engineers.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6783980

• Iran’s security forces have carried out mass killings of protesters after nationwide protests escalated on January 8, 2026.
• The mass killings by Iranian security forces are a stark reminder that rulers who massacre their own people will keep committing atrocities until they are held to account.
• UN member states should urgently convene a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to put human rights and accountability in Iran front and center of the international response.

Iran’s security forces have carried out mass killings of protesters after nationwide protests escalated on January 8, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. Thousands of protesters and bystanders are believed to have been killed, while the government’s severe restrictions on communications have concealed the true scale of atrocities.

Security forces scaled up their deadly crackdown in a coordinated manner after January 8, resulting in large-scale killings and injuries of protesters and bystanders across the country. Human Rights Watch reviewed evidence that many protesters were killed or injured by gunshot wounds to their heads and torsos. Iranian officials cited in media outlets have admitted that the number of deaths has reached the thousands.

“The mass killings by Iranian security forces since January 8 are unprecedented in the country and a stark reminder that rulers who massacre their own people will keep committing atrocities until they are held to account,” said Lama Fakih, program director at Human Rights Watch. “United Nations member states should urgently convene a special UN Human Rights Council session to put human rights and accountability in Iran front and center of the international response.”

...

• Iran’s security forces have carried out mass killings of protesters after nationwide protests escalated on January 8, 2026.
• The mass killings by Iranian security forces are a stark reminder that rulers who massacre their own people will keep committing atrocities until they are held to account.
• UN member states should urgently convene a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to put human rights and accountability in Iran front and center of the international response.

Iran’s security forces have carried out mass killings of protesters after nationwide protests escalated on January 8, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. Thousands of protesters and bystanders are believed to have been killed, while the government’s severe restrictions on communications have concealed the true scale of atrocities.

Security forces scaled up their deadly crackdown in a coordinated manner after January 8, resulting in large-scale killings and injuries of protesters and bystanders across the country. Human Rights Watch reviewed evidence that many protesters were killed or injured by gunshot wounds to their heads and torsos. Iranian officials cited in media outlets have admitted that the number of deaths has reached the thousands.

“The mass killings by Iranian security forces since January 8 are unprecedented in the country and a stark reminder that rulers who massacre their own people will keep committing atrocities until they are held to account,” said Lama Fakih, program director at Human Rights Watch. “United Nations member states should urgently convene a special UN Human Rights Council session to put human rights and accountability in Iran front and center of the international response.”

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6779633

Archived version

The figures are striking and continue to climb. According to a conservative count by Le Monde, based on various sources including data from the Paris prosecutor's office, French authorities have so far seized at least €973 million in potentially ill-gotten assets from oligarchs close to the Moscow regime who may have committed offenses in acquiring such assets.

This outcome reflects a coordinated effort by magistrates since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. At the forefront of this strategy, France's national court for fighting organized crime (JUNALCO) within the Paris prosecutor's office has carried out most of the seizures: "€352.2 million in real estate seizures" and "€580.8 million in bank accounts, receivables and financial products," the Paris prosecutor's office told Le Monde. A significant share of these assets – €532.9 million – was frozen abroad at the request of these Paris magistrates who specialize in combating financial organized crime.

All of these seizures have been challenged before the Paris court of appeal ... If the courts uphold the procedures and a final conviction is handed down, these provisional seizures may become confiscations, with the assets either sold at auction or reassigned by the state for public benefit.

...

The seizures carried out by the Paris prosecutor's office relate to several cases, including the confiscation of villas suspected to belong to various individuals: among them the villa of Vladimir Putin's ex-wife in Anglet (southwestern France) valued at nearly €9 million, the assets of Ruslan Goryukhin (more than €70 million), as well as the real estate and financial assets of Alexander Pumpyansky and Nikolai Sarkisov (€59 million). Further investigations are ongoing.

Other seizures were made possible by journalistic investigations. For instance, the Paris prosecutor's office conducted checks following a Le Monde investigation in February 2024 that uncovered suspicious real estate transactions involving the head of Gazprombank, Andrey Akimov, and one of the group's vice presidents, Alexey Matveev, who were the confirmed or suspected owners of luxury villas in France.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6632765

• Iran has sold nearly $3 billion worth of missiles to Russia to aid President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, according to a Western security official.
• The purchases have included hundreds of Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles, nearly 500 other short-range ballistic missiles and approximately 200 surface-to-air missiles.
• Russia has spent more than the equivalent of $4 billion on Iranian military equipment since late 2021.

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Contracts with Moscow starting from October 2021 — before the war began — for ballistic and surface-to-air missiles amount to roughly $2.7 billion, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

...

Moscow and Tehran have drawn closer since Putin’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has triggered sweeping sanctions against Moscow and the Kremlin’s most serious confrontation with the West since the Cold War, while Iran’s provision of weapons to Russia has further deepened the two countries’ partnership.

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Iran has delivered millions of rounds of ammunition and shells, according to the assessment, which doesn’t represent the entirety of what Moscow has purchased from Tehran as more equipment is expected to be supplied.

Tehran has also supplied Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones and shared technology that has enabled Russia to manufacture them domestically under the name “Geran-2” as part of a $1.75 billion contract signed at the beginning of 2023.

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Iran, whose government is crushing ongoing violent protests, sought to deepen its ties with Russia starting in the 2010s, smarting from the West’s ability to isolate it over the country’s nuclear program.

While Iran signed a strategic partnership with Russia in January 2025, it doesn’t contain a mutual-defense pact and Moscow didn’t offer any tangible assistance to Tehran during Israeli and US strikes on Iran last year. Russia is building a trade route with Tehran connecting to India to try to weaken the impact of sanctions, and officials have discussed boosting financial and banking cooperation.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6632613

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Polina Azarnykh, a 40-year-old former teacher, uses a Telegram channel to lure young men, often from poor countries, into joining Russia's military.

The former teacher's smiling video messages and upbeat posts offer "one-year contracts" for "military service".

The BBC World Service has identified nearly 500 cases where she has provided documents, referred to as invitations, which allow the recipient to enter Russia to join the military. These have been for men - mainly from Syria, Egypt and Yemen - who appear to have sent her their passport details in order to enlist.

But recruits and their relatives have told the BBC that she misled men into believing they would avoid combat, failed to make clear they could not leave after a year and threatened those who challenged her. When contacted by the BBC, she rejected the allegations.

Twelve families told us of young men they say were recruited by her who are now dead or missing.

...

Azarnykh's Telegram channel has 21,000 subscribers. Her posts have often told readers wanting to apply to join the Russian military to send her a scan of their passport. She has then posted invitation documents, sometimes with a list of names of the men they are for.

The BBC has identified more than 490 such invitations that she has sent over the past year to men from countries including Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

Her posts have mentioned recruitment for an "elite international battalion" and made it clear that people in Russia illegally - including those whose visas have expired - are eligible.

...

Many felt Azarnykh had misled or exploited recruits. They told us the men knew they were joining the military, but did not expect to serve on the front line. Several, like Omar, felt they had inadequate training or thought they would be able to leave after a year.

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Azarnykh became "one of the most important recruiters" for Russia's army, says Habib, another Syrian who has served in Russia's military. He was willing to be filmed but spoke under a pseudonym for fear of repercussions.

Habib says he and Azarnykh "worked together for around three years on visa invitations to Russia". He gave no further details and we have not been able to confirm his role in the process. An image from social media in 2024 shows him alongside her.

Azarnykh, who is from Russia's south-western Voronezh region, ran a Facebook group helping Arab students come to Moscow to study, before starting her Telegram channel in 2024.

...

Azarnykh's posts from mid-2024 begin to note that recruits will be "participating in hostilities" and mention foreign fighters who have died in combat.

"You all understood well that you were going to war," she says in one video in October 2024. "You thought that you could get a Russian passport, do nothing and live in a five-star hotel?... Nothing happens for free."

In another case, in 2024, the BBC has heard a voice message sent by Azarnykh to a mother whose son was serving in the military. Azarnykh says the woman has "published something horrible about the Russian army". Using expletives, she threatens the son's life and warns the woman: "I'll find you and all your children."

The BBC made multiple attempts to contact Azarnykh. Initially she said she would do an interview with us if we travelled to Russia, but the BBC declined for safety reasons. Later, when asked in a voice call about claims that recruits were promised non-combat roles, she hung up. In voice notes sent afterwards, she said our work was "not professional" and warned of potential defamation proceedings. She also said: "Our respected Arabs can stick their accusations up their arses."

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