How the UAE became Russia's safe haven for evading sanctions

Analysis: Huge amounts of Russian money are being transferred to the UAE through property, businesses, and cryptocurrencies to avoid international sanctions, with Abu Dhabi leveraging its standing as a global financial hub.

Ahmed Alqarout
25 August, 2022

The signing of the US-backed Abraham Accords between the UAE and Israel in 2020 was supposed to represent a new era in ties between Abu Dhabi and Washington.

However, since then, the UAE has defied the US on global issues, most notably on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At the onset of Moscow’s war, the UAE took an unexpected position in the United Nations Security Council, abstaining from voting to condemn the Russian ‘special military operation’.

Weeks later, the UAE abstained in another vote to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. But more importantly, Abu Dhabi has also embarked on helping Russia overcome Western sanctions devised to undermine its will to fight.

"The flocking of Russians to Dubai has meant that billions of potentially sanctionable dollars and euros have been transferred to the emirate"

Russian businesspeople and entrepreneurs have sought to move their businesses to Dubai to benefit from its global standing as a key financial hub. Similar to many Iranian businesses subject to Western sanctions, Russian businesses are using the UAE as a base to avoid such sanctions and continue their operations.

Wealthy Russians have been applying for the UAE golden visa scheme which enables applicants to gain long-term residency in the country conditional on investing 10 million dirhams (£230,000) in a local company or an investment fund. The flocking of Russians to Dubai has meant that billions of potentially sanctionable dollars and euros have been transferred to the emirate.

The property market in the UAE has also been another key recipient of Russian funds, causing a boom in a market that has been recovering from the Covid-19 slowdown. The UAE is also aspiring to be an industrial hub for some Russian factories struggling to access the global market due to sanctions, which would generate significant financial flows to the country.

Luxury yachts dock in Dubai and private jets are hangered in its airports. More Russians are also interested in the UAE for tourism as they struggle to access other destinations due to sanctions.

RELATED

Why the UAE is hedging its position on the Ukraine war

Analysis

Giorgio Cafiero

The result is pumping the UAE market with billions of dollars and supporting the strength and the reserves of the UAE national currency, the dirham, which plummeted in February partly due to the implications of Russia’s war on the global economy.

Despite the UAE Chamber of Commerce’s confirmation that the country is in compliance with the main sanctions against Russian oligarchs, it affirmed that it will not be imposing sanctions on ordinary Russian citizens.

Such policy choices effectively open the door for state-sponsored sanctions evasion. For example, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, best known as the owner of Manchester City and the deputy prime minister, has helped to manage relationships with wealthy Russians looking to move money into the UAE.

Valeria Scuto, a MENA Analyst at London-based risk consultancy Sibylline, referred to the increasing links as “not new, but increasing”.

She explained to The New Arab that the UAE is effectively responding to competition with other regional players such as Turkey, Iran, and Egypt that could alternatively use their currencies to help Russia evade sanctions and thus increase the international status of their currencies.

The property market in the UAE has been a key recipient of Russian funds, causing a boom in a market that has been recovering from the Covid-19 slowdown. [Getty]

Russians are taking advantage of the UAE’s lenient financial transparency regulations and data secrecy regarding the flows of capital to utilise cryptocurrencies for sanctions evasion.

Coinsfera, an over-the-counter crypto exchange, is a favourite for Russians who struggle to transfer money through banks due to Western sanctions or local restrictions. The over-the-counter (OTC) structure allows customers to buy crypto assets with local currency and sell them for hard cash in Dubai in minutes.

Because trades are cash-based and not reported publicly, it’s unclear how much money is being moved using crypto. The company is also helping Russian clients buy and sell real estate and luxury watches using cryptocurrencies.

While the UAE wants to maintain strong relationships with the US, inherent domestic political instability in America makes Abu Dhabi wary, undermining the level of confidence it has in the strategic partnership.

Thus, the UAE is seeking to hedge its bets by deploying its financial might to support countries like Russia to balance against the US, Magdy Abd Alhadi, an Egyptian economist, told The New Arab.

"Russia is a key player in OPEC+ and many regional conflicts where the UAE is involved such as Yemen, Libya, and Syria, and the UAE cannot afford not to coordinate with it on issues of major national concern"

Furthermore, the UAE is leveraging its participation in the Abraham Accords and the US tolerance it created to exert pressure on Washington to get concessions on many outstanding issues in the bilateral relationship.

The explosion of financial transactions between Russia and the UAE, meanwhile, is also leading to a deepening of official financial relations.

The Moscow Exchange announced in June it will begin trading new currency pairs including the UAE’s dirham. The date when trading of these pairs will begin has not been announced yet, but the move signals entrenched financial arrangements.

Andrey Skabelin, the director of the Moscow Exchange's foreign exchange market department, said: “We see growing interest in these currencies and we understand that they will have liquidity. As a number of technical issues are resolved, we will launch these pairs”.

RELATED

Dirty money: Russian oligarchs flee to UAE evading sanctions

In-depth

James Snell

Skabelin explained the need to sign interbank agreements with Emirati counterparts to launch trading. As Russian traders get blocked from Western financial markets, such steps will help them use the UAE stock exchanges as a way to stay in business.

These deepening financial ties are being noticed globally. Reportedly, Russia is seeking payment in UAE dirhams for oil exports to some Indian customers. In addition, Bangladesh is also in pursuit of finding an alternative for the dollar to buy Russian energy and is considering similar options as India, including the use of the dirham, according to media reports.

“The prime minister said if India can import fuel from Russia, why can’t we?” Bangladesh’s planning minister said. He added that the prime minister ordered the government to figure out what currency should be used to buy fuel from Russia.

"While the UAE is not betting on America's demise, it is certainly planning for a multipolar world where the hegemony of the US dollar is no longer guaranteed"

Scuto sees these developments as strategic. “Russia is a key player in OPEC+ and many regional conflicts where the UAE is involved such as Yemen, Libya, and Syria and the UAE cannot afford not to coordinate with it on issues of major national concern even if that would frustrate the West,” she told The New Arab.

However, in the long term, Scuto does not foresee the UAE transforming into a global hub facilitating the evasion of Russian sanctions, as it values its financial interests with Western businesses more.

Abd Alhadi gauges better prospects for the UAE in the reconfiguration of the global financial architecture. In his view, the UAE is using soft financial power to play an arbiter role in the emerging global financial world, which will empower its global standing as a small state reliant on soft power for influence.

The UAE is using soft financial power to play an arbiter role in the emerging global financial world. [Getty]

The UAE is trying to hedge its strategic bet on the US for security and economic relations by growing its relations with other global powers such as Russia.

The leveraging of its standing as a global financial hub is helping it strengthen such a position in a more financially fragmented world.

While the UAE is not betting on America’s demise, it is certainly planning for a multipolar world where the hegemony of the US dollar is no longer guaranteed and other financial power brokers rise in pursuit of rewriting the global financial order and the power it gives to its makers.

Ahmed Alqarout is a specialist in the political economy of conflicts. His research focuses on the impact of financial and economic policies on regime stability in the Middle East and North Africa.

UN condemns Ethiopia air raid on school as fighting escalates

The targeting of kindergarten in war-torn Tigray has brought condemnation from around the world. Local media put the death toll at seven, including three children.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
28 August, 2022

Civilians in Tigray have been the target of Ethiopian air strikes before in the last few years. [YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images]

The UN on Saturday condemned a deadly Ethiopian air strike on a kindergarten in war-torn Tigray as fighting between rebels and government forces intensified along the region's border.

The air raid on the city of Mekele came just days after fighting returned to Ethiopia's north, shattering a five-month truce and dimming hopes of peace talks to end the brutal war.

On Saturday, the government said federal forces had withdrawn from Kobo, a city just south of rebel-held Tigray, in a border region where combat erupted in recent days.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which has been fighting forces allied to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for 21 months, said it had captured a number of towns and cities in a counter-offensive.

The tit-for-tat claims could not be independently verified, as access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted.

On Friday, as conflict on the ground escalated, an air strike on Mekele killed at least four people including two children, an official at the city's biggest hospital told AFP.

Tigrai TV, a local network, put the death toll at seven, including three children.

The broadcaster aired graphic footage of mangled playground equipment and a compound brightly painted with cartoons in ruins at the apparent scene of the strike.

Addis Ababa said only military sites were targeted and accused the TPLF of "dumping fake body bags in civilian areas" to manufacture outrage.

But the UN children's agency UNICEF said the strike "hit a kindergarten, killing several children, and injuring others".

"UNICEF strongly condemns the air strike," said UNICEF chief Catherine Russell.

"Yet again, an escalation of violence in northern Ethiopia has caused children to pay the heaviest price. For almost two years, children and their families in the region have endured the agony of this conflict.

 It must end."

'Appalling'

Vicky Ford, the UK's Africa minister, said on Twitter: "Reports of civilian casualties following airstrikes on #Tigray are appalling."

The EU commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, called for international humanitarian law to be respected.

"Civilians are #NotATarget," he said on Twitter.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, himself from Tigray, described the air strike as "barbaric" and "horrifying".

In March, the UN said at least 304 civilians had been killed in the three months prior in airstrikes "apparently carried out by the Ethiopian Air Force".

The UN human rights office has documented aerial bombardments and drone strikes on refugee camps, a hotel and a market, and warned that disproportionate attacks against non-military targets could amount to war crimes.

Ethiopia's air force operates the only known military aircraft over the country's skies.

Untold numbers have been killed in northern Ethiopia since the war began in November 2020, and the conflict has been marked by reports of civilian atrocities.

A truce in March paused the worst of the bloodshed and allowed aid convoys to slowly return to Tigray, where the UN says millions are nearing starvation, and cash, fuel and medicine are in short supply.

Shifting frontline

Since the end of June, Abiy's government and the rebels have repeatedly stated their willingness to enter peace negotiations but disagreed on the terms of such talks.

And on Wednesday, fresh offensives broke out southeast of Tigray in border regions near Amhara and Afar, with both sides accusing the other of firing first.

On Saturday, the government announced the army had pulled back from Kobo, a city in Amhara, under attack from "many directions" by the TPLF.

"In order to avoid mass casualties within the city in exchange of fire, the defence forces have been forced to leave Kobo city and take defence positions on the outskirts," the government said in a statement.

The TPLF said its "heroic army, after repelling and weakening the enemy's attacks for the last three days" had pushed through army lines and taken Kobo along with other towns and cities in the area.

The UK on Saturday advised its citizens against travel to Lalibela, a popular tourist destination some 130 kilometres (80 miles) by road west of Kobo.

The return to battle has alarmed the international community, which has been pushing for a peaceful resolution to the war in Africa's second most populous nation.

Abiy, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner, sent troops into Tigray 21 months ago to topple the TPLF, accusing the former ruling party of the dissident region of attacks on federal army camps.

ISRAEL

Amid talks, Liberman asks for injunction forcing teachers back to work

Finance minister’s move proves he doesn’t want a deal, argues education minister; despite negotiations, teachers union is threatening to strike when school year begins on Thursday

Education minister says Liberman's injunction request 'proves' he doesn't want a deal

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman speaks during a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem, August 17, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Education minister says Liberman’s injunction request ‘proves’ he doesn’t want a deal

Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton speaks at a conference of the Federation of Local Authorities ahead of the opening of the school year in Ganei Tikva, August 18, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton scolds Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, arguing that the latter’s request for an injunction forcing teachers back to work during ongoing negotiations signals he isn’t interested in reaching a compromise.

“Those who ask for an injunction, at a time when teams from all sides are convening for negotiations on agreements that will lead to the orderly opening of the school year, are proving that they aren’t interested in reaching a deal and aren’t invested in the future of the education system and the children’s future,” she says.

“This is a national crisis,” Shasha-Biton adds. “It’s time to convene the government to solve it.”

US authorities seize 3000-year-old Egyptian artefact

US authorities said they intercepted the Egyptian canopic jar lid of the funeral deity named Imsety, which was used to hold the internal organs of mummies.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
28 August, 2022

This photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows an ancient Egyptian artifact. Federal agents in Memphis have seized the potentially 3,000-year-old ancient Egyptian artifact that was shipped in from Europe. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says they intercepted the Egyptian canopic jar lid of the funeral deity named Imsety on Aug. 17, 2022. The jars were used to hold the internal organs of mummies.

The object was reportedly shipped from Europe to a private buyer in the US 

US federal agents in Memphis have seized a potentially 3,000-year-old ancient Egyptian artifact that was shipped in from Europe.

US Customs and Border Protection says they intercepted the Egyptian canopic jar lid of the funeral deity named Imsety on 17 August. The jars were used to hold the internal organs of mummies.

Egypt archaeologist wants Rosetta Stone returned from UK

MENA

The New Arab Staff

The agency says the item was sent from a dealer to a private buyer in the US, and the shipper made contradicting statements about its value.

Experts at the University of Memphis Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology helped determine the artifact's authenticity. The agency says the lid is likely from 1069 BC to 653 BC.

Authorities say the item is protected by bilateral treaties and is an archaeological import subject to seizure under the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act of 1983. The artifact was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for further examination.

PAKISTAN

Looming shortages

Editorial Published August 27, 2022 

THE devastation wreaked by floods in large parts of the country will spare no one — not even those who have been lucky to avoid being directly impacted by the worst of the disaster unleashed by this year’s unseasonably heavy rains.

A formal assessment of the extent of damages has yet to be done, but the situation already looks quite grim. Vast tracts of farmland across the country are now submerged under water, which means many standing crops have been completely destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of livestock heads have additionally been lost to the floods. Transportation and communication networks have either been disrupted or completely destroyed in many areas, meaning it is no longer easy to move goods from one place to another.

Meanwhile, the people residing in the worst-affected areas do not have enough food to eat or clean water to drink. There are reports that many are suffering from starvation.

According to a report in yesterday’s paper, citizens in Dera Ghazi Khan had mobbed a food distribution truck out of desperation to feed themselves and their families. Those heart-wrenching scenes are expected to be repeated elsewhere as the relief response has been slow and mainly focused so far on saving lives that may otherwise be lost to the floods.

Given the extent of damage caused to crops and livestock and the disruption in transportation networks connecting farming areas to urban settlements, there are bound to be food shortages in the coming months, which will drive up food inflation even further.

In pictures: Devastating floods affect millions in Pakistan

Not only that, reports of widespread devastation in cotton plantations means industrial activity will be severely affected. With textiles contributing a major chunk of export earnings, the impact will reverberate throughout the economy.

The federal and provincial governments face an uphill battle in ensuring food security over the coming months, as importing foodstuff to make up for domestic shortages is unlikely to be an easy option because of the upheaval in global markets as well as Pakistan’s considerably weakened external position.

It is imperative, therefore, for the nation to come together to contribute towards relief and rehabilitation efforts. It is not only a moral obligation but also a practical need.

Farming communities form the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, and their suffering will directly affect the entire country if it is not alleviated quickly. There needs to be a coordinated effort to rebuild and restore as soon as the rains subside and the floodwaters recede.

Meanwhile, the government needs to set up a centralised crisis response task force so that it has better control of the situation and can address urgent needs like getting sufficient food and shelter to the displaced people. All federating units need to be a part of this task force to ensure there are no slippages in service delivery.

Management of this crisis should henceforth be our number one national priority.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2022

Pricey Winston Churchill portrait swapped with fake at Canada hotel, staff don’t notice for months

According to a website run by Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh, who had created the portrait in 1941, the portrait is "one of the most widely reproduced images in the history of photography.

India Today Web Desk New Delhi

August 28, 2022

The photo of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's scowling face made its way to the Bank of England's five pound note in 2016. (Credit: Yousaf Karsh)


HIGHLIGHTS

The original portrait of the former British PM hung in the Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa

Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh had created the portrait in 1941

An investigation into the portrait's disappearance is underway


A famous portrait of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, estimated to cost more than $100,000, was allegedly stolen from a hotel in Ottawa and replaced with a copy, skipping the attention of the staff for close to eight months.

The original hung in the Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa until a date officials believe likely ranging between December 25, 2021, and January 6, 2022, the hotel's general manager Geneviève Dumas told CTV, an affiliate of CNN.

According to a website run by Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh, who had created the portrait in 1941, the portrait is "one of the most widely reproduced images in the history of photography." The photo made its way to the Bank of England's five pound note in 2016.

"We are deeply saddened by this brazen act," Dumas wrote in a Facebook post. "The hotel is incredibly proud to house this stunning Karsh collection, which was securely installed in 1998."

Last weekend, hotel employees noticed the photograph was hung improperly, and the frame didn't match others in the space. Hotel officials then used photos sent in by the public to establish when the original portrait and frame were removed.

The Chateau Laurier Hotel's marketing director said an investigation into the portrait's disappearance is underway.

Robert Wittman, a former art crime investigator with the FBI, told CTV that when a situation like this occurs, "it's not a shoplifting, it's not just a burglary; it's someone from the inside who had access, who knew what they were looking for, knew what the security measures were that were protecting the piece and were able to defeat those measures because they had inside information."

The black and white photograph captures Churchill's scowling moments after Karsh plucked a cigar from the prime minister's mouth to snap the shot.

Talking about the photograph, Karsh wrote, "By the time I got back to my camera, he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me. It was at that instant that I took the photograph. I knew... that it was an important picture, but I could hardly have dreamed that it would become one of the most widely reproduced images in the history of photography."

The photographer lived and ran his studio from the hotel for two decades, according to his estate, and when he moved away, Karsh left the hotel a collection of his photographs -- including the one of Churchill.

The Fairmont Château Laurier has urged anyone with information on the stolen photograph to immediately contact local authorities.

Fake heiress ‘infiltrated Mar-a-Lago inner circle’

An aerial view of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida. Picture by Marco Bello/Reuters


Patrick Sawer in Florida
August 28 2022 

A Ukrainian woman posed as a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty to infiltrate Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and gain influence with his inner circle on behalf of Russian crime gangs, it has been claimed.

The FBI and Canadian law enforcement agencies have launched a major investigation into the activities of Inna Yashchyshyn, who is said to have told Florida socialites and acquaintances of the former US president that she was heiress Anna de Rothschild.

Her deception allegedly led to her being “fawned all over” by guests at Mr Trump’s Florida home and private club who were captivated by her boasts about a Monaco property portfolio and family vineyard.

Her presence at Mar-a-Lago raises fresh concerns over the classified documents kept by the former president at the waterfront mansion. On Friday, it emerged that documents held in his basement may have contained US secrets obtained by spies in the field.

A redacted version of the 32-page FBI affidavit which led to a raid on Mar-a-Lago on August 8, released by a court on Friday, showed that 14 of the 15 boxes recovered contained classified documents, including some marked “HCS [HUMINT Control System]”.

Ed Martin, a former US Treasury special agent who spent more than two decades in criminal intelligence, said: “That’s his residence. She shouldn’t have been in there.”

Ms Yaschyshyn is believed to have been taken to Mar-a-Lago for the first time by a donor called Elchanan Adamker in 2021, posing for a photo with Mr Trump the next day.

Read MoreTrump’s legal problems put Truth Social in financial peril

It has now emerged she is actually the Ukrainian-born daughter of truck driver Oleksandr Yaschyshyn, who lives in Buffalo Grove, Illinois.

The 33-year-old faces an FBI investigation over a charity she was president of called the United Hearts of Mercy.

It was founded by Florida-based Russian businessman Valeriy Tarasenko in Canada in 2015, but the FBI alleges it has been used as a front to fundraise for Russian organised crime gangs.

Ms Yaschyshyn is also accused of obtaining fake IDs, including a US passport and multiple drivers’ licences, using her assumed identity as a member of the Rothschild family.

John LeFevre, a former investment banker, who recalled meeting her by the Mar-a-Lago pool on May 1 last year, said after she arrived driving a Mercedes-Benz SUV, told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “It wasn’t just dropping the family name. She talked about vineyards and family estates and growing up in Monaco. It was a near perfect ruse and she played the part.” Mr LeFevre added that Mar-a-Lago members “fawned all over her and because of the Rothschild mystique, they never probed”.

Ms Yashchyshyn was seen the next day rubbing shoulders with Mr Trump and Lindsey Graham, the senior US senator for South Carolina, at Mr Trump’s nearby West Palm Beach golf club.

Photographs show her with the two men and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the Trump aide and fiancee of Donald Trump Jr. In video footage from the day she met Mr Trump, a man is heard saying: “Anna, you’re a Rothschild. You can afford a million dollars for a picture with you and Trump.”

The Post-Gazette reports that Ms Yashchyshyn was invited by Trump supporter Mr Adamker, who runs a financial services firm.

Members of the Trump inner circle were eventually told Ms Yashchyshyn was not an heiress by Dean Lawrence, a Florida-based music director, who met her in her role as president of the Rothschild Media Label. She was promoting Mr Tarasenko’s teenage daughter, whose stage name is Sofiya Rothschild.

Ms Yashchyshyn denies the claims against her, telling the Post-Gazette: “I think there is some misunderstanding. That’s all fake, and nothing happened.”

She claims any passports or driver’s licences using the Rothschild name have been fabricated by Mr Tarasenko, which he denies. She is embroiled in a lawsuit with the 44-year-old, whose daughter she used to babysit, and says she has been framed by him. Mr Tarasenko claims she was keen to use Mar-a-Lago to find rich benefactors.

Neither the US Secret Service nor the FBI would comment on whether they were investigating Ms Yashchyshyn but sources said they had been questioned by the FBI about her.

Canadian law enforcement has confirmed she has been the subject of a major crimes unit investigation in Quebec since February.

The allegations come a day after it emerged that a Russian spy posing as a jet-set jewellery designer infiltrated Nato’s naval HQ in Italy by sleeping with officers stationed there.

FBI probes Ukrainian-born ‘heiress’ who posed as Rothschild, gained access to Trump

Inna Yashchyshyn, or ‘Anna de Rothschild,’ said to have infiltrated Mar-a-Lago, currently at center of investigation into ex-president’s removal and handling of classified files

By TOI STAFF and AGENCIESToday, 

Inna Yashchyshyn aka "Anna de Rothschild" (Youtube screenshot)

The FBI has launched an investigation into the business dealings of a Ukrainian-born woman who reportedly posed as a member of the Rothschild family, the famous Jewish international banking dynasty, and who appeared to have gained access to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and to the former US president himself under false pretenses.

An investigative piece published Friday by the Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) together with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette detailed how 33-year-old Inna Yashchyshyn, a Russian-speaking immigrant to the US born in Ukraine, presented herself as banking heiress “Anna de Rothschild” and inflitrated Trump’s Florida resort, mingling with guests at the private members’ club, posing for photos with Trump, US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and others at Mar-a-Lago functions.

The estate is currently at the center of an FBI investigation into Trump’s unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents, some of them top secret, at the property.

According to the joint report, Yashchyshyn is the daughter of an Illinois truck driver and it is unclear when she arrived in the US. Reporters of the publications posted photos of fake US and Canadian passports in the name of Anna de Rothschild bearing Yashchyshyn’s photograph, though she has denied involvement.

The FBI office in Miami and the Sûreté du Québec provincial police in Canada have launched investigations into Yashchyshyn’s dealings, specifically in relation to a charity called United Hearts of Mercy, first founded in Montreal, Canada by Moscow businessman Valery Tarasenko in 2010 with a branch in Miami in 2015. The charity claimed it helps lift children “from spiritual, social, economic, and physical poverty” in various parts of the world, the report said.

Yashchyshyn and Tarasenko are engaged in a complex, bitter legal dispute and have filed domestic violence injunctions in Florida against each other. Yashchyshyn claimed she and Tarasenko were in a relationship and that he coerced her into a scheme to wrangle funds from various mean, accusations Tarasenko denies.

This dispute appears to have revealed details about Yashchyshyn’s access to Mar-a-Lago in May 2021 for unclear reasons, according to the report.

An affidavit filed in Miami by Tarasenko in February, and cited in the report, said Yashchyshyn used “her fake identity as Anna de Rothschild to gain access to and build relationships with U.S. politicians[s], including but not limited to Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, and Eric Greitens,” in reference to the former Missouri governor.

The report said Yashchyshyn played an imposter Rothschild convincingly, according to guests who met her at the estate.

“It wasn’t just dropping the family name. She talked about vineyards and family estates and growing up in Monaco,” John LeFevre, a former investment banker and author who was at Mar-a-Lago in May 2021, told the publications.

She arrived around May 1 last year at the invitation of a connection she met through the charity, the report said. The next day, she was invited to a fundraiser at the Trump International Golf Club, near Mar-a-Lago, where she posed for pictures with Trump, Graham, and others. Later that day, she reportedly fraternized with a number of Trump associates, including Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump, Jr, and dined with them.

A photo obtained by the publications showed a group of people posing for the image at a restaurant including Yashchyshyn, standing behind a seated Guilfoyle.

The incident raises questions about access to Mar-a-Lago, which is both Trump’s residence and a private members club.

Charles Marino, a security consultant who once served on the Secret Service details of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, told the publications that the possible breach “highlights the complexities of having a former president living within a larger club.”

Police direct traffic outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, Monday, August 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump said in a lengthy statement that the FBI was conducting a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and asserted that agents had broken open a safe. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

“The question is was it a fraud or an intelligence threat? The fact that we are asking this question is a problem,” added Marino

The FBI launched an unprecedented raid of Trump’s palatial Florida home earlier this month under the authority of the Justice Department, which is investigating potential violations of multiple laws, including an Espionage Act statute that governs gathering, transmitting or losing national defense information. The other laws deal with the mutilation and removal of records as well as the destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations.

An aerial view of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is pictured, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

On Friday, the FBI released an affidavit indicating that the raid was triggered by a review of 15 boxes of records previously surrendered by the former president that contained top secret information — including about human intelligence sources.

According to the affidavit, the FBI opened the investigation after the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) received 15 boxes of records in January 2022 that had been improperly removed from the White House and taken to Mar-a-Lago. It said sensitive National Defense Information was among the records recovered including 67 documents marked as confidential, 92 as secret and 25 as top secret

Did a Ukrainian spy posing as a young mum really sneak into Russia to murder a Putin ally?

By Lucia Stein, Rebecca Armitage and Lucy Sweeney

Just days after Russian ultra-nationalist Darya Dugina died in a fiery explosion, the nation's principal spy agency claimed to have cracked the case with remarkable speed.

Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin (right) at the funeral of his daughter, Darya Dugina (pictured), who was killed in a car explosion on a road outside Moscow on 20 August 2022. 

Photo: Anadolu Agency / Evgenii Bugubaev via AFP

Giving details that could have been lifted straight from a James Bond film, the Federal Security Service (FSB) outlined how it believed she was murdered.

It claimed to have evidence that a mother serving in the Ukrainian National Guard's Azov regiment had slipped into Moscow on orders from Kyiv.

Russia designated the Azov military unit, which fights alongside the Ukrainian army in the country's east, a "terrorist" group earlier this month.

After crossing the border using false number plates, the woman dyed her blonde hair a dark brown to avoid detection.

She and her 12-year-old daughter then spent a month stalking the vocal Kremlin supporter, the spy agency said.

"In order to organise Dugina's murder and obtain information about her lifestyle, [she] and her daughter rented an apartment in Moscow in the block where the deceased lived," the FSB claimed in a statement.

After learning her habits, the alleged assassin planted a bomb under the driver's seat of Dugina's Land Cruiser four-wheel drive.

The 29-year-old was driving home after attending a music festival with her father when the FSB claims the Ukrainian spy finally made her move.

She remotely detonated the device, killing Dugina instantly.

"She was a journalist, scientist, philosopher, war correspondent, she honestly served the people, the fatherland, she proved by deed what it means to be a patriot of Russia," President Vladimir Putin said of her murder.

The FSB claims that Dugina was targeted because she comes from a prominent family.

The FSB named a culprit in the car bomb attack just days after Darya Dugina died. Photo: Russian Investigative Committee handout via AFP

Her father, Alexander Dugin, is a far-right ideologue who believes that Russia is at the heart of a Eurasian empire countering Western decadence.

Some claim he is "Putin's brain", convincing the Russian leader over years that invading Ukraine was his destiny.

Others say he's a fringe-dweller with minimal influence, who somehow built a mythical reputation outside Russia, akin to a modern-day Rasputin.

Unverified video appears to show Alexander Dugin, who was just up the road when his daughter's car exploded, staggering past debris and gripping his head in horror when he arrived at the scene.

But as howls of outrage and vows of reprisals were unleashed in Moscow, the FSB said the Ukrainian assassin was already making a dash for the border in her grey Mini Cooper.

They released a slew of details of the woman they claimed to be the killer: her passport photo, images from her social media accounts, as well as CCTV footage showing her crossing into Estonia in a neon pink hoodie and oversized sunglasses.

But given the investigation cannot be independently verified, the ABC has chosen not to include the name or photos of the alleged suspect.

Russian news outlets claim the woman and her daughter were last spotted checking into a hotel in Austria before the trail went cold.

There's just one problem with the FSB's account: Kremlin critics say it doesn't make any sense.
Who killed Darya Dugina?

Kyiv has strongly denied having any links to the murder, describing the FSB's hasty conclusions after a 48-hour investigation as "propaganda" from a "fictional world".

Ukraine's Azov regiment says the woman has never served in its ranks, and in fact it is, and always has been, a men-only unit.

And Estonia says no woman matching the FSB's description passed through its borders, and it hasn't had a single request from Russian authorities for information.

We may never know exactly who killed Darya Dugina or why.

Some speculate forces within the Kremlin concocted a so-called "false flag operation" to justify a new phase of the war in Ukraine, and to force potentially restless Russian elites back into line.

Others say it could be the work of an underground resistance group working to topple the Putin regime.

No matter who killed Dugina, her death has been transformed into a potential opportunity - and a potential risk - for Vladimir Putin.

And for some, it has brought back memories of the era before Putin came to power, when Russia was dominated by gang violence and instability.
Dugina's death brings back bad memories for Muscovites

The 1990s were a turbulent time in Russia. It was a decade which saw the demise of the Communist Party, failed coups, economic collapse, political upheaval and a rapid rise in violent crime.

Russia was undergoing a speedy process of reforms dubbed "shock therapy", designed to transition the Communist state into a full-fledged market economy.

But the seismic shift to Russia's economic structure resulted in crises - from 1991 to 1994 and then again from 1998 to 1999 - causing inequality to skyrocket, life expectancy to fall and long lines for food to once again become a familiar sight around the country.

Russia experienced rising inequality during the 1990s amid two economic crises. Photo: AFP

As the walls of the Soviet Union crumbled and fell, from its ashes rose Russia's gangsters.

These organised criminal groups fought over the spoils of wealth from Russia's disintegrating empire, waging bloody street battles and holding cities at gunpoint.

Car bombs, drive-by shootings and knife attacks are etched in the minds of many who lived through this violent period, often accompanied by images of thugs in leather jackets "shaking down and brutalising helpless business owners".

Veterans from the Soviet War in Afghanistan were reportedly drawn to the criminal clans, utilising their skills as snipers and special forces officers in the art of organised crime.

As government and law enforcement struggled to keep pace with the changes taking place in Russia's society, gangs operated with impunity.

"In the 1990s, criminal clans really had huge influence and were a component of our lives," Andrei D Konstantinov, a Saint Petersburg-based mafia expert, told the New York Times.

But that all changed on New Year's Eve in 1999, when a former KGB officer turned political operative was made acting president.

Vladimir Putin promised to bring stability to Russia, putting an end to the blatant violence that had defined the country for more than a decade.

But it came at a price: in exchange for peace on the streets, Putin would impose authoritarian rule.
Dugina's death does not fit in neatly to a pattern of political assassinations

Not long after Putin took office, a pattern emerged of vocal opponents of the Kremlin meeting violent ends.

Political figures and journalists were gunned down in the street or fell mysteriously ill, while high-ranking separatists in the newly claimed Chechen Republic were tortured and executed.

Political journalist Anna Politkovskaya had already been detained by Russian troops while reporting on the Chechen War and believed she was poisoned by suspected secret agents during a flight before her untimely death.

In 2006, she was found dead in the lift of her apartment building. A young man in a baseball cap had shot her in the heart before silently slipping away.

The killing of one of Putin's fiercest critics, carried out on his 54th birthday, was thought by some to have been a presumptuous gift for the president.

Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov had also been an outspoken critic of Putin's for years before he was shot dead in central Moscow in 2015.

According to investigators, a white car pulled up next to Nemtsov as he was walking across the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge. Someone inside fired seven or eight shots, hitting their target in the head and heart, killing him instantly.

Boris Nemtsov (in photo) was shot dead metres from the Kremlin in central Moscow in 2015. 

Photo: Anadolu Agency / Sergey Mihailicenko via AFP

Not all of the Kremlin's enemies died by gunfire.

After Politkovskaya was shot, former KGB agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko accused Putin himself of sanctioning the murder.

Two weeks later, he took a fatal sip of polonium-laced green tea at an upscale hotel in London. Russia was officially found responsible for the murder last year.

Alexei Navalny fell ill in suspiciously similar circumstances in 2020, with the Russian opposition leader narrowly surviving exposure to the nerve agent Novichok.

While no poisoned teacups or handgun-wielding strangers have yet emerged in the details surrounding Darya Dugina's death, the killing perhaps resembles the assassination of another prominent figure in the early 2000s.

Akhmad Kadyrov, father and predecessor of the current Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, died in an explosion at a football stadium in Grozny in 2004.

The former rebel leader switched sides during the Second Chechen War and was hand-picked by Vladimir Putin to lead the republic after Russia took control.

But six months after he became president, Kadyrov was killed during a Soviet Victory Day parade, when a bomb went off in the VIP section of the stadium. Experts suspected the device had been sealed inside the concrete under his seat during recent renovations.

Just as speculation has swirled in the case of Darya Dugina, various theories emerged as to the culprit behind the Kadyrov attack.

Rebel Islamist leader Shamil Basayev later claimed to have paid $US50,000 for the hit on Kadyrov.

The public death of such an ally, under heavy guard and just two days after Vladimir Putin had been re-elected as Russian president, was seen as a significant humiliation for the Kremlin.

But it also provided an opportunity for Putin to install Kadyrov's son into power. The man known as Putin's Dragon has since used that position to pulverise Chechen dissent and maintain Russia's stronghold over the region.
No matter who killed Darya, it's an opportunity for Putin

The true identity of Darya Dugina's killer may forever remain a mystery.

As former British prime minister Winston Churchill once famously said:

"Kremlin political intrigues are comparable to a bulldog fight under a rug. An outsider only hears the growling, and when he sees the bones fly out from beneath it is obvious who won."

Whether she was killed by foreign agents or people closer to home, Russia watchers have no doubt she will be transformed into a martyr.

The death of a beautiful young woman from an important family is likely to send shockwaves through the oligarchs and elites who directly benefit from Vladimir Putin's power.

"I think the message that the killing is sending, even if we cannot interpret exactly who did it and who was the target, is that you can have a terrorist act inside Moscow now in the middle of the war," Marlene Laruelle of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University told NPR.

"This means that elites are suddenly not feeling secure anymore. The war is progressively coming to them inside their territory."

Darya Dugina's death has been transformed into a potential opportunity - and a potential risk - for Vladimir Putin. Photo: ALEKSEY NIKOLSKYI

As his war in Ukraine stretches on, a terrorist attack in the heart of Moscow justifies more potentially repressive acts by the Putin regime.

"I think what a lot of people are worried about is that [Darya's killing] will be used - even if this was not the origins of it - as an excuse to go even harder against any internal opponents of the war," Brian Taylor, a political science professor at Syracuse University and an expert in Russian politics, told Vox.

Putin has already cracked down heavily on Russia's opposition, passing laws that impose up to 15-year jail terms for anyone who calls the invasion of Ukraine a "war" and virtually eradicating independent press in the country.

It's an open question as to how much further Putin could tighten the screws internally, but the swift response of pro-Kremlin commentators to Dugina's death certainly appears suspicious, according to some observers.

"The reaction … was immediate. It looks as if they were waiting for something like this to happen," Russian political analyst Yekaterina Shulman told the BBC.

Even so, the attack in Moscow may threaten the very bargain Putin has used to keep Russians from questioning his authority, especially as the war hits closer to home.

In recent weeks, Russian holidaymakers have been forced to flee attacks in occupied Crimea and there have been a series of mysterious explosions in southern Russia.

Now the bombing in the Odintsovo district has targeted "the very underbelly of Putinism".

"The night explosion scares very, very many real ideologues of war," Leonid Volkov, a close ally of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, wrote on social media.

After all, if the daughter of a high-profile figure can be killed in a fiery explosion while driving home after a music festival, is anyone safe?

- ABC

‘Truss belongs in kitchen,’ says Moscow TV pundit

ALEXANDRA KOLLANTI WOULD DISAGREE*

Propagandist described Liz Truss as ‘dangerous’. Picture by John Sibley/Reuters


James Kilner in London
August 28 2022 

It is not just British TV viewers who have seen a lot more of Liz Truss over the past couple of months as she competes to become the next British prime minister. Russians have too.

Coverage on state-owned television channels has been misogynistic and veers between presenting Ms Truss as a radical and a political lightweight.

“Liz Truss doesn’t belong in politics, but in the kitchen,” analyst Igor Korotchenko said on Rossiya One last week, claiming she was “uneducated”, “dangerous” and a less “reasonable” candidate than rival Rishi Sunak.

Vladimir Solovyov, one of the Kremlin’s chief propagandists, responded to Britain sanctioning the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church with a rant accusing Ms Truss of starting a religious war with Russia.

“She has such delusions of grandeur,” he said. “Such phantasmagoric audacity is unheard of since the times of the Tartars and the Mongols. Who does she think she is?”

Russian news has also replayed footage of what it considers to be Ms Truss betraying her weakness when she recoiled in shock after the interviewer at one of the first Conservative leadership debates fainted.

Mr Solovyov suggested that “when Britain falls”, the clip proved that Ms Truss would only be able to hold her hand to her mouth and gasp.

Another favourite Russian state TV favourite clip of Mrs Truss comes from her meeting with Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, in Moscow in February, shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine. Mr Lavrov spoke over Ms Truss, patronisingly explaining how to cope with simultaneous translations. He later described negotiating with her as like talking to a “deaf mute”.

Yesterday Ms Truss vowed to bolster Britain’s defences if she is made prime minister, including by pushing ahead with renewing Trident, as she warned “the era of complacency is over”.

Less than 20pc of Russia’s MPs are women and there has never been a woman in charge in the Kremlin, the centre of Russia’s power since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

For Francis Scarr, a journalist with BBC monitoring who analyses Russian state TV, the portrayal of Ms Truss is not a surprise. “Every slip-up she makes is amplified, with her often derided as uneducated or a poor imitation of Margaret Thatcher,” he said.

Russian TV goes after most European leaders and last week it called Sanna Marin, the Finnish prime minister, a “drug addict” and described Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, as a “little Furher” who looked up to Adolf Hitler as a “moustachioed idol”.

* EVEN IF SHE IS A REACTIONARY

Odesa goes to war with Russian culture

The monument to Catherine the Great in Odesa, Ukraine. 

Picture by Leonid Andronov

Campbell MacDiarmad
August 28 2022

In Odesa, a bronze statue gazes over the city’s famed Potemkin S teps toward the Black Sea, its chest ensconced in protective sandbags. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, citizens across the country rushed to shield their prized heritage from bombardment.

The monument to the Duc de Richelieu, a 19th-century governor who helped transform the port into a modern cosmopolitan city, was considered worth protecting. But 200 yards away, another monument — to Catherine the Great, the Russian empress who founded Odesa — provokes more ambivalence. A petition calling for its removal has received over 26,500 signatures.

In February, the threat to Odesa was existential, with the streets blockaded and the beaches mined against an anticipated invasion. For Vladimir Putin, Odesa’s Russian heritage made it a key target. Returning it to Russia would cut Ukraine off from the sea.

Six months on, the threat of invasion has receded and this summer the war in Odesa is cultural, being fought by Ukrainians who have turned against anything Russian.

Other Odesans see this cultural purge as threatening the soul and identity of Ukraine’s third largest city. Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov now finds himself in a delicate position. In a war which has turned much of Ukrainian society against everything Russian, his city must decide what links to the city’s Russian past are worth preserving.

Once the pride of the Russian empire, Odesa today is a vibrant cultural hub whose cobblestone streets are filled with baroque and rococo architecture, stylish bars and restaurants, and a world-renowned opera house.

Many of the fortifications installed in March to defend the city in the event of street fighting have been removed and life goes on with a semblance of normality. Municipal workers in blue overalls and yellow tops repair streets in which bollards and planters are painted in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

The city’s one million inhabitants are mostly Russian speakers, who are proud of their Odesan accent and their city’s unique heritage.

Statues and street names celebrate Russian writers with links to Odesa, including Alexander Pushkin, who spent two years living in the city, and Ukrainian-born Nikolai Gogol, who wrote his classic Dead Souls while living here.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky referred the petition calling for the removal of the Catherine the Great statue to city authorities, who have formed a commission to consider the future of local landmarks honouring Russian figures.

“Personally, I don’t support a monument war at a time when our country is at war,” said Mr Trukhanov, arguing that, with emotions inflamed, any attempt to rewrite history could be polarising.

But he will put his own views to one side, he said, as the commission considers if monuments and sculptures should be moved from squares and streets to a monument park.

Peter Obukhov, a deputy in Odesa’s city parliament, has drawn up a list of statutes and street names he would want to remove as part of the city’s “derussification”.

A statue to 18th-century general Alexander Suvorov and the district named after him should go, he believes, as representing a symbol of Russian imperialism. But historical figures with a strong connection to Odesa should stay, including Pushkin and Gogol.

“Putin created this situation where Ukrainian society hates everything Russian so now we’re seeing these things in a new light,” Mr Trukhanov said, explaining how the public mood had soured on Odesa’s Russian heritage.

Since the Euromaidan uprising of 2014, Ukrainian language has emerged as the cornerstone of a national identity increasingly at odds with Russia, with the Ukrainian government introducing laws aimed at promoting its use.

Ukrainian is mandated as the language to be used in most aspects of public life, including schools, while new laws this year have restricted the availability of Russian books and music and required print outlets registered in the country to publish in Ukrainian.

 ©Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2022