(Bloomberg) — The U.S. warned Thursday of a Russian plot to release a fake video purporting to show a Ukrainian attack on Russia or Russian-speaking people, as a way to justify an invasion. The EU warned of a new Russian-backed cyber threat.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing for the opening of the Winter Olympics.
He’s meeting there with President Xi Jinping, their first in-person talks since 2019. China and Russia “coordinated their stances” on issues including Ukraine at talks in Beijing on Thursday between their foreign ministers.
Moscow has repeatedly denied it plans to attack Ukraine, while decrying the use of NATO forces near Russia’s borders.
Key Developments
- Putin’s Financial Fortress Blunts Impact of Threatened Sanctions
- Putin Courts China’s Xi for Help in Showdown With the West
- Ukraine Briefing Spurs Greater Urgency on Sanctions in Congress
- What we know so far about potential U.S.-EU sanctions on Russia
- Where military forces are assembling around Russia and Ukraine
All times CET
EU Warned of New Russian Cyber Threat (8:40 a.m.)
European Union institutions were warned Thursday of a new Russian-backed cyber threat that’s been running credential harvesting activity since mid-2021, according to an alert seen by Bloomberg News.
The alert says it’s possible the capabilities will be used for cyberespionage purposes.
No institutions have been targeted yet. The alert didn’t mention Ukraine.
The group, known as Reuse Team or Callisto, has been involved in state-sponsored espionage and criminal activity since the early 2000s, the alert said.
The group has recently targeted an EU body and was involved in a campaign that targeted a European ministry of foreign affairs in 2020. It has gathered intelligence related to foreign policy in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, according to a 2017 report by F-Secure, a cyber security research firm.
Gazprom Reliability in Doubt, Von Der Leyen Says (8:31 a.m.)
Gazprom is abiding by its contracts with the EU but unlike other suppliers isn’t shipping more gas than planned to Europe, and that’s casting doubt on its reliability, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in an interview with Les Echos and Handelsblatt.
Gazprom’s behavior is “weird,” and Russia is using gas deliveries as a way to put pressure on Europe, she said.
Von der Leyen also described the EU’s sanctions package in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, which includes including shutting Moscow off from foreign capital, and controlling exports of critical goods to Russia needed in areas such as artificial intelligence, weapons, quantum computing, lasers and space technologies.
Macron to Visit Russia, Ukraine Next Week (8:21 a.m.)
French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Moscow on Monday and Ukraine on Tuesday, an Elysee official said, as he continues an active diplomatic role in the crisis.
The trips will follow three calls in the past week between Macron and Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukrainian situation.
U.S. Lawmakers Briefed by Top Security Team (11:00 p.m.)
U.S. lawmakers are rushing to draft a new round of potential sanctions on Russia intended as a deterrent to any aggression against Ukraine.
The sense of urgency in Congress escalated following day-long briefings Thursday by top national security officials.
Negotiations had been slowed as Democrats and the Biden administration resisted Republican efforts to impose more sanctions on Russia now.
Both sides agree on the need for more punishing penalties should Russia invade Ukraine, which the Kremlin denies it plans to do.
U.S. Says Russia Planned Fake Video Plot (7:40 p.m.)
Moscow has considered staging a graphic propaganda video that would purport to show an attack by Ukraine on Russia or Russian-speaking people as a pretense for an invasion, U.S.
officials said, calling it one of a number of plans Russia has developed in recent weeks.
The video would feature an attack — including scenes of an explosion — as well as the aftermath, including corpses, mourners and destroyed equipment purportedly provided by the West to Ukraine, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
The plan “shows the level of cynicism, frankly, that is on the other side of this conflict,” Jon Finer, deputy national security adviser, said in an interview with MSNBC.
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