Sasha's Corruption

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Around the time of the Battle of Sievierodonetsk in early June, the legionnaires received a controversial task from Kuchynsky: to drive from their base to a local shopping mall in the front-line city of Lysychansk in Luhansk Oblast and take merchandise from the shops. The older Taras did not listen and sent another group to the very same place, the soldier said. The story repeated itself, but this time with four killed, multiple injured, and one taken captive. The captive soldier, Andrew Hill, now faces a fake “trial” and possible execution in Russian-occupied Donetsk on accusations of being a mercenary. The allegations in this report concern the GUR-run wing of the Legion. At its strongest, this unit had up to 500 people, and comprised about one-third of the International Legion, according to the Kyiv Independent's sources among the soldiers. There is no chance, he believes, that these weapons were given to some other unit. He believes that they were the only unit in the area at the time and therefore, the only ones who could have used the NLAWs. He said he did not report missing NLAWs to the commanders because he was afraid of Kapuscinski. Vinnik, then 37, was known in the murky world of Moscow digital currency exchangers as “Sasha WME.” According to a 21-count US indictment unsealed by the Northern District of California the day after his arrest, he was an online money launderer and the brains behind the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange known as BTC-e, once one of the world’s largest.

US and Russia Spar Over Accused Crypto-Launderer - OCCRP

No reaction by the Defense Ministry’s Directorate for Intelligence, also known under its Ukrainian acronym GUR, and the President's Office followed the August investigation by the Kyiv Independent that focused on the military intelligence-run part of the Legion and exposed its commanders, including Kapuscinski’s misconduct in various cases.Over a dozen other foreign fighters in conversation with the Kyiv Independent accused their commanders of stealing small arms and light weapons that they said went missing from the Legion’s armory rooms. Some soldiers witnessed arms being loaded into what they described as civilian SUVs to then vanish. It raised suspicions as the drivers often kept the lights off and weren’t wearing military clothes, legionnaires said. Lawmaker Oleksandra Ustinova, the head of the committee, told the Kyiv Independent that Ukraine’s allies are satisfied with how Ukraine is using Western-donated weapons.

Corruption concerns involving Ukraine are revived as the war Corruption concerns involving Ukraine are revived as the war

His room was full of alcohol and stolen stuff. People used to see it when he opened the door and I also saw it,” one fighter said. The video ends with the soldier saying to his peers: “Let’s go downstairs, guys. We are not playing these games.”The move came after a prospective buyer of an Odebrecht subsidiary, the Braskem petrochemical company, ended negotiations, depriving Odebrecht of a financial infusion needed to help it pay down its debts. An official internal investigation is ongoing regarding some of the issues raised in your request,” Mykola Krasniy, press secretary of the military intelligence, told the Kyiv Independent on Nov. 18. The bribery scheme covered the political spectrum. What documents are the basis of ICIJ’s Bribery Division investigation? They were not part of the legal action and challenged any suggestion that there were grounds to suspect them of wrongdoing in connection with alleged corruption or the deaths of three men who were referred to in the case.

Sasha Wass - Wikipedia

One company commander had been complaining about their leadership’s mismanagement for over a month until in April Bohdan decided to expel him, his testimony reads. He gathered both Ukrainian and foreign officers and proclaimed the soldier in question a spy.Editor’s Note: This is the second part of the Kyiv Independent’s investigation into the International Legion – a military formation created for foreign fighters dedicated to defending Ukraine. Published in August, the first part of this story unmasked alleged endemic abuse of power in the leadership of the military intelligence-run wing of the Legion. This was not the first time when an officer of the intelligence-run part of the Legion allegedly raised a gun at a subordinate. A clash between Russia and the US over the fate of a fallen cryptocurrency king has escalated to the Kremlin, where President Vladimir Putin raised the matter directly with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. We worked hard to piece the evidence together and break this story. We believe it is crucial to shed light on mismanagement in the army, especially in times of war. We wanted to help bring change to the International Legion so it continues to assist Ukraine in defending itself against Russian aggression. Now, however, many legionnaires are resigning due to the commanders’ misconduct. The soldiers call upon authorities to reform the Legion. They are afraid that instead, authorities could just shut it down as an ea