01 HOW VLADIMIR PUTIN USES THE POWER OF THE RUSSIAN STATE TO UNDERMINE DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS & THREATEN OUR WAY OF LIFE Vladimir Putin is waging a war on western democracy. His goal is clear: to undermine our values, weaken our institutions and WHY DOES disrupt the global order. It is a war on truth and our ability to distinguish fact from fiction.

THIS MATTER? The Kremlin’s interference in judicial systems and national elections across the West shows that the war has entered a new phase. It deploys western law firms, secret intelligence operations, cyber-warfare, state-funded propaganda and Internet ‘trolls’.

The events described in this booklet reveal a clear pattern. Whether it is murdering opponents, intimidating judges, fun- ding extreme-right parties, expropriating companies or doping athletes, the Kremlin uses all of the state’s power to achieve its goals. It has nothing but contempt for human life, democracy and the rule of law. It will stop at nothing, and no one is safe.

GML September 2018

03 SHOOTING DOWN OF FLIGHT MH17

04 The Netherlands and Australia On 17 July 2014 sile that downed the plane was moved flight MH17 (Malaysia Airlines) was from to rebel-held Ukraine in are now convinced that Russia is shot down in Ukraine on its way the morning of 17 July 2014, when the responsible for the deployment from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. plane was shot down, and the launcher Everyone on board was killed: 283 was taken back to Russia the next day. of the Buk installation that passengers and 15 crew members. Around 100 persons have been iden- was used to down MH17. The Among the passengers were 196 tified as playing a role in the events. Dutch citizens. government is now taking the On 25 May 2018 next step by formally holding In the Joint Investigation Team VICTIMS with the full support of their inter- (JIT), the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s national partners, the Dutch and Russia accountable. Office and National Police work Australian governments announced together with their counterparts from that they hold Russia responsible for Stef Blok Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine. its part in the downing of flight MH17. Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs The JIT aims to establish the facts, «We call on Russia to cooperate fully 25 May 2018 identify the perpetrators, and collect with the process to establish the truth evidence that can be used in court. and achieve justice for the victims of flight MH17 and their next of kin,» said On 28 September 2016 Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stef the JIT published the interim results Blok. of its criminal investigation: the mis-

05 Over the last decade, the Kremlin and its secret services have murdered opponents, journalists and other innocent people who stood in their way. Each murder was sanctioned at the highest level.

STATE-SPONSORED MURDERS

06 The FSB operation to kill Alexander Mr Litvinenko was probably Litvinenko approved by Mr Patrushev [ex-FSB poisoned with radioactive chief] and also by President Putin polonium was a former officer of the Russian Sir Robert Owen intelligence services. In 1998, Chairman, Litvinenko Inquiry, Litvinenko and several colleagues accused Putin of ordering the murder January 2016 publicly accused their superiors of of Anna Politkovskaya. In November ordering the assassination of Boris 2006 in London, Litvinenko suddenly Berezovsky, a Russian businessman fell ill after a meeting with two former who fled Russia and found asylum in the KGB officers. In hospital, his blood and UK. Litvinenko was arrested shortly urine samples were sent to the UK’s after making his statement. After the Atomic Weapons Establishment for charges were twice dropped and then testing. When he died on 23 November, reinstated, he left with his family to doctors confirmed that Litvinenko had London and was granted asylum. In been poisoned by polonium 210 - a London Litvinenko wrote two books rare and highly radioactive metal. in which he accused the Russian secret A public inquiry concluded in January services of staging the 1999 2016 that the murder was ordered by apartment bombings in an effort to Russian secret services (FSB) and bring Vladimir Putin to power. He also probably approved by President Putin.

07 Vasily Aleksanyan denied urgent medical treatment

was a Russian lawyer and Executive Rights Council. In December 2008, Vice-President of Oil Company. the European Court of Human Rights In April 2006 he was arrested on found Russia guilty of violating the fabricated charges by Russian police. European Convention on Human Rights. A few months after his detention, It asked Russia to release Alexanyan Aleksanyan was diagnosed with immediately. But state authorities kept lymphoma and AIDS. His condition him chained to a bed for a further demanded urgent treatment in a hospital three weeks, and he was not released but he was repeatedly and brutally until January 2009. Even then, he was denied this. A man of honour, Aleksanyan repeatedly summoned to attend court refused to give false testimony against hearings, barely able to stay on his feet. his Yukos colleagues. He remained in On 2 October 2011, Vasily Aleksanyan pre-trial detention for almost three finally succumbed to his illness, and died years in conditions described as at home in Moscow. “simply monstrous” by Russia’s Human

08 Anna Politkovskaya murdered in an elevator was a Russian journalist and in the elevator of her block of flats. human-rights activist. She defied She was shot twice in the chest, once police harassment, beatings, torture in the shoulder, and once in the head and death threats to speak about at point-blank range. In 2014, after the policies of President Putin. several trials and re-trials, five men Politkovskaya received many were convicted of her murder. Those international awards for her work. who ordered the killing have not yet On 7 October 2006, Vladimir Putin’s faced justice. birthday, Politkovskaya was murdered

09 Sergei Magnitsky beaten to death in jail

was a 37 year-old tax lawyer and auditor. doctors or equipment. Russia’s human He was a husband and the father of two rights council found that he was seve- children. He was detained without trial in rely beaten shortly before his death in November 2008 after uncovering large- November 2009. In 2012, the United scale corruption by state officials and States adopted the ‘Magnitsky law’, deciding to testify against them. Over the which prevents the Russian officials following months, as his health worsened, involved in his death from entering the the authorities put him under extreme United States or using its banking sys- pressure as they tried - and failed - to tem. Russia responded by blocking the coerce him into withdrawing his testi- adoption of children by foreign couples. mony. The corrupt officials were never As the Financial Times noted in January pursued. Magnitsky was never heard in 2013, «the Magnitsky case is egregious, a trial but spent 358 days in Moscow’s well documented and encapsulates the Butyrka prison, where he developed a darker side of Putinism.» That darkness number of severe illnesses. In his final reached new depths on 11 July 2013, when days, he suffered so much pain that he a Moscow court ruled, posthumously, was put in an isolation ward without that Magnitsky was guilty of tax evasion.

010 Boris Nemtsov shot four times in the back was a physicist and liberal politician, authoritarian regime. He pointed to who served as Deputy Prime Minister widespread corruption ahead of the of the Russian Federation in 1997-98. Sochi Olympics, and Russia’s political He later became an outspoken critic interference and military involvement of Vladimir Putin. Nemtsov was in Ukraine. He published detailed murdered on 27th February 2015 reports that linked corruption to the near the Kremlin, two days before President and his office. In the weeks a peaceful demonstration against before his death, Nemtsov expressed Russia’s involvement in the war in his fear that President Putin would Ukraine. He was shot four times in have him killed. The night after his the back. Nemtsov accused President murder, all of his work was confiscated Putin of installing an increasingly in a police search of his apartment.

011 INTERFERENCE IN OUR DEMOCRACY

12 We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals In their report published in January 2017, the US intelligence agencies concluded that: were to undermine public faith in the Russia’s intelligence services Russian intelligence obtained US democratic process, denigrate conducted cyber operations access to multiple US state or against targets associated local electoral boards; Secretary Clinton, and harm her with the 2016 US presidential electability and potential presidency. election; Russia’s state-run propaganda machine served as a platform for Russian military intelligence Kremlin messaging to Russian Joint report of US Intelligence used the Guccifer 2.0 persona and international audiences. Community (CIA, FBI, NSA), and DCLeaks.com to release US 6th January 2017 victim data obtained in cyber US intelligence concludes that the operations publicly and in Kremlin will now apply the lessons exclusives to media outlets and of the US election to influence events relayed material to WikiLeaks; worldwide, “including against US allies and their election processes.”

13 In July 2018, Robert Mueller, the special trade agreement with Ukraine, the counsel investigating Russian interference British referendum on the EU, the in the 2016 US presidential election, Italian referendum to reform the THE KREMLIN’S GOAL IS TO issued an indictment of 12 Russian intel- country’s senate, and the referendum ligence officers. They are charged with on Catalonian independence. “For REPLACE DEMOCRATIC REGIMES the hacking of the Democratic National European leaders, forewarned, there WITH ILLIBERAL ONES Committee and the Clinton presidential is no excuse for complacency,” said the campaign. The indictment is the most Financial Times on 10th January 2016. detailed accusation so far of Kremlin “The Kremlin has taken the dark art of interference in the 2016 election. It reveals propaganda, honed during the Soviet some of the tactics of modern cyber-war- era, and modernised it to great effect.” fare, from phishing attacks to gain access to Democratic operatives to attempts to In July 2018, a UK House of Commons break into state elections boards. committee published a report on disinformation. The committee had Evidence suggests that, in 2016-17, heard evidence of a ‘‘coordinated, Russia may have also interfered in long-standing campaign by the the Dutch referendum on the EU Russian government to influence 14 UK elections and referendums’’. For example, a joint research project by the Universities of Swansea and Berkeley identified 156,252 Russian accounts tweeting about #Brexit, which posted over 45,000 messages in the final 48 hours of the campaign.

The report concludes that the UK’s Electoral Commission should ‘‘pursue investigations into donations that Arron Banks [the largest single donor in British political history] made to the Leave campaign, to verify that the money was not sourced from abroad. Should there be any doubt, the matter should be referred to the National Crime Agency.’’ 15 CONTEMPT FOR THE RULE OF LAW

16 Over two decades, Vladimir Putin has created a mafia state that enriches those who are close to him - an THE YUKOS CASE authoritarian kleptocracy that uses western financial and legal systems to secure its own wealth, and seize the In November 2016, A narrow escape, but not property of its political opponents. Dutch newspaper, NRC, revealed that unscathed. That’s the lawyers for Russia’s state-controlled In its report of July 2018, ‘Russia’s oil company, , manipulated a Interference in the US Judiciary’, the damage assessment for the series of Armenian court rulings that Atlantic Council explains how the would support their efforts to seize Dutch judicial process after system works: «It starts with Russian state officials or Putin’s personal assets belonging to the former Yukos the Russian state-owned associates taking over a private Oil. They were assisted by the US law company Rosneft […] tried en­terprise in Russia illegally, often with firm, Baker Botts. the help of official law enforcement to tackle Yukos’s defences agencies. Occasionally, the former NRC’s report describes how Rosneft owners are arrested and jailed, but lawyers gave instructions to a senior by manipulating an Armenian many are let go in Russia and a number Armenian judge on the outcomes of them flee abroad. If the fleeing required in five Yukos-related cases. verdict five times entrepreneurs protest too loudly, Russian state agents tend to go after NRC obtained e-mails showing that NRC, them for their own enrichment. They Rosneft lawyers drafted rulings in 30th November 2016 may issue a Russian arrest order, which advance for cases related to the com- is sent bilater­ally to many countries pany’s takeover of Yukos CIS. and to Interpol, which habitually issues an international arrest order, referred An Armenian judge, Surik Ghazaryan, to as a Red Notice. Eventually, the resigned under pressure in 2011. He fled Russian state may exploit the US to the US to receive political asylum. judicial system to reach their targets, undermining the rule of law both in Ghazaryan testified to Dutch courts that Russia and in the United States. he received orders from his superiors 17 dictating his rulings in the Yukos-related Later e-mails show that Rosneft’s cases. In one case, a senior judge gave Armenian legal counsel, Edward him a ruling on a USB stick. Mouradian, sent instructions to a senior official in the Armenian legal system. The The Financial Times reported that instructions set out Rosneft’s demands Rosneft lawyers went to Armenia in for five pending Armenian court cases June 2010 – soon after a Dutch court relating to Yukos CIS. had cast doubt on whether Rosneft would be able to seize ownership of Judge Ghazaryan testified that he had Yukos CIS. A Rosneft lawyer wrote to a “no other choice” but to follow ins- colleague that the legal team had been tructions to rule in favour of Rosneft. promised support but insisted that all “A clear and unequivocal message was details of the trip be kept secret. “They sent to any Armenian judge presiding in are promising that everything will be a Yukos-related case: obey the instruc- OK, but only time will show,” the Rosneft tions that come from the top and rule in lawyer wrote. “Except I BEG YOU, it’s favour of Rosneft and against Yukos or like you don’t know anything, neither face harsh consequences.” about the trip, nor its goals, nor about the fact that we were promised support!”

18 Any attempt to use injunctive In July 2014, Within weeks of these threats, the an independent tribunal, working under Belgian federal government rushed remedies or execution the auspices of the Permanent Court of through emergency legislation – a measures against Russian Arbitration in The Hague, concluded so-called ‘Yukos law’ – that would unanimously that Yukos Oil had been make it extremely difficult for any property in the USA will be illegally expropriated by the Russian person to seize the assets of a foreign considered by the Russian Federation. The tribunal set the compen- state. France was quick to follow, Federation as grounds sation award at more than $50 billion. adopting similar legislation. for taking adequate and Russia refused to pay. Therefore, In April 2016, following the application GML invoked its rights under the of the Russian Federation, the District proportionate retaliatory New York Convention to enforce Court of The Hague set aside the 2014 steps in relation to the USA, the award in several countries, inclu- arbitral award. In a judgment that has ding Belgium, France, Germany, the received no independent support from its citizens and legal entities UK and the US. Russia’s response any legal commentator, the Court was swift: between March and July found that the arbitration tribunal had 2015, the Russian Ministry of Foreign lacked jurisdiction. Affairs threatened its counterparts in Belgium, France and the US that In July 2016, GML informed the Dutch their countries’ bilateral relations Court of Appeal that it would appeal the would “suffer a heavy blow”. Russia District Court’s ruling. In March 2017, promised “retaliatory measures”. GML submitted its appeal.

19 THE ARCTIC SUNRISE

On 18 September 2013, affair. Russia ignored the ruling but Greenpeace activists attempted to finally released the crew after two scale the Prirazlomnaya drilling platform months of detention. to protest against Arctic oil production. Russian authorities seized their ship, On 14 August 2015, Arctic Sunrise, in international waters, the tribunal unanimously ruled that the and arrested the crew at gunpoint. Russian Federation had acted in breach of the UN Convention on the Law of Since the Arctic Sunrise was flying the the Sea. The tribunal ordered Russia to Dutch flag, the Netherlands filed a case compensate the Dutch government for at the International Tribunal for the damages to the ship. Russia refused to Law of the Sea. On 22 November 2013, accept the jurisdiction of the tribunal the Tribunal ruled that the crew should and did nothing. be released pending resolution of the

20 RUSSIA REFUSED TO ACCEPT THE JURISDICTION OF THE TRIBUNAL AND DID NOTHING.

21 STATE-SPONSORED DOPING OF ATHLETES

22 Not only does the evidence On 18 July 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published the McLaren Report, which concluded that the Russian state had manipulated the system to implicate the Russian Ministry of monitor and prevent doping. The report found that: Sport in running a doping system a laboratory in Moscow protec- Russian authorities stopped at nothing that’s sole aim was to subvert ted doped Russian athletes with to achieve their goals, using thin strips of the doping control process, it the support of state institutions metal to break into sample bottles, and drilling secret holes in laboratory walls. also states that there was active a laboratory in Sochi operated participation and assistance of a unique sample-swapping WADA’s Executive Committee methodology to enable doped recommended that the International the Federal Security Service and Russian athletes to compete at Olympic Committee and the International the Center of Sports Preparation the Winter Olympic Games Paralympic Committee prohibit Russian athletes from taking part in their 2016 of National Teams of Russia the Russian Ministry of Sport Olympic Games. directed, controlled and over- Sir Craig Reedie saw the manipulation of athletes’ Russia has been stripped of more President, WADA, analytical results and sample Olympic medals than any other country. 18 July 2016 swapping, with the support of the Of the 35 medals it has lost since 1994, national security services (FSB) 12 were stripped from athletes who took part in the 2012 games in London.

23 24 Sources

Statement by Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stef Blok, 25 May 2018 The Litvinenko Inquiry, January 2016 Aleksanyan v Russia, European Court of Human Rights, 5 June 2009 Anna Politkovskaya archive, New York Times Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, 14 December 2012 Joint Report of US Intelligence Community (CIA, FBI, NSA), 6 January 2017 Joint Report of US Intelligence Community Interim Report on Disinformation, House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, July 2018 ‘The threat posed by Putin’s cyber warriors’, Financial Times, 9 January 2017 Russia’s Interference in the US Judiciary, Atlantic Council, July 2018 ‘Rosneft lawyers manipulated Yukos rulings’, Financial Times, 28 November 2016 ‘Rosneft is worth reporting’, NRC, 30 November 2016 Arctic Sunrise arbitration, Permanent Court of Arbitration, 24 August 2015 McClaren Report on Russian doping, 9 December 2016

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