Commander of Russian 'little green men' in Crimea will be new head of Russia's airborne troops.

Commander of Russian 'little green men' in Crimea will be new head of Russia's airborne troops. (Tass).

The Russian Defense Ministry appointed Lieutenant-General Andrey Serdyukov as commander of Russian airborne troops, Izvestia reports.

According to the publication, the 53-year-old General held all command positions, and also led a special operation in the Crimea in the spring of 2014. The submission on the appointment of Serdyukov has been sent to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.


“Currently, the decision on the appointment of Andrey Serdyukov has already been made by the Ministry of Defense. We are waiting for the approval of the Russian President, as officers for division commander positions and above can only be appointed by order of the Commander-in-Chief.

The Air Force has a special status as the reserves of the Supreme Commander. Therefore, officers appointed as the commander of these troops, personally, must agree with the President,” said the publication of a high-ranking source familiar with the situation. Read the full story here.

More here on the Commander of Russian 'little green men' in Crimea here.

Gen. Petrovskiy of Russian military intelligence GRU may be involved in downing MH17: international investigation team.

Gen. Petrovskiy of Russian military intelligence GRU may be involved in downing MH17: international investigation team. (NRC).

One of the individuals who may have been involved in the downing of flight MH17 according to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM), was recognized by Ukraine as a former high ranking Russian intelligence officer. It is the first indication that the Dutch Prosecution Service is considering the involvement of high ranking Russian (former) servicemen.

SBU IDENTIFIES PETROVSKY

As it turns out, one of the tapped conversations was disclosed earlier by the Ukrainian Secret Service (SBU), shortly after the crash. In this “reconstruction”, the SBU identifies one of the callers as “Sergey Nikolayevich Petrovsky”, an officer with the Military Intelligence Service (GRU).

In interviews, “Khmury” - as Petrovsky likes to be called - said he was discharged from the Russian army in April 2014 with the rank of major general. Immediately after leaving the army, Petrovsky joined the Russian rebel leader Igor Gorkin, better known as Strelkov.

At the time of the crash, Petrovsky was an intelligence officer and Strelkov’s deputy commander in Donetsk. In the SBU’s sound clip, Petrovsky’s conversation partner greets him as “Nikolayevich”.

The Netherlands run the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), an international investigation team including Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine. Because of the tense relationship with Russia, the investigation has a highly sensitive character. Moscow is denying any involvement in the crash and claims MH17 was probably shot down by a Ukrainian jet.

The Organized Crime Office points out that this scenario is still under investigation. By now, the Netherlands have officially requested Russia for information. Chief prosecutor Fred Westerbeke is hoping to travel to Moscow shortly in order to view Russian evidence on the flight crash. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service would not comment on the issue this morning. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was unable to give a reaction as well. Read the full story here.

"Someone" removed hard drives and other Hi-tech equipment from Russian Mistral.

"Someone" removed hard drives and other Hi-tech equipment from Russian Mistral.(Guardian).

Hi-tech and highly sensitive equipment has reportedly disappeared from a warship France has built and is refusing to hand over to the Russians.

The vessel, the Vladivostok, has been undergoing trials off the Atlantic port of Saint-Nazaire, where it was built, with a 400-strong Russian crew. The amphibious assault ship, one of two Mistral helicopter carriers being built by France for the Russian military in a €1.2bn (£955m) deal with Moscow, was scheduled to be delivered by the end of this month.

According to French reports, the “sensitive material” was reported missing on Tuesday, the same day the French president, François Hollande, said the ship’s delivery to Moscow would be postponed “until further notice” because of concerns over Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

Le Point magazine reported that police at Rennes had opened a “preliminary investigation” into the alleged theft of hard drives from the ship’s computers as well as sensitive and state-of-the-art communications equipment installed by electronics firm Thales. Officers said there was no evidence of a break-in.

The French defence ministry said the investigation was concentrating on those in the “immediate vicinity” of the vessel. “We haven’t got to the point of suspecting the Russians,” a defence spokesperson said. Hmmm....My guess those Russian ships in the English Channel are studying them :) Read the full story here.