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by Rory » Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:35 pm
by seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:38 pm
RUSSIA HACKING DUTCH ELECTION A WARM-UP FOR GERMANY, FRANCE INTERFERENCE: REPORT
By Janene Pieters on March 10, 2017 - 13:10
Posters for the Netherlands' parliamentary elections, March 2017
Posters for the Netherlands' parliamentary elections, March 2017. Photo: Zachary Newmark / NL Times
While the outcome of the Dutch parliamentary elections next week may not be of vital interest to Russia, Russian hackers are targeting the Netherlands as a warm up for the elections in Germany and France, Ronald Prins, co-founder of cyber security company Fox-IT, said to DW.com.
"The Dutch elections are good practice for them", Prins said. Fox-IT regularly comes across Russian hacker groups APT28 and APT29 while working for clients, which include Dutch intelligence service AIVD and various Dutch Ministries. Digital fingerprints of these two groups were also found in attacks on the Democratic National Convention in the United States and also in Germany and France.
Tony van der Togt, Russia expert at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, agrees that the Dutch elections may not be the Russians primary target. "The German and French elections are certainly more important', Van der Togt said to DW. "But the Netherlands is an important business partner of Russia."
Whether or not Russia aims to interfere with the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands next week, the Dutch government is aware of the risk. The AIVD recently revealed that foreign countries, in particular Russia, tried to hack into email accounts of Dutch government employees in at least 100 cases.
After security experts established that the Netherlands' election software was outdated, the Ministry of Home Affairs decided that all ballots will be counted by hand.
Van der Togt isn't convinced that Russia is specifically trying to influence the Dutch elections, as it won't gain the country any significant ground. According to him, most political parties in the Netherlands are very wary of Russia and don't want to lift sanctions against the country any time soon. Even populist Geert Wilders and his PVV are careful not to show interest in better relations with Russia. "Russia sin't very popular here, especially since MH17."
http://nltimes.nl/2017/03/10/russia-hac ... nce-report
by Rory » Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:53 pm
by seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:56 pm
Russian Hackers May Now Be Mucking With European Elections
France, Germany, and the Netherlands could be vulnerable.
AJ VICENSFEB. 27, 2017 7:00 AM
When the US intelligence community released a report in early January laying out the evidence for Russian meddling in the US election, US officials warned that this wasn't a one-off attack, and that Russia could soon set its hacker corps loose to disrupt elections in other countries. "Moscow will apply lessons learned from its Putin-ordered campaign aimed at the US presidential election to future efforts worldwide," the report said, "including against US allies and their election processes."
Putin didn't wait long to fulfill that prediction. On February 22, the Moscow Times reported that the Russian government had "created a new military unit to conduct 'information operations' against Russia's foes." Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said, when announcing the unit, that "propaganda should be smart, competent and effective." There's no concrete evidence yet, but it appears that Russia may be now attempting to weaken NATO and to divide Europe by destabilizing elections in France and Germany, two of the EU's strongest members.
"This form of interference in French democratic life is unacceptable and I denounce it," Jean-Marc Ayrault, France's minister of foreign affairs, said on February 19 in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, a French newspaper. "The French will not accept that their choices are dictated to them," he said while discussing Russian actions in Europe and attempts to weaken non pro-Russian candidates ahead of the country's presidential election in May.
Ayrault was responding to reports that the Russian government may have been targeting the campaign of Emmanuel Macron, a centrist "pro-liberal and pro-Europe" candidate who has a chance of defeating Marine Le Pen, a right-wing nationalist, in the hotly contested French presidential elections this May. Le Pen has promised to pull France out of the European Union, and, much like Donald Trump, has advocated a better relationship with the Russian government. Macron's campaign has said its computer systems have been attacked, and that "fake news"—that include allegations of a homosexual affair and attempts to connect Macron with American financial interests and Hillary Clinton—has been spread throughout France by Russian-owned media, such as Sputnik and RT.
Daniel Treisman, a professor of political science at UCLA and an expert on Russian politics, says "it certainly seems plausible" that the Russian government would attempt to interfere in the European elections, as it's alleged to have done in the US.
"[Putin] is quite skeptical about the possibility of building strong friendships or cooperation in the future with the elites of western Europe," Treisman tells Mother Jones. "He feels that they've taken a very anti-Russian line, so he's reaching out to other forces who are also opposed to the European elites." Among those so-called Western European elites, are German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and Macron in France. Part of Putin's plan could be to keep the west distracted "with its own problems" so it is "less able to cohesively oppose what he's done in Ukraine," Treisman says.
The French government's top figures reportedly had internal discussions about cyber threats to its presidential election, and earlier this year the official in charge of security for the nation's ruling party told Politico that the country's leading politicians and political campaigns "have received no awareness training at all about espionage and hacking," and that "we are not at all up to the level of the potential threat." The Russian government has denied that it is working to meddle in the French elections, just as it denied meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
"We didn't have, and do not have, any intention of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries," Kremlin spokesman Dmirtry Peskov told reporters on February 14. "That there is a hysterical anti-[President Vladimir] Putin campaign in certain countries abroad is an obvious fact."
Worries aren't limited to the French elections, which will be held in April and May. The head of the German foreign intelligence service said in November that its next election cycle could be buffeted with the same sort of misinformation and cyber-attacks that plagued the US elections. "We have evidence that cyber-attacks are taking place that have no purpose other than to elicit political uncertainty," said Bruno Kahl, the president of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (the German foreign intelligence service), according to the Guardian. Angela Merkel said at the time that "such cyber-attacks, or hybrid conflicts as they are known in Russian doctrine, are now part of daily life and we must learn to cope with them." Merkel's hard line against Putin in the wake of the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and strong support of the European Union are among the reasons that she could be targeted by Russia before her reelection vote in September.
And in the Netherlands, Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders told Politico on January 12 that he didn't have "concrete evidence" interference had taken place, but he wasn't "naive" to the fact that it could happen at some point ahead of that country's March 15 election, wherein Rutte is being challenged by Geert Wilders. Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that the Russian government, among other countries, had "tried hundreds of times in recent months to penetrate the computers of Dutch government agencies and businesses."
Far-right MP Wilders—a vehement opponent of Islam and a strong contender to be the Netherlands next prime minister—has also called for leaving the EU, but he may not be as pro-Putin as Le Pen and Trump. Nevertheless, Dutch officials have said they will count all election ballots by hand due to worries about manipulation of electronic vote counting machines.
Treisman says what happens next in terms of Russia and the European elections is "all up in the air, in part because we don't know what the US administration is going to end up doing" with regard to its policy toward Russia.
Trump has repeatedly said that he's hoping for a good working relationship with Putin, but offered mixed and confusing signals during the campaign about what he thought about Putin's actions in the Ukraine and his annexing of Crimea in 2014. During her first full day on the job, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley condemned Russian violence in eastern Ukraine and called for "an immediate end to the Russian occupation of Crimea." Trump has rattled European allies by praising Brexit and calling NATO "obsolete," but members of his cabinet have reaffirmed the US commitment to a strong NATO, which is one of Putin's main points of contention with the west.
While it makes sense to watch all of this and try to discern a pattern in Putin's strategy, Treisman says, "I don't think he has this clear over-arching agenda, that he's out to expand Russia's borders or achieve anything very concrete. I think he's just looking for ways to resist pressures he sees coming from the west and increase his influence, and his options, and his friends worldwide."
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... -elections
by seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:02 pm
Russian hackers use Dutch polls as practice
Russian hackers use Dutch polls as practice
The Dutch government, like its German and French counterparts, fears that Russia is trying to influence the upcoming election through hacking schemes and by spreading fake news. Thessa Lageman reports.
Wahlplakate in Amsterdam Niederlande (DW/T.Lageman)
It shouldn't really come as a surprise, but the audacity remains breathtaking: In the past six months, foreign countries, in particular Russia, have tried hacking email accounts of Dutch government employees in at least 100 cases. That figure was recently revealed by Rob Bertholee, head of the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD).
He said the hackers had attempted to gather sensitive information about government positions. One of their targets was the Ministry of General Affairs, where Prime Minister Mark Rutte's office is also located. Back in December, Rutte had already said his government was aware of potential foreign interference in next Wednesday's election.
Den Haag Niederlande Ministerium für allgemeine Angelegenheiten (DW/TLageman)
The Ministry of General Affairs is believed to be one of the hackers' targets
"It would be naïve to think it doesn't happen here," the Director Cyber Security at Northwave and former AIVD employee, Pim Takkenberg, told DW. "Russia has the right specialists, and it's quite easy to do."
As a precaution, after experts established that the election software security was outdated, the ballots will be counted by hand and the software will only be used as a calculation tool.
According to IT experts, Russian hacking groups APT28 and APT29, also known as Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear, are responsible for the attacks in the Netherlands. The same digital fingerprints have been found in attacks on the Democratic National Convention in the United States, and also in Germany, France and several other European countries.
Watch video01:43
Hacker attacks target German politicians
"It already happened here before the American elections," says Tony van der Togt, Russia expert at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, referring to the cyber attacks on the Dutch Safety Board in 2015 by the same Russian hackers. The board issued a report on the MH17 plane disaster, which clearly laid the blame for the shooting down of the plane and the death of 196 Dutch nationals on Russia.
Not so insignificant after all
Those instances aside, you would be forgiven for thinking that the Netherlands is too insignificant for the Russians. "The German and French elections are certainly more important," Van der Togt told DW. "But the Netherlands is an important business partner of Russia." Furthermore, he said, the country played a significant role in the sanctions regime against Russia over Ukraine, not to mention the non-binding Dutch referendum on the EU-Ukraine association agreement, which was initially rejected by Dutch voters but later passed by parliament.
"The Dutch elections are a good practice for them," Ronald Prins, co-founder of Fox-IT, a cyber security company whose clients include the AIVD and Dutch ministries, told DW. His company regularly comes across the two hacking groups. Whereas APT28 usually sends so-called spear phishing emails, hoping the target will open the link provided, thus automatically installing malware, APT29 infects a computer after someone has visited a website, allowing documents from the whole network to be stolen.
Ronald Prins (DW/T.Lageman)
Ronald Prins says it's easy for Russian hackers to infiltrate Dutch networks
Fox-IT specializes in finding the hackers' traces, like the programmer's fingerprint, IP addresses, whether the hackers were active during Russian office hours, or if they used a Cyrillic keyboard.
It wasn't us, honest
The question remains what kind of data the hackers managed to steal from Dutch authorities this time; "I can't say anything about it," Prins smiles, although he says Russian hackers have in the past stolen information about "stuff for the military."
"Perhaps we'll see gossip from politicians' emails published in the coming weeks," Prins continues. He thinks it's only logical that Russia would support Euro-skeptic populist parties and spread fake news. "It's in Russia's interest that the EU falls apart. The more chaos the better."
Meanwhile, Russian denials are all part of the act, says Max Bader, an expert on Russia at Leiden University. "They will continue denying and don't care what the rest of the world thinks about them. It is well known an army of cyber attackers works for the [Russian] government."
Still, Tony van der Togt isn't convinced that Russia is trying to influence the Dutch elections specifically, because most parties are wary of Russia's intentions and don't want to see sanctions lifted anytime soon. Even Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom, unlike most other European populist parties, is uninterested in cultivating better relations with Russia. Van der Vogt says it can cost a Dutch politician votes if he or she is known to be supportive of Russia. "Russia isn't very popular here, especially since MH17."
http://www.dw.com/en/russian-hackers-us ... a-37850898
by Luther Blissett » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:03 pm
by Rory » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:05 pm
more copy pasta propaganda .seemslikeadream wrote:Russian hackers use Dutch polls as practice
Russian hackers use Dutch polls as practice
The Dutch government, like its German and French counterparts, fears that Russia is trying to influence the upcoming election through hacking schemes and by spreading fake news. Thessa Lageman reports.
Wahlplakate in Amsterdam Niederlande (DW/T.Lageman)
It shouldn't really come as a surprise, but the audacity remains breathtaking: In the past six months, foreign countries, in particular Russia, have tried hacking email accounts of Dutch government employees in at least 100 cases. That figure was recently revealed by Rob Bertholee, head of the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD).
He said the hackers had attempted to gather sensitive information about government positions. One of their targets was the Ministry of General Affairs, where Prime Minister Mark Rutte's office is also located. Back in December, Rutte had already said his government was aware of potential foreign interference in next Wednesday's election.
Den Haag Niederlande Ministerium für allgemeine Angelegenheiten (DW/TLageman)
The Ministry of General Affairs is believed to be one of the hackers' targets
"It would be naïve to think it doesn't happen here," the Director Cyber Security at Northwave and former AIVD employee, Pim Takkenberg, told DW. "Russia has the right specialists, and it's quite easy to do."
As a precaution, after experts established that the election software security was outdated, the ballots will be counted by hand and the software will only be used as a calculation tool.
According to IT experts, Russian hacking groups APT28 and APT29, also known as Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear, are responsible for the attacks in the Netherlands. The same digital fingerprints have been found in attacks on the Democratic National Convention in the United States, and also in Germany, France and several other European countries.
Watch video01:43
Hacker attacks target German politicians
"It already happened here before the American elections," says Tony van der Togt, Russia expert at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, referring to the cyber attacks on the Dutch Safety Board in 2015 by the same Russian hackers. The board issued a report on the MH17 plane disaster, which clearly laid the blame for the shooting down of the plane and the death of 196 Dutch nationals on Russia.
Not so insignificant after all
Those instances aside, you would be forgiven for thinking that the Netherlands is too insignificant for the Russians. "The German and French elections are certainly more important," Van der Togt told DW. "But the Netherlands is an important business partner of Russia." Furthermore, he said, the country played a significant role in the sanctions regime against Russia over Ukraine, not to mention the non-binding Dutch referendum on the EU-Ukraine association agreement, which was initially rejected by Dutch voters but later passed by parliament.
"The Dutch elections are a good practice for them," Ronald Prins, co-founder of Fox-IT, a cyber security company whose clients include the AIVD and Dutch ministries, told DW. His company regularly comes across the two hacking groups. Whereas APT28 usually sends so-called spear phishing emails, hoping the target will open the link provided, thus automatically installing malware, APT29 infects a computer after someone has visited a website, allowing documents from the whole network to be stolen.
Ronald Prins (DW/T.Lageman)
Ronald Prins says it's easy for Russian hackers to infiltrate Dutch networks
Fox-IT specializes in finding the hackers' traces, like the programmer's fingerprint, IP addresses, whether the hackers were active during Russian office hours, or if they used a Cyrillic keyboard.
It wasn't us, honest
The question remains what kind of data the hackers managed to steal from Dutch authorities this time; "I can't say anything about it," Prins smiles, although he says Russian hackers have in the past stolen information about "stuff for the military."
"Perhaps we'll see gossip from politicians' emails published in the coming weeks," Prins continues. He thinks it's only logical that Russia would support Euro-skeptic populist parties and spread fake news. "It's in Russia's interest that the EU falls apart. The more chaos the better."
Meanwhile, Russian denials are all part of the act, says Max Bader, an expert on Russia at Leiden University. "They will continue denying and don't care what the rest of the world thinks about them. It is well known an army of cyber attackers works for the [Russian] government."
Still, Tony van der Togt isn't convinced that Russia is trying to influence the Dutch elections specifically, because most parties are wary of Russia's intentions and don't want to see sanctions lifted anytime soon. Even Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom, unlike most other European populist parties, is uninterested in cultivating better relations with Russia. Van der Vogt says it can cost a Dutch politician votes if he or she is known to be supportive of Russia. "Russia isn't very popular here, especially since MH17."
http://www.dw.com/en/russian-hackers-us ... a-37850898
by seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:07 pm
FBI chief to testify publicly on Russian interference
BY KATIE BO WIILLIAMS - 03/15/17 11:33 AM EDT 260
FBI chief to testify publicly on Russian interference
© Greg Nash
FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency head Adm. Michael Rogers will testify publicly in the House Intelligence Committee's investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said Wednesday.
The panel is holding its first public hearing into the matter March 20, the same day the Senate is set to begin considering the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court.
Comey has been under fierce pressure from Democrats to reveal whether the bureau is investigating alleged links between President Trump’s campaign and Russian officials.
His silence on the matter has angered Democrats given the director’s public accounting last year of the FBI's investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The FBI director is also facing pressure to reveal whether or not there is any truth to the president's claims that Trump Tower was "wiretapped" by President Obama in 2016.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... terference
by Rory » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:10 pm
by seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:12 pm
Jeet HeerVerified account
@HeerJeet
2. In German there is a help distinction between a ermattungskreig (a war of exhaustion) & a niederwerfungskreig (a knockout war).
TAPSTRI CYBER-MEDIA
@TAPSTRIMEDIA
The FSB officers charged are Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, the criminal hackers- Alexsey Belan and Karim Baratov (arrested in Canada)
Caught Russia's attention
Canada’s foreign affairs minister says Russia could try and “destabilize” Canadian politics. They may have already started.
Canada’s foreign minister warns of Russian destabilization efforts — and she might be a target
By Justin Ling on Mar 6, 2017
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland warned of Russian meddling in Canadian politics on Monday, as information coming from within the Russian embassy targets her family history.
The minister made the comments in Ottawa, at a press conference announcing an extension of a Canadian training mission in Ukraine that is meant to help Kyiv combat Russian-backed militias.
“I think that it is also public knowledge that there have been efforts, as U.S. intelligence forces have said, by Russia to destabilize the U.S. political system,” she said.
“I think that Canadians, and indeed other western countries, should be prepared for similar efforts to be directed at us. I am confident in our country’s democracy, and I am confident that we can stand up to and see through those efforts.”
Freeland, who has held her post for the past two months, is of Ukrainian heritage and is persona non grata in Russia, listed on a travel ban because of her outspoken support for the NATO-allied government of Ukraine. The Russian embassy has made no secret that they opposed her appointment. It appears that their animosity may be taking shape in an effort to discredit the minister.
On Monday, the Globe and Mail asked Freeland about articles, posted to two different online sites, alleging that her maternal grandfather had been editor-in-chief of a collaborationist newspaper that worked directly with the Nazis.
The same allegations were sent to VICE News by someone in the Russian embassy in January, the day after Freeland was sworn in as minister of foreign affairs. The Russian source suggested that Freeland should be questioned on her grandfather’s work during the war.
The Russian embassy declined to speak on the record for this story.
Michael Chomiak, Freeland’s maternal grandfather, indeed fled Ukraine during the war and wound up editor-in-chief of Krakivski Visti, a Ukrainian nationalist newspaper published in Krakow and Vienna, sanctioned by the Nazi-run government.
“Kremlin propaganda directly targets specific journalists, politicians and individuals in the EU.”
But John-Paul Himka, a professor emeritus at the University of Alberta who has written extensively about Krakivski Visti, told VICE News the truth is more complicated.
“It was a newspaper that had to collaborate with the Germans and had certain areas of ideological kinship,” said Himka, who is related by marriage to both Freeland (his niece) and Chomiak (his father-in-law.)
The paper did publish anti-semitic material, often accusing the Russian Bolsheviks — who carried out mass killings of Ukrainians at the time — of being predominately Jewish, a common and incorrect trope of the time. Other articles, always written under pseudonyms (although the authors have since been identified) sought to dehumanize the Jewish population through conspiracy and innuendo. Some of those articles were required by the Germans, according to records of correspondence from the paper’s editors.
Ultimately, he said, it is also difficult to pin any of this onto Freeland’s grandfather.
“He wrote nothing for the paper. He was largely a figurehead, a liaison with the German censors and a guy to call on the carpet when a whipping boy was needed,” Himka said over email.
Freeland has had a career, and a life, of her own. Her family migrated to Canada after the war, where Chomiak died in 2004. She’s been a Member of Parliament since 2013.
Still, two writers — one based in Crimea, the other in Moscow, both who write with a pro-Russian slant — published stories on her grandfather’s supposed ties with the Nazis, little more than a week after the story was first taken to VICE News.
Freeland hasn’t been the only politician to draw the attention of Russia.
Media outlets run by the Kremlin, such as Sputnik News and RT, have long spun yarns about Western politicians, tearing down those who support sanctions against Moscow and boosting those who seek closer ties with President Vladimir Putin.
A report from the European Parliament concluded late last year that “Kremlin propaganda directly targets specific journalists, politicians and individuals in the EU.”
https://news.vice.com/story/canadas-for ... e-a-target
by brekin » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:23 pm
by Rory » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:29 pm
seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 15, 2017 9:12 am wrote:Jeet HeerVerified account
@HeerJeet
2. In German there is a help distinction between a ermattungskreig (a war of exhaustion) & a niederwerfungskreig (a knockout war).TAPSTRI CYBER-MEDIA
@TAPSTRIMEDIA
The FSB officers charged are Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, the criminal hackers- Alexsey Belan and Karim Baratov (arrested in Canada)Caught Russia's attention
Canada’s foreign affairs minister says Russia could try and “destabilize” Canadian politics. They may have already started.
Canada’s foreign minister warns of Russian destabilization efforts — and she might be a target
By Justin Ling on Mar 6, 2017
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland warned of Russian meddling in Canadian politics on Monday, as information coming from within the Russian embassy targets her family history.
The minister made the comments in Ottawa, at a press conference announcing an extension of a Canadian training mission in Ukraine that is meant to help Kyiv combat Russian-backed militias.
“I think that it is also public knowledge that there have been efforts, as U.S. intelligence forces have said, by Russia to destabilize the U.S. political system,” she said.
“I think that Canadians, and indeed other western countries, should be prepared for similar efforts to be directed at us. I am confident in our country’s democracy, and I am confident that we can stand up to and see through those efforts.”
Freeland, who has held her post for the past two months, is of Ukrainian heritage and is persona non grata in Russia, listed on a travel ban because of her outspoken support for the NATO-allied government of Ukraine. The Russian embassy has made no secret that they opposed her appointment. It appears that their animosity may be taking shape in an effort to discredit the minister.
On Monday, the Globe and Mail asked Freeland about articles, posted to two different online sites, alleging that her maternal grandfather had been editor-in-chief of a collaborationist newspaper that worked directly with the Nazis.
The same allegations were sent to VICE News by someone in the Russian embassy in January, the day after Freeland was sworn in as minister of foreign affairs. The Russian source suggested that Freeland should be questioned on her grandfather’s work during the war.
The Russian embassy declined to speak on the record for this story.
Michael Chomiak, Freeland’s maternal grandfather, indeed fled Ukraine during the war and wound up editor-in-chief of Krakivski Visti, a Ukrainian nationalist newspaper published in Krakow and Vienna, sanctioned by the Nazi-run government.
“Kremlin propaganda directly targets specific journalists, politicians and individuals in the EU.”
But John-Paul Himka, a professor emeritus at the University of Alberta who has written extensively about Krakivski Visti, told VICE News the truth is more complicated.
“It was a newspaper that had to collaborate with the Germans and had certain areas of ideological kinship,” said Himka, who is related by marriage to both Freeland (his niece) and Chomiak (his father-in-law.)
The paper did publish anti-semitic material, often accusing the Russian Bolsheviks — who carried out mass killings of Ukrainians at the time — of being predominately Jewish, a common and incorrect trope of the time. Other articles, always written under pseudonyms (although the authors have since been identified) sought to dehumanize the Jewish population through conspiracy and innuendo. Some of those articles were required by the Germans, according to records of correspondence from the paper’s editors.
Ultimately, he said, it is also difficult to pin any of this onto Freeland’s grandfather.
“He wrote nothing for the paper. He was largely a figurehead, a liaison with the German censors and a guy to call on the carpet when a whipping boy was needed,” Himka said over email.
Freeland has had a career, and a life, of her own. Her family migrated to Canada after the war, where Chomiak died in 2004. She’s been a Member of Parliament since 2013.
Still, two writers — one based in Crimea, the other in Moscow, both who write with a pro-Russian slant — published stories on her grandfather’s supposed ties with the Nazis, little more than a week after the story was first taken to VICE News.
Freeland hasn’t been the only politician to draw the attention of Russia.
Media outlets run by the Kremlin, such as Sputnik News and RT, have long spun yarns about Western politicians, tearing down those who support sanctions against Moscow and boosting those who seek closer ties with President Vladimir Putin.
A report from the European Parliament concluded late last year that “Kremlin propaganda directly targets specific journalists, politicians and individuals in the EU.”
https://news.vice.com/story/canadas-for ... e-a-target
by Rory » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:30 pm
To say Canada’s “star diplomat,” Chyrstia Freeland, has skeletons in her closet, is a grave understatement. The country’s foreign affairs minister had a Nazi collaborator as grandfather — a fact she knew for decades, but didn't stop her from peddling her way to a top government post.
As the revelation came to light this week, Freeland has dismissed the facts as part of a “Russian disinformation campaign,” raising questions among some about the prospects for Canada’s role in Ukraine. On Monday, Canada extended its military training mission to the Eastern European nation, supporting a government that has ties to extreme, far-right nationalist elements and anti-Semitic militias.
While Freeland dismissed the news as Russian propaganda, it was actually Ukrainian Canadians who unearthed the information by digging through provincial archives in Edmonton, Alberta. Alex Boykowich and his colleague, through their own independent research, found that Michael Chomiak, Freeland’s maternal Ukrainian grandfather, was chief editor of a Nazi newspaper in Krakow, Poland called Krakivski Visti, which translate to Krakow News. In his post, Chomiak published anti-Jewish diatribes that supported the Nazi's regime of terror that later became known as the Holocaust.
by seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:32 pm
by Rory » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:35 pm
seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 15, 2017 9:32 am wrote:oh no Rory using nasty words now......I am in trouble now for sure
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