NEW RESOURCES

Interfax-Ukraine: MFA launches Russian-language version of online archive of Russian war crimes. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has launched a Russian-language version of the online archive of Russian war crimes for all Russian-speaking audiences around the world.”

Daily Beast: Ukraine Brutally Trolls Putin With App Tracking Russian Deaths. “The Ukrainian military has created an application to show users live updates of just how many Russian soldiers are dying in Ukraine. The name of the app? ‘Russian ship, go fuck yourself,’ an homage to the famous soldier who said the words to a Russian officer shortly before getting captured.”

The Dima Maleev YouTube channel released another video in its Russia/Ukraine war meme series on Wednesday. This one covers Medvedchuk, the Moskva warship, the “Russian World”, Russian widows (and their government benefits), and the heroic explosives-detecting dog, Patron. This is an excellent series and excellently-produced; if you have any interest in Internet culture I encourage you to watch it. If you’re like me and sometimes have trouble understanding accented English, the auto-generated captions are good for everything but the Russian names.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Yale School of Management: Almost 1,000 Companies Have Curtailed Operations in Russia—But Some Remain. “Since the invasion of Ukraine began, we have been tracking the responses of well over 1,200 companies, and counting. Almost 1,000 companies have publicly announced they are voluntarily curtailing operations in Russia to some degree beyond the bare minimum legally required by international sanctions — but some companies have continued to operate in Russia undeterred.”

Data Center Dynamics: Update: Yandex seeks new electricity contract as Finland data center runs on diesel. “The 40MW facility in Mäntsälä, Finland, was cut off on 25 April because Yandex’s electricity contract had run out, according to local news services. The data center appears to be running at reduced capacity on its diesel generators and is putting little or no heat into the district heating system, which is now being fed using light fuel oil and natural gas, according to Nivos.”

USEFUL STUFF

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: How to host a refugee, spot fake war images, say “welcome” in Ukrainian, and more. “As the biggest European land war since World War II enters its 11th week, many people around the world are adjusting to the notion that the war is unlikely to end soon. Many also have questions about how to support Ukraine right now and how they can make sure the war information they receive is accurate. Here are answers to and thoughts about some of those questions.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Washington Post: How millions of Russians are tearing holes in the Digital Iron Curtain. “Daily downloads in Russia of the 10 most popular VPNs jumped from below 15,000 just before the war to as many as 475,000 in March. As of this week, downloads were continuing at a rate of nearly 300,000 a day, according to data compiled for the Washington Post by the analytics firm Apptopia, which relies on information from apps, publicly available data and an algorithm to come up with estimates.”

Marketplace: Why Russia just can’t quit YouTube. “Platforms like Facebook have been banned and labeled “extremist” by Russian authorities. Some sites, including YouTube, remain partially available. At the same time, the Kremlin is trying to push Russian users away from YouTube to a domestic video platform, ‘RuTube.’ It’s part of a strategy to convince citizens and content creators to abandon Western social media sites. But even though RuTube and YouTube were developed around the same time, the Russian video service hasn’t had YouTube’s success.”

The Art Newspaper: How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will reshape Eastern Europe’s cultural scene. “The Pan-Slavism underpinning the Putin regime’s policies reflects a tribal nationalism, an idea of Russian supremacy in the region (if not in the world). If it takes the toll of more than 11 million Ukrainian refugees and unspeakable crimes against human lives, the Russian government’s attitude seems to be, so be it. How this impacts art and culture in the region is a complex issue for every country in Eastern Europe.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Spanish police detain pro-Russian Ukrainian blogger accused of treason. “Spanish authorities have detained a pro-Russian Ukrainian blogger and aspiring politician on an international arrest warrant for suspected treason, a police source told Reuters on Thursday. The source said Anatoliy Shariy, a vocal critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his pro-Western government, had been detained in the coastal city of Tarragona in Catalonia, the source said, without providing further details.”

Washington Post: CIA instructs Russians on how to share secrets with the spy agency. “On Monday, the CIA published instructions for how Russians can covertly volunteer information using an encrypted conduit to the agency’s website. The hope is to attract intelligence — and potentially gain more access to official Russian secrets — from disaffected people who have been trying to contact the CIA since the war began, officials said.”

Bleeping Computer: Google: Chinese state hackers keep targeting Russian govt agencies. “Google said today that a Chinese-sponsored hacking group linked to China’s People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force (PLA SSF) is targeting Russian government agencies. The company’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), a team of security experts that acts as a defense force for Google users from state-sponsored attacks, added in a report focused on Eastern Europe cyber activity that the APT group has also successfully breached several Russian companies.”

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