Wagner, Redut, Moran, GRU, private and state security - the mercenaries on the shadow fleet come from a variety of Russian military instituions. They've fought in Ukraine, Syria and Mali before secretly going on board the shadow fleet. But who are they? Read the full piece here.

Putins mercenaries’ man the shadow fleet. Through fake job interviews and more than 2000 crew lists Danwatch and our international partners are now able to tell exactly when, why and where Russian mercenaries man tankers from the shadow fleet. Three articles out today. In Danish. Read here.

Starting in the spring of 2025, Russia deployed mercenaries who had served in the Wagner Group, Redut, the African Corps, and other private military companies to protect tankers in the shadow fleet dossier.center/sea-convoy/

One of the Russian GPS spoofers around St Petersburg sports what looks like an aim function. There is a realistic possibility this has been used to drive Ukrainian attack drones into NATO territory. So far, I only have two anecdotes to show for it, data collection ongoing. 🧵

The mysterious container ship with Iranian ties carries forged certificates and a Russian-Iranian crew, according to documents obtained by Danwatch and the Dossier Center danwatch.dk/en/leaked-da...

Two Russians with experience in the GRU special forces and Wagner group were aboard the tanker Qendil, which was delivering Russian oil to India. In December 2025, Ukraine struck this ship in the Mediterranean Sea therussiansource.substack.com/p/wagner-esc...

There is unconfirmed information that a high-ranking Russian military officer was on board (I even saw that GRU General Averyanov was mentioned). However, according to the ship's documents, Qendil left Novorossiysk on November 4 without passengers and without any Russian citizens among the crew

The Dossier uncovered one of the most secretive units in the Russian military — the Special Strategic Communications Service (Service K). Its officers handle the “nuclear briefcases” and accompany top leaders. I reveal who they are, their backgrounds, and pay. open.substack.com/pub/therussi...

The Dossier uncovered one of the most secretive units in the Russian military — the Special Strategic Communications Service (Service K). Its officers handle the “nuclear briefcases” and accompany top leaders. I reveal who they are, their backgrounds, and pay. open.substack.com/pub/therussi...

The first attempt to poison Alexei Navalny likely happened as early as 2017, Dossier has found. At the time, he was being tailed by a team of seven FSB operatives. dossier.center/aan/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpVu...

The world’s largest maritime insurance fraud scheme operated in the interests of the Russian authorities. Fake insurance policies were used by Rosneft, NOVATEK, and Defense Ministry contractors, according to investigations by Dossier and NRK www.nrk.no/vestland/xl/... dossier.center/northern-pir...

Wrote a summary of a recent Dossier Center report on Russia maybe using cargo ships to launch drones to spy on German military assets. We already coined the “shadow fleet” for oil tankers. So, this is the “ghost fleet,” maybe? Anybody? meduza.io/en/feature/2...

A Russian national has set up a forgery factory in Norway and has cheated authorities in the Baltic Sea by providing fraudelent papers to the shadow fleet, which have been presented during the controls by Western countries. Authorities had no idea they were being cheated. @glistrup.bsky.social

Why is Vladimir Putin still alive? Who protects him from assassination attempts and drone strikes? How do his food tasters make sure he isn’t poisoned? The Dossier Center takes a closer look at the president’s security service, a key division of the FSO dossier.center/putinmen-en/

I translate some materials from the main newsletter into English. Today's email is about the largest leak containing data on Russian airline tickets spanning 16 years and how to work with this leak therussiansource.substack.com/p/russian-ai...

A massive airline ticket leak is publicly available for free. In 2023, hackers breached the Sirena-Travel system, exposing data on 664 million flights over 16 years. More details here therussiansource.substack.com/p/sirena

I’ve decided to periodically write about the tools I use in my work: bots, open data, registries, leaks, and other resources. The first post about what was once the most important Telegram bot is already published open.substack.com/pub/therussi...

A long thread on the war and the current situation. Although the worst-case scenarios didn’t materialize in 2024, it was the most difficult period since spring 2022. There were positive developments, and bright spots, but the current trajectory is negative. 1/

This is how Europe does a favor for Putin's friends dossier.center/timchenko-gas/

Company linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Timchenko ranks among largest LNG exporters, Dossier reports Co-founded by Gennady Timchenko and Billy Ngok, Kunlun Red Star Energy Trading had exported $514m worth of Russian liquefied gas by mid-2024.

Since the beginning of the war, a new major player has appeared on the Russian liquefied gas market - the Hong Kong company Kunlun Red Star Energy Trading. It exported LNG worth $500 million. Its shareholder is an old friend of President Putin, Gennady Timchenko. dossier.center/timchenko-gas/