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Polina Nikolskaya

@reporter-polina.bsky.social
86 followers 43 following 56 posts

Investigative journalist focused on #Russia and CIS countries. Currently at @Reuters.com Opinions are all my own. www.instagram.com/polina_reports

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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Russia reroutes Siberian fuel to shield Moscow from shortages www.reuters.com/business/ene...
reuters.com
Russia reroutes Siberian fuel to shield Moscow from shortages
Russian authorities are redirecting fuel supplies ​from Siberia and ramping up imports from Belarus to prevent shortages in the ‌country's most populous and wealthiest Moscow region amid nationwide di...
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Private jet market defies Iran war gloom as rich flock to Monaco GP, Cannes "The world is in turmoil, but not our passengers," Deniz Weissenborn, ⁠owner of Platoon Aviation told, explaining that its clients are wealthy enough to absorb higher prices www.reuters.com/sports/priva...
reuters.com
Private jet market defies Iran war gloom as rich flock to Monaco GP, Cannes
As soaring jet fuel prices triggered by the Iran war send ripples across ​the global travel market, a wealthy elite of CEOs, celebrities and sports stars is flying by private jet in greater numbers th...
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Germany and the Netherlands, in coordination with NATO, have reached agreement ​to assign the German-Netherlands Corps, based in the German city of Muenster, to the defence of Latvia and ​Estonia, the military sources told Reuters www.reuters.com/business/aer...
reuters.com
NATO to beef up forces assigned to defend Baltics in war, sources say
NATO will strengthen ​the defence of its eastern flank with a new structure that would facilitate the rapid ‌deployment of forces in Latvia and Estonia in the event of a war with Russia, two sources f...
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Last year, I noticed that most Russian tenders in occupied Ukrainian territories focused on infrastructure. My colleagues dug deeper and showed how firmly Russia is entrenching its presence. Read a strong teamwork combining field reporting, interviews and AI tools www.reuters.com/investigatio...
reuters.com
Welcome to ‘New Russia’: How the Kremlin is remaking occupied Ukraine
Moscow is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into an aggressive buildout of transport and trade infrastructure in the Ukrainian territories it has seized. The projects are inexorably weaving thes...
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
VAT filings show the LVMH hotel in Russia received payments from sanctioned entities: 2 units of arms maker Rostec, a subsidiary of Tactical Missiles Corp, from Sovcomflot and Rosneft, corporations under asset freezes Sberbank, Sovcombank and VTB www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
reuters.com
LVMH shut down in Russia when the war started. But it kept a storied hotel that serves sanctioned clients
When the war in Ukraine started in February 2022, LVMH shuttered its Louis Vuitton, Dior and Bulgari boutiques in Russia days before Europe imposed export sanctions on luxury goods.
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Russian media largely ignored today’s 4th anniversary of the war in Ukraine. Btw, a piece from RBC offers statistics of four years' economic indicators and even repression data. It never mentions the war, the headline simply reads: “24.02.2022 - 24.02.2026. Infographics” www.rbc.ru/politics/24/...
rbc.ru
24.02.2022 — 24.02.2026. Инфографика
Что произошло за последние четыре года в России и в мире — в инфографиках РБК
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
At the BonCafe bakery in southwestern Moscow, the shelves are empty ... and owner Yekaterina Oreshkina sits amid the dust and regret of a failed business. Besides, Putin is unlikely to change course on Ukraine due to restaurants shutting their doors. www.reuters.com/business/rus...
reuters.com
In Russia, many restaurants and cafes close as consumption stalls amid major slowdown
Restaurants and cafes are closing down in Russia at the fastest pace since the start of the war in Ukraine four years ago as consumption stalls even in affluent Moscow.
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Washington Post Begins Laying Off More Than 300 Journalists www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...
nytimes.com
Washington Post Begins Laying Off More Than 300 Journalists
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
that moment when you found your surname mentioned in the Epstein files. no, I wasn't on the island. my name appears because I wrote a story about Navalny that was included in the FBI Public Affairs News Briefing in 2020
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Trump, who is closing out the first year of his second term in office, sat behind his massive Resolute Desk... At one point, he held up a thick binder of papers he said contained his achievements since being sworn into office on January 20, 2025 www.reuters.com/world/americ...
reuters.com
Exclusive: Trump questions support for son of Iran's last Shah inside country
Speaking with Reuters in the Oval Office, Trump said Iran's clerical government may collapse, blamed Ukraine President Zelenskiy for the stalemate in Russia talks and dismissed Republican criticism of...
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Rostec replied with a Stalin image to @m_tsvetkova story on a defence factory boss who self-immolated over defmin pressure, calling it “propaganda clichés." "Scaring people with Soviet times is no longer fashionable in Russia. You’re 40 years too late.” t.me/rostecru/10994
t.me
Ростех
🤦‍♂️ Вы ничего не знаете про русских! Коллеги из Рейтерс, это несерьезно. Мы ждали разгромную статью, а получили набор пропагандистских штампов из 90-х: Красная площадь, мавзолей Ленина, сталинское ...
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
With Volna, a Moscow maker of tank radio set parts, nearing bankruptcy after the Ukraine war, its director set himself alight on Red Square @mashatsvetkova.bsky.social spoke exclusively to him and others about the Russian defmin pressure that drove him to it www.reuters.com/world/europe...
reuters.com
Why the boss of a Russian defence factory set fire to himself on Red Square
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine opened a potential goldmine for Vladimir Arsenyev, who heads a Moscow firm that makes components for a communications device used by tank crews. But the orders he landed t...
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
A year ago we reported on a RU propaganda network in Germany handled by the GRU. During that work, Anna Novikova, a RU living in France, also drew our attention. She has now been detained on suspicion of espionage. Read about her ties to Kremlin proxies👇 www.reuters.com/world/europe...
reuters.com
Exclusive: Woman suspected by France of spying has ties to Kremlin proxies, social media posts show
A French-Russian national detained in France has an extensive network of ties with Kremlin proxies.
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
that is in English too carnegieendowment.org/russia-euras...
carnegieendowment.org
The Kremlin Has Weaponized Western Financial Checks to Punish Russian Dissidents
International compliance and anti-money laundering standards are currently formulated in such a way that the Western financial system does not differentiate between Russian political prisoners and ISI...
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
A timely piece by Alexandra Prokopenko (Carnegie) on how Russia uses Western legal systems to press exiled influencers: once labelled “extremists” or “terrorists” at home, they face banking and employment issues in Europe, the US, etc. In RU but easy to machine-translate meduza.io/feature/2025...
meduza.io
У российских властей новая тактика: массово объявлять неугодных террористами и экстремистами Хуже всего, что западные банки верят этим статусам. Александра Прокопенко (Carnegie Politika) объясняет, по...
За почти четыре года большой войны российские власти освоили новый вид репрессий — признание неугодных людей «террористами» и «экстремистами» без каких-либо доказательств. Причем получение такого стат...
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Lucian Kim @luciankim.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Pokrovsk, Ukraine. Portrait of a city in war by Tyler Hicks. View for free: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/w...
nytimes.com
What Our Photographer Saw as a Safe City Became a Blood Bath
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Highly recommend the book "With Good Intentions” (Благими намерениями) by Ksenia Luchenko to anyone who wants to understand how modern Russian nationalist rhetoric was formed and evolved. Ksenia showed it through the Russian Orthodox Church. Only in Russian now, I hope for an Eng edition one day
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
please check out these dishes from a Georgian restaurant in Chisinau: Ceasaridze salad, khinkaluli (wtf?), and the real monster - khachapuri stuffed with khinkali
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
good data analysis from colleagues: How Ukraine's European allies fuel Russia's war economy www.reuters.com/business/ene...
reuters.com
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
I think this year we can really see the consequences of sanctions in Russia: www.reuters.com/world/europe...
reuters.com
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Kristian Kiehling @kristiankiehling.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Despite Moscow recruiting and paying dozens of priests in the deeply religious country to urge congregations to vote against the pro-European PAS party, Moldovans flipped the bird at Russian fascism in yesterday's elections, voting for democracy over Russian terror. www.reuters.com/investigatio...
reuters.com
Holy war: How Russia recruited Orthodox priests to sway Moldova's voters
Russia paid for Moldovan Orthodox priests to make Moscow pilgrimages and gave them debit cards loaded with hundreds of dollars on their return home. In exchange, priests created Telegram channels to influence Moldova's elections, promoting traditional values over ‘gay Europe.’
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
To get a sense of Moldova, look at this: a woman riding her bike along the highway, leading her cow on a rope. Watermelons in Moldova are truly beyond all expectations 🍉🍉🍉
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Oana Lungescu @oanalungescu.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Russia paid for Orthodox priests from #Moldova to make pilgrimages to Moscow. In exchange, they had to set up social media accounts warning about the dangers of closer European integration. @reuters.com investigation about how Kremlin is trying to influence Sunday’s key #election in Moldova 🇲🇩
reuters.com
Holy war: How Russia recruited Orthodox priests to sway Moldova's voters
Russia paid for Moldovan Orthodox priests to make Moscow pilgrimages and gave them debit cards loaded with hundreds of dollars on their return home. In exchange, priests created Telegram channels to influence Moldova's elections, promoting traditional values over ‘gay Europe.’
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
I also encourage you to watch the short film about Russia's influence on the upcoming elections in Moldova through the Church, featuring some amazing shots by Janis Laizans for our story youtu.be/83kfW9yZZ8Q?...
youtu.be
How Russia recruited Orthodox priests to sway Moldova's voters | REUTERS
YouTube video by Reuters
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
I’ve just launched a new Instagram account dedicated to journalism, where I share photos from my trips, behind-the-scenes moments, and everyday life as a reporter. Feel free to subscribe! I’ve already posted some background content from my recent trip to Moldova instagram.com/polina_reports
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
My team and I spent 2 weeks in Moldova reporting ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections. We found how Russia has persistently tried to influence voters through the Orthodox Church 1/8 w/@christianlowe.bsky.social @zverevlive.bsky.social Janis Laizans Marton Monus www.reuters.com/investigatio...
reuters.com
Holy war: How Russia recruited Orthodox priests to sway Moldova's voters
Russia paid for Moldovan Orthodox priests to make Moscow pilgrimages and gave them debit cards loaded with hundreds of dollars on their return home. In exchange, priests created Telegram channels to influence Moldova's elections, promoting traditional values over ‘gay Europe.’
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Russian authorities are now trying to negotiate relief from sanctions, particularly on spare parts, which they say are critical for flight safety, a source in Russia's aviation sector told Reuters. www.reuters.com/business/aer...
reuters.com
Russia asks UN aviation agency ICAO to ease sanctions over safety concerns
Russia is urging the U.N. civil aviation agency to ease sanctions on spare parts and overflights, dismissing its response to the war in Ukraine as "unlawful coercive measures," according to working papers and a source familiar with the matter.
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
our investigation into occupied Enerhodar was cited in @thestudyofwar.bsky.social note on Russian control of Ukrainian territories: how the Russian occupation of the town and the ZNPP has turned the area into a “Russified ghost town.” understandingwar.org/research/rus...
understandingwar.org
Russian Occupation Update, September 9, 2025
Key Takeaways Deportation and Forcible Transfer of Ukrainian Citizens, Including Children  Nothing significant to report. Sociocultural Control Russia is continuing its efforts to Russify and militari...
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
RUSI has quoted our investigation into Russia’s efforts to control Enerhodar. Below, @ddolzikova.bsky.social shares her thoughts on how to handle the difficult situation at the nuclear power plant 👇 www.rusi.org/explore-our-...
rusi.org
Peace Negotiations and Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
As expectations continue to swirl for peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the future of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe hangs in the balance.
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Mediazona English @en.zona.media · 09/09/2025
Sverdlin founded Get Lost soon after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in Ukraine, the project helped hundreds and hundreds of people escape the army since. They also declared February 29 Desertion Day. More here: en.zona.media/article/2024...
en.zona.media
“I told them to fuck off and left.” AWOL and desertion in the Russian army are beating one record after another
Get Lost, an anti-war project that helps Russians flee from the army, declared this past February 29 Desertion Day. “We were being told that deserters are traitors and wimps. We do...
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Mediazona English @en.zona.media · 09/09/2025
Grigory Sverdlin, anti-war activist, former director of homeless charity Nochlezhka and founder of the Get Lost project, which helps Russians desert from the army, was sentenced to 6 years in absentia by a Moscow court today—for a post from April 2022 about the Bucha massacre
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Mykola Kuleba @mykolakuleba.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Reuters investigation exposes how Russia turned Europe’s largest nuclear city into a fortress of terror—families vanish, kids erased, workers coerced at gunpoint. www.reuters.com/investigatio...
reuters.com
Russia turns a Ukrainian nuclear city into a stronghold of fear
Once a thriving city of 50,000, Enerhodar, home of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, is a ghost town. The Russian occupation is using intimidation and seemingly arbitrary detentions to scrub the region of its Ukrainian identity.
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Ben Welsh @palewi.re · 30/08/2025
🟠 "They force people to love them." www.reuters.com/investigations/russ…
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Mari Saito @saitomri.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Here is our new investigation into Enerhodar, an occupied Ukrainian city that hosts Europe's largest nuclear plant. Based on interviews with over 50 people, we detail how Moscow's security apparatus and Rosatom are ruling over the city with violence and fear. www.reuters.com/investigatio...
reuters.com
Russia turns a Ukrainian nuclear city into a stronghold of fear
Once a thriving city of 50,000, Enerhodar, home of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, is a ghost town. The Russian occupation is using intimidation and seemingly arbitrary detentions to scrub the region of its Ukrainian identity.
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Russia-Ukraine Daily News @rvps2001.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
🇷🇺 🇺🇦 Once a thriving city of 50,000, Enerhodar, home of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, is a ghost town. The Russian occupation is using intimidation and seemingly arbitrary detentions to scrub the region of its Ukrainian identity. www.reuters.com/investigatio... #Russia #Ukraine
reuters.com
Russia turns a Ukrainian nuclear city into a stronghold of fear
Once a thriving city of 50,000, Enerhodar, home of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, is a ghost town. The Russian occupation is using intimidation and seemingly arbitrary detentions to scrub the region of its Ukrainian identity.
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
while the world debates a territorial deal between RU and UA, we found that RU is reshaping Enerhodar -the site of Europe’s largest nuclear plant - through fear, propaganda, and newcomers w/ @saitomri.bsky.social @zverevlive.bsky.social M. Prysiazhniuk L. Hinnant www.reuters.com/investigatio...
reuters.com
Russia turns a Ukrainian nuclear city into a stronghold of fear
Once a thriving city of 50,000, Enerhodar, home of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, is a ghost town. The Russian occupation is using intimidation and seemingly arbitrary detentions to scrub the region of its Ukrainian identity.
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
www.reuters.com/business/med...
reuters.com
Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire in Gaza
Hussam al-Masri reported on the war's civilian suffering while himself living in a tent and struggling to find food for his family.
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
anyone who claims that nothing has changed in Russia is simply choosing not to notice www.reuters.com/world/we-thr...
reuters.com
'We threw hand grenades!' Russian kids as young as 8 get taste of military training
Schoolchildren enjoyed a riverside adventure this week, but it was no ordinary holiday camp.
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
I believe there wasn't a single Russian journalist in the 2000s-2010s who didn’t have some connection with Derk. He helped shape the Russian independent press. I’m deeply grateful to him for my happy professional year at RBC. My deepest condolences to his family.
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
finally read a good story about London’s parakeets, seeing them here is more than surprising for immigrants like me www.thetimes.com/article/b8d4...
thetimes.com
The mystery of London’s Himalayan parakeets: myths v truth
The birds’ striking plumage is a common sight across the capital. We may have solved the question of how they got here — and it has nothing to do with Jimi Hendrix
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Mediazona English @en.zona.media · 29/07/2025
He sought asylum in the U.S. after hanging an anti-Putin poster from a bridge in Russia. After 10 months in detention and a failed asylum claim, Leonid Melekhin returned to his hometown and was immediately arrested on “terrorism” charges. His story: en.zona.media/article/2025...
en.zona.media
Broken by American detention. Russian authorities arrest Leonid Melekhin after failed asylum attempt and “self‑deportation” from the US
A court in the Russian city of Perm has arrested Leonid Melekhin, a businessman and activist who returned to Russia after his U.S. asylum bid was denied. Melekhin had traveled thro...
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Sarah Whitmore @drsarahwhitmore.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
I'm currently reading @shaunwalker7.bsky.social's account of the scrupulous recruitment, years of training and diligent handling of the USSR's 'illegals'. The contrast with the crude FSB op detailed here couldn't be more striking. www.reuters.com/investigates...
reuters.com
Russia recruited a teenage spy. His arrest led to a crypto money trail
Russia is using untrained spies after operatives were expelled from Europe in 2022. The case against a Canadian teen shows how Moscow conducts the operations.
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James Pearson @pearswick.press · 13/06/2025
Russia has resorted to using untrained spies after its diplomats and operatives were expelled from Europe in response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This case against a teenager now jailed in Poland reveals how Moscow conducts and funds such operations www.reuters.com/investigates...
reuters.com
Russia recruited a teenage spy. His arrest led to a crypto money trail
Russia is using untrained spies after operatives were expelled from Europe in 2022. The case against a Canadian teen shows how Moscow conducts the operations.
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johnedugan.bsky.social @johnedugan.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
This is wild. Russia recruited and paid a young Canadian as spy. Excellent deep reporting. www.reuters.com/investigates...
reuters.com
Russia recruited a teenage spy. His arrest led to a crypto money trail
Russia is using untrained spies after operatives were expelled from Europe in 2022. The case against a Canadian teen shows how Moscow conducts the operations.
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Reposted by Polina Nikolskaya
Max Bernhard @mxbernhard.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Great story into how the FSB recruits teenagers in the West for spying and sabotage and how these operations are funded www.reuters.com/investigates...
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Mari Saito @saitomri.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
A lost Canadian teen traveled to Donetsk last year. There, he was detained by Russia's FSB. He eventually agreed to spy for Russia. We went through a thousand pages of Polish court documents, including the full chat between the teen and his handler. New story: www.reuters.com/investigates...
reuters.com
Russia recruited a teenage spy. His arrest led to a crypto money trail
Russia is using untrained spies after operatives were expelled from Europe in 2022. The case against a Canadian teen shows how Moscow conducts the operations.
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
we traced the journey of a Canadian teen recruited by RU for sabotage in Europe - from his escape to Donbas, detention by the FSB, to landing in a Polish prison. we also read all his messages with his FSB handler (see photo in a thread). read the story: www.reuters.com/investigates...
reuters.com
Russia recruited a teenage spy. His arrest led to a crypto money trail
Russia is using untrained spies after operatives were expelled from Europe in 2022. The case against a Canadian teen shows how Moscow conducts the operations.
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
a RU actor said in an interview that women should hide their menstruation and even isolate themselves so as not to poison the mood of others. women are now flooding his IG post, sharing when they expect their periods and asking where the special room is www.instagram.com/reel/DKsNwE_...
instagram.com
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Polina Nikolskaya @reporter-polina.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
our past investigation takes a new turn
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