CNN Reported Dossier Basis for Trump Surveillance, But…

Posted on April 19, 2017April 19, 2017 by Denise Simon

The FBI last year used a dossier of allegations of Russian ties to Donald Trump’s campaign as part of the justification to win approval to secretly monitor a Trump associate, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.

The dossier has also been cited by FBI Director James Comey in some of his briefings to members of Congress in recent weeks, as one of the sources of information the bureau has used to bolster its investigation, according to US officials briefed on the probe.

This includes approval from the secret court that oversees the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to monitor the communications of Carter Page, two of the officials said. Last year, Page was identified by the Trump campaign as an adviser on national security. More here from CNN.

Okay, so everyone remains angry with James Comey right? Okay, well hold on….this could get complicated. We cant dismiss the notion that Obama and Susan Rice had a valid reason for their surveillance

actions, at least some as the below case was provided to the White House.

Enter Evigeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev.

Image result for evgeniy mikhailovich bogachev

U.S. v Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev et al by Brian Ries on Scribd

Bogachev was a case from 2014 investigated by CrowdStrike and then later offered help to the FBI office in Omaha and later the FBI office in Pittsburgh finally after countless months, ran a global cyber operation and succeeded in stopping international bank thefts in the millions of dollars. Many Russian immigrants located in Brighton Beach were recruited to be mules going to domestic banks, opening accounts and later withdrawing funds, cleaning all traces of the stolen millions. It should be noted that CrowdStrike was the same firm the Hillary campaign hired to investigate intrusions.

Image result for evgeniy mikhailovich bogachev

Now it gets even more interesting.

The matter of Bogachev with his named operation of ‘Business Club’ and his global cyber operatives hacking with sophisticated bots, malware and remote servers came to the attention of the Russian Federation. They liked what the Bogachev Zeus operation had the ability to do. So, top Kremlin officials allowed the operation to continue without prosecution if they would work to gather intelligence on the global reaction to Putin annexing Crimea and moving in on Ukraine.

All of this came to the attention also of U.S. based private cyber professional where they studied the code, the IP addresses, the servers, the patterns, names and other common cyber traits. The DNC hack attributions are a dovetail to the ‘Business Club’ operation due to style, coding, networks, language and server locations.

In 2015, the Obama State Department issued sanctions and a $3 million dollar bounty on Bogachev who operated with the alias of ‘Slavik’. Russia of course is not only not cooperating but refuses to admit any such action was real and the evidence is not vetted. This is a usual response by top Russian officials.

An estimated $100 million was stolen via cyber operations by Slavik and computers infected with various versions of Zeus still exist while the FBI was able to seized all those known to their sting operation.

The FBI described the cyber sting operation as hand to hand combat with Bogachev and his operation on the Zeus case was deemed successful. It is unknown at this time who and where is he still operating. The summary of this operation was taken from the full article published by ‘Wired’ under the title ‘The Hunt for Russia’s Most Notorious Hacker’

Late last year, the DHS released a joint statement which read in part:

This activity by Russian intelligence services is part of a decade-long campaign of cyber-enabled operations directed at the U.S. Government and its citizens. These cyber operations have included spearphishing, campaigns targeting government organizations, critical infrastructure, think tanks, universities, political organizations, and corporations; theft of information from these organizations; and the recent public release of some of this stolen information. In other countries, Russian intelligence services have also undertaken damaging and disruptive cyber-attacks, including on critical infrastructure, in some cases masquerading as third parties or hiding behind false online personas designed to cause victim to misattribute the source of the attack. The Joint Analysis Report provides technical indicators related to many of these operations, recommended mitigations and information on how to report such incidents to the U.S. Government.

A great deal of analysis and forensic information related to Russian government activity has been published by a wide range of security companies. The U.S. Government can confirm that the Russian government, including Russia’s civilian and military intelligence services, conducted many of the activities generally described by a number of these security companies. The Joint Analysis Report recognizes the excellent work undertaken by security companies and private sector network owners and operators, and provides new indicators of compromise and malicious infrastructure identified during the course of investigations and incident response. The U.S. Government seeks to arm network defenders with the tools they need to identify,, detect and disrupt Russian malicious cyber activity that is targeting our country’s and our allies’ networks.

Another Journalist Dead After beatings, Russia

Posted on April 19, 2017April 19, 2017 by Denise Simon

Nicholas Andrushchenko dead after beatings.

CBS writes the he covered human rights issues and crime.

In this photo taken on Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016, prominent Russian journalist Nikolai Andrushchenko poses in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Those opposed to Putin or expose the Kremlin/FSB seem to have shorter lives.

Going back a few years to a major case of poisoning. With assassinations, Russian spies and rumours of the Kremlin’s dark influence back in the news, this documentary tells – for the first time – the inside story of the murder of a British citizen on British soil using the world’s deadliest poison, and of an international manhunt that led to the steps of the Kremlin. Alexander Litvinenko was killed in London with the radioactive poison polonium 210 in November 2006. The Scotland Yard detectives who led the murder investigation have never spoken publicly about it before. Together with the doctors who fought to save Litvinienko’s life – reveal the political and diplomatic obstacle course they faced in investigating the murder and tell how their quarries left a toxic trail through the heart of London.

Then there was the case of Mikhail Lesin, 59, found dead in a Dupont Circle hotel room. He was a former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

***

Russia suspicious deaths list updated today with a journalist who died after being attacked. Putin critics highlighted in yellow.pic.twitter.com/hmdemYhRMY

The Kremlin Is Reportedly Planning a Major Mudslinging Campaign Against Putin’s Biggest Critic

Image: Alexey Navalny / Instagram, edited by Kevin Rothrock

The Kremlin has finally decided to take on Alexey Navalny, four sources tell the independent television station Dozhd. According to two of the sources (identified only as “individuals close to the Kremlin”), the campaign against Russia’s opposition leader will start sometime soon.

Putin’s deputy chief of staff, Sergey Kirienko, has reversed the Kremlin’s longheld position that Navalny poses no genuine threat to the regime, according to a source who regularly meets with Kirienko. The administration’s concern is reportedly that Navalny could mar Putin’s likely re-election next March, when the Kremlin is counting on a “beautiful victory,” with high turnout and without the need for open repression against the political opposition.

According to Dozhd’s report, a special team from Putin’s domestic policy crew has set up a war room somewhere outside the Kremlin to generate material designed to discredit Navalny. Dozhd says Alexander Kharichev and Andrei Yarin — two of Putin’s top domestic policy officials — will oversee the mudslinging effort.

“They’re filming videos, making viral clips, and designing little video games to discredit Navalny. They’re fighting him like he’s Hitler,” a source told Dozhd.

Political analysts told Dozhd that the public can expect the campaign against Navalny to resemble the character assassination of former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, whose race for a seat in the State Duma derailed last year, after Russian network television aired hidden-camera footage of him cheating on his wife, which also precipitated a collapse of Russia’s democratic opposition alliance.

Online, where Navalny enjoys his greatest support and popularity, Russians are already mocking the news that the Kremlin is working on “videogames” to discredit the country’s most visible anti-corruption activist. “I can’t wait for the release of the videogame that will discredit Alexey Navalny,” Perm-based artist Anton Semakin tweeted sarcastically. “After the protests against corruption, the Kremlin has decided to crack down on Navalny, not on corruption,” the Russian comedian “Bob Farber” joked.

According to Dozhd’s sources, it was last month’s nationwide anti-corruption protests, spearheaded almost single-handedly by Navalny, that provoked the Kremlin’s new response. While the crowds may have represented only an infinitesimal sliver of the Russian population, Navalny’s anti-corruption efforts have undeniably coalesced into a larger movement. See RuNet Echo’s March 28 report on “Russia’s Youngster Uprising.”

And there’s statistical evidence that supports Navalny’s rising political profile: In early April, the Levada Center polling agency recorded a 10-percent drop in Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s approval ratings after Navalny released a bombshell investigation accusing Medvedev of widescale corruption.

Packaged in a sleek and entertaining video presentation, Navalny’s allegations have attracted more than 19 million views on YouTube.

Putin’s Think Tank Crafted 2016 U.S. election Interference – documents

Posted on April 19, 2017April 19, 2017 by Denise Simon

Reuters: A Russian government think tank controlled by Vladimir Putin developed a plan to swing the 2016 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump and undermine voters’ faith in the American electoral system, three current and four former U.S. officials told Reuters.

They described two confidential documents from the think tank as providing the framework and rationale for what U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded was an intensive effort by Russia to interfere with the Nov. 8 election. U.S. intelligence officials acquired the documents, which were prepared by the Moscow-based Russian Institute for Strategic Studies [en.riss.ru/], after the election.

The institute is run by retired senior Russian foreign intelligence officials appointed by Putin’s office.

The first Russian institute document was a strategy paper written last June that circulated at the highest levels of the Russian government but was not addressed to any specific individuals.

It recommended the Kremlin launch a propaganda campaign on social media and Russian state-backed global news outlets to encourage U.S. voters to elect a president who would take a softer line toward Russia than the administration of then-President Barack Obama, the seven officials said.

A second institute document, drafted in October and distributed in the same way, warned that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was likely to win the election. For that reason, it argued, it was better for Russia to end its pro-Trump propaganda and instead intensify its messaging about voter fraud to undermine the U.S. electoral system’s legitimacy and damage Clinton’s reputation in an effort to undermine her presidency, the seven officials said.

The current and former U.S. officials spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the Russian documents’ classified status. They declined to discuss how the United States obtained them. U.S. intelligence agencies also declined to comment on them.

Putin has denied interfering in the U.S. election. Putin’s spokesman and the Russian institute did not respond to requests for comment.

The documents were central to the Obama administration’s conclusion that Russia mounted a “fake news” campaign and launched cyber attacks against Democratic Party groups and Clinton’s campaign, the current and former officials said.

“Putin had the objective in mind all along, and he asked the institute to draw him a road map,” said one of the sources, a former senior U.S. intelligence official.

Trump has said Russia’s activities had no impact on the outcome of the race. Ongoing congressional and FBI investigations into Russian interference have so far produced no public evidence that Trump associates colluded with the Russian effort to change the outcome of the election.

Four of the officials said the approach outlined in the June strategy paper was a broadening of an effort the Putin administration launched in March 2016. That month the Kremlin instructed state-backed media outlets, including international platforms Russia Today and Sputnik news agency, to start producing positive reports on Trump’s quest for the U.S. presidency, the officials said.

Russia Today did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Sputnik dismissed the assertions by the U.S. officials that it participated in a Kremlin campaign as an “absolute pack of lies.” “And by the way, it’s not the first pack of lies we’re hearing from ‘sources in U.S. official circles’,” the spokesperson said in an email.

PRO-KREMLIN BLOGGERS

Russia Today and Sputnik published anti-Clinton stories while pro-Kremlin bloggers prepared a Twitter campaign calling into question the fairness of an anticipated Clinton victory, according to a report by U.S. intelligence agencies on Russian interference in the election made public in January. [bit.ly/2kMiKSA]

Russia Today’s most popular Clinton video – “How 100% of the 2015 Clintons’ ‘charity’ went to … themselves” – accumulated 9 millions views on social media, according to the January report. [bit.ly/2os8wIt]

The report said Russia Today and Sputnik “consistently cast president elect-Trump as the target of unfair coverage from traditional media outlets.”

The report said the agencies did not assess whether Moscow’s effort had swung the outcome of the race in Trump’s favor, because American intelligence agencies do not “analyze U.S. political processes or U.S. public opinion.” [bit.ly/2kMiKSA]

CYBER ATTACKS

Neither of the Russian institute documents mentioned the release of hacked Democratic Party emails to interfere with the U.S. election, according to four of the officials. The officials said the hacking was a covert intelligence operation run separately out of the Kremlin.

The overt propaganda and covert hacking efforts reinforced each other, according to the officials. Both Russia Today and Sputnik heavily promoted the release of the hacked Democratic Party emails, which often contained embarrassing details.

Five of the U.S. officials described the institute as the Kremlin’s in-house foreign policy think tank.

The institute’s director when the documents were written, Leonid Reshetnikov, rose to the rank of lieutenant general during a 33-year-career in Russia’s foreign intelligence service, according to the institute’s website [bit.ly/2oVhiCF]. After Reshetnikov retired from the institute in January, Putin named as his replacement Mikhail Fradkov. The institute says he served as the director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service from 2007 to 2016. [bit.ly/2os4tvz]

Reuters was unable to determine if either man was directly involved in the drafting of the documents. Reshetnikov’s office referred questions to the Russian institute.

On its website, the Russian institute describes itself as providing “expert appraisals,” “recommendations,” and “analytical materials” to the Russian president’s office, cabinet, National Security Council, ministries and parliament. [bit.ly/2pCBGpR]

On Jan. 31, the websites of Putin’s office [bit.ly/2os9wMr] and the institute [bit.ly/2oLn9Kd] posted a picture and transcript of Reshetnikov and his successor Fradkov meeting with Putin in the Kremlin. Putin thanked Reshetnikov for his service and told Fradkov he wanted the institute to provide objective information and analysis.

“We did our best for nearly eight years to implement your foreign policy concept,” Reshetnikov told Putin. “The policy of Russia and the policy of the President of Russia have been the cornerstone of our operation.”

(Reporting by Ned Parker and Jonathan Landay, additional reporting by Warren Strobel and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by David Rohde and Ross Colvin)

*** In part:

The wide range of scientific work is ensured by the structural subdivision of the

RISS into the Research Center of CIS countries, Center for Asia and the Middle

East Research, the Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies (‘geographical departments’),

Center for Economic Research, Centre for Defense Studies as well as the Humanitarian

Research Center (functional departments).8 The latter represents a

new department, introduced almost simultaneously with the Presidential Decree

of 2009 and it is preoccupied with “the contentious issues of the foreign relations

history and the role of the religious factor.”9 Its introduction has added a new task

of “counteracting the falsification of history in the post-Soviet space”10 to RISS

scientific activities which are determined by the need of the Russian government

to provide strategic interests in the post-Soviet space. Here, there is a serious element

of propaganda for Russian state interests. Upon the whole, we can conclude

that the Presidential Decree of 2009 has turned the RISS into a useful tool providing

abundant data and research for an appropriate “articulation of the strategic

directions of the state policy in the sphere of national security.” Read more here.

Venezuela Today is Syria 7 Years Ago, Violence/Protests

Posted on April 19, 2017April 19, 2017 by Denise Simon

‘Mother of All Marches’ Turns Violent in Venezuela

by Geraldine Cols Azócar and Mariana Atencio

Clashes between protesters and security forces erupted in Venezuela during marches taking place Wednesday in at least 12 cities across the country.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest the government of President Nicolás Maduro as the country marked its 207th anniversary of the revolution that led to its independence from Spain.

A teenager who was shot in the head in Caracas near one of the protests has died in the hospital, according to the Associated Press. Opponents of the government said pro-government militias opened fire on a crowd, but government officials say the boy was assaulted while walking home from a soccer game.

Marches started in the early morning; closer to noon, the Venezuelan National Guard started deploying tear gas on people marching on the west side of Caracas, according to the Associated Press.

Liliana Machuca, a teacher in Caracas told the AP she believes protesting is her only option after all the “abuses” she says have been committed by the government.

“This is like a chess game and each side is moving whatever pieces they can. … we’ll see who tires out first,” she said.

A demonstrator throws a tear gas canister back at the police during a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas on April 19, 2017. JUAN BARRETO / AFP – Getty Images

The country entered its fourth week of protests following two Supreme Court decisions — to revoke the impunity that protects legislators and to dissolve the opposition-controlled legislature, a move that many including the Organization of American States (AOS) dubbed as an “auto-coup d’etat.”

The Supreme Court reversed the decisions amid mounting international pressure and after the Venezuelan Attorney General, Luisa Ortega Díaz, called the decisions “a rupture of the constitutional order.”

Since then, people have been protesting for the removal of the Supreme Court Justices, the reinstatement of gubernatorial and local elections, the release of the political prisoners and ultimately, Maduro’s resignation.

“I went to the rally because I wanted to get those images of what’s going on, of people protesting. I know it’ll help us get rid of this government,” Hector Trejo told NBC News. Trejo, 47, is a photographer for El Estímulo magazine covering Western Caracas. “But it’s hard because when government supporters see you with a camera they send motorcycles to try and grab it from you,” he added.

**

En este momento #A19 en La Plaza Bolívar de #Barquisientopic.twitter.com/nZKC7SFfMJ

At this time #A19 in La Plaza Bolívar of #Barquisiento

Human rights organizations, several Latin American countries and the United States have accused Venezuelan security forces of using excessive force and violence to quash the protesters. Protesting is a right protected by the Venezuelan constitution. During this last wave, at least five people have died and hundreds have been arrested.

Maduro accused the U.S. State Department of encouraging a military intervention.

The country is in the middle of an economic crisis with an inflation rate that reached 800 percent in January. People are starving and the lack of medication and supplies has led to deaths.

“I came to march because I believe in this country and I want our youth to have a future; Venezuelans want to stay,” said Mercedes Expósito, 53, who told NBC News that people say they want to stay in the marches though they’re “choking from the tear gas; they will wait until the government runs out of its bombs.”

Russian Bombers Near Kodiak, Alaska, Deconfliction Line Busy?

Posted on April 18, 2017April 18, 2017 by Denise Simon

Again and again… There was no cockpit-to-cockpit radio communication between the US and Russian pilots. So that ‘deconfliction’ line between the United States and Russia apparently goes to voicemail.

It was just a few days ago that Hawaii formally requested military emergency response operations due to the North Korea threat. Likely, the manner of which Russia maintains aggressive messaging, those two bombers were dispatched to test U.S. response and air defense systems.

FNC: A pair of Russian nuclear-capable bombers flew near Alaska Monday night, two U.S. officials told Fox News, coming as close as 100 miles from Kodiak Island — the first time since President Trump took office that Moscow has sent bombers so close to the U.S.

The two Russian Tu-95 “Bear” bombers flew roughly 280 miles southwest of Elmendorf Air Force Base, within the Air Defense Identification Zone of the United States.

The U.S. Air Force scrambled two F-22 stealth fighter jets and an E-3 airborne early warning plane to intercept the Russian bombers.

The American jets flew alongside the Russian bombers for 12 minutes, before the Russian bombers reversed course and headed back to their base in eastern Russia.

Last week in Moscow, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said U.S.-Russian relations were at a “low point” while sitting next to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

While Tillerson was in Moscow, three Russian bombers flew near the east coast of Japan, forcing the Japanese military to scramble 14 fighter jets at various times to intercept the bombers. A Russian spy plane also flew along Japan’s west coast.

The last time Russian bombers flew near the U.S. was July 4, 2015, when a pair of Russian bombers flew off the coasts of Alaska and California, coming as close as 40 miles to Mendocino, Calif.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called then-President Barack Obama to wish him a happy Independence Day while the bombers cruised the California coastline.

***

WaPo: Gen. Paul Selva recently became the first Pentagon official to state publicly that Russia has deployed a land-based cruise missile in direct violation of its treaty obligations to the United States. Selva, who serves as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee: “We believe that the Russians have deliberately deployed it in order to pose a threat to NATO.” He also noted — to the best of his knowledge — that “they do not intend to return to compliance.”

In other words, the Russians have calculated that it costs them more to fulfill their treaty commitments than to break them. The only proper response to this provocation is to increase the costs and change Russia’s calculation.

The agreement in question is the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which the Soviet Union and the United States signed in 1987 to eliminate an entire class of land-based missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. Reasons for the treaty date back to the late 1970s, when the Soviet Union deployed intermediate-range nuclear missiles to Europe, reducing warning times and threatening to divide Europe from North America. NATO responded by deploying U.S. intermediate-range nuclear missiles in 1983. The increased tensions ultimately led to arms-control negotiations and the landmark INF Treaty.

***

The Tu-95 is the worlds fastest propeller driven aircraft in the world today. The Tupolev Tu-95 (Russian: Туполев Ту-95; NATO reporting name: “Bear”) is a large, four-engine turboprop-powered strategic bomber and missile platform. First flown in 1952, the Tu-95 entered service with the Soviet Union in 1956 and is expected to serve the Russian Air Force until at least 2040.[1] A development of the bomber for maritime patrol is designated Tu-142, while a passenger airliner derivative was called Tu-114.

The aircraft has four Kuznetsov NK-12 engines, each driving contra-rotating propellers. It is the only propeller-powered strategic bomber still in operational use today. The tips of the propeller-blades move faster than the speed of sound, making it one of the noisiest military aircraft.[2] Its distinctive swept-back wings are at a 35° angle.

Design and development[edit]

A Tu-95MS in 2007.

A Tu-95 showing its swept wing and anti-shock bodies
The design bureau led by Andrei Tupolev designed the Soviet Union’s first intercontinental bomber, the 1949 Tu-85, a scaled up version of the Tu-4, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress copy.[3]

A new requirement was issued to both Tupolev and Myasishchev design bureaus in 1950: the proposed bomber had to have an un-refueled range of 8,000 km (4,970 mi)—far enough to threaten key targets in the United States. Other goals included the ability to carry an 11,000 kg (12.1 ton) load over the target.[citation needed]

The big problem for Tupolev was the engine choice: the Tu-4 showed that piston engines were not powerful enough to fulfill that role, while the fuel-hungry AM-3 jet engines of the proposed T-4 intercontinental jet bomber did not provide adequate range.[4] Turboprops offered more power than the piston engines and better range than jets available for the new bomber’s development at the time, while offering a top speed in between these two alternative choices.

Tupolev’s proposal was selected and Tu-95 development was officially approved by the government on 11 July 1951. It featured four Kuznetsov[5] coupled turboprops, each fitted with two contra-rotating propellers of four blades each, producing a nominal 8,948 kW (12,000 eshp) power rating. The then-advanced engine was designed by a German team of ex-Junkers prisoner-engineers under Ferdinand Brandner. In contrast, the fuselage was conventional: a mid-wing cantilever monoplane with 35 degrees of sweep, an angle which ensured the main wing spar passed through the fuselage in front of the bomb bay. Retractable tricycle landing gear was fitted, with all three gear strut units retracting rearwards, with the main gear units retracting rearwards into extensions of the inner engine nacelles.[citation needed]

The Tu-95/I, with 2TV-2F engines, first flew in November 1952 with test pilot Alexey Perelet at the controls.[6] After six months of test flights this aircraft suffered a propeller gearbox failure and crashed, killing Perelet. The second aircraft, Tu-95/II featured four of the 12,000 ehp Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprops which proved more reliable than the coupled 2TV-2F. After a successful flight testing phase, series production of the Tu-95 started in January 1956.[5]

A Tu-95MS simulating aerial refueling with an Ilyushin Il-78 during the Victory Day Parade in Moscow on 9 May 2008.
For a long time, the Tu-95 was known to U.S./NATO intelligence as the Tu-20. While this was the original Soviet Air Force designation for the aircraft, by the time it was being supplied to operational units it was already better known under the Tu-95 designation used internally by Tupolev, and the Tu-20 designation quickly fell out of use in the USSR.[citation needed] Since the Tu-20 designation was used on many documents acquired by U.S. intelligence agents, the name continued to be used outside the Soviet Union.[citation needed]

Initially the United States Department of Defense evaluated the Tu-95 as having a maximum speed of 644 km/h (400 mph) with a range of 12,500 km (7,800 mi).[7] These numbers had to be revised upward numerous times.[citation needed]

Like its American counterpart, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, the Tu-95 has continued to operate in the Russian Air Force while several subsequent iterations of bomber design have come and gone. Part of the reason for this longevity was its suitability, like the B-52, for modification to different missions. Whereas the Tu-95 was originally intended to drop free-falling nuclear weapons, it was subsequently modified to perform a wide range of roles, such as the deployment of cruise missiles, maritime patrol (Tu-142), and even civilian airliner (Tu-114). An AWACS platform (Tu-126) was developed from the Tu-114. An icon of the Cold War, the Tu-95 has served not only as a weapons platform but as a symbol of Soviet and later Russian national prestige. Russia’s air force has received the first examples of a number of modernised strategic bombers Tu-95MSs following upgrade work.