Ukrainian intelligence was behind the explosion of a freight train in Russia’s Far East, according to an official familiar with the operation, an attack that would extend the agency’s reach deep into Siberia.
Agents from the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, targeted a section of the Baikal-Amur rail link using four explosive devices, the official said on condition of anonymity. The train was moving through a tunnel near Severomuysk, northeast of Lake Baikal.
Ukraine Behind Rail Explosion in Russian Far East, Official Says - Bloomberg
ISTANBUL—The Biden administration’s sanctions chief warned Turkish officials that the country is fueling violence across two continents by serving as a financing haven for Hamas and a trade hub for Russia’s war machine.
Despite U.S. sanctions targeting Hamas financiers over the past decade, Turkey has allowed the group’s investment firms, holding companies, real-estate brokerages and a host of other businesses to operate out of Istanbul, U.S. officials say.
On Russia, Turkish companies and individuals risk a battery of sanctions for providing Russia with goods and services prohibited under Western export controls, according to U.S. officials.
"We're committed to [doing] everything we can to cut off all of those things and want to do that in partnership with Turkey, but are prepared to act unilaterally as well," Nelson said.
U.S. officials say Turkish ports are being used to service sanctioned Russian tankers and facilitate arms smuggling, and Russian shell companies and Turkish firms have fueled a sixfold increase in the export of so-called dual-use goods the Kremlin's military needs to prosecute a prolonged war.
Turkey has responded to European threats by cutting off flows of dual-use goods to Russia that run through the country's free-trade zones, U.S. officials say. But shippers have instead fully imported the products as ostensibly Turkish purchases and then re-exported them to Russia.
Turkey is already on a so-called gray list of countries that have lax anti-money-laundering and terrorism finance standards maintained by the global financial watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force.
U.S. Leans on Turkey to Stop Supporting Hamas and Russia - WSJ
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 30 November 2023
