Russian Oligarchs Are on the Run
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As rockets fall and tanks roll on the cities and towns of Ukraine, the rest of the world has borne witness with an unprecedented intensity, due almost entirely to the internet. Anyone who has scrolled social media in the last few days has seen dozens of disturbing images from the ground in Ukraine, protests from St. Peterburg to Sydney to Times Square, and iconic buildings around the globe illuminated in blue and yellow. Plus there is the intel gleaned from Twitter and foreign news organizations that are now more globally available than ever, not to mention the internet’s own direct role in the conflict—reports of Ukrainian hackers combating Russian propaganda and Anonymous taking over Russian airwaves to play the Ukrainian national anthem, to name two examples.
BREAKING: #Anonymous hackers put the Ukrainian anthem on air for the Russian occupiers. #OpRussia pic.twitter.com/aSvRoFADKa
— Anonymous (@LatestAnonNews) February 27, 2022
In one of the latest displays of the power of the internet, a Twitter account called Russian Oligarch Jets appeared just yesterday that tracks the current movement of the private aircraft of the likes of Roman Abramovich (one of his jets landed in Latvia yesterday) and Alexander Abramov (one of his planes recently landed in Abu Dhabi, another in Munich).
This is really cool. Someone made a Twitter account to follow Russian oligarch jets. https://t.co/eoUCUFiYHV
— Bill Browder (@Billbrowder) February 27, 2022
Another, @PutinJet, is also tracking planes owned by Putin and Russian VIPS. Meanwhile, other internet sleuths are tracking oligarch-owned yachts.
Dmitry Rybolovlev's yacht Anna is in Antigua.
Roman Abramovich's yacht Eclipse is in St. Maarten.
Andrey Kostin's yacht Sea Rhapsody is outside of Saudi Arabia.
Alisher Usmanov's yacht A is in the UAE.
None of them are in Russia. pic.twitter.com/HToX5nlMLD— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) February 22, 2022
The takeaway: Russians with means seem eager to get their assets as far from Russia as possible. Not that foreign shores will necessarily be friendly: a Ukranian sailor in Mallorca was arrested this weekend for sabotaging the $8 million yacht of Russian arms dealer Alexander Mikheev, and Anonymous hackers sent Putin’s yacht, the reportedly $97 million “Graceful,” straight to “hell”:
Putin reportedly has a $97 million luxury yacht called "Graceful". A group of Anonymous hackers on Saturday figured out a way to mess with maritime traffic data & made it look like the yacht had crashed into Ukraine's Snake Island, then changed its destination to "hell": pic.twitter.com/Ch53lcG7D6
— Ryan Gallagher (@rj_gallagher) February 27, 2022
Video: Vladimir Putin wanted to crack down on rap music in Russia in 2018
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