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mariacallous · 2 years

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As Russian troops have flooded into Ukraine’s borders for the past eight months—and with an ongoing mobilization of hundreds of thousands more underway—the Western world has taken drastic measures to cut the economic ties that fuel Russia’s invasion and occupation. But even as those global sanctions have carefully excised Russia from global commerce, millions of dollars have continued to flow directly to Russian military and paramilitary groups in a form that’s proven harder to control: cryptocurrency.

Since Russia launched its full-blown invasion of Ukraine in February, at least $4 million worth of cryptocurrency has been collected by groups supporting Russia’s military in Ukraine, researchers have found. According to analyses by cryptocurrency-tracing firms Chainalysis, Elliptic, and TRM Labs, as well as investigators at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, recipients include paramilitary groups offering ammunition and equipment, military contractors, and weapons manufacturers. That flow of funds, often to officially sanctioned groups, shows no sign of abating and may even be accelerating: Chainalysis traced roughly $1.8 million in funding to the Russian military groups in just the past two months, nearly matching the $2.2 million it found the groups received in the five months prior. And despite the ability to trace those funds, freezing or blocking them has proven difficult, due largely to unregulated or sanctioned cryptocurrency exchanges—most of them based in Russia—cashing out millions in donations earmarked for invaders.

“Our aim is to identify all the crypto wallets being used by Russian military groups and the people helping them; to find, seize and block all this activity that is helping to buy the bullets, the ammunition of this occupation,” says Serhii Kropyva, who until recently served as deputy of Ukraine’s Cyber Police and advisor to the country’s prosecutor general. “With the close cooperation of companies like Chainalysis and Binance, we can see all the wallets involved in this criminal activity, these money flows of millions of dollars. But we can, unfortunately, see that the transfer is continuing all the time.”

In separate reports, the cryptocurrency-tracing firms and Binance’s investigations team each tracked donations to the Russian war effort that very often began with public posts on the messaging app Telegram soliciting crowdfunded donations. Chainalysis, for instance, found Telegram posts from organizations including the pro-Russian media sites Rybar and Southfront, as well as the paramilitary group Rusich—which has ties to the notorious Wagner mercenary group—all posting cryptocurrency donation addresses to Telegram. These posts told followers that the money raised there would be used for everything from weaponized drones to radios, rifle accessories, and body armor. In another instance, Chainalysis points to a fundraiser by a group called Project Terricon that attempted to auction NFTs to support pro-Russian militia groups in Eastern Ukraine, though the NFTs were removed from the marketplace they were hosted on before any bids were placed.

Binance’s investigations team, in its own report, found that a total of $4.2 million in crypto had been funneled to Russian military groups since February. The groups named in its research didn’t entirely overlap with those named in Chainalysis’ report, suggesting that the overall funding could be far greater than either Binance’s or Chainalysis’ total. Binance, for instance, points to a pro-Russian “cultural heritage” group known as MOO Veche that has carried out fundraisers for military equipment similar to the kinds funded by the groups Chainalysis flagged. While Binance, TRM Labs, and Elliptic all name MOO Veche as a major fundraiser, Elliptic traced $1.7 million in crypto donations to the group, far more than the other researchers.

Other organizations that Binance spotted raising money through cryptocurrency crowdfunding on Telegram include the pro-Russian nationalist groups Save Donbas and REAR, as well as the Russian arms manufacturer Lobaev, which it saw directly soliciting donations on the platform. Yet another group, known as Romanov Light, whose fundraising was spotted by TRM Labs and Elliptic, claimed to be collecting crypto for Russian special forces. Romanov Light raised as much as $330,000 worth of donations, according to Elliptic, which it told donors it spent on military equipment like weapon accessories, flashlights, and armor plates.

Despite the relative clarity of all that financial tracing, preventing cryptocurrency from continuing to bolster Russia’s unprovoked incursion into Ukraine hasn’t been simple. Exchanges can block or freeze funds at the points where they’re exchanged for traditional currency. But according to Chainalysis, the majority of the crypto funds the groups have raised have been cashed out through what the company calls "high-risk" Russian exchanges with little to no precautions against criminal money-laundering. In previous reports, Chainalysis has named Chatex, Suex, and Garantex as examples of those Russia-based rogue exchanges—all of which have already been targeted with Western sanctions for their extensive use by criminals. Chatex and Garantex did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. Suex no longer appears to have a public website, and no contact information for the exchange could be found.

Not every exchange that has served as an ATM for Russian military crypto crowdfunding is hosted in Russia, however. Blockchain analysts who spoke to WIRED pointed to seven other exchange services, some hosted in India and China, that have received funds from the pro-Russian groups they tracked, though they declined to name them on the record, in part because the amounts of those funds in most cases were in the single-digit thousands or less.

In one telling example of how hard it is to prevent these cash-outs, however, analysts saw MOO Veche send more than $150,000 worth of bitcoin to an exchange hosted on the infrastructure of the Chinese cryptocurrency exchange Huobi—a “nested” exchange that essentially uses Huobi as its trading platform. But any responsibility that Huobi might have for blocking or freezing those funds was complicated by another unknown intermediary service that analysts saw the money travel through before entering the Huobi-hosted service. When WIRED reached out to Huobi for comment, it wrote in a statement that it has a “know-your-customer” process “which ensures to the best of our ability that our clients’ source of funds are above board.”

Binance, for its part, says its exchange accounts were also used by four of the groups it tracked and received more than $208,000 worth of cryptocurrencies. It tells WIRED that it froze all four accounts it discovered. “We’re making sure that no harm comes to civilians as a result of the fundraising that happens in these extremist spaces,” says Jennifer Hicks, who manages Binance’s intelligence and investigations team. “When cryptocurrency exchanges know that something illicit is happening that will end in real-world, kinetic effects like this, it’s the exchange’s responsibility to put a stop to it as fast as possible.”

Even when exchanges do monitor for crypto sent from sanctioned groups like these pro-Russian fundraisers, that dirty money won’t always be straightforward to detect, warns Thibaud Madelin, who leads research at Elliptic. He says he’s increasingly seeing Russian sources of illicit funds use “bridges” or “coin swaps”—services that allow easy trading of one cryptocurrency for another, often without offering any identifying information—as money-laundering techniques. He’s watched those tools grow in popularity among dark-web black markets and cybercriminal users and expects the same will happen with those seeking to launder illicit arms funding. “It’s a bit early to say definitively. But what we’re seeing is that it’s likely to become a bigger problem,” says Madelin. “They’re likely to mirror the methodologies seen across dark net services users, enabling large-scale money laundering and potentially sanctions evasion.”

Millions of dollars in cryptocurrency funding to Russian troops may be the least of Ukraine’s problems in a war where Russia has thrown billions into its invasion force. Ukraine, it’s worth noting, has also vastly out-raised Russia in cryptocurrency: By Elliptic’s count, the Ukrainian government has collected more than $77 million in crypto donations since the war began. But that is to be expected, given the West’s broad support of Ukraine following Russia’s unprovoked aggression and the global sanctions placed on Russia. And even the smaller amount of cryptocurrency Russian forces have raised demonstrates cryptocurrency’s ongoing potential to circumvent those sanctions and offer another financial lifeline to Russia’s war machine.

“It’s not like Russia is buying new tanks with this money. They’re paying for thermal imaging scopes and UAVs,” says Andrew Fierman, a sanctions-focused Chainalysis researcher. “But for grassroots facilitation of these militia efforts, any amount of money that they receive to bolster their gear is going to have an impact.” And despite all the light that cryptocurrency tracers can shine on that funding—and the West’s best efforts to stop it—the crypto flow into Russia’s war chest continues.

Update 10-7-22, at 9:40 am: We’ve updated the story to clarify that Chainalysis says the crypto donations to Russian groups went to “high risk” Russian exchanges. Chainalysis has named Suex, Chatex, and Garantex as examples of such exchanges in the past, but did not directly name them in its most recent report.

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optimaprime8 · 3 years

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The Story of Optima Prime ((Open Rp Starter))

“My story begins eons ago. Back in my own dimension. We weren’t very different from the others. We had war between Autobots and Decepticons. The only difference was that I am a femme, not a mech. My lover was Elite one, he was a very abusive mech. But I felt like I had no choice, he was my mate. But then he and the last seven mechs disappeared. After that our planet began to die. Megatrona, my world’s Megatron, became more insane.

Her lead scientist, Shocky, my worlds Shockwave, created a device that was supposed to be something to kill me. But instead it sent me to another dimension. I do believe it was thanks to the matrix of leadership that saved me.” Optima records her message. She isn’t sure who is going to listen to it, but she feels like she needs to record her history. She touches her spark chamber where the matrix rests.

“I ended up in a dimension that I later labeled G1. Everyone was so blocky, but they were also very kind, and their war was very.............interesting.” Optima said while giggling a bit. She remembers watching them, and laughing as their war was more comical than it was actually serious. “I helped out where I could, without getting too much in the way. At least until their scientist, Wheeljack was able to create a dimension jumper. He made it small enough to where I could carry it with me. He and Perceptor couldn’t hone in on my dimension. But they hoped that I would be able to jump enough until I can tune in on it.” She said while looking up at the night sky.

“After a few jumps and pauses to let the device recharge, I ended up in one that I called Prime. Because to me it was a prime setting. I had found a mech that loved me, and I had a human to look after. She was very promising. Once the Decepticons of that world got a hold of her. They turned her into a Cybertronian. That’s when I adopted her. Eventually she became known as Nighten Gale. She would have inherited my matrix after I was gone. Life was great, Daughter ended up becoming Mates with Optimus. Which I was so happy for. But as time went on my mech left me. He grew tired of me, but I had managed to reason with Megatron. He ended the war, and we were able to reconnect with my home dimension. Between the two worlds, we actually were able to revive both Cybertrons, and come with a stable and fair government.” She said as she looks off to the side, and watches the wild life of the desert.

Optima was in a desert on a version of Earth. She was using a rock formation to lean against. She had cloth wrapped around her like a cloak. She is missing her left arm, she is running low on energon. Which is why she feels she needs to share her story. She doesn’t know if she will make it for much longer. “I ruled as the Prime of Justice and Peace, while Megatron was the one that would punish those that broke the laws. We were able to find a balance. And through that I adopted so many younglings. Because we decided to bring peace to other dimensions. Or at least offer refuge for their civilians, and get them out of harm's way. I fell in love a few more times, but each time they left. Two of them actually died in protecting me and our family. One was Ratchet, another was a Megatron. In time I realized that I was cursed when it came to giving my spark to someone.” She said while sighing.

“I eventually adopted a Dreadwing. He was my other promising child. He had so much honor and respect. I knew when I was gone, and along with Megatron that I ruled my world with, Dreadwing and Nighten Gale would have kept things going. But we were too blind, we all were too trusting. A virus started to rampage through my world. And started turning them all into something worse than terricons. It was almost like they were terricons mixed with Scraplets. They would start attacking each other and trying to eat each other.” Optima said while choking on a sob.

“We evacuated as many as we could. I never realized Megatrona was still that badly insane. She had somehow created this virus. She was bent on destroying everything I had built. Even though we had peace, and happiness. She still wants energon shed. Mostly mine. She was the only one able to control those that succumbed to the virus. And to try and protect other worlds, I stayed after everyone was evacuated.” She said as she adjusts. She is trying to ease her pains, and sends on one last distress blip. She doesn’t have the energy to keep it going.

“But apparently Primus doesn’t want me to be offline just yet. Or at least he didn’t want me offline there. I have managed to make it to this Earth. I don’t know if anyone is going to find me in time. My injuries are severe. But I must warn you, Megatrona will try to find me, even if I am offlined. She will come here, and destroy everything. I have a small sample of the virus in a vile. I keep it near the matrix, because that is the only thing that makes me immune to it. Please, if you find me after I am offlined, make a cure for the virus. Save yourselves from it. If you have to use my matrix to do whatever you need to do. I can’t bear the thought of anymore innocents being lost because of me.” She said as tears fell down her cheeks. “I am sorry I ended up here. I am sorry that I brought this here. But please, protect yourselves, and if you make a cure, please help my people, they are my family.” She pleads as the tears fall.

But then she looks up at the night sky one last time. “I wish Primus would stop torturing me. And finally let me rest easily.” She said as she hiccups. She drops the datapad next to her, and closes her eyes, as she goes into stasis. Unsure of what is going to happen to her next.

#Transformers Rp #Origin Story #Optima Prime #Rp Starter

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poptimus-prime · 4 years

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The piece I decided to write really quick to warm myself for making my final is Below bc I can.

Sept. 23 20xx 17:36 PM

Hello.

Today, the children explained “pep rallies” to me and honestly, I am left more perplexed than anything else. All I know is that this is what happens in high schools.

First off, really, what is the purpose? Is the...football team really so important that all of the children at the school must be pulled from their classes and crammed into the gymnasium? Further...why is soccer not called football? I have seen football, and the players hardly ever use their pedes--I mean their feet. Though, humans are known for their spectacular misnomers. It always frustrated me...just say what you mean.

This is besides the point, really. I suppose I am getting well ahead of myself, aren’t I?

Miko showed me a video of her performing at the rally--with her guitar, of course--and I could barely hear that guitar over the sound of the crowd screaming. Didn’t they know it was unbecoming of them as an audience to interrupt the performer like that? Is that not a social taboo, a faux pas, on Earth? Even if it was Miko and her irritating guitar chords...ugh. Maybe that’s where Miko gets the loudness from. After all, peer pressure is a strong force against inhibition for teenagers, or so I was told. This is why they had to take entire health class units about saying “no” to intoxicating substances, yes?

Again, I suppose I am getting ahead of myself.

Another thing that I found impossible to understand: the “spirit stick.” Rafael had won it for his graduating class, as he was small enough to weasel around the others and quick-witted to boot. Jack showed me the pictures of my friend proudly holding the stick, their “school colors” painted on his cheeks as he grinned widely. Even he could enjoy the chaos, albeit he was wearing his “ear defenders” as he called them. The same ones he wore when the base got too loud for us and we decided to hide away in order to “fix the generator” for five minutes.

What even was a “spirit stick”? What was a spirit? That was like a spark, right? What if...no. That can’t be right. Humans don’t have a Dark Energon equivalent, do they??? Miko has joked about this “necromancy” before (side note: apparently that is the human magical practice of raising the dead, according to the Google), but until now I had scoffed at the subject. Now, however, I am faced with the potential reality of Cybertronians and humans alike being raised from the dead.

I have seen an episode of The Walking Dead. June showed it to me. “Watch something other than Scrubs.” She had said.

Frag that. The Walking Dead was almost as bad as actually being in a literal horde of Terricons. (Honestly, now that I think about it, this may be the source of those recurring nightmares...how foolish of me to not recognize that sooner.) But up until now it was just a work of fiction.

I need to go.

Ratchet

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Sept. 24 20xx 00:16 AM

Hello again. I have a quick update.

Alright. I managed to ask Rafael for clarification on the “spirit stick.” It cannot raise the dead, thank Primus. It is simply a “cardboard” tube with a little plastic statue hot-glued to the top of it. It is merely a trophy.

I hate humans and their catastrophic misnomers.

But I don’t have much time to expand right now. Bulkhead and Optimus are pinging for a Ground Bridge.

Good night

Ratchet

#tfp ratchet #miko nakadai #raf esquivel #jack darby #tfp headcanons #Oh boy this was so fuckin fun to write though

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justacynicalromantic · 28 days

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The sun is rising behind the spoil tips.(2) The world is allowing those with strong beliefs to claim what is rightfully theirs. Babylon is burning, but we are already holding the line with swords in our hands. For fire cannot touch those who were forged in flames. (3)

Listen to the latest song from the authors of the now famous Ukrainain track "Wild Field"

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We human beings have been blessed with a beautiful garden and a myriad of pathways to explore. Each atom is a work of art, a haven of emerald waters. But there are some who get a kick of launching drones into children's rooms. They are just God's mistake, a badly written machine code. Having received the most remarkable creation - human body - In the world of violins and scripts, they want to pull the Soviet oar, Half a world away from home. Cruel beasts from birth, They thirstily feed on blood. True evil, in short. Endowed with gifts to weave love and musical chords, I dive instead into this surreal reality, when I could be building life instead. Because if we do not, all of us will be killed by this horde. Our world is broken again. We have to be the engineers of new Existence.

The sun is rising behind the spoil tips. The world is allowing those with strong beliefs to claim what is rightfully theirs. Babylon is burning, but we are already holding the line with swords in our hands. For fire cannot touch those who were forged in flames.

The uranium of the nation is here, where the spirit of the people is stronger than the everlasting ores. In the cities, there are cobblestones and animal waste. If you are a pound of slag, no money will get you rich. We are the pillars that provide the world with a continuous and influential impetus. The courageous and resolute do not fear death. It would be awful if the two shores were to be torn apart once more, The actions of the heroes - erased, the children - colonized.(4) It's better to go into battle with a pack of wolves than a herd of deer. Destitute slaves dive into the Tisza River. But we emerge from lava, from soot, and fog. Demons are constantly climbing out of the underground mines. With the bodies of the best of us, we are sewing up the cracks of the Earth.

Behind the tericons Babylon is burning, and we are Under the crown of the sky We stand in legions

The video clip shows war-torn Donbas. Especially in the second half of the video, you can see what used to be asphalt roads lined with rubble that used to be houses - all that's left of the city of Mariinka. The landscape of Donbas - endless fields of wheat, sunflowers and wildflowers - burned and scarred with craters left by missiles. For reference, this is how Donbas looked before:

2. Spoil tips, or terricones as we call them, are waste from mines, the size of mountains - a very common sight in Donbas.

3. "For fire cannot burn those who were forged in flames" is a very famous quote from Taras Shevchenko's epic poem "Hamalia"

4. In these 2 lines the song is referencing Ukrainian history in the beginning of the 20th century. The Dnipro River divides all of Ukraine almost cleanly in half, and by this separation line Ukraine had been divided for many years - the Left Bank under the rule of Russian Empire, the Right Bank - under Poland's rule. But after WWI and after Russian Empire fell, Ukrainians were able to first establish two Ukrainian states (people of the Left Bank established Ukraine's People Rebublic and people of the Right Bank established West Ukrainian People Republic) and then, on January 22, 1919 - to unite again into one singular state. This date of signing the Treaty of Unity is a national holiday in modern Ukraine. Alas, soon the whole country was again occupied by Russia and forced into the Soviet Union.

PS: link to the Wild Field, for those who has not heard it yet

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I also highly recommend Ragnarok

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#ukraine #music #art #ukrainian culture #video #genocide #war crimes #ecocide #russian empire #history #russia is a terrorist state #україна #музика #укртумба #укртамблер #укртумбочка #відео #yarmak #Youtube

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optimaprime8 · 3 years

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Opposites Attract ((Closed RP with Megatron

@towards-peace-or-chaos

"Prime! A ship crash-landed just in the middle of Kaon." A Bumblebee came to report. Optima looks at her number one scout and pets her helm.

"Thank you Bumblebee. Go warn the others, and assemble a small team. I will go on ahead to the ship and check for survivors. We will need a couple of medics, and a few haulers, and have the air support on stand by." Optima said while knowing they need to get to that ship asap.

She needed to protect those survivors. Before Megatrona's hoard of Terricons get there and kill everyone. Optima races to the scene of the crash, and of course the Terricons are there.

Optima drives right past them, and into a hole that is in the ship's side. She quickly gets in and takes cover. She garbs out her rifle and starts shooting the Terricons that are getting close.

Once they were taken care of, she runs around the ship trying to see if any got inside. She finds two pet electro-ferrets. She goes over and picks them up. She makes sure that they are okay.

She then carries them to the bridge where she finds a mech. Optima is stunned as to how much he looks like Megatorna. She places the ferrets next to him as she kind of gets things set for when the hoard comes.

Once she has everything set up, she starts to get him into a safe position with his ferrets. He is a lot heavier than she thought. But she still manages to move him. And for the time she does some minor repairs on him. "This is very perplexing." She said while checking him out.

She can't help it, it has been eons since she or any of the other femmes has seen a mech. But she was also checking for injuries. "Prime?!" As Optima's medic calls over the comms.

"I am in the ship, on the bridge. There are a mech and two electro ferrets. No one else on board, I can't seem to find any injuries." She reported to Ratchet.

"I am on my way in. We have Magnus, Bee, me, and Percy is camped out ready to snipe.” Ratchet reported as they make their way into the bridge.

”Good, because we are probably going to be slow-moving. He is a bit heavy.” Optima said while looking at Ratchet as she enters the room. Ratchet actually stops dead in her tracks.

”I guess it really is a mech. I thought you were just yanking our chains.” Ratchet said as she goes to make sure he is stable enough to transport. Once she nods, she picks up the ferrets and then looks at Ultra Magnus, and Optima. “He is perfectly healthy, just knocked out probably from the crash.” Ratchet said.

Optima nods and then transforms. “Magnus loads him up on me, I will haul him back to base,” Optima ordered. Magnus blushes a bit as she picks him up and gets him settled on Optima’s back end.

”Better hurry up the hoard is coming.” Percy radios in over the comms.

”You heard her. Autobots roll out!” Optima orders as she takes off. Everyone else transforms and drives off. They fight their way through the hoard and take the long way back to base due to them not want to lead Megatrona to their location.

”Flyers give us coverage!” Optima orders part way there. Then the air support flies in and starts taking out the Terricons.

Once they were all safely back at the base. Optima stayed by the mech’s side, with others at the door. She wasn’t sure how he was going to react, and if he was going to be a skilled fighter like Megatrona, the only one able to restrain him would be Optima. As she is in there she makes sure his energon drip was working properly, and that his ferrets were laying on the berth with him.

”Who are you?” She asked softly, as she waits for him to wake up.

#TF Rp #Megatron #Optima Prime

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