The war in Ukraine has its downsides. From human trafficking, sabotage, secret actions of all protagonists. And every now and then something pops up.
North Korea File
The United States has blacklisted a Slovak “dealer,” Ashot Mkrtichev. He is accused of facilitating the transport of war material from North Korea to Russia between September 2022 and early 2023. Thanks to his contacts in the two countries, he helped Moscow obtain large quantities of ammunition for its heavy artillery. Deliveries considered priority given the high consumption of ammunition, tens of thousands per month, according to statistics that are not always verifiable. The regime has begun supplying “two thousand types of weapons and various types of ammunition,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said yesterday. In exchange for equipment, the Kim regime received food to alleviate a serious situation in food farming, airplanes and miscellaneous materials.
The operation facilitated by Mkrtichev complements other measures taken in recent months. Pyongyang did not hold back and organized “disguised” transport: some of the cargo appeared to be destined for Middle Eastern buyers, and instead the customer was the Russian army. The Asian regime has amassed a vast “park” of cannons and long-range rocket launchers in the name of its precise strategy, so it has supplies to sell. Because in the event of a crisis with the South, he plans to drench the defenses with a massive rain of fire. They attend the demonstrations of power with the distribution of photos on the barriers.
Kim leaves some gaps in his barracks, but fills the warehouses with essential and not always accessible items. The North, under international sanctions, is forced to use parallel corridors to obtain supplies, risky solutions, additional costs and inventiveness. The ongoing conflict in Europe has created conditions for which the Marshal is following the model already adopted by Iran: helping Putin militarily, gathering future diplomatic support, obtaining equipment that can improve his apparatus, and “bread” for a population forced to sacrifice . Washington’s move is political and points to a coalition of anti-democratic regimes. As Secretary of State Anthony Blinken explained, “it is the first specific act” against the Russia-North Korea axis.
Nord Stream file
New episode of the Nord Stream intrigue, the gas pipeline damaged by an explosion on September 26th. Andromeda, the sailboat suspected of being involved in the sabotage, remains at the center of the rumours. According to the broadcasters Ndr and Wdr, the German secret services had already examined the 15 meters at the end of December, but the search took place almost a month later. While the first public news only leaked in March. Danish investigators also carried out checks at Christiansø marina in December, but returned later.
So there is a long window of time in a sequence full of mysteries and questions. Perhaps because Berlin has received a tip from the foreign secret service and there is a need for secrecy. The investigation, the journalists write again, would have been rather limited without a comprehensive search into the origin of the boat at the beginning. And this despite the fact that an American signal had already been given at the beginning of the summer about the possible use of saboteurs, possibly Ukrainians. Investigators then got to a Polish company that hired Andromeda, a company that resembles – as they say – the classic “empty” box, a screen company. Fake Romanian documents issued to real but completely unrelated persons were used in the contract. A fairly common tactic used by many intelligence agencies.
The unofficial thesis is that the boat carried the commando of six people and the bombs, with traces of explosives found inside the hull. A team – according to American revelations published in the New York Times – presumably made up of Ukrainians or Putin’s opponents, elements who would have acted without Kiev’s knowledge. Or maybe few knew. Moscow, on the other hand, accuses the “Anglo-Saxons”. Each stumbling block in the more or less public reconstruction heightens the skepticism of those who view Andromeda as a great aberration, a red herring to disguise the real culprits. The characteristics of the mission, the depth of the target (about 80 meters), the technical difficulties push in one direction: the action of a state, with its own “operators” or in support of trusted men and women.