The mother of the suspect involved in the fatal shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly feels sorry for causing trouble for the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, also known as the Unification Church.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, who was arrested immediately after he shot Abe from behind on July 8, 2022, expressed resentment against the religious group during investigations by the Nara prefectural police.
The suspect told investigators that his mother went bankrupt after making large donations to the religious group, eventually leading to the ruin of his family.
Before the assassination, Yamagami even sent a letter to a blogger saying that the Unification Church had ruined his life, “destroying my family and driving it into bankruptcy.”
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Yamagami’s mother had reportedly been making large donations to the church, of which she has been a member for over 20 years.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that my experience with it during that time continues to distort my whole life,” Yamagami wrote in a letter.
According to Yamagami’s uncle, his nephew would call him for help when his mother left her children hungry and alone while attending church. He said the mother donated 100 million yen (approximately $1 million at the time) to the church.
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Having gone bankrupt in 2002, the woman continued donating to the church in smaller amounts, under the principle of “world peace and unification.”
On July 11, the church issued a press release stating donation amounts are determined by individual members.
In Yamagami’s letter, he accused Abe of supporting the church.
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Following the revelation, Yamagami’s mother, who has been staying at his uncle’s house since the shooting, apologized for causing trouble for the religious group during a recent hearing at the Nara District Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Founded in South Korea by Rev. Sun Myung Moon in 1954, the Unification Church opened its first overseas branch in Japan about five years later. The church had developed close ties to the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party, which Abe’s grandfather Nobusuke Kishi formed.
The Japan branch eventually became the church’s biggest revenue source.
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Over the years, the church has earned controversy for its involvement in business dealings and politics, with some critics accusing it of being a dangerous cult
As Yagami’s statements put the controversial church back into the limelight, Unification Church Japan representative Susumu Sato expressed concern that church members might become scapegoats for Abe’s death.
While he admitted that some members encouraged followers to donate excessively, he claimed that donors were mostly motivated by faith.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate supports it unanimously. So does House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the Ukrainian Parliament.
But Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is not so sure.
For weeks, pressure has mounted on Mr. Blinken to formally declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, a label currently reserved for North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Iran. But despite the emotional appeal, Mr. Blinken is resisting a move that could force him to sanction U.S. allies that do business with Russia and might snuff out the remaining vestiges of diplomacy between Washington and Moscow.
Amid outrage over Russia’s brutal military campaign in Ukraine, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution calling on Mr. Blinken to designate Russia as a terrorism sponsor for its attacks in Ukraine, as well as in Chechnya, Georgia and Syria, that resulted “in the deaths of countless innocent men, women and children.”
“To me, Putin is now sitting on top of a state terrorist apparatus,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a co-sponsor of the resolution, told reporters after the vote. He said the sanctions that had already been imposed on Russia “have been effective, but we need to do more.”
This month, Mr. Graham and Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, visited Mr. Zelensky in Kyiv and presented him with a framed copy of their resolution.
But Mr. Blinken responded noncommittally when asked about the issue on Thursday, echoing other State Department and White House officials. Any decision must be based on existing legal definitions, he said, while also suggesting that the point was moot because Russia was already under many sanctions.
“The costs that have been imposed on Russia by us and by other countries are absolutely in line with the consequences that would follow from designation as a state sponsor of terrorism,” Mr. Blinken said at a news conference. “So the practical effects of what we’re doing are the same.”
Mr. Blinken’s hand may be forced, however. While the Senate resolution was merely a call to action with no legal force, a group of House Democrats on Thursday filed a new measure which, if passed by Congress and signed into law, would end-run the State Department and add Russia to the U.S. terror sponsor list.
A State Department finding that Russia is a state sponsor of terror — a label that agency officials refer to as the “nuclear option” — would result in more sanctions on Russia’s battered economy, including penalties on countries that do business with Moscow. It would also waive traditional legal barriers that prevent private citizens from suing foreign governments for damages, potentially including the families of American volunteers killed or injured while fighting Russia in Ukraine.
And it could rupture, once and for all, the Biden administration’s limited diplomatic links with Moscow, analysts say, which Mr. Blinken called important to keep intact.
In a reminder of that dynamic, Mr. Blinken spoke to his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, by phone on Thursday and pressed him to accept a proposal for the release of two Americans, Brittney Griner and Paul N. Whelan, but he reported no breakthrough. It was their first conversation since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Over the course of the war, Mr. Zelensky has openly called for the terrorism designation, speaking last month of “the urgent need to enshrine it legally.” The House is gearing up for a vote on a resolution similar to the Senate’s version, with Ms. Pelosi’s strong support.
Our Coverage of the Russia-Ukraine War
Grain Blockade: A breakthrough deal aims to lift a Russian blockade on Ukrainian grain shipments, easing a global food crisis. But in the fields of Ukraine, farmers are skeptical.
An Ambitious Counterattack: Ukraine has been laying the groundwork to retake Kherson from Russia. But the endeavor would require huge resources, and could come at a heavy toll.
Economic Havoc: As food, energy and commodity prices continue to climb around the world, few countries are feeling the bite as much as Ukraine.
Inside a Siege: For 80 days, at the Avtostal steelworks, a relentless Russian assault met unyielding Ukrainian resistance. This is how it was for those who were there.
The disagreement between the Biden administration and Congress over the label echoes debates from the start of the Ukraine war, when the first evidence of atrocities emerged. When leaders of Congress, including Ms. Pelosi, accused Russia’s military of committing war crimes, Mr. Blinken was cautious, citing legal criteria and the need for evidence and investigation. But on March 16, President Biden superseded that position by declaring Mr. Putin “a war criminal.”
Mr. Biden’s rhetorical declaration infuriated the Kremlin, but it had no policy implications. That would not be the case with an official terrorism designation.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy deliberations, expressed concern that such a measure would limit the administration’s ability to exempt some transactions with Russia from Western penalties. The official did not specify the activities, but the United States has, for instance, taken care to ensure that Russian food exports are not affected by trade sanctions.
The secretary of state has wide latitude to impose various designations on other countries or groups, legal experts say. But the department prefers to wield the designations only under specific circumstances.
According to the State Department, the terrorism designation results in restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance, limits on some exports of “dual use” technology items that might have military applications and a ban on defense exports and sales.
Much of that is covered by existing sanctions. But the finding could force the United States to go further, Mr. Graham said on Wednesday, by adding new restrictions to how third-party countries could interact with Russia without fear of American penalties.
“It means that doing business with Russia, with that designation, gets to be exceedingly hard,” Mr. Graham said.
Experts said that the diplomatic cost of such a move could be significant and that Mr. Putin might expel all American diplomats from the country. So far, Moscow has allowed the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to remain open and for some diplomats to stay, including Ambassador John J. Sullivan.
Even during the Ukraine war, the United States wants to continue working with Russia on some issues, including the international talks with Iran over restoring a 2015 nuclear agreement to which Moscow was a party and from which President Donald J. Trump withdrew.
“For diplomacy, it’s not practical to designate a state with which the U.S. has a multifaceted relationship,” said Brian Finucane, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group who recently worked on military and counterterrorism issues at the State Department.
Some supporters of the designation would not mind further isolating Russia, however.
“The designation of state sponsorship of terrorism puts Russia in a very small club,” Mr. Blumenthal said on Wednesday. “It consists of nations like Syria, Iran, Cuba, that are outside the bounds of civilized countries. They are pariahs.”
American officials have so far employed the label mainly in cases where a nation or its proxy has committed a narrowly targeted, nonmilitary act, such as bombing a civilian airliner.
“U.S. officials want to make a clear delineation between terrorism and the type of conflict where the U.S. military might engage in combat operations,” Mr. Finucane said.
In 2019, Trump officials debated a proposal to impose the “foreign terrorist organization” label on a part of the Iranian military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Pentagon officials opposed the move, wary of creating a precedent that might invite other countries to impose a similar designation on the United States because of the actions of the American military.
President Trump overruled that objection. As part of negotiations to restore a nuclear agreement, Iran has demanded that the Biden administration scrap the label, but Mr. Biden has refused.
Once announced, a terrorist designation is often perceived by U.S. officials to be politically risky to repeal, even in a new administration with different views. In one of his final acts in the Trump administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo labeled Cuba a “state sponsor of terrorism,” a step that the Biden administration has yet to reverse, despite skepticism about its justification. (Mr. Trump did remove Sudan from the terror sponsor list as part of a 2020 deal to normalize its relations with Israel.)
Mr. Trump also designated North Korea as a terror sponsor in 2017, even though President George W. Bush lifted the label in 2008.
Daniel L. Byman, a senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, wrote at the time that the United States approach toward state sponsorship of terrorism “has many flaws.” Among them, he said, was the fact that some obvious candidates, including Pakistan — which Washington sees as a partner but whose intelligence services have ties to the Taliban and to anti-Indian terrorist groups — somehow evaded the label.
Co-host of ABC’s “The View” Sara Haines suggested Friday that Saudi Arabia would run to Iran if it felt abandoned by the United States, despite the fact the two Middle Eastern countries are longtime enemies and religious rivals.
On Thursday, former President Trump came under fire after telling a reporter that “nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11” during an exchange at a Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament at his club in Bedminster, N.J. The tournament has come under intense scrutiny, as critics argue Saudi Arabia is using the venue to reorient its public image after the 2018 assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“The View” co-host Ana Navarro claimed Trump was disregarding the pleas of the families of 9/11 victims by going on with the event, and was doing it for “no other reason” than to benefit himself.
‘THE VIEW’ APOLOGIZES: FIVE TIMES THE ABC NEWS PROGRAM WAS FORCED TO SAY SORRY ON THE AIR
Former U.S. President Donald Trump watches his shot from the first tee during the pro-am prior to the LIV Golf Invitational – Bedminster at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 28, 2022 in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Charles Laberge/LIV Golf via Getty Images)
Haines then interjected, asserting the U.S. had in fact come to an investigative conclusion about the 2001 attack, which implicated Saudi Arabia in part in addition to terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, and that Trump’s decision was “solely about money.”
“That is not a friendly area typically with allies,” Haines said. “That is a stronghold position we’ve needed, not only for energy and economics, but when we push Saudi Arabia away they run to China, or they run to Iran. Both places are pivotal for international and global relations.”
“No one has ever accused The View of being geopolitical geniuses,” tweeted NewsBusters associate editor Nicholas Fondacaro, who flagged the comment.
DONALD TRUMP TEES OFF AT LIV GOLF PRO-AM EVENT
President Joe Biden (L) being welcomed by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) at Alsalam Royal Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on July 15, 2022. (Photo by Royal Court of Saudi Arabia / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) (Photo by Royal Court of Saudi Arabia / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Iran and Saudi Arabia, both Islamic theocracies but of different sects, have had no diplomatic relations since the 2016 attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, following the Saudi execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly emphasized that Iran is the biggest threat to stability in the Middle East. The Kingdom often cites Iran’s nuclear program and funding of militant proxy groups throughout the region as cause for alarm.
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ABC did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Nikolas Lanum is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.
White House hints that it’s preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine
Ukrainian servicemen taking part in the armed conflict with Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk region of the country attend the handover ceremony of military heavy weapons and equipment in Kiev on November 15, 2018.
Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images
The White House hinted that it is preparing another military aid package for Ukraine.
“I fully expect that and I think you’re going to see another one relatively soon. I’m a little hesitant to stamp the date on the calendar but I think you can expect to see another announcement on the security assistance support very soon,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“I don’t want to preview what’s in the package just yet,” he said. “But I do think that in general terms, you can expect to see things in line with the kinds of security assistance you’ve seen in the past.”
The upcoming package, the 17th such installment, would bring U.S. commitment to Ukraine to more than $8 billion since the war started in late February.
— Amanda Macias
U.S. Secretary of State Blinken pushes Russia’s Lavrov to release Griner and Whelan, uphold grain export deal
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks about US policy towards China during an event hosted by the Asia Society Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, DC, on May 26, 2022.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had a “frank and direct” conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The call, the first since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, follows a U.S. proposal to free detained WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan.
“I pressed the Kremlin to accept the substantial proposal that we put forth on the release of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner. I also emphasize that the world expects Russia to fulfill its commitments under the deal that was reached with Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations on grain shipments from Ukraine,” Blinken said alongside Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
Blinken also said that he warned Lavrov of additional sanctions should Russia annex more of Ukraine.
“Those plans would never be accepted. The world will not recognize annexations. We will impose additional significant costs on Russia if it moves forward with its plans,” Blinken said.
— Amanda Macias
‘Russia has effectively set the UN Charter on fire,’ U.S. ambassador to the UN says
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on June 08, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations slammed Russia’s war in Ukraine as the conflict heads into its sixth month.
“Russia has effectively set the U.N. Charter on fire,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the international forum’s Security Council.
“Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, the world has witnessed Russia’s flagrant violations of international law and complete disregard for the U.N. Charter and the principles of peace,” she added.
Thomas-Greenfield said that there are substantial reports of Russian forces committing human rights abuses, including the forced transfers of people to Russian territory.
She also said U.S. intelligence indicates that Russia is taking steps to annex large parts of Ukraine.
“This is galling. The acquisition of territory by force is about as clear a violation of the U.N. Charter as you can get,” she added.
“We cannot, we will not stand by and let it happen,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
— Amanda Macias
Lavrov to propose a date for a call with Blinken, their first since Russia invaded Ukraine
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on April 8, 2022.
Alexander Zemlianichenko | Afp | Getty Images
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would soon propose a date for a call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, their first discussion since Russia invaded Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Blinken said he will discuss the U.S. proposal to free detained WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan with Lavrov “in the coming days.”
Later on Wednesday, the Kremlin said it has not yet received a request for a phone call between Lavrov and Blinken.
— Amanda Macias
More than 400 attacks have hit Ukraine’s healthcare facilities, UN says
Civilians receive medical treatment at a hospital on April 3, 2022, in Chuhuiv town, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine.
Wolfgang Schwan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Russia’s use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area has taken a heavy toll on Ukraine’s health sector, a top United Nations official said.
“As of 25 July, there have been 414 attacks on health care in Ukraine, resulting in 85 deaths and 100 injuries,” Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said before the United Nations Security Council.
Access to health services, including sexual and reproductive health for women, and access to affordable child health care have also deteriorated, she said.
“The impact of the war globally is glaringly clear, consequences will only become more pronounced the longer conflict lasts particularly with the onset of winter,” DiCarlo added.
— Amanda Macias
Ukraine ready for grain shipments, Zelenskky says
A view shows silos of grain from Odesa Black Sea port, before a shipment of grain as the government of Ukraine awaits signal from UN and Turkey to start grain shipments, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine July 29, 2022.
Nacho Doce | Reuters
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that his country is ready to ship grain exports from the Black Sea ports in the south.
Earlier this month, Russia and Ukraine signed a U.N.-backed deal to resume exports of Ukrainian grain. Millions of tons of wheat have been stuck in the war-torn nation. Grain exporters in Ukrainian port cities like Odesa have been unable to ship their goods due to the conflict, fueling a global shortage of the commodity and pushing up food prices.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov visit a sea port before restarting grain export, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine July 29, 2022.
Ukrainian Presidential Press Service | Reuters
“Our side is fully prepared. We sent all the signals to our partners — the U.N. and Turkey, and our military guarantees the security situation,” Zelenskyy reportedly said Friday.
“The infrastructure minister is in direct contact with the Turkish side and the U.N. We are waiting for a signal from them that we can start.”
—Matt Clinch
Ukraine denies carrying out missile strike on prisoner camp
Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed Friday that 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and 75 wounded in a strike on a detention center in the town of Olenivka, in Russian-controlled Donetsk.
NBC News was not able to immediately verify the Russian claim.
Ukraine officials have denied the claim, saying they did not carry out the missile strike. The officials said that Russia is trying to cover up the “torture and murder” of Ukrainian prisoners.
“The armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out targeted artillery shelling of a correctional institution in the settlement of Olenivka, Donetsk oblast, where Ukrainian prisoners were also held,” the general staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement.
Russia has repeatedly denied carrying out war crimes.
—Matt Clinch
Russian forces launch missile attack on the Kyiv area
For the first time in weeks, Russian forces launched a missile attack on the Kyiv area on Thursday as Ukrainian troops concentrate on the south of the country.
Ukrainian officials said that Russia had attacked the northern Chernihiv region as well, to the northeast of Kyiv and close to the Belarus border.
Kyiv regional Governor Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram, according to Reuters, that 15 people had been injured with missiles hitting military installations in the Vyshhorod district, on the outskirts of Kyiv.
— Matt Clinch
Wagner Group given front-line duties by Moscow, UK says
Notorious Russian private military contractor Wagner Group has been assigned responsibility for specific sectors on the front line in Ukraine, according to Britain’s Defense Ministry.
“This is a significant change from the previous employment of the group since 2015, when it typically undertook missions distinct from overt, large-scale regular Russian military activity,” the ministry said in a tweet.
“Wagner’s role has probably changed because the Russian MoD has a major shortage of combat infantry.”
Wagner Group has long been implicated in conflicts in unstable countries around the world including Mali, Libya, Syria, Mozambique and the Central African Republic. Human rights groups accuse its mercenaries of perpetrating civilian massacres and other human rights abuses. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any connection to Wagner.
Although its structure and even existence is disputed, Wagner is believed to have first emerged during Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. The name has since become a catch-all term for an opaque and expansive network of businesses and entities.
— Elliot Smith and Matt Clinch
The hacktivist group Anonymous is ’embarrassing and demoralizing’ the Kremlin, says cybersecurity specialist
Large data leaks performed in the name of the hacktivist group Anonymous are exposing Russia’s cybersecurity defenses to be weaker than previously thought, say cybersecurity specialists.
Though Russia remains strong in its offensive capabilities, data leaks of the Central Bank of Russia, the space agency Roscosmos, several of Russia’s largest oil and gas companies and other Russian companies, have “disappointed” the cyber community, said Shmuel Gihon, a security researcher at the threat intelligence company Cyberint.
“We expected to see more strength from the Russian government,” said Gihon, “at least when it comes to their strategic assets, such as banks and TV channels, and especially the government entities.”
Anonymous has claimed responsibility for hacking more than 2,500 Russian and Belarusian sites, said Jeremiah Fowler, co-founder of the cybersecurity company Security Discovery.
The data leaked online is so large it will take years to review, he said.
The decentralized collective of hackers has pulled the veil off Russia’s cybersecurity practices, said Fowler, which is “both embarrassing and demoralizing for the Kremlin.”
— Monica Pitrelli
White House declines to provide update on U.S. proposal to Russia for release of Griner and Whelan
US WNBA basketball superstar Brittney Griner stands inside a defendants’ cage before a hearing at the Khimki Court, outside Moscow on July 26, 2022.
Alexander Zemlianichenko | AFP | Getty Images
The White House declined to give an update on talks with Russia on a U.S. offer for the immediate release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan.
“I really cannot go into more detail just for the privacy and safety of the process. We are sharing that we did put a substantial offer on the table,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a daily news briefing.
Earlier in the day, the Kremlin said that so far “there are no agreements” on a U.S. request to release Griner and Whelan from Russian custody.
The Kremlin said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will address a phone call request by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he has the time, according to a report by Interfax.
— Amanda Macias
47 million more people could face acute food insecurity if Russia’s war continues, UN says
Wheat grain pours from a machine into a storage silo on Monday, July 8, 2013. Temporary silos will be built along the border with Ukraine to help export more grain to address a growing global food crisis, U.S. President Joe Biden said, according to Reuters.
Vincent Mundy | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The U.N.’s World Food Program estimates that up to 47 million more people could face acute food insecurity this year if Russia’s war in Ukraine continues.
Last week, representatives from the U.N., Turkey, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement to reopen three Ukrainian ports, an apparent breakthrough as the Kremlin’s war on its ex-Soviet neighbor marches into its fifth month.
The deal follows a months-long blockade of dozens of Ukrainian ports sprinkled along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
Less than 24 hours after the deal was signed though, Russian missiles rained down on Odesa, Ukraine’s largest port.
The United Nations Secretary-General has previously warned that the armed conflict in Ukraine is threatening to unleash “an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake.”
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro looks on during a meeting with Alejandro Dominguez, president of the South American Football Confederation CONMEBOL, at the Miraflores Palace, in Caracas, Venezuela July 11, 2022. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria
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LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) – London’s High Court has rejected President Nicolas Maduro’s latest efforts to gain control of more than $1 billion of Venezuela’s gold reserves stored in the Bank of England’s underground vaults in London.
The court ruled on Friday that previous decisions by the Maduro-backed Venezuelan Supreme Court, aimed at reducing opposition leader Juan Guaido’s say over the gold, should be disregarded.
It marked the latest victory for Guaido, who has won a series of legal clashes over the bullion after the British government recognised him rather than Maduro as the South American country’s president.
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“I have … concluded that the Guaido Board succeeds: that the STJ (Venezuelan supreme court) judgements are not capable of being recognised,” the judge in the case said.
The Maduro and Guaido camps have each appointed a different board to the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) and the two have issued conflicting instructions concerning the gold reserves.
Lawyers for the Maduro-backed BCV board said the central bank was considering an appeal after Friday’s ruling, while Guiado, who has seen some international support falter over the last 18 months, called it an important victory.
The Maduro-backed BCV board said in a statement it rejected the court’s ruling and reserved “all legal action at its disposal to appeal this unusual and disastrous” decision.
Shortly after, the vice president and finance minister Delcy Rodriguez said on state television that “the damage caused to our people is serious” and that the court “has to rectify.”
Maduro’s legal team has said he would like to sell some of the 31 tonnes of gold to finance Venezuela’s response to the pandemic and bolster a health system gutted by years of economic crisis.
Guaido’s opposition has alleged that Maduro’s cash-strapped administration wants to use the money to pay off his foreign allies, which his lawyers deny.
“This decision represents another step in the process of protecting Venezuela’s international gold reserves and preserving them for the Venezuelan people,” Guaido said in a statement.
“This type of honest and transparent judicial process does not exist in Venezuela.”
The British government in early 2019 joined dozens of nations in backing Guaido, after he declared an interim presidency and denounced Maduro for rigging 2018 elections.
Guaido at that time asked the Bank of England to prevent Maduro’s government from accessing the gold. Maduro’s central bank then sued the Bank of England to recover control, saying it was depriving the BCV of funds needed to finance Venezuela’s coronavirus response.
Legal experts have said the latest case has been unprecedented as it has seen one of a country’s highest courts interpreting the constitution of another.
“This is an unfortunate ruling,” said Sarosh Zaiwalla at Zaiwalla & Co, which represented the Maduro-backed central bank, adding it would continue to pursue the case despite Friday’s decision.
“The BCV remains concerned that the cumulative effect of the judgments of the English Court appears to accord a simple statement by the UK Government recognising as a head of state a person with no effective control or power over any part of that state,” Zaiwalla added.
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Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Michael Holden, Catherine Evans, Barbara Lewis and Daniel Wallis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese internet stocks including Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.
BABA,
-9.22%
were sinking Friday to cap off an eventful week that saw Chinese leaders reportedly acknowledge that the country could come up shy of its growth goals. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the Chinese Politburo put out a statement asking stronger provinces to work to meet expansion targets, which was seen as a sign that country leaders may not currently expect other areas to hit their marks. Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares were off 8.5% in Friday’s session and down 18.9% over the course of July. That would put the shares on track for their biggest monthly drop since November 2021, when they lost 22.7%, and the lowest monthly close since December 2016. The shares have also fallen 23.8% amid a three-week losing streak. Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma was preparing to give up control of Ant Group Co., the financial-technology company that’s affiliated with Alibaba. Other U.S.-listed Chinese shares were falling as well Friday, including video platform iQiyi Inc.
IQ,
-8.25%,
down 7.5%.; video company Bilibili Inc.
BILI,
-4.80%,
down 4.6%, and e-commerce giant JD.com Inc.
JD,
-4.76%,
down 4.3%.
A heated debate transpired between officials in a back office of Khartoum International Airport. They feared that inspecting the plane would vex the country’s increasingly pro-Russian military leadership. Multiple previous attempts to intercept suspicious Russian carriers had been stopped. Ultimately, however, the officials decided to board the plane.
Inside the hold, colorful boxes of cookies stretched out before them. Hidden just beneath were wooden crates of Sudan’s most precious resource. Gold. Roughly one ton of it.
This incident in February — recounted by multiple official Sudanese sources to CNN — is one of at least 16 known Russian gold smuggling flights out of Sudan, Africa’s third largest producer of the precious metal, over the last year and a half.
Multiple interviews with high-level Sudanese and US officials and troves of documents reviewed by CNN paint a picture of an elaborate Russian scheme to plunder Sudan’s riches in a bid to fortify Russia against increasingly robust Western sanctions and to buttress Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
The evidence also suggests that Russia has colluded with Sudan’s beleaguered military leadership, enabling billions of dollars in gold to bypass the Sudanese state and to deprive the poverty-stricken country of hundreds of millions in state revenue.
In exchange, Russia has lent powerful political and military backing to Sudan’s increasingly unpopular military leadership as it violently quashes the country’s pro-democracy movement.
Former and current US officials told CNN that Russia actively supported Sudan’s 2021 military coup which overthrew a transitional civilian government, dealing a devastating blow to the Sudanese pro-democracy movement that had toppled President Omar al-Bashir two years earlier.
“We’ve long known Russia is exploiting Sudan’s natural resources,” one former US official familiar with the matter told CNN. “In order to maintain access to those resources Russia encouraged the military coup.”
“As the rest of the world closed in on [Russia], they have a lot to gain from this relationship with Sudan’s generals and from helping the generals remain in power,” the former official added. “That ‘help’ runs the gamut from training and intelligence support to jointly benefiting from Sudan’s stolen gold.”
At the heart of this quid pro quo between Moscow and Sudan’s military junta is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and key ally of President Vladimir Putin.
The heavily sanctioned 61-year-old controls a shadowy network of companies that includes Wagner, a paramilitary group linked to alleged torture, mass killings and looting in several war-torn countries including Syria and the Central African Republic (CAR). Prigozhin denies links to Wagner.
In Sudan, Prigozhin’s main vehicle is a US-sanctioned company called Meroe Gold — a subsidiary of Prigozhin owned M-invest — which extracts gold while providing weapons and training to the country’s army and paramilitaries, according to invoices seen by CNN.
“Through Meroe Gold, or other companies associated with Prigozhin employees, he has developed a strategy to loot the economic resources of the African countries where he intervenes, as a counterpart to his support to the governments in place,” said Denis Korotkov, investigator at the London-based Dossier Center, which tracks the criminal activity of various people associated with the Kremlin. The center was started by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once the richest man in Russia, now living in exile in London.
CNN, in collaboration with the Dossier Center, can also reveal that at least one high-level Wagner operative — Alexander Sergeyevich Kuznetsov — has overseen operations in Sudan’s key gold mining, processing and transit sites in recent years.
Kuznetsov — also known by his call signs “Ratibor” and “Radimir” — is a convicted kidnapper who fought in neighboring Libya and commanded Wagner’s first attack and reconnaissance company in 2014. He is a four-time recipient of Russia’s Order of Courage award and was pictured alongside Putin and Dmitri Utkin — Wagner’s founder — in 2017. The European Union sanctioned Kuznetsov in 2021.
The growing bond between Sudan’s military rulers and Moscow has spawned an intricate gold smuggling network. According to Sudanese official sources as well as flight data reviewed by CNN in collaboration with flight tracker Twitter account Gerjon, at least 16 of the flights intercepted by Sudanese officials last year were operated by military plane that came to and from the Syrian port city of Latakia where Russia has a major airbase.
Gold shipments also follow a land route to the CAR, where Wagner has propped up a repressive regime and is reported to have meted out some of its cruelest tactics on the country’s population, according to multiple Sudanese official sources and the Dossier Center.
CNN has reached out to the Russian foreign ministry, the Russian defense ministry and the parent organization for the group of companies run by Prigozhin for comment. None has responded.
Responding to the findings of CNN’s investigation, a US State Department spokesperson said: “We are monitoring this issue closely, including the reported activities of Meroe Gold, the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group, and other sanctioned actors in Sudan, the region, and throughout the gold trade.
“We support the Sudanese people in their pursuit of a democratic and prosperous Sudan that respects human rights,” the spokesperson added. “We will continue to make clear our concerns to Sudanese military officials about the malign impact of Wagner, Meroe Gold, and other actors.”
Receding into the shadows
Russia’s meddling in Sudan’s gold began in earnest in 2014 after its invasion of Crimea prompted a slew of Western sanctions. Gold shipments proved an effective way of accumulating and transferring wealth, bolstering Russia’s state coffers while sidestepping international financial monitoring systems.
Timeline of Russian involvement in Sudan
2014
Crimea
Russia invades Ukraine’s Crimea, prompting a slew of Western sanctions. Moscow begins to eye gold as it looks for ways to transfer wealth without financial monitoring.
2017
Meroe Gold
Sudan’s long-time then president, Omar al-Bashir, and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet. Bashir proposes Sudan as Moscow’s “key to Africa.” Russian-Sudanese company Meroe Gold established.
2019
Bashir is toppled by Sudan’s pro-democracy movement. Russia switches gears and props up newly empowered warlords with training and weapons.
2020
US Treasury sanctions Meroe Gold. It begins the process of creating a Sudanese front company, al-Solag.
2021
Anti-corruption committee
An anti-corruption committee, set up following Sudan’s 2019 revolution, uncovers Russia’s smuggling operation in collusion with members of the Sudanese military. The probe is shut down shortly before the military coup of October 2021, after which the junta immediately dismantles the committee.
2022
Al-Solag
CNN reporting finds that smuggling operations continue under Meroe Gold front company al-Solag.
Source: CNN reporting, BBC, Hansard, UK Parliament
“The downside of gold is that it’s physical and a lot more cumbersome to use than international wire transfers but the flip side is that it’s much harder if not impossible to freeze or seize,” said Daniel McDowell, sanctions specialist and associate professor of Political Science at Syracuse University.
The hub of Russia’s gold extraction operation lies deep in the desert of northeast Sudan, a bleached landscape peppered with gaping chasms where miners toil in searing heat, with only tents fashioned from scraps of tarpaulin and sandbags providing any respite.
Men at an artisanal mine in Sudan’s gold country. Credit: Alex Platt, CNN
A worker toils at a mine around 60 miles south of Atbara, northeast Sudan. Credit: Alex Platt, CNN
An artisanal mine just off the highway between Atbara and Port Sudan. The miners work in searing heat, with little protection from the elements. Credit: Alex Platt, CNN
Miners from those remote artisanal mines converge on al-Ibaidiya — known as ‘gold town’ — every morning, lugging sacks of gold in carts hauled by donkeys along the town’s unpaved roads. The highest bidders for their goods, many of them say, are almost invariably merchants dispatched from a nearby processing plant known by locals as ‘the Russian company.’
It’s a helter-skelter selling process that sources tell CNN is the nerve center of Russia’s gold siphoning. Some 85% of the gold in Sudan is sold this way, according to official statistics seen by CNN. The transactions are mostly off-the-books, and Russia dominates this market, according to multiple sources, including mining whistleblowers and security sources.
For at least a decade, Russia has hidden its Sudanese gold dealings from the official record. Sudan’s official Foreign Trade Statistics since 2011 consistently list Russia’s total gold exports from the country at zero, despite copious evidence of Moscow’s extensive dealings in this sector.
Because Russia has benefited from considerable government blind spots, it is difficult to ascertain the exact amount of gold it has removed from Sudan. But at least seven sources familiar with events accuse Russia of driving the lion’s share of Sudan’s gold smuggling operations — which is where most of Sudan’s gold has ended up in recent years, according to official statistics.
A whistleblower from inside the Sudanese Central Bank showed CNN a photo of a spreadsheet showing that 32.7 tons was unaccounted for in 2021. Using current prices, this amounts to $1.9 billion worth of missing gold, at $60 million a ton.
But multiple former and current officials say that the amount of missing gold is even larger, arguing that the Sudanese government vastly underestimates the gold produced at informal artisanal mines, distorting the real number.
Most of CNN’s insider sources claim that around 90% of Sudan’s gold production is being smuggled out. If true, that would amount to roughly $13.4 billion worth of gold that has circumvented customs and regulations, with potentially hundreds of millions of dollars lost in government revenue. CNN cannot independently verify those figures.
An anti-corruption Sudanese investigator who has tracked Russia’s gold dealings in Sudan for years provided CNN with the coordinates of a key Russian processing plant. When CNN arrived at the site, some five miles from al-Ibaidiya, a Soviet flag fluttered above the compound. A Russian fuel truck was parked outside.
A casual encounter with the guard — who confirmed that the facility belonged to the so-called “Russian company” — quickly turned into a tense confrontation.
The guard spoke through a walkie talkie, conveying CNN’s request to speak to “the Russian manager.” A group of Sudanese men then rushed to the scene and ordered the CNN crew to leave, before the CNN car was tailed by the security detail.
“You need to go,” another Sudanese employee at the plant told CNN. “This isn’t a Russian company. It is a Sudanese company called al-Solag.”
Al-Solag is a Sudanese front company for Meroe Gold, the US-sanctioned Russian mining business, according to five official Sudanese sources and company registration documents reviewed by CNN.
Al-Solag’s formation over the last year has marked a key turning point for Russia’s presence in Sudan. Under the new model, Russia’s dealings have receded into the shadows, making the arrangements more reliant on Sudan’s military leadership and further enabling Russian actors to circumvent state institutions, including regulations pertaining to foreign companies, under the guise of a local business. CNN has reached out to Sudan’s military leadership for comment, and received no reply.
‘Too much US scrutiny’
In 2021, Russia’s Sudan envoy, Vladimir Zheltov, called for an impromptu meeting with Sudanese mining officials.
Appearing visibly nervous, Zheltov demanded that Meroe Gold be “obscured” after becoming subject to “too much US scrutiny,” according to a whistleblower from Sudan’s Ministry of Mining who had first-hand knowledge of the meeting.
By June of this year, Zheltov’s demands had materialized. The transfer of Meroe Gold’s assets to the Sudanese-owned al-Solag appeared to have been completed. An analysis of the registration documents of the two companies revealed striking similarities, including two identical lists of legal penalties.
Under Sudanese law, a company wishing to transfer their holdings must also transfer judgments against it. It is illegal to have an undeclared foreign partner.
Sudan’s anti-corruption committee, a watchdog set up to assist Sudan’s transition to democracy, then blocked the attempted subterfuge, according to a former civilian official with direct knowledge of the events. The anti-corruption committee sent a detailed report to the armed forces in September 2021 with evidence of the Meroe Gold transfer to al-Solag, urging them to stop what they dubbed a “crime against the state.”
The watchdog also accused the military of complicity in Russia’s dealings, drawing the ire of the military leadership who lambasted the committee for “harming the armed forces,” according to the former civilian official.
“The Russians and Sudanese officers saw the civilians in the government as an obstacle to their plans,” the former official added.
In October 2021, a month after the anti-corruption committee stopped the transfer of holdings from Meroe Gold to al-Solag, Sudan’s military staged a coup — which US official and former official sources accuse Russia of backing — and the junta immediately dismantled the committee.
“Russia is a parasite,” the former official told CNN. “It pillaged Sudan. And it has exacted a very large political penalty by terminating a democratic project that could have turned Sudan into a great nation.”
Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary unit, is a key beneficiary from Russian support, as the primary recipient of Moscow’s weapons and training. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan — the country’s military ruler — is also believed by CNN’s Sudanese sources to be backed by Russia.
Human rights groups have implicated both Burhan and Dagalo (known as Hemedti) in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sudan’s Darfur conflict that started in 2003.
On the same day that Russia launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Hemedti was heading a Sudanese delegation in Moscow to “advance relations” between the two countries.
Wagner boots on the ground
On a dusty border-crossing between the CAR and Sudan in March 2019, a bespectacled 34-year-old Russian frantically sent his boss — Meroe Gold owner Mikhail Potepkin — a plea for help.
“Radimir is pissed that no one was warned,” wrote Aleksei Pankov in a Telegram conversation which the Dossier Center shared with CNN. He was referring to Kuznetsov, the menacing high-level Wagner operative, depicted as manning the border alongside Sudanese intelligence operatives.
“Tell Radimir that it was a ‘closed’ operation. That’s why we didn’t warn him about it,” came Potepkin’s reply.
“F**k, Radimir is scary. I almost s**t my pants,” Pankov wrote back.
This exchange is part of a string of evidence collected by CNN that establishes Kuznetsov as a key Wagner enforcer across key locations in Sudan.
CNN has also seen official Sudanese communiques referencing Kuznetsov as a “problematic” armed Russian who was overseeing security at the Russian gold processing plant near al-Ibaidiya. A source familiar with Meroe Gold’s activities in Sudan told CNN that Kuznetsov also frequented the company’s offices in Khartoum.
Wagner operatives deploy to Sudan on a rotational basis, the Dossier Center told CNN, and Kuznetsov may be one of several Wagner men in the country. These are strategically dispatched to protect Russia’s smuggling scheme that has grown in importance since Russia launched its war on Ukraine.
Those Wagner operatives appear to be part of a growing climate of fear as Moscow tightens its grip on Sudan’s gold pipeline, sources say.
Several local journalism networks whose work CNN has drawn on for this report — such as Mujo Press, al-Bahshoum and activist journalist Hisham Ali’s Facebook page — have been targeted in recent months, driven into exile under the threat of assassination. Ten protesters were gunned down in demonstrations in June alone, three of whom were prominent pro-democracy activists. CNN security sources believe they were deliberately targeted.
High-level Sudanese officials repeatedly urged CNN’s Nima Elbagir to steer clear of protest sites. Since CNN began this investigation, Elbagir has been put on the military junta’s hit list, according to multiple Sudanese security sources.
As images of Russian tanks encircling Kyiv were flashing on TV screens at Khartoum International Airport, employees watched as the plane laden with cookies and gold took off last February. Senior army brass had intervened and a sense of foreboding set in.
Some of the officials who uncovered the haul were reassigned, some to regional duty stations, and others were sent to army reserves, according to a source with direct knowledge of the incident.
“They paid for doing their jobs,” the source told CNN.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
A heated debate transpired between officials in a back office of Khartoum International Airport. They feared that inspecting the plane would vex the country’s increasingly pro-Russian military leadership. Multiple previous attempts to intercept suspicious Russian carriers had been stopped. Ultimately, however, the officials decided to board the plane.
Inside the hold, colorful boxes of cookies stretched out before them. Hidden just beneath were wooden crates of Sudan’s most precious resource. Gold. Roughly one ton of it.
This incident in February — recounted by multiple official Sudanese sources to CNN — is one of at least 16 known Russian gold smuggling flights out of Sudan, Africa’s third largest producer of the precious metal, over the last year and a half.
Multiple interviews with high-level Sudanese and US officials and troves of documents reviewed by CNN paint a picture of an elaborate Russian scheme to plunder Sudan’s riches in a bid to fortify Russia against increasingly robust Western sanctions and to buttress Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
The evidence also suggests that Russia has colluded with Sudan’s beleaguered military leadership, enabling billions of dollars in gold to bypass the Sudanese state and to deprive the poverty-stricken country of hundreds of millions in state revenue.
In exchange, Russia has lent powerful political and military backing to Sudan’s increasingly unpopular military leadership as it violently quashes the country’s pro-democracy movement.
Former and current US officials told CNN that Russia actively supported Sudan’s 2021 military coup which overthrew a transitional civilian government, dealing a devastating blow to the Sudanese pro-democracy movement that had toppled President Omar al-Bashir two years earlier.
“We’ve long known Russia is exploiting Sudan’s natural resources,” one former US official familiar with the matter told CNN. “In order to maintain access to those resources Russia encouraged the military coup.”
“As the rest of the world closed in on [Russia], they have a lot to gain from this relationship with Sudan’s generals and from helping the generals remain in power,” the former official added. “That ‘help’ runs the gamut from training and intelligence support to jointly benefiting from Sudan’s stolen gold.”
At the heart of this quid pro quo between Moscow and Sudan’s military junta is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and key ally of President Vladimir Putin.
The heavily sanctioned 61-year-old controls a shadowy network of companies that includes Wagner, a paramilitary group linked to alleged torture, mass killings and looting in several war-torn countries including Syria and the Central African Republic (CAR). Prigozhin denies links to Wagner.
In Sudan, Prigozhin’s main vehicle is a US-sanctioned company called Meroe Gold — a subsidiary of Prigozhin owned M-invest — which extracts gold while providing weapons and training to the country’s army and paramilitaries, according to invoices seen by CNN.
“Through Meroe Gold, or other companies associated with Prigozhin employees, he has developed a strategy to loot the economic resources of the African countries where he intervenes, as a counterpart to his support to the governments in place,” said Denis Korotkov, investigator at the London-based Dossier Center, which tracks the criminal activity of various people associated with the Kremlin. The center was started by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once the richest man in Russia, now living in exile in London.
CNN, in collaboration with the Dossier Center, can also reveal that at least one high-level Wagner operative — Alexander Sergeyevich Kuznetsov — has overseen operations in Sudan’s key gold mining, processing and transit sites in recent years.
Kuznetsov — also known by his call signs “Ratibor” and “Radimir” — is a convicted kidnapper who fought in neighboring Libya and commanded Wagner’s first attack and reconnaissance company in 2014. He is a four-time recipient of Russia’s Order of Courage award and was pictured alongside Putin and Dmitri Utkin — Wagner’s founder — in 2017. The European Union sanctioned Kuznetsov in 2021.
The growing bond between Sudan’s military rulers and Moscow has spawned an intricate gold smuggling network. According to Sudanese official sources as well as flight data reviewed by CNN in collaboration with flight tracker Twitter account Gerjon, at least 16 of the flights intercepted by Sudanese officials last year were operated by military plane that came to and from the Syrian port city of Latakia where Russia has a major airbase.
Gold shipments also follow a land route to the CAR, where Wagner has propped up a repressive regime and is reported to have meted out some of its cruelest tactics on the country’s population, according to multiple Sudanese official sources and the Dossier Center.
CNN has reached out to the Russian foreign ministry, the Russian defense ministry and the parent organization for the group of companies run by Prigozhin for comment. None has responded.
Responding to the findings of CNN’s investigation, a US State Department spokesperson said: “We are monitoring this issue closely, including the reported activities of Meroe Gold, the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group, and other sanctioned actors in Sudan, the region, and throughout the gold trade.
“We support the Sudanese people in their pursuit of a democratic and prosperous Sudan that respects human rights,” the spokesperson added. “We will continue to make clear our concerns to Sudanese military officials about the malign impact of Wagner, Meroe Gold, and other actors.”
Receding into the shadows
Russia’s meddling in Sudan’s gold began in earnest in 2014 after its invasion of Crimea prompted a slew of Western sanctions. Gold shipments proved an effective way of accumulating and transferring wealth, bolstering Russia’s state coffers while sidestepping international financial monitoring systems.
Timeline of Russian involvement in Sudan
2014
Crimea
Russia invades Ukraine’s Crimea, prompting a slew of Western sanctions. Moscow begins to eye gold as it looks for ways to transfer wealth without financial monitoring.
2017
Meroe Gold
Sudan’s long-time then president, Omar al-Bashir, and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet. Bashir proposes Sudan as Moscow’s “key to Africa.” Russian-Sudanese company Meroe Gold established.
2019
Bashir is toppled by Sudan’s pro-democracy movement. Russia switches gears and props up newly empowered warlords with training and weapons.
2020
US Treasury sanctions Meroe Gold. It begins the process of creating a Sudanese front company, al-Solag.
2021
Anti-corruption committee
An anti-corruption committee, set up following Sudan’s 2019 revolution, uncovers Russia’s smuggling operation in collusion with members of the Sudanese military. The probe is shut down shortly before the military coup of October 2021, after which the junta immediately dismantles the committee.
2022
Al-Solag
CNN reporting finds that smuggling operations continue under Meroe Gold front company al-Solag.
Source: CNN reporting, BBC, Hansard, UK Parliament
“The downside of gold is that it’s physical and a lot more cumbersome to use than international wire transfers but the flip side is that it’s much harder if not impossible to freeze or seize,” said Daniel McDowell, sanctions specialist and associate professor of Political Science at Syracuse University.
The hub of Russia’s gold extraction operation lies deep in the desert of northeast Sudan, a bleached landscape peppered with gaping chasms where miners toil in searing heat, with only tents fashioned from scraps of tarpaulin and sandbags providing any respite.
Men at an artisanal mine in Sudan’s gold country. Credit: Alex Platt, CNN
A worker toils at a mine around 60 miles south of Atbara, northeast Sudan. Credit: Alex Platt, CNN
An artisanal mine just off the highway between Atbara and Port Sudan. The miners work in searing heat, with little protection from the elements. Credit: Alex Platt, CNN
Miners from those remote artisanal mines converge on al-Ibaidiya — known as ‘gold town’ — every morning, lugging sacks of gold in carts hauled by donkeys along the town’s unpaved roads. The highest bidders for their goods, many of them say, are almost invariably merchants dispatched from a nearby processing plant known by locals as ‘the Russian company.’
It’s a helter-skelter selling process that sources tell CNN is the nerve center of Russia’s gold siphoning. Some 85% of the gold in Sudan is sold this way, according to official statistics seen by CNN. The transactions are mostly off-the-books, and Russia dominates this market, according to multiple sources, including mining whistleblowers and security sources.
For at least a decade, Russia has hidden its Sudanese gold dealings from the official record. Sudan’s official Foreign Trade Statistics since 2011 consistently list Russia’s total gold exports from the country at zero, despite copious evidence of Moscow’s extensive dealings in this sector.
Because Russia has benefited from considerable government blind spots, it is difficult to ascertain the exact amount of gold it has removed from Sudan. But at least seven sources familiar with events accuse Russia of driving the lion’s share of Sudan’s gold smuggling operations — which is where most of Sudan’s gold has ended up in recent years, according to official statistics.
A whistleblower from inside the Sudanese Central Bank showed CNN a photo of a spreadsheet showing that 32.7 tons was unaccounted for in 2021. Using current prices, this amounts to $1.9 billion worth of missing gold, at $60 million a ton.
But multiple former and current officials say that the amount of missing gold is even larger, arguing that the Sudanese government vastly underestimates the gold produced at informal artisanal mines, distorting the real number.
Most of CNN’s insider sources claim that around 90% of Sudan’s gold production is being smuggled out. If true, that would amount to roughly $13.4 billion worth of gold that has circumvented customs and regulations, with potentially hundreds of millions of dollars lost in government revenue. CNN cannot independently verify those figures.
An anti-corruption Sudanese investigator who has tracked Russia’s gold dealings in Sudan for years provided CNN with the coordinates of a key Russian processing plant. When CNN arrived at the site, some five miles from al-Ibaidiya, a Soviet flag fluttered above the compound. A Russian fuel truck was parked outside.
A casual encounter with the guard — who confirmed that the facility belonged to the so-called “Russian company” — quickly turned into a tense confrontation.
The guard spoke through a walkie talkie, conveying CNN’s request to speak to “the Russian manager.” A group of Sudanese men then rushed to the scene and ordered the CNN crew to leave, before the CNN car was tailed by the security detail.
“You need to go,” another Sudanese employee at the plant told CNN. “This isn’t a Russian company. It is a Sudanese company called al-Solag.”
Al-Solag is a Sudanese front company for Meroe Gold, the US-sanctioned Russian mining business, according to five official Sudanese sources and company registration documents reviewed by CNN.
Al-Solag’s formation over the last year has marked a key turning point for Russia’s presence in Sudan. Under the new model, Russia’s dealings have receded into the shadows, making the arrangements more reliant on Sudan’s military leadership and further enabling Russian actors to circumvent state institutions, including regulations pertaining to foreign companies, under the guise of a local business. CNN has reached out to Sudan’s military leadership for comment, and received no reply.
‘Too much US scrutiny’
In 2021, Russia’s Sudan envoy, Vladimir Zheltov, called for an impromptu meeting with Sudanese mining officials.
Appearing visibly nervous, Zheltov demanded that Meroe Gold be “obscured” after becoming subject to “too much US scrutiny,” according to a whistleblower from Sudan’s Ministry of Mining who had first-hand knowledge of the meeting.
By June of this year, Zheltov’s demands had materialized. The transfer of Meroe Gold’s assets to the Sudanese-owned al-Solag appeared to have been completed. An analysis of the registration documents of the two companies revealed striking similarities, including two identical lists of legal penalties.
Under Sudanese law, a company wishing to transfer their holdings must also transfer judgments against it. It is illegal to have an undeclared foreign partner.
Sudan’s anti-corruption committee, a watchdog set up to assist Sudan’s transition to democracy, then blocked the attempted subterfuge, according to a former civilian official with direct knowledge of the events. The anti-corruption committee sent a detailed report to the armed forces in September 2021 with evidence of the Meroe Gold transfer to al-Solag, urging them to stop what they dubbed a “crime against the state.”
The watchdog also accused the military of complicity in Russia’s dealings, drawing the ire of the military leadership who lambasted the committee for “harming the armed forces,” according to the former civilian official.
“The Russians and Sudanese officers saw the civilians in the government as an obstacle to their plans,” the former official added.
In October 2021, a month after the anti-corruption committee stopped the transfer of holdings from Meroe Gold to al-Solag, Sudan’s military staged a coup — which US official and former official sources accuse Russia of backing — and the junta immediately dismantled the committee.
“Russia is a parasite,” the former official told CNN. “It pillaged Sudan. And it has exacted a very large political penalty by terminating a democratic project that could have turned Sudan into a great nation.”
Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary unit, is a key beneficiary from Russian support, as the primary recipient of Moscow’s weapons and training. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan — the country’s military ruler — is also believed by CNN’s Sudanese sources to be backed by Russia.
Human rights groups have implicated both Burhan and Dagalo (known as Hemedti) in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sudan’s Darfur conflict that started in 2003.
On the same day that Russia launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Hemedti was heading a Sudanese delegation in Moscow to “advance relations” between the two countries.
Wagner boots on the ground
On a dusty border-crossing between the CAR and Sudan in March 2019, a bespectacled 34-year-old Russian frantically sent his boss — Meroe Gold owner Mikhail Potepkin — a plea for help.
“Radimir is pissed that no one was warned,” wrote Aleksei Pankov in a Telegram conversation which the Dossier Center shared with CNN. He was referring to Kuznetsov, the menacing high-level Wagner operative, depicted as manning the border alongside Sudanese intelligence operatives.
“Tell Radimir that it was a ‘closed’ operation. That’s why we didn’t warn him about it,” came Potepkin’s reply.
“F**k, Radimir is scary. I almost s**t my pants,” Pankov wrote back.
This exchange is part of a string of evidence collected by CNN that establishes Kuznetsov as a key Wagner enforcer across key locations in Sudan.
CNN has also seen official Sudanese communiques referencing Kuznetsov as a “problematic” armed Russian who was overseeing security at the Russian gold processing plant near al-Ibaidiya. A source familiar with Meroe Gold’s activities in Sudan told CNN that Kuznetsov also frequented the company’s offices in Khartoum.
Wagner operatives deploy to Sudan on a rotational basis, the Dossier Center told CNN, and Kuznetsov may be one of several Wagner men in the country. These are strategically dispatched to protect Russia’s smuggling scheme that has grown in importance since Russia launched its war on Ukraine.
Those Wagner operatives appear to be part of a growing climate of fear as Moscow tightens its grip on Sudan’s gold pipeline, sources say.
Several local journalism networks whose work CNN has drawn on for this report — such as Mujo Press, al-Bahshoum and activist journalist Hisham Ali’s Facebook page — have been targeted in recent months, driven into exile under the threat of assassination. Ten protesters were gunned down in demonstrations in June alone, three of whom were prominent pro-democracy activists. CNN security sources believe they were deliberately targeted.
High-level Sudanese officials repeatedly urged CNN’s Nima Elbagir to steer clear of protest sites. Since CNN began this investigation, Elbagir has been put on the military junta’s hit list, according to multiple Sudanese security sources.
As images of Russian tanks encircling Kyiv were flashing on TV screens at Khartoum International Airport, employees watched as the plane laden with cookies and gold took off last February. Senior army brass had intervened and a sense of foreboding set in.
Some of the officials who uncovered the haul were reassigned, some to regional duty stations, and others were sent to army reserves, according to a source with direct knowledge of the incident.
“They paid for doing their jobs,” the source told CNN.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
TOKYO — A group of lawyers said Friday that the alleged assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was one of many victims of the Unification Church, which has long cultivated ties with high-level Japanese politicians.
The church, founded in South Korea in the 1950s, has become a focus of intense attention in Japan because the suspect in Abe’s shooting, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, told investigators that he was motivated by Abe’s supposed links to the Unification Church, which he said his mother had made massive donations to, bankrupting the family and destroying his life.
Abe was killed on July 8 with a handmade gun as the former leader gave a speech ahead of national elections. Yamagami was immediately arrested and will be detained until late November for mental evaluations and further investigation.
“What he did was wrong, but Yamagami was suffering because of the church,” Hiroshi Yamaguchi, a lawyer who heads the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales, told reporters. The network has about 300 lawyers who have provided legal assistance for people who say they’ve faced financial damage because of the church and other religious groups.
In the 1980s the church began to face accusations that it was using devious recruitment tactics and brainwashing its adherents into turning over huge amounts of money. The church has denied the allegations, and says it has tightened compliance. Critics say things have gotten better but the problems still continue.
The lawyers say they have received 34,000 complaints involving lost money exceeding 120 billion yen ($900 million).
The church in a statement “strongly protested” the lawyers’ claims that made it seem “as if our organization has been accused of the crime, while expressing views about our organization that have nothing to do with the attack.”
The church, which now calls itself the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, said the lawyers were hurting church followers’ credibility, violating their human rights and causing a risk of hate crimes against them. The church has been flooded by harassing phone calls, it says, including death threats.
The church has previously denied forcing followers to give donations and says it has strengthened its compliance in recent years. The church also says Abe wasn’t a member.
Abe sent a video message last year to a group affiliated with the church, which some experts say may have infuriated the shooting suspect.
The South Korean church, which came to Japan in the 1960s, has built close ties with a host of conservative lawmakers, many of them members of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled the country almost uninterrupted since its inception in 1955.
The church was founded in Seoul in 1954 by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who called himself a messiah and preached new interpretations of the Bible. A staunch anti-communist, he urged his followers to embrace a family-oriented value system.
The church’s fundraising was especially aggressive in Japan, the lawyers say, because Moon taught followers there that they needed to give more money to atone for sins committed by their ancestors who colonized the Korean Peninsula, which was controlled by Tokyo from 1910 to 1945.
Moon’s anti-communism gained strong backing from rightwing politicians, including Abe’s grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, who also served as prime minister.
Yamaguchi, the anti-church lawyer, said his group made repeated requests to Abe and other lawmakers to stop supporting the church and its affiliates, but the requests were ignored.
LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi denied at a regular news conference Tuesday that the governing party as a whole had relations with the church. Motegi said a number of LDP lawmakers have been linked to the church and the LDP planned to urge each of them “to be stricter and more careful about their relationships to a group whose social problems have been pointed out.”
AP videojournalist Chisato Tanaka contributed to this report.
Rebekah Vardy, wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy (L), leaves the Royal Courts of Justice following the final day of the high-profile trial dubbed by the media as “Wagatha Christie” case where Rebekah Vardy is suing Coleen Rooney (R) for libel after being publicly accused of leaking private stories to the press on May 19, 2022 in London, England.
LONDON — The so-called “Wagatha Christie” trial that has gripped the British public reached a verdict on Friday, with Rebekah Vardy losing her libel case against fellow soccer star wife Coleen Rooney.
The U.K. High Court ruled against Vardy and in favor Rooney after a years’ long dispute between the two “wags” — soccer players’ wives and girlfriends — which featured all the twists and turns of one of Agatha Christie’s finest mystery novels.
Judge Justice Steyn delivered her written verdict Friday following a vitriolic and salacious two-week trial in May.
It comes two years after Vardy sued Rooney for defamation after a dispute over a string of Instagram posts.
Rooney alleged that stories from her private Instagram account were leaked by Vardy to journalists at British tabloid newspaper The Sun.
Vardy vehemently denied the claims, arguing that the accusations had caused her “public abuse on a massive scale,” and suing Rooney in an attempt to clear her name.
However, in her ruling Friday, Steyn said it was “likely” that Vardy’s then-agent Caroline Watt “undertook the direct act” of passing information to The Sun.
“The evidence … clearly shows, in my view, that Mrs Vardy knew of and condoned this behavior, actively engaging in it by directing Ms Watt to the private Instagram account, sending her screenshots of Mrs Rooney’s posts, drawing attention to items of potential interest to the press, and answering additional queries raised by the press via Ms Watt,” she said.
How did we get here?
Rooney and Vardy entered the spotlight in the 2000s and 2010s as the so-called wags — a now lesser-used term owing to its sexist connotations — of former England soccer captain Wayne Rooney and Leicester City player Jamie Vardy, respectively.
But the pair, once friends, rose to personal infamy after a public fallout.
Rooney, suspecting someone of leaking stories from her private Instagram account to the press, embarked on a “sting” operation in 2019.
She posted a slew of fake stories — including about traveling to Mexico for a “gender selection” procedure and the basement of her home flooding — gradually restricting her followers to see if the stories would still emerge in the press.
Eventually, when just one follower remained and the stories continued to leak, Rooney took to social media to post the conclusions of her findings: “It’s………. Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
Vardy, who denied the accusations, then brought the libel case against Rooney, saying her reputation had been damaged.
Rooney maintained that her actions were justified in the interests of truth and public interest.
What happened in court?
The case went to a seven-day trial in May, in which Rooney, 36, and Vardy, 40, both took to the stand to share their accounts.
In an emotionally-charged hearing, Rooney’s defense brought evidence of Vardy’s apparent disregard for other people’s privacy, including her sale of a “kiss-and-tell” story following a one-night stand with fellow celebrity Peter Andre.
Vardy eventually admitted that she had previously tried to leak one story about footballer Danny Drinkwater, messaging her agent, Watt, to say: “I want paying for this.”
She also appeared to accept that Watt had leaked information from Rooney’s private Instagram account to a newspaper, but denied that it was “new” information.
Watt was deemed unfit to testify during the court case. The Sun’s journalists did not give evidence either.
An expensive saga
In her ruling Friday, Judge Steyn said that Vardy suffered “a degree of self-deception” to the extent of her involvement in the leaks to The Sun, adding that “there were many occasions” when Vardy’s evidence “was manifestly inconsistent.”
She also noted that while Vardy may have felt “genuinely offended by the accusation made against her by Mrs Rooney in the reveal post” the accusations of libel — a type of defamation in written form — were unsubstantiated.
Rooney said Friday that she felt vindicated by the ruling.
“Naturally, I am pleased that the judge has found in my favor with her judgement today,” she said, according to a statement issued to the PA news agency.
However, she noted that the trial was one of excessive expense at a time when many people across the country are facing a worsening cost-of-living crisis.
“It was not a case I ever sought or wanted,” she said. “I never believed it should have gone to court at such expense in times of hardship for so many people, when the money could have been far better spent helping others.”
Vardy’s loss means that she will receive no damages, but Rooney will be entitled to claim costs.
Still, any damages Rooney receives are likely to be minimal against the cost of the case, with legal experts suggesting each woman will now face legal bills in excess of £1 million ($1.2 million) each.
Vardy said she was “extremely sad and disappointed at the judge’s ruling.”
“It is not the result that I had expected, nor believe was just. I brought this action to vindicate my reputation and am devastated by the judge’s finding,” she said in a statement.
