Stephanie Baker

Senior Writer, Bloomberg/Businessweek investigations @business. VT born @stephanie-baker.bsky-social Instagram: stephaniebaker7

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

PUNISHING PUTIN takes readers to the frontlines of the economic war to degrade Putin's war machine. But is it working? Here’s 90 seconds on one of the central questions in my new book 👇

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

Russia’s latest disinformation tactic: make fake stories look viral. A network of Russian bots is manipulating view counts on fabricated videos targeting Democrats ahead of the US midterms to create the illusion that tens of thousands of people saw them. Our investigation with research shared exclusively with Bloomberg by @antibot4navalny: https://t.co/05ImJfDHHF

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

Looking forward to joining this panel on US politics ahead of the midterms at @cheltfestivals on Sunday with former UK ambassador to the US Kim Darroch, @JustinOnWeb and @sarahchurchwell tickets:
https://t.co/PTHOysUxBN

[bot blocker | блокировщик ботов @antibot4navalny]

Another day of Kremlin-aligned Matryoshka bots impersonating celebrities, this time with transgender fearmongering to target Democratic party for the upcoming US midterms.

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

After a Russian oligarch funds parties for Don Jr, a stunning DOJ indictment of five people working with Russian intelligence to conduct surveillance and murder-for-hire on US soil and sabotage in Lithuania and the Czech Republic.

https://t.co/W5VJdrwvxX

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

Not officially attributed to Russia but in keeping with the Kremlin's stepped up hybrid warfare targeting Europe

[Bloomberg @business]

A railway section failure at multiple locations in the Netherlands appears to have been caused by sabotage, a government agency says https://t.co/ff001KuuC5

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

Leipzig drone latest: the German authorities were already aware when he entered the country that he could be linked to the GRU environment. Nevertheless, he was apparently not placed under permanent surveillance.
https://t.co/PX23fc6Buz

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

Great to be on @bbcworldservice this morning for the Weekend show - 2.5 hours live on air talking about everything from Russia/Ukraine to Iran and Nepal. Here’s a segment:
https://t.co/qrz19GRSbM

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

I will be on @bbcworldservice this morning from 6:30 am to 9 am to talk about everything under the sun including Ukraine, Russia and more

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

The EU is considering limiting Russian tourist visas, constraining the movement of Russian diplomats and sanctioning more shadow fleet vessels after Germany blamed Russia for the failed drone attack. https://t.co/9c5JASz1Nj

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

Join me and my colleagues at 1 pm London time for a Live Q&A on the latest developments in Russia's war against Ukraine:
https://t.co/jD5lC6Lbne

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

Watch as I unpack our investigation into the Monaco bomber in 90 sec

[Bloomberg @business]

Monaco authorities are trying to unravel the mysterious bomb attack against a Ukrainian tycoon.

@StephaniBaker explains why accomplices could still be on the run https://t.co/LUb9Im7pBX

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

A new report by @OpenAI reveals how Russian influence operators used ChatGPT to build a fake think tank in Israel called the International Burke Institute. It sounds exactly like the plans from the Social Design Agency that we revealed in June here: https://t.co/Apdu7ENEet

https://t.co/VAlj4MJvsp

[Alex Wickham @alexwickham]

EXCLUSIVE: Andy Burnham says he and other European leaders plan to travel to the US next month to lobby Donald Trump to let Ukraine access some of its Patriot air defence missile stocks ahead of the winter.

“I’m looking forward to going to New York in September,” Burnham said in an interview with Bloomberg in Kyiv, referring to the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting. It would be his first trip to the US since becoming PM.

“I’ve not fully confirmed the details yet but it’s likely I will go, particularly after today’s discussion,” he said. “Leaving today, I’m quite clear what I need to do in the next few weeks.”

He said European leaders were considering holding another Coalition of the Willing meeting around UNGA with a view toward securing American interceptors and stocks from other countries. It is Ukraine’s main ask as it faces a dire situation with Russia escalating attacks and another difficult winter ahead.

“That would seem to be the most likely pace of direction,” Burnham said. “Not confirmed yet, but that seemed like where most people’s minds were going.” 

Burnham said he left feeling “really optimistic” that Ukraine’s current struggle defending against Russian ballistic missile strikes due to its low stockpile of interceptors is “fixable.”

“There are other players who could help in the mix who we have influence with,” the PM said. “It’s probably going to be a solution that involves a lot of layers and a lot of negotiation.”

More from the interview later but here’s first story >>> https://t.co/ER5WNQbd3Q

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

Google is tracking three Russia-linked cyber espionage ops using sophisticated phishing tactics targeting academics, diplomats and others with fake conference invites and WhatsApp messages. https://t.co/dlaGIkfJEi

[Daniel Fried @AmbDanFried]

Since European leaders & Mike Pence made it to Ukraine, perhaps Kushner & Witkoff can. If they do, perhaps they can advance US-Ukrainian co-production of PAC-3 Patriots and take other steps so the US does not fall further behind in supporting Ukraine which, it seems, will emerge from this war as a security provider as well as recipient.

[Bloomberg @business]

The mystery behind a bomb attack targeting a Ukrainian tycoon in Monaco deepens as possible accomplices remain at large. https://t.co/axeZqRCf0K

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

Our latest deep dive investigation: The mystery behind a bomb attack targeting a Ukrainian tycoon in Monaco deepens as possible accomplices remain at large. Gift link below: https://t.co/i2Ko0VZbPv

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

I will instruct our intelligence to share with our partners the information we have regarding Russia’s new assistance to the Iranian regime. Since the beginning of July, we have recorded active Russian satellite surveillance of the Gulf states and U.S. military facilities located there. These images subsequently appear in Iran. At the same time, there is a clear correlation between Russia’s satellite imagery of these sites and Iranian strikes – both before the attacks, in preparation for them, and afterward, to assess the damage inflicted.

On July 19 and 20 alone, four air bases fell within the area of interest of Russian satellites – two in Bahrain, one in Jordan, and one in Kuwait. The purpose is clear. None of us in the world should turn a blind eye to one very simple fact: evil always seeks ways to make things worse and spread further. Russia must be stopped. This war must be stopped. Pressure on the aggressor must work.

From the evening address. (3/3)

[Rob Lee @RALee85]

"Before he left for the front line in 2022, Serhii Boychuk told his wife that if captured, he didn’t want to be taken alive. A few months later, the Russians took him prisoner. Guards beat and tortured him sexually for more than two years, he said.

He recounted being raped with bottles and sticks, and having a knife pressed against his genitals. He still finds it difficult to walk. 'They wanted to psychologically break me,' said Boychuk, now 33.

Other Ukrainian former detainees described similar experiences of sexualized torture while in Russian prisoner-of-war camps. Their accounts match the findings of Ukrainian prosecutors and intelligence services and United Nations investigators, who have conducted extensive interviews with former prisoners—both soldiers and civilians—throughout the more than four-year war.

This growing body of testimony suggests that Russian sexual violence against POWs and civilian prisoners has been systematic—and condoned, even encouraged, by senior Russian officials...

Other former POWs and civilian detainees who spoke to the Journal said they were forced to stand, crouch or parade naked. Some had their genitals electrocuted. Some were raped—either with objects such as bottles or sticks, or by Russian guards.

Some of the former detainees, who were held at various sites in Russia, recalled guards telling them that they would stop Ukrainians from having children."
@macdonaldajm Serhii Bosak and Ievgeniia Sivorka
https://t.co/EWay8Rj8Yk

[Stephanie Baker @StephaniBaker]

The Kremlin’s cognitive warfare is evolving. Leaked documents from Russia’s Social Design Agency reveal efforts to move beyond planting fabricated stories on social media. Now Russian influence operators are trying to create Wikipedia clones and fake think tanks to shape the information powering search engines and AI chatbots. https://t.co/R1NqMxyJjr