Facebook Says Russian Accounts Bought US Political Ads

Company finds fraudulent accounts spent $100,000 on ads during 2016 election cycle.

Facebook announced Wednesday that an operation out of Russia spent an estimated $100,000 on political advertising on the platform in the United States during the 2016 presidential election.

Facebook said that the money was spent on roughly 3,000 ads that ran between June of 2015 and May of this year. The ads were purchased by a collective of some 470 accounts and pages that used falsified identification information. Facebook said that these accounts and pages all seem to be connected to each other and likely were led by an operation out of Russia.

US NATO envoy: ‘I get most info on Ukraine conflict from social networks’

Published time: May 08, 2015 00:04
Edited time: May 08, 2015 07:02 US Permanent Representative to NATO, Douglas Lute (Image from wikipedia.org)

The US Permanent Representative to NATO, Douglas Lute, has admitted that his knowledge about the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine comes mostly from social networks rather than intelligence reports.

“We should all ask ourselves: why is it that we know so little really about what is going on in Donbass,” the US ambassador to NATO told “Friends of Europe” forum in Brussels.

“I mean, frankly, I read more on social media about what is going on in the Donbass than I get from formal intelligence networks. This is because the networks don’t exist today,” Lute said.

READ MORE: Busted: Kiev MPs try to fool US senator with ‘proof’ of Russian tanks in Ukraine

The US envoy to NATO then backtracked, reacting to a comment made by Elena Donova, a member of the Russian delegation to NATO.

“I didn’t say that we ignored our intelligence sources. I just said that compared to the Cold War the systems that we once had twenty years ago have atrophied,” he said, adding that the “things have fundamentally changed.”

READ MORE: ‘Most convincing evidence’: Russian embassy trolls NATO with toy tanks

The reliability of social media as a source of information has been questioned throughout the conflict in Ukraine.
The latest example is an April tweet by US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt claiming that Russia’s military were continuing to expand their presence in eastern Ukraine. As for proof, Pyatt posted a two-year-old picture of an air defense system from an air show near Moscow.

Last July, Russia’s Defense Ministry questioned the authenticity of the satellite images of alleged shelling of Ukraine from Russian territory. It said the images were “created by US counselors” and posted by Pyatt on his Twitter microblog in an “informational merry-go-round” of fake pictures.

In August, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov ridiculed another so-called NATO proof, saying: “If earlier, someone would at least put their names on those images, be it Breedlove, Rasmussen, or even Lungescu, now, they are hesitant. It makes no sense to seriously comment on this,” he said.

Yet, this February, Ukrainian MPs followed the line, presenting a US senator with photos of what they said were Russian military hardware columns on Ukrainian territory. However, it turned out that the photos had been taken during Russia’s conflict with Georgia in South Ossetia back in 2008.

READ MORE: Russia shrugs off US envoy’s ‘evidence’ of Russian troops in Ukraine

The Ukrainian conflict erupted in April 2014 after Kiev sent troops to the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions after civilians there refused to recognize the new coup-imposed authorities in the capital. The Minsk accords, brokered by Russia, Germany and France in February of this year, brought several weeks of calm to the region, but ceasefire violations by both sides have been growing, hampering the peace process.

According to the UN human rights office, at least 6,116 people have been killed and 15,474 have been wounded during a year of fighting. Many fear that the true numbers could be much higher, however.

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Belarus obliges unemployed to pay for ‘social dependency’

Published time: May 07, 2015 00:01 Reuters / Vasily Fedosenko

The parliament of Belarus has approved a decree "on the prevention of social dependency" that obliges citizens to pay an annual fee of about $250 if they are not employed.

"It's necessary to stimulate citizens who are capable of work and ensure they fulfil their constitutional obligation to take part in financing state expenditures," the parliament said in a statement on Wednesday. The measure passed by a 100-2 vote.

The decree isn’t aimed at "filling the state budget with money," but at "making an individual involved in financing public spending," said the country’s Minister of Labour and Social Protection Marianna Shchetkina, as quoted by TASS.

Shchetkina stressed that the decree is temporary.

The minister has also said that the terms of the decree are based on the constitutional obligations of citizens to take part in financing public spending by paying taxes, duties and making other payments.

The law however doesn’t specify how citizens with no income should pay the annual fee.

The measure was originally introduced by President Aleksandr Lukashenko who signed the decree "on the prevention of social dependency" on April 2.

From now on both citizens of Belarus and foreign nationals permanently residing in the country who don’t participate in financing public spending, or do it less than 183 days during the tax year, must pay a fee of about $250. Disabled people, retirees and those with young children are exempt.

While Belarus's official unemployment figures are very low, about 25 percent of the country's potential workforce isn't registered as having a job, suggesting many may be working off the books and not paying taxes, AP reports.

According to a 2014 World Banks study, nearly half of Belarus' gross domestic product was in the "shadow economy."

READ MORE: St. Pete MPs propose ‘anti-parasite’ constitution changes

The subject of 'parasitism’ has recently been brought up in Russia. The Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg has proposed a sentence of correctional or forced labor for a period of up to one year for evading employment for more than six months.

In April, it was reported that lawmakers were planning to introduce a package of amendments to federal laws. The State Duma has promised to consider the initiative at a meeting of the Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs. The representatives of the committee said that the project is aimed at increasing state tax revenues.

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