Leaked US intel: ‘Russia operatives claimed new ties with the UAE’

The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, held extensive meetings with United Arab Emirates leaders in Dubai in 2020. Pic/AP

U.S. spies caught Russian intelligence officers boasting that they had convinced the oil-rich United Arab Emirates "to work together against US and UK intelligence agencies," according to a purported American document posted online as part of a major U.S. intelligence breach. U.S. officials declined to comment on the document, which bore known top-secret markings and was viewed by The Associated Press. The Emirati government on Monday dismissed any accusation that the UAE had deepened ties with Russian intelligence as "categorically false."

But the U.S. has had growing concerns that the UAE was allowing Russia and Russians to thwart sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine. The document viewed by the AP includes an item citing research from March 9 with the title: "Russia/UAE: Intelligence Relationship Deepening." U.S. officials declined to confirm the document's authenticity, which the AP could not independently do. However, it resembled other documents released as part of the recent leak.

Also Read: Finland joins NATO, deals blow to Vladimir Putin

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the possible release of Pentagon documents that were posted on several social media sites. They appear to detail U.S. and NATO aid to Ukraine and U.S. intelligence assessments regarding U.S. allies that could strain ties with those nations. Some of the documents may have been altered or used as part of a misinformation campaign, U.S. officials said. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Monday urged caution, "since we know at least in some cases that information was doctored."

Origin in chatroom?

A major leak of classified U.S. documents that's shaken Washington and exposed new details of its intelligence gathering may have started in a chatroom on a social media platform popular with gamers. Held on the Discord platform, a discussion created to talk about many topics turned to the war in Ukraine. As part of debates, according to one member of the chat, an unidentified poster shared documents that were allegedly classified, first with the poster's own thoughts, then, as of a few months ago, beginning to post images of papers. The posts were unnoticed until a few weeks ago, when they began to circulate more widely on social media and get picked up by major news outlets.

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