Edward Snowden Takes Oath to Become Russian Citizen

©AP Photo / Marco Garcia

The famous whistleblower has been living in Russia since 2013 after he was stripped of his US passport for leaking classified documents revealing US domestic surveillance programs and an international espionage web.

Edward Snowden has officially become a Russian citizen, taking an oath of allegiance and receiving a Russian passport on Thursday, Anatoly Kucherena, the US-born whistleblower's lawyer, said.

He noted that Snowden is thankful for the opportunity to become Russian, stressing that now he can't be extradited to a foreign state. In the meantime, Snowden's wife is also applying for Russian citizenship, he added.

The official ceremony comes after a September decree by President Vladimir Putin granted Snowden Russian citizenship. The ex-CIA contractor commented on the issue, saying that after "two years of waiting and nearly ten years of exile" obtaining a Russian passport would provide stability for him, his wife, and two sons.

In June 2013, Snowden was charged by the US Justice Department with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and government property theft, after he exposed classified data to the press. The data showed that US intelligence services and their allies were spying on US citizens and foreign leaders on a grand scale.

Following this, he had to escape the US and his passport was revoked when Snowden was heading to South America. He had to spend a month in Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport until the Russian government granted him asylum.

Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor turned rapporteur, had previously been granted Russian citizenship in September 2022. The news was confirmed in a decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin posted Monday to the Kremlin's website.

Snowden first arrived in Russia in 2013 after leaking secret files that revealed a vast web of domestic and international surveillance by the U.S. government. The Kremlin subsequently granted him asylum, even as the U.S. pursued espionage charges.

In 2020, Snowden announced he and his wife had applied for Russian citizenship as they were expecting their first child during the pandemic.

The whistleblower has maintained — and defended — his silence over the Kremlin's recent actions in Ukraine, saying his views were no longer "useful" after he wrongly insisted U.S. intelligence was flawed in predicting a Russian attack on its neighbor.

"Yes, he got [a passport], he took the oath," Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden's lawyer, told the state news agency TASS.

Snowden, 39, did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment on the report.

Defenders of Snowden hail him as a modern-day dissident for exposing the extent of U.S. spying. Opponents say he is a traitor who endangered lives by exposing the secret methods that Western spies use to listen in on hostile states and militants.

It’s unclear whether Snowden swore the oath of allegiance at the same time as he was granted a passport, but the two are common procedures when foreigners become Russian citizens. The text includes swearing “to protect the freedom and independence of the Russian Federation, to be loyal to Russia, to respect its culture, history and traditions,” and to promise to “perform the duties of a citizen of the Russian Federation for the good of the state and society.”

added that Snowden’s wife, Lindsay Mills, was also undergoing the Russian citizenship application process and that the couple’s children would likely attend Russian schools, when ready. He said he communicated mainly in English with his client but that Snowden also speaks Russian, albeit “not perfectly.”

After being granted citizenship, Snowden tweeted : “After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our SONS. After two years of waiting and nearly ten years of exile, a little stability will make a difference for my family. I pray for privacy for them and for us all.”

After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our SONS.

After two years of waiting and nearly ten years of exile, a little stability will make a difference for my family. I pray for privacy for them—and for us all. https://t.co/24NUK21TAo pic.twitter.com/qLfp47uzZ4

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 26, 2022

He explained his decision to seek dual citizenship on Twitter in 2020 as being necessary to prevent being separated from his son. In an “era of pandemics and closed borders, we’re applying for dual US-Russian citizenship,” he wrote.

“Lindsay and I will remain Americans, raising our son with all the values of the America we love — including the freedom to speak his mind. And I look forward to the day I can return to the States, so the whole family can be reunited,” he added.

Lindsay and I will remain Americans, raising our son with all the values of the America we love—including the freedom to speak his mind. And I look forward to the day I can return to the States, so the whole family can be reunited.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 1, 2020

Snowden’s revelations, published first in The Washington Post and the Guardian newspaper in 2013, caused international shock waves and were among the most consequential intelligence breaches in U.S. history.

Perdana Menteri Finlandia membentak Pembawa Acara TV Saat Ditanya Tentang Video Pesta Menarinya

©AP Photo / Olivier Matthys

PM Finlandia, Sanna Marin yang berusia 37 tahun menyerang balik pembawa acara TV selama diskusi tentang video tariannya dengan menyebut dirinya "orang muda" yang ingin "berakting seusianya".

Perdana Menteri Finlandia Sanna Marin kehilangan ketenangannya dalam pertengkaran sengit dengan seorang pembawa acara TV Australia, yang kebetulan berbicara tentang video tariannya yang terkenal.

Saat pembawa acara TV, Sarah Ferguson bertanya kepadanya tentang kontroversi atas foto dan rekaman yang muncul dari tarian Marin awal tahun ini dan diminta untuk mengomentari "kemarahan" yang dipicunya, karena banyak yang menyarankan perilaku seperti itu tidak pantas dilakukan oleh seorang perdana menteri, Marin membalas dengan mengklaim bahwa tidak ada kemarahan.

“Sebenarnya, tidak ada itu. Lebih banyak jurnalis dan media yang membuat tontonan atau hiruk pikuk ini,” tegas Marin.

“Masyarakat sangat mendukung. Mereka akan menghentikan saya di jalanan dan mengatakan bahwa kami mendukung Anda, teruslah menari. Itu mungkin hanya tontonan karena menarik dari sudut pandang media.” klaim Marin.

Marin lebih lanjut menekankan bahwa politisi juga "manusia" dan menyebut dirinya "cukup muda" pada usia 37 tahun.

“Saya ingin bertindak seperti usia saya. Saya bertemu teman-teman saya, saya pergi menari, saya pergi keluar jika saya punya waktu luang, meskipun saya tidak punya banyak waktu luang, ”katanya.

Awal tahun ini, Marin difilmkan menari di klub malam Finlandia dengan cara yang sugestif, yang membuatnya mendapatkan julukan "Party PM" dan "Party Sanna".

Antara lain, dia digambarkan sedang menari mesra dengan influencer media sosial Finlandia Sabina Sarkka, dengan tangan terlipat satu sama lain, serta penyanyi Finlandia Olavi Uusivirta, yang kemudian membantah berselingkuh dengan perdana menteri.

Dalam video lain, teman-teman Marin terdengar berteriak yang banyak diartikan sebagai "geng bedak", dengan "bedak (flour)" menjadi nama slang untuk kokain di Finlandia. Tuduhan tersebut memaksa Marin untuk secara resmi menyangkal menggunakan narkoba dan bahkan melakukan tes narkoba untuk membuktikan bahwa dia tidak bersalah. Itu kemudian kembali sebagai negatif.

Pada bulan November, Marin akhirnya dibebaskan dari pelanggaran setelah penyelidikan resmi berlarut-larut yang berlangsung beberapa bulan.

Namun, Marin harus meminta maaf atas foto dan video yang “tidak pantas” yang diambil oleh teman-temannya di rumah dinasnya. Salah satunya memperlihatkan dua wanita sedang berciuman, dengan kemeja ditarik ke atas dan perut terbuka. Sebuah tanda dengan teks "Finlandia" menyembunyikan salah satu payudara wanita, dengan layar latar belakang biru resmi pemerintah Finlandia terlihat jelas di latar belakang.

Sebelumnya, perdana menteri Finlandia ketahuan berpesta ditengah lonjakan infeksi virus corona, ketika seluruh negara disuruh tinggal di rumah dan "meratakan kurva".

Facebook Failed to Detect Death Threat Ads Against US Midterm Election Workers

©AP Photo / Marcio Jose Sanchez

The data comes as part of a Global Witness and NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy study regarding Facebook, Yotube and Tiktok's moderation security. NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy is a part of the Center for Cybersecurity at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. It was formerly known as the Online Political Transparency Project.

Facebook failed to block 75% of ads containing death threats to election workers during the US midterm elections, researchers have found.

The ads were released by the researchers "on the day of or day before the 2022 US midterm elections" to test Facebook, Youtube and Tiktok's moderation capabilities.

The content of all the ads was based on previously reported reals threats, and was submitted as ads in order to let the investigators "schedule them in the future and, importantly, to remove them before they go live, while still being reviewed by the platforms and undergoing their content moderation processes."

They included texts with "statements that people would be killed, hanged, or executed, and that children would be molested", all with corrected grammar. Similarly, the "threats were chillingly clear in their language; none were coded or difficult to interpret... all violate Meta, TikTok and Google’s ad policies."

According to the report, Facebook approved nine of the ten English-language ads and six of the ten Spanish-language ones.

YouTube and TikTok showed better results, with both platforms suspending the accounts from which the ads were released for violating their policies, according to the report.

Meta commented on the findings: ”This is a small sample of ads that are not representative of what people see on our platforms. Content that incites violence against election workers or anyone else has no place on our apps and recent reporting has made clear that Meta’s ability to deal with these issues effectively exceeds that of other platforms. We remain committed to continuing to improve our systems.”

Global Witness and the NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy team called on Meta* to "urgently increase the content moderation capabilities", "publish their pre-election risk assessment for the United States" and "allow verified independent third-party auditing".

Global Witness and the NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy team called on Meta* to "urgently increase the content moderation capabilities", "publish their pre-election risk assessment for the United States" and "allow verified independent third-party auditing".

How Twitter Algorithms Paved the Way for Election Interference

© FREDERIC J. BROWN

Twitter owner Elon Musk accused the platform's former leadership of interfering in elections through content moderation and failed public trust on November 30. He promised that Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.

The Tesla CEO's assertion about Twitter's alleged election interference came in response to comments made by Twitter's former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, who claimed that the social media giant was not safer under Elon Musk.

Roth delivered his comments on November 29 at a Knight Foundation conference, going so far as accusing Musk of running the company like a dictator.

Musk's answer wasn't long in coming: "The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust and safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections."

Even though Musk did not specify which elections he thought were affected by the social media platform, it was Roth who is considered responsible for suppressing the New York Post's "laptop from hell" story.

The October 2020 bombshell involved both Hunter Biden, the son of then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and Joe himself. Roth was also behind the decision to ban former President Donald Trump from the platform after the controversial January 6 storming of the Capitol building, according to the US media. The former Twitter exec resigned along with the other employees who did not share Musk's free-speech vision following the takeover.

Deleting 'Russian Bots' Prior to 2018 Midterms

The Musk-Roth row has once again shed light on Twitter and other Silicon Valley giants' apparent meddling in US politics and suppression of free speech in clear violation of the First Amendment.

It was 2018, the year of midterm elections, when Republicans raised the alarm over Twitter's deleting follower accounts and silencing of conservative voices. In the beginning of July 2018, the US mainstream press announced that Twitter would fake accounts to increase the authenticity of the platform.

The move was justified by the alleged activity of "Russian trolls". As a result, many prominent figures, most notably in the conservative camp, lost substantial numbers of followers. Then President Donald Trump lambasted Twitter for "totally discriminating" against Republican Party and conservative users, but Twitter and its CEO Jack Dorsey claimed that the reduction was aimed at bots.

Shadow Banning of GOP Figures Before Midterms

On July 25, 2018, a US conservative media outlet drew attention to the fact that Twitter algorithms were preventing the accounts of prominent Republicans, including RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, from appearing in search results. The list of "shadow-banned" conservatives included GOP Representatives Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, and Matt Gaetz, as well as Donald Trump Jr.’s spokesman Andrew Surabian.

Previously, Twitter representatives explained that the shadow-banning algorithms were analyzing "account behavior" in order to reduce the visibility of accounts believed to spread bigoted content. The major goal of the tool was to boost the visibility of accounts "contributing to the healthy conversation" in searches.

However, according to the conservative media outlet, the mechanism was also instrumentalized against Republicans while their Democratic peers weren't affected by it. Quite the contrary, Democratic accounts were routinely "auto-populated" in Twitter's drop-down search box. On July 26, 2018, Trump stepped in, accusing Twitter of political bias.

However, Twitter responded on the same day that it was just a "bug": "We are aware that some accounts are not automatically populating in our search box, and (we're) shipping a change to address this," a Twitter spokesperson said. "The profiles, tweets and discussions about these accounts do appear when you search for them. To be clear, our behavioral ranking doesn't make judgments based on political views or the substance of tweets."

In November 2018, the Dems won the popular vote by more than 9.7 million votes – the largest midterm margin for any party – and took control of the House while Republicans retained their Senate majority.

2020 Elections: Twitter Tagging Trump's Tweets

Still, the row between the GOP and the platform over silencing conservative voices continued. It gained its apogee prior to the 2020 presidential election.

In May 2020 Twitter started editorializing Trump's tweets. In particular, the social media giant tagged a fact-check warning to the president's tweet concerning potential fraud in mail-in voting. The tag, reading "Get the facts about mail-in ballots", took a user to a Twitter page that claims that the US president's statements that mail-in ballots would lead to "rigged elections" are "false." Trump immediately lambasted Twitter for "interfering in the 2020 presidential election."

"Big Tech is doing everything in their very considerable power to censor in advance of the 2020 Election. If that happens, we no longer have our freedom," the president tweeted at the time.

Nonetheless, Twitter continued to editorialize the then-president's posts, in particular, adding warning labels to Trump's tweets concerning the issues related to the COVID pandemic.

Hunter Biden 'Laptop from Hell' In October 2020, Twitter did its best to suppress the Hunter Biden story, which cast a shadow on his father, the Democratic presidential hopeful. A series of exposés stemming from Hunter's abandoned laptop, later branded the "laptop from hell," shed light on his murky deals with foreign moneybags and alleged trading of his father's political influence for cold, hard cash.

While Facebook* simply limited the circulation of its story on the platform, Twitter went further, completely banning the sharing of the newspaper's Biden story. Moreover, Twitter placed a freeze on the account of the New York Post that broke the story. Later US conservative pollsters found out that a substantial part of Americans believe that if the Hunter Biden saga had not been suppressed, Joe Biden would not have won the election.

'Big Lie' Pretext

The 2020 presidential election was mired in controversy and led to the January 6 Capitol breach with those storming the building believing that the US Congress was about to certify fraudulent votes. Twitter purges immediately followed. The account of Donald Trump – then sitting president of the US – was banned. Numerous accounts of Trump's MAGA followers and his close associates were permanently deleted.

Simultaneously, many conservatives reported huge cuts in the number of followers which steadily continued for days. Twitter continued its "tagging" policy targeting those who questioned the fairness of the 2020 vote. The platform also later deleted accounts of Republican state legislatures involved in audits of the 2020 election results, largely in line with the Democratic Party's narrative that everyone who doubted that the vote was fair is spreading the "Big Lie."

Twitter & Erosion of Trust

After Elon Musk took the reins of Twitter in October 2022, he promised to reinstate free speech on the platform. On November 19, 2022, the account of former President Donald Trump was restored by Musk.

The new owner of Twitter signalled he was "fine" with Trump not tweeting, even though his account has been revived. "The important thing is that Twitter corrected a grave mistake in banning his account, despite no violation of the law or terms of service. Deplatforming a sitting President undermined public trust in Twitter for half of America," Musk tweeted.

US conservatives don't believe in Big Tech's impartiality and have repeatedly lambasted Silicon Valley giants for being in bed with the Democratic Party.

Elon Musk pledged to restore that trust: "Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed," promised the new CEO.

Lavrov says NATO returned to Cold War agenda, Russians aren’t wanted in Europe

©Russian Foreign Ministry/TASS

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference on European security issues on Thursday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has reverted back to its Cold War priorities and Russians aren’t wanted in Europe.

The Russian diplomat noted that NATO policies in Europe degraded back to the Cold War era, as Washington is bent on exercising total control over the EU, so any meaningful cooperation between Russia and Europe is unlikely in the near future. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the EU is trying to create a security system against Russia, not with it.

In his brief on European security issues, the foreign minister stressed that the old format of relations between Russia and the West is gone. Lavrov added he is not sure it is possible to restore cooperation between Russia and the EU on the European security issue, but Moscow is ready to hear what the Western countries have to say.

"If our Western colleagues understand their mistakes and express readiness to return to the discussion of the documents that we have proposed in December, I think it will be a positive factor. Although I doubt that they will have the strength and will to do it, but if it happens, then of course we will be ready to return to the discussion," Lavrov said.

The minister said Moscow remembers how NATO was set up when the alliance’s first secretary general, Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay, "came up with a formula to keep the Russians out of Europe, the Americans in and the Germans down."

"What’s happening now signifies NATO’s return to the conceptual priorities that were developed 73 years ago. Nothing has changed: the Russians are not welcome in Europe, and the Americans have already subjugated the entire Europe and it’s not just Germany that’s kept down, but all of the European Union. So, the philosophy of domination and unilateral advantages hasn’t gone anywhere following the end of the Cold War," Lavrov said.

The minister urged not to forget that during its existence, NATO "could hardly take credit for even one real success story."

"It brings devastation and suffering. I have already mentioned the aggression against Syria, the aggression against Libya, the destruction of the Libyan statehood," the minister continued. "While in 1991 NATO consisted of 16 countries, now there are already 30 of them. Sweden and Finland are on the cusp of accession. The alliance deploys its forces and military infrastructure ever closer to our borders.".

Lavrov recounted the words of NATO's first Secretary General, Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay, who described the core policy of the alliance regarding Europe as "keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down".

“What is happening now means that NATO is returning to those conceptual priorities that were developed 73 years ago. Nothing has changed: they want to keep the Russians outside of Europe, the Americans have already enslaved all of Europe, and not only the Germans, but the entire European Union. So, the philosophy of dominance and unilateral advantages did not disappear anywhere after the end of the Cold War," he said.

Decaying Organizations

The diplomat also elaborated on the sad state of European intergovernmental organizations, noting that Western policies had crippled the Council of Europe beyond repair, while the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe also suffers from multiple problems.

He noted that Sweden, which presided over the OSCE last year, had abandoned a balanced stance, and had facilitated the subjugation of the organization by Washington and Brussels.

"Of course, the OSCE special monitoring mission in Ukraine contributed to the discrediting of the OSCE's work in Ukraine, which, in gross violation of its mandate, did not respond to the daily violations of the Minsk agreements by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The OSCE mission essentially sided with the Kiev regime," Lavrov stressed, noting that that after the closure of the mission it was revealed that its officials cooperated with Western special services.

In the meantime, Poland, which has presided over it in 2022, is "digging a grave" for the OSCE, undermining any consensus that is left in there, he said. "I can responsibly say that Poland's anti-presidency in the OSCE will occupy a most unattractive place in the history of this organization. No one has ever done such damage to the OSCE at its helm," Lavrov told reporters.

The security space in Europe is fragmenting, and the OSCE itself is becoming a marginalized entity, the diplomat added.

Earlier in the day, the annual conference of the 29th OSCE Ministerial Council started in the Polish city of Lodz. Warsaw did not allow Lavrov to take part in the meeting, as it believes that it is necessary to "absolutely isolate" Russia in the international arena amid its military operation in Ukraine, according to senior Polish diplomat Pawel Jablonski.

Moscow Will Retaliate if EU Confiscates Russian Assets, Foreign Ministry Says

Moscow will take "adequate measures" if the EU confiscates Russian state and private assets, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, as the bloc's chief proposed a plan to compensate Ukraine for its reconstruction.

"We once again warn that if it comes to the real confiscation of the property of the Russian Federation and Russian citizens, enterprises, state reserves of our country, then adequate measures will inevitably follow from the Russian side," Zakharova told a press briefing in Moscow.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, said the EU and its partners "will make sure that Russia pays for the devastation it caused, with the frozen funds of oligarchs and assets of its central bank."

Von der Leyen said the bloc has already blocked €300 billion of the Russian Central Bank reserves and has frozen €19 billion of Russian oligarch's money.

She said the funds should be used as "full compensation to Ukraine" for damage caused by Russia's "special military operation" that started in February.

"We will work on an international agreement with our partners to make this possible," she said.

Zakharova called the decision of the EU Council to recognize the circumvention of sanctions a crime as legal arbitrariness

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, expressed confidence that the decision of the Council of the European Union to recognize the circumvention of sanctions as a criminal offense is a legal arbitrariness.

“We are dealing with double legal arbitrariness.

This is all from the category of pseudo-legal exercises, ”she said during the briefing.

Zakharova stressed that the implementation of this initiative will lead to the end of the EU's reputation as a reliable jurisdiction for doing business.

On November 28, the Council of the European Union included sanctions circumvention in the list of criminal offences.

Turkey previously noted that anti-Russian sanctions imposed because of the situation in Ukraine will be considered legitimate only if the decision on them is made under the auspices of the UN.

Russia Launches Soyuz Rocket With Military Satellites

©Sputnik/Maksim Blinov/Go to the mediabank

Russia successfully launched a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with a military satellite from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

"On December 1, 2022, from the Plesetsk cosmodrome [Russia's Arkhangelsk region], a combat crew of the space forces of the Aerospace Forces launched a Soyuz-2.1b medium-class launch vehicle with spacecraft in the interests of the Russian Defense Ministry," the ministry said in a statement.

It was the third launch in the interests of the Russian Defense Ministry in one month. The previous launches took place on November 2 and 28, when other Russian military spacecraft were put into orbit.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, a Soyuz-2-1b rocket with a Fregat upper stage lifted off from Pad 4 at Site 43 in Plesetsk on Nov. 2, 2021, at 09:48 Moscow Time.

No official information on the nature of the payload has been released but at the end of October, authorities in the Komi Republic issued warnings to the local population in two drop zones for the upcoming launch scheduled for Nov. 2, 2022, between 09:00 and 12:00 Moscow Time, with backup dates of November 3, 4 and 5.

One closed region was at the Vashka drop zone in the Udorskiy Municipal District, matching the approximate distance downrange from Plesetsk necessary for the impact of four boosters separating from Soyuz rockets.

The second closed area was at the Zheleznodorozhny drop zone, which spanned the Knyazhpogostsky and Kortkerossky Municipal Districts and it was appropriate for the impact of the payload fairing segments.

Further downrange from Plesetsk, along the same flight path, a third area was later closed in the Uvatsky District of the Tyumen Region, which matched the impact site for the core booster of the Soyuz rocket.

The resulting ground track indicated an ascent trajectory to an orbit inclined 64.77 degrees toward the Equator, which was used by the GLONASS navigation satellites, however, as of November 2022, the GLONASS-K2 No. 13L spacecraft, believed to be the next in line for launch into the constellation, was still undergoing final testing at its manufacturing site, according to a poster on the Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum.

That left the Kupol military satellite, which was known to be prepared for launch from Plesetsk before the end of 2022 for the continuing deployment of Russia's new-generation early warning constellation. Although Kupol satellites are deployed in orbit with an inclination 63.8 degrees, the Soyuz rocket could use an available ascent corridor from Plesetsk to a 64.77-degree orbit to drop its booster stages before maneuvering to a lower inclination orbit at the expense of some lifting capability.

Launch profile

The sixth Kupol launch likely followed the usual scenario for the deployment of satellites in the EKS constellation.

The four-stage Soyuz/Fregat booster lifted off under the simultaneous thrust of the first and second stages, heading southeast from Plesetsk. The four boosters of the first stage were jettisoned around two minutes into the flight and fell around 350 kilometers downrange. The second (core) stage continued the powered ascent.

The payload fairing then split into two halves around a minute after the separation of the first stage, as the rocket exited the dense atmosphere at an altitude of under 100 kilometers.

Less than five minutes into the flight and moments before the second stage completed its burn, the third stage ignited its four-chamber RD-0124 engine, initially firing through the lattice structure connecting the two stages. The second stage then separated and crashed around 1,500 kilometers downrange from the launch site, northeast of the city of Tobolsk in the Tyumen Region.

Around nine minutes into the flight, the third stage released the payload section, which was comprised of the Fregat upper stage and the Kupol satellite, into a suborbital trajectory before reentering the Earth's atmosphere. Any surviving debris from the third stage should have fallen into the Pacific Ocean just South East of Tasmania.

Around half an hour after the launch, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the fact of the liftoff and its exact time.

Fregat space tug maneuvers

During the orbital part of the mission, the Fregat was expected to conduct multiple maneuvers to insert the EKS satellite into its release orbit. Most likely, three main engine firings were made.

Approximate ground track during the launch of the EKS (Tundra) satellite.

The first maneuver, initiated within a minute after the separation from the third stage, likely placed the stack into an initial parking orbit. The Fregat then probably fired its engine again with the goal of stretching the orbit so that the apogee (the highest point) of this intermediate orbit reached the perigee (lowest point) of the final orbit. Finally, the third Fregat burn increased the apogee to the required altitude by firing near the peak of the target orbit.

Following the separation of the EKS spacecraft, the Fregat upper stage typically conducts collision avoidance and deorbiting maneuvers. In turn, the satellite has its own propulsion system to make necessary orbit adjustments.

Around six hours after the launch, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that the spacecraft had successfully entered its orbit, established reliable telemetry contact with ground control and that all its systems functioned nominally. At that point, the spacecraft was officially identified as Kosmos-2563.

Within hours after the launch, the US Space Force published orbital elements for two objects associated with the launch, which were probably the satellite and the Fregat upper stage after their separation in the target orbit: