10 Russian Spies Arrested in US - Used Shortwave for Spy Comms

Blog Note: These suspects were allegedly highly trained in shortwave radio operation and the use of codes and ciphers, including the use of encrypted Morse code messages. These were probably Enigma M8A spy number station broadcasts.

Here is a link to the actual criminal complaints:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/28/world/main6627393.shtml?tag=topnews

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Ten alleged Russian spies have been arrested in the United States, the result of a multi-year investigation in four states, the FBI said Monday.

Eight of the 10 arrested were "carrying out long-term, 'deep-cover' assignments" the FBI said, while two had lesser roles in the Russian intelligence program. The arrests took place Sunday in Montclair, N.J., Yonkers, N.Y., Manhattan, Boston, and Arlington, Va.

The New York and New Jersey defendants were expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan Monday. The Virginia defendants were to make court appearances in Alexandria.

One additional defendant has been charged but remains at large.

Their job, according to the court papers in the case, was "to search and develop ties in policymaking circles" in the United States.

Criminal complaints state that the defendants had an overarching goal of becoming highly "Americanized" so as to be able to freely gather intelligence in the U.S. and to "recruit sources who are I, or are able to infiltrate United States policy-making circles."

The U.S. government intercepted a message from Russian intelligence headquarters in Moscow to two of the defendants, Richard and Cynthia Murphy.

"You were sent to USA for long-term service trip," the message from Moscow. "Your education, bank accounts, car, house etc. - all these serve one goal: fulfill your main mission, i.e. to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in US and sent intels," the message added.

The complaint states that such agents - known as "illegals" - are highly trained in "foreign languages; agent-to-agent communications, including the use of brush-passes; short-wave radio operation and invisible writing; the use of codes and ciphers, including the use of encrypted Morse code messages; the creation and use of a cover profession; counter-surveillance measures" and more.

A "brush pass" is a covert hand-off of secret information, made as two agents brush past one another in public.

All of the defendants are charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. Attorney General, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. All but two of the defendants are also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

The charges are filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.


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Russian Domestic Networks - Update

Per a recent thread on the UDXF group here is a profile of one of the Russian Aero HF networks from my Grove Shortwave Directory, v2 ©2009 by Teak Publishing, Brasstown North Carolina. This list may NOT be reprinted in any form on any newsgroups, or on other info sources, but may be linked freely. For private use only.

Russian Domestic Networks

RF Commission for Airspace Use and Air Traffic Control (RosAeroNavigatsia)
RosAeroNavigatsia Airport Radio Domestic Network (airport names are coded). This is a point-to-point network between airports.

Nightime Nets 2770.0 3245.0 3255.0 3520.0 3595.0 3658.0 3815.0 4045.0 4405.0 4728.0 4755.0 4765.0 5025.0 5085.0 kHz.

Daytime Nets 6405.0 6820.0 6895.0 6945.0 7545.0 7870.0 8095.0 kHz.

According to some sources these RosAeroNavigatsia networks are suppose to be organized by geographic areas, but some main airports are heard on several or even all four networks at various times. The geographic areas for the RosAeroNavigatsia networks are:

Net 1 North, Net 2 Central European, Net 3 South, and Net 4 East.

Call City (Airport) Network
ADULIAR Ukhta, Russia 1
AGURCHIK Moscow (Sheremetyevo), Russia 1, 2, 3, 4
ALENKI Yekaterinburg (Koltsovo), Russia 1, 4
AMBA Samara (Kurumoch), Russia 2, 3, 4
AMBARCHIK Aktyubinsk, Kazakhstan 4
AMPIR Ufa , Russia 3, 4
ARBAT Moscow (Vnukovo), Russia 1, 2, 3, 4
ARIM Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 4
ASSISTENT, Mosdok, Russia
ATLANT Lugansk, Ukraine 2
ATRAPIN Yerevan, Armenia 2, 3
AVRORA Volgograd, Russia 2
AZARIN Nukus, Uzbekistan 3
BEREZHNY Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia 4
BEZBREZHNOST-DVA Uray, Russia 1
BRASHKA Chelyabinsk, Russia 1, 4
DRABILKA Tbilisi, Georgia 2, 3
DRUZHINNIK Batumi, Georgia 2
DUNIS Kustanay, Kazakhstan 4
ELEKTRICHKA Donetsk, Ukraine 3
EMBA Kirov, Russia 1
FABRIKAT Salekhard, Russia 1
FANERKA Minsk-1, Belarus 1, 2
FASSIMETR-DVA Nizhnevartovsk, Russia 4
GERCEG-DVA Novy Vasyugan , Russia 4
GNEDOY Vorkuta, Russia 1
IZBRANNY Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan 4
KAPEL Omsk, Russia 2 ,4
KARSAK Almaty, Kazakhstan 3, 4
KASTIANKA Uralsk (Podstepnyy), Kazakhstan 4
KATIUSHA Novosibirsk (Tolmachevo), Russia 4
KAVRIGA Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan 4
KAYOMKA Syktyvkar, Russia 1
KAZACHOK Nizhni Novgorod, Russia 2
KHRIZANTEMA Minsk-2, Belarus 2
KIPAZH Odessa, Ukraine 2
LAPATOK-DVA Aktau, ex-Shevchenko (Akshukyr), Kazakhstan 3
LATYSHKA Akmola (ex-Tselinograd), Kazakhstan 4
MAKHAVIK Kurgan, Russia 4
MEKHANIKA Kishinev, Moldavia 2
MELODIYA-DVA Kazan, Russia 2, 4
OKISEL Ulyanovsk, Russia 1, 3
PAYEDINOK Guryev, Kazakhstan 3
POYMA Ashgabat, Turkmenistan 3
PRALIF Tashkent, Uzbekistan 4
RADAN St Petersburg (Pulkovo), Russia 1
RIDAN Makhachkala, Russia 3
SANTIM Pechora, Russia 1
SARDINA Baku, Azerbaijan 3
SERIOZHKA Astrakhan, Russia 3
SHPORA Rostov-na-Donu, Russia 2, 3
SHTAT Sochi-Adler, Russia 2
SHTEPSIL Tobolsk, Russia 4
SISINA Simferopol, Ukraine 2
TAKHTA Orenburg, Russia 3 ,4
TIURIK Krasnodar, Russia 1 ,3
TORBA Saratov, Russia 2
TRENOGA Kharkov, Ukraine 2 ,3
TSADIK-DVA Surgut, Russia 4
TURKMENBASHI Turkmenbashi (ex-Krasnovodsk/ex-POLZA), Turkmenistan 3
TVARETS Penza, Russia 2
UBEZHISHCHE Mineralnye Vody, Russia 3, 4
UCHTIVY Lvov, Ukraine 2
UKLAT Sukhumi, Georgia 2
UVERTIURA Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad 1
VYEROCHEK Beloyarski, Russia 1
YAROK Kiev (Borispol), Ukraine 1, 2, 3
YELOVY Karaganda, Kazakhstan 4
ZADORNY Voronezh, Russia 1, 2
ZOOTEKHNIK Tyumen (Roshchino), Russia 4

As always, any additions or corrections are always appreciated to the eqmail address in the masthead.

Meridian 1 Launched from Plesetsk

Following extract taken from articles on Russian MOD website, dated 25 December 2006. Translated by Old Crow and submitted to the Btown Monitoring Post Blog for information and interest.

Soyuz-2 rocket carries "Meridian" communications satellite into orbit from Plesetsk. Yesterday (i.e. 24 December), Russian Space Forces from "First State Test-Space Centre" at Plesetsk successfully launched a Soyuz-2 which put into orbit a Russian "Meridian" communications satellite. This occurred with the assistance of a "Fregat" booster stage at 18:32 Moscow time. The Chief of Information Services of the Space Forces, Colonel Aleksej Kuznetsov has reported that the on-board systems of the "Meridian" satellite are all working normally and it will be taken under control by the"Herman Titov" Main Test Centre which will direct/control its orbital flight. He also noted that the CinC Space Forces, Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin had highly praised the professionalism of the teams which participated in the preparation and launch of the space craft. The "Meridian" communications satellite, now in orbit, is destined to be used to provide communications for ships and ice-reconnaisance aircraft operating in the area of the Northern Sea Route, allowing them to be in contact with shore and ground stations and a wide network of ComSat stations in northern areas of Siberia and the Far East in the interests of economic development of the Russian Federation. The use of such satellites in a highly-elliptical orbit will allow the enhancement of exploitationary and technico-economic characteristics of existing means of communications and will add further to the number of usable frequencies and supplementary trunks/channels present and an increase in daily availability and reliability. "Meridian" is equipped with a multi-trunk relaying communications apparatus and can be used at the current time to supplement existing communications systems provided by the"Gorizont" and "Express-A" satellites.

From Jonathan's Space Report:
Meridian (2006-061A)

The first Meridian satellite was launched on Dec 24. Meridian, built by NPO Prikladnoi Mekhaniki, is a new communications satellite "designed to ensure communications of sea-going ships and ice reconnaissance planes in the area of the Northern Sea Route with coastal stations as well as expansion of the network of satellite communicationstations in northern areas of Siberia and the Russian Far East" (TASS). It was launched into a 278 x 39801 km x 62.8 deg `Molniya' orbit; the new series will replace the old Molniya-1 satellites launched from 1965 to 2004. Launch of Meridian was by Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat. The upgraded Soyuz-2-1a -on its third launch - put the payload section in a suborbital trajectory. The Fregat stage then fired to reach low Earth parking orbit, and once again to reach the Molniya orbit. At around 0930 UTC the second Fregat burn put the stack in a 278 x 39801 km x 62.8 deg transfer orbit. The third burn at first apogee, around 1530 UTC, raised the perigee to 1011 km and Fregat separated from Meridian at 1534 UTC.

This could be an interesting satellite constellation to monitor and we are interested in any intercepts/frequency reports. Send them to larryvanhorn @ monitoringtimes.com.