Greetings from Sarajevo, 

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags into its eighth week, this newsletter shares three stories that touch on the war, its impact, and the family of the man behind the war.

But first, we wanted to remind you about our new documentary,“The Killing of a Journalist.” The film offers an in-depth look into the assassination of our Slovak colleague Ján Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kušnírová — and how investigative journalists uncovered vast corruption at the highest levels of Slovakian society.

It will premiere on May 1 as part of Hot Docs, the largest documentary festival in North America.

Get tickets here. (Note, the stream is geo-blocked to Canada).

Now, for the latest in transnational crime and corruption:

REPORTING ON RUSSIA

🇺🇦 Can Corruption Save Ukraine? As a percentage of GDP, Russia spends more on its military than the United States. Why, then, has an army once considered among the strongest in the world struggled against the far smaller Ukrainian armed forces?

We spoke with Russian military officers and experts who explain how corruption quietly hampered the country’s fighting force. Read the full story.

***

Now these migrant workers and their families, who rely on the remittances they send back to countries like Kyrgyzstan, have become collateral damage in the West’s campaign to squeeze the Russian economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine.

Journalists from Kloop, our Kyrgyz member center, spoke with migrant workers who are feeling the pitch over a war they have nothing to do with. Read the full story.

INVESTIGATING THE EU

🇪🇺 The Whereabouts of Stolen Food Aid Money — In 2015, OCCRP’s partners uncovered a scheme that skimmed 19 million euros from a European Union project that provided food to low-income Romanians. 

BIG NEWS ABOUT A BIG MOVE

THE OCCRP NETWORK

🇺🇦 Slidstvo.Info: Our Ukrainian member center reports on human smugglers who are helping men of military age flee the country to avoid conscription, even though they could face 10 years in prison for desertion. 

🇮🇹 IRPIMedia: As part of the #RussianAssetTracker project, our Italian member center reports on the Russian oligarchs with significant business interests in Italy. 

🇿🇦  Mail & Guardian: Our South African member center hosted a webinar in which legal experts discussed the prospect of paying whistleblowers who come forward, something that would require new legislation.

🇨🇿 Investigace.cz: Our Czech member center reports that the man who shot Slovakian journalist Jan Kuciak has confessed to three other homicides that were also allegedly ordered by businessman Marian Kočner. 

RUSSIAN ASSET TRACKER NEWS

🇺🇿 Oligarch Sanctioned After OCCRP Report: The EU sanctioned the sister of Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov. She is a Tashkent-based gynecologist who, OCCRP revealed last month, had 27 Swiss bank accounts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Most of the Credit Suisse accounts were tied to Usmanov’s business empire. 

🇬🇧 The U.K. quickly followed with its own sanctions on Usmanov’s sister. 

👀 Did you see our latest assets we've tracked down? We hunted down and verified several more assets tied to Russian oligarchs, including a show horse that we identified with the help of a reader.