In October 2016, the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance and partner researchers released more than 1 GB of Microsoft Outlook data allegedly taken from the office inbox of Vladislav Surkov, a senior Kremlin adviser known as Russia’s “grey cardinal.” The archive contained 2,337 emails dated from September 2013 to November 2014, along with political plans, budgets, schedules, passport scans and correspondence involving officials and separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine. A 22-page proposal described supporting nationalist and separatist politicians and encouraging early parliamentary elections to undermine the government in Kyiv.
The material also included a June 14, 2014 casualty list forwarded by Denis Pushilin and an June 18 briefing on supplying electricity and other infrastructure to the Russia-backed Donetsk and Luhansk entities. The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and Bellingcat assessed the emails as genuine, while entrepreneur Yevgeny Chichvarkin and journalist Svetlana Babaeva independently confirmed their own messages. The Kremlin called the documents fake; Russian official Dmitry Peskov said Surkov did not use email, and Ukraine’s Security Service said it authenticated only some documents. Later releases appeared in November 2017 and April 2018, but the source records no court ruling or criminal enforcement directly resolving the dispute.
