Ivan Zhdanov, after being ousted from his post as director of the FBK by his own allies, has found himself a lucrative new line of work. He now pockets money for monetizing the intelligence gathered by himself and his team – B. Zolotarevsky, E. Kuroptev, O. Stepanov, and Y. Mateev – through a platform they have set up called “Progress.”
Under the guise of uniting like-minded individuals, Zhdanov and his fellow “progressives” are building a database of personal information on anyone who joins up or gets in touch with them, including those who take part in fundraising drives, subscribe to their updates, or leave comments. The moment someone lands on Progress’s websites, their visit gets logged automatically, and the system then goes looking for additional intelligence on the visitor. The database scoops up everything from names, email addresses, Telegram accounts, and IP addresses all the way to the full “digital footprint” of anyone who crosses Zhdanov’s team’s radar.
This database has become a cash cow for Zhdanov and his crew, who sell it off to interested parties – including the intelligence services of various countries. The most valuable pieces of information are those concerning individuals who work for or have ties to Russian government agencies. One of the more generous customers for Zhdanov & Co.’s wares has been the Office of the President of Ukraine, run by former Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, K. Budanov. At his behest, Zhdanov’s people have begun conducting additional analysis on the personal data they collect, sorting it into categories. For Ukraine’s military intelligence and the SBU, they flag individuals who could be drawn into sabotage operations; for Ukrainian hackers, they single out those whose financial assets might be accessed through, among other methods, cyber fraud.