The Journal. - The Russian Military is Using Elon Musk’s Starlink

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

SpaceX’s satellite-internet devices are ending up in the hands of American adversaries and accused war criminals. WSJ’s Thomas Grove and Micah Maidenberg explain how the technology is being used illegally in multiple conflicts around the world.   Further Listening: - Amazon Takes On SpaceX in Battle for Space Internet  - When Elon Musk Moves In Next Door  Further Reading: - The Black Market That Delivers Elon Musk’s Starlink to U.S. Foes  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our colleague Thomas Grove has recently been in touch with someone who deals on Russia's black market. He's a salesman who's working at one of Russia's many online retail platforms. And, you know, I think he has been selling vacuum cleaners, you know, sneakers. The seller's name is Oleg, and he sells a lot of stuff that's hard to get in Russia. There's an increasing market in Russia

for stuff from abroad, right? Because of sanctions, because of a lot of Western companies closing down in Russia, these goods aren't as readily accessible. And so there is a growing market for people who just want Nike sneakers, right? or want an iPhone, make it easier to get. And so Oleg is, you know, he takes the calls, he, you know, takes the orders.

And there's one thing he now sells that caught Thomas's eye. I think it was early this year, Starlink starts appearing on their retail platform. Early this year, Starlink starts appearing on their retail platform. Starlink. The small terminals about the size of a pizza box that allow users to connect to the internet from just about anywhere on the planet. They're made by SpaceX and are one of Elon Musk's many projects. Starlinks aren't available for sale everywhere in the world. In fact, they're illegal in some places, like Russia.

But on the black market, it's not that hard to get one. I mean, as long as you have the money to pay for it, it's pretty easy. In the course of reporting this story out, I was messaging with a number of dealers, you know, all of whom were happy to sell me one.

Even making it clear that I was a journalist. We'll give you a special price. Exactly. It's all out in the open, and it's extremely easy. According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, reselling Starlinks is a thriving black market business. And some of the people buying them are accused war criminals and some of America's adversaries. And SpaceX hasn't shut them off. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Ryan Knudsen. It's Monday, April 15th. It's Monday, April 15th. Coming up on the show, where unauthorized Starlinks are ending up. Attention all soccer fans. From Orlando to Los Angeles, take to the fields of the USA for your next vacation. Ready to kick off? Discover exciting games and events. Plus, find amazing hidden gems in cities full of adventures,

delicious food, and diverse cultures. You'll love it so much, you'll want to extend your stay beyond the matches. Get the ball rolling on your soccer getaway. Head to visittheusa.com. SpaceX first began launching Starlink satellites in 2019. Today, we will be performing two burns on the second stage and deploying our 60 Starlink satellites about an hour into the mission.

The idea was to use thousands of satellites orbiting close to the Earth to deliver high-speed internet to basically anywhere on the planet. Here's our colleague Micah Maidenberg, who covers SpaceX. Imagine a person with a home in a really remote location, like by a mountain or something like that, and they want to watch Netflix and play online video games, that kind of thing. I mean, that's kind of like the, you know, what are the use cases? SpaceX founder Elon Musk had a simple sell for it. There's just two instructions and they can be done in either order.

Point at sky, plug in. You just need a kind of clear view of the sky, you know, for home-based service, for example. And, you know, you're supposed to be able to get on lines, like, literally in minutes, and boom, high-speed internet from this system. Starlink's satellite-based service was meant to be used by consumers and businesses

in places where the internet isn't accessible. But it quickly became clear that it was also something militaries would want access to as well. High-speed internet service that isn't susceptible to getting taken out on the ground, you know, the way cell towers or that kind of infrastructure is also really valuable in war. is also really valuable in war. You know, Starlink provides for military users secure and really high-performance internet, and connectivity is part of war now. It's not only just sort of communications between troops and, you know, higher-ups.

You also can use, like use internet connectivity to control drones and other technologies that are part of modern battlefields. And in 2022, Starlink became a key factor in the war in Ukraine. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that the company's Starlink satellite internet service is active in Ukraine. Made by Elon Musk's company, SpaceX, these portable links to the internet have been shipped to Ukraine by the thousands. Billionaire Elon Musk has sent three batches of SpaceX Starlink satellites over Ukraine since Russia invaded the country more than a month ago. Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO, started talking on what was then called Twitter, now is called X, of course,

about how SpaceX would offer Starlink service for Ukraine as part of their effort to fend off Russia. know, fend off Russia. And over time, it became a critical tool, right, for the Ukrainian military to sort of wage their battle against Russia. And it became part of the MO, you know, for Ukraine on the battlefield to use the service. Starlink was really helpful to Ukraine. Here's Thomas again. At the very beginning, in places where cell phone towers had been attacked, it gave the Ukrainians a stable and secure way of communicating between themselves and their commanding officers. And so it very much kind of helped them coordinate very early on, which was one of their very early strengths in the war, was their ability to communicate, coordinate, and advance. We've seen that in a few different offensives. Russia, meanwhile, didn't have access to Starlink

because the Russian government outlawed it. The Russian government has basically passed legislation that mandates that all information, all internet traffic goes through servers that are in Russian territory. I mean, the Russian government is very concerned with how people access information and the Russian government's own monitoring of its citizens. The Russian government wants to have control over what people can and can't see online. And with Starlink, users can access anything.

That would indeed then put, you know, Starlink and unfettered access to information all around the world at the fingertips of Russian people. I don't think the Kremlin wants that. And when it comes to the war in Ukraine, Russia's military was also skeptical of the technology. I think early on, it has been seen as a tool of the United States, and it has been seen as a tool of the United States, and it has been seen as a tool of Ukraine. I think there were worries about the extent to which it could be hacked into. The big question was, would their communications be secure on Starlink or not? So instead, Russia tried using its own technology to communicate on the battlefield, but it didn't work very well.

So after experimenting with several different types of secure comms technology, there was basically a decision at some point that said, this is not working for us. We're not able to kind of roll this out in an effective way. Around the start of this year, the Russian military began using Starlink instead. And they started buying terminals on the black market from sellers like Oleg. So let's talk now about how these Starlink devices are getting into the hands of Russian soldiers. Walk me through this sort of black market world that you have been exploring. So there's lots of places around the world where you can buy Starlink completely legally. And you can buy them in the United States and Europe.

And basically, you find a place where it's on sale, you buy it, you register it, then you pass it over to, you know, the unit at the front. Thomas saw a video a Russian woman posted on Telegram, where she was bringing Starlink terminals to Russian troops on the ground. It's something new and very much needed, she says in the video. We'll try it out, and the next delivery will be bigger. If it's Russia's government that has made Starlink illegal, but now it wants its military to have it, why can't it just buy directly from SpaceX? Starlink can't and will not send to a country that it's not approved in, and Russia's one of those countries.

So they can't just put in an official order and buy a ton of Starlink. They have to find these other workarounds. SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment. Elon Musk posted on X that, quote, to the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia. The Kremlin didn't respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, Thomas says there could now be thousands of Starlink terminals being used by the Russian military.

Are you seeing the impact of these Russian-used Starlink units on the battlefield? What's interesting here is that the Russians have tipped the scales in the last several months. I'm sure that Starlink is helping them do that. They have the advantage in terms of arms. They've always had the advantage in terms of people. They've started putting that advantage to work for themselves.

And we've seen the Russians take back Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine. We've seen them take back the villages surrounding Avdiivka. We're seeing bite-sized increases in the amount of territory that Russia controls. And obviously, to do that, you need secure comms. According to Starlink's user agreement, customers aren't supposed to resell Starlink access without authorization. And Micah says SpaceX has some control over its terminals. For instance, the company has the ability to shut off service over entire geographical areas.

For instance, the company has the ability to shut off service over entire geographical areas. When the company learns that a Starlink terminal may be used by, for example, a sanctioned or unauthorized party or group or person, it could deactivate the terminal if it finds that there is something that is untoward going on. something that is untoward, you know, going on. For SpaceX, it might be hard to identify which terminals are used by Ukrainian soldiers and which ones are being used by Russians. So shutting them down is a challenge. Pentagon officials have said the military is working with Ukraine and SpaceX to try and end Russia's use of the terminals on the front.

But this is not the only place this is happening. Coming up, one government's plea to get Starlink out of their country. Own each step with Peloton. From their pop runs to walk and talks, you define what it means to be a runner. Whatever your level, embrace it. Journey starts when you say so.

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It's an Uber account that allows your teen to request a ride under your supervision with live trip tracking and highly rated drivers. Add your teen to your Uber account today. In one war-torn country, Sudan, Starlink is playing a big role in a civil war. It's being used by a paramilitary group

called Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, in its war with the Sudanese government. But Starlink is illegal in Sudan. Sudan is one of the many countries in Africa that has not approved Starlink. It's not just the government says it's not allowed, but people can access it. It's the fact that we have an armed militia controlling swaths of the country

that are using it in a war against the government. So it's not just an issue of illicit use. It's the fact that the use of Starlink here is leading to a catastrophe, an offensive led by people who are sanctioned for accused war crimes. The U.S. government has accused the RSF of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Like in Ukraine, having access to Starlink

is giving RSF an advantage on the battlefield, and the group is also using it to recruit new members. It's a huge draw for a lot of people to be able to have internet. And being part of the RSF, you have it. And so I'm sure it's not as easy as that, but it's a way of recruiting. It's a way of sending messages broadly to the populations that have been affected by the conflict.

And so it's been a great way of not only making them more effective, but raising their profile as well. Is this paramilitary group getting the Starlinks the same way that the Russian military is through this sort of black market back channel? It's a very similar model. What we saw was a lot of purchases being made in Dubai. And then the Starlink terminals would come from then Dubai to another kind of way station country to Chad, South Sudan, and then be driven into Sudan itself, where the RSF then picks them up

and uses them. Why is SpaceX allowing Starllink to be used in Sudan if Sudan's government says they are not legal there? We don't know. The Sudanese government has reached out to Starlink. They've got no response. And we have no more clarity on that than they do. What is the responsibility of SpaceX here, though? Because they are just making a technology which isn't, at the end of the day,

really different than anything else that a military group could buy in a conflict. No company can necessarily be responsible for the black market that develops around its products. But I don't think that's the issue. I think the issue here is the fact that it claims to be able to investigate and turn off terminals that are breaking the rules. Their own rules. But in Russia and Sudan,

it doesn't seem like SpaceX is really doing that. I mean, in Sudan, it's a totally black and white case because Sudan has not approved it. And yet we have a militia that's operating with these terminals on Sudanese territory, right? So that's a totally black and white open and shut case. I mean, one would imagine that therefore it would turn these off. Starlink has obviously revolutionized the accessibility of the internet, right? It was meant to help with natural disasters and, you know, kind of rural schooling and things like that.

But you see that it's also being used for other purposes as well. And if there's not, you know, strict observance of its own guidelines, then obviously big problems are bound to happen. And these are just two cases in which they are happening. That's all for today. Monday, April 15th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Nicholas Barillo, Emma Scott, and Ian Lovett.

Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.