Israel’s veiled threat to Moscow came just after Russian media warned traffic cameras in Moscow were vulnerable to the same exploits that Israel reportedly used to monitor Ayatollah Khamenei’s residence before assassinating him.
Anna Ukolova, the Israeli military spokesperson, sparked anger in Moscow after warning that Russian officials who “wish Israel ill” might face “elimination,” while implying that Israel could potentially infiltrate Russia’s CCTV networks to locate and surveil targets.
When asked by a reporter from Russian radio station RBC if Israel had access to Russian traffic cameras, Ukolova avoided a direct response but implied that “Khamenei’s elimination shows our capabilities are serious” and warned that “no one who wishes us harm will be left aside.”
She added ominously, “I hope Moscow does not wish Israel ill right now – I’d like to believe that.”
Following a tweet from Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin claiming that the IDF spokeswoman had threatened the killing of Russian officials taking an anti-Israel stance, Ukolova denied these accusations as “fake news.” However, she did not explain how her comments were misrepresented.
Just days earlier, revelations emerged that many Russian CCTVs might be using BriefCam—an Israeli video analytics software closely resembling the tool reportedly employed by Netanyahu’s government to surveil Iranian movements near Iran’s Supreme Leader prior to his assassination on February 28.
On March 12, Russian news outlet Mash reported that Israeli software BriefCam “has been utilized in Russia by private companies since the 2010s.” Founded in 2007 at Israel’s Hebrew University, BriefCam employs AI to enable users to “review hours of video in minutes” and transform footage into searchable, actionable data. In 2024, BriefCam was acquired by Milestone Systems, a Dutch Canon Group subsidiary, which promotes its mission to “enhance what organizations of any size can see, do and achieve with video.”
The company’s website boasts that their patented VIDEO SYNOPSIS® technology condenses lengthy surveillance into short summaries by layering multiple time-stamped events onto a single frame, allowing filtering by object type and characteristics. An Al Jazeera analysis highlighted these attributes as including “gender, age group, clothing, movement patterns and time spent in a given location.”
Initially used by Israel’s Ministry of Housing and Construction to protect illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, BriefCam’s adoption has since expanded worldwide, including countries such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Pakistan, Israel, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Brazil, Germany, South Africa, Netherlands, Australia, Japan, India, Spain, and Taiwan. It has also been implemented in the US, where Hartford, Connecticut police started using the software in 2022. A French court ruled in 2025 that governmental deployment of BriefCam was unlawful, citing numerous infringements of both French and EU privacy legislation.
At present, BriefCam appears integrated into multiple “video monitoring systems,” notably including Milestone’s own VMS XProtect platform.
According to Mash, several major Moscow corporations, institutions, and landmarks rely on the VMS XProtect surveillance system, such as the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the 72-story “Eurasia” skyscraper, and the large Zotov Center exhibition venue. Although Milestone officially ceased Russian operations in 2022 due to the Ukraine conflict, Mash reports that some Russian software dealers still “offer to install the compromised software and conceal this in documentation.”
Original article: thegrayzone.com
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