Tag Archives: Kremlin

RUSSIA: Putin Dons Hazmat Suit For Hospital Visit

Reuters reports: The mayor of Moscow told President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that the number of coronavirus cases in the Russian capital far exceeded the official figures, as Putin donned a protective suit and respirator to visit a hospital. The comments by Sergei Sobyanin, a close ally of Putin, were authorities’ strongest indcation yet that they do not have a …

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Russia Targets West With Coronavirus Disinformation

Axios reports: Russia is already spreading misinformation about the coronavirus throughout the West, according to digital forensics experts and government officials. The most effective misinformation plays into existing fears, especially around health, safety and well-being. Russia often takes advantage of real-world health crises to sow discord among Americans. A document sent to European lawmakers Monday by European Union officials asserts …

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Putin Backs Ploy To Keep Him In Power Until 2036

The New York Times reports: President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said on Tuesday that he would support legislation that would allow him to run for a fifth term as president in 2024. The proposal, unexpectedly floated by a lawmaker at a session of Russia’s lower house of Parliament on Tuesday, would allow Mr. Putin — who is 67 years …

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Kremlin Denies “Paranoid” Report On Helping Trump

Reuters reports: The Kremlin said on Friday that allegations from U.S. intelligence officials that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election campaign and trying to boost President Donald Trump’s re-election chances are false and the result of paranoia. A person familiar with the matter said on Thursday that U.S. intelligence officials had told U.S. lawmakers last week that Russia was …

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Trump Seeks Deep Cut To Russian Deterrence Budget

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump has proposed a 25 percent cut to the signature military fund designed to offset Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, according to the Defense Department’s budget documents unveiled Monday. Budget proposals for fiscal 2021 released Monday afternoon call for $4.5 billion for the European Deterrence Initiative, a fund started by the Obama administration in …

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Putin Critic Found With Slit Throat In French Hotel

The Insider reports: French police believe that the killing of a blogger from the disputed Russian region of Chechnya in a French hotel room last week was “politically motivated,” a French police official briefed on the case said. The official said the police were now hunting for the blogger’s traveling companion, who disappeared shortly after the killing. French investigators wish …

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Missouri Radio Station Converts To Russian Propaganda

The Kansas City Star reports: A Kansas City area radio station can broadcast Russian state-owned media programming, the type that U.S. intelligence called a “propaganda machine,” for six hours a day through a lease agreement struck by a local radio operator. RM Broadcasting LLC, a Florida-based company that has agreements to broadcast the Russian state media program Radio Sputnik, reached …

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Russian Spy Ship “Aggressively” Taunts US Warship

The Navy Times reports: The warship Farragut was “aggressively approached” by a Russian naval ship Thursday in the North Arabian Sea, U.S. 5th Fleet officials said. The American guided-missile destroyer was conducting routine operations at the time of the approach, according to a statement from the Bahrain-based command. “Farragut sounded five short blasts, the international maritime signal for danger of …

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RUSSIA: Vladimir Putin Marks 20 Years In Power

Politico Europe reports: Boris Yeltsin had a reputation for the sensational and the unpredictable, from ordering tanks to shell a rebellious Russian parliament to drunkenly hunting for pizza in Washington in his underwear. But he saved arguably his biggest surprise for last. Twenty years ago this New Year’s Eve, with six months to go until the end of his final …

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Putin Thanks Trump For Tip On Foiled Terror Plot

Reuters reports: Russia said on Sunday it had thwarted terrorism attacks reportedly planned in St. Petersburg thanks to a tip from Washington, bringing personal thanks again from President Vladimir Putin to his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump. Russian news agencies cited the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying that thanks to the information, two Russians were detained on Dec. 27 on …

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Kremlin Sows Disinformation Ahead Of British Election

The Associated Press reports: The prospect of Russian interference in Britain’s election flared anew Saturday after the social media platform Reddit concluded that people from Russia leaked confidential British government documents on Brexit trade talks just days before the general U.K. vote. Reddit said in a statement that it has banned 61 accounts suspected of violating policies against vote manipulation. …

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SURVEY: 46% Of US Military Households Now Consider Russia An Ally Thanks To Trump, Pentagon Is Worried

The Voice Of America reports: Russian efforts to weaken the West through a relentless campaign of information warfare may be starting to pay off, cracking a key bastion of the U.S. line of defense: the military. While most Americans still see Moscow as a key U.S. adversary, new polling suggests that view is changing, most notably among the households of …

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Kremlin Mocks “Far-Fetched” Impeachment Hearings

The Associated Press reports: The Kremlin has drawn a parallel between the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump and accusations of Russia’s interference in his election. Asked about the hearings opening Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that “there are a lot of things far-fetched.” Peskov compared the proceedings to the U.S. claims of Russian interference in …

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Bipartisan Senate Report: Russia Helped Trump In 2016

The Washington Post reports: A bipartisan panel of U.S. senators Tuesday called for sweeping action by Congress, the White House and Silicon Valley to ensure social-media sites aren’t used to interfere in the coming presidential election, delivering a sobering assessment about the weaknesses that Russian operatives exploited in the 2016 campaign. The Senate Intelligence Committee, which has been investigating foreign …

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Secret Russian Unit Works To Destabilize Europe

The New York Times reports: First came a destabilization campaign in Moldova, followed by the poisoning of an arms dealer in Bulgaria and then a thwarted coup in Montenegro. Last year, there was an attempt to assassinate a former Russian spy in Britain using a nerve agent. Though the operations bore the fingerprints of Russia’s intelligence services, the authorities initially …

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Kremlin Warns US Against Releasing Call Transcripts

Reuters reports: The Kremlin said on Monday that Washington would need Russian consent to publish transcripts of phone calls between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Congress is determined to get access to Trump’s calls with Putin and other world leaders, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s chairman said on Sunday, citing concerns that the Republican president …

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Kremlin Worries US Will Publish Trump/Putin Transcripts

The Associated Press reports: Russia voiced hope Friday that the U.S. administration wouldn’t publish private conversations between the two nations’ presidents, like it did with Ukraine. The rough transcript of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy released by the White House Wednesday shows that Trump urged Ukraine to “look into” his Democratic political rival Joe Biden. The July 25 …

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Trump Insider Hired To Lobby For Kremlin Bank

Mother Jones reports: With Congress mulling legislation to slap new sanctions on Russia for its attack on the 2016 American election, an important Russian bank connected to Vladimir Putin’s government has turned for help to a well-positioned lobbyist in Washington: a Trump insider and former Republican House member named John Sweeney. In August Sweeney signed a whopping contract to lobby …

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Kremlin Boasts Of Winning New Arms Race After Nuke Missile Accident Leaks Radiation On Northern Russia

Reuters reports: The Kremlin boasted on Tuesday it was winning the race to develop new cutting edge nuclear weapons despite a mysterious rocket accident last week in northern Russia that caused a temporary spike in radiation levels. Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear agency, has said that the Aug. 8 accident occurred during a rocket test on a sea platform in the …

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Pro-Trump Network Employs Kremlin-Paid Reporter

The Daily Beast reports: If the stories broadcast by the Trump-endorsed One America News Network sometimes look like outtakes from a Kremlin trolling operation, there may be a reason. One of the on-air reporters at the 24-hour network is a Russian national on the payroll of the Kremlin’s official propaganda outlet, Sputnik. Kristian Brunovich Rouz, originally from the Siberian city …

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