Tag Archives: Russia

The Washington Post reports: In recent weeks, a grand jury in Washington has listened to more than a dozen hours of testimony and FBI technicians have pored over gigabytes of electronic messages as part of the special counsel’s quest to solve one burning mystery: Did longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone — or any other associate of the president — have …

Reuters reports: The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia would be forced to respond in kind if the United States began developing new missiles after quitting a landmark Cold War-era treaty. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Washington would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty because Russia was violating the pact, triggering a warning of retaliatory measures from …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump said Saturday night that he will withdraw from a landmark arms control agreement the United States signed with the Soviet Union, accusing Russia of violating the pact. The Cold War-era treaty required both countries to eliminate short-range and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles from their arsenals. “Russia has not, unfortunately, honored the agreement, so …

CNBC reports: A Russian woman has been charged with trying to interfere in the 2018 midterm elections, authorities said. Elena Khusyaynova of St. Petersburg, Russia, is accused of using using social media platforms to create thousands of social media and e-mail accounts that purported to be from Americans, to “amplify divisive social media and political content.” Prosecutors claim Khusyaynova is …

Agence France-Presse reports: Russians will “go to heaven” as martyrs in the event of nuclear war because Moscow will only ever use nuclear weapons in retaliation, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. “We have no concept of a preemptive strike,” Putin told a forum of international experts in the southern city of Sochi in response to a question from the audience. …

Politico reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday appeared to hold the United States partially accountable for the case of Washington Post journalist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and is believed to have been killed. “As far as I know, the journalist who went missing used to live in the USA. …

The Chicago Tribune reports: Special Counsel Robert Mueller is expected to issue findings on core aspects of his Russia probe soon after the November midterm elections as he faces intensifying pressure to produce more indictments or shut down his investigation, according to two U.S. officials. Specifically, Mueller is close to rendering judgment on two of the most explosive aspects of …

The New York Post reports: Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page is suing the Democratic National Committee for defamation over the Christopher Steele dossier. Page claims in a lawsuit filed in Oklahoma federal court on Monday that from June 2016 through at least September 2016, the DNC, its law firm Perkins Coie and two of the firm’s partners, Marc Elias …

Axios reports: President Trump sat down for a lengthy interview with Lesley Stahl on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” discussing a wide variety of topics from climate change to foreign policy to the Mueller investigation. Trump was discursive — and often combative — while defending some of his administration’s most controversial policies, including family separation at the border. He ended one particularly …

Politico reports: George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign aide whose overseas interactions set in motion a series of events that triggered the FBI’s Russia investigation in 2016, is slated to interview with House investigators on Oct. 25, his lawyer Caroline Polisi confirmed Friday. The voluntary interview, part of a GOP-driven investigation into the FBI’s handling of the Russia probe, will …

Axios reports: Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former attorney who until June served as the Republican Party’s deputy finance chair, today changed his party registration from Republican to Democrat, according to a knowledgeable source. Cohen went online around noon to the Albany-based New York State board of elections to make the change, according to the source. The move fits a pattern …

USA Today reports: President Donald Trump said Thursday that Rep. Devin Nunes deserves a Medal of Honor for the courage he displayed by taking on the Department of Justice over the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. During a wide-ranging interview on Fox & Friends, Trump repeated his denial that there was any collusion between his campaign and …

The BBC reports: A US astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut were forced to make an emergency landing after their Russian Soyuz rocket malfunctioned en route to the International Space Station (ISS). Shortly after taking off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Nick Hague and Alexey Ovchinin reported a problem with the rocket’s booster. The men were forced into a “ballistic descent”, …

The New York Times reports: A top Trump campaign official requested proposals in 2016 from an Israeli company to create fake online identities, to use social media manipulation and to gather intelligence to help defeat Republican primary race opponents and Hillary Clinton, according to interviews and copies of the proposals. The Trump campaign’s interest in the work began as Russians …

Reuters reports: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he does not plan to fire Rod Rosenstein, the Justice Department official in charge of the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. “No I don’t, no,” Trump told reporters when asked if he had plans to fire the No. 2 Justice Department official. Rosenstein was flying with …

Axios reports: The Department of Justice announced indictments Thursday against seven Russian military intelligence officers for alleged malicious cyber activities against the U.S. and its allies, including retaliation against officials and organizations that exposed state-sponsored doping by Russian Olympic athletes and the hacking of a lab investigating Russia and Syria’s use of chemical weapons. CNBC reports: The indictment announced at …

The Guardian reports: Dutch military intelligence disrupted a Russian cyber-attack on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Dutch defence minister has said. The attack, which was thwarted with the help of British officials, came after the cybercrime unit of the GRU Russian military intelligence directorate had also attempted a remote attack on the Porton Down chemical weapons …

McClatchy reports: The National Rifle Association’s political spending is sharply down heading into the 2018 midterm elections, a shift that could reflect declining fundraising in the wake of a string of mass shootings and an FBI investigation into the group’s Russia ties. The politically potent gun advocacy group has this year spent one-tenth of what it had spent politically at …

Media Matters has a partial transcript: ENGEL: You testified in front of the Russian parliament, the Duma. BRIAN BROWN (WORLD CONGRESS OF FAMILIES PRESIDENT): It was a subcommittee, and I was asked to speak, and I willingly did. And I would do so again. ENGEL: Why would an organization of American Christian conservatives be in Russia helping Russian lawmakers craft …

The Rising reports: “I think it’s entirely possible that I could be framed on some matter that relates not to Russian collusion or WikiLeaks collaboration or advanced knowledge on the acquisition or publication of John Podesta’s emails,” Roger Stone told Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton. “There is no evidence, no witness that can claim that I’m involved in any of …