Tag Archives: Russia

From a lengthy piece published today by Politico Magazine: Can we rely on Trump to act with diligence, competence, diplomatic skill, reason and restraint? The verdict of a plurality of the electorate who voted for Clinton and of the vast majority of foreign policy experts is one of profound doubt that he can handle the pressure. He has proved himself …

The Week reports: Adm. Michael Rogers, head of the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command, spoke at a Wall Street Journal forum on Tuesday, and much of the focus of his discussion with WSJ Deputy Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Blumenstein was about joining government and business to fight the scourge of cyber crime. The number of hackers is “so large …

The Guardian reports: Russia has said it is formally withdrawing its signature from the founding statute of the international criminal court, a day after the court published a report classifying the Russian annexation of Crimea as an occupation. The Russian foreign ministry made the announcement on Wednesday on the orders of president Vladimir Putin, saying the tribunal had failed to …

The Washington Post reports: Russian government officials had contacts with members of Donald Trump’s campaign team, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday, in a disclosure that could reopen scrutiny over the Kremlin’s role in the president-elect’s bitter race against Hillary Clinton. Facing questions about his ties to Moscow because of statements interpreted as lauding Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, Trump repeatedly …

The Guardian reports: After an election campaign in which Russia has been openly accused of interfering in favour of Donald Trump, his surprise victory led to applause in the Russian parliament, a swift call from the president, Vladimir Putin, for a new era of “fully fledged relations” between his country and the US, and the suggestion that US-imposed sanctions could …

The Moscow Times reports: Readers of the popular news website can follow an election-day live blog. As a service to its audience in the United States, Gazeta.ru shared the phone number for Donald Trump’s hotline, set up to collect reports of voting violations. Strangely, the website thought the information might also be useful to people living in Russia, far removed …

Kurt Eichenwald reports at Newsweek: Trump has been surrounded by advisors and associates with economic and familial links to Russia. The publicized connections and contacts between former campaign manager Paul Manafort with Ukraine have raised concerns. Former Trump advisor Carter Page is being probed by American and European intelligence on allegations that he engaged in back-channel discussions with Russian government …

NBC News reports: The U.S. government believes hackers from Russia or elsewhere may try to undermine next week’s presidential election and is mounting an unprecedented effort to counter their cyber meddling, American officials told NBC News. The effort is being coordinated by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, but reaches across the government to include the CIA, …

Reuters reports: The FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies are examining faked documents aimed at discrediting the Hillary Clinton campaign as part of a broader investigation into what U.S. officials believe has been an attempt by Russia to disrupt the presidential election, people with knowledge of the matter said. U.S. Senator Tom Carper, a Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, …

From Hillary for America Senior Policy Adviser Jake Sullivan: “This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow. Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia. It certainly seems the Trump Organization …

Slate reports tonight that the Trump Organization appears to have a secret server which communicates exclusively with a high-profile Russian bank. The story is loaded with rather technical details. Here’s an excerpt: Earlier this month, the group of computer scientists passed the logs to Paul Vixie. In the world of DNS experts, there’s no higher authority. Vixie wrote central strands …

NBC News reports: The FBI has been conducting a preliminary inquiry into Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s foreign business connections, law enforcement and intelligence sources told NBC News Monday. The FBI did not comment. Manafort told NBC News “none of it is true … There’s no investigation going on by the FBI that I’m aware of.” He said …

Mediaite mocks: Yes, but Russia. That seems to be a common refrain amongst certain Democrats these days whenever anything about Hillary Clinton‘s emails is brought up. But now that FBI Director James Comey announced the discovery of emails possibly relevant to their Clinton investigation, Howard Dean sent out this shark-jumping tweet. That’s Howard Dean saying the head of the FBI …

This is REALLY something. Watch this. Rolling Stone reviews: Pussy Riot launch a no-holds-barred assault on Donald Trump’s candidacy in their new video for “Make America Great Again.” “YOU decide elections,” the video’s captions reads, “and if we get together, we could blow this shit up, take action and reverse this erosion of rights. Because fuck it.” The “Make America …

Yesterday the Russian embassy in Britain tweeted out the above cartoon which depicts Eurozone member nations as pigs cowering behind a barricade. The pigs are doubtlessly a reference to the acronym PIIGS, which was used by economists when EU members Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain began struggling to refinance government debt during the banking crisis that started in 2009. …

USA Today reports: In an apparent move to embarrass the United States over Donald Trump’s claims of a “rigged” presidential election, Russia sought to send monitors to U.S. polling stations for the Nov. 8 vote, Russian media revealed Thursday. The bid was sharply rebuffed by the State Department, and one state election official threatened criminal action if Russian monitors showed …

Via Mediaite: After the Ecuador Embassy in London cut off Julian Assange‘s access to the Internet, one man took it upon himself to keep the Wikileaks founder up to speed. Comedian Bobby Mair showed up outside the embassy Wednesday armed with a bullhorn and adorned with a sign announcing himself as “Julian Assange’s Personal Internet Service.” “What I’ve done is …

Wikileaks connection? Reuters reports: Czech police have detained a Russian man wanted in connection with hacking attacks on targets in the United States, the police said, without giving further details. The arrest was carried out in cooperation with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Czech police said on their website on Tuesday evening. Interpol had issued a so-called Red Notice …

A little payback for “Little Marco.” ABC News reports: Sen. Marco Rubio tells ABC News Republicans are making a mistake by jumping on allegedly hacked emails released by Wikileaks to criticize Hillary Clinton. In fact, he says he won’t talk about the hacked emails at all. “As our intelligence agencies have said, these leaks are an effort by a foreign …

Politico reports: Donald Trump floated the idea on Monday of meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin “prior to the start of my administration,” showing little concern that the gesture would provide a political opening for Hillary Clinton. Trump was asked by radio host Michael Savage on Monday how he would avert world war with the Russians. While the Republican nominee …