Tag Archives: Russia

The Associated Press reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin says U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment is far-fetched. Putin said Thursday at his annual news conference in Moscow that the move is a continuation of the Democrats’ fight against Trump. He predicted the impeachment motion will be rejected by the Senate. Putin said that “the party that lost the election is continuing …

The Daily Beast reports: The Trump administration is quietly fighting a new package of sanctions on Russia, The Daily Beast has learned. A Trump State Department official sent a 22-page letter to a top Senate chairman on Tuesday making a wide-ranging case against a new sanctions bill. Sen. Lindsey Graham—usually a staunch ally of the White House—introduced the legislation earlier …

Agence France-Press reports: The Russian space agency Roscosmos is planning to install a nuclear-powered observatory on its future moon base to held spot deadly Earth-threatening asteroids. Establishing a permanent presence near the lunar south pole has been a priority for Roscosmos ever since NASA announced plans to return to the moon earlier this year. The base’s telescopes will work in …

Reuters reports: U.S. lawmakers of both parties are pressuring the White House to extend the last remaining restraints on U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons deployments by demanding intelligence assessments on the costs of allowing the New START treaty to lapse. The demands, contained in three bills that may be harmonized this week, reflect doubts about whether the Trump administration has …

From the pro-Trump Washington Examiner: Maria Butina wore a “foreign agent” T-shirt to promote her new gig as a Russian state television host. Butina, who was not charged with espionage but pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as a foreign agent by infiltrating a gun rights group and cultivating relationships with conservative politicians, was deported in October after an 18-month …

CNN reports: A Russian spy-ship has returned to international waters off the southeastern coast of the United States and is operating in what two US officials told CNN is an “unsafe manner.” The Viktor Leonov, a Russian surveillance ship, has been sailing off the coast of South Carolina and Florida in the last few days, one official told CNN. The …

Bloomberg News reports: Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani indicted on U.S. campaign finance charges, said a $1 million transfer into his wife’s bank account from Russia was the proceeds of a loan — and not an attempt to conceal his assets. Federal prosecutors raised the transfer in a filing last week asking the judge to revoke Parnas’s bail …

The Hill reports: The spending deal agreed upon by House and Senate negotiators includes $425 million for states to improve their election security, a congressional source confirmed to The Hill on Monday. Election security has been a major issue on Capitol Hill over the past few years, particularly after Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. U.S. intelligence agencies, former …

The Daily Beast reports: Sometimes a picture doesn’t have to be worth a thousand words. Just a few will do. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov returned home from his visit with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last week, Russian state media was gloating over the spectacle. TV channel Rossiya 1 aired a segment entitled “Puppet Master and …

Here’s one more thing to worry about: “On Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time, the U.S. Air Force, in partnership with the Strategic Capabilities Office, conducted a flight test of a prototype conventionally-configured ground-launched ballistic missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Robert Carver said in a statement. Such a missile was prohibited …

Bloomberg News reports: Rudy Giuliani’s associate Lev Parnas got $1 million from an account in Russia in September, a month before he was charged with conspiring to funnel foreign money into U.S. political campaigns, according to U.S. prosecutors who asked a judge to jail him for understating his income and assets. “The majority of that money appears to have been …

The Hill reports: Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) has blocked an attempt by Democrats to pass legislation meant to prevent Russia and other countries from interfering in elections. Crapo’s move came after Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) asked for consent to pass the Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines, or DETER Act. Van Hollen argued the bill would underscore that …

Bloomberg News reports: President Trump warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov against “any Russian attempts to interfere in United States elections” during an Oval Office meeting on Tuesday, according to the White House. Trump also urged Moscow to “resolve the conflict with Ukraine,” the White House said, referring to Russia’s 2014 seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Trump’s meeting with Lavrov …

The New York Times reports: Global antidoping leaders agreed unanimously on Monday to banish Russia from international sports — including next summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo — for four years, the latest and severest punishment yet connected to a yearslong cheating scheme that has devastated global sport. The World Anti-Doping Agency’s punishment includes specific bans on Russian sports and government …

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. …

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 …

Reuters reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow is prepared to immediately extend the only remaining nuclear arms reduction pact with the United States. Speaking at a meeting with military officials, Putin said that Russia has repeatedly offered the U.S. to extend the New START treaty that expires in 2021 but that it hasn’t heard back. “Russia is …

The Washington Post reports: Written and designed by The Washington Post and illustrated by artist Jan Feindt, “The Mueller Report Illustrated: The Obstruction Investigation” brings to life the findings of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in an engaging and illuminating presentation. When it was released on April 18, Mueller’s report laid out two major conclusions: that Russia’s interference in …

“If you excluded debunked conspiracy theories, could any of these people actually tell you why Vladimir Putin is so bad? Why is he so bad? He’s bad, Chuck Todd says. Okay, speak slowly so I can understand. What makes Vladimir Putin worse than, I don’t know, a whole long list of American allies? Let’s try the King of Saudi Arabia, …

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General William P. Barr has told associates he disagrees with the Justice Department’s inspector general on one of the key findings in an upcoming report — that the FBI had enough information in July 2016 to justify launching an investigation into members of the Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. The Justice …