Tag Archives: Russia

Reuters reports: Brazil has requested that the international police organization Interpol help find and detain a man suspected of attacking the office of producers of a controversial Netflix movie that portrayed Jesus as gay, authorities said. An arrest warrant was issued in Brazil for the suspect authorities say threw fire bombs into the headquarters of Brazilian comedy group Porta dos …

From the Russian state outlet RT News: Julian Assange sounded like a shell of the man he once was during a Christmas Eve phone call, British journalist Vaughan Smith told RT, noting the WikiLeaks founder had trouble speaking and appeared to be drugged. Assange was allowed to make just a single call from the maximum security Belmarsh prison in southeast …

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 …

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 …

Agence France-Presse reports: A new intercontinental weapon that can fly 27 times the speed of sound became operational Friday, Russia’s defense minister reported to President Vladimir Putin, bolstering the country’s nuclear strike capability. Putin has described the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle as a technological breakthrough comparable to the 1957 Soviet launch of the first satellite. The new Russian weapon and …

The Associated Press reports: Russia has confirmed that it will appeal its four-year Olympic ban for manipulating doping data. The Russian anti-doping agency, known as RUSADA, sent a formal letter Friday disagreeing with the sanctions imposed earlier this month by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The case is now heading to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Next year’s Olympics in …

Agence France-Presse reports:  China, Iran and Russia will hold joint naval drills starting on Friday in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman, China’s defense ministry said on Thursday amid heightened tension in the region between Iran and the US. China will send the Xining, a guided missile destroyer, to the drills, ministry spokesman Wu Qian told a monthly news …

The Daily Beast reports: Russian state media have joined President Vladimir Putin in delivering a full-throated defense of impeached U.S. President Donald J. Trump. Such support would have been implausible for any other U.S. leader, much less one who claims to be “tough on Russia.” One of the Kremlin’s top propagandists, Vladimir Soloviev, heaped praise upon Trump and rattled off …

The Washington Post reports: Almost from the moment he took office, President Trump seized on a theory that troubled his senior aides: Ukraine, he told them on many occasions, had tried to stop him from winning the White House. After meeting privately in July 2017 with Putin at the G20 summit, Trump grew more insistent that Ukraine worked to defeat …

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 …