Tag Archives: Russia

State Department Battles Latest Sanctions On Russia

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 …

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Russian Robots To Track Asteroids From Moon Base

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 …

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Congress Pressures Trump On Russian Nuke Treaty

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 …

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Russian Spy Maria Butina Gets State TV Hosting Gig

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 …

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Russian Spy Ship Moving “Erratically” Off US Coast

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 …

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Giuliani Henchman Claims $1M From Russia Was Loan

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 …

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Spending Deal Allocates $425M For Election Security

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 …

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Russian State TV Calls Trump Russia’s “Agent”

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 …

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Pentagon Tests Previously Banned Ballistic Missile

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 …

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Giuliani Henchman Lev Parnas Paid $1M By Russia

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 …

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GOP Senator Blocks Bill On Russian Election Meddling

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 …

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Trump Claims He Warned Russian Diplomat About 2020 Election Meddling, Russian Diplomat Denies Discussion

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 …

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Russia Banned From Global Sports For Four Years

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 …

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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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Putin Offers Nuclear Treaty Extension: No Preconditions

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 …

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Washington Post Issues “Illustrated” Mueller Report

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 …

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Tucker Carlson: What’s So Bad About Vladimir Putin?

“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, …

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Barr Disputes DOJ Report On Launch Of Russia Probe

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 …

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RUSSIA: Pre-Installed Russian Software Mandated For All Electronics Sold In Country, Per Law Signed By Putin

Reuters reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed legislation requiring all smartphones, computers and smart TV sets sold in the country to come pre-installed with Russian software. The law, which will come into force on July 1 next year, has been met with resistance by some electronics retailers, who say the legislation was adopted without consulting them. The country’s …

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