Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

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. …

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 …

The BBC reports: Two men named as suspects in the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in the UK claim they were merely tourists. The men, named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, told the RT channel that they went sightseeing in Salisbury but returned to London within an hour. They are accused by the UK of trying to kill Russian …

The Washington Post reports: Russian news reports say a member of Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot has been hospitalized in grave condition for what could be a possible poisoning. Ekho Moskvy radio and online news portal Meduza reported Wednesday that Pyotr Verzilov has been in emergency care since late Tuesday. They quoted a fellow Pussy Riot member, Veronika Nikulshina, …

The BBC reports: The two suspects in the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are civilians, not criminals, Russian President Vladimir Putin says. The UK government named them as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, and said they were from Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU. Mr Putin said his government had found the pair and he hoped …

ABC News reports: Maria Butina, the alleged Russian agent who stands accused of developing a covert influence operation in the United States, boasted of connections to high-ranking Kremlin officials and even shopped access to Russian President Vladimir Putin, ABC News has learned. Dozens of pages of email correspondence between August 2015 and November 2016, obtained exclusively by ABC News, reveal …

Reuters reports: Russia will next month hold its biggest war games in nearly four decades, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday, a massive military exercise that will also involve the Chinese and Mongolian armies. The exercise, called Vostok-2018 (East-2018), will take place in central and eastern Russian military districts and involve almost 300,000 troops, over 1,000 military aircraft, two …

NBC News reports: Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that it executed a court order to shut down six websites created by a group tied to Russian intelligence that sought to spoof conservative U.S. institutions, the U.S. Senate and Microsoft itself. The fake sites were intended to trick users into thinking they were clicking on sites run by the Hudson Institute, a …

The New York Times reports: The action-movie star Steven Seagal has played a former C.I.A. agent, a hit man and a killer of criminals. On Saturday, Russian officials tapped him for another role: special representative to improve relations between the United States and Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the appointment on Facebook, saying his mission will include promoting “relations …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month and decried the “Russian hoax,” speaking at a rally just hours removed from his top national security officials decrying Russian attempts to influence US elections. During the rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday, Trump did not mention allegations of interference or attacks on the …

The Guardian reports: Vladimir Putin said on Friday that he has invited Donald Trump to Moscow, countering an offer to visit the United States as a possible sequel to last week’s controversial summit in Helsinki. Putin also addressed Trump’s invitation to Washington DC on Friday, saying he and the US president are ready for further summits, including at the White …

USA Today reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could be in for a rough afternoon on Capitol Hill. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to grill him on the Helsinki summit, Iran and North Korea. While congressional hearings aren’t usually must-see TV, viewers may be in for political fireworks Wednesday. That’s because Trump has angered European allies, held a …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said Wednesday that any meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be put off until 2019 because of special counsel Robert Mueller’s “witch hunt.” “The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we’ve agreed that …

The New York Daily News reports: The ball is bugged. Several critics warned President Trump last week to be wary of a gift from Russian President Vladimir Putin after the pair met in Helsinki, Finland. And it appears their concern was justified — sort of. Markings on a soccer ball the Kremlin leader tossed to Trump indicate that it contains …

The Atlantic reports: It was perhaps the most explosive exchange in an incendiary press conference: Russian President Vladimir Putin appearing to frankly admit to a motive for, and maybe even to the act of, meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, despite repeatedly denying Russian interference in American politics during the rest of his appearance with Donald Trump in Finland …

Reuters reports: The Kremlin was reticent on Tuesday about whether it would accept an invitation from U.S. President Donald Trump to hold a summit with Vladimir Putin in Washington later this year, saying only that the two men had other chances to meet as well. The Kremlin’s failure to swiftly accept Trump’s invitation for a Washington summit has been noticeable. …

Just in from Quinnipiac Polling: American voters believe 51 – 35 percent “that the Russian government has compromising information about President Trump,” according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released today. Republicans don’t believe 70 – 18 percent there is compromising information, the only listed party, gender, education, age or racial group which does not believe it, the poll finds. …

ABC News reports: President Trump claimed without evidence Tuesday that Russia would attempt to meddle in the 2018 midterm elections in support of Democrats. Trump was aboard Air Force One headed to an event in Kansas City when he sent the tweet. The entire US intelligence community has been in agreement that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election in …

Politico reports: House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy chastised Donald Trump for inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington, saying Sunday that some members of the president’s administration should consider quitting if Trump won’t listen to their advice. “The fact that we have to talk to you about Syria or other matters is very different from issuing an invitation,” Gowdy said …