Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

Trump Wants Meeting With Putin Ahead Of Election

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump has told aides he’d like to hold an in-person meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the November election, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Administration officials have explored various times and locations for another Trump-Putin summit, including potentially next month in New York, these people said. The goal of a …

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Putin Offers Military Help To Quell Belarus Protests

Reuters reports: Russia said on Sunday it had told Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko it was ready to offer military assistance if necessary as demonstrators held one of the biggest protests yet against Lukashenko’s contested re-election. The protest in Minsk attracted tens of thousands of people, despite the deaths of at least two protesters and thousands of detentions since last Sunday’s …

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Former FDA Head Wouldn’t Take New Russian Vaccine, Says They May Be Trying To “Goad US Into Early Action”

The Washington Post reports: The Russian government’s recent claims of a medical breakthrough with the “Sputnik V” coronavirus vaccine are churning intrigue around the world — and skepticism from several U.S. health experts. “I wouldn’t take it, certainly not outside a clinical trial right now,” former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Tuesday during an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” Gottlieb …

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Russia Registers COVID Vaccine, Scientists Skeptical

ABC News reports: Russia on Tuesday became the first country to clear a coronavirus vaccine and declare it ready for use, despite international skepticism. President Vladimir Putin said that one of his daughters has already been inoculated. Putin emphasized that the vaccine underwent the necessary tests and has proven efficient, offering a lasting immunity from the coronavirus. However, scientists at …

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US Intel Agencies: Russia Working To “Denigrate” Biden

The Wall Street Journal reports: The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Russia is using a range of measures to denigrate Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election, while China prefers that President Trump not win reelection, a senior intelligence official said in a statement Friday. Iran also is seeking to undermine U.S. democratic institutions and Mr. Trump, and to …

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REPORT: State Department Warned Russia On Bounties

The Daily Beast reports: The U.S. State Department has issued warnings to Russia that there will be repercussions if Moscow pays bounties to the Taliban for successfully killing American soldiers, according to two senior American officials and another individual with knowledge of the matter. The warnings were issued through the department’s diplomatic channels after public news reports in June that …

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Trump Admits He Didn’t Confront Putin On Bounties

Axios reports: President Trump has never confronted Vladimir Putin with intelligence indicating Russia paid the Taliban to kill U.S. troops, he told “Axios on HBO” in an interview on Tuesday. Trump spoke with Putin on Thursday, and subsequently deflected a question about whether he’d raised the alleged bounty scheme, saying on Monday: “We don’t talk about what we discussed, but …

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Feds Says Russia Is Spreading COVID Disinfo In US

The Associated Press reports: Russian intelligence operatives are using a trio of English-language websites to spread disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to exploit a crisis that America is struggling to contain ahead of the presidential election in November, U.S. officials said Tuesday. Two Russians who have held senior roles in Moscow’s military intelligence service known as the GRU have …

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Russian Hackers Are Trying To Steal COVID Vax Data

The New York Times reports: Russian hackers are attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research, the U.S., British and Canadian governments said Thursday, opening a dangerous new front in the cyberwars and intelligence battles between Moscow and the West. The National Security Agency said APT29, the hacking group known as Cozy Bear which is associated with Russian intelligence, has been taking …

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Susan Rice: Trump Is Doing Putin’s “Bidding” [VIDEO]

Bloomberg News reports: Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice rejected White House assertions that President Donald Trump wasn’t told of intelligence that Russia may have offered bounties on American troops, a subject that’s consumed Washington over the past week. “We have a president who is doing our arch adversary’s bidding,” Rice said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, referring …

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Russian State TV Puts Trump On Mount Rushmore

The Daily Beast reports: Kremlin-controlled Russian state media set out to tickle U.S. President Trump’s fragile ego amid falling ratings after his blustery appearance at Mount Rushmore on Friday. Mentioning that the American head of state had previously toyed with the idea he might be featured alongside Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln, Russia’s premier state media channel Rossiya-1 aired …

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Putin Mocks Rainbow Flag At US Moscow Embassy

The Moscow Times reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday mocked a rainbow LGBT pride flag hung from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, suggesting it reflected on the orientation of the diplomats. During a televised video conference, a lawmaker told Putin that the U.S. Embassy had hung a rainbow flag on its facade for the first time to celebrate Pride …

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Russia Votes To Keep Putin In Power Until 2036

The Associated Press reports: President Vladimir Putin has won a resounding victory in his bid to stay in power until the middle of the next decade, as Russians voted overwhelmingly to endorse the country’s political status quo, according to preliminary results. Russians went to the polls Wednesday to cast ballots in a nationwide referendum on constitutional amendments. The vote paves …

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REPORT: Taliban Sources Confirm Russian Bounties

The Insider reports: Taliban commanders have confirmed that Russia has offered financial and material support to its members in exchange for attacking US forces in Afghanistan. President Donald Trump has since strongly denied that he was told of this intelligence and attacked its credibility, characterizing the existence of Russian bounty payments as fake. But three separate Taliban sources told Insider …

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NYT: US Officials Were Told About Bounties In January

The New York Times reports: United States intelligence officers and Special Operations forces in Afghanistan alerted their superiors as early as January to a suspected Russian plot to pay bounties to the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan, according to officials briefed on the matter. They believed at least one U.S. troop death was the result of the bounties, …

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New Lincoln Project Ad: When Trump Says He Stands By The Troops, He’s Right, They’re Just Not OUR Troops

The Hill reports: Republican super-PAC The Lincoln Project blasted President Trump in a new ad over a report that Russian military operatives offered bounties to Afghan militants to kill coalition forces, including U.S. troops. “This heinous failure by the commander-in-chief to protect American soldiers in the field is unthinkable,” Reed Galen, co-founder of the anti-Trump group, said in a statement. …

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NYT: Russia Offered Militants Bounties To Kill US Troops

The New York Times reports: American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter. The United States concluded months ago that the Russian …

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Bolton: Putin Thinks He Can “Play Trump Like A Fiddle”

The Hill reports: Former national security adviser John Bolton said in a new interview to promote his new memoir that has rocked Washington that Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks he “can play” President Trump like a “fiddle.” Asked by ABC’s Martha Raddatz about Trump’s relationship with Putin, Bolton said that he doesn’t think the Russian leader is “worried” about Trump. …

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Russian Disinfo Campaign Targeted Rubio, Others

Wired reports: The Internet Research Agency is infamous for flooding mainstream social media platforms with compelling disinformation campaigns. The GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, deploys strategic data leaks and destabilizing cyberattacks. But in the recent history of Russia’s online meddling, a third, distinct entity may have been at work on many of the same objectives—indicating that Russia’s disinformation operations went …

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RUSSIA: German Neo-Nazis Train With Local Extremists

Radio Free Europe reports: German neo-Nazis are conducting paramilitary training with a Russian ultra-nationalist group at a camp near St. Petersburg, German magazine Focus reported on June 5. Citing German security sources, Focus said members of the far-right National Democratic Party’s (NDP) youth wing and neo-Nazi The Third Path completed training at the camp run by the Russian Imperial Movement. …

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