Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

Reuters reports: Special counsel Robert Mueller in his highly-anticipated report said his team identified “dozens” of U.S. political rallies organized on social media by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian troll farm that was later indicted for attempting to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. According to Mueller’s report, which was released on Thursday, the IRA organized political rallies …

Politico reports: The White House on Thursday rejected congressional Democrats’ demands for documents relating to President Donald Trump’s private discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin — escalating tensions between the Trump administration and Congress over a crucial piece of Democrats’ oversight ambitions. “The committees’ letters cite no legal authority for the proposition that another branch of the government can force …

Devin Nunes surely approves. The Moscow Times reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a controversial set of bills that make it a crime to “disrespect” the state and spread “fake news” online, Russian media reported on Monday. The bills amending existing information laws overwhelmingly passed both chambers of Russian parliament in less than two months. Observers and some lawmakers …

The Guardian reports: Russia’s parliament has approved a controversial law that allows courts to jail people for online “disrespect” of government or state officials, including the president, Vladimir Putin. The law, which critics say is reminiscent of Soviet-era legislation used to target political dissidents, stipulates fines of up to 100,000 roubles (£1,155) for “indecent” online posts that demonstrate a “blatant …

CNBC reports: Russia will respond to any American deployment of short or intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe by targeting not only the countries where they are stationed, but the U.S. itself, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. In his toughest remarks yet on a potential new arms race, Putin said Russia was not seeking confrontation and would not take the first …

“The president launched into several unrelated diatribes. One of those was commenting on the recent missile launches by the government of North Korea. And, essentially, the president said he did not believe that the North Koreans had the capability to hit us here with ballistic missiles in the United States. And he did not believe that because President Putin had …

Politico reports: House Democrats are taking their first real steps to force President Donald Trump to divulge information about his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, setting up an extraordinary clash with the White House over Congress’ oversight authority. Rep. Adam Schiff, the Intelligence Committee chairman, and Rep. Eliot Engel, the Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, told POLITICO they are …

Newsweek reports: Two Russian naval vessels have been fitted with a defensive weapon, which, during testing, caused some subjects to hallucinate and vomit because of its disorientating effect. The weapon’s name “Filin” translates to “Eagle Owl” in English. The technology, which was developed to dazzle and incapacitate attackers, has been deployed on the Russian naval frigates Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral …

ABC News reports: President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia’s military to begin developing new medium-range missiles in response to President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States is leaving a key Cold War nuclear arms treaty. Putin announced that Russia was also suspending the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces, or INF treaty, a day after the U.S. said it was pulling out …

The Daily Beast reports: A former NRA president hoped to win access to Vladimir Putin on a trip to Moscow, according to an email from one of the trip’s organizers. That organizer, Republican operative Paul Erickson, also said the trip could have “enormous diplomatic consequences.” The email, sent in November 2015 and reviewed by The Daily Beast, came just months …

Salon reports: A member of President Trump’s transition team was announced as a new board member of a company owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska as soon as the Treasury Department lifted sanctions on Deripaska’s companies Sunday. On Monday, EN+ announced seven new board directors, including Christopher Burnham, who served on Trump’s State Department transition team and previously worked as …

The Washington Post reports: Russian officials made a secret proposal to North Korea last fall aimed at resolving deadlocked negotiations with the Trump administration over its nuclear weapons program, said U.S. officials familiar with the discussions. In exchange for dismantling its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, Moscow offered the country a nuclear power plant. The Russian offer, which intelligence officials …

The New York Times reports: There are few things that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia desires more than the weakening of NATO, the military alliance among the United States, Europe and Canada that has deterred Soviet and Russian aggression for 70 years. Last year, President Trump suggested a move tantamount to destroying NATO: the withdrawal of the United States. …

The Daily Mail reports: Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Donald Trump, says the president shielded a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2017, because his administration was ‘suffering from a great number’ of leaks at that time. Conway told reporters at the White House on Monday that the White House that she had not talked with the president …

NBC News reports: Before Donald Trump’s lawyer was pitching the Kremlin on building a Trump Tower in Moscow, the future president was negotiating to put his name on a building in a separate glitzy real estate development outside the Russian capital. The Russians dubbed the proposed suburban development “Manhattan,” and a “Trump Tower” would have been its centerpiece, according to …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said. Trump did so …

Reuters reports: WikiLeaks on Sunday advised journalists not to report 140 different “false and defamatory” statements about its founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since June 2012. “There is a pervasive climate of inaccurate claims about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, including purposeful fabrications planted in large and otherwise ‘reputable’ media outlets,” Wikileaks …

Because the last one went so well. For Putin. Reuters reports: Donald Trump in a New Year letter on Sunday that Moscow was ready for dialogue on a “wide-ranging agenda”, the Kremlin said following a series of failed attempts to hold a new summit. At the end of November, Trump abruptly canceled a planned meeting with Putin on the sidelines …

The Moscow Times reports: The speaker of Russia’s parliament raised the possibility of changing the constitution as speculation grows that the Kremlin is considering ways to allow President Vladimir Putin to remain in power beyond the end of his current term, when current law requires him to step down. The comments from Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma and …

The Daily Beast reports: The Mattis departure is being cheered in Russia. Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Russian Parliament, has said that “the departure of James Mattis is a positive signal for Russia, since Mattis was far more hawkish on Russia and China than Donald Trump.” State TV host Olga Skabeeva surmised that Americans are …