Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian intelligence and diplomatic officers in New York and Washington and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle in retaliation of the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Twelve Russian diplomats at the United Nations in New York and 48 at the Russian …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized his three predecessors in defending his recent congratulatory call to President Vladimir Putin of Russia — a move that’s been widely criticized in the wake of news that Trump was specifically instructed not to congratulate Putin on his reelection. Reports emerged on Tuesday night that briefing materials prepared for Trump’s call specifically …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin over the phone Tuesday morning, after the Russian leader’s overwhelming re-election victory, NBC News reported, citing a White House official. The win keeps Putin in office as Russia’s president for another six years. His closest rival in the election, which was held Sunday, scored nearly 12 percent of the vote, while …

USA Today reports: The Trump administration on Thursday sanctioned a number of Russian entities for a wide range of behavior that U.S. officials say has sought to disrupt Western governments — including the attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Among the five individuals sanctioned by the Treasury Department Thursday is the Internet Research Agency, which was indicted by …

Newsweek reports: Vladimir Putin discussed the indictment filed by special counsel Robert Mueller last month as part of an exclusive interview to NBC’s Megyn Kelly aired on Friday night under the title “Confronting Putin,” which touched on several topics including the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election. The Russian presidential office published a transcript of the full …

Mother Jones today published a long-read on Trump’s passionate bromance with Vladimir Putin. Near the end of the piece is this: At each pageant, Miss Universe staffers would set up a special room for Trump backstage. It had to conform to his precise require­ments. He needed his favorite snacks: Nutter Butters and white Tic Tacs. And Diet Coke. There could …

The Washington Post reports: Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin — apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the …

CNBC reports: Russia claims to have evidence the U.S. has attempted to interfere in Moscow’s forthcoming presidential vote, the RIA news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Monday. The Interfax news agency cited Ryabkov as saying the U.S. was looking to create chaos in Russia. He also added that U.S.-imposed sanctions were primarily aimed at destabilizing …

Everything is fine. The BBC reports: Russia has developed a new array of nuclear weapons that are invincible, according to President Vladimir Putin. The weapons he boasted of included a cruise missile that he said could “reach anywhere in the world”. He said of the West: “They need to take account of a new reality and understand … [this]… is …

Jaws dropped on Twitter this afternoon when CPAC published the full agenda for this week’s convention, revealing that French fascist Marion Le Pen will speak from the main stage immediately after Mike Pence. Marion, you may recall, is the even worse niece of National Front leader Marine Le Pen and in 2012 at age 22 became the youngest person ever …

USA Today reports: President Trump declared that his presidential campaign “did nothing wrong” hours after special counsel Robert Mueller announced new federal indictments against Russian nationals for allegedly meddling in the 2016 election. Trump, who rarely acknowledges Russia’s election meddling, said their activities began in 2014 – “long before I announced that I would run for president. The results of …

CNET reports: The US Justice Department has filed charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups for interfering with the 2016 presidential election. In an indictment released on Friday (.pdf), the Justice Department called out the Internet Research Agency, a notorious group behind the Russian propaganda effort across social media. Employees for the agency created troll accounts and used …

CNBC reports: Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office said Friday that a grand jury indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for alleged interference in the 2016 presidential elections, during which they boosted the candidacy of Donald Trump. The indictment says that the defendants by early to mid-2016 were “supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump … and …

Raw Story reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested President Donald Trump may be compromised by Russia and its president. Biden sat down Thursday for an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who asked the former vice president why Trump was “so reluctant to take on Vladimir Putin.” “Look, you know, I want to give every American, including the president, the …

Politico reports: Former President George W. Bush said Thursday that there is “pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled” in the 2016 presidential election, a seeming rebuke of President Donald Trump, who has at times questioned the intelligence community’s assessment that the Kremlin is to blame. “Whether (Russia) affected the outcome is another question,” Bush said at conference in Abu …

NBC News reports: The U.S. official in charge of protecting American elections from hacking says the Russians successfully penetrated the voter registration rolls of several U.S. states prior to the 2016 presidential election. In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Jeanette Manfra, the head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, said she couldn’t talk about classified information publicly, …

The Associated Press reports: Russian cyberspies pursuing the secrets of military drones and other sensitive U.S. defense technology tricked key contract workers into exposing their email to theft, an Associated Press investigation has found. What ultimately may have been stolen is uncertain, but the hackers clearly exploited a national vulnerability in cybersecurity: poorly protected email and barely any direct notification …

“This is the first president to make a full-throated, unvarnished attack on the entirety of the FBI. This is to discredit the FBI and discredit his own Justice Department. You know, look, I spent a lot of time traveling around the world. What do you think they’re thinking in Moscow? This is doing everything that Putin ever wanted, sowing doubt …

The Miami Herald reports: Miami Gardens Congresswoman Frederica Wilson criticized Donald Trump’s handling of congressionally ordered Russia sanctions Tuesday night during a boycott of his state of the union speech, suggesting the president has taken it easy on Russia because “they have something on him.” “The House and Senate voted on all kinds of sanctions against Russia. Now, the president …

CNN reports: The US has released a sweeping list of prominent Russian business and political figures, in defiance of Moscow and implementing a Congressional law designed to punish Russia for election meddling. The US Treasury report, published shortly before a midnight deadline, listed every senior member of the political administration at the Kremlin, and every Russian oligarch with a net …