Tag: Russia

Trump and Russia

People walk on Red Square past the Kremlin in December. Credit: Yuri Kadobnov, AFP/Getty Images)

Despite the fallout from their last meeting, Trump has invited Putin to visit the United States this fall. Putin set fire to our democracy in 2016, and now Trump is inviting the arsonist into the White House.

Trump continues to deny that Russia interfered in our elections and threatens our democracy:

  • In a press conference with Putin, Trump said he didn’t see any reason why Russia would be responsible for interfering in our election.

  • The next day, Trump questioned our intelligence community’s finding that Russia interfered in our election, saying it could have been someone else.

  • Trump was asked if Russia continues its efforts to interfere in our elections, and he responded, “no.”

  • Trump tweeted that Russia’s interference in our election was a “big hoax.”

Continue reading “Trump and Russia”

Carter Page, Trump Foreign Policy Adviser, FISA Documents

Moscow, Russia – Dec 12, 2016: Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to President-Elect Trump, makes a presentation titled ” Departing from Hypocrisy: Potential Strategies in the Era of Global Economic Stagnation, Security Threats and Fake News”. Credit: Artyom Korotayev, ASS, Getty Images

The Carter Page FISA documents show that serious and significant evidence was used by the FBI to obtain the warrant to monitor Carter Page. Here are the key points to remember

  • The FISA warrant was renewed three times.

    • It was originally approved and then renewed each time by judges who were appointed by Republican presidents.

    • Each of these judges found probable cause that Page had been “collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government.”

  • The FBI did not file the initial FISA application until October 2016, a month after the Trump campaign says he stopped working for them.
  • These documents dismantle the memo put forth by Devin Nunes to discredit the FBI and the DOJ and to undermine the Mueller investigation. Continue reading “Carter Page, Trump Foreign Policy Adviser, FISA Documents”

After a stunning news conference, there’s a newly crucial job for the American press

The following article by Margaret Sullivan was posted on the Washington Post website July 16, 2018:

Here are the full remarks and responses to questions from President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a news conference on July 16 in Helsinki. (The Washington Post)

It was press conference as national nightmare, summed up succinctly by the BBC on its home page minutes later with this headline: “Trump Sides With Russia Against FBI.”

And though Monday’s joint Trump-Putin post-summit appearance in Helsinki was a news conference — with some admirably tough questions from two experienced wire-service reporters — it also was a moment in which no media interpretation was really necessary.

Everything was right out there in the open. Believe your eyes and ears.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

Trump’s defense of Russia prompts outrage from some Republicans

The following article by Felicia Sonmez and Mike DeBonis was posted on the Washington Post website July 16, 2018:

Both President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about Russian interference in U.S. elections at a news conference on July 16 in Helsinki. (The Washington Post)

Republicans rallied Monday to defend the U.S. intelligence community after President Trump placed more credibility in Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s pronouncements than the work of U.S. spy agencies.

Wary of challenging the top Republican, however, many stopped short of criticizing Trump himself or advocating concrete action against Russia for its interference in the 2016 presidential election.

At a joint news conference with Putin in Helsinki, which took place after the first formal one-on-one summit between the two leaders, Trump refused to back the conclusion of U.S. intelligence of Russian interference and attacked the probe being led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as “a disaster for our country.”

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

Maria Butina, Russian gun-rights advocate who sought to build ties with NRA, charged with acting as a covert Russian agent

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Jackman and Devlin Barrett was posted on the Washington Post website July 16,2018:

Maria Butina, 29, founded a Russian group called the Right to Bear Arms. On July 16 she was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of Russia. (Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)

A Russian woman with ties to a senior Russian government official was charged in Washington on Monday with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation, including by building ties to the leadership of the National Rifle Association and other conservative politicalorganizations.

Maria Butina, 29, who recently received a graduate degree from American University, was arrested Sunday in the District and made her first appearance in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson, where she was ordered held without bond.

Butina is accused of trying to cultivate relationships with American politicians to establish “back channel” lines of communication and seeking to infiltrate U.S. political groups, including an unnamed “gun rights organization,” to advance Russia’s agenda. Descriptions in court papers match published reports about Butina’s interactions with the NRA.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

Trump attacks American leaders and journalists on his way to Putin summit

The following article by Tommy Christopher was posted on the ShareBlue.com website July 15, 2018:

Trump acts more like a dictator than an American president.

Credit: AP Photo, Evan Vucci

On the eve of his meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Trump spent his day attacking American allies, the American free press, and his fellow American elected officials — all while paying Putin a compliment.

After attacking the European Union as a global “foe” in a Saturday interview, Trump fired off a series of tweets on Sunday that attacked American values and institutions.

Trump said he was “looking forward” to meeting Putin — then launched into a rant about Democrats and the media that had disturbing historical echoes.

View the complete post on the ShareBlue.com website here.

Trump’s extremely defensive interview about Russia and Putin

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website July 16, 2018:

In an interview with CBS News, Trump said, “Well, I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade.” (Reuters)

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation just indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for interfering in the 2016 election. It seems to have changed nothing for President Trump.

About the most innocent explanation you can offer for Trump’s muted attitude toward Russia’s and Vladimir Putin’s 2016 actions is that he doesn’t like to talk about it— that he feels the whole thing undermines his legitimacy as president. And a new interview with CBS News shows better than just about anything how defensive he is about the whole thing.

CBS released four questions and answers Sunday from Trump’s interview with anchor Jeff Glor. The big news is that he suggested the European Union is a “foe” and that he says he doesn’t expect much from his meeting Monday with Putin.

View the complete post on the Washington Post website here.

As the World Cup winds down and the summit nears, Trump is playing Putin’s game

The following article by Cynthia Hooper, Associate Professor of History, College of the Holy Cross, was posted on the Conversation.com website July 13, 2018:

President Trump speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP/Getty Images)

It seems incredible that White House aides would schedule the first U.S.-Russia summit of the Donald Trump Presidency for the day after the World Cup final soccer match in Moscow, given the assiduous attention to detail that has, historically, governed every meeting between the two superpowers.

One-nil, Vladimir Putin. And the game hasn’t even begun.

Amid constant pop culture chatter of an illicit Putin-Trump “bromance,” coupled with an FBI investigation into possible collusion between Russian operatives and members of the Trump 2016 Presidential campaign, the timing of the event appears to be just another sign Trump’s people don’t care if they make Putin look good. Or they don’t understand the various ways they do.

View the original article on the Conversation.com website here.

Senate Republicans Meet Lavrov in Moscow Ahead of Trump-Putin Summit

The following  article by Liels Lesniewski was posted on the Roll Call website July 3, 2018:

Delegation led by Appropriations chairman Shelby

Alabama GOP Sen. Richard Shelby told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, shown here at a news conference at the United Nations in January, that the U.S. and Russia might be competitors, “but we don’t necessarily have to be adversaries.” Credit: Drew Angerer, Getty Images file phot)

Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Tuesday that he hoped for an improvement in relations between the United States and the Russian Federation.

“We have a strained relationship, but we could have a better relationship between he U.S. and Russia, because there’s some common interests around the world that we hopefully can work together on,” Shelby said, according to video from the meeting in Moscow. “We can be competitors. We are competitors, but we don’t necessarily need to be adversaries.”

“So, we’re hoping that coming out of the Putin-Trump meeting in Helsinki we will see the beginning, maybe of a new day,” the Alabama Republican said. “The world’s better off, I believe, if Russia and the U.S. have fewer tensions.”

How the ‘Bad Boys of Brexit’ forged ties with Russia and the Trump campaign — and came under investigators’ scrutiny

The following article by Manuel Roig-Franzia, Rosalind S. Helderman, William booth and Tom Hamburger was posted on the Washington Post website June 28, 2018:

Three British men who played major roles in the Brexit vote had several meetings with a Russian Ambassador sometimes days before meeting with Trump’s campaign. (Video: Joyce Koh/Photo: (Wigmore/Finn/WENN)/The Washington Post)

BRISTOL, England — On Aug. 19, 2016, Arron Banks, a wealthy British businessman, sat down at the palatial residence of the Russian ambassador to London for a lunch of wild halibut and Belevskaya pastila apple sweets accompanied by Russian white wine.

Banks had just scored a huge win. From relative obscurity, he had become the largest political donor in British history by pouring millions into Brexit, the campaign to disentangle the United Kingdom from the European Union that had earned a jaw-dropping victory at the polls two months earlier. Continue reading “How the ‘Bad Boys of Brexit’ forged ties with Russia and the Trump campaign — and came under investigators’ scrutiny”