JRL NEWSLINK: “5 Ideas to Explore: Russia Analytical Report, Oct. 24-31, 2022” – Russia Matters

File Photo of Red Square, Kremlin, Environs, adapted from image at state.gov

1. Washington should convey to Moscow that the U.S. doesn’t seek Russia’s destruction and wants to avoid direct military conflict, according to David Ignatius. Furthermore, the U.S. should resume discussion of Putin’s 2021 calls for security assurances from NATO as the time has come “for urgent talks about how to keep this terrible war from becoming something vastly worse,” Ignatius […]

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JRL NEWSLINK: “Does Ukraine War Pose Greater Risk of Nuclear Armageddon Than Cuban Missile Crisis?” – Russia Matters

Map of Ranges of Soviet Missiles on Cuba

This month humanity will mark the 60th anniversary of what American historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. described as the most dangerous moment in human history. But has his 1999 proposition remained valid? Or has the current crisis in relations between the U.S. and its allies on one side and Russia on the other become more dangerous than the Cuban Missile […]

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JRL NEWSLINK: “We Fight How We Can’: Russian Views on Ukraine’s Counteroffensive — How It Happened and What Comes Next” – Russia Matters

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

After Russian forces suffered their worst setback in months—driven from key towns by Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region—much of the response in Russia’s pro-war camp this week fell into three categories: spin, spleen and silence. The Kremlin mostly kept mum, minimizing Ukraine’s achievements even as Kyiv claimed it had liberated more than 2,000 square miles and vowed to press […]

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RUSSIALINK: “Lessons for Leaders: What Afghanistan Taught Russian and Soviet Strategists ” – Russia Matters/ Simon Saradzhyan

Afghanistan Map of Ethnicities

“… the Soviet leadership made a number of mistakes, first when contemplating whether to intervene in Afghanistan, then during the intervention and, finally, when withdrawing the troops. Some of these mistakes were particularly costly, such as the failure to take full stock either of the hierarchy of vital national interests at stake in Afghanistan or of the costs and benefits […]

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RUSSIALINK: “State of Play: Russia and the Fraying West; Despite their troubles, Europe and the US are not withering away. It would behoove Moscow to avoid escalations” – Carnegie Moscow Times/Security Time/ Dmitri Trenin

Vladirmir Putin and Donald Trump Sitting in Chairs with Flags Behind, adapted from image at whitehouse.gov

“… Western economies, even if they may be facing yet another recession, are fundamentally strong. The United States still basically controls global finance and leads the world by a huge margin in both technology and innovation. For all the talk of fake news and Russian propaganda, mainstream Western media continue to dominate the information landscape across the globe. Migration waves […]

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NEWSLINK: “IN MEMORIAM: SEWERYN BIALER (1926-2019)” – Columbia University Harriman Institute

Lit Candle with Reflection and Dark Background

“Seweryn Bialer, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor Emeritus of International Relations at Columbia University, MacArthur Fellow, and survivor of Auschwitz, died on February 8, 2019, at his home in Manhattan. …”

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RUSSIALINK: “Russia and Ukraine: A Lethal Codependency” – Carnegie Moscow/ Gleb Pavolvsky

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“The Russia-Ukraine conflict has moved from cozy mutual exploitation to lethal hostility. Neither side is prepared to admit its deep dependence on the other. Five years after the Ukraine crisis began, and as the presidential campaign gets under way in that country, it is conventional to see Russia’s intervention there and Ukraine’s response as a modern example of interstate power […]

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NEWSLINK: “Is Mueller taking orders from Russia?” – American Thinker/ Taylor Day

Robert Mueller file photo, adapted from image at fbi.gov

“… Though he was an integral part of the sketchy deal that delivered a considerable amount of uranium to Russia, and as I’m forever the silver-lining kind of girl, it would be charming if Democrats came full circle and investigated Mueller for his own involvement with Russia. …”

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NEWSLINK: “The INF Quandary: Preventing a Nuclear Arms Race in Europe. Perspectives from the US, Russia and Germany” – Russia Matters/ William Tobey, Pavel Zolotarev, Ulrich Kühn

Iskander Missile with Launch file photo

“This issue brief is a joint product of the Russia Matters project and the U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism (IPNT). …. I. Introduction: The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, Treaty, signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, was a profound achievement. It was the first bilateral nuclear arms control treaty […]

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NEWSLINK: “‘Winter. What do we do in the village?…’ Pushkin ‘Зима. Что делать нам в деревне?’ Пушкин [PHOTOS: Manzherok Village, Altai Republic Siberia, New Year Holiday 2019]” – Medium/ Sarah Lindemann-Komarova

Snowy Scene with Trees and Hills file photo, adapted from NWS image

“Manzherok Village, Altai Republic Siberia, New Year Holiday 2019 Манжерок Новогодный праздник 2019 … Photos: “

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NEWSLINK: “25 years after Ukraine denuclearized, Russian aggression continues to rise” – Brookings/ Strobe Talbott, Maggie Tennis

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

“Twenty-five years ago this week, the United States, Russia, and Ukraine signed the Trilateral Statement and Annex, in which Ukraine agreed to transfer its nuclear stockpile to Russia. In exchange, Ukraine received compensation for the value of the highly enriched uranium in the nuclear warheads, assistance in eliminating the strategic delivery systems on its territory, and security assurances from the […]

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NEWSLINK: “Are we now over 50 major news stories that have had to be retracted or seriously corrected, all in the same direction, wrt Russia since 2016?” – Doug Johnson Hatlem – Twitter @djjohnso

File Image of Laptop Computer, Tables and Mobile Device, adapted from image at energy.gov

“Are we now over 50 major news stories that have had to be retracted or seriously corrected, all in the same direction, wrt Russia since 2016? I’ll start a thread here to count them  ….”

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NEWSLINK: “Is Russia Solely to Blame for Violations of the INF Treaty? The New York Times says so, but this MIT professor emeritus says there’s more to the story.” – The Nation/ Theodore A. Postol

File Photo of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan at Table Signing Documents

“A recent Sunday New York Times editorial bemoaned the Trump administration’s decision to abandon the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was signed 31 years ago last month by Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan. The treaty, as the Times correctly notes, “eliminated an entire class of weapons, some 2,692 ground-based missiles that can fly in the […]

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RUSSIALINK: “Pragmatic Paternalism: The Russian Public and the Private Sector” – Carnegie Moscow/ Andrei Kolesnikov, Denis Volkov

Men Sitting Around Long Oval Boardroom Table, File Photo of FIFA Officials Meeting with Vladmir Putin

“Russians have a dream for their children and their grandchildren of a different environment that is favorable for entrepreneurship and private initiatives. This is where the true interests of Russians and their perceptions about the future diverge radically from the interests and perceptions of the state in which they live. …”

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NEWSLINK: “Anti-Trump Frenzy Threatens to End Superpower Diplomacy; Baseless Russiagate allegations continue to risk war with Russia” – The Nation/ Stephen F. Cohen

Vladirmir Putin and Donald Trump Sitting in Chairs with Flags Behind, adapted from image at whitehouse.gov

“… This commentary is based on the most recent of [Cohen] weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War with the host of the John Batchelor radio show. …”  

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NEWSLINK: “Ukraine Wants to Be a Part of the West; But it’s strategy is yielding mixed results” – The National Interest/ Nikolas K. Gvosdev

Petro Poroshenko file photo, with additional men in background, adapted from image at state.gov

“Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has staked his country’s future and his own chances at re-election to a second term on three gambles. He hopes that these gambles will permanently rupture Ukraine’s connections to Russia and ensure that Ukraine becomes a full member of the Western community of nations. So far, however, the scorecard is showing mixed results. …”

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RUSSIALINK: “To Be Effective, Russia Sanctions Have to Be Removable; The U.S. must decide whether its economic restrictions against Oleg Deripaska are a permanent punishment or an incentive for change” – Bloomberg / Leonid Bershidsky

U.S. Capitol in Bright Sunlight

“The congressional Democrats’ opposition to a proposal to lift U.S. sanctions against the companies founded by the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska raises an important question: Is the punitive policy designed to achieve specific goals or primarily to make a statement? The sanctions against United Co. Rusal, En+ Group Plc and EuroSibEnergo JSC will expire on Jan. 19 unless Congress takes […]

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NEWSLINK: “The Daily 202: From Brexit to NATO and the shutdown, Putin is winning so much he might get tired of winning” – Washington Post/ James Hohmann

Historic Washington Post Masthead, adapted from image at nlrb.gov

“James Hohmann is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post. He is the author of The Daily 202, The Post’s flagship political newsletter.”  

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NEWSLINK: “The Trump-Putin revelations tell us what we knew all along” – Washington Post/ Anne Applebaum

Vladirmir Putin and Donald Trump Sitting in Chairs with Flags Behind, adapted from image at whitehouse.gov

“… The compulsion to get beneath the surface of things lies at the heart of what makes some people scholars or scientists. It’s also at the heart of what makes some people conspiracy theorists. More to the point, it explains why so many are excited by recent ‘revelations’ about President Trump and his relationship with Vladimir Putin, even though they […]

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[SATIRE] NEWSLINK: “Pelosi Says She Will Skip Trump and Negotiate Directly with Putin” – The New Yorker/Andy Borowitz

File Photo of Vladimir Putin Seated at Desk

“In a bold gambit to end the government shutdown, the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said on Saturday that she would bypass Donald J. Trump and negotiate directly with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. ‘I owe it to the American people to bring this shutdown to the swiftest possible conclusion, and so I’m avoiding the middleman,’ she said. Pelosi, who is […]

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NEWSLINK: “American Charged in Russia Also Holds British, Canadian and Irish Citizenship” – Wall Street Journal

File Photo of British Parliament Building, Big Ben, Thames, adapted from image at loc.gov

“A former U.S. Marine arrested on espionage charges in Russia was removed from the military for trying to steal more than $10,000 in government cash while deployed at a base in Iraq, according to details of Defense Department court records released Friday. …”

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NEWSLINK: “Russian Effort to Influence 2016 Election Targeted African-Americans” – New York Times/ Scott Shane, Sheera Frenkel

Montage of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Logos, adapted from image at nps.gov

“The Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard of activity on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded its posts on Facebook, according to a report produced for the Senate Intelligence Committee. …”  

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NEWSLINK: “The ‘Global Cybercrime Problem’ Is Actually the ‘Russia Problem’; Convincing Putin that further attacks will trigger automatic, severe responses is the best path to deterrence.” – The Atlantic/ John P. Carlin

File Image of Laptop Computer, Tables and Mobile Device, adapted from image at energy.gov

“John P. Carlin is the author of Dawn of the Code War: America’s Battle Against Russia, China, and the Rising Global Cyber Threat. He served as the assistant attorney general for national security at the Department of Justice and currently chairs the Aspen Institute’s Cyber & Technology Program.”  

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NEWSLINK: “Jihadists from Ex-Soviet Central Asia: Where Are They? Why Did They Radicalize? What Next?” – Russia Matters/Edward Lemon, Vera Mironova, William Tobey

Map of CIS Central Asia and Environs

“… This research paper attempts to answer four basic sets of questions adapted from the ones mentioned in the foreword: (1) Is Central Asia becoming a new source of violent extremism that transcends borders, and possibly continents? (2) If so, why? What causes nationals of Central Asia to take up arms and participate in political violence? (3) As IS has […]

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NEWSLINK: “The extraordinary life of Lyudmila Alexeyeva — Meduza remembers a Russian human rights icon” – Meduza

Lyudmila Alekseyeva file photo

“Late on December 8, Russian human rights icon Lyudmila Alexeyeva passed away at the age of 91. Since the mid-1990s, she led the Moscow Helsinki Group, earning the respect of both state officials and the anti-Kremlin opposition. Alexeyeva worked with everyone equally in pursuit of her mission: the protection of people’s rights by all means available. Meduza’s Andrey Kozenko looks […]

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NEWSLINK: “Arms For All? Khodorkovsky Says Russians Need Guns” – RFE/RL/ Timur Olevsky, Tony Wesolowsky

Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

“Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a staunch Kremlin critic who went from Russia’s wealthiest man to its highest-profile inmate, remains upbeat about the country he fled upon his release from prison in 2013. His vision of a future democratic Russia would be anchored by a decentralized government, including improved criminal investigations, and also offers a few surprises. …”  

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RUSSIALINK: “What Does the Kremlin Want Out of Putin and Trump’s Meeting?” – Carnegie Moscow/ DMITRI TRENIN, ALEXANDER GABUEV, ALEXANDER BAUNOV

File Photo of Country Flags Outside 2017 G20 Meeting in Hamburg, adapted from image at state.gov

“There will be many issues at play when the Russian and U.S. presidents meet at the G20 leaders’ summit in Buenos Aires. …”

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NEWSLINK: “Putin Will Understand Only One Response: Escalation; Russia’s president cannot be allowed to attack another country to solve his own domestic problems” – Bloomberg/ Eli Lake

Vladimir Putin file photo with VOA logo; screen shot from video still » Read more

NEWSLINK: “Trump’s weakness begets Russian aggression” – Washington Post/ Jennifer Rubin

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

     

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NEWSLINK: “85 Years Later, Ukraine Marks Famine That Killed Millions” – New York Times/ Iuliia Mendel

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“His frail hand covering his heart, Mykhailo Matvienko, 92, peered at the yellow flame of a candle on his kitchen table on Saturday and recounted his childhood during the Great Famine. A searing event seen as one of the great atrocities of 20th-century Europe, the Ukrainian famine of 1933 killed more than three million people, by most estimates, and has […]

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NEWSLINK: “James H. Billington, 89, Dies; Led Library of Congress Into Digital Age” – New York Times/Robert D. McFadden

Lit Candle with Reflection and Dark Background

“James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress for nearly three decades, who led the nation’s treasure house of knowledge into the digital age and added millions of books, films and cultural artifacts to its historic collections, including a trove of tweets, died on Tuesday in Washington. He was 89. His daughter Susan Harper Billington said the cause was complications of […]

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NEWSLINK: “Robert Legvold on Russia: Insights and Recommendations” – Russia Matters

Kremlin and River

“This evolving compilation of observations and policy ideas about Russia by Robert Legvold is part of Russia Matters’ ‘Competing Views’ rubric, where we share prominent American thinkers’ takes on Russia, U.S.-Russian relations and Washington’s policies toward its Cold War-era foe. Robert Legvold is one of America’s most authoritative experts on Russia and the international relations of the post-Soviet states. He […]

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NEWSLINK: “European diplomats mount last-ditch effort to stop US scrapping INF treaty” – The Guardian

File Photo of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan at Table Signing Documents

“European officials are seeking to act as intermediaries between Russia and the U.S. in the hope of salvaging a cold war-era arms control treaty that Donald Trump has threatened to scrap.  However, the diplomats involved are not confident of success in the effort to save the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. Although they have the support of senior officials […]

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NEWSLINK: “3 Days Stranded in Siberia? Flight Delays Don’t Come Much Worse Than This” – New York Times/Sophia Kishkovsky

File Photo of Airplane Approaching Runway About to Land

“Pretty much all seasoned travelers know the frustration of flight delays — the time wasted puttering in an airport, waiting in a hotel room or, perhaps worst of all, stuck on the tarmac in an idled plane. But how about three days stranded in Siberia? That was the nightmare experienced by the passengers and crew of Air France Flight 116 […]

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NEWSLINK: “Russian Politician Details Future of Russian Opposition Party” – Cornell Daily Sun/ Vale Lewis

Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

“After spending twenty years in the technology industry, Leonid Volkov had a rude wake-up call to the reality of Russian politics when he was elected to city council as the only independent member – the other 34 officials were members of the United Russia Party – the party of President Vladimir Putin. … Volkov – chief of staff for Alexei […]

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NEWSLINK: “Russia’s Mission” – Journal of International Affairs (Columbia University)/ Nicolai N. Petro

File Photo of G7 Leaders and other Officials Around Round Table at the Hague, with Flags

“… Storm clouds are gathering once again over the European continent. Rather than coming together, Russia and the West seem to be drifting further and further apart. …”

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RUSSIALINK: “No Left Turn in Russia; A protest vote is growing in Russia. But this is not a pivot toward socialism; rather, it is an expression of anger that the government has torn up the Putin-era social contract.” – Carnegie Moscow/ Andrei Kolesnikov

Arm and Torso of Person in Brown Sweater Placing Paper Ballot into Ballot Box

“… The success of opposition candidates in September’s regional elections across Russia was much more a vote against the Kremlin-backed ruling party, United Russia, than in favor of the Communists. It wasn’t just that people were angry with the government about its pension reforms; they were angry that the government had revoked a fundamental item in the unwritten Putin-era social […]

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NEWSLINK: “Russia and the 2018 Midterms: Laying Out the Publicly Available Evidence” – RussiaMatters/ Mari Dugas, Natasha Yefimova-Trilling

U.S. Capitol in Bright Sunlight

“This week’s midterms offer a good opportunity for a status update on the latest evidence of Russian meddling in U.S. elections. Over the past six months, there has been no shortage of alarming warnings. In August, five of the country’s top national security officials spoke to reporters at the White House about the threat posed by Moscow and efforts to […]

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NEWSLINK: “Mystery of the Midterm Elections: Where Are the Russians?” – New York Times/ David E. Sanger

File Image of Stylized Eye Surrounded by Binary Code

“… From the cyberwar room that the Department of Homeland Security runs round the clock in a bland office building in Arlington, Va., to Microsoft’s threat-assessment center at the other end of the country, in Redmond, Wash., every form of digital radar is being focused on America’s election infrastructure — and particularly on the Russian military intelligence agency once known […]

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NEWSLINK: “Why It’s Still in Russia’s Interest to Mess With US Politics” – AP

Multilingual Polling Place Sign from U.S. Election Polling Place

PARIS – Sweeping accusations that the Kremlin tried to sway the 2016 U.S. election haven’t chastened Russian trolls, hackers and spies – and might even have emboldened them. U.S. officials and tech companies say Russians have continued online activity targeted at American voters during the campaign for Tuesday’s election, masquerading as U.S. institutions and creating faux-American social media posts to […]

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RUSSIALINK: “A New Nuclear Arms Race Has Begun; President Trump says he plans to withdraw from a nonproliferation treaty that I signed with Ronald Reagan. It’s just the latest victim in the militarization of world affairs” – Mikhail Gorbachev/ New York Times

File Photo of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan at Table Signing Documents

“Over 30 years ago, President Ronald Reagan and I signed in Washington the United States-Soviet Treaty on the elimination of intermediate- and shorter-range missiles. For the first time in history, two classes of nuclear weapons were to be eliminated and destroyed. …”

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia has ‘more than five times as many spies in Britain now than it did during the Cold War” – Daily Mail (UK)

File Photo of British Parliament Building, Big Ben, Thames, adapted from image at loc.gov

A report will reveal there are an estimated 200 intelligence officers in Britain The figures from the Henry Jackson Society report will be published next week Author of report Andrew Foxall said capital ‘ill-equipped’ to deal with espionage Click here for: “Russia has ‘more than five times as many spies in Britain now than it did during the Cold War” […]

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NEWSLINK: “How Russian Trolls Inflamed the NFL’s Anthem Controversy; Russia-linked Twitter accounts sent more than 12,000 tweets about the NFL or the anthem in their alleged efforts to sow discord” – Wall Street Journal/ Andrew Beaton

Montage of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Logos, adapted from image at nps.gov » Read more

NEWSLINK: “Here Are The Issues Russian Trolls Are Using To Divide Americans Ahead Of The Midterm Elections; Russian-run social media accounts are still attempting to sow discord in the US, according to federal prosecutors, and they’re spending millions a year on the effort” – Buzzfeednews/Salvador Hernandez

File Image of Laptop Computer, Tables and Mobile Device, adapted from image at energy.gov » Read more

NEWSLINK: “Putin’s Filmmaker Speaks, Reveals Unseen Footage of Russian Leader’s Rise to Power; Rare insight from Vitaly Mansky, a former Kremlin propagandist, paints an extraordinary portrait of a president drawn ever deeper into dictatorship” – Daily Beast/ Nico Hines

Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin » Read more
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