NEWSWATCH: “Russia Aims to Disrupt Other Western Elections, U.S. Officials Say; Electoral chaos in West being sowed to safeguard Putin’s hold on power, Kremlin watchers say” – Wall Street Journal/Alan Cullison

Stylized Artist's Depiction of Shadowy Figures in Dark Coats and Dark Hats, One Carrying a Briefcase

… Russian-backed hacking … that has rocked the presidential campaign may peak on Election Day, but is likely to continue next year and into 2018 as Moscow seeks to influence U.S. politics and key elections in Europe … administration officials warn. Russian meddling … may become more potent in Europe than in the U.S., White House officials and other experts […]

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RUSSIALINK Valdai Club/Andrey Sushentsov: “Uncertainty Is the Main Result of the U.S. Presidential Campaign”

Stylized Russian and U.S. Flags with Number 200, 1807-2007

“The US-Russian relations cannot be mended by a new ‘reset’: they need complete reconstruction, not mere renovation. In the coming years, the United States will be too focused on itself for such an undertaking. Therefore, bilateral ties will remain in the present state for quite a long time.”

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NEWSWATCH: “Most Republicans Believe Russia Is Meddling in U.S. Election: Reuters/Ipsos Poll” – Reuters

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Most Republicans believe Russia is attempting to influence the U.S. presidential election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll …. 55 percent of U.S. adults, including 51 percent of Republicans and 65 percent of Democrats, said they thought Russia was trying to tip the scales in the Nov. 8 presidential election …. The U.S. government has accused Russia of … cyber attacks […]

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RUSSIALINK Russia Today/RT: “Calling Trump Moscow’s favorite is nonsense created by media – Putin”

Donald Trump

… “The image [that Russia supports a candidate in the US presidential election] was created by the media,’ Putin said at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday, adding that it was done deliberately and on purpose. “This idea was planted into the US public consciousness… with only one goal… to protect the interests of the Democratic candidate in […]

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Leonid Bershidsky: Clinton Should Stop Whining About Russian Hackers

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – October 25, 2016) Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. Hillary Clinton and her team hold that “the Russians” were responsible for almost any disruptive or embarrassing hack in the U.S. Many articles about the recent […]

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VIDEO: The State of U.S.-Russia Relations – Council on Foreign Relations Event – Stephen F. Cohen, Fiona Hill, Robert Levgold, Stephen Sestanovich

Russian Jet Buzzing U.S. Navy Destroyer, adapted from U.S. Navy photo

(Council on Foreign Relations event – Oct. 21, 2016) Stephen F. Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies and Politics, New York University and Princeton University Fiona Hill, Senior Fellow and Director, Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings Institution Robert Legvold, Marshall D. Shulman Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, Columbia University; Author, Return to Cold War Presider: Stephen […]

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NEWSLINK New York Review of Books/Jessica Matthews: “On the Election”

File Photo of White House with South Lawn and Fountain

“… Topping the list is a toxic relationship with Russia that neither side expects to improve anytime soon. Russian nationalism, stoked by wars in Crimea, eastern Ukraine, and Syria and by pervasive domestic propaganda, continues to strengthen. At the same time, Russians are experiencing the insecurity that comes with a shrinking economy caused by low oil prices and failed economic […]

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NEWSLINK Newsweek: “U.S. MULLING RETALIATORY CYBER ATTACK AGAINST RUSSIA: REPORT”

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The Obama administration has asked the CIA to deliver options on possible retaliatory cyber attacks on Russia designed to “embarrass” the country’s leadership, NBC News reports. Unnamed sources who NBC says have direct knowledge of the conversations say no decisions have been made on the style and scope of any attack, but the CIA has “reams of documents that could […]

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TRANSCRIPT: [Putin at] Russia Calling! Investment Forum (excerpt re Putin on hacking) [Or do they?]

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

(Kremlin.ru – October 12, 2016) Vladimir Putin is taking part in the eighth Russia Calling! Investment Forum organised by VTB Capital. This year’s theme is Maintaining Responsibility, Expanding Opportunities. * * * Question: Mr Kostin, thank you. President Putin, I’d just like to build on that question, if I might. Given the difficult week that Donald Trump has just experienced, […]

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NEWSWATCH: “America’s Russia Policy Has Failed; Here are seven things the next U.S. president should do to put Washington back in the driver’s seat” – Foreign Policy/Thomas Graham, Matthew Rojansky

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By any number of measures, Washington’s Russia policy has failed. While ostensibly suffering from diplomatic and economic isolation under a U.S.-led international sanctions regime, Moscow has succeeded in challenging a wide range of American interests, most notably in Ukraine, Syria, and cyberspace. Coming up with a new approach on Russia should therefore be a top priority … 1) Understand That […]

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Our Domestic Political Quandary on Russia

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(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – E. Wayne Merry – October 11, 2016) E. Wayne Merry is Senior Fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC. He is widely published and a frequent speaker on topics relating to Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the Balkans, European security and trans-Atlantic relations. In twenty-six years in […]

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I’m an Anti-Putin Russian and Clinton Makes Me Nervous

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sergei Lavrov, Seated With Flags

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – October 11, 2016) Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. Whoever wins the U.S. presidential election will have a hard time dealing with Russia: The relationship between the two countries is in tatters. Donald Trump obviously […]

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Joint Statement from the Department Of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security [re: Russia and Hacking]

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(Department of Homeland Security – dhs.gov – Oct. 7, 2016) Release Date: October 7, 2016 For Immediate Release DHS Press Office Contact: 202-282-8010 The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like […]

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NEWSLINK War on the Rocks/Joshua Foust: “CAN FANCY BEAR BE STOPPED? THE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER OF RUSSIAN INFO OPS”

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“Russia is engaged in an unprecedented, sophisticated attack on the American political system. Defeating it won’t be easy.”

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NEWSWATCH: “Putin’s Meddling in the U.S. Elections. How It Helps Him Back Home.” – Foreign Affairs/Gregory Feifer

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Every four years, whenever there is a U.S. presidential election, a melancholy settles over Russia. When global fascination mounts over the selection of the free world’s next leader, Russians feel ignored. … * * * … On top of its usual peddling of influence, disinformation campaigns, and, in some cases, war, Moscow tried discreetly hacking Ukraine’s elections in 2014. Ukrainian […]

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VIDEO NEWSWATCH: PBS NewsHour: “How would the candidates navigate high-stakes ties with Russia?”

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(PBS Newshour – September 8, 2016) What kind of relations should the U.S. have with Russia and President Vladimir Putin? It’s a question that could affect the future of the Syrian conflict and European security, and the two candidates have strikingly different takes. Judy Woodruff speaks with former Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon, an advisor to the Clinton campaign, […]

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NEWSWATCH Fred Weir/facebook: “So, this is a ‘potential’ plot …” Re: Washington Post: “U.S. investigating potential covert Russian plan to disrupt November elections”

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Fred Weir of the Christian Science Monitor comments on Russia and investigations into cyber incursions relating to the U.S. elections, while posting a link to an article from the Washington Post, “U.S. investigating potential covert Russian plan to disrupt November elections.” So, this is a ‘potential’ plot, even according to the headline, and the story requires the insertion — well […]

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Putin Blasts Trump and Clinton for ‘Shock’ Campaign Tactics

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

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov, John Micklethwait, Henry Meyer – September 2, 2016) Vladimir Putin blasted both Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s tactics on the campaign trail but refused to publicly take sides in a U.S. presidential race in which he’s been accused of secretly favoring the New York real estate billionaire. “They’re both using shock tactics, just each […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Russians Hacked Two U.S. Voter Databases, Officials Say” – NBC

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Hackers based in Russia were behind two recent attempts to breach state voter registration databases, fueling concerns the Russian government may be trying to interfere in the U.S. presidential election … the FBI [sent] a ‘flash alert’ earlier this month to election officials nationwide, asking them to be on the lookout …. * * * U.S. intelligence officials have previously […]

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Third of Russians deem potential Trump victory in U.S. presidential race to be advantageous for Russia – poll

Donald Trump

MOSCOW. Aug 25 (Interfax) – Some 12% of Russians are closely monitoring the progress of the U.S. presidential election campaign, and another 73% have heard something about it, the Levada Center told Interfax. Fifteen percent learned about the upcoming U.S. elections during the poll of 1,600 respondents in 137 populated localities in 48 regions on August 5-8. Fifty-two percent of […]

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NEWSLINK Anders Åslund/Project-Syndicate.Org: “The Putin Question”

Vladimir Putin

As war fever returns in Ukraine, the question of why Russian President Vladimir Putin went from would-be modernizer to aggressive autocrat is being revived. Whatever the reason – fear for his safety, a sense of historical grievance, or both – Putin’s inability to reform Russia’s economy seems certain to be his downfall.

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U.S. Official: Annexing Crimea, Russia Broke All Rules of ‘World Order’

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

(Voice of America – voanews.com – August 5, 2016) Russia’s actions against Ukraine and the potential threat it poses to other countries in its neighborhood has become an issue in the U.S. presidential race, thanks largely to comments made by Donald Trump. The Republican candidate told a U.S. television interviewer late last month that the people of Crimea, which Russia […]

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Russian voting rights groups’ association to analyze results of its U.S. election monitoring

White House

MOSCOW. Aug 4 (Interfax) – An association of Russian nonprofit organizations (NPOs) protecting voting rights, called Civil Control, will participate in monitoring the presidential election in the United States, its members are already monitoring the election campaign remotely, according to Alexander Brod, Civil Control co-chairman and a member of the Russian presidential council for human rights and civil society. “Our […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Why the Kremlin might not be the fan of Trump that it’s said to be. Whether or not Trump truly was asking Russia to step into the US presidential campaign by releasing Hillary Clinton’s emails, Russia has reason to doubt whether he would be a friend.” – Christian Science Monitor

White House

When Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump … made a public request to Russia that it publish missing emails from Hillary Clinton’s personal web server, it ignited rampant press speculation …. Was … Trump really proposing that Russia, already accused by US authorities of breaking into the Democratic Party’s servers, violate US law? Or was he merely being sarcastic, as Trump […]

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Clinton Should Listen to Russian-Americans

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sergei Lavrov, Seated With Flags

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – July 26, 2016) The willingness of Hillary Clinton campaign’s to suggest that Russia has interfered in the U.S. presidential election — in the form of President Vladimir Putin’s supposed help for Donald Trump — exposes the weakness of the Democratic candidate’s presidential bid. The campaign is wasting ammunition on loud but inefficient accusations, […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Putin’s suspected meddling in a U.S. election would be a disturbing first” – Washington Post

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Credit for the internecine furor that disrupted the Democratic Party on the eve of its convention should go to Vladimir Putin. … cybersecurity experts say Russian intelligence operatives were likely responsible for the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computer network, as well as for leaking to the Moscow-friendly WikiLeaks website some 20,000 emails. The trove appeared online Friday, just in […]

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RBTH: U.S. elections: Would Trump isolationism be music to Moscow’s ears?

Donald Trump

Donald Trump has turned out to be a true heretic by openly challenging the U.S. foreign policy paradigm. Strangely, Moscow, at least publicly, has failed to notice it. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – VLADIMIR MIKHEEV, SPECIAL TO RBTH – June 16, 2016) Amid the noisy clamor around the Republican Party’s presidential candidate Donald Trump’s often embarrassing slips of […]

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RBTH: U.S. elections: Does Moscow really care if it’s Clinton or Trump?

File Photo of White House with South Lawn and Fountain

Hillary Clinton has warned that should her opponent, Republican maverick Donald Trump win the U.S. presidential elections, “They’ll be celebrating in the Kremlin.” Is she right? And does this mean that a Clinton presidency would be perceived as a disaster in Moscow? (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – VLADIMIR MIKHEEV, SPECIAL TO RBTH – June 8, 2016) Addressing her […]

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Ordinary Russians Mistakenly Placing Their Hopes in Donald Trump, Bykov Says

Donald Trump

(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, June 8, 2016) That Vladimir Putin should express his admiration and support for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is no surprise. Not only does Trump reflect some of the same populist and nationalist themes the Kremlin leader does, but Putin welcomes Trump’s unilateralism and isolationism as something that might benefit Russia. […]

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Russians like Trump better than Clinton – poll

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(Interfax – June 7, 2016) Russians are not united as to what outcome of the U.S. presidential elections would serve Russian interests best, the Public Opinion Foundation said in its report. Some 37 percent of respondents were undecided, and 26 percent claimed that U.S. election results were immaterial to Russia: “the U.S. attitude to Russia would not improve, no matter […]

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Clinton Says Kremlin ‘Will Celebrate’ If Trump Becomes U.S. Leader

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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 3, 2016) U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has claimed that Russia and China will celebrate if her opponent Donald Trump wins the upcoming U.S. elections. Speaking on national security in San Diego on Thursday, Clinton said that Trump’s isolationist views would weaken the country while playing into the hands of the Kremlin, Time Magazine […]

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NEWSLINK Russia Direct: “Donald Trump: Neither a friend nor enemy for Russia. Even though the Kremlin appears outwardly hopeful about a Trump presidency, there are reasons for concern, including the unpredictability of Trump’s future foreign policy moves. 14. www.rt.com: Bryan MacDonald, Spring’s Holy Trinity: How every ‘anti-establishment’ vote is now Russia’s fault”

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NEWSWATCH: “No, Putin did not call Donald Trump ‘a genius'” – Washington Post/Glenn Kessler

Donald Trump

“‘I think he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] said some really nice things. He called me a genius. He said Trump’s a genius. Okay. So, you know, that’s nice.’” Click here for Washington Post/Glenn Kessler: “No, Putin did not call Donald Trump ‘a genius’”

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NEWSLINK RBTH/Gazeta.ru: “Why Russia hopes for realism from the next U.S. president. With the election picture gradually becoming clearer in the U.S., political analyst Fyodor Lukyanov asks whether the identity of the next American president really matters in Russia, and explores the crisis of realism in U.S. foreign policy.”

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Poll Shows Russians Want Trump to Win U.S. Presidential Election

Donald Trump

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 20, 2016) The majority of Russian citizens would like to see Donald Trump become the next president of the United States, according to a poll held by the Britain-based research firm YouGov. 20,000 citizens from G20 countries were surveyed and asked their opinions on the upcoming U.S. elections. Thirty-one percent of Russians gave Trump […]

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Trump’s New Russia Adviser Has Deep Ties to Kremlin’s Gazprom

Donald Trump

Carter Page brings a “real-world” resume-and says his close relations with Russian business are a strength. (Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Zachary Mider – March 30, 2016) A globe-trotting American investment banker who’s built a career on deals with Russia and its state-run gas company, Carter Page says his business has suffered directly from the U.S. economic sanctions imposed after Russia’s […]

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The U.S. Election’s Echoes of 1996 Russia

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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – March 7, 2016) The very strange U.S. presidential election bears some surprising similarities to the 1996 campaign in Russia — a momentous event that undermined a fragile democracy and led to the emergence of Vladimir Putin’s dictatorial regime. This precedent could be especially telling if Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump end up their […]

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