Russia

[LFC]

In a "no shit Sherlock" revelation we find out that the campaign polling and strategy data Paul Manafort shared with Konstantin Kilimnik ended up being sent to the Kremlin. That's collusion, compared to the MAGAts' Kool-Aid delusion.

The U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned a longtime associate of Paul Manafort, and filled in one of the larger blanks in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Donald Trump's ties to Russia.

The Biden administration sanctioned Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukrainian-Russian associate of Manafort, for sharing sensitive polling data and campaign strategies with the Kremlin during the 2016 campaign -- which linked findings in investigations by Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Legal experts and others who followed the Mueller probe and other investigations into alleged Russian collusion felt vindicated by the news.

[goldenvalley]

+1000 No Shit, Sherlock!

I've heard some speculation about further charges against Manafort in connection with this. He wasn't charged with anything related to Kilimnik so the pardon given by Trump doesn't apply. Hmmm

[andydp]

I read the pardon from the "Former Guy" doesn't cover this little imbroglio. Good times ahead !!

Apr 15, 2021 19:16:12 GMT LFC said:

In a "no shit Sherlock" revelation we find out that the campaign polling and strategy data Paul Manafort shared with Konstantin Kilimnik ended up being sent to the Kremlin. That's collusion, compared to the MAGAts' Kool-Aid delusion.

The U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned a longtime associate of Paul Manafort, and filled in one of the larger blanks in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Donald Trump's ties to Russia.

The Biden administration sanctioned Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukrainian-Russian associate of Manafort, for sharing sensitive polling data and campaign strategies with the Kremlin during the 2016 campaign -- which linked findings in investigations by Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Legal experts and others who followed the Mueller probe and other investigations into alleged Russian collusion felt vindicated by the news.

[andydp]

Wonder what happened to make him pull back ?    Thinking of the problems they're going to have with those sanctions, my guess is his "buddies" probably told him to pull back.  


Russia To Pull Troops From Ukraine Border, Defusing Crisis

Russia says it will begin a phased reduction of troops from its border with neighboring Ukraine – apparently ending a deployment that had alarmed Kyiv and Western observers concerned about a possible repeat of Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, speaking on Thursday after overseeing drills in Crimea involving more than 10,000 troops, appeared to suggest that the ominous troop buildup on the border was more or less a routine training exercise.

He ordered ground troops to return to bases in Vladikavkaz and Novosibirsk and airborne units to Pskov, Ivanovo and the Krasnodar region, beginning Friday and finishing by May 1. Russian naval forces in the Black Sea were also part of the military exercise.

"I believe that the goals of the snap inspection have been fully achieved". ** the Interfax news agency quoted Shoigu as saying. "The troops demonstrated the ability to reliably defend the country."

www.npr.org/2021/04/22/989859549/russia-to-pull-troops-from-ukraine-border-defusing-crisis

** BS !  However sending troops on an exercise will test transport, supply and support units to insure they do the job right when its for real.  

[jackd]

Whatever the reason, we'll take it.

[goldenvalley]

I suspect he was trying to trigger a military response from Ukraine or if he was testing both Ukraine and Biden Administration to see how far he could go before getting a military response.

[LFC]

One of Russia's cyberattack units is at it again.

The Kremlin-backed hackers who targeted SolarWinds customers in a supply chain attack have been caught conducting a malicious email campaign that delivered malware-laced links to 150 government agencies, research institutions and other organizations in the US and 23 other countries, Microsoft said.

The hackers, belonging to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, first managed to compromise an account belonging to USAID, a US government agency that administers civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With control of the agency’s account for online marketing company Constant Contact, the hackers had the ability to send emails that appeared to use addresses known to belong to the US agency.

“From there, the actor was able to distribute phishing emails that looked authentic but included a link that, when clicked, inserted a malicious file used to distribute a backdoor we call NativeZone,” Microsoft Vice President of Customer Security and Trust Tom Burt wrote in a post published on Thursday evening. “This backdoor could enable a wide range of activities from stealing data to infecting other computers on a network.”

The campaign was carried out by a group that Microsoft calls Nobelium and is also known as APT29, Cozy Bear, and the Dukes. Security firm Kaspersky has said that malware belonging to the group dates back to 2008, while Symantec has said the hackers have been targeting governments and diplomatic organizations since at least 2010. There's more about the off-kilter and old-school coding characteristics of this group here.

Last December, Nobelium’s notoriety reached a new high with the discovery the group was behind the devastating breach of SolarWinds, an Austin, Texas, maker of network management tools. After thoroughly compromising SolarWinds’ software development and distribution system, the hackers distributed malicious updates to about 18,000 customers who used the tool, which was called Orion. The hackers then used the updates to compromise nine federal agencies and about 100 private-sector companies, White House officials have said.

[LFC]

Oh look! An American traitor who is polishing Putin's knob. What a shock. What a needy piece of shit.

he looming summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin—set to take place in Geneva on Wednesday—has unleashed a flurry of threats from the Kremlin’s propaganda machine, and a promise of staunch resistance to American demands on everything from cyberattacks to human rights abuses.

It has also triggered another bizarre press strategy: The debut and glorification of an infamous Capitol rioter on Russian airwaves.

On Sunday, Russian state TV aired an interview with insurrectionist Richard Barnett—notoriously pictured with his feet up on a desk in Nancy Pelosi’s office on Jan. 6—and his attorney, Joseph McBride.

Barnett, a self-proclaimed white nationalist, was introduced as a “colorful” individual, the same expression Putin frequently uses to describe Trump. McBride welcomed Rossiya-1 special correspondent Valentin Bogdanov into his office and FaceTimed his client, who appeared cheerful and at ease at his Arkansas ranch, flashing a big smile and showing off his car collection.

Bogdanov introduced Barnett, who was arrested following the Capitol riot and subsequently released pending trial, as “an American patriot” who protested against “the stolen election.” The network showcased clips from his exploits at the Capitol, where he wielded a stun-gun, stole mail from Pelosi’s office, and left a threatening note for the House Speaker.

Seemingly unaware of Russia’s notorious prison system, Barnett complained about the conditions of his brief imprisonment, alleged beatings of other “patriots” with whom he was detained, and threats he had received since his arrest.

“The trial is still ahead, there is no verdict, but retribution is already taking place,” the Russian correspondent said, referring to Barnett’s activities at the Capitol. Bogdanov asked him, “Would you do it again?” McBride quickly jumped in and urged his client not to answer the question until the legal proceedings were over.

Barnett replied, “I exercise my First Amendment rights every hour, every minute, and every day, and I will never stop.” Bogdanov concluded, “Everyone arrested in the Jan. 6 case feels that way.”

[LFC]

Russia is increasing its cyber-attacks. It's time for the U.S. and Europe to get serious about retaliation, both in kind and with sanctions.

Russian military intelligence hackers are on a rampage trying to break into U.S. military and government entities—again.

In an alert issued Thursday morning, the National Security Agency warned that hackers working for Russia’s General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 85th Main Special Service Center (GTsSS)—better known among Americans as the hackers who went after the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016—are primarily pummeling targets in the U.S. and Europe.

And once again, the military intelligence hackers, also known as Fancy Bear or APT28, are going after political consultants, political parties, and think tanks, according to the intelligence community’s assessment. The hackers have also been working to break into energy companies, law firms, and media companies since 2019, the NSA said.

[LFC]

Russia continues targeting America's right with a propaganda campaign. Is it any wonder that they love Russia so much? It's a virtual dictatorship where the state hates on all the people they like to hate. What's not to love?

Galvanized by the results of recent American polls and the popularity of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Fox News and its audiences, the Kremlin is proceeding with a new charm offensive targeting Western conservatives. Russia cannot offer much in terms of gun rights, freedom of speech, or standard of living—at least not for those excluded from Putin’s mob-like circle of trust. Rather, the Kremlin intends to attract Western converts with another type of currency—bigotry—turning Russia into the land of ultimate political incorrectness, the world’s anti-woke capital.

On Monday, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov published an op-ed that left many readers scratching their heads. “In a number of Western countries, students learn at school that Jesus Christ was bisexual,” Lavrov claimed. Aside from a single viral post on TikTok featuring the ramblings of a child, there doesn’t seem to be any suggestion—much less any evidence—of such a curriculum actually being taught.

Far from simple non sequitur, Lavrov’s musings seem to be part of a larger agenda. In fact, they appear to fit squarely within the strategy pursued by the Kremlin’s elaborate propaganda ecosystem.

[LFC]

Typical Russia meltdown over the Olympics. Is it any wonder the Republicans love them?

Russia’s decades-long dominance in rhythmic gymnastics was shattered at this year’s Tokyo Olympics, where Russian athletes failed to win the Olympic gold in the individual all-around event for the first time since 1996. In Sunday’s group competition, Russia didn’t win gold either, losing to Bulgaria.

Since authoritarian countries cherish Olympic competitions as a tool to inflame nationalist sentiments and promote their countries’ global standing, Russia’s defeats were loudly rejected by a host of pro-Kremlin voices—who resorted to state media’s time-honored tradition of conspiracy-mongering.

Experts on Russian state television have been trying to read each country’s Olympic gold medals as tea leaves, suggesting that the outcome determines the new global hegemon. Last week, pro-Kremlin pundits, hosts, and experts relished the idea of the “weakened” United States being edged out by China. The host of the state TV show 60 Minutes, Olga Skabeeva, pontificated: “You can’t beat China. They have the most gold medals.” Eager to inject Russia’s notorious transphobic rhetoric into the conversation, Skabeeva added: “And none of them are transgenders, so they will keep procreating."

“Tokyo Olympics are the clearest example of total Russophobia. These Olympic Games stink. Global sports forever ceased being an honest competition, turning into a cheap political farce,” Skabeeva raged on Monday’s broadcast of 60 Minutes. She baselessly alleged: “At the behest of Americans, the International Olympic Committee took away two gold medals from Russia.”

To Russia’s dismay, the United States ultimately surpassed China, winning 39 gold medals and 113 medals overall—the most in the world. And that means, according to Russian state TV’s logic, that the U.S. is not relinquishing its global leadership—which does not sit well with Russia.

[goldenvalley]

Poor Putin. Russia didn’t win enuf medals. And they lost one to an Israeli Jewish woman! The goal of World Domination is looking more elusive.

I’ve always thought the carrying out of the Cold War and post Cold War via athletic competitions was testosterone driven childishness. The “Miracle on Ice” thing really confirmed that for me.

[LFC]

Putin's inner circle has been hiding from COVID but no more.

President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that dozens of people in his inner circle at the Kremlin had tested positive for coronavirus, which has affected over seven million people in the badly-hit country.

Earlier this week, the 68-year-old Putin said he was self-isolating after announcing an outbreak among members of his entourage.

"Cases of the coronavirus were detected in my inner circle. Not just one or two but several dozen people," Putin said, speaking via video link at a meeting of a Moscow-led security alliance.

Then he has the nerve to whine.

All leaders and diplomats attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week will have to provide proof of vaccination, the city government said Wednesday, sparking anger from Russia.

Delegates must be vaccinated to enter the debate hall, the mayor's office told the assembly president in a letter dated September 9, but Moscow queried whether New York had the authority to enforce the mandate.
[snip]
But Russia's ambassador requested an urgent meeting of the General Assembly to discuss the move.

Vassily Nebenzia wrote to assembly president Abdulla Shahid Wednesday saying he had been "very much surprised and disappointed" by a letter Shahid wrote to members in which he supported the proof of vaccination requirement.

"We strongly object that only people with a proof of vaccination should be admitted to the GA hall," Nebenzia wrote in the letter seen by AFP.

He described it as "a clearly discriminatory measure," adding that preventing delegates to access the hall was a "clear violation of the UN charter."

New York accepts all vaccines that have been approved by either the World Health Organization or America's federal Food and Drug Administration.

Nebenzia said the "rights of people who have received vaccines that are not approved by the CDC" must also be taken into consideration.

Gawd I wish he'd just drop dead but nasty, soulless people like that seem to thrive.

[goldenvalley]

He claims he took the Sputnik vaccine. I wonder if he secretly got an Astrozeneca or one of the American versions.

[LFC]

So which major American political party does this most resemble? Anybody? Anybody? Buehler?

After a devastating few months, the latest COVID surge is easing across much of the world. But while most countries are getting better, Russia is actually getting worse.

And for one main reason. “A significant percentage of Russians fear the vaccine more than the virus,” Anna Gotlib, a Russian-born philosopher and bioethicist at Brooklyn College, told The Daily Beast.

And the Russian government, rather than battling vaccine skepticism, has actually encouraged it. All in the hope of scoring a quick buck and owning the West.

Globally, authorities counted around 3 million new coronavirus infections last week—down from 4.6 million at the peak of the surge in early September. Deaths are declining, too. There were 49,000 COVID deaths last week, down from 69,000 six weeks ago.

In Russia, however, the trends are heading in the opposite direction, based on even the most conservative official figures. On Wednesday, the country of 146 million people set all-time official records for daily cases (around 36,000) and deaths (nearly 1,100).

And it’s possible the actual numbers are worse than the official ones. Critics have credibly accused Moscow of cooking the books in order to downplay the seriousness of the crisis and insulate the government from criticism.

“There’s a gap between reported and real COVID-19 cases and mortality everywhere, but based on comparisons of numbers of deaths in 2020 to 2021 with previous years, that gap is wider in Russia—and some other post-socialist countries—than anywhere else in the world,” Judy Twigg, a professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, told The Daily Beast.

Comrade DeSatanist fits the Russia model like a glove.

[LFC]

It looks like the threats by Belarus to shut off the gas pipelines to Western Europe are coming from Putin because of course they are.

Western officials have been paying closer attention to Eastern Europe in recent weeks.

A triplet of potential crises have cropped up in Russia’s relations with its neighbors to the West. Some Biden administration officials, CNN reports, fear that Russia may be stoking the tensions as a prelude to another incursion into Ukraine, while others think that it’s part of a larger leverage game.

The events have been bizarre and confusing, involving an airlift of migrants from the Middle East and armored military divisions moving towards Ukraine. Part of the action has occurred in Belarus, a Russian client state.

Here are five points on how to make sense of what’s going on.

[LFC]

F***ing Russia. It seems like Putin just likes causing trouble because he can.

Russia experts are wondering what Vladimir Putin is up to. We are witnessing one of the recurrent build-ups of Russian military forces on the Ukraine border. For a variety of reasons experts on the region believe this may be building to a new full-scale military engagement. Putin also seems at least passively involved in the engineered refugee crisis on the border between Belarus and Poland. Josh Kovensky surveyed these developments here on Friday. Meanwhile we’ve seen a new round of saber-rattling over Taiwan, with aggressive military exercises from the mainland and deepening expressions of support from the US. All of which is to say that while we in the US see a deepening wave of crises in the US, this is matched by an increasingly tense and dangerous climate abroad. Both of these tension points – Ukraine and Taiwan – hold the possibility of direct military confrontations with nuclear powers Russia and China. And that’s not great.

Each potential flash point has a long history of its own stretching back decades of even centuries. But I raise them here to make a different point. Historic, global crises like the COVID Pandemic put all governments under pressure and threat. Paradoxically, because we imagine that crises drive collaboration, they create a mounting zero-sum environment. Governments are under pressure and threat so they are more resistant to compromise and collaboration abroad while also driven to more confrontational or autarchic policies by events at home. Governments under pressure at home will often lash out at foreign opponents or at least use them as focal points around which to build national unity.

These are general points. But I raise them because it’s important to see the expanding list of international crises and standoffs as at least intensified by if not driven by the pressures of the COVID Pandemic.

[pnwguy]

Putin knows that any attack on western interests will benefit the GOP, however Biden would respond. A shocking percentage of the GOP base would back Putin, in the same way Flynn would. "Putin is defending Christian values"

A near majority of Americans don't deserve a democracy at this point, and they are doing their best to bring the country to autocracy.

I just started the audiobook of Tom Nichol's Our Own Worst Enemy. And we are...

[LFC]

Nov 15, 2021 17:19:07 GMT pnwguy said:

Putin knows that any attack on western interests will benefit the GOP, however Biden would respond. A shocking percentage of the GOP base would back Putin, in the same way Flynn would. "Putin is defending Christian values"

It's the same reason they view Viktor Orbán as a role model. He's turned Hungary into an effective autocracy but he's smart enough to keep throwing kibble to the Christians, in particular the Catholics, who have a long history of supporting autocracies. I guess bowing to levels of authority is completely baked into their religion so it's no surprise.

[AnBr]

Nov 15, 2021 17:19:07 GMT pnwguy said:

I just started the audiobook of Tom Nichol's Our Own Worst Enemy. And we are...

[LFC]

Russia pulled the same dumb stunt that China did years before.

Earlier this week, astronauts onboard the International Space Station rushed to seek shelter. The near-evacuation was not caused by an unpredictable space weather event or the millions of pieces of remains of existing space objects and rocket launchers left there since the beginning of the Space Age.

The lives of astronauts were temporarily threatened by a cloud of orbital debris — space junk — created by the testing of anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities by Russia.

What is not temporary is the threat that space debris will pose to the thousands of other functioning satellites that form the backbone of modern economies and societies.

Russia blew up one of its own defunct satellites, and in the process, created over 1,500 pieces of trackable debris that will remain in orbit well into the 2040s. It is not clear how many pieces of untraceable debris have been created.

[LFC]

Ordinary Russians aren't buying Putin's PR anymore.

It’s easy to see why President Vladimir Putin might have thought ratcheting up tensions on Ukraine’s border and blaming it all on NATO and the U.S. would rally his faltering support back home, but this time something different is happening.

Most Russians aren’t buying it.

Domestic propaganda levels have reached near-hysteria this year after anti-Putin protests swept the country following the attempted murder and imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The drumbeat of war against Ukraine is becoming louder by the week and Putin has made ever wilder demands of NATO, which was the primary focus of his talking points in the video conference summit with President Biden earlier this month. He must surely know those demands can never be met.

If you follow the local—state-owned—TV stations in Russia, you are constantly warned that a new war is on the horizon; that Russia will bravely stand up to the West; and that America is the real enemy.

That message is increasingly falling on deaf ears.

A study published this week by the Levada Analytical Center showed that for the first time in years more Russians think positively than negatively about the U.S.—by 45 percent to 42 percent.

When Levada asked the same question in May, only 31 percent said the U.S. was “good” vs. 54 percent “bad.”

In those intervening months, Moscow has accused Washington of “fueling tension” over Ukraine, gas pipelines, Navalny, and hacking. Tit-for-tat diplomatic spats have led to the U.S. embassy cutting 75 percent of staff in Moscow and no longer processing visas, meaning Russians wanting U.S. travel visas and green cards now have to apply in Warsaw. An agreement is in the works to fix that particular stand-off, but it shows the real world impact of diplomatic wrangling on ordinary people.

“Politicians and ordinary people often have different agendas,” said Susanna Emirali, a young advertising producer. “Most of my friends understand that ordinary Americans are cool.”

Emirali is typical of the Russians who are now rejecting state propaganda. She says she avoids watching political talk shows on television and prefers to read her news on independent outlets online. She believes the United States has nothing to do with Russia’s biggest problems and hopes the conflict between Moscow and Washington will soon end.

[LFC]

Russia's space program, once a source of national pride, is collapsing.

A long and strikingly critical article that reviews the state of the Russian space program was published in the state-aligned newspaper MK this week.

None of the findings in the 2,800-word article were particularly surprising. Western observers who track the Russian space industry realize the program is deeply troubled, and to a great extent running on the fumes of its past and very real glory. What is notable, however, is that a major Russian media outlet has published such a revelatory article for a domestic audience.

Increasingly, Russia's space program seeks to project its greatness in space through symbolic acts rather than technological achievements—such as the launch of a Russian movie star, sending a robot nicknamed Fedor to space, or making (entirely) hollow promises about a Moon landing in 2030. But now it has been called out on these acts in a publication closely aligned with the Russian government.

[LFC]

The term "total repression" is now being used as Putin crushes a leading human rights group. Russia is now nothing more than a tinpot oil oligarchy with a vicious dictator at the helm.

Russia's Supreme Court ordered the country's best-known human rights group on Tuesday to be liquidated for breaking a law requiring groups to register as foreign agents, capping a year of crackdowns on Kremlin critics unseen since the Soviet days.

The shuttering of the group Memorial closes a year in which the top Kremlin critic was jailed, his political movement banned and many of his allies forced to flee. Moscow says it is simply enforcing laws to thwart extremism and shield the country from foreign influence.

"This is a bad signal showing that our society and our country are moving in the wrong direction," the TASS news agency quoted Memorial Board Chairman Jan Raczynski as saying.

Closing the group would increase the risk of "total repression" in Russia, one of Memorial's lawyers, Maria Eismont, said during the final hearings on Tuesday.

[pnwguy]

Dec 28, 2021 18:44:23 GMT LFC said:

The term "total repression" is now being used as Putin crushes a leading human rights group. Russia is now nothing more than a tinpot oil oligarchy with a vicious dictator at the helm.

Russia's Supreme Court ordered the country's best-known human rights group on Tuesday to be liquidated for breaking a law requiring groups to register as foreign agents, capping a year of crackdowns on Kremlin critics unseen since the Soviet days.

The shuttering of the group Memorial closes a year in which the top Kremlin critic was jailed, his political movement banned and many of his allies forced to flee. Moscow says it is simply enforcing laws to thwart extremism and shield the country from foreign influence.

"This is a bad signal showing that our society and our country are moving in the wrong direction," the TASS news agency quoted Memorial Board Chairman Jan Raczynski as saying.

Closing the group would increase the risk of "total repression" in Russia, one of Memorial's lawyers, Maria Eismont, said during the final hearings on Tuesday.

But hey, they did let TASS quote Raczynski, a dissident, as opposed to putting a bullet in his head, as the Stalin would have done.  Progress!