Security services firm FireEye says two hacker groups known to be sponsored by the Russian government of Vladimir Putin are waging cyber-attacks currently against European government systems. Read the rest
In Sweden, officers of the Swedish Security Service have arrested a person who worked “in a high-technology sector” and is believed by investigators to be a Russian agent. Read the rest
Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort provided an individual identified as a Kremlin agent with internal campaign polling data, while Russia's military was executing a political attack on the United States presidential elections of 2016. Read the rest
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Donald Trump’s surprise announcement of U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria, calling it “the right decision.” Nice to know the boss approves! Read the rest
Hacked EU cables released this week warn that Russia may already have nuclear weapons in Crimea. The private diplomatic messages describe annexed area of Ukraine as a ‘hot zone,’ and Donald Trump as a ‘bully.’ Read the rest
What a wonderful time to be alive. Read the rest
A U.S. judge today postponed Maria Butina's plea agreement hearing until Thursday. Read the rest
Russia is back on its Ukraine bullshit again: last week, the Russian navy boarded and seized a Ukrainian gunboat and a tugboat taking the crews of the vessels prisoner, at least for the time being. NATO is sitting on their hands, just like they did when Putin sent mercenaries and unflagged Russian special forces operators into Ukraine to wrest control of the Crimea peninsula back in 2014. There's a lot of finger wagging and tut-tutting, sure. Trump said that he was calling off his chat with Putin last week as a result of the Russian military's aquatic clusterfuck...but then he met with him anyway.
After four years of putting up with Russian occupation of a chunk of their territory, Ukraine knows better than to leave sorting it out to diplomacy: the seizure of the nation's vessels could well be Putin's way of gauging the west's reaction to a larger action--one that could lead to a large-scale assault on Ukrainian turf.
In response to Putin's dry run, Ukraine has called up its citizen reservists, declared martial law in some parts of the country, and has been toying with the idea of refusing entry to any Russian male of fighting age. Oh, and they've asked Canada to renew the assistance that they've been giving them for the past few years.
From The CBC:
Read the restCanada is being asked to renew its military training mission to Ukraine — a proposal that's taking on a whole new level of urgency as border tension ramps up with Russia.
Watch. So chilling.
Find someone who is as happy to see you as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman, who high-five each other and dive in for a bro hug, laughing like only two murderers can, at the G20 in Argentina. Read the rest
Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump’s plans to build a Trump Tower Moscow has led the Special Counsel to question the role Ivanka and Don Jr played in trying to secure a Russian real estate deal, reports Hunter Walker at Yahoo News. Read the rest
Trump today canceled, via a tweet, his planned G20 meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Read the rest
The latest data from Levada, an independent Russian pollster, finds that support for all Russian political figures, including Vladimir Putin, has plunged, following a shift in the pension system that raised the retirement age by five years. Read the rest
NPR reporters poked around in Maria Butina's social media world, looking at the accused Russian agent's thousands of social media friends and reaching out to over 200 individuals. The resulting investigative report paints a portrait of Butina's life, from Siberia, to the tight-knit Moscow pro-guns shooting community, to D.C, Las Vegas, Washington state, and South Dakota. Read the rest
“Putin’s Russia,” as ABC News reports today, would have featured the Russian President hunting, fishing, and generally being a very macho man outdoors. Read the rest
Why does the Russian embassy want to visit accused hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin so very badly, lawyers ask. Good question. Read the rest
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Director Chris Wray, Secretary of State John Bolton, and NSA Director General Paul Nakasone spoke today as a group for the first time about “election meddling” -- the information warfare attacks being carried out against the United States right now, a little more than 90 days before the midterm elections, by the adversary we all know is Russia. Read the rest
