tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46473190149497611462024-02-01T22:48:28.459-05:00Investigate This! Investigative Journalism Blog & ResourcesWelcome to the investigative reporting blog of award-winning journalist Alex Roslin, author of the book Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence. Roslin was president of the board of the Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting, and his awards include the Arlene Book Award of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. He doesn’t necessarily endorse material linked below.Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.comBlogger840125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-35264934805748141752019-11-07T16:38:00.026-05:002022-02-23T16:05:41.479-05:00Donald Trump Impeachment Timeline -- The Definitive Chronology<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Having trouble keeping up with the avalanche of revelations in the impeachment inquiries into ex-president Donald Trump? </i></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.ispionline.it/sites/default/files/field/image/vladimir_putin_donald_trump.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Stay up to date with my definitive Trump impeachment timeline. I don't necessarily endorse the articles </i><i>linked below. See all publicly available documents related to the inquiry <b><a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/67076/public-document-clearinghouse-ukraine-impeachment-inquiry/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Click <b><a href="https://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2019/01/comrade-trump-putin-ties-bromance-timeline-mueller.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my timeline of Trump's links with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of those ties.</i></span></span><br />
<span><br /><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Newly released emails show Trump pressured DOJ to challenge election results, House Oversight says</b></span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>In his final days in office, former President Donald Trump pressured top Department of Justice officials to challenge his election loss to President Joe Biden, the House Oversight Committee said.</i></b></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>The oversight panel shared a cache of more than 200 pages of newly released documents.</i></b></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>The documents show, among other allegations, that Trump in December pressed the Justice Department to file a Supreme Court lawsuit to nullify the election, the committee said.</i></b></span></li></ul></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(CNBC) June 15, 2021, by Kevin Breuninger</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In his final days in office, former President Donald Trump pressured top Department of Justice officials to challenge his election loss to President Joe Biden, the House Oversight Committee said Tuesday.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The oversight panel said that a cache of <b><a href="https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/COR-SelectedDOJDocuments-2021-6-15-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">more than 200 pages of newly released documents</a></b> sheds new light on how Trump tried to undermine the results of the 2020 election and advance unsupported voter fraud claims, with the “apparent goal” of keeping himself in power.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/15/trump-pressured-doj-to-challenge-election-results-emails-show-house-panel-says.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: New audio of 2019 phone call reveals how Giuliani pressured Ukraine to investigate baseless Biden conspiracies</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) June 7, 2021, b</b></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>y Matthew Chance and Marshall Cohen</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Never-before-heard audio, obtained exclusively by CNN, shows how former President Donald Trump's longtime adviser Rudy Giuliani relentlessly pressured and coaxed the Ukrainian government in 2019 to investigate baseless conspiracies about then-candidate Joe Biden.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/07/politics/rudy-giuliani-ukraine-call-investigate-biden/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Chickens Come Home to Roost for ‘Traitorous Traitor’ Rudy</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) April 28, 2021</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The man once known as “America’s mayor” now appears to be on the brink of a federal indictment for, among other things, selling out his country by actively aiding and abetting Russia’s campaign to undermine American democracy in the 2020 election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/chickens-come-home-roost-traitorous-195415389.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Federal Investigators Search Rudy Giuliani’s Apartment and Office</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>Prosecutors obtained the search warrants as part of an investigation into whether Mr. Giuliani broke lobbying laws as President Trump’s personal lawyer.</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) April 28, 2021, by William K. Rashbaum, Ben Protess and Maggie Haberman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Federal investigators in Manhattan executed search warrants early Wednesday at the home and office of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who became President Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, stepping up a criminal investigation into Mr. Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine, three people with knowledge of the investigation said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/28/nyregion/rudy-giuliani-trump-ukraine-warrant.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Leahy, not Roberts, expected to preside over impeachment trial as House to send article to Senate on Monday</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) January 25, 2021, by Jeremy Herb </b></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>and Manu Raju</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The contours of former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial are starting to take shape, with the Senate's longest-serving Democrat expected to preside over the trial and Democrats still weighing whether to pursue witnesses during proceedings that could take up a chunk of February.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/25/politics/impeachment-article-senate-house/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>New: Mueller Investigated Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, And Roger Stone For DNC Hacks</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>Previously secret portions of the Mueller Report show the special counsel declined to prosecute due to lack of evidence.</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed News) November 3, 2020, by </b></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>Jason Leopold </b></span><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">and K</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">en Bensinger</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Prosecutors investigated Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, and Roger Stone for the hacking of Democratic National Committee servers as well as for possible campaign finance violations, but ultimately chose not to charge them, newly released portions of the Mueller Report reveal.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/new-mueller-investigated-julian-assange-wikileaks-and-roger" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>,<b> </b>and see the newly reissued version of the Mueller report <b><a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20401632-updated-mueller-report-leopold-foia-11220" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Inside Story of the Mueller Probe’s Mistakes</b></span></div><div style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><i>In a new book, Andrew Weissmann, one of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s top deputies, lays out the limits and letdowns of the years-long Russia investigation.</i></b></span></div><div style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>(<i>The Atlantic</i>) September 21, 2020, by George Packer</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia;">Andrew Weissmann was one of Robert Mueller’s top deputies in the special counsel’s investigation of the 2016 election, and he’s about to publish the first insider account, called Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation. The title comes from an adapted quote by the philosopher John Locke that’s inscribed on the façade of the Justice Department building in Washington, D.C.: “Wherever law ends, tyranny begins.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/andrew-weissmann-mueller-book-where-law-ends/616395/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: Vindman to retire from military. His lawyer blames White House 'campaign of bullying, intimidation and retaliation'</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) July 8, 2020</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key witness in President Donald Trump's impeachment inquiry, is retiring from the US Army after more than 21 years of military service because he determined that his future in the armed forces "will forever be limited" due to political retaliation by the President and his allies, his lawyer told CNN Wednesday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/08/politics/vindman-retiring-alleged-white-house-retaliation/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>In new book, Bolton belatedly says Trump attempted to use military aid to pressure Ukraine on political investigations</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) June 17, 2020, by </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rosalind S. Helderman and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Josh Dawsey</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For months, as the nation was convulsed by the impeachment of President Trump, his critics held out hope that the congressional proceedings would unearth a high-level witness with first-person testimony about Trump’s efforts to use his office to try to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations that could bolster him politically.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-new-book-bolton-belatedly-says-trump-attempted-to-use-military-aid-to-pressure-ukraine-on-political-investigations/2020/06/17/06ed56ce-af32-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a Lawfare Blog analysis <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/assessing-governments-lawsuit-against-john-bolton" target="_blank">here</a></b> of the Trump administration's injunction suit to stop publication of Bolton's book.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Atkinson: Trump fired me because I handled whistleblower complaint properly</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>“As an Inspector General, I was legally obligated to ensure that whistleblowers had an effective and authorized means to disclose urgent matter.”</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) April 5, 2020 by Kyle Cheney</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The intelligence community watchdog removed abruptly late Friday by President Donald Trump says he believes Trump ousted him because of his evenhanded handling of a whistleblower complaint that ultimately led to the president's impeachment.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/05/atkinson-trump-fired-whistleblower-complaint-167371" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump says he will fire intelligence watchdog at center of Ukraine allegations that led to impeachment</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">April 3, 2020, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">by </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ellen Nakashima, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Josh Dawsey and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Shane Harris</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump notified Congress Friday evening that he intends in 30 days to fire the intelligence community inspector general, the official who alerted lawmakers to a whistleblower complaint last September that was at the center of allegations that led to the president’s impeachment.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-says-he-will-fire-intelligence-watchdog-at-center-of-ukraine-allegations-that-led-to-impeachment/2020/04/03/d0b873d4-761c-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump contradicts past denials, admits sending Giuliani to Ukraine</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) February 14, 2020, by Marshall Cohen</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Emboldened after his impeachment acquittal, President Donald Trump now openly admits to sending his attorney Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to find damaging information about his political opponents, even though he strongly denied it during the impeachment inquiry.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/13/politics/trump-rudy-giuliani-ukraine-interview/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Marie Yovanovitch: These are turbulent times. But we will persist and prevail.</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) February 6, 2020, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Marie L. Yovanovitch</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Marie L. Yovanovitch served most recently as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After nearly 34 years working for the State Department, I said goodbye to a career that I loved. It is a strange feeling to transition from decades of communicating in the careful words of a diplomat to a person free to speak exclusively for myself.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/06/marie-yovanovitch-ukraine-ambassador-american-institutions-need-us/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Impeachment vote: Sharply divided Senate acquits Trump on both articles</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Mitt Romney broke ranks with Republicans, voting to convict.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(ABC News) February 5, 2020, by </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trish Turner </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Libby Cathey</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The months-long impeachment and Senate trial of President Donald Trump came to an anticlimactic end Wednesday afternoon with acquittal on both articles.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate-poised-acquit-trump-historic-impeachment-trial/story?id=68774104" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Told Bolton to Help His Ukraine Pressure Campaign, Book Says</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The president asked his national security adviser last spring in front of other senior advisers to pave the way for a meeting between Rudolph Giuliani and Ukraine’s new leader.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) January 31, 2020, b</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>y Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">More than two months before he asked Ukraine’s president to investigate his political opponents, President Trump directed John R. Bolton, then his national security adviser, to help with his pressure campaign to extract damaging information on Democrats from Ukrainian officials, according to an unpublished manuscript by Mr. Bolton.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/us/politics/trump-bolton-ukraine.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Executive Privilege Is No Reason for the Senate to Ignore John Bolton</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) January 27, 2020, by Jonathan Shaub</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-size: large;">—</b>Former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s unpublished book is the hottest manuscript in Washington. According to a recent story in the New York Times, Bolton provides never-before-public details about events that are at the heart of the ongoing Senate impeachment trial of President Trump—most notably, that Trump directly told Bolton he wanted to maintain the hold on aid to Ukraine until the country announced investigations into the Bidens and supposed 2016 election interference.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/executive-privilege-no-reason-senate-ignore-john-bolton" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Trump Tied Ukraine Aid to Inquiries He Sought, Bolton Book Says</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Drafts of the book outline the potential testimony of the former national security adviser if he were called as a witness in the president’s impeachment trial.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) January 26, 2020, by </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by the former adviser, John R. Bolton.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/us/politics/trump-bolton-book-ukraine.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> and coverage of the fallout from the report <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/impeachment-trial-live-01-27" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/key-gop-senators-say-reports-on-bolton-book-bolster-case-for-witnesses-in-impeachment-trial/2020/01/27/2aba7700-4126-11ea-b503-2b077c436617_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Alan Dershowitz’s Strange Constitutional Arguments on Impoundment and Foreign Policy</b>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) January 22, 2020, by Philip Bobbitt</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On Jan. 17, the White House announced that Alan Dershowitz would be joining the president’s defense team in his Senate impeachment trial. That same day, Dershowitz published a statement defending President Trump’s withholding of military assistance to Ukraine and criticizing a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that concluded that the hold on aid violated the Impoundment Control Act. Dershowitz has made many controversial legal arguments recently—but given his prominent upcoming role defending the president, it is worth taking a close look at what he has to say on the question of Trump withholding aid.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/alan-dershowitzs-strange-constitutional-arguments-impoundment-and-foreign-policy" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>,<b> </b>and follow the Lawfare Blog's impeachment podcasts and other coverage of the trial <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/topic/impeachment" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>How a Russian disinfo op got Trump impeached</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The Kremlin may have been laying the groundwork for blaming Ukraine for 2016 as early as 2015.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) January 22, 2020, by Natasha Bertrand</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Three weeks after Election Day 2016, the Kremlin officially floated a theory that would ultimately lead to only the third presidential impeachment in U.S. history.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/22/ukraine-russia-disinformation-election-trump-101895" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and watch the Senate impeachment trial <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1auW9m_Oxbs" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Government watchdog concludes Trump administration broke law by withholding Ukraine aid</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) January 16, 2020, by Jeremy Herb</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Government Accountability Office says the Trump administration broke the law when it withheld US security aid to Ukraine last year that had been appropriated by Congress -- an issue at the center of the impeachment of President Donald Trump.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/16/politics/gao-report-administration-violated-law-withholding-aid/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Giuliani associate implicates Trump in Ukraine scheme</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) January 16, 2020, by Erica Orden</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lev Parnas, the Soviet-born businessman whose work in Ukraine with President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani stands at the center of the impeachment inquiry, implicated the President Wednesday in an interview with CNN in which he said that their efforts were "all about 2020" and not about working in the interest of the United States.... <i>Read the full article and watch the interview <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/16/politics/lev-parnas-cnn-interview/index.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, and read another CNN story <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/14/politics/lev-parnas-documents-house-investigators/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on text messages and hand-written notes provided by Parnas to House investigators.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>New Ukraine revelations hang over impeachment trial</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The case against the president continues to evolve as new evidence comes to light.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) January 7, 2020, by Kyle Cheney and Andrew Desiderio</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The House impeached President Donald Trump three weeks ago, but a gusher of evidence related to the case has continued to flow — threatening to intensify a scandal that has consumed the Trump presidency.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/07/trump-ukraine-impeachment-trial-095542" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Behind the Ukraine Aid Freeze: 84 Days of Conflict and Confusion</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The inside story of President Trump’s demand to halt military assistance to an ally shows the price he was willing to pay to carry out his agenda.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(</b><b><i>The New York Times</i>) December 29, 2019, by</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> <b>Eric Lipton, Maggie Haberman and </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark Mazzetti—</b>Deep into a long flight to Japan aboard Air Force One with President Trump, Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, dashed off an email to an aide back in Washington.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/29/us/politics/trump-ukraine-military-aid.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">How a Putin ally is aiding Giuliani in Ukraine</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 22, 2019, by Editorial </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Board—</b>For more than 15 years, Dmytro Firtash has been a central player in Vladimir Putin’s campaign to gain control over Ukraine’s political system and economy.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-a-putin-ally-is-aiding-giuliani-in-ukraine/2019/12/22/33de11d0-2366-11ea-86f3-3b5019d451db_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Former White House officials say they feared Putin influenced the president’s views on Ukraine and 2016 campaign</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 19, 2019, by </b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Shane Harris, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Josh Dawsey and </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Carol D. Leonnig—</b>Almost from the moment he took office, President Trump seized on a theory that troubled his senior aides: Ukraine, he told them on many occasions, had tried to stop him from winning the White House.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/former-white-house-officials-say-they-feared-putin-influenced-the-presidents-views-on-ukraine-and-2016-campaign/2019/12/19/af0fdbf6-20e9-11ea-bed5-880264cc91a9_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> and my chronology of Trump's close links with Putin <b><a href="https://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2019/01/comrade-trump-putin-ties-bromance-timeline-mueller.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump impeached in historic rebuke</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>For only the third time ever, the House recommends a president’s removal from office.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politic0) December 18, 2019, by Kyle </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Cheney and Andrew Desiderio—</b>The House voted to impeach President Donald Trump Wednesday on charges of abusing his power and obstructing congressional investigations, a historic rebuke in a political era that has threatened to upend the nation’s constitutional order.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/18/trump-impeachment-wednesday-house-vote-086512" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, the House impeachment resolution <b><a href="https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hres755/BILLS-116hres755rh.xml" target="_blank">here</a></b> and a CNBC story <b><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/18/pelosi-threatens-to-delay-trump-impeachment-trial-to-pressure-mcconnell.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on what could happen next. Watch the articles of impeachment debate <b><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?467441-1/us-house-impeaches-president-trump&live=" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Giuliani Ally Got $1 Million From Lawyer for Ukrainian Oligarch</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) December 17, 2019, by </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Christian Berthelsen—</b>A lawyer for for Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash was the source of $1 million that was deposited into a family account of Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, the U.S. said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-17/firtash-lawyer-was-source-of-1-million-to-parnas-giuliani-ally?srnd=markets-vp" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Judiciary Committee impeachment report alleges Trump committed 'multiple federal crimes'</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The 169-page report makes the case for Trump's removal from office.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) December 16, 2019, by Kyle </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>and Andrew Desiderio—</b>President Donald Trump committed criminal bribery and wire fraud, the House Judiciary Committee alleges in a report that will accompany articles of impeachment this week.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/16/judiciary-committee-impeachment-report-trump-committed-multiple-federal-crimes-086096" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, the report <b><a href="https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/CRPT-116hrpt346.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a Just Security report <b><a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/67738/federal-criminal-offenses-and-the-impeachment-of-donald-j-trump/#Intro" target="_blank">here</a></b> by legal scholars on federal crimes that apply to Trump's conduct, including an introduction by Andrew Weissmann, a lead prosecutor for the Mueller investigation.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Millions in military aid at center of impeachment hasn’t reached Ukraine</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Los Angeles Times</i>) December 12, 2019, by Molly O'Toole and Sarah D. Wire</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">More than $20 million of the Pentagon aid at the center of the impeachment fight still hasn’t reached Ukraine.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-12-12/millions-in-military-aid-at-center-of-impeachment-hasnt-reached-ukraine" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Giuliani Associate Parnas Got $1 Million From Russia, U.S. Says</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) December 11, 2019, by </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Christian Berthelsen—</b>U.S. prosecutors asked a judge to return Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani indicted on campaign finance charges, to jail for lying about his income and concealing a $1 million payment he got from Russia in September, a month before he was charged.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Parnas poses an extreme risk of flight, and that risk of flight is only compounded by his continued and troubling misrepresentations,” prosecutors in Manhattan wrote in a court filing on Wednesday.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-11/giuliani-associate-parnas-got-1-million-from-russia-u-s-says" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, a </i>New Yorker<i> story <b><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/23/the-ukrainian-prosecutor-behind-trumps-impeachment" target="_blank">here</a></b> about the Ukrainian prosecutor who has fed information to Giuliani and a </i>New York Times<i> story <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/us/politics/giuliani-yovanovitch-ukraine.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b> on Giuliani's account of providing information to Trump that set in motion the recall of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>House Judiciary Committee lays out ‘constitutional grounds’ for Trump impeachment in new report</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 7, 2019, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Colby Itkowitz—</b>The House Judiciary</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Committee released a report Saturday afternoon making the legal case for why President Trump’s conduct rises to the level of impeachment as Democrats race to finish the inquiry before the end of the year.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-judiciary-committee-lays-out-constitutional-grounds-for-trump-impeachment-in-new-report/2019/12/07/4708d412-1915-11ea-8406-df3c54b3253e_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, the report <b><a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-judiciary-committee-releases-staff-report-constitutional-grounds" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a Politico story <b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/Democrats%20unveil%202%20articles%20of%20impeachment%20against%20Trump%20Trump%20committed%20%22high%20crimes%20and%20misdemeanors%22%20by%20abusing%20his%20power%20and%20obstructing%20Congress,%20lawmakers%20said.%20%20By%20ANDREW%20DESIDERIO,%20KYLE%20CHENEY%20and%20HEATHER%20CAYGLE%20%2012/10/2019%2008:24%20AM%20EST%20%20Updated:%2012/10/2019%2010:52%20AM%20EST%20%20Facebook%20Twitter%20Link%20More%20House%20Democrats%20unveiled%20two%20articles%20of%20impeachment%20Tuesday%20morning%20charging%20President%20Donald%20Trump%20with%20abuse%20of%20power%20and%20obstruction%20of%20Congress,%20a%20historic%20step%20that%20will%20define%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20presidency%20and%20plunge%20Washington%20even%20deeper%20into%20a%20state%20of%20partisan%20polarization." target="_blank">here</a></b> on the Democrats' Dec. 10 announcement of two impeachment articles against Trump. Read the articles of impeachment <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/10/politics/articles-impeachment-trump/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Pressure builds for Giuliani as associate enters talks over potential plea deal</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Pressure to cut deal comes after revelations that Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman are ‘likely’ to face more charges, attorney says</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) December 6, 2019, by Peter Stone—</b>Talks about a potential plea deal are under way between federal prosecutors and an attorney for Lev Parnas, a Rudy Giuliani associate indicted for making illegal campaign donations who helped Trump lawyer Giuliani’s search for dirt in Ukraine on Joe Biden, says an attorney familiar with the investigation.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/06/giuliani-associate-lev-parnas-talks-potential-plea-deal" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and read a </i>Washington Post <i>story <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/as-impeachment-tide-swirls-around-trump-giuliani-drops-anchor-in-ukraine/2019/12/06/8f454a7a-184e-11ea-bf81-ebe89f477d1e_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on Giuliani's recent trip to Ukraine.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Rudy’s New Ukraine Jaunt Is Freaking Out Trump’s Lieutenants—and He Doesn’t Care</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Top administration officials have been tracking Giuliani’s venture through Europe, wondering if he’s going to cause yet another major headache for the president.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) December 6, 2019, by Asawin Suebsaeng and </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Erin Banco—</b>Rudy Giuliani’s decision to travel to multiple European countries this week, during the height of an impeachment probe involving his client President Trump, was so startling to senior administration officials and national security brass that they began tracking his movements in an effort to get a read on his objectives abroad.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/rudy-giuliani-new-ukraine-jaunt-is-freaking-out-trump-lieutenants-and-he-doesnt-care?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Impeachment witness calls Trump’s actions ‘worse than the misconduct of any prior president’</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Several constitutional scholars are testifying in the Judiciary Committee's first impeachment hearing.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) December 4, 2019, by Kyle Cheney and Andrew Desiderio—</b>Three constitutional lawyers called by Democrats in their rapidly progressing impeachment inquiry plan to testify that Donald Trump’s actions toward Ukraine were the worst examples of misconduct in presidential history and the reason the framers included impeachment in the Constitution.... </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/04/trump-impeachment-next-phase-removal-075013" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>. Read the opening statement of </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>University of </i></span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhard</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">t</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000016e-d0ec-dc46-a9ff-ffef932a0000&nname=huddle&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b4be0000&nrid=0000014c-2414-d9dd-a5ec-34bc52a40001&nlid=630309" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">here</span></a></b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, that of Harvard University law professor Noah Feldman </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000016e-d0eb-dc46-a9ff-ffebc5740000&nname=huddle&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b4be0000&nrid=0000014c-2414-d9dd-a5ec-34bc52a40001&nlid=630309" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, that of Stanford University law professor Pamela Karlan </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000016e-d0e9-dc46-a9ff-ffeb89cd0000&nname=huddle&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b4be0000&nrid=0000014c-2414-d9dd-a5ec-34bc52a40001&nlid=630309" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and that of George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000016e-d0e8-dc46-a9ff-ffeb787a0000&nname=huddle&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b4be0000&nrid=0000014c-2414-d9dd-a5ec-34bc52a40001&nlid=630309" target="_blank">here</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span></span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Impeachment hearings live updates: House panel’s report says Trump ‘compromised national security to advance his personal political interests’</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 3, 2019, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">John Wagner and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Colby Itkowitz</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The House Intelligence Committee released a report Tuesday that said President Trump placed his political interests above national interests in his conduct toward Ukraine.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/impeachment-hearings-live-updates/2019/12/03/50fec098-15ba-11ea-8406-df3c54b3253e_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, the report <a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=890" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, a Politico analysis of key takeaways from the report <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/03/key-highlights-intelligence-committee-impeachment-report-074931" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a </i>Washington Post<i> article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-the-ukraine-pressure-campaign-began-as-an-effort-to-undercut-the-mueller-investigation/2019/12/02/208204c8-12c9-11ea-9cd7-a1becbc82f5e_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on how the Ukraine pressure campaign began as an effort to undercut the Mueller investigation.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Republicans Do Their Best to Distance Trump From Giuliani in Impeachment Report</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i>Despite testimony that the president told U.S. and Ukrainian officials to “talk to Rudy,” a voluminous new Republican report insists Trump’s lawyer was not speaking on his behalf.</i></b><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">(The Daily Beast) December 3, 2019, by Sam Brodey</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In a lengthy report released late Monday, House Republicans threw out a range of defenses designed to poke holes in the Democrats’ case to impeach President Trump. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One defense that pops up repeatedly in the 123-page document: Rudy Giuliani went rogue.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-impeachment-report-republicans-do-their-best-to-distance-trump-from-giuliani" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a CNBC story <b><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/03/impeachment-report-giuliani-called-white-house-nunes-and-omb.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on Giuliani's multiple phone calls with the White House, budget office and others.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Top State Department official tells senators he has not seen evidence of Ukrainian interference</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Hill) December 3, 2019, by Olivia Beavers</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">David Hale, the third-ranking State Department official who testified recently as part of the House impeachment inquiry, told senators Tuesday that he has not seen any evidence to support GOP claims that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/472801-top-state-department-official-tells-senators-he-has-not-seen" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>New charges likely in case against Giuliani associates</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) December 2, 2019, by Erin Durkin</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b>New charges are likely to be brought against two associates of Rudy Giuliani who were indicted for campaign finance crimes, prosecutors said Monday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2019/12/02/new-charges-likely-in-case-against-giuliani-associates-1230238" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Denies Giuliani Acted on His Behalf in Ukraine: ‘Rudy Has Other Clients’</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i>“He’s done a lot of work in Ukraine over the years,” the president told former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly.</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) November 27, 2019, by Julia Arciga</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump appeared to hang his personal lawyer out to dry in an interview with former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday night, insisting that Rudy Giuliani's push for a Biden investigation in Ukraine was not done on his behalf and noting that Giuliani has “other clients.”... </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-denies-giuliani-acted-on-his-behalf-in-ukraine-rudy-has-other-clients" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>. Also, read a </i>Washington Post<i> <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/giuliani-was-in-talks-to-be-paid-by-ukraines-top-prosecutor-as-they-together-sought-damaging-information-on-democrats/2019/11/27/636c3e86-112d-11ea-b0fc-62cc38411ebb_story.html" target="_blank">story</a></b> here on reports that Giuliani was in talks to be paid by Ukraine's top prosecutor while they worked to dig up dirt on the Bidens, and read </i><i>a </i>New York Times<i> article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/nyregion/giuliani-ukraine-business-trump.html?campaign_id=60&instance_id=0&segment_id=19139&user_id=9957a8dc87b5e1e5dabe063c934e7f70&regi_id=27899569ing-news" target="_blank">here</a></b> on reports that Giuliani pursued business in Ukraine while pushing for inquiries there.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">We Wrote a Starr Report! An Account of the Record in L’Affaire Ukrainienne</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) November 26, 2019, by Scott R. Anderson, Margaret Taylor and Benjamin Wittes</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the Ukraine affair, there is no Robert Mueller. There is no Kenneth Starr. If the House is going to get a detailed report on the conduct of President Trump with respect to Ukraine and the Biden family, it’s going to have to write that report itself.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/we-wrote-starr-report-account-record-laffaire-ukrainienne" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">White House Budget Official Said 2 Aides Resigned Amid Ukraine Aid Freeze</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Mark Sandy, an official at the Office of Management and Budget, testified that two of his colleagues quit after expressing concerns about President Trump’s decision to withhold military assistance.</i></b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 26, 2019, by </b><b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Michael D. Shear and Nicholas Fandos</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Two officials at the White House budget office resigned this year partly because of their concerns about President Trump’s decision to hold up congressionally approved security assistance to Ukraine, a third aide at the office told impeachment investigators, revealing dissent within a key agency about Mr. Trump’s refusal to release the money.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/politics/impeachment-trump-hearing.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, and read the transcript of the deposition of Mark Sandy, </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Deputy Associate Director for National Security Programs at the Office of Management and Budget Mark Sandy, and that of Acting Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker <b><a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=872" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Knew of Whistle-Blower Complaint When He Released Aid to Ukraine</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>White House lawyers briefed President Trump in late August about the complaint, people familiar with the matter said.</i></b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 26, 2019, by Michael S. Schmidt, Julian E. Barnes and Maggie Haberman</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">P</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">resident Trump had already been briefed on a whistle-blower’s complaint about his dealings with Ukraine when he unfroze military aid for the country in September, according to two people familiar with the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/politics/trump-whistle-blower-complaint-ukraine.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Why Giuliani Singled Out 2 Ukrainian Oligarchs to Help Look for Dirt</b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 25, 2019, by Jo Becker, Walt Bogdanich, Maggie Haberman and Ben Protess</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">They were two Ukrainian oligarchs with American legal problems. One had been indicted on federal bribery charges. The other was embroiled in a vast banking scandal and was reported to be under investigation by the F.B.I.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/25/us/giuliani-ukraine-oligarchs.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, and read a </i>Guardian <i>story <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/23/trump-impeachment-giuliani-parnas-fruman-insurance-devin-nunes" target="_blank">here</a></b> on reports of contacts between Giuliani </i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">indicted Soviet-born businessman Lev Parnas</i><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Fiona Hill Ties Trump’s Ukraine Pressure Back to Russiagate</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The White House’s former top Russia official called the impeachment inquiry legitimate, contradicting her former boss.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) November 21, 2019, by Spencer Ackerman and </b></span><b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Sam Brodey</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Throughout the first week of the House of Representatives’ impeachment hearings, the witnesses, most of them serving career U.S. diplomats, have attempted agnosticism on the merits of impeaching President Trump and sidestep often rancorous Republican questioning. But the White House’s former top Russia official made it clear on Thursday that she wasn’t going to follow the same script.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/fiona-hill-ties-trumps-ukraine-pressure-back-to-russiagate-during-impeachment-hearing?ref=scroll" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>,<b> </b></i></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">CNN's live updates on the day's testimony <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/impeachment-hearing-11-21-19/index.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, and a Politico round table on the impeachment proceedings <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/23/impeachment-recap-analysis-073063" target="_blank">here</a></b>. Read </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>the opening statement of Fiona Hill, former director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council, </i></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/21/fiona-hill-opening-statement-today-impeachment-hearings-072395" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>and that of David Holmes, a political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv,</i></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/21/read-david-holmes-opening-statement-at-todays-impeachment-hearings-072408?cid=impch_m" target="_blank">here</a></b>. Watch the day's testimony <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8XjYjVsDXE&feature=emb_logo" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Pentagon official reveals Ukrainians asked about stalled aid as early as July</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) November 20, 2019, by Kevin Liptak</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Top Pentagon official Laura Cooper testified that Ukrainian officials knew as early as July 25 that there was an issue with US aid to the country.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This undercuts a key Republican rebuttal to accusations of a "quid pro quo" linking the aid to investigations into President Trump's political rivals.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/impeachment-hearing-11-20-19/index.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, and read the opening statement of Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, <b><a href="https://www.axios.com/laura-cooper-opening-statement-impeachment-hearing-207b1db5-b9f1-45a3-b7a4-08f0329b74b5.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>. Watch Cooper's testimony <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m20HWj02UFA&feature=emb_logo" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The answer is yes': Sondland affirms 'quid pro quo' in Ukraine dealings</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>His credibility is likely to come under fire.</i></b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(Politico) November 20, 2019, by Kyle Cheney and Andrew Desiderio</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump’s handpicked Ukraine adviser Gordon Sondland said Trump conditioned a valuable White House meeting for Ukraine's new president on his willingness to launch investigations into Trump's Democratic adversaries, including former Vice President Joe Biden.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/20/gordon-sondland-impeachment-testimony-071708" target="_blank">here</a></b> and Sondland's opening remarks <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/20/politics/gordon-sondland-opening-remarks-impeachment-hearing/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>. Watch Sondland's testimony <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSjpOCvU5JE&feature=emb_logo" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Impeachment hearings: Vindman saw it as his ‘duty’ to report Trump's July 25 call</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testified that he told Ukraine's president not to meddle in U.S. politics during Day Three of impeachment hearings.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 19, 2019, by Natasha Bertrand, Quint Forgey and Abbey Marshall</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testified Tuesday that “it was my duty” to report Donald Trump’s July 25 call with his Ukrainian counterpart to a White House lawyer — a call he’s characterized as “improper.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/19/impeachment-hearings-live-highlights-and-updates-071459" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and CNN's live updates on the day's testimony <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/impeachment-hearing-11-19-19/" target="_blank">here</a></b>. Watch the testimony <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWZyBDVRxNI&feature=emb_title" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>. Read the opening statements of Vindman<b> <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/19/alexander-vindman-opening-statement-today-impeachment-hearings-071492?cid=impch_m" target="_blank">here</a></b> and Jennifer Williams, </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>a State Department official on loan to the Vice President’s office as a special adviser for Russia and Europe</i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">, <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/19/jennifer-williams-opening-statement-today-impeachment-hearings-071495?cid=impch_m" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump's impeachment ire turns on Pompeo amid diplomats' starring roles</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Impeachment hearings have created a rift between the president and one of his staunchest allies in the administration.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(NBC News) November 18, 2019, by Carol E. Lee, Courtney Kube and Andrea Mitchell</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The impeachment inquiry has created the first rift between President Donald Trump and the Cabinet member who has been his closest ally, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to four current and former senior administration officials.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/trump-s-impeachment-ire-turns-pompeo-amid-diplomats-starring-roles-n1082716" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Gordon Sondland Stepped In ‘and Things Went Really Off the Rails’</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>“Erratic,” “very emotional,” and “lots of yelling.” Those are some of the words used to describe Sondland’s performance in a White House meeting with top Ukrainian officials.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) November 18, 2019, by Erin Banco and </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Lachlan Markay</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ukrainian officials arrived at the White House on July 10 expecting something approaching normal. They were in Washington for a scheduled meeting with then-National Security Adviser John Bolton with a plan to propose a new path for U.S.-Ukrainian relations under the umbrella of energy and security cooperation. All seemed to go well—until U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland stepped in. “That’s when th</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">ings really went off the rails,” one person in the room said.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/impeachment-hearings-when-gordon-sondland-stepped-in-things-went-really-off-the-rails" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, and read a CNN article <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/18/politics/ukraine-zelensky-pressure-trump-investigations/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> about testimony that Trump administration officials knew in May that Ukraine felt pressured to investigate the Bidens.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Pence aide testified that Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine were 'inappropriate'</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Jennifer Williams told investigators that she took notes while she listened in on Trump’s July 25 phone call.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 16, 2019, by Andrew Desiderio and Melanie Zanona</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A top national security aide to Vice President Mike Pence told House impeachment investigators that President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political opponents were “unusual and inappropriate,” and “shed some light on possible other motivations” for the president’s order to freeze military aid to the U.S. ally.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/16/pence-aide-testified-that-trumps-efforts-to-pressure-ukraine-were-inappropriate-071282" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, and read <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/17/trump-pence-aide-williams-never-trumper-071330?cid=impch_m" target="_blank">this Politico story</a></b> about Trump attacking Williams as a "never Trumper." Read the deposition transcripts of the testimony of Jennifer Williams, </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>a State Department official on loan to the Vice President’s office as a special adviser for Russia and Europe,</i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"> and Tim Morrison, former National Security Council senior director for countering weapons of mass destruction, <b><a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=849" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Exclusive: After private White House meeting, Giuliani associate Lev Parnas said he was on a 'secret mission' for Trump, sources say</b><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">(CNN) November 16, 2019, by Vicky Ward</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Among the many guests who had their pictures taken with President Donald Trump at the White House's annual Hanukkah party last year were two Soviet-born businessmen from Florida, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.... </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/15/politics/parnas-trump-special-mission-ukraine/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>What Was Truly Unprecedented in This Week’s Impeachment Hearings?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>We’ve seen impeachment proceedings before—but not like this. We rounded up 5 experts on the process to tell us what we should have been paying attention to.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 16, 2019, by Politico Magazine</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It’s easy to call an impeachment “historic,” but what kind of history did we really see this week? Most of us couldn’t answer that in real time, but POLITICO Magazine tracked down the tiny handful of Americans who can: The historians and legal analysts who specialize in the rare, high-stakes process of impeachment itself.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2019/11/16/public-impeachment-hearing-historian-roundup-071249" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Diplomat: Sondland told Trump Ukraine would investigate Bidens</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 15, 2019, by Andrew Desiderio</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A State Department official told House impeachment investigators on Friday that he overheard Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, telling President Donald Trump that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would do “anything you ask him to” — including publicly announcing an investigation targeting Trump’s political rivals.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/15/holmes-sondland-ukraine-impeachment-trump-071250" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump attacks ambassador even as she describes feeling threatened by him</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 15, 2019, by </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Rosalind S. Helderman and </b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Rachael Bade</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The president’s words left her “shocked” and “devastated,” the witness said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told lawmakers Friday that when she read how President Trump had talked about her to his Ukrainian counterpart in a July phone call — saying ominously that “she’s going to go through some things” — the color drained from her face.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-attacks-ambassador-even-as-she-describes-feeling-threatened-by-him/2019/11/15/c14eefaa-07bc-11ea-8ac0-0810ed197c7e_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, a </i>Washington Post<i> story on key takeaways from the testimony <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/11/15/early-takeaways-marie-yovanovitchs-testimony/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and CNN's live impeachment updates for the day <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/impeachment-hearing-11-15-19/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>. Watch Yovanovitch's testimony <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=sPoc_sj1hgQ&feature=emb_logo" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Giuliani Faces U.S. Probe on Campaign Finance, Lobbying Breaches</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) by </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Chris Strohm and Jordan Fabian, </b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>November 14, 2019</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, is being investigated by federal prosecutors for possible campaign finance violations and a failure to register as a foreign agent as part of an active investigation into his financial dealings, according to three U.S. officials.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/giuliani-faces-u-probe-campaign-000039292.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>AP source: 2nd US official heard Trump call with Sondland</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) November 14, 2019, by Desmond Butler, Michael Biesecker and Matthew Lee</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A second U.S. Embassy staffer in Kyiv overheard a cellphone call between President Donald Trump and his ambassador to the European Union discussing a need for Ukrainian officials to pursue “investigations,” The Associated Press has learned.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article237356769.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>,<b> </b>and read a CNN story <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/14/politics/bill-taylor-gordon-sondland-call-trump-security-concerns/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> quoting security experts who say the call breached counterintelligence practices and was likely intercepted by foreign intelligence services.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Democrats land damning new evidence in impeachment testimony</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Key figures in the Ukraine saga appeared to help Democrats make the case that Trump abused the power of the presidency.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 13, 2019, by Kyle Cheney and Andrew Desiderio</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Donald Trump called a key ally in July for an update on efforts to push Ukraine to investigate his Democratic adversaries, a witness in the House’s impeachment inquiry revealed Wednesday.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/13/trump-impeachment-hearings-070089" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, watch the first day of hearings <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrL2q91fnnQ&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">here</a></b>, and read further highlights <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/13/public-impeachment-hearings-live-highlights-and-updates-070279" target="_blank">here</a></b>. Read a Lawfare Blog analysis of the first day of open impeachment hearings <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-make-first-day-impeachment-hearings" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Your Trump impeachment viewing guide</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i>What you need to know about the first public impeachment hearings on Wednesday</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CBC News) November 12, 2019, by Steven D'Souza</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After weeks of closed-door depositions, the impeachment inquiry into allegations of abuse of power by U.S. President Donald Trump is set to take the spotlight with public hearings.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-impeachment-public-hearings-1.5354018" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>There’s a Surprisingly Plausible Path to Removing Trump From Office</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>It would take just three Republican senators to turn the impeachment vote into a secret ballot. It’s not hard to imagine what would happen then.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 12, 2019, by Juleanna Glover</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">By most everyone’s judgment, the Senate will not vote to remove President Donald Trump from office if the House impeaches him. But what if senators could vote on impeachment by secret ballot? If they didn’t have to face backlash from constituents or the media or the president himself, who knows how many Republican senators would vote to remove?... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/11/12/path-to-removing-donald-trump-from-office-229911" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mulvaney’s OMB Held Up Lethal Ukraine Aid in 2017 for Fear of Russian Reaction</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>“[It] was rather unusual to have OMB expressing concerns that were purely policy-based and not budget-oriented,” former White House official Catherine Croft told investigators.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) November 11, 2019, by Betsy Swan</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Under Mick Mulvaney’s leadership, the Office of Management and Budget temporarily put a hold on the delivery of anti-tank missiles to Ukraine in 2017 because of concerns their arrival would upset Russia, according to former White House official Catherine Croft.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/mulvaneys-omb-held-up-lethal-ukraine-aid-in-2017-for-fear-of-russian-reaction?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a transcript of the testimony of Croft and Christopher Anderson, a former advisor to U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Kurt Volker, <b><a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=826" target="_blank">here</a></b>. Read the transcript of the testimony of </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Ukraine, <a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=822" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, and a Politico story <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/11/what-laura-cooper-told-impeachment-investigators-069364" target="_blank">here</a></b> on revelations in the three newly released transcripts.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>State Department Freed Ukraine Money Before Trump Says He Did</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) November 9, 2019, by Nick Wadhams and Saleha Mohsin</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump says he lifted his freeze on aid to Ukraine on Sept. 11, but the State Department had quietly authorized releasing $141 million of the money several days earlier, according to five people familiar with the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-09/state-department-freed-ukraine-money-before-trump-says-he-did" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Impeachment inquiry: Fiona Hill tells lawmakers she's received death threats</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Former top Russia expert at White House says harassment reached a peak after she agreed to testify in impeachment hearings</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) November 8, 2019, by Julian Borger</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The former top Russia expert at the White House has said she has been subjected to a campaign of harassment and intimidation, including death threats, which reached a new peak after she agreed to testify in congressional impeachment hearings.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/08/fiona-hill-testimony-death-threats-impeachment" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Bolton Knows About ‘Many Relevant Meetings’ on Ukraine, Lawyer Says</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The former national security adviser would be an important witness in the impeachment inquiry, but his lawyer wants a court to rule on whether he should testify.</i></b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 8, 2019, by </b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Peter Baker</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">John R. Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser, has knowledge of “many relevant meetings and conversations” connected to the Ukraine pressure campaign that House impeachment investigators do not yet know about, his lawyer told lawmakers on Friday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/us/politics/john-bolton-ukraine.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Live updates: Ukraine expert who listened to Trump’s call says ‘there was no doubt’ the president was seeking investigations of political rivals</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 8, 2019, b</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">y </b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">John Wagner and </b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Colby Itkowitz</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, a Ukraine expert who listened to President Trump’s July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said “there was no doubt” that Trump was seeking political investigations of political rivals, according to a transcript of his deposition.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry-live-updates/2019/11/08/2b1e67dc-01b2-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, and read transcripts of the testimony of Vindman and Fiona Hill, former senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council, <b><a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=815" target="_blank">here</a></b>. Read a CNN article <b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/White%20House%20blames%20NSC%20aide%20for%20discrepancy%20between%20readout%20and%20new%20transcript%20of%20Trump-Zelensky%20April%20call%20Kaitlan%20Collins%20bylineKylie%20Atwood%20By%20Kaitlan%20Collins%20and%20Kylie%20Atwood,%20CNN%20%20Updated%200133%20GMT%20(0933%20HKT)%20November%2016,%202019%20transcripts%20impeachment%20inquiry%20ukraine%20taylor%20sondland%20mckinley%20yovanovitch%20orig%20mg_00042815%20Play%20Mute%20Current%20Time0:04%20/%20Duration%20Time7:25%20%20%20%20Fullscreen%20Former%20Ambassador%20to%20Ukraine%20Marie%20Yovanovitch%20testifies%20before%20the%20House%20Intelligence%20Committee%20on%20Capitol%20Hill%20in%20Washington,%20Friday,%20Nov.%2015,%202019,%20during%20the%20second%20public%20impeachment%20hearing%20of%20President%20Donald%20Trump's%20efforts%20to%20tie%20U.S.%20aid%20for%20Ukraine%20to%20investigations%20of%20his%20political%20opponents.%20%20Yovanovitch:%20Trump's%20attacks%20are%20'very%20intimidating'%20%20CNN%20analyst:%20Russia%20benefits%20from%20Trump%20bashing%20his%20ambassadors%20%20Avlon:%20These%20hearings%20are%20about%20'teamism'%20%20Fareed:%20Trump%20is%20selling%20out%20US%20foreign%20policy%20%20Erin%20Burnett:%20Nancy%20Pelosi's%20move%20is%20significant%20WASHINGTON,%20DC%20-%20JANUARY%2019:%20%20A%20view%20outside%20Trump%20International%20Hotel%20Washington,%20D.C.%20one%20day%20before%20the%20inaguration%20of%20Donald%20Trump%20January%2019,%202017%20in%20Washington,%20DC.%20Hundreds%20of%20thousands%20of%20people%20are%20expected%20to%20come%20to%20the%20National%20Mall%20to%20witness%20Trump%20being%20sworn%20in%20as%20the%2045th%20president%20of%20the%20United%20States%20%20(Photo%20by%20Noam%20Galai/WireImage)%20See%20the%20controversial%20sales%20pitch%20for%20Trump's%20DC%20hotel%20Former%20US%20Ambassador%20to%20Ukraine%20Marie%20Yovanovitch%20(C)%20flanked%20by%20lawyers,%20aides%20and%20Capitol%20police,%20leaves%20the%20US%20Capitol%20October%2011,%202019%20in%20Washington,%20DC%20after%20testifying%20behind%20closed%20doors%20to%20the%20House%20Intelligence,%20Foreign%20Affairs%20and%20Oversight%20committees%20as%20part%20of%20the%20ongoing%20impeachment%20investigation%20against%20President%20Donald%20Trump.%20Marie%20Yovanovitch%20called%20'bad%20news'%20by%20Donald%20Trump%20%20Nikki%20Haley%20defends%20Trump's%20false%20claims%20as%20'slip-ups'%20transcripts%20impeachment%20inquiry%20ukraine%20taylor%20sondland%20mckinley%20yovanovitch%20orig%20mg_00042815.jpgNOW%20PLAYING%20Key%20takeaways%20from%20the%20impeachment%20inquiry%20transcripts%20David%20Holmes,%20a%20State%20Department%20official,%20arrives%20to%20appear%20in%20a%20closed-door%20deposition%20hearing%20as%20part%20of%20the%20impeachment%20inquiry%20at%20the%20US%20Capitol%20in%20Washington,%20DC,%20on%20November%2015,%202019.%20Aide%20confirms%20Trump-Sondland%20call%20about%20Ukraine%20investigations%20%20GOP%20congressman%20avoids%20this%20question%20after%20hearing%20WASHINGTON,%20DC%20-%20NOVEMBER%2015:%20Former%20U.S.%20Ambassador%20to%20Ukraine%20Marie%20Yovanovitch%20acknowledges%20audience%20from%20members%20of%20the%20public%20in%20the%20audience%20as%20she%20concludes%20her%20testimony%20before%20the%20House%20Intelligence%20Committee%20in%20the%20Longworth%20House%20Office%20Building%20on%20Capitol%20Hill%20November%2015,%202019%20in%20Washington,%20DC.%20In%20the%20second%20impeachment%20hearing%20held%20by%20the%20committee,%20House%20Democrats%20continue%20to%20build%20a%20case%20against%20U.S.%20President%20Donald%20Trump's%20efforts%20to%20link%20U.S.%20military%20aid%20for%20Ukraine%20to%20the%20nation's%20investigation%20of%20his%20political%20rivals.%20%20(Photo%20by%20Win%20McNamee/Getty%20Images)%20Impeachment%20hearing%20ends%20with%20fireworks%20and%20applause%20Trump%20Trump%20doubles%20down%20on%20tweets%20attacking%20witness%20Roger%20Stone,%20former%20adviser%20to%20President%20Donald%20Trump,%20holds%20a%20bible%20as%20he%20arrives%20at%20the%20E.%20Barrett%20Prettyman%20United%20States%20Courthouse,%20on%20November%2015,%202019%20in%20Washington,%20DC.%20Trump%20associate%20Roger%20Stone%20found%20guilty%20on%20all%20counts%20%20President%20Trump%20and%20Nikki%20Haley's%20complicated%20relationship%20Former%20US%20Ambassador%20to%20the%20Ukraine%20Marie%20Yovanovitch%20testifies%20before%20the%20House%20Permanent%20Select%20Committee%20on%20Intelligence%20as%20part%20of%20the%20impeachment%20inquiry%20into%20US%20President%20Donald%20Trump,%20on%20Capitol%20Hill%20on%20November%2015,%202019%20in%20Washington%20DC.%20Impeachment:%20Yovanovitch's%20opening%20statement%20in%203%20minutes%20Former%20Ambassador%20to%20Ukraine%20Marie%20Yovanovitch%20testifies%20before%20the%20House%20Intelligence%20Committee%20on%20Capitol%20Hill%20in%20Washington,%20Friday,%20Nov.%2015,%202019,%20during%20the%20second%20public%20impeachment%20hearing%20of%20President%20Donald%20Trump's%20efforts%20to%20tie%20U.S.%20aid%20for%20Ukraine%20to%20investigations%20of%20his%20political%20opponents.%20%20Yovanovitch:%20Trump's%20attacks%20are%20'very%20intimidating'%20%20CNN%20analyst:%20Russia%20benefits%20from%20Trump%20bashing%20his%20ambassadors%20%20Avlon:%20These%20hearings%20are%20about%20'teamism'%20%20Fareed:%20Trump%20is%20selling%20out%20US%20foreign%20policy%20%20Erin%20Burnett:%20Nancy%20Pelosi's%20move%20is%20significant%20WASHINGTON,%20DC%20-%20JANUARY%2019:%20%20A%20view%20outside%20Trump%20International%20Hotel%20Washington,%20D.C.%20one%20day%20before%20the%20inaguration%20of%20Donald%20Trump%20January%2019,%202017%20in%20Washington,%20DC.%20Hundreds%20of%20thousands%20of%20people%20are%20expected%20to%20come%20to%20the%20National%20Mall%20to%20witness%20Trump%20being%20sworn%20in%20as%20the%2045th%20president%20of%20the%20United%20States%20%20(Photo%20by%20Noam%20Galai/WireImage)%20See%20the%20controversial%20sales%20pitch%20for%20Trump's%20DC%20hotel%20Former%20US%20Ambassador%20to%20Ukraine%20Marie%20Yovanovitch%20(C)%20flanked%20by%20lawyers,%20aides%20and%20Capitol%20police,%20leaves%20the%20US%20Capitol%20October%2011,%202019%20in%20Washington,%20DC%20after%20testifying%20behind%20closed%20doors%20to%20the%20House%20Intelligence,%20Foreign%20Affairs%20and%20Oversight%20committees%20as%20part%20of%20the%20ongoing%20impeachment%20investigation%20against%20President%20Donald%20Trump.%20Marie%20Yovanovitch%20called%20'bad%20news'%20by%20Donald%20Trump%20%20Nikki%20Haley%20defends%20Trump's%20false%20claims%20as%20'slip-ups'%20transcripts%20impeachment%20inquiry%20ukraine%20taylor%20sondland%20mckinley%20yovanovitch%20orig%20mg_00042815.jpg%20Key%20takeaways%20from%20the%20impeachment%20inquiry%20transcripts%20David%20Holmes,%20a%20State%20Department%20official,%20arrives%20to%20appear%20in%20a%20closed-door%20deposition%20hearing%20as%20part%20of%20the%20impeachment%20inquiry%20at%20the%20US%20Capitol%20in%20Washington,%20DC,%20on%20November%2015,%202019.%20Aide%20confirms%20Trump-Sondland%20call%20about%20Ukraine%20investigations%20%20GOP%20congressman%20avoids%20this%20question%20after%20hearing%20WASHINGTON,%20DC%20-%20NOVEMBER%2015:%20Former%20U.S.%20Ambassador%20to%20Ukraine%20Marie%20Yovanovitch%20acknowledges%20audience%20from%20members%20of%20the%20public%20in%20the%20audience%20as%20she%20concludes%20her%20testimony%20before%20the%20House%20Intelligence%20Committee%20in%20the%20Longworth%20House%20Office%20Building%20on%20Capitol%20Hill%20November%2015,%202019%20in%20Washington,%20DC.%20In%20the%20second%20impeachment%20hearing%20held%20by%20the%20committee,%20House%20Democrats%20continue%20to%20build%20a%20case%20against%20U.S.%20President%20Donald%20Trump's%20efforts%20to%20link%20U.S.%20military%20aid%20for%20Ukraine%20to%20the%20nation's%20investigation%20of%20his%20political%20rivals.%20%20(Photo%20by%20Win%20McNamee/Getty%20Images)%20Impeachment%20hearing%20ends%20with%20fireworks%20and%20applause%20Trump%20Trump%20doubles%20down%20on%20tweets%20attacking%20witness%20Roger%20Stone,%20former%20adviser%20to%20President%20Donald%20Trump,%20holds%20a%20bible%20as%20he%20arrives%20at%20the%20E.%20Barrett%20Prettyman%20United%20States%20Courthouse,%20on%20November%2015,%202019%20in%20Washington,%20DC.%20Trump%20associate%20Roger%20Stone%20found%20guilty%20on%20all%20counts%20%20President%20Trump%20and%20Nikki%20Haley's%20complicated%20relationship%20Former%20US%20Ambassador%20to%20the%20Ukraine%20Marie%20Yovanovitch%20testifies%20before%20the%20House%20Permanent%20Select%20Committee%20on%20Intelligence%20as%20part%20of%20the%20impeachment%20inquiry%20into%20US%20President%20Donald%20Trump,%20on%20Capitol%20Hill%20on%20November%2015,%202019%20in%20Washington%20DC.%20Impeachment:%20Yovanovitch's%20opening%20statement%20in%203%20minutes%20(CNN)The%20White%20House%20placed%20the%20responsibility%20on%20the%20top%20Ukraine%20expert%20at%20the%20National%20Security%20Council%20on%20Friday%20after%20being%20asked%20about%20the%20discrepancy%20between%20the%20April%20readout%20of%20President%20Donald%20Trump's%20phone%20call%20with%20the%20Ukrainian%20President%20and%20the%20transcript%20released%20Friday." target="_blank">here</a></b> on the White House's later effort to blame Vindman for discrepancies related to an earlier Trump phone call.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Who Will Betray Trump?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Donald Trump knows there are potential traitors in his midst. His presidency could depend on keeping them at bay.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 8, 2019, by Tim Alberta</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">From the moment Francis Rooney expressed alarm to his House colleagues that Donald Trump might have abused presidential power in his dealings with Ukraine—and more dramatically, that an impeachment inquiry could be warranted—the Florida Republican was a marked man.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/11/08/trump-impeachment-republicans-congress-229904" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Impeachment Inquiry Tests Ties Between Barr and Trump</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The attorney general has not jumped in to publicly defend the president against the Democratic inquiry as he did with the Mueller investigation.</i></b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 7, 2019, by Peter Baker, Katie Benner and Maggie Haberman</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For a while at least, he seemed to have found his Roy Cohn, a lawyer to defend him against his accusers and go after his enemies. But the relationship between President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr may be growing more complicated with the rising threat of impeachment.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/us/politics/trump-william-barr.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>'Campaign of lies': What George Kent told impeachment investigators</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 7, 2019, by Nahal Toosi, Andrew Desiderio and Natasha Bertrand</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">House Democrats on Thursday released another deposition transcript ahead of public hearings scheduled for next week. This time, the deposition was that of George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary at the State Department whose portfolio includes Ukraine.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/07/george-kent-impeachment-testimony-067428" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, Kent's inquiry testimony <b><a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=806" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a </i>Washington Post<i> story on Kent's revelations <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trumps-demands-of-ukraine-came-down-to-three-words-investigations-biden-and-clinton-officials-testimony-shows/2019/11/07/d5ffab54-0197-11ea-8bab-0fc209e065a8_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Ambassador’s testimony offers window into impeachment inquiry’s first public hearing</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 6, 2019, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">John Hudson, </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Mike DeBonis, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Karoun Demirjian and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Elise Viebeck</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine had a “clear understanding” that U.S. military aid for Kyiv would not be sent until the country pursued investigations that could benefit President Trump politically, according to a transcript of his closed-door testimony released by House impeachment investigators on Wednesday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/house-to-hold-first-open-hearings-in-impeachment-inquiry-of-trump/2019/11/06/90041c3c-00bd-11ea-9518-1e76abc088b6_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> and the transcript of Taylor's testimony <b><a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=797" target="_blank">here</a></b>. Read transcripts of the inquiry testimony of </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Gordon Sondland, the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, and Kurt Volker, the former United States Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, <a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=785" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Diplomat Points to Rudy Giuliani as Trump’s Ukraine Shakedown Man</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump “just kept saying: ‘Talk to Rudy, talk to Rudy.'”</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) November 5, 2019, by David Corn and Dan Friedman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here’s the thing about Donald Trump’s scandals: they often are too obvious. While Trump and his defenders have claimed there was no shifty quid pro quo in his dealings with Ukraine, all the evidence indicates there was. And the just-released congressional testimony of Ambassador Gordon Sondland, the hotel magnate whose $1 million donation to Trump’s inauguration won him a job as a diplomat, shows that Trump essentially ordered a shakedown of Ukraine and placed his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in charge of this caper.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/11/gordon-sondland-fingers-rudy-giuliani-as-trumps-ukraine-shakedown-man/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>White House Ukraine Expert Sought to Correct Transcript of Trump Call</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, who heard President Trump’s July phone call with Ukraine’s president and was alarmed, testified that he tried and failed to add key details to the rough transcript.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) October 29, 2019, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Julian E. Barnes, Nicholas Fandos and Danny Hakim</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, told House impeachment investigators on Tuesday that the White House transcript of a July call between President Trump and Ukraine’s president omitted crucial words and phrases, and that his attempts to include them failed, according to three people familiar with the testimony.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/us/politics/alexander-vindman-trump-ukraine.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, Vindman's opening statement <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/read-the-document-opening-statement-of-lieutenant-colonel-alexander-s-vindman/2573a183-18ee-4036-9638-939677a1b9d6/" target="_blank">here</a></b> and a </i>Washington Post <i>story <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/two-volatile-meetings-at-the-white-house-have-become-central-to-the-impeachment-inquiry/2019/10/29/aae1836e-fa7d-11e9-8190-6be4deb56e01_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on crucial White House meetings in the saga.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Ukraine Knew of Aid Freeze by August, Undermining Trump Defense</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Top officials were told in early August about the delay of $391 million in security assistance, undercutting a chief argument President Trump has used to deny any quid pro quo.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) October 23, 2019, by Andrew E. Kramer and Kenneth P. Vogel</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">To Democrats who say that President Trump’s decision to freeze a $391 million military aid package to Ukraine was intended to bully Ukraine’s leader into carrying out investigations for Mr. Trump’s political benefit, the president and his allies have had a simple response: There could not have been any quid pro quo because the Ukrainians did not know the assistance had been blocked.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/us/politics/ukraine-aid-freeze-impeachment.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Prosecutors flagged possible ties between Ukrainian gas tycoon and Giuliani associates</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) October 22, 2019, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Matt Zapotosky, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rosalind S. Helderman, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Tom Hamburger and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Josh Dawsey</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When two business associates of Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, were arrested this month on charges that they funneled foreign money into U.S. elections, federal prosecutors working on a different case in Chicago took note.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/prosecutors-flagged-possible-ties-between-ukrainian-gas-tycoon-and-giuliani-associates/2019/10/22/4ee22e7c-f020-11e9-b648-76bcf86eb67e_story.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a Politico story <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/23/democrats-ukraine-oligarch-giuliani-056026" target="_blank">here</a></b> on Congressional investigation of the same issues.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>U.S. envoy says he was told release of Ukraine aid was contingent on public declaration to investigate Bidens, 2016 election</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) October 22, 2019, by </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Anne Gearan, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rachael Bade and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">John Wagner</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The senior U.S. diplomat in Ukraine said Tuesday he was told release of military aid was contingent on public declarations from Ukraine that it would investigate the Bidens and the 2016 election, contradicting President Trump’s denial that he used the money as leverage for political gain.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/diplomat-who-raised-alarm-about-withholding-aid-to-ukraine-testifies-in-impeachment-probe/2019/10/22/086fb850-f436-11e9-8cf0-4cc99f74d127_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, Taylor's opening statement <a href="https://games-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/542ee36f-eafc-4f2b-a075-b3b492d981a5/note/75965f57-6561-42f8-af40-a9e984a85660.pdf" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, an account of Taylor's testimony <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/alarming-circumstances-a-distressed-diplomat-tells-a-tale-of-venal-intrigue/2019/10/22/935b23c6-f500-11e9-ad8b-85e2aa00b5ce_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> and a Lawfare Blog analysis <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/self-dealing-ukraine-core-impeachment-inquiry" target="_blank">here</a></b> of whether Trump's actions may have violated the federal bribery statute.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>William Taylor testifies about deep-seated push for Ukraine quid pro quo</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump's top Ukraine envoy faced questions about his concerns that Trump was withholding military aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) October 22, 2019, by Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump’s top envoy to Ukraine told House impeachment investigators on Tuesday of intense efforts by Trump administration officials to secure politically-motivated investigations of Trump’s political rivals in exchange for a White House meeting with Ukraine’s president and critical military aid, according to sources in the room for the testimony.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/22/william-taylor-ukraine-testimony-trump-054259" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Putin and Hungary’s Orban helped sour Trump on Ukraine</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) October 21, 2019, by</b> </span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Greg Miller, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Greg Jaffe, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">John Hudson and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ellen Nakashima</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine for information he could use against political rivals came as he was being urged to adopt a hostile view of that country by its regional adversaries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, current and former U.S. officials said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/putin-and-hungarys-orban-helped-sour-trump-on-ukraine/2019/10/21/a0af1e9c-f40b-11e9-ad8b-85e2aa00b5ce_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Gordon Sondland says Giuliani pushed Ukraine probes at Trump’s direction</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump’s EU ambassador told House investigators he opposed the president’s request to run Ukraine policy through Rudy Giuliani.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) October 17, 2019, by Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, bolstered Democrats' impeachment inquiry Thursday as he broke sharply from President Donald Trump in testimony before House investigators.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/17/gordon-sondland-to-break-from-trump-in-impeachment-testimony-000288" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mulvaney says Ukraine aid was tied to Trump's desire for investigation</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) October 17, 2019, by Allie Malloy</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters today that aid to Ukraine was in fact tied to President Trump’s wish for an investigation into the 2016 election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/impeachment-inquiry-10-17-2019/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>2 Giuliani Associates Tied to Ukraine Scandal Arrested on Campaign Finance Charges</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, associates of President Trump’s personal lawyer, were also part of the pressure campaign on Ukraine to investigate Democrats.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) October 10, 2019, by Eileen Sullivan, Adam Goldman and William K. Rashbaum</b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Two associates of the president’s private lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, who helped fund efforts to investigate one of President Trump’s political rivals, were charged in a separate case with violating campaign finance laws, according to court documents.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/us/politics/lev-parnas-igor-fruman-arrested-giuliani.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/16/david-correia-rudy-giuliani-associates-campaign-finance" target="_blank">this </a></b></i><b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/16/david-correia-rudy-giuliani-associates-campaign-finance" target="_blank">Guardian </a></b><i><b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/16/david-correia-rudy-giuliani-associates-campaign-finance" target="_blank">article</a></b> on subsequent arrests of two other Giuliani associates.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Dems raise fresh quid-pro-quo questions about Ukraine missile sale</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The sale raises the prospect that President Donald Trump may have been pressuring Ukraine in exchange for political favors far earlier than previously known.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) October 8, 2019, by Natasha Bertrand and Daniel Lippman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Democrats pursuing an impeachment inquiry of President Trump want to take a fresh look at whether the sale of anti-tank missiles to Kiev last year was in any way connected to Ukraine’s decision to halt investigations into Trump’s campaign chairman.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/08/trump-ukraine-missile-sale-040915" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Inside the White House's effort to contain Ukraine call fallout</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) October 8, 2019, by Pamela Brown, Jeremy Diamond, Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">By the time President Donald Trump's line with Volodymyr Zelensky went quiet, the scramble began.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/08/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-call-details-aftermath/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Senate Intel's newest Russia report undermines pro-Trump conspiracy theories</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) October 8, 2019, by Christiano Lima</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping new bipartisan report detailing Russian efforts to boost Donald Trump's White House bid on social media during the 2016 U.S. elections, dealing an indirect blow to a push by the president and his allies to shift focus toward claims of anti-Trump meddling by Ukraine.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/08/intelligence-committee-russia-trump-report-040736" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>US ambassadors pushed Ukraine to investigate as condition for White House visit, texts show</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(NBC News) October 4, 2019, by Josh Lederman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Text messages given to Congress show U.S. ambassadors working to persuade Ukraine to publicly commit to investigating President Donald Trump’s political opponents and explicitly linking the inquiry to whether Ukraine’s president would be granted an official White House visit.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/04/us-ambassadors-pushed-ukraine-to-investigate-as-condition-for-white-house-visit-texts-show.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, a Daily Beast article on the texts <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/damning-trump-team-texts-detail-pressure-campaign-on-ukraine" target="_blank">here</a></b> and a Congressional statement containing the complete text messages <b><a href="https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/_cache/files/a/4/a4a91fab-99cd-4eb9-9c6c-ec1c586494b9/621801458E982E9903839ABC7404A917.chairmen-letter-on-state-departmnent-texts-10-03-19.pdf" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Phone Call Showed Only a Slice of Trump’s Obsession With Ukraine</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Since the 2016 campaign, the president has had an intense fixation on the country, which he believes is tied up in the origins of the special counsel’s investigation.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) September 25, 2019, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Kenneth P. Vogel, Julian E. Barnes, Maggie Haberman and Sharon LaFraniere</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was not a country that would naturally have seemed high on the priority list of a president who came to office relishing a trade clash with China, promising to reorder the Middle East and haranguing European allies to spend more on NATO.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But for President Trump, Ukraine has been an obsession since the 2016 campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/us/politics/trump-ukraine-obsession.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Transcript of Trump’s call with Ukrainian president shows him offering U.S. assistance for Biden investigation</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) September 25, 2019, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Devlin Barrett, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Matt Zapotosky, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Carol D. Leonnig and </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Josh Dawsey</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart to work with the U.S. attorney general to investigate the conduct of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and offered to meet with the foreign leader at the White House after he promised to conduct such an inquiry, according to a newly-released transcript of the call.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/transcript-of-trumps-call-with-ukrainian-president-shows-him-offering-us-assistance-for-biden-investigation/2019/09/25/16aa36ca-df0f-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, a memorandum of the call <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/official-readout-president-trump-s-july-25-phone-call-with-ukraine-s-volodymyr-zelensky/4b228f51-17e7-45bc-b16c-3b2643f3fbe0/" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and the whistle-blower complaint <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/read-the-whistleblower-complaint-regarding-president-trump-s-communications-with-ukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelensky/4b9e0ca5-3824-467f-b1a3-77f2d4ee16aa/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Giuliani pursued shadow Ukraine agenda as key foreign policy officials were sidelined</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) September 24, 2019, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Greg Miller, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Josh Dawsey, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Paul Sonne and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ellen Nakashima</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump’s attempt to pressure the leader of Ukraine followed a months-long fight inside the administration that sidelined national security officials and empowered political loyalists — including the president’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani — to exploit the U.S. relationship with Kiev, current and former U.S. officials said.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/giuliani-pursued-shadow-ukraine-agenda-as-key-foreign-policy-officials-were-sidelined/2019/09/24/ee18aaec-deec-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a><b> </b>and Lawfare Blog's timeline of the Trump-Ukraine scandal <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/timeline-trump-ukraine-scandal" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Suggests Link Between Ukraine Aid Review and Pressure Campaign</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Ukrainian officials had expressed concern they were being penalized for resisting a Biden inquiry</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) September 23, 2019, b</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>y Rebecca Ballhaus</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump on Monday suggested a link between his administration’s review of military aid to Ukraine and his efforts to persuade the Ukrainian president to investigate Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, as scrutiny of his dealings with Kiev continued to reverberate.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-trump-repeats-criticism-of-biden-in-impromptu-u-n-appearance-11569254230?mod=hp_lead_pos3" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>How Trump and Giuliani pressured Ukraine to investigate the president’s rivals</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) September 20, 2019, by Josh Dawsey, </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Paul Sonne, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Michael Kranish and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">David L. Stern</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When President Trump spoke on the telephone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in late July, the Ukrainians had a lot at stake. They were waiting on millions in stalled military aid from the United States, and Zelensky was seeking a high-priority White House meeting with Trump.... <i>See the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-trump-and-giuliani-pressured-ukraine-to-investigate-the-presidents-rivals/2019/09/20/0955801c-dbb6-11e9-a688-303693fb4b0b_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, another article on a whistleblower's allegation that Trump's pressured Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden's son <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-pressed-ukrainian-leader-to-investigate-bidens-son-according-to-people-familiar-with-the-matter/2019/09/20/7fa39b20-dbdc-11e9-bfb1-849887369476_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and a </i>New York Times <i>piece on Trump's "long-held grudge" against Ukraine <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/us/politics/whistle-blower-trump-grudge.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Click <b><a href="https://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2019/01/comrade-trump-putin-ties-bromance-timeline-mueller.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> to see my timeline of Donald Trump's links with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of those ties.</i></span></b><br />
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<b style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></b><b style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>See links to my investigative journalism <a href="http://albloggedup.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here</a>, including my book </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0994861761" target="_blank">Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence</a><i>, a finalist in the 2018 Reader's Favorite International Book Awards and winner or finalist in 12 </i></span></b><b style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>other book prizes.</i></span></b>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-5821892795356045812019-01-18T11:34:00.062-05:002022-08-16T15:04:45.588-04:00COMRADE TRUMP—The Definitive Trump-Putin Bromance and "This Russia Thing" Timeline (UPDATED)<a href="https://www.ispionline.it/sites/default/files/field/image/vladimir_putin_donald_trump.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="800" height="197" src="https://www.ispionline.it/sites/default/files/field/image/vladimir_putin_donald_trump.jpg" width="320" /></a><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><i>Having trouble keeping up with the drip-drip of revelations about ex-president Donald Trump and his cozy ties with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin? </i></span><br />
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<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Stay up to date with my definitive "Comrade Trump" timeline, compiling the latest Trump-Putin bromance news. I don't necessarily endorse the articles </i><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">linked below.</i><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /><span face="" style="font-size: medium;"></span><span face="">Click <a href="https://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2019/11/donald-trump-impeachment-timeline-chronology-ukraine.html" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a> to see my Trump impeachment timeline; </span></i></span><i style="font-size: large;"><span face=""><a href="https://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2018/06/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a> for </span></i><i style="font-size: large;"><span face="">my earlier Trump-Putin bromance timeline for June 2018-Jan. 2019; <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/10/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a> to see my timeline for Oct. 2017-May 2018; <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/08/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my Aug.-Sept. 2017 timeline; and <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/07/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my June 2015-July 2017 timeline.</span></i><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: Paul Manafort admits he passed Trump campaign data to a suspected Russian asset</b></div><div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>(Business Insider) August 8, 2022, by Mattathias Schwartz</b></span><b style="font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-size: large;">In an interview with Insider, Paul Manafort, who served as Donald Trump's campaign chairman, made his first public admission that in 2016 he shared polling data from the Trump campaign with Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime business associate with suspected ties to Russian intelligence.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-exclusive-interview-trump-campaign-polling-data-russia-kilimnik-2022-8" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump sides with Putin as Biden tries to stop a war</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) February 23, 2022, Analysis by Stephen Collinson</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">It took only 24 hours for Donald Trump to hail Russian President Vladimir Putin's dismembering of independent, democratic, sovereign Ukraine as an act of "genius."... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/23/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-joe-biden/index.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</b></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Kremlin papers appear to show Putin’s plot to put Trump in White House</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>Exclusive: Documents suggest Russia launched secret multi-agency effort to interfere in US democracy</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) July 15, 2021, by </b></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>Luke Harding, Julian Borger and Dan Sabbagh</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia’s national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/15/kremlin-papers-appear-to-show-putins-plot-to-put-trump-in-white-house" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><br /><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>The New Russia Sanctions Resolve a Mystery That Mueller Left Unanswered</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) April 17, 2021</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">On April 15, the Treasury Department answered one of the biggest questions left unresolved by the Mueller investigation—and left unanswered as well by the 2020 Senate Select Intelligence Committee report about 2016 election interference.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/new-russia-sanctions-resolve-mystery-mueller-left-unanswered" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian Interference in 2020 Included Influencing Trump Associates, Report Says</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>The assessment was the intelligence community’s most comprehensive look at foreign efforts to interfere in the election.</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) March 16, 2021, by Julian E. Barnes</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia authorized extensive efforts to hurt the candidacy of Joseph R. Biden Jr. during the election last year, including by mounting covert operations to influence people close to President Donald J. Trump, according to a declassified intelligence report released on Tuesday.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/us/politics/election-interference-russia-2020-assessment.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and read the intelligence report <b><a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/2021-intelligence-community-election-interference-assessment/abd0346ebdd93e1e/full.pdf" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>The KGB ‘played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality’, Yuri Shvets, a key source for a new book, tells the Guardian</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) January 29, 2021, by </b></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>David Smith</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years and proved so willing to parrot anti-western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow, a former KGB spy has told the Guardian.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a </i>Washington Post <i>review of the book <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/piling-up-incriminating-information-about-trumps-russian-connections/2021/01/28/a0b53b80-5029-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> by John Sipher, who worked for the CIA's clandestine service for 28 years.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Rudy Giuliani Helps Kremlin-Backed RT News Network Spread Lies on Election Day</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) November 3, 2020, by Jamie Ross</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The Kremlin-backed news network RT kicked off its Election Day coverage with an interview with Rudy Giuliani, who gleefully helped spread misinformation about the vote.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/rudy-giuliani-helps-kremlin-backed-rt-news-network-spread-lies-on-election-day?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Rudy: Only ‘50/50’ Chance I Worked With a ‘Russian Spy’ to Dig Dirt on Bidens and Ukraine</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>In a wild interview, Giuliani defended his years-long mission to torpedo the Bidens by exposing their alleged misdeeds in Ukraine. And he doesn’t care who supplied the ammunition.</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) October 17, 2020, by Asawin Suebsaeng and </b></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>Erin Banco</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Rudy Giuliani thinks it’s hilarious.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">He says the questions mounting around him—including those about whether his efforts to dump Hunter Biden’s documents and photos are part of some foreign election-interference operation—are “a bunch of bullshit.” He’s unconcerned about intelligence assessments that one of his former associates was a Russian agent, a proposition that he gave more or less even odds. In fact, Giuliani said, he has been “laughing my head off” about the whole affair.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/rudy-giuliani-says-theres-only-5050-chance-i-worked-with-a-russian-spy-to-dig-dirt-on-bidens" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>White House was warned Giuliani was target of Russian intelligence operation to feed misinformation to Trump</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">(</span><i style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The Washington Post</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">) October 15, 2020, b</span></span></b></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-rge;"><b>y Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller, Josh Dawsey and Shane Harris</b></span><b>—</b><span style="font-size: x-rge;">U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, according to four former officials familiar with the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/giuliani-biden-ukraine-russian-disinformation/2020/10/15/43158900-0ef5-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>CIA clamps down on flow of Russia intelligence to White House</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>Critics of the shift in approach say it seems designed to appease the president.</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) September 23, 2020, by Natasha Bertrand and Daniel Lippman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The CIA has made it harder for intelligence about Russia to reach the White House, stoking fears among current and former officials that information is being suppressed to please a president known to erupt in anger whenever he is confronted with bad news about Moscow.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/23/cia-russia-intelligence-white-house-420351" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">U.S. sanctions Ukrainian lawmaker and Rudy Giuliani ally for involvement in 2020 election meddling</b></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on three Kremlin-linked individuals and a Ukrainian lawmaker Thursday for attempting to meddle in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.</i></b></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>Treasury described Andrii Derkach, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, as an “active Russian agent for over a decade” with close connections to Russian intelligence services.</i></b></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>Derkach has previously worked with Rudy Giuliani to dig up damaging information on President Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent Joe Biden and his son Hunter.</i></b></span></li></ul></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(CNBC) September 10, 2020, by Amanda Macias</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on three Kremlin-linked individuals and a Ukrainian lawmaker Thursday for attempting to meddle in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/10/us-sanctions-giuliani-ally-for-involvement-in-election-meddling.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump officials altered intel to downplay threats from Russia, White supremacists, DHS whistleblower says</b></span></div><div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>A former top official at the Department of Homeland Security accused department leadership of ordering him to stop sharing intelligence assessments that “made the President look bad.”</i></b></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>Brian Murphy says he was told to stop reporting on the threat of Russian interference in the U.S. election, and instead start reporting on interference activities by China and Iran.</i></b></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>Murphy also says CIS director Ken Cuccinelli told him to modify an assessment on White supremacy in order make “the threat appear less severe, as well as include information on the prominence of violent ‘left-wing’ groups.”</i></b></span></li></ul></div></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(CNBC) September 9, 2020, by </b></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>Christina Wilkie and Kevin Breuninger</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">A former acting undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security accused top officials there of ordering him to stop sharing intelligence assessments on Russia’s efforts to interfere in the U.S. election because they “made the President look bad.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/09/trump-intel-threats-russia-white-supremacists-dhs-whistleblower.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Justice Department hands over latest batch of Mueller investigation interviews to CNN</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) September 1, 2020, by K</b></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>atelyn Polantz</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">CNN received on Tuesday night what appears to be the last several hundred pages of witness interview records that the Justice Department is releasing from the Mueller investigation, part of what's become an illuminating monthly disclosure of what witnesses told investigators about Russian election interference and the 2016 campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/politics/robert-mueller-investigation-interviews/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Revealed: Jared Kushner’s Private Channel With Putin’s Money Man</b></span></div><div><b style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><i>More than a dozen Trump administration officials, current and former, described a clandestine relationship between Jared Kushner and the CEO of a Kremlin sovereign wealth fund.</i></b></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) August 24, 2020, by Erin Banco</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">On a late afternoon in March, a large military aircraft bearing the Russian Federation insignia descended into John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Its mission: to deliver personal protective equipment and ventilators to nearby hospitals scrambling to treat patients during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jared-kushners-private-channel-with-putins-money-man-kirill-dmitriev" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Senate report describes closer ties between 2016 Trump campaign, Russia</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(TheHill.com) August 18, 2020, by Olivia Beavers</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">A Senate Intelligence Committee report released Tuesday detailed significant ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign, particularly with former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/512487-senate-panel-releases-final-report-on-russian-interference-detailing" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, a </i>Washington Post<i> article on the report <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/senate-intelligence-trump-russia-report/2020/08/18/62a7573e-e093-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, </i>New York Times<i> stories on it <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/us/politics/trump-russia-senate.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> and <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/us/politics/trump-stone-investigation.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>, and an article from The Hill </i><b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/512526-manafort-shared-campaign-info-with-russian-intelligence-officer" target="_blank">here</a></b><i> on the finding that Manafort shared information with a Russian intelligence officer. See the Lawfare Blog's summary of the report </i><b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/collusion-reading-diary-what-did-senate-intelligence-committee-find" target="_blank">here</a></b><i> and the full report </i><b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf" target="_blank">here</a></b><i>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Senate panel told Justice Dept. of suspicions over Trump family members’ Russia testimony</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 15, 2020, by </b></span><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">Karoun Demirjian, Ellen Nakashima and Matt Zapotosky</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Republican and Democratic chairmen of the Senate Intelligence Committee notified federal prosecutors last year of their suspicion that several individuals, including President Trump’s family members and confidants, might have presented misleading testimony in the panel’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, people familiar with the matter said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/senate-intelligence-committee-donald-trump-jr-jared-kushner-stephen-bannon-erik-prince/2020/08/15/a7905a84-def5-11ea-b205-ff838e15a9a6_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Unwanted Truths: Inside Trump’s Battles With U.S. Intelligence Agencies</span></b></div><div style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Last year, intelligence officials gathered to write a classified report on Russia’s interest in the 2020 election. An investigation from the magazine uncovered what happened next.</i></b></div><div style="font-size: large;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times Magazine</i>) August 8, 2020, by Robert Draper</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">—</b>In early July of last year, the first draft of a classified document known as a National Intelligence Estimate circulated among key members of the agencies making up the U.S. intelligence community. N.I.E.s are intended to be that community’s most authoritative class of top-secret document, reflecting its consensus judgment on national-security matters ranging from Iran’s nuclear capabilities to global terrorism. The draft of the July 2019 N.I.E. ran to about 15 pages, with another 10 pages of appendices and source notes.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/08/magazine/us-russia-intelligence.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Why the Mueller Investigation Failed</span></div><div style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) August 5, 2020, by Katie Benner</span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">—</b>Thanks to Robert S. Mueller’s Russia investigation, we know that the Kremlin used underhanded tactics to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election, that the Trump campaign tacitly welcomed those efforts and that Trump ultimately attempted to end the Mueller inquiry itself.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/books/review/true-crimes-and-misdemeanors-jeffrey-toobin.html">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div style="font-size: large;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: large;"><br /></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s Bank Was Subpoenaed by N.Y. Prosecutors in Criminal Inquiry</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>The subpoena, sent to Deutsche Bank, suggests that the inquiry into President Trump’s business practices is more wide-ranging than previously known.</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) August 5, 2020, by David Enrich, Ben Protess, William K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The New York prosecutors who are seeking President Trump’s tax records have also subpoenaed his longtime lender, a sign that their criminal investigation into Mr. Trump’s business practices is more wide-ranging than previously known.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/nyregion/trump-taxes-vance-deutsche-bank.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) July 13, 2020, by Hillel Italie</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">A top prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller has a book coming out this fall about the two-year investigation into the alleged ties between Russia and the 2016 campaign of President Donald Trump.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://apnews.com/7b26df8ed548de1cf827dda6d2dbacf7" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Robert Mueller: Roger Stone remains a convicted felon, and rightly so</b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>July 11, 2020, </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">by Robert S. Mueller III,</b> <span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Opinion</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Robert S. Mueller III served as special counsel for the Justice Department from 2017 to 2019.</i><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;">The work of the special counsel’s office — its report, indictments, guilty pleas and convictions — should speak for itself. But I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office. The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/11/mueller-stone-oped/?arc404=true" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a Lawfare Blog background piece <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/roger-stone-commutation-even-more-corrupt-it-seems" target="_blank">here</a></b> on the commutation.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump commutes Roger Stone's sentence</b></span><br />
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<b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">(CNN) July 11, 2020, by </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Shimon Prokupecz, Sara Murray, Kaitlan Collins and Katelyn Polantz</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the prison sentence of his longtime friend Roger Stone, who was convicted of crimes that included lying to Congress in part, prosecutors said, to protect the President. The announcement came just days before Stone was set to report to a federal prison in Georgia.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/candidate/trump" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>AP sources: White House aware of Russian bounties in 2019</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) June 30, 2020, by James LaPorta</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported, according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://apnews.com/425e43fa0ffdd6e126c5171653ec47d1?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP&utm_campaign=SocialFlow" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and another article <b><a href="https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/White-House-won-t-retaliate-over-Kremlin-bounty-15380916.php" target="_blank">here</a></b> on the White House decision not to retaliate against Russia.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm US officials</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) June 30, 2020, by</b> <b>C</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">arl Bernstein</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/trump-phone-calls-national-security-concerns/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Spies and Commandos Warned Months Ago of Russian Bounties on U.S. Troops</b><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) June 28, 2020, by Eric Schmitt, Adam Goldman and Nicholas Fandos</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">United States intelligence officers and Special Operations forces in Afghanistan alerted their superiors as early as January to a suspected Russian plot to pay bounties to the Taliban to kill American troops in Afghanistan, according to officials briefed on the matter.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/spies-and-commandos-warned-months-ago-of-russian-bounties-on-u-s-troops/ar-BB164Uci?li=BBnb4R7" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, a </i>Washington Post<i> story <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russian-bounties-to-taliban-linked-militants-resulted-in-deaths-of-us-troops-according-to-intelligence-assessments/2020/06/28/74ffaec2-b96a-11ea-80b9-40ece9a701dc_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on reports that the bounties led to U.S. troop deaths and a second </i>Post<i> story <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-us-intelligence-did-not-find-reports-of-russian-bounties-to-taliban-linked-militants-credible/2020/06/29/a69e1722-b9f4-11ea-80b9-40ece9a701dc_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on President Trump's dismissal of reports about the bounties.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>New Mueller Report Details: Roger Stone Told Trump In Advance WikiLeaks Would Release Clinton Campaign Emails</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Newly unredacted portions of the Mueller report show that Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and Michael Cohen told investigators Stone had promised the campaign damaging revelations by WikiLeaks. The information was released following a lawsuit by BuzzFeed News.</i></b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><span face=""><span style="font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed News) June 19, 2020, by Jason Leopold, Anthony Cormier and Ken Bensinger</b></span><b style="font-size: large;">—</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Donald Trump was told in advance that WikiLeaks would be releasing documents embarrassing to the Clinton campaign and subsequently informed advisers that he expected more releases would be coming, according to newly unredacted portions of special counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/roger-stone-warned-trump-wikileaks-clinton-dump" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Flynn urged Russian ambassador to take 'reciprocal' actions, transcripts show</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Flynn’s conversations with the ambassador were a key concern to FBI investigators probing Russian interference in the 2016 election.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) May 25, 2020, by Betsy Woodruff Swan and Kyle Cheney</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>—</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn told Russia’s ambassador to Washington in late 2016 to take “reciprocal” actions in response to Obama administration sanctions for election interference, rather than escalating the situation into a “tit for tat.”... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/29/trump-flynn-russia-ambassador-289905" target="_blank">here</a></b> and the entire Flynn-Kislyak transcript <b><a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6933340/Flynn-Transcripts.pdf" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">I left the Justice Department after it made a disastrous mistake. It just happened again.</b><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) May 11, 2020, </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>by Jonathan Kravis—</b><i>Jonathan Kravis</i><i> was a federal prosecutor for 10 years.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;">Three months ago, I resigned from the Justice Department after 10 years as a career prosecutor. I left a job I loved because I believed the department had abandoned its responsibility to do justice in one of my cases, United States v. Roger Stone. At the time, I thought that the handling of the Stone case, with senior officials intervening to recommend a lower sentence for a longtime ally of President Trump, was a disastrous mistake that the department would not make again.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/11/i-left-justice-department-after-it-made-disastrous-mistake-it-just-happened-again/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>. Also read </i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/justice-department-attorneys-claim-political-interference-prosecutorial-decisions" target="_blank">statements</a></b> from two justice department attorneys claiming political interference in prosecutorial decisions.</i><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Justice Department drops criminal case against former Trump aide Michael Flynn</b></span><br />
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<li><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><i>The Justice Department is dropping its prosecution of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, according to a court filing Thursday.</i></span></li>
<li><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><i>The move comes more than two years after Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his discussions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States in the weeks before President Donald Trump took office.</i></span></li>
<li><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><i>In court documents that are expected to be filed Thursday, the Justice Department said it is abandoning the prosecution of the retired Army general after a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information,” the AP reported.</i></span></li>
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(CNBC) May 7, 2020, by Dan </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Mangan—</b>The Justice Department on on Thursday dropped its prosecution of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with a Russian diplomat in the weeks before President Donald Trump’s inauguration.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/07/michael-flynn-criminal-case-dropped-by-justice-department.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and a Politico story <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/07/top-prosecutor-in-flynn-case-abruptly-withdraws-amid-trump-attacks-243107" target="_blank">here</a></b> on how the top prosecutor in the case withdrew from the case on May 7. Also, read this Lawfare Blog <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/flynn-redux-what-those-fbi-documents-really-show" target="_blank">analysis</a></b> of the FBI's evidence in the case and a U.S. Court of Appeals <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/dc-circuit-orders-district-court-judge-drop-flynn-case" target="_blank">ruling</a></b> forcing the case against Flynn to be dropped.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Democrats should get Mueller evidence, judges rule</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>It's a notable win for House Democrats seeking to obtain more information from the Russia probe.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) March 10, 2020, by </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney—</b>House<b> </b>Democrats scored a significant legal victory Tuesday as a federal appeals court panel granted them permission to access grand jury secrets from Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/10/judges-rule-democrats-should-get-mueller-evidence-125008" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Federal judge blasts William Barr for Mueller report rollout, asks if it was meant to help Trump</b></span><br />
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<b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">(CNN) </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">March 6, 2020, by Katelyn Polantz</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">—</b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">A federal judge criticized Attorney General William Barr on Thursday for his handling of the Mueller report when it was released last spring, saying Barr's early description of the report didn't match the special counsel's actual conclusions.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/05/politics/judge-mueller-report-barr/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Lawmakers Are Warned That Russia Is Meddling to Re-elect Trump</b><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>A classified briefing to House members is said to have angered the president, who complained that Democrats would “weaponize” the disclosure.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) February 20, 2020, by Adam Goldman, Julian E. Barnes, </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Maggie Haberman and Nicholas Fandos—</b>Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, a disclosure to Congress that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/politics/russian-interference-trump-democrats.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Offered Assange Pardon if He Covered Up Russian Hack, WikiLeaks Founder’s Lawyer Claims</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Lawyers acting for the WikiLeaks founder said Dana Rohrabacher, a former Republican congressman, had brought the message to London from Trump.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) February 19, 2020, by </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Nico Hines—</b>A lawyer for for Julian Assange has claimed in court that President Donald Trump offered to pardon Assange if the WikiLeaks founder agreed to help cover up Russia’s involvement in hacking emails from the Democratic National Committee.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-offered-assange-pardon-if-he-covered-up-russian-hack-court-hears?ref=home" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, and read an </i>Atlantic<i> story <b><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/top-rohrabacher-aide-fired-after-russia-revelations/534288/" target="_blank">here</a></b> on the pro-Russia stance of Rohrabacher and a top aide.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Roger Stone sentenced to three years and four months in prison, as Trump predicts ‘exoneration’ for his friend</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(The </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Washington Post) February 20, 2020, b</b><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>y </b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Rachel Weiner, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Matt Zapotosky, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Tom Jackman and </span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Devlin Barrett—</b>A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Roger Stone, President Trump’s longtime friend and political adviser, to serve three years and four months in prison for impeding a congressional investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/roger-stone-sentence-due-thursday-in-federal-court/2020/02/19/2e01bfc8-4c38-11ea-9b5c-eac5b16dafaa_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">William Barr Moves to Take the Reins of Politically Charged Cases</b><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Amid mounting furor over politicization at the Justice Department, the attorney general ordered reviews of such investigations and prosecutions.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) February 14, 2020, by </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Charlie Savage and Adam Goldman—</b>While Attorney General William P. Barr asserted his independence from the White House this week, he has also been quietly intervening in a series of politically charged cases, including against Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/us/politics/andrew-mccabe-william-barr-flynn.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and a CNBC story <b><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/16/more-than-1000-justice-department-alumni-call-for-barrs-resignation.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on a letter signed by over 1,000 justice department alumni calling for Barr's resignation.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Prosecutors quit amid escalating Justice Dept. fight over Roger Stone’s prison term</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) February 11, 2020, </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>by </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Matt Zapotosky, Devlin Barrett, Ann E. Marimow and Spencer S. Hsu—</b>All four career</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"> prosecutors handling the case against Roger Stone withdrew from the legal proceedings Tuesday — and one quit his job entirely — after the Justice Department signaled it planned to undercut their sentencing recommendation for President Trump’s longtime friend and confidant.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/justice-dept-to-reduce-sentencing-recommendation-for-trump-associate-roger-stone-official-says-after-president-calls-it-unfair/2020/02/11/ad81fd36-4cf0-11ea-bf44-f5043eb3918a_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, another </i><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Washington Post </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">story <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/12/trump-implicates-barr-directly-controversial-roger-stone-decision/" target="_blank">here</a></b> on the suggestion that Attorney General William Barr directly intervened in the Stone case and a CNBC story <b><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/13/ag-barr-says-trumps-tweets-make-it-impossible-for-me-to-do-my-job.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> in which Barr acknowledges his intervention.</i><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>The Money Behind Trump’s Money</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The inside story of the president and Deutsche Bank, his lender of last resort.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times Magazine</i>) February 4, 2020, by David Enrich</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">One Day in early 2017, Mike Offit went to the Yale Club in Manhattan for a lunch hosted by a group called Business Executives for National Security. Offit, who has a craggy face and shoulder-length hair, had spent much of his career in banking, but that had ended nearly two decades earlier. Since then, he had puttered around the outskirts of finance, dabbled in journalism and even published a novel about a pair of murders at a fictional German-owned Wall Street bank that bore a striking resemblance to the one that he worked for until 1998: Deutsche Bank.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/magazine/deutsche-bank-trump.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">How a Putin ally is aiding Giuliani in Ukraine</span></b><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 22, 2019, by Editorial </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Board—</b>For more than 15 years, Dmytro Firtash has been a central player in Vladimir Putin’s campaign to gain control over Ukraine’s political system and economy.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-a-putin-ally-is-aiding-giuliani-in-ukraine/2019/12/22/33de11d0-2366-11ea-86f3-3b5019d451db_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Trump administration demanded Democrats strip Ukraine aid language from spending package</b></div>
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The language would have required the White House to release Ukraine defense aid quickly.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 20, 2019, by </b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Erica Werner</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Senior Trump administration officials in recent days threatened a presidential veto that could have led to a government shutdown if House Democrats refused to drop language requiring prompt release of future military aid for Ukraine, according to five administration and congressional officials.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/12/20/trump-administration-demanded-democrats-strip-ukraine-aid-language-spending-package/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Former White House officials say they feared Putin influenced the president’s views on Ukraine and 2016 campaign</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 19, 2019, by </b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Shane Harris, Josh Dawsey and Carol D. Leonnig</b>—Almost from the moment he took office, President Trump seized on a theory that troubled his senior aides: Ukraine, he told them on many occasions, had tried to stop him from winning the White House....<i> Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/former-white-house-officials-say-they-feared-putin-influenced-the-presidents-views-on-ukraine-and-2016-campaign/2019/12/19/af0fdbf6-20e9-11ea-bed5-880264cc91a9_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Rick Gates Sentenced to Three Years of Probation, 45 Days in Jail</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><i><b>The lobbyist and former Manafort partner pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI and conspiring to hide millions he earned from work he did for Ukraine.</b></i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) December 17, 2019, by Jamie Ross and </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Adam Rawnsley</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Rick Gates—the former right-hand man of Paul Manafort and key witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe—was sentenced to three years of probation, 45 days in jail, and 300 hours of community service on Tuesday morning in federal court in Washington.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/rick-gates-sentenced-to-three-years-of-probation-45-days-in-jail?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Ukrainians: Trump Just Sent Us ‘a Terrible Signal’</b><br />
<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i>Kyiv officials were hoping for a statement of support from Trump in advance of Ukraine’s big summit with Russia. Instead, the president hosted Putin’s main man.</i></b><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) December 11, 2019, by Betsy Swan</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Ukrainian officials spent last weekend glued to Trump’s Twitter feed. </span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;">People working closely with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have been in contact with Trump administration officials over the past several weeks discussing the relationship between the two presidents, according to four people with knowledge of the talks.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/ukrainians-trump-just-sent-us-a-terrible-signal?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Inspector general report says FBI had ‘authorized purpose’ to investigate Trump campaign’s Russia ties but finds some wrongdoing</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 9, 2019, by </b></span><br />
<b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Karoun Demirjian, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Matt Zapotosky, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Ellen Nakashima and </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Devlin Barrett</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">A long-awaited Justice Department inspector general’s report examining the FBI’s investigation into possible coordination between President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia rebuts some of conservatives’ most sensational allegations about the case — including that top FBI officials were motivated by political bias and illegally spied on Trump advisers — but finds serious faults in other areas.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/inspector-general-report-trump-russia-investigation/2019/12/09/d5940d88-184c-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, the complete report <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/120919-examination.pdf" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, the inspector general's statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/11/doj-inspector-general-testimony-russia-probe-report-082293" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, a Daily Beast analysis of the report <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/bill-barr-exposed-as-horowitz-report-dismisses-trumps-conspiracies-and-clears-trumps-enemies" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and a take from the site Just Security <b><a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/67691/the-crossfire-hurricane-reports-inconvenient-findings/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Barr’s handpicked prosecutor tells inspector general he can’t back right-wing theory that Russia case was U.S. intelligence setup</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 4, 2019, by </b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Matt Zapotosky and </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Devlin Barrett</span></b><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">The prosecutor handpicked by Attorney General William P. Barr to scrutinize how U.S. agencies investigated President Trump’s 2016 campaign said he could not offer evidence to the Justice Department’s inspector general to support the suspicions of some conservatives that the case was a setup by American intelligence, people familiar with the matter said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/barrs-handpicked-prosecutor-tells-inspector-general-he-cant-back-right-wing-theory-that-russia-case-was-us-intelligence-setup/2019/12/04/17e084dc-16a9-11ea-9110-3b34ce1d92b1_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Don McGahn must testify about time as White House lawyer, judge rules</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The decision is expected to put pressure on other reluctant witnesses to testify, but it may not shift the timing of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 25, 2019, by Darren Samuelsohn, Kyle Cheney and Andrew Desiderio</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Don McGahn must testify to Congress about his time as the White House’s top lawyer, a federal judge ruled Monday — a decision that will put pressure on other reluctant Trump administration witnesses to testify about President Donald Trump’s actions.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/25/mueller-star-witness-must-testify-to-congress-judge-rules-073622" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Justice Dept. watchdog finds political bias did not taint top officials running the FBI’s Russia probe but documents errors</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 22, 2019, by </b></span><br />
<b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Ellen Nakashima, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Matt Zapotosky and </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Devlin Barrett</span></b><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">The Justice Department’s internal watchdog is expected to find in a forthcoming report that political bias did not taint top officials running the FBI investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016, while at the same time criticizing the bureau for systemic failures in its handling of surveillance applications, according to two U.S. officials.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/justice-dept-watchdog-finds-political-bias-did-not-taint-top-officials-running-the-fbis-russia-probe-but-documents-other-errors/2019/11/22/4b2f51de-0d48-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Roger Stone found guilty of lying to Congress, witness tampering</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The charges against the longtime GOP operative were brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 15, 2019, by Darren Samuelsohn and Josh Gerstein</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Roger Stone has been found guilty on all charges in a case accusing the longtime Donald Trump adviser of seeking to thwart a House investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/15/roger-stone-found-guilty-of-lying-to-congress-witness-tampering-071124" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>What Roger Stone's trial revealed about Donald Trump and WikiLeaks</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump and his aides apparently knew more about WikiLeaks’ plans than they have let on, raising questions about the president's claims to Robert Mueller.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 12, 2019, by Darren Samuelsohn and Josh Gerstein</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">The Roger Stone trial is no longer just about Roger Stone.</span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;">Despite the profane Stone texts and caustic friendships that have dominated chatter about the case, the Republican provocateur’s court battle will likely be remembered for something far different: It revealed that Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign aides knew more about WikiLeaks’ plans than they have let on, and the president may have later misled Robert Mueller about it.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/12/roger-stone-trial-donald-trump-wikileaks-070368" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>The Mueller Report’s Secret Memos</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>BuzzFeed News sued the US government to see all the work that Mueller’s team kept secret. We have published the first installment, with revelations about the Ukraine conspiracy theory, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and more.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed News) November 2, 2019, by </b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Jason Leopold, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Zoe Tillman, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Ellie Hall, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Emma Loop and </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Anthony Cormier</span></b><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Paul Manafort was pushing the unfounded conspiracy theory — now part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump — that Ukraine hacked the Democratic National Committee's emails as early as 2016.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/mueller-report-secret-memos-1" target="_blank">here</a></b> and the released documents <b><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6537542-LEOPOLD-BUZZFEED-NEWS-FBI-Mueller-302s-FOIA" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face=""><div><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">C.I.A. Informant Extracted From Russia Had Sent Secrets to U.S. for Decades</span></b></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) September 9, 2019, by Julian E. Barnes, Adam Goldman and David E. Sanger</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-size: large;">Decades ago, the C.I.A. recruited and carefully cultivated a midlevel Russian official who began rapidly advancing through the governmental ranks. Eventually, American spies struck gold: The longtime source landed an influential position that came with access to the highest level of the Kremlin.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/us/politics/cia-informant-russia.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div></span><div><span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Revealed: Felix Sater Did Extensive Work for U.S. Intelligence</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>A newly unsealed letter from federal prosecutors shows the businessman supplied information on the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and American mobsters.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) August 23, 2019, by Betsy Woodruff</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Before appearing in the Trump-Russia probe, Felix Sater traveled throughout Central Asia gathering intelligence on the Taliban for the U.S. government, according to a decade-old court filing unsealed Friday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/felix-sater-the-man-who-tried-to-build-trump-tower-moscow-did-extensive-work-for-us-intelligence" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller’s Testimony: The Baton Passes to Congress</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) July 24, 2019, by Scott R. Anderson, Hadley Baker, Mikhaila Fogel, Susan Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic, Vishnu Kannan, Eugenia Lostri, David Priess, Margaret Taylor and Benjamin Wittes</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">There was something very sad about the atmospherics of today’s testimony by Robert S. Mueller III at the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees—at least at first.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/muellers-testimony-baton-passes-congress" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and read the Lawfare Blog's series of podcasts on the Mueller report <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/tagged/report-podcast" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>‘Let me make something 100% clear’: FEC chair lays down the law on foreign help</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) June 13, 2019, by Matthew Choi</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">The head of the Federal Election Commission released a statement on Thursday evening reiterating, emphatically, that foreign assistance is illegal in U.S. elections.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/13/fec-election-foreign-trump-1364598" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Listen to Trump’s Lawyer Make Appeal After Flynn Agreed to Cooperate With Mueller</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) June 6, 2019, by Michael S. Schmidt</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Prosecutors released audio on Thursday of a voice mail message that President Trump’s personal lawyer left for a lawyer for Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, shortly after Mr. Flynn agreed in 2017 to cooperate with the special counsel’s investigation.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/us/politics/flynn-dowd-obstruction.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">How Trump Could Be Prosecuted After the White House</b><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Impeachment is a big question mark, but an outline of the case against an ex-President Trump is already taking shape.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) June 6, 2019, by Renato Mariotti</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">With Congress enmeshed in a fraught debate over whether to impeach President Donald Trump, Robert Mueller’s brief and dramatic news conference provided a sharp reminder that impeachment is not the only option for addressing the president’s alleged misdeeds.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/06/06/how-trump-could-be-prosecuted-after-the-white-house-227050" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Robert Mueller breaks silence to insist he did not exonerate Trump</b></span><br />
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<li><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Mueller’s statement seen by many as signal to Congress to act</i></b></span></li>
<li><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Special counsel ‘not confident’ Trump did not commit a crime</i></b></span></li>
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) May 29, 2019, by David Smith</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Robert Mueller, the special counsel, on Wednesday reignited demands for Donald Trump’s impeachment by breaking his two-year silence to deny that the US president is innocent of a crime.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/29/mueller-says-trump-was-not-exonerated-by-his-investigation" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and read Mueller's statement <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/robert-muellers-written-statement-russia-investigation" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller drew up obstruction indictment against Trump, Michael Wolff book claims</b></span><br />
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<li><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Spokesman for special counsel denies existence of document</i></b></span></li>
<li><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Revelation is in Fire and Fury sequel, Siege: Trump Under Fire</i></b></span></li>
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) May 28, 2019, by Edward Helmore</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">A new book from Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff says special counsel Robert Mueller drew up a three-count obstruction of justice indictment against Donald Trump before deciding to shelve it – an explosive claim which a spokesman for Mueller flatly denied.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/28/mueller-trump-obstruction-charge-michael-wolff-book-siege-under-fire-news" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and read another </i>Guardian <i>article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/28/bannon-trump-organization-criminal-enterprise-comments-michael-wolff-book?via=newsletter&source=CSAMedition" target="_blank">here</a></b> on ex-Trump advisor Steve Bannon's depiction of the Trump Organization as a criminal enterprise.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Deutsche Bank Staff Saw Suspicious Activity in Trump and Kushner Accounts</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) </b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">May 19, 2019, b</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">y David Enrich</b><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Anti-money-laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions involving legal entities controlled by Donald J. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crimes watchdog.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/19/business/deutsche-bank-trump-kushner.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Did Donald Trump’s Grip on the Justice Department Sabotage Robert Mueller’s Investigation?</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(The Intercept) May 7, 2019, by James Risen</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Through his unrelenting efforts to obstruct the Trump-Russia investigation since its inception, President Donald Trump has inflicted a slow-motion Saturday Night Massacre on the American people, a constitutional nightmare that has lasted two years instead of one night.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/05/07/mueller-report-trump-obstruction/" target="_blank">here</a></b> and The Intercept's annotated read of the Mueller report <b><a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/04/18/annotating-special-counsel-robert-muellers-redacted-report/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Ex-DOJ prosecutors: Trump would have been charged with obstruction if he wasn't president</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) May 6, 2019, by Caitlin Oprysko</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Nearly 400 federal prosecutors on Monday said they believe President Donald Trump would have been charged with obstruction of justice if not for a longstanding Justice Department policy barring the indictment of a sitting president.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/06/former-doj-prosecutors-trump-obstruction-1305776" target="_blank">here</a></b> and the prosecutors' statement <b><a href="https://medium.com/@dojalumni/statement-by-former-federal-prosecutors-8ab7691c2aa1" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Pelosi says Barr 'lied to Congress' and 'that's a crime'</b><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) </b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">May 2, 2019, b</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">y Clare Foran, Ashley Killough and Lauren Fox</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Attorney General William Barr committed a crime when he testified before Congress.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/02/politics/nancy-pelosi-barr-crime/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Barr takes shots at Mueller during tense Senate hearing</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The attorney general went on the offensive after it was revealed Mueller twice pushed Barr to release Russia probe summaries.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) May 1, 2019, by Kyle Cheney and Andrew Desiderio</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday offered pointed critiques of Robert Mueller’s investigation after it was revealed that the special counsel had twice pressed Barr to speed the release of his report's summaries and introductions to Congress and the public.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/01/barr-hearing-mueller-report-1295274" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller complained to Barr about Russia report memo</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>‘This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel,’ the letter said.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) April 30, 2019, by Natasha Bertrand, Darren Samuelsohn, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Special counsel Robert Mueller wrote a letter to Attorney General William Barr last month complaining that a four-page memo Barr wrote characterizing Mueller’s findings “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the Russia investigation, two senior Justice Department officials confirmed to POLITICO on Tuesday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/30/robert-mueller-william-barr-report-1295269" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and read Mueller's letter <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-robert-muellers-letter-bill-barr" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Stymied by aides, Trump sought out loyalist to curtail special counsel — and drew Mueller’s glare</b></span><br />
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<b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">April 25, 2019, b</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">y Ashley Parker, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Rosalind S. Helderman and </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Matt Zapotosky</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">President Trump was furious.</span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;">He had just learned that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation went beyond Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign and into the White House — and that Trump himself was now under scrutiny for his actions in office.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/stymied-by-aides-trump-sought-out-loyalist-to-curtail-special-counsel--and-drew-muellers-glare/2019/04/25/d58c79de-66ad-11e9-8985-4cf30147bdca_story.html?utm_term=.47e53afe8be0" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Obstruction of Justice in the Mueller Report: A Heat Map</b></span>
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/wsfsmDNZ9WmmvvWRTKfuq4VJ1Orc8oyCdiMk-pHiTk_C7jq4K4QhkVFyso-xxtG3JnPX_qRAU6fAlK3h97cXb1AYjGs-2paP6BCjt3s1aySbPDeG87CD8r50QM9I5IZC9oZRBeZ5" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="734" data-original-width="1008" height="233" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/wsfsmDNZ9WmmvvWRTKfuq4VJ1Orc8oyCdiMk-pHiTk_C7jq4K4QhkVFyso-xxtG3JnPX_qRAU6fAlK3h97cXb1AYjGs-2paP6BCjt3s1aySbPDeG87CD8r50QM9I5IZC9oZRBeZ5" width="320" /></a><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) April 21, 2019, by Quinta Jurecic</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">The Mueller report describes numerous instances in which President Trump may have obstructed justice.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/Obstruction%20of%20Justice%20in%20the%20Mueller%20Report:%20A%20Heat%20Map%20By%20Quinta%20Jurecic%20%20Sunday,%20April%2021,%202019,%202:32%20PM%20Google+%20Reddit%20LinkedIn%20The%20Mueller%20report%20describes%20numerous%20instances%20in%20which%20President%20Trump%20may%20have%20obstructed%20justice." target="_blank">here</a> </b>and see a Brookings Institution panel discussion on the Mueller report <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/video-brookings-event-mueller-report" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>What Mueller Found on Russia and on Obstruction: A First Analysis</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) </b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">April 18, 2019, b</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">y Scott R. Anderson, Victoria Clark, Mikhaila Fogel, Sarah Grant, Susan Hennessey, Matthew Kahn, Quinta Jurecic, Lev Sugarman, Margaret Taylor, Benjamin Wittes</span></b><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">“Really the best day since he got elected,” said Kellyanne Conway, the president’s counselor, about a day on which 400 pages dropped into the public’s lap describing relentless presidential misconduct and serial engagements between his campaign and a foreign actor. The weeks-long lag between Attorney General William Barr’s announcement of Robert Mueller’s top-line findings and the release of the Mueller report itself created space for an alternate reality in which the document released today might give rise to such a statement. But the cries of vindication do not survive even the most cursory examination of the document itself.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-mueller-found-russia-and-obstruction-first-analysis" target="_blank">here</a></b> and a Lawfare Blog review <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/appendix-instances-obstruction-mueller-report" target="_blank">here</a></b> of the Mueller report's evidence on obstruction of justice by Trump.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Document: The Mueller Report</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) April 18, 2019, by</b> <b>Matthew Kahn</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">On Thursday, Attorney General Bill Barr released a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the findings of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and related matters. Read the report at <b><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/7uhsoiay98riykj/report.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank">this link</a></b>. Lawfare will post the document in full as soon as possible.... <i>Read the blog post <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-mueller-report" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Barr 'disagreed' with Mueller's obstruction theories</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The attorney general also said Mueller examined 10 episodes involving Trump when he probed possible obstruction.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) April 18, 2019, by Kyle Cheney</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Attorney General William Barr on Thursday said he disagreed with some of special counsel Robert Mueller's legal theories underlying his investigation of potential obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump in the FBI's Russia probe.</span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;">Barr said Mueller examined 10 episodes that could have amounted to obstruction, but that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ultimately determined the facts failed to amount to evidence of a crime. Barr had previously said that Mueller reached no determination about whether the president obstructed justice.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/18/barr-said-mueller-examined-10-episodes-involving-trump-when-probing-possible-obstruction-1280892" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Patten's Cooperation Wins Him Probation in Mueller Case</b></span><br />
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<li><span face="" style="font-size: large;"> <b><i>Judge cites his ‘substantial assistance’ to prosecutors</i></b></span></li>
<li><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i> His wife, a former CIA covert operative, urges leniency</i></b></span></li>
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) April 12, 2019, by Andrew M Harris</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Sam Patten, a former State Department official who illegally lobbied for Ukraine, was sentenced to three years of probation, avoiding prison after providing “substantial assistance” to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-12/patten-gets-3-years-probation-for-illegal-lobbying-for-ukraine" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Some on Mueller’s Team Say Report Was More Damaging Than Barr Revealed</b></span><br />
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<b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">April 3, 2019, b</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">y Nicholas Fandos, Michael S. Schmidt and Mark Mazzetti</span></b><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Some of Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators have told associates that Attorney General William P. Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/us/politics/william-barr-mueller-report.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a </i>Washington Post<i> piece <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/limited-information-barr-has-shared-about-russia-investigation-frustrated-some-on-muellers-team/2019/04/03/c98e8a02-567a-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html?utm_term=.beaea36b3c24" target="_blank">here</a></b> on frustrations in Mueller's team with Barr's handling of the report.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Don’t Wait For a Redacted Mueller Report</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The law is clear: Congress is entitled to the full 400 pages.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) April 1, 2019, by Nelson W. Cunningham</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Attorney General William Barr is right: For public release of the Mueller report, he has no choice but to redact classified information, and also grand jury information pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e). It’s not optional — it’s the law, designed to protect both the secrecy of grand jury proceedings and our nation’s security.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/04/01/redacted-mueller-report-226343" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Report Exceeds 300 Pages, Raising Questions About Four-Page Summary</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) March 28, 2019, b</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">y Nicholas Fandos and Adam Goldman</b><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">The still-secret report on Russian interference in the 2016 election submitted by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, last week was more than 300 pages long, according to the Justice Department, a length that raises new questions about Attorney General William P. Barr’s four-page summary.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/us/politics/mueller-report-length.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> and a Lawfare Blog analysis of Barr's summary <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/unpacking-obstruction-justice-mystery-barr-letter" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">What to Make of Bill Barr’s Letter</b><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) March 24, 2019, by Mikhaila Fogel, Quinta Jurecic, Susan Hennessey, Matthew Kahn, Benjamin Wittes</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Leave it to President Trump to describe as “Total EXONERATION” a document that specifically quotes Special Counsel Robert Mueller as saying that one of his principal findings “does not exonerate” the president.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-make-bill-barrs-letter" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, Barr's letter <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-attorney-general-barr-letter-mueller-report" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a report <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/25/politics/jay-sekulow-trump-mueller-written-answers/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on a Trump attorney rejecting the public disclosure of Trump's responses to Mueller.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Delivers Report on Russia Investigation to Attorney General</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) March 22, 2019, </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>by Sharon LaFraniere and Katie Benner</b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has delivered a report on his inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election to Attorney General William P. Barr, according to the Justice Department, bringing to an apparent close an investigation that has consumed the nation and cast a shadow over President Trump for nearly two years.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/us/politics/mueller-report-release.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and a BuzzFeed News article on the development <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/robert-mueller-report-trump-campaign-russia?ref=bfnsplash" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Explosive revelations in Russia saga add up to a bad day for Trump</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) March 14, 2019, by </b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Stephen Collinson, Analysis</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">It would be hard to think of a more damaging day for a President than one on which his former campaign chairman disappeared behind bars for years to come. But Paul Manafort's new sentence was the least of Donald Trump's worries Wednesday as his Russia investigation nightmare took yet another turn for the worse.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/14/politics/russia-investigation-paul-manafort-michael-cohen-matt-whitaker/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>5 key takeaways from the Michael Cohen hearing</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) February 27, 2019, by Aaron Blake</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Michael Cohen’s date with the House Oversight Committee began with a big bang. His opening statement contained most of the day’s major revelations. This was probably inevitable, given that Cohen isn’t your average witness: He was there to get some things off his chest.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/27/key-takeaways-michael-cohen-hearing/?utm_term=.d77858fc4901" target="_blank">here</a></b>, a transcript of Cohen's opening statement <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/27/full-text-michael-cohen-statement-to-congress" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, the Lawfare Blog's analysis of Cohen's testimony <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/cohen-silence-breaks-what-make-wednesdays-testimony" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a Politico story <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/27/michael-cohen-hearing-trump-circle-1194520" target="_blank">here</a> </b>on implications for Trump's family members and associates.</i><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>20 questions that Michael Cohen could answer for lawmakers when he testifies on Capitol Hill this week</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) February 26, 2019, by Matt Zapotosky and </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Rosalind S. Helderman</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, is scheduled to testify before three congressional committees this week — two in private and one in a potentially explosive public hearing.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/20-questions-that-michael-cohen-could-answer-for-lawmakers-when-he-testifies-on-capitol-hill-this-week/2019/02/25/11bd9db2-3926-11e9-a06c-3ec8ed509d15_story.html?utm_term=.a39962af832b" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a </i>New York Times <i>article on Cohen's planned testimony <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/us/politics/michael-cohen-testimony.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Senate investigators pursue Moscow-based former Trump associate</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) February 21, 2019, by</b> <b>Nina dos Santos</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Senate investigators want to question a Moscow-based American businessman with longstanding ties to President Donald Trump after witnesses told them he could shed light on the President's commercial and personal activities in Russia dating back to the 1990s, multiple sources have told CNN.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/21/politics/senate-trump-russia-david-geovanis-intl/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Intimidation, Pressure and Humiliation: Inside Trump’s Two-Year War on the Investigations Encircling Him</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>President Trump’s efforts have exposed him to accusations of obstruction of justice as Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, finishes his work.</i></b></span><br />
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<b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Feb. 19, 2019, b</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">y Mark Mazzetti, Maggie Haberman, Nicholas Fandos and Michael S. Schmidt</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">As federal prosecutors in Manhattan gathered evidence late last year about President Trump’s role in silencing women with hush payments during the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump called Matthew G. Whitaker, his newly installed attorney general, with a question. He asked whether Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and a Trump ally, could be put in charge of the widening investigation, according to several American officials with direct knowledge of the call.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/us/politics/trump-investigations.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>'I believe Putin': Trump dismissed US advice on North Korea threat, says McCabe</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Former FBI chief says president believed Russian leader over US security agencies and ‘a crime may have been committed’ over Comey firing</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) February 18, 2019, by Kate Lyons and agencies</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">A former FBI acting director has alleged Donald Trump dismissed advice from his own security agencies on the threat posed by North Korea’s missiles, saying “I don’t care. I believe Putin.”... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/18/i-believe-putin-trump-dismissed-us-advice-on-north-korea-threat-says-mccabe" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, watch the full CBS 60 Minutes interview with McCabe <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/andrew-mccabe-60-minutes-interview-full-transcript-watch-acting-fbi-director-trump-investigation-james-comey-russia-investigation-2019-02-17/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7d&linkId=63716483" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>,<b> </b>and read a review of McCabe's book <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/books/review-threat-fbi-trump-andrew-mccabe.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Books" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Mueller: Guidelines call for Manafort to get up to 24.5 years in prison for Virginia convictions</b><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Prosecutors made a clear reference to Manafort’s time atop Trump’s 2016 campaign, noting his 'repeated misrepresentations to financial institutions were brazen' during that time.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) February 15, 2019, by Darren Samuelsohn and Josh Gerstein</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Robert Mueller’s team told a federal judge Friday that federal guidelines call for Paul Manafort to get as long as 24-and-a-half years in prison for his conviction last summer for financial malfeasance.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/15/mueller-manafort-sentencing-1173314" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>McCabe Says Justice Officials Discussed Recruiting Cabinet Members to Push Trump Out of Office</b></span><br />
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<b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Feb. 14, 2019, b</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">y Adam Goldman and Matthew Haag</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Andrew G. McCabe, the former deputy F.B.I. director, said in an interview aired on Thursday that top Justice Department officials were so alarmed by President Trump’s decision in May 2017 to fire James B. Comey, the bureau’s director, that they discussed whether to recruit cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/us/politics/andrew-mccabe-25th-amendment.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Federal judge finds Paul Manafort lied to Mueller probe about contacts with Russian aide</b></span><br />
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<b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">February 13, 2019, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">b</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">y Spencer S. Hsu</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about matters close to the heart of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-judge-finds-paul-manafort-lied-to-mueller-probe-about-contacts-with-russian-aide/2019/02/13/c5209f7a-2f2c-11e9-86ab-5d02109aeb01_story.html?utm_term=.4a3637252154" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>In Closed Hearing, a Clue About ‘the Heart’ of Mueller’s Russia Inquiry</b></span><br />
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<b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">February 10, 2019, b</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">y Sharon LaFraniere, Kenneth P. Vogel and Scott Shane</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Of the few hints to emerge from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, about evidence of possible collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Russia, one of the most tantalizing surfaced almost in passing in a Washington courtroom last week.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/10/us/politics/manafort-mueller-russia-inquiry.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Manafort continued Ukraine work in 2018, prosecutors say</b><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) February 7, 2019, by Spencer S. Hsu, </b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Rosalind S. Helderman and </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Matt Zapotosky</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Prosecutors allege that Paul Manafort was working on Ukrainian political matters in 2018, after his indictment in the special counsel’s investigation, and also revealed that a former business associate of his who was assessed by the FBI to have ties to Russian intelligence attended President Trump’s inaugural, according to new court filings.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/prosecutors-manafort-continued-ukraine-work-in-2018-and-key-russian-aide-came-to-trump-inauguration/2019/02/07/a0210b96-2a50-11e9-b2fc-721718903bfc_story.html?utm_term=.79310f7309fc" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Wanted $20 Million for 2006 Moscow Deal: Developer</b></span><br />
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<li><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Ukrainian-Russian provides new details of an early negotiation</i></b></span></li>
<li><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Pavel Fuks describes meeting Trump, hosting children in Moscow</i></b></span></li>
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) February 6, 2019, by Stephanie Baker</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Donald Trump’s dream of putting his name on a tower in Moscow came with a heft</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">y price tag: $20 million.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-06/trump-wanted-20-million-for-2006-moscow-deal-developer-says" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>The President Said No Site Was Picked For Trump Moscow — But Documents Show His Fixers Were Scoping A Prime Location</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump told the New York Times the Moscow development was “not important” and he was “not even sure they had a site.” But documents reveal early plans to build the luxury skyscraper on an industrial complex near the Moscow River.</i></b></span><br />
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<b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">(BuzzFeed News) February 1, 2019, by </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Emma Loop</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">President Donald Trump said Thursday that his company had not selected a location to build a Trump Tower Moscow during the 2016 presidential election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmaloop/trump-moscow-site" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and BuzzFeed's article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/azeenghorayshi/trump-tower-moscow-the-secret-files-cohen-sater-putin?ref=bfnsplash" target="_blank">here</a></b> about the news site's release of internal Trump Organization documents on the Moscow tower discussions.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Roger Stone wanted WikiLeaks dump to distract from ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, Mueller witness says</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) January 29, 2019, by Isaac Stanley-Becker</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">The <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html?utm_term=.9cc64ce0925c&tid=a_inl_manual" target="_blank">revelation in The Washington Post</a></b> of a tape of Donald Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women landed just after 4 p.m. on Oct. 7, 2016.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/29/roger-stone-wanted-wikileaks-email-dump-distract-access-hollywood-tape-associate-claims/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ee317af2e94a" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span face="">Trump and His Associates Had </span><span face="">More Than 100 Contacts With </span><span face="">Russians Before the Inauguration</span></span></b><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) January 26, 2019, by Karen Yourish and Larry Buchanan</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">During the 2016 presidential campaign and transition, Donald J. Trump and at least 17 campaign officials and advisers had contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries, a New York Times analysis has found. At least 10 other associates were told about interactions but did not have any themselves.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/26/us/politics/trump-contacts-russians-wikileaks.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone indicted by special counsel in Russia investigation</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">January 25, 2019, b</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">y Rosalind S. Helderman, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Devlin Barrett, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">John Wagner and </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Manuel Roig-Franzia</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime informal adviser to President Trump, was arrested Friday by the FBI in Florida on charges that he lied and tried to tamper with a witness to hide his efforts to learn about releases of Democrats’ hacked emails during the 2016 presidential campaign.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/longtime-trump-adviser-roger-stone-indicted-by-special-counsel-in-russia-investigation/2019/01/25/93a4d8fa-2093-11e9-8e21-59a09ff1e2a1_story.html?utm_term=.2640d995f52a" target="_blank">here</a></b>, a closer look at the indictment <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/roger-stone-was-in-close-contact-with-trump-campaign-about-wikileaks-indictment-shows/2019/01/25/65d9ad1a-20a2-11e9-8e21-59a09ff1e2a1_story.html?utm_term=.b43e77faa2f4" target="_blank">here</a></b> and the indictment <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-indictment-roger-stone" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s Lawyer Said There Were “No Plans” For Trump Tower Moscow. Here They Are.</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Rudy Giuliani claims the Moscow tower was barely more than a notion. “There were no drafts. Nothing in the file.” Documents obtained by BuzzFeed News tell a different story.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed News) </b></span><b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">January 22, 2019, </span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Azeen Ghorayshi</span></b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">The plan was dazzling: a glass skyscraper that would stretch higher than any other building in Europe, offering ultra-luxury residences and hotel rooms and bearing a famous name. Trump Tower Moscow, conceived as a partnership between Donald Trump’s company and a Russian real estate developer, looked likely to yield profits in excess of $300 million.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/azeenghorayshi/here-are-the-trump-moscow-plans" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Giuliani says Trump might have talked to Cohen about his testimony: 'So what?'</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Hill</i>) January 20, 2019, by Alicia Cohn</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, on Sunday said that it's "possible" the president spoke to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, ahead of his congressional testimony.</span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;">"Which would be perfectly normal," Giuliani said on CNN's "State of the Union." "So what?"... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/426202-guiliani-says-trump-might-have-talked-to-cohen-about-his-testimony-so" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Moscow Skyscraper Talks Continued Through ‘the Day I Won,’ Trump Is Said to Acknowledge</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) January 20, 2019, b</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">y Mark Mazzetti, Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt</b><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">President Trump was involved in discussions to build a skyscraper in Moscow throughout the entire 2016 presidential campaign, his personal lawyer said on Sunday, a longer and more significant role for Mr. Trump than he had previously acknowledged.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/20/us/politics/trump-tower-moscow-cohen-giuliani.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Why Is Trump Spouting Russian Propaganda?</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The president’s endorsement of the U.S.S.R.’s invasion of Afghanistan echoes a narrative promoted by Vladimir Putin.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Atlantic</i>) January 3, 2019, by David Frum</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">It was only one moment in a 90-minute stream of madness.</span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;">President Donald Trump convened a Cabinet meeting, at which he invited all its members to praise him for his stance on the border wall and the government shutdown. There’s always a lively competition to see which member of the Cabinet can grovel most abjectly. The newcomer Matthew Whitaker may be only the acting attorney general, but despite—or perhaps because of—that tentative status, he delivered one of the strongest entries, saluting the president for sacrificing his Christmas and New Year’s holiday for the public good, and contrasting that to members of Congress who had left Washington during the Trump-created crisis.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/trump-just-endorsed-ussrs-invasion-afghanistan/579361/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump-Deutsche Bank links in sights of U.S. House investigators</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(Reuters) January 18, 2019, by Mark Hosenball and Ginger Gibson</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">Democrats now in control of the U.S. House of Representatives are working out which House panels will take the lead in investigating President Donald Trump’s business ties to Deutsche Bank, lawmakers and aides familiar with the plans told Reuters.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-deutsche-bank/trump-deutsche-bank-links-in-sights-of-u-s-house-investigators-idUSKCN1PC123" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and 2017 stories in </i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/business/big-german-bank-key-to-trumps-finances-faces-new-scrutiny.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">The<i> </i>New York Times</a><i>, </i><b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/19/deutsche-bank-donald-trump-russia-investigation-subpoenas" target="_blank">The Guardian</a></b> <i>and </i><b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/kushner-firms-285-million-deutsche-bank-loan-came-just-before-election-day/2017/06/25/984f3acc-4f88-11e7-b064-828ba60fbb98_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_kushner-deal-915pm%253Ahomepage%252Fstory&utm_term=.268bc6c3d7a7&noredirect=on" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a></b> <i>on scrutiny of Trump's connection to Deutsche Bank.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>President Trump Directed His Attorney Michael Cohen To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project</b></span><br />
<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump received 10 personal updates from Michael Cohen and encouraged a planned meeting with Vladimir Putin.</i></b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed News) January 17, 2019, by Jason Leopold and </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>Anthony Cormier</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/trump-russia-cohen-moscow-tower-mueller-investigation" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, read the reaction from House Democrats <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmaloop/congress-investigates-trump-telling-cohen-lie" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, read the Lawfare Blog's take <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/latest-revelation-buzzfeed-news-trump-reportedly-directed-cohen-lie-congress" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and read an article on the special counsel's office denying aspects of the story <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/inside-the-mueller-teams-decision-to-dispute-buzzfeeds-explosive-story-on-trump-and-cohen/2019/01/19/d89dba5b-fa0f-445b-9fd3-72f0e911e28d_story.html?utm_term=.5c0de80baca1" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Law Firm to Pay $4.6 Million in Case Tied to Manafort and Ukraine</b></span><br />
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<span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) by Kenneth P. Vogel and Matthew Goldstein, </b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><b>January 17, 2019</b></span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">—</span><span face="" style="font-size: large;">A global New York-based law firm has agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle a Justice Department investigation into whether its work for a Russia-aligned Ukrainian government violated lobbying laws.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/us/politics/skadden-arps-ukraine-lobbying-settlement.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="">Click <b><a href="https://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2018/06/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> to see my earlier Trump-Putin bromance timeline for June 2018-Jan. 2019, <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/10/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my timeline for Oct. 2017-May 2018, <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/08/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my Aug.-Sept. 2017 timeline and <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/07/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my June 2015-July 2017 timeline.</span></i></span></b><br />
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<b style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><i>See links to my investigative journalism <a href="http://albloggedup.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here</a>, including my book </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0994861761" target="_blank">Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence</a><i>, a finalist in the 2018 Reader's Favorite International Book Awards and winner or finalist in 12 </i></span></b><b style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><i>other book prizes.</i></span></b><br />
<b style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span face="" style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></b></div>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-66856541158044989032018-06-05T09:39:00.001-04:002022-02-23T16:04:19.960-05:00COMRADE TRUMP—The Definitive Trump-Putin Bromance and "This Russia Thing" Timeline (June 2018-Jan. 2019)<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Having trouble keeping up with the drip-drip of revelations about ex-president Donald Trump and his cozy ties with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin? </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Stay up to date and check your facts with my definitive "Comrade Trump" timeline, compiling the latest Trump-Putin bromance news. Feel free to send in your own tidbits via the comments. I don't necessarily endorse the articles </i><i>linked below.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Click <b><a href="https://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2019/01/comrade-trump-putin-ties-bromance-timeline-mueller.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> to see my latest Trump-Putin bromance timeline, <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/10/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my timeline for Oct. 2017-May 2018, <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/08/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my Aug.-Sept. 2017 timeline and <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/07/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my June 2015-July 2017 timeline.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Rudy Giuliani: ‘I never said there was no collusion’ between Trump campaign and Russia</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) January 17, 2019, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Allyson Chiu and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lindsey Bever</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rudolph W. Giuliani claimed Wednesday night that he “never said there was no collusion” between President Trump’s campaign and Russia leading up to the 2016 presidential election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/17/rudy-giuliani-says-i-never-said-there-was-no-collusion-between-trump-campaign-russia/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.38b620fa6251" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Discussed Pulling U.S. From NATO, Aides Say Amid New Concerns Over Russia</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">January 14, 2019, b</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">y Julian E. Barnes and Helene Cooper</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—T</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">here are few things that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia desires more than the weakening of NATO, the military alliance among the United States, Europe and Canada that has deterred Soviet and Russian aggression for 70 years.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/nato-president-trump.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in administration</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">January 13, 2019, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Greg Miller</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-has-concealed-details-of-his-face-to-face-encounters-with-putin-from-senior-officials-in-administration/2019/01/12/65f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html?utm_term=.f8f909106db7" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) January 11, 2019, b</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">y Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt and Nicholas Fandos</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/us/politics/fbi-trump-russia-inquiry.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and read a </i>Washington Post<i> piece on Trump's response <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/14/why-hasnt-trump-actually-denied-working-russia/?utm_term=.0a084bffc844" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Manafort intended for polling data to go to 2 Ukrainian oligarchs who owed him millions</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) January 10, 2019, by Katelyn Polantz and Evan </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Perez—</b>Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov, two Ukrainian oligarchs who had paid Paul Manafort for years for his political work in their country, were the intended recipients of the American polling data that Manafort shared with Konstantin Kilimnik during the 2016 presidential campaign, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/09/politics/manafort-ukrainian-oligarchs/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump's team had over 100 contacts with Russian-linked officials, report shows</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>USA Today</i>) January 9, 2019, by Christal </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Hayes—</b>Members of President Donald Trump's campaign and transition team had more than 100 contacts with Russian-linked officials, according to a new report.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/09/donald-trump-team-contact-russian-officials/2530829002/" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and see the report <b><a href="https://themoscowproject.org/explainers/trumps-russia-cover-up-by-the-numbers-70-contacts-with-russia-linked-operatives/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Paul Manafort shared 2016 polling data with Russian associate, according to court filing</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) January 8, 2019, by Rachel Weiner, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Spencer S. Hsu and </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Rosalind S. </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Helderman—</b>Paul Manafort shared 2016 presidential campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate the FBI has said has ties to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/paul-manafort-shared-2016-polling-data-with-russian-employee-according-to-court-filing/2019/01/08/3f562ad8-12b0-11e9-803c-4ef28312c8b9_story.html?utm_term=.ed69d89bda01" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian lawyer at Trump Tower meeting charged in separate case</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) January 8, 2019, by Devlin Barrett and </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Matt </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Zapotosky—</b>A Russian lawyer whose role in a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower has come under scrutiny from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was charged Tuesday with obstructing justice in a separate money-laundering investigation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Natalia Veselnitskaya became a central figure in Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election when it was revealed that, in June of that year, she met with Donald Trump Jr. and other senior Trump campaign advisers after an intermediary indicated she had damaging information about Hillary Clinton.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-lawyer-at-trump-tower-meeting-charged-in-separate-case/2019/01/08/0f0303a0-1356-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html?utm_term=.8d1ae7b44af2" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Supreme Court rules against mystery corporation from ‘Country A’ fighting subpoena in Mueller investigation</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) January 8, 2019, by </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Robert Barnes, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Devlin Barrett and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Carol D. </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Leonnig—</b>The Supreme Court on Tuesday left in place a lower court order requiring an unnamed foreign-owned corporation to comply with a subpoena said to be part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-rules-against-mystery-corporation-from-country-a-fighting-subpoena-in-mueller-investigation/2019/01/08/a39b61ac-0d1a-11e9-84fc-d58c33d6c8c7_story.html?utm_term=.279070e303df" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: Russian Ex-Spy Pressured Manafort Over Debts to an Oligarch</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>TIME</i>) December 29, 2018, by Simon </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Shuster—</b>When the U.S. government put out its latest sanctions list on Dec. 19, the man named at the top did not seem especially important. Described in the document as a former Russian intelligence officer, he was accused of handling money and negotiations on behalf of a powerful Russian oligarch. The document did not mention that the man, Victor Boyarkin, had links to the 2016 campaign of President Donald Trump.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://time.com/5490169/paul-manafort-victor-boyarkin-debts/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A Russian bank gave Marine Le Pen’s party a loan. Then weird things began happening.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 27, 2018, by Paul </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Sonne—</b>When French politician Marine Le Pen needed cash for her far-right party, an obscure Russian bank agreed to help.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Four years later, the bank has gone bust. The owner is facing a warrant for his arrest. Former Russian military officers are demanding money. And the party’s treasurer is sending off some $165,000 every few months to a woman in Moscow, unsure of where the payments ultimately will go.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/a-russian-bank-gave-marine-le-pens-party-a-loan-then-weird-things-began-happening/2018/12/27/960c7906-d320-11e8-a275-81c671a50422_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e5a05f24556d&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Ethics official said Whitaker should recuse from the Mueller probe, but his advisers told him not to, officials say</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 20, 2018, by Devlin Barrett and </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Matt </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Zapotosky—</b>A senior Justice Department ethics official concluded acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker should recuse from overseeing special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe examining President Trump, but advisers to Whitaker recommended the opposite and he has no plans to step aside, people familiar with the matter said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ethics-officials-say-whitaker-need-not-recuse-from-supervising-special-counsel-probe-according-to-a-person-familiar-with-the-matter/2018/12/20/76332392-046b-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2ed709c4f259" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Administration to Lift Sanctions on Russian Oligarch’s Companies</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) December 19, 2018, by Kenneth P. </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Vogel—</b>The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it intends to lift sanctions against the business empire of Oleg V. Deripaska, one of Russia’s most influential oligarchs, after an aggressive lobbying campaign by Mr. Deripaska’s companies.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/sanctions-oleg-deripaska-russia-trump.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a </i>New York Times<i> article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/world/europe/putin-trump-syria.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b> on Russian President Vladimir Putin's praise of Trump for his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Trump signed letter of intent for Trump Tower Moscow project despite Giuliani insisting he didn't</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) December 18, 2018, by Kate </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Sullivan—</b>A newly obtained document shows President Donald Trump signed a letter of intent to move forward with negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Russia, despite his attorney Rudy Giuliani claiming on Sunday the document was never signed.... </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/politics/trump-signed-letter-of-intent-rudy-giuliani-moscow/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> and the letter of intent <b><a href="http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2018/images/12/18/attachment.1.pdf" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>New report on Russian disinformation, prepared for the Senate, shows the operation’s scale and sweep</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The report, a draft of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the first to analyze the millions of posts provided by major technology firms to the Senate Intelligence Committee.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 17, 2018, by Craig Timberg and </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Tony Romm—</b>A report prepared for the Senate that provides the most sweeping analysis yet of Russia’s disinformation campaign around the 2016 election found the operation used every major social media platform to deliver words, images and videos tailored to voters’ interests to help elect President Trump — and worked even harder to support him while in office.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/16/new-report-russian-disinformation-prepared-senate-shows-operations-scale-sweep/?utm_term=.12f361e69336" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and a CNN article <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/17/tech/russia-2016-election-social-media-report/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on how the Russian efforts included attempts to recruit assets via social media.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Michael Cohen Sentenced to 3 Years After Implicating Trump in Hush-Money Scandal</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) December 12, 2018, b</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>y</b> <b>Benjamin Weiser and William K. </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Rashbaum—</b>Michael D. Cohen, the former lawyer for President Trump, was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday morning in part for his role in a scandal that could threaten Mr. Trump’s presidency by implicating him in a scheme to buy the silence of two women who said they had affairs with him.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">... </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/nyregion/michael-cohen-sentence-trump.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, a Politico article on the sentence <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/12/cohen-sentenced-to-3-years-in-prison-1060060" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, a Bloomberg article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-12/american-media-in-non-prosecution-agreement-with-prosecutors?srnd=markets-vp" target="_blank">here</a></b> on the AMI media company's cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors, saying it killed stories about Trump and a </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">Washington Post<i> article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-denies-directing-michael-cohen-to-break-the-law-to-buy-the-silence-of-playboy-playmate-and-porn-star/2018/12/13/a2003d30-fed9-11e8-862a-b6a6f3ce8199_story.html?utm_term=.5ab25052c5c8" target="_blank">here</a></b> on Trump's response to the developments.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Maria Butina set to plead guilty to conspiring to act as agent of Kremlin, documents show</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 11, 2018, by Rosalind S. Helderman and </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Tom </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Hamburger—</b>The young Russian operative called her strategy the “Diplomacy Project,” an elaborate, multiyear scheme to infiltrate the conservative movement in the United States in hopes of cementing bonds to benefit the Kremlin.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/maria-butina-set-to-plead-guilty-to-conspiring-to-act-as-agent-of-kremlin-documents-shows/2018/12/11/91dc7464-fd62-11e8-ad40-cdfd0e0dd65a_story.html?utm_term=.2d12f8c9bf63" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, a Dec. 13 </i>Washington Post <i>article on Butina pleading guilty <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/russian-maria-butina-pleads-guilty-in-effort-to-forge-kremlin-bond-with-us-conservatives/2018/12/13/c27f2d26-fe4f-11e8-ad40-cdfd0e0dd65a_story.html?utm_term=.c1481f62f8a2" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and Butina's plea agreement <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-maria-butina-plea-agreement" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Prosecutors Say Trump Directed Illegal Payments During Campaign</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) December 7, 2018, by Sharon LaFraniere, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Benjamin Weiser and Maggie Haberman—</b>Federal prosecutors said on Friday that President Trump directed illegal payments to ward off a potential sex scandal that threatened his chances of winning the White House in 2016, putting the weight of the Justice Department behind accusations previously made by his former lawyer.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/nyregion/michael-cohen-sentence.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a </i>Washington Post <i>analysis <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/07/takeaways-michael-cohen-sentencing-filings/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7c8afc500b7a" target="_blank">here</a></b> on the takeaways from the latest Cohen and Manafort filings.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Mueller says Manafort told ‘discernible lies,’ including about contacts with an employee alleged to have Russian intelligence ties</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 7, 2018, b</b>y <b>Rosalind S. Helderman, </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rachel Weiner and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Spencer S. </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Hsu—</b>Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said Friday that Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, told “multiple discernible lies” during interviews with prosecutors, including about his contacts with an employee who is alleged to have ties to Russian intelligence.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mueller-says-manafort-told-discernible-lies-including-about-contacts-with-employee-alleged-to-have-russian-intelligence-ties/2018/12/07/3c9c6172-f99c-11e8-863c-9e2f864d47e7_story.html?utm_term=.8376d274331c" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and Mueller's filing <b><a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/world/mueller-manafort-told-discernable-lies-about-contacts-with-russian-intelligence/3342/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller seeks no prison time for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, citing his ‘substantial assistance’</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 4, 2018, by Carol D. Leonnig, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Rosalind S. Helderman and </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Devlin Barrett</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>—</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Tuesday recommended that former national security adviser Michael Flynn serve no prison time, citing his “substantial assistance” with several ongoing investigations, according to a new court filing.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mueller-seeks-no-prison-time-for-former-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn-citing-his-substantial-assistance/2018/12/04/a5c56a5a-f72a-11e8-863c-9e2f864d47e7_story.html?utm_term=.1a1552f1e1be" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, the sentencing memo <a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/the-special-counsels-sentencing-memo-for-former-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn/3336/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, </i></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">the Lawfare Blog's take on the memo <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/flynntriguing-sentencing-memorandum" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and </i><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">a good </i><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">round-up of other reactions to the memo <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/12/05/daily-202-flynn-sentencing-memo-hints-at-how-much-mueller-knows-that-we-still-don-t/5c0745a11b326b60d128011f/?utm_term=.d56b13a3def8" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Cohen was in ‘close and regular contact’ with Trump White House staff, legal team while crafting misstatement to Congress</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(TheHill.com) December 1, 2018, by </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Morgan Gstalter—</b>President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was in “close and regular contact” with White House staff and Trump’s legal team while he was crafting misstatements to Congress, according to a new court filing late Friday night.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/419241-cohen-was-in-close-and-regular-contact-with-trump-white-house-staff" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Trump Organization Planned To Give Vladimir Putin The $50 Million Penthouse In Trump Tower Moscow</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>During the presidential campaign, Michael Cohen discussed the matter with a representative of Putin’s press secretary, according to two US sources.</i></b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(BuzzFeed News) November 29, 2018, by </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Anthony Cormier and </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Jason Leopold—</b>President Donald Trump’s company planned to give a $50 million penthouse at Trump Tower Moscow to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the company negotiated the luxury real estate development during the 2016 campaign, according to four people, one of them the originator of the plan.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/anthonycormier/the-trump-organization-planned-to-give-vladimir-putin-the" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>‘Very legal & very cool’: Trump dismisses criticism of his 2016 business project in Russia</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 30, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Philip Rucker and John Wagner—</b>President Trump on Friday defended his pursuit of a real estate project in Russia at the same time he was securing the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, saying it was “very legal & very cool.”... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/very-legal-and-very-cool-trump-dismisses-criticism-of-his-2016-business-project-in-russia/2018/11/30/76ee9552-f488-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html?utm_term=.6c97fec386aa" target="_blank">here</a></b> and a November 29 </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">New York Times </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">backgrounder on the Moscow deal <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/us/politics/trump-russia-felix-sater-michael-cohen.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, pleads guilty to lying to Congress</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 29, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Rosalind S. Helderman and Matt Zapotosky—</b>Michael Cohen, a former personal attorney to President Trump, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of making false statements to Congress about a Moscow real estate project Trump pursued during the months he was running for president.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/michael-cohen-trumps-former-lawyer-pleads-guilty-to-lying-to-congress/2018/11/29/5fac986a-f3e0-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?utm_term=.a6fc1b23e46b" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, the Cohen plea documents <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-michael-cohen-plea-documents-mueller-probe" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a Nov. 29 </i>Washington Post<i> analysis of the plea deal <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/29/key-takeaways-michael-cohens-new-plea-deal/?utm_term=.1108bec85154" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">If Manafort is counting on a pardon, he shouldn’t</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 28, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Jennifer Rubin, Opinion—</b>On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told the White House press corps that she’s was “unaware” of any conversations about a pardon for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, whose plea deal broke down Monday amid claims by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III that Manafort violated the agreement by lying to the FBI and prosecutors about multiple subjects.... <i>Read the full article </i><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/11/28/if-manafort-is-counting-on-a-pardon-he-shouldnt/?utm_term=.6607883dd8f9" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a><i><b> </b>and a Nov. 28 </i>New York Times<i> </i><i>article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/us/politics/trump-pardon-paul-manafort.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b> on Trump saying a Manafort pardon "is not off the table."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Manafort’s Lawyer Said to Brief Trump Attorneys on What He Told Mueller</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>November 27, 2018, by Michael S. Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Maggie Haberman—</b>A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the president’s onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Trump’s lawyers on his client’s discussions with federal investigators after Mr. Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/us/politics/manafort-lawyer-trump-cooperation.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a Nov. 28 </i>Washington Post<i> opinion piece <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-manafort-witness-deal-implosion-is-a-very-big-deal/2018/11/28/cc242ab0-f338-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html?utm_term=.a34a4ec4ace1" target="_blank">here</a></b> on the briefings.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Corsi provided early alert to Stone about WikiLeaks release, according to draft special counsel document</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 27, 2018, by Carol D. Leonnig, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Rosalind S. Helderman and Manuel Roig-Franzia—</b>Conservative author Jerome Corsi alerted longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone in early August 2016 that WikiLeaks planned to release material damaging to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, including documents related to her campaign chairman John Podesta, according to a draft court filing.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/corsi-provided-early-alert-to-stone-about-wikileaks-release-according-to-draft-special-counsel-document/2018/11/27/9cb68b06-f28e-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html?utm_term=.709be0210fea" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a Nov. 28 </i>Washington Post <i>article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-night-owl-calls-to-roger-stone-in-2016-draw-scrutiny-in-mueller-probe/2018/11/28/77d6174e-f332-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html?utm_term=.117997087251" target="_blank">here</a></b> on Trump's late-night calls to Stone.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Exclusive: Trump ally met WikiLeaks founder months before emails hacked by Russia were published</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) November 27, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Luke Harding and Dan Collyns—</b>Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump’s push for the White House.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy?CMP=share_btn_tw" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a Nov. 27 </i>New York Times <i>article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/us/politics/manafort-lawyer-trump-cooperation.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> on Manafort denying he met Assange.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller says Manafort lied after pleading guilty, should be sentenced immediately</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 26, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Spencer S. Hsu, Rachel Weiner and Devlin Barrett—</b>Prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said Monday that Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement, accusing President Trump’s former campaign chairman of lying repeatedly to them in their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/mueller-says-manafort-lied-after-pleading-guilty-should-be-sentenced-immediately/2018/11/26/61c76d5a-f18d-11e8-aeea-b85fd44449f5_story.html?utm_term=.d848372dd96d" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Conservative author and Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi says he is rejecting plea deal from special counsel</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>November 26, 2018, by Rosalind S. Helderman—</b>Conservative author Jerome Corsi said Monday that he has rejected a deal offered by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to plead guilty to one count of perjury, saying he would have been forced to untruthfully say that he intentionally lied about his interactions with WikiLeaks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In interviews with CNN, NBC and other news organizations, Corsi said he was merely forgetful when investigators spent hours pressing him about his contacts with WikiLeaks, which released hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/conservative-author-and-roger-stone-associate-jerome-corsi-says-he-is-rejecting-plea-deal-from-special-counsel/2018/11/26/53fb33a6-e6bf-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html?utm_term=.2296eda440b4" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Associate of Roger Stone in plea talks with Mueller</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) November 23, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Chad Day—</b>A conservative writer and associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone said Friday that he is in plea talks with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Jerome Corsi told The Associated Press he has been negotiating a potential plea but declined to comment further.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://apnews.com/83a7e797f6eb48399bbe9530e4bce9a3" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Litigation Documents Related to the Mueller Investigation</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>November 20, 2018—</b>Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and related matters has so far yielded a range of prosecutions and appellate litigation. Lawfare will be collecting significant documents from these lawsuits on this page as the investigation and litigation moves forward.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This page is maintained by Victoria Clark and Quinta Jurecic. Any queries or additional documents should be directed to Quinta Jurecic at quinta.jurecic@lawfareblog.com.... <i>View the full Mueller investigation resource page <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/litigation-documents-related-mueller-investigation" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>‘Preparing for the worst’: Mueller anxiety pervades Trump world</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Half a dozen people in contact with the White House and other Trump officials say a deep anxiety has started to set in.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 15, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Darren Samuelsohn—</b>Lawyers for President Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. insist they aren’t worried about special counsel Robert Mueller.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/15/mueller-probe-trump-trump-jr-roger-stone-994382" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Trump’s Appointment of the Acting Attorney General Is Unconstitutional</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The president is evading the requirement to seek the Senate’s advice and consent for the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and the person who will oversee the Mueller investigation.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 8, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Neal K. Katyal and George T. Conway III, Opinion—</b><i>Mr. Katyal and Mr. Conway are lawyers.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What now seems an eternity ago, the conservative law professor Steven Calabresi published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in May arguing that Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. His article got a lot of attention, and it wasn’t long before President Trump picked up the argument, tweeting that “the Appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/opinion/trump-attorney-general-sessions-unconstitutional.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker, has no intention of recusing from Russia probe, associates say</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 8, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky and Josh Dawsey—</b>Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker has no intention of recusing himself from overseeing the special counsel probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people close to him who added they do not believe he would approve any subpoena of President Trump as part of that investigation.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trumps-acting-attorney-general-matt-whitaker-has-no-intention-of-recusing-from-russia-probe-associates-say/2018/11/08/a5bc8d90-e370-11e8-ab2c-b31dcd53ca6b_story.html?utm_term=.3f0972b4057f" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Jeff Sessions’ Replacement, Matthew Whitaker, Led Secretive Anti-Dem Group</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Acting AG Matthew Whitaker ‘is on record as being more interested in propping up Trump than in upholding the rule of law,’ one Justice Department lawyer says.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) November 7, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Betsy Woodruff, Asawin Suebsaeng, Erin Banco, Maxwell Tani and Will Sommer—</b>Acting Attorney General Mark Whitaker, named to head the Justice Department after Jeff Sessions was fired Wednesday, has a close relationship with President Trump and has expressed hostility toward special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe—which he may now oversee.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeff-sessions-replacement-matthew-whitaker-led-secretive-anti-dem-group?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a></b> and Whitaker's August 6, 2017, </i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">CNN</i><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"> op-ed piece, "Mueller's investigation of Trump is going too far," <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/06/opinions/rosenstein-should-curb-mueller-whittaker-opinion/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Has Mueller Subpoenaed the President?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>A careful reading of court filings suggests the special counsel hasn’t been quiet. Far from it.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>October 31, 2018, by Nelson W. Cunningham—</b><i>Nelson W. Cunningham has served as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York under Rudy Giuliani, general counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee under then-Chair Joe Biden, and general counsel of the White House Office of Administration under Bill Clinton.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">These months before the midterm elections are tough ones for all of us Mueller-watchers. As we expected, he has gone quiet in deference to longstanding Justice Department policy that prosecutors should not take actions that might affect pending elections. Whatever he is doing, he is doing quietly and even further from the public eye than usual.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/10/31/has-robert-mueller-subpoenaed-trump-222060" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Revealed: What Erik Prince and Moscow’s Money Man Discussed in That Infamous Seychelles Meeting</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Mueller’s team and Congressional investigators have looked into a meeting in the Seychelles between allies of Trump and Putin. Now we have the Russian read-out of what was said.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) September 26, 2018, by Betsy Woodruff and </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Erin Banco</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Joint U.S.-Russian raids to kill top terrorists. Teamwork between an American government agency and a sanctioned Russian fund. Moscow pouring money into the Midwest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">These are just a few of the ideas the head of a Russian sovereign wealth fund touched on during his meeting with former Blackwater head Erik Prince in the Seychelles, just weeks before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to a memo exclusively reviewed by The Daily Beast.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/revealed-what-erik-prince-and-moscows-money-man-discussed-in-that-infamous-seychelles-meeting?ref=scroll" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Trump Lawyers Demand Mueller Probe ‘Time Out’ if Rosenstein Is Ousted</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>It’s not even clear yet if the deputy attorney general is actually going anywhere. But Trump’s lawyers still want his exit to block, if temporarily, the Russia investigation.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) September 24, 2018, by Lachlan Markay and </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Asawin Suebsaeng</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump’s legal team is calling for a pause of the investigation into Russian election meddling should deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation, resign or be fired.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-lawyers-demand-mueller-probe-time-out-if-rosenstein-quits?ref=scroll" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Former top White House official revises statement to special counsel about Flynn’s calls with Russian ambassador</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) September 22, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">by Shane Harris and Devlin Barrett—A former top White House official has revised her statement to investigators about a key event in the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, after her initial claim was contradicted by the guilty plea of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to people familiar with the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">K.T. McFarland, who briefly served as Flynn’s deputy, has now said that he may have been referring to sanctions when they spoke in late December 2016 after Flynn’s calls with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, these people said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/former-top-white-house-official-revises-statement-to-special-counsel-about-flynns-calls-with-russian-ambassador/2018/09/21/77bb8a7e-bb50-11e8-bdc0-90f81cc58c5d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fe49b3e880b2" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Revealed: Russia’s secret plan to help Julian Assange escape from UK</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Tentative plot to whisk fugitive from London embassy on Christmas Eve was considered too risky</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) September 21, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Dan Collyns and Luke Harding—</b>Russian diplomats held secret talks in London last year with people close to Julian Assange to assess whether they could help him flee the UK, the Guardian has learned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A tentative plan was devised that would have seen the WikiLeaks founder smuggled out of Ecuador’s London embassy in a diplomatic vehicle and transported to another country.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/julian-assange-russia-ecuador-embassy-london-secret-escape-plan?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Michael Cohen spoke to Mueller team for hours; asked about Russia, possible collusion, pardon: Sources</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(ABC News) September 20, 2018, by George Stephanopoulos, Eliana </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Larramendia and James Hill—</b>President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has participated over the last month in multiple interview sessions lasting for hours with investigators from the office of special counsel, Robert Mueller, sources tell ABC News.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/michael-cohen-spoke-mueller-team-hours-asked-russia/story?id=57959664" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Judge sets Dec. 18 sentencing for Michael Flynn</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>September 20, 2018, by Chad Day—</b>After months of delay, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn now has a sentencing date.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A federal judge on Wednesday set Flynn’s sentencing for Dec. 18, more than a year after the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia during the presidential transition.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.apnews.com/b30d5c819ef4431f87f09989684d5850" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump feels angry, unprotected amid mounting crises</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>September 19, 2018, by Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker—</b>President Trump’s declaration that “I don’t have an attorney general” was not merely the cry of an executive feeling betrayed by a subordinate.... </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/he-is-vulnerable-trump-feels-angry-unprotected-amid-mounting-crises/2018/09/19/e33ca996-bc26-11e8-b7d2-0773aa1e33da_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3416da8e6153" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">How a Ukrainian Hairdresser Became a Front for Paul Manafort</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(</b><b><i>The New York Times</i>) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>September 15, 2018, by Andrew E. Kramer—</b>At first glance, what happened to Yevgeny G. Kaseyev hardly seems like misfortune.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Without his knowledge, he says, unknown individuals set up multiple companies in his name and deposited tens of millions of dollars into those companies’ bank accounts.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/15/world/europe/ukraine-paul-manafort.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Speed Read: ‘Obama Jews’ and Other Shocking Highlights From New Manafort Docs</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Special counsel Robert Mueller dropped fresh revelations about Paul Manafort ahead of the ex-Trump aide’s guilty plea in federal court Friday.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) September 14, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>September 19, 2018, by Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker—</b>President Trump’s declaration that “I don’t have an attorney general” was not merely the cry of an executiby Spencer Ackerman—Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman just pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justicee feeling betrayed by a subordinate.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/manafort-docs-obama-jews-and-other-shocking-highlights-from-the-ex-trump-aides-downfall" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Manafort Guilty Plea, the Mueller Investigation, and the President</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) September 14, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Victoria Clark, Mikhaila Fogel, Matthew Kahn, Susan Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic, Benjamin Wittes—</b>Only three weeks ago, the president of the United States lauded Paul Manafort for bravely rejecting any cooperation with Special Counsel Robert Mueller... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/manafort-guilty-plea-mueller-investigation-and-president" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Manafort's surrender shows Mueller probe's overwhelming force</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>A surprise guilty plea from Trump's former campaign chairman shows that Mueller's high-powered probe has been nearly impossible to resist.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) September 14, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Darren Samuelsohn—</b>Paul Manafort vowed he’d never flip on Donald Trump. After Manafort’s conviction in federal court last month in Virginia, the president declared he had “such respect for a brave man!” because his former campaign chairman hadn’t folded.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">About three weeks later, Manafort broke.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/14/manafort-plea-mueller-probe-825753" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a>, and see <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-superseding-criminal-information-against-paul-manafort" target="_blank">here</a></b> for the superseding criminal information in the case, the plea agreement and the statement of offense.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Alleged Russian spy Butina tried to score Trump meeting a year before government claimed</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The early outreach illustrates Mariia Butina's intent to cultivate Trump months before most were taking him seriously.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) September 13, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Josh Meyer—</b>In July 2015, a young Russian gun rights activist now alleged to be a Kremlin covert agent was trying to meet Donald Trump, nearly a year earlier than prosecutors have publicly claimed.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/13/mariaa-butina-alleged-russian-spy-trump-823396" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Papadopoulos sentenced to 14 days in prison</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The former Trump campaign aide was also sentenced to one year of supervised release after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI during its Russia probe.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) September 7, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Josh Gerstein, Kyle Cheney and Josh Meyer—</b>George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser whose loose talk overseas about Russians having “dirt” on Hillary Clinton triggered an FBI investigation into election interference, was sentenced Friday to 14 days in federal prison for lying to the FBI early in that inquiry.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/07/george-papadopoulos-jail-sentence-809381" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Putin’s ‘Friend’ Had Early Access to Trump’s Infamous Pro-Russia Speech</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Photos obtained by The Daily Beast show that think tank chief Dimitri Simes—whom Putin called a ‘friend and colleague’—was closer than previously known to the speech’s drafting.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>September 6, 2018, by Betsy Woodruff—</b>In the morning of April 21, 2016, a staffer at the Center for the National Interest, a Washington D.C., think tank, wandered into the office of Dimitri Simes, the group’s president.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The staffer saw a pile of papers on the desk titled “FOREIGN POLICY AND DEFENSE OUTLINE.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/putins-friend-had-early-access-to-trumps-infamous-pro-russia-speech?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Former Trump adviser Papadopoulos asks judge to spare him jail time</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>September 1, 2018, by Spencer S. Hsu and Rosalind S. Helderman—</b>Candidate Donald Trump “nodded with approval” when a former campaign adviser suggested a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2016, according to a court filing by lawyers seeking a lighter sentence for the adviser, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts during the campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-trump-adviser-the-first-charged-in-mueller-probe-asks-judge-to-spare-him-jail-time/2018/09/01/4bb27c3c-abc7-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.3444a6b9824d" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>August 31, 2018, by Rosalind S. Helderman and </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Spencer S. Hsu</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>—</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">An American political consultant who is cooperating with federal prosecutors admitted in court Friday that he steered $50,000 from a Ukrainian politician to President Trump’s inaugural committee — the first public confirmation that illegal foreign money was used to help fund the January 2017 event.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">W. Samuel Patten, 47, pleaded guilty Friday to failing to register as a foreign lobbyist while working on behalf of a Ukrainian political party, with help from a Russian associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort..... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/washington-consultant-for-ukraine-party-set-to-plead-guilty-to-violating-lobbyist-disclosure-law/2018/08/31/172cf2c8-ad23-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5c096e8a55b3" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>AP sources: Lawyer was told Russia had ‘Trump over a barrel’</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>August 31, 2018, by Eric Tucker and Chad Day—</b>A senior Justice Department lawyer says a former British spy told him at a breakfast meeting two years ago that Russian intelligence believed it had Donald Trump “over a barrel,” according to multiple people familiar with the encounter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The lawyer, Bruce Ohr, also says he learned that a Trump campaign aide had met with higher-level Russian officials than the aide had acknowledged, the people said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://apnews.com/4ac772445073491aa7d3ca9e558e0144" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump privately revived the idea of firing Sessions this month, according to people familiar with the discussions</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>August 28, 2018, by Carol D. Leonnig, Josh Dawsey and Gabriel Pogrund—</b>President Trump, who levied extraordinary public attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions in recent weeks, has privately revived the idea of firing him in conversations with his aides and personal lawyers this month, according to three people familiar with the discussions.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-privately-revived-the-idea-of-firing-sessions-this-month-according-to-people-familiar-with-the-discussions/2018/08/28/13e84a6c-aa40-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.6a3098b66743" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">What you might have missed in the Cohen plea</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) August 22, 2018, by Jennifer Rubin, Opinion—</b>President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen has accused Trump of directing him to commit crimes with the intention of improperly influencing the 2016 election. That is stunning and will have ramifications, I suspect, for voters and every Republican officeholder who does not support an immediate serious investigation by the House and/or Senate Judiciary committees. If the accusations are true, Trump will have committed a crime, should be impeached and, after leaving office, prosecuted. The framers surely would agree that committing a crime in order to obtain the presidency falls in the category of “High Crimes & Misdemeanors.” This is not a prediction of what will occur, but what should follow from our constitutional system.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/08/22/what-you-may-have-missed-in-the-cohen-plea/?utm_term=.5b97f46aa087" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s company approved $420,000 in payments to Cohen, relying on ‘sham’ invoices, prosecutors say</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 21, 2018, by Carol D. Leonnig and Michelle Ye Hee Lee—</b>President Trump’s real estate company authorized paying $420,000 to lawyer Michael Cohen in his effort to silence women during the presidential campaign and then relied on “sham” invoices from Cohen that concealed the nature of the payments, according to legal filings released Tuesday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-company-approved-420000-in-payments-to-cohen-relying-on-sham-invoices-prosecutors-say/2018/08/21/b6b327fc-a596-11e8-97ce-cc9042272f07_story.html?utm_term=.e52cab8433be" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 21, 2018, by Matt Zapotosky, Lynh Bui, Tom Jackman and Devlin Barrett—</b>A jury has found former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort guilty after a three-week trial on tax and bank fraud charges — a major if not complete victory for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as he continues to investigate the president’s associates.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The jury convicted Manafort on eight of the 18 counts against him. The jury said it was deadlocked on the other 10. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis declared a mistrial on those other charges.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/manafort-jury-suggests-it-cannot-come-to-a-consensus-on-a-single-count/2018/08/21/a2478ac0-a559-11e8-a656-943eefab5daf_story.html?utm_term=.110777c29003" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Michael Cohen Says He Paid Off Woman Who Claimed Affair at Trump’s Direction</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) August 21, 2018, by William K. Rashbaum, Maggie Haberman and Ben Protess—</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to campaign finance and other charges. He made the extraordinary admission that he paid a pornographic actress “at the direction of the candidate,” referring to Mr. Trump, to secure her silence about an affair she said she had with Mr. Trump.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Mr. Cohen told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payment was “for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/nyregion/michael-cohen-plea-deal-trump.html?action=Click&contentCollection=BreakingNews&contentID=67538276&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former longtime personal attorney, tentatively reaches a plea deal: Sources</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(ABC News) August 21, 2018, by Matthew Mosk and James Hill—</b>Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former longtime personal attorney, has tentatively reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, ABC News has learned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Given Cohen’s proximity to Trump during the past decade, including throughout his meteoric rise from mogul and reality television star to the White House, observers consider him one of most potent legal thorns to confront Trump’s presidency since he took office.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/michael-cohen-president-trumps-longtime-personal-attorney-reaches/story?id=57310974" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Lawyers’ Sudden Realization: They Don’t Know What Don McGahn Told Mueller’s Team</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">August 19, 2018, b</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">y Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump’s lawyers do not know just how much the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, told the special counsel’s investigators during months of interviews, a lapse that has contributed to a growing recognition that an early strategy of full cooperation with the inquiry was a potentially damaging mistake.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/19/us/politics/don-mcgahn-trump-mueller.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Revokes Ex-CIA Director John Brennan’s Security Clearance</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) August 15, 2018, by Peter Nicholas and Michael C. Bender—</b>President Trump drew a direct connection between the special counsel investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election and his decision to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan and review the clearances of several other former officials.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-revokes-ex-cia-director-john-brennans-security-clearance-1534358658" target="_blank">here</a></b></i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Handler of alleged spy Butina tied to suspicious U.S.-Russia exchange program</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Russian politician Alexander Torshin’s meetings with American students, coupled with his role managing alleged covert Russian agent Mariia Butina, suggest he may be a more important Kremlin operative than previously known.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) August 14, 2018, by Josh Meyer</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Six years before he was exposed for allegedly managing a covert agent on U.S. soil, the Russian politician Alexander Torshin hosted young Americans visiting Moscow as part of two cultural exchange programs, including one that has drawn the FBI’s scrutiny.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/14/russia-americans-putin-torshin-776237" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Manafort trial Day 9: Witness suggests Trump role helped Manafort nab loans</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Afternoon testimony indicated that Paul Manafort's role managing the Trump campaign helped him win millions of dollars in loans at a time he was badly short on cash.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) August 10, 2018, by Darren Samuelsohn and Josh Gerstein</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The bank- and tax-fraud trial of former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort resumed Friday afternoon without any public explanation for an unusual delay in the proceedings, but quickly produced revealing testimony suggesting that Manafort's role managing the Trump campaign helped him win millions of dollars in loans at a time he was badly short on cash.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/10/manafort-trial-day-9-judge-ts-ellis-772518" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Manafort scramble: Raising millions for himself even as he ran Trump’s campaign</b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 10, 2018, by Rosalind S. Helderman, Rachel Weiner and Marc Fisher</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Paul Manafort, a valued customer of the Trump Organization who had spent $3.7 million to buy Apartment 43G in Trump Tower, appeared to be just what Donald Trump wanted in March 2016: A consummate Washington insider, deeply experienced in the byzantine art of wrangling convention delegates, yet also someone who could claim to be an outsider, a successful entrepreneur with overseas clients.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-manafort-scramble-raising-millions-for-himself-even-as-he-ran-trumps-campaign/2018/08/10/32bc76b6-9c1c-11e8-8d5e-c6c594024954_story.html?utm_term=.748ed879053b" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Paul Manafort trial Day 6: Live coverage</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 7, 2018, by Justin Jouvenal, Rachel Weiner, Matt Zapotosky and Rosalind S. Helderman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Paul Manafort, President Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, is on trial in federal court in Alexandria on bank and tax fraud charges. Prosecutors allege he failed to pay taxes on millions he made from his work for a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party, then lied to get loans when the cash stopped coming in.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/08/07/paul-manafort-trial-day-6-live-coverage/?utm_term=.29cf86385224" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>President Admits Trump Tower Meeting Was Meant to Get Dirt on Clinton</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) August 5, 2018, by Michael D. Shear and Michael S. Schmidt</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump said on Sunday that a Trump Tower meeting between top campaign aides and a Kremlin-connected lawyer was designed to “get information on an opponent” — the starkest acknowledgment yet that a statement he dictated last year about the encounter was misleading.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Mr. Trump made the comment in a tweet on Sunday morning that was intended to be a defense of the June 2016 meeting and the role his son Donald Trump Jr. played in hosting it. The president claimed that it was “totally legal” and of the sort “done all the time in politics.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/05/us/politics/trump-tower-meeting-donald-jr.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Paul Manafort Was Deep in Debt. He Saw an Opportunity in Trump.</b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) August 3, 2018, by Matt Apuzzo, Eileen Sullivan and Sharon LaFraniere</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Paul Manafort’s services did not come cheap. His </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">consulting work helped prop up foreign strongmen, who in turn kept him in $12,000 bespoke suits from Beverly Hills.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But by 2016, Mr. Manafort was broke.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/03/us/politics/paul-manafort-trump-campaign.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>'Manhattan Madam' met with Mueller's team</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) August 3, 2018, by MJ Lee </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">and Sara Murray</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Kristin Davis, the woman famously known as the "Manhattan Madam," met with special counsel Robert Mueller's team for a voluntary interview on Wednesday, according to four sources familiar with the situation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Investigators appear to be interested in her ties to longtime Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone, whom she has known for a decade.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/03/politics/mueller-davis-stone-russia-investigation/index.html?utm_source=twCNNp&utm_term=image&utm_content=2018-08-03T17%3A09%3A21&utm_medium=social" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Administration releases application to wiretap Trump campaign adviser</b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 22, 2018, by Shane Harris</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Justice Department on Saturday released a previously classified application to wiretap former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who was under suspicion by the FBI of being a Russian agent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The government had monitored Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the heavily redacted documents were made public after media organizations sued for their release under the Freedom of Information Act.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-releases-application-to-wiretap-trump-campaign-adviser/2018/07/21/4afaeeac-8d3e-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html?utm_term=.1f795ef8df1d" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russia continues to shape narrative of Helsinki summit</b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 20, 2018, by Karen DeYoung</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russia provided additional details Friday of what it said were agreements made at the presidential summit in Helsinki this week, shaping a narrative of the meeting with no confirmation or alternative account from the Trump administration.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russia-continues-to-shape-narrative-of-helsinki-summit/2018/07/20/3ea54a98-8c40-11e8-a345-a1bf7847b375_story.html?utm_term=.ca165c2dbc60" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>‘That’s going to be special’: Tensions rise as Trump invites Putin to Washington</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 19, 2018, by Shane Harris, Felicia Sonmez and John Wagner</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The White House announced Thursday that Vladimir Putin has been invited to Washington this fall, even as leaders in Washington tried to fully understand what happened when President Trump and the Russian leader met earlier this week in Helsinki.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-hes-looking-forward-to-second-summit-with-putin/2018/07/19/450a0424-8b59-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html?utm_term=.1c3ce810d805" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and click <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/segments/watch-coats-learn-that-putin-will-visit-the-white-house/2018/07/19/7bf4826c-8b94-11e8-9d59-dccc2c0cabcf_video.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> to watch video of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats reacting to breaking news that Trump invited Putin to the White House.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>U.S. Officials ‘at a Fucking Loss’ Over Latest Russia Sell Out</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The White House’s refusal to rule out turning over former U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul to the Russians has current and former State Department officials seeing red.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) July 18, 2018, by Spencer Ackerman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Current and former American diplomats are expressing disgust and horror over the White House’s willingness to entertain permitting Russian officials to question a prominent former U.S. ambassador.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One serving diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was “at a fucking loss” over comments that can be expected to chill American diplomacy in hostile or authoritarian countries – a comment echoed by former State Department officials as well.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-officials-at-a-fucking-loss-over-latest-russia-sell-out?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina had ties to Russian intelligence agency, prosecutors say</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 18, 2018, by Tom Jackman and Rosalind S. Helderman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Russian woman arrested on charges of being a foreign agent had ties to Russian intelligence operatives and was in contact with them while in the United States, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Maria Butina, 29, also had an ongoing relationship with a Republican operative, strictly for business purposes according to prosecutors, and offered another individual “sex in exchange for a position within a special interest organization.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/alleged-russian-agent-maria-butina-had-ties-to-russian-intelligence-agency-prosecutors-say/2018/07/18/a1a4042c-8a01-11e8-a345-a1bf7847b375_story.html?utm_term=.61262223e9cc" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump says Russia is no longer targeting the U.S., contradicting statement from U.S. intelligence chief</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 18, 2018, by John Wagner and Felicia Sonmez</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump, who has been under fire for not aggressively confronting Russian President Vladmir Putin over election interference, on Wednesday said he believes Russia is no longer targeting the United States.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Thank you very much, no,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter about whether Russia is still targeting the United States.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-returns-to-touting-his-summit-with-putin-a-day-after-doing-damage-control/2018/07/18/ff794dea-8a70-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html?utm_term=.22102201d59b" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>MH17 victims' father condemns Trump over Russian 'lie'</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(BBC) July 18, 2018</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The father of three Australian children killed when a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down has delivered a scathing attack on Donald Trump over his attitude to Russia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Anthony Maslin's children were among 298 people who died when <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/07/ukraine-mh17-timeline-malaysia-airlines-buk-missile-igor-girkin-strelkov.html" target="_blank">flight MH17</a></b> was downed over Ukraine in 2014.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Investigators found that Russia was responsible for the missile used in the strike - a conclusion denied by Moscow.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-44868329" target="_blank">here</a></b> and a timeline of the evidence in the downing of flight MH17 <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/07/ukraine-mh17-timeline-malaysia-airlines-buk-missile-igor-girkin-strelkov.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump, at Putin’s Side, Questions U.S. Intelligence on 2016 Election</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) July 16, 2018, by Julie Hirschfeld Davis</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump stood next to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Monday and publicly challenged the conclusion of his own intelligence agencies that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election, wrapping up what he called a “deeply productive” summit meeting with an extraordinary show of trust for a leader accused of attacking American democracy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In a remarkable news conference, Mr. Trump did not name a single action for which Mr. Putin should be held accountable.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/world/europe/trump-putin-election-intelligence.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and a transcript of the press conference <b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/07/16/629462401/transcript-president-trump-and-russian-president-putins-joint-press-conference" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Maria Butina, Russian gun-rights advocate who sought to build ties with NRA, charged with acting as a covert Russian agent</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 16, 2018, by Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Jackman and Devlin Barrett</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">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 political organizations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">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.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/maria-butina-russian-gun-rights-advocate-charged-in-us-with-acting-as-russian-federation-agent/2018/07/16/d1d4832a-8929-11e8-85ae-511bc1146b0b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.df020cd76620" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russia Indictment 2.0: What to Make of Mueller’s Hacking Indictment</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) July 13, 2018, by Autumn Brewington, Mikhaila Fogel, Susan Hennessey, Matthew Kahn, Katherine Kelley, Shannon Togawa Mercer, Matt Tait, Benjamin Wittes</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The indictment Friday morning of 12 Russian military intelligence officials in connection with the 2016 election hacks and the resulting distribution of purloined emails was not a total surprise. Observers of the Mueller investigation have been expecting it for a long time, particularly since the Feb. 16 indictment of 13 Russian individuals and three companies over the social media campaign conducted by the so-called Internet Research Agency.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/russia-indictment-20-what-make-muellers-hacking-indictment" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Invited the Russians to Hack Clinton. Were They Listening?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) July 13, 2018, by Michael S. Schmidt</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Itwas one of the more outlandish statements in a campaign replete with them: In a news conference in July 2016, Donald J. Trump made a direct appeal to Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails and make them public.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Mr. Trump said, referring to emails Mrs. Clinton had deleted from the private account she had used when she was secretary of state. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/us/politics/trump-russia-clinton-emails.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Indicts 12 Russian Officers for Hacking Dems in 2016</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced that 12 Russian officials would be indicted in the Russia investigation.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) July 13, 2018, by Betsy Woodruff and Julia Arciga</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Friday announced that 12 Russian intelligence officers have been indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the ongoing probe of alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The officers, members of the Russian foreign-intelligence agency GRU, were all named as having hacked the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, and the Hillary Clinton campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-indicts-12-russian-officers-for-hacking-dems-in-2016?ref=scroll" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and read the indictment <b><a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4598892/DNC-Hack-Indictment.pdf" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Former Putin adviser has secret investment in US energy firm praised by Trump</b></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Exclusive: Alexander Voloshin has undisclosed stake in American Ethane - which has been hailed by Donald Trump</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) July 10, 2018, by Luke Harding</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Vladimir Putin’s former chief of staff has a secret investment in an American energy company hailed by Donald Trump as creating jobs for American workers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Alexander Voloshin – who served as Boris Yeltsin’s chief of staff before working for Putin between 2000 and 2003 – has an undisclosed stake in American Ethane, a Houston-based firm that recently signed a multibillion dollar export deal with China.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/10/former-putin-adviser-has-secret-investment-in-us-energy-firm-praised-by-trump" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>US ‘threatened Ecuador with trade sanctions’ if it introduced UN breastfeeding resolution</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The US backed the resolution after Russia said it would </i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Independent</i>) July 9, 2018, by Mythili Sampathkumar</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Donald Trump’s administration has threatened Ecuador with trade sanctions if it introduces a United Nations resolution to encourage breastfeeding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The US had supposedly asked for language asking governments to “protect, promote, and support breastfeeding” to be removed.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/breastfeeding-united-nations-us-sanctions-ecuador-russia-a8437786.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>House G.O.P. Breaks Into Open Warfare With Rosenstein, Demanding Files</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) June 28, 2018, by Nicholas Fandos</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For months, their sparring had been indirect, stern letters exchanged, pointed threats traded through the news media. But on Thursday, the ever-intensifying skirmishes between Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and conservative House Republicans broke into an ugly public fight.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/politics/house-republicans-rod-rosenstein-russia.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>How the ‘Bad Boys of Brexit’ forged ties with Russia and the Trump campaign — and came under investigators’ scrutiny</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) June 28, 2018, by Manuel Roig-Franzia, Rosalind S. Helderman, William Booth and Tom Hamburger</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">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.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-the-bad-boys-of-brexit-forged-ties-with-russia-and-the-trump-campaign--and-came-under-investigators-scrutiny/2018/06/28/6e3a5e9c-7656-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e50ede35d952" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Poised to Zero In on Trump-Russia Collusion Allegations</b></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Special counsel to focus once he resolves obstruction inquiry</b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>The meetings with Russians stretched as far back as 2015</b></span></li>
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(Bloomberg) June 26, 2018, by Chris Strohm and Shannon Pettypiece</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Special Counsel Robert Mueller is pre</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">paring to accelerate his probe into possible collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russians who sought to interfere in the 2016 election, according to a person familiar with the investigation.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-26/mueller-poised-to-zero-in-on-trump-russia-collusion-allegations" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Did Putin Buy the World Cup? The FBI’s Not Saying—Yet</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Before Christopher Steele, ex-MI6, wrote the infamous Trump dossier, he helped the feds nail FIFA for corruption. The investigation is far from over.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) June 20, 2018, by Nico Hines</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When players break the rules on the soccer pitch, the referee blows the whistle. When politicians and oligarchs break the rules, and laws, to win the multibillion-dollar hosting rights for the soccer World Cup, they seem to think they’re untouchable, that nobody sees what they’re up to, or will have the guts to call them out.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/did-putin-buy-the-world-cup-the-fbis-not-sayingyet?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Manafort ordered to jail after witness-tampering charges</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) June 15, 2018, by Spencer S. Hsu and Ellen Nakashima</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Paul Manafort will be jailed after being accused of witness tampering while awaiting trial on federal conspiracy and money-laundering charges brought by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The order to imprison President Trump’s former campaign manager came Friday in a federal court hearing after Manafort had been asking to post a $10 million bond and end seven months of home detention.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/manafort-ordered-to-jail-after-witness-tampering-charges/2018/06/15/ccc526cc-6e68-11e8-afd5-778aca903bbe_story.html?utm_term=.80852fb4df33" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Told World Leaders Crimea Is Russian Because Everyone There Speaks Russian</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump made the remarks over dinner with other world leaders at the G7 summit in Canada.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed News) June 14, 2018, by Alberto Nardelli and Julia Ioffe</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump told G7 leaders that Crimea is Russian because everyone who lives there speaks Russian, according to two diplomatic sources.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trump made the remarks over dinner last Friday during a discussion on foreign affairs at the G7 summit in Quebec, Canada, one of the diplomats told BuzzFeed News.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/trump-russia-crimea?utm_term=.pvGYBxMNb#.kp7Ye2z9r" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Michael Cohen, Trump’s Fixer, Parting With Lawyers as Federal Investigation Continues</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) June 13, 2018, by </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Alan Feuer, William K. Rashbaum and Maggie Haberman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime personal fixer, will soon be parting from the lawyers who are representing him in a potentially damaging and wide-ranging federal investigation into his business dealings, according to two people familiar with the case.familiar with the situation.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/nyregion/michael-cohen-investigation-lawyers-trump.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Pressure on Michael Cohen intensifies as Mueller stays focused on the Trump attorney</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) June 13, 2018, by </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, is facing mounting pressure from two active federal investigations, contending with skyrocketing legal bills and planning to change lawyers in the near future, according to people familiar with the situation.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pressure-on-michael-cohen-intensifies-as-mueller-stays-focused-on-trump-attorney/2018/06/13/00a207fe-6f12-11e8-bf86-a2351b5ece99_story.html?utm_term=.d376b051be13" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen likely to cooperate as his attorneys leave case, sources say</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(ABC News) June 13, 2018, by George Stephanopoulos</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As attorneys for Michael Cohen rush to meet Judge Kimba Wood’s Friday deadline to complete a privilege review of over 3.7 million documents seized in the April 9 raids of Cohen’s New York properties and law office, a source representing this matter has disclosed to ABC News that the law firm handling the case for Cohen is not expected to represent him going forward....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Cohen, now with no legal representation, is likely to cooperate with federal prosecutors in New York, sources said. This development, which is believed to be imminent, will likely hit the White House, family members, staffers and counsels hard.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-cooperate-attorneys-leave-case/story?id=55861988" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Brexit donor Arron Banks 'met with Russian officials in months leading up to EU referendum'</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Leave.EU founder responds to revelations in leaked emails by saying: 'Bite me. It’s a convenient political witch-hunt, both over Brexit and Trump'</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Independent</i>) June 10, 2018</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Arron Banks, a major funder of the Brexit campaign, met with the Russian Ambassador to the UK three times in the run up to the EU referendum, it has emerged.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The millionaire co-founder of Leave.EU also made repeated contact with Russian officials and flew out to Moscow to discuss business opportunities, according to reports.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-arron-banks-russian-links-ambassador-leave-campaign-gold-alexander-yakovenko-andy-wigmore-a8391636.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Special counsel Mueller indicts Paul Manafort, Russian associate on obstruction charges</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) June 8, 2018, by Devlin Barrett, Spencer S. Hsu and Rosalind S. Helderman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Paul Manafort and his longtime business associate were indicted Friday on new charges that they conspired to obstruct justice — ratcheting up the pressure on President Trump’s former campaign chairman as he tries to stay out of jail while awaiting trial.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Washington marked the first such charges for Manafort’s associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, who is believed to be in Moscow — and therefore probably safe from arrest because Russia does not extradite its citizens. Prosecutors have previously said Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence, which he denies.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/special-counsel-mueller-indicts-associate-of-paul-manafort/2018/06/08/507ae696-6b44-11e8-bf8c-f9ed2e672adf_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d27ca42574ab" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>John Bolton’s New Top Aide Is a Russia Truther</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The national security adviser’s new chief of staff said intelligence was ‘rigged’ by Obama and that Trump should ‘pardon everyone’ under investigation.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) June 8, 2018, by Justin Glawe</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">National Security Adviser John Bolton’s top aide hire said last year that U.S. intelligence reports on Russia’s election meddling were “rigged.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That’s just one of the conspiracies Fred Fleitz espoused before he was hired last week as Bolton’s chief of staff. Fleitz has also said it’s “impossible” to know if Russia was responsible for election-related hacks, and speculated that the Obama administration manipulated intelligence about Russia and that it schemed to “trap” Trump officials by sanctioning Moscow.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/john-boltons-new-top-aide-is-a-russia-truther?ref=scroll" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump calls for Russia to be reinstated to G-7, threatens allies on trade</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) June 8, 2018, by Damian Paletta, Anne Gearan and John Wagner</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump on Friday said Russia should be readmitted to the Group of Seven leading economies, breaking with other world leaders who have insisted that Moscow remain ostracized following its 2014 annexation of Crimea.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Now, I love our country. I have been Russia’s worst nightmare … But with that being said, Russia should be in this meeting,” Trump said Friday as he left the White House. “It may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run. … They should let Russia back in.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-calls-for-russia-to-be-reinstated-to-g7-threatens-allies-on-trade/2018/06/08/6a13d876-6b15-11e8-bea7-c8eb28bc52b1_story.html?utm_term=.d09a5e28a58a" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>With Mueller Closing In, Manafort’s Allies Abandon Him</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) June 7, 2018, by Kenneth P. Vogel, Sharon LaFraniere and Jason Horowitz</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The special counsel’s accusation this week that Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, tried to tamper with potential witnesses originated with two veteran journalists who turned on Mr. Manafort after working closely with him to prop up the former Russia-aligned president of Ukraine, interviews and documents show.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/us/politics/mueller-manafort-witnesses.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Team Pushed False Story Line About Meeting With Kremlin-Tied Lawyer, Memo Shows</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) June 4, 2018, by Matt Apuzzo</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For nearly a year, the denials from President Trump’s lawyers and spokeswoman were unequivocal. No, the president did not dictate a misleading statement released in his son’s name.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“He certainly didn’t dictate,” said the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/us/politics/trump-mueller-falsehoods-tower-meeting.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller accuses Paul Manafort of witness tampering</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) June 4, 2018, by Spencer S. Hsu, Rosalind S. Helderman, Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Federal prosecutors accused former Trump presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort of witness tampering late Monday in his criminal case and asked a federal judge to consider revoking or revising his release.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Prosecutors accused Manafort and a longtime associate they linked to Russian intelligence of repeatedly contacting two members of a public relations firm and asking them to falsely testify about secret lobbying they did at Manafort’s behest.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/mueller-accuses-paul-manafort-of-witness-tampering/2018/06/04/df8fd2c4-685b-11e8-bf8c-f9ed2e672adf_story.html?utm_term=.0033ed7d1380" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's motion <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-mueller-accuses-manafort-witness-tampering" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Trump’s Lawyers, in Confidential Memo, Argue to Head Off a Historic Subpoena</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) June 2, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>By Michael S. Schmidt, Maggie Haberman, Charlie Savage and Matt Apuzzo</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump’s lawyers have for months quietly waged a campaign to keep the special counsel from trying to force him to answer questions in the investigation into whether he obstructed justice, asserting that he cannot be compelled to testify and arguing in a confidential letter that he could not possibly have committed obstruction because he has unfettered authority over all federal investigations.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/02/us/politics/trump-lawyers-memo-mueller-subpoena.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i style="font-size: large;"><b>Click <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/10/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my earlier Trump-Putin bromance timeline for Oct. 2017-May 2018, <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/08/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my Aug.-Sept. 2017 timeline and <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/07/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my June 2015-July 2017 timeline.</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>See links to my investigative journalism <a href="http://albloggedup.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here</a>, including my book </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0994861761" target="_blank">Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence</a><i>, a finalist in the American Book Fest's 2017 Best Book Awards and winner or finalist in 12 </i></span></b><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>other book prizes.</i></span></b></span>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-76002164403965135902017-10-02T13:47:00.001-04:002022-02-23T16:04:37.170-05:00COMRADE TRUMP—The Definitive Trump-Putin Bromance and "This Russia Thing" Timeline (Oct. 2017-May 2018)<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Having trouble keeping up with the drip-drip of revelations about ex-president Donald Trump and his cozy ties with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin? </i></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.thelocal.de/userdata/images/article/22c8da060c60215cc527e83bc323baa6e9d992a5ab315642670a7fd2a51e5e82.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://www.thelocal.de/userdata/images/article/22c8da060c60215cc527e83bc323baa6e9d992a5ab315642670a7fd2a51e5e82.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Stay up to date and check your facts with my definitive "Comrade Trump" timeline, compiling the latest Trump-Putin bromance news</i>. Feel free to send in your own tidbits via the comments. I don't necessarily endorse the articles linked below.</i><br />
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<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Click <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2018/06/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> to see my latest Trump-Putin bromance timeline, <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/08/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my earlier Aug.-Sept. 2017 timeline and <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/07/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a> to see my June 2015-July 2017 timeline.</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Scoop: Trump repeatedly pressured Sessions on Mueller investigation</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Axios) May 31, 2018, by Jonathan Swan</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reclaim control of the Russia investigation on at least four separate occasions, three times in person and once over the phone, according to sources familiar with the conversations.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-pressure-sessions-mueller-investigation-30e0f930-e688-47da-8f20-411864cea471.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>'Trump's son should be concerned': FBI obtained wiretaps of Putin ally who met with Trump Jr.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Yahoo News) May 25, 2018, by Michael Isikoff</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The FBI has obtained secret wiretaps collected by Spanish police of conversations involving Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of Russia’s Central Bank who has forged close ties with U.S. lawmakers and the National Rifle Association, that led to a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. during the gun lobby’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky., in May 2016, a top Spanish prosecutor said Friday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-son-concerned-wiretaps-show-trump-jr-met-putin-ally-231215529.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>At Trump Tower, Michael Cohen and Oligarch Discussed Russian Relations</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) May 25, 2018, by William K. Rashbaum, Ben Protess and Mike McIntire</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Eleven days before the presidential inauguration last year, a billionaire Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin visited Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet with Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, according to video footage and another person who attended the meeting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In Mr. Cohen’s office on the 26th floor, he and the oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, discussed a mutual desire to strengthen Russia’s relations with the United States under President Trump, according to Andrew Intrater, an American businessman who attended the meeting and invests money for Mr. Vekselberg. The men also arranged to see one another at the inauguration, the second of their three meetings, Mr. Intrater said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/us/politics/michael-cohen-viktor-vekselberg-trump-tower.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Michael Cohen’s Business Partner Agrees to Cooperate as Part of Plea Deal</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) May 22, 2018, by Danny Hakim, William K. Rashbaum and Vivian Wang</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A significant business partner of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer, has agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness, a development that could be used as leverage to pressure Mr. Cohen to work with the special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Under the deal reached with the New York attorney general’s office, the partner, Evgeny A. Freidman, a Russian immigrant who is known as the Taxi King, specifically agreed to assist government prosecutors in state or federal investigations, according to a person briefed on the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/nyregion/michael-cohen-trump-taxi-cooperation.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>By Demanding an Investigation, Trump Challenged a Constraint on His Power</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) May 21, 2018, by Charlie Savage, News Analysis</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When President Trump publicly demanded that the Justice Department open an investigation into the F.B.I.’s scrutiny of his campaign contacts with Russia, he inched further toward breaching an established constraint on executive power: The White House does not make decisions about individual law enforcement investigations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“It’s an incredible historical moment,” said Rebecca Roiphe, a professor at New York Law School who helped write a coming scholarly article on the limits of presidential control over the Justice Department.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/us/politics/trump-justice-department-independence.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>'The Day that We Can't Protect Human Sources': The President and the House Intelligence Committee Burn an Informant</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) May 19, 2018, by Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It wasn’t that long ago that both the executive branch and the legislature in this country considered the protection of intelligence sources a matter of surpassing national importance.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/day-we-cant-protect-human-sources-president-and-house-intelligence-committee-burn-informant" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russia-linked company that hired Michael Cohen registered alt-right websites during election</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) May 9, 2018, by Eli Rosenberg</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A company at the center of widening questions involving President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen is listed as the organization behind a string of websites targeted toward white nationalists and other members of the alt-right.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/09/russia-linked-company-that-hired-michael-cohen-registered-alt-right-websites-during-election/?utm_term=.7513028d986d" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>‘I’m crushing it’: How Michael Cohen, touting his access to President Trump, convinced companies to pay millions</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) May 9, 2018, by Michael Kranish, Rosalind S. Helderman, Carolyn Y. Johnson and Josh Dawsey</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump had been sworn into office, and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, saw a golden opportunity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">From his perch in a law office on the 23rd floor of New York’s Rockefeller Center, Cohen pitched potential clients on his close association with Trump, noting that he still was the president’s lawyer, according to associates. He showed photos of himself with Trump and mentioned how frequently they spoke, even asking people to share news articles describing him as the president’s “fixer.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mueller-questioned-payment-to-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen/2018/05/09/6ad3a7d6-538d-11e8-a551-5b648abe29ef_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.27f05fdfb19f" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Firm Tied to Russian Oligarch Made Payments to Michael Cohen</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) May 8, 2018, by Mike McIntire, Ben Protess and Jim Rutenberg</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A shell company that Michael D. Cohen used to pay hush money to a pornographic film actress received payments totaling more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business before the Trump administration, according to documents and interviews.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Financial records reviewed by The New York Times show that Mr. Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer and longtime fixer, used the shell company, Essential Consultants L.L.C., for an array of business activities that went far beyond what was publicly known. Transactions adding up to at least $4.4 million flowed through Essential Consultants starting shortly before Mr. Trump was elected president and continuing to this January, the records show.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/us/politics/michael-cohen-shell-company-payments.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>What Can We Say About Mueller’s 49 Questions?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) May 1, 2018, by Benjamin Wittes</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There are reasons to be cautious about the 49 questions that Robert Mueller wishes to pose to President Trump in an interview, as the New York Times reported Monday evening.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Most important, the list of questions did not come from Mueller. By the Times’s account, the questions were “read by the special counsel investigators to the president’s lawyers, who compiled them into a list. That document was provided to The Times by a person outside Mr. Trump’s legal team.” In other words, the questions as the Times lists them are the Trump legal team’s account of the subjects about which Mueller’s investigators want to ask.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-can-we-say-about-muellers-49-questions" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller raised possibility of presidential subpoena in meeting with Trump’s legal team</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) May 1, 2018, by Carol D. Leonnig and Robert Costa</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In a tense meeting in early March with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, President Trump’s lawyers insisted he had no obligation to talk with federal investigators probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But Mueller responded that he had another option if Trump declined: He could issue a subpoena for the president to appear before a grand jury, according to four people familiar with the encounter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mueller-raised-possibility-of-presidential-subpoena-in-meeting-with-trumps-legal-team/2018/05/01/2bdec08e-4d51-11e8-af46-b1d6dc0d9bfe_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.09fba1be5e9a" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Has Dozens of Inquiries for Trump in Broad Quest on Russia Ties and Obstruction</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) April 30, 2018, by Michael S. Schmidt</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russia’s election interference, has at least four dozen questions on an exhaustive array of subjects he wants to ask President Trump to learn more about his ties to Russia and determine whether he obstructed the inquiry itself, according to a list of the questions obtained by The New York Times.... <i>Read the full article <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/us/politics/robert-mueller-questions-trump.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and the special counsel's apparent list of question topics <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/us/politics/questions-mueller-wants-to-ask-trump-russia.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Jr. And Emin Agalarov Stayed In Touch Throughout The Transition</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>From phone calls and text messages to “an expensive painting” that Aras Agalarov gave Donald Trump for his birthday in 2016, the two families were in regular communication before and after the Trump Tower meeting — and during the transition.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed News) April 27, 2018, by</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b> Chris Geidner</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A direct line of communication between the Kremlin-connected Agalarov family and the Trump family was open during the transition after President Donald Trump’s presidential election, BuzzFeed News has learned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The “first of a series” of text messages was sent between Emin Agalarov and Donald Trump Jr. two days after the 2016 election, a source familiar with the communications told BuzzFeed News.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/trump-jr-and-emin-agalarov-stayed-in-touch-during-the?utm_term=.jn9KBLYZ0#.oaX2zDOEM" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Lawyer Who Was Said to Have Dirt on Clinton Had Closer Ties to Kremlin Than She Let On</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) April 27, 2018, by Andrew E. Kramer and Sharon LaFraniere</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Russian lawyer who met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower in June 2016 on the premise that she would deliver damaging information about Hillary Clinton has long insisted she is a private attorney, not a Kremlin operative trying to meddle in the presidential election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But newly released emails show that in at least one instance two years earlier, the lawyer, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, worked hand in glove with Russia’s chief legal office to thwart a Justice Department civil fraud case against a well-connected Russian firm.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/us/natalya-veselnitskaya-trump-tower-russian-prosecutor-general.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump: ‘Of Course’ I Stayed Overnight at Moscow Hotel</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) April 26, 2018</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Donald Trump said that he did in fact stay overnight in Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant in 2013—the evening when it’s claimed that the fabled “pee tape” was made. Speaking on Fox & Friends on Thursday morning, the president said: “I went to Russia for a day or so... of course I stayed there,” referring to the much-talked-about trip that became central to allegations made in the controversial Steele dossier.... </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-of-course-he-stayed-overnight-at-moscow-hotel" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Comey memos offer new details on his interactions with Trump as the FBI’s Russia probe intensified</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) April 19, 2018, by Ellen Nakashima and Devlin Barrett</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump expressed concerns about the judgment of his national security adviser Michael Flynn weeks before forcing him to resign, according to memos kept by former FBI director James B. Comey that recount in detail efforts by Trump to influence the bureau’s expanding investigation of Russia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The memos also reveal the extent of Trump’s preoccupation with unproven allegations that he had consorted with prostitutes while in Moscow in 2013. Trump, according to the memos, repeatedly denied the allegations and prodded Comey to help disprove them, while also recalling being told by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia has the most beautiful prostitutes.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-hands-comey-memos-to-congress/2018/04/19/e670f5f4-4430-11e8-bba2-0976a82b05a2_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7fbfca654d93" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and the Comey memos <b><a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/politics/james-comeys-memos-on-his-meetings-with-trump/2913/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump puts the brakes on new Russian sanctions, reversing Haley’s announcement</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) April 16, 2018, by Philip Rucker, Carol D. Leonnig, Anton Troianovski and Greg Jaffe</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump on Monday put the brakes on a preliminary plan to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia, walking back a Sunday announcement by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley that the Kremlin had swiftly denounced as “international economic raiding.”... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-puts-the-brake-on-new-russian-sanctions-reversing-haleys-announcement/2018/04/16/ac3ad4f8-417f-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html?utm_term=.9ecbcde3f05d" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A Former Russian Spy Worked On A Trump Moscow Deal During The Presidential Campaign</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>While Trump was running for president, his business team was trying to develop a Trump tower in Moscow — with the help of a former Russian military intelligence officer. But in a twist, that former officer also provided intelligence to the US.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed News) April 13, 2018, by </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Jason Leopold and</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Anthony Cormier</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A former Russian spy helped Donald Trump’s business team seek financing for a Trump-branded tower in the heart of Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This connection between Trump and Russian intelligence — made public here for the first time — is known to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team and raises fresh questions about the president’s connections to the Kremlin.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/jasonleopold/donald-trump-russian-spy-moscow-gru-felix-sater?bftwnews&utm_term=.gdAX41Gey#.btMx2PoQb" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Sources: Mueller has evidence Cohen was in Prague in 2016, confirming part of dossier</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(McClatchy) April 13, 2018, by Peter Stone and Greg Gordon</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Justice Department special counsel has evidence that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant, Michael Cohen, secretly made a late-summer trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Confirmation of the trip would lend credence to a retired British spy’s report that Cohen strategized there with a powerful Kremlin figure about Russian meddling in the U.S. election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://amp.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article208870264.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump attorney Cohen is being investigated for possible bank fraud, campaign finance violations</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) April 9, 2018, by Carol D. Leonnig, Tom Hamburger and Devlin Barrett</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney of President Trump, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, according to three people with knowledge of the case.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">FBI agents on Monday raided Cohen’s Manhattan office, home and hotel room as part of the investigation, seizing records about Cohen’s clients and personal finances. Among the records taken were those related to a 2016 payment Cohen made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump, according to a fourth person familiar with the investigation.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-seizes-records-related-to-stormy-daniels-in-raid-of-trump-attorney-michael-cohens-office/2018/04/09/e3e43cf4-3c30-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.84b774578d6b" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Manafort associate had Russian intelligence ties during 2016 campaign, prosecutors say</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) March 28, 2018, by Spencer S. Hsu and Rosalind S. Helderman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The FBI has found that a business associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, including during the 2016 campaign when Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were in touch with the associate, according to new court filings.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/manafort-associate-had-russian-intelligence-ties-during-2016-campaign-prosecutors-say/2018/03/28/473228e8-3231-11e8-8bdd-cdb33a5eef83_story.html?utm_term=.f981cae6a013" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>‘You should do it’: Trump officials encouraged George Papadopoulos’s foreign outreach, documents show</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) March 23, 2018, by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When a Russian news agency reached out to George Papadopoulos to request an interview shortly before the 2016 election, the young adviser to then-</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">candidate Donald Trump made sure to seek approval from campaign headquarters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“You should do it,” deputy communications director Bryan Lanza urged Papadopoulos in a September 2016 email, emphasizing the benefits of a U.S. “partnership with Russia.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/you-should-do-it-trump-officials-encouraged-george-papadopouloss-foreign-outreach-documents-show/2018/03/23/2dae8c8e-2d38-11e8-8688-e053ba58f1e4_story.html?utm_term=.b466bdb5c700" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lone DNC Hacker’ Guccifer 2.0 Slipped Up and Revealed He Was a Russian Intelligence Officer</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Robert Mueller’s team has taken over the investigation of Guccifer 2.0, who communicated with (and was defended by) longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) March 22, 2018, by Spencer Ackerman and Kevin Poulsen</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Guccifer 2.0, the “lone hacker” who took credit for providing WikiLeaks with stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee, was in fact an officer of Russia’s military intelligence directorate (GRU), The Daily Beast has learned. It’s an attribution that resulted from a fleeting but critical slip-up in GRU tradecraft.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That forensic determination has substantial implications for the criminal probe into potential collusion between President Donald Trump and Russia.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-lone-dnc-hacker-guccifer-20-slipped-up-and-revealed-he-was-a-russian-intelligence-officer" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s national security advisers warned him not to congratulate Putin. He did it anyway.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) March 20, 2018, by Carol D. Leonnig, David Nakamura and Josh Dawsey</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump did not follow specific warnings from his national security advisers Tuesday when he congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his reelection — including a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating “DO NOT CONGRATULATE,” according to officials familiar with the call.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trump also chose not to heed talking points from aides instructing him to condemn the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain with a powerful nerve agent, a case that both the British and U.S. governments have blamed on Moscow.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-national-security-advisers-warned-him-not-to-congratulate-putin-he-did-it-anyway/2018/03/20/22738ebc-2c68-11e8-8ad6-fbc50284fce8_story.html?utm_term=.2fd9e37a32fe" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Cambridge Analytica’s Dirty Tricks Elected Trump, CEO Claims</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Alexander Nix, the CEO of Cambridge Analytica, claimed they used proxies in the U.S. to influence the 2016 election.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) March 20, 2018, by Nico Hines</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">British political consultants that worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said they secretly used proxy organizations and super PACs to spread ads in the U.S. that could not be traced back to the Trump campaign.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Alexander Nix, the CEO of Cambridge Analytica, was secretly recorded by undercover reporters from Channel 4 in Britain who were posing as prospective clients. “There’s no evidence, there’s no paper trail, there’s nothing,” said Nix, reassuring them that his company’s dirty tricks for his clients would never be detected.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/cambridge-analytica-bosses-we-secretly-made-ads-for-trump-and-well-never-be-caught?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>‘Astonishing’ Facebook Intervention Could Have Compromised Cambridge Analytica Evidence, Says U.K.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Consultants sent by social network were kicked out of Cambridge Analytica’s London offices late Monday, as authorities in the U.S. and U.K. fear evidence may have been destroyed.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) March 20, 2018, by Jamie Ross</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Facebook has been plunged into crisis over the allegations that Cambridge Analytica misused data from more than 50 million people to help elect Donald Trump. Nearly $40 billion was wiped off Facebook’s market value Monday, an emergency meeting is due to be held Tuesday morning, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been criticized for remaining silent during what some analysts are describing as a threat to the company’s existence.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/facebook-in-hot-water-over-handling-of-massive-data-breach?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>FTC opens investigation into Facebook after Cambridge Analytica scrapes millions of users’ personal information</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) March 20, 2018, by Tony Romm and Craig Timberg</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into Facebook following reports that a data analytics firm that had worked with the Trump campaign had improperly accessed names, “likes” and other personal information about tens of millions of the social site’s users without their knowledge.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/03/20/ftc-opens-investigation-into-facebook-after-cambridge-analytica-scrapes-millions-of-users-personal-information/?utm_term=.2a3ee517cc23" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>How A Player In The Trump-Russia Scandal Led A Double Life As An American Spy</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Felix Sater has been cast as a Russian mafioso, a career criminal, and a key business associate of President Donald Trump — but he spent more than two decades as an intelligence asset who helped the US government track terrorists and mobsters. “Greed is my go-to weapon.”</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed News) March 12, 2018, by Anthony Cormier and Jason Leopold</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the sprawling Trump-Russia investigation, one name constantly pops up: Felix Sater. In story after story, Sater is described as Donald Trump’s former business partner, a convicted stock swindler who was born in the Soviet Union, worked in Russia, tried to win Trump a deal in Moscow, and even helped broker a Ukrainian peace plan that Vladimir Putin would have loved.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/anthonycormier/felix-sater-trump-russia-undercover-us-spy?utm_term=.viM3mgnwQv#.rx869EBMmD" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Qataris opted not to give info on Kushner, secret meetings to Mueller</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(NBC) March 12, 2018, by Julia Ainsley, Carol E. Lee, Robert Windrem and Andrew W. Lehren</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Qatari officials gathered evidence of what they claim is illicit influence by the United Arab Emirates on Jared Kushner and other Trump associates, including details of secret meetings, but decided not to give the information to Special Counsel Robert Mueller for fear of harming relations with the Trump administration, say three sources familiar with the Qatari discussions.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/qataris-opted-not-give-info-kushner-secret-meetings-mueller-n855326" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>How the ex-spy tried to warn the world about Trump’s ties to Russia.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New Yorker</i>) March 12, 2018, by Jane Mayer</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-size: large;">In January, after a long day at his London office, Christopher Steele, the former spy turned private investigator, was stepping off a commuter train in Farnham, where he lives, when one of his two phones rang. He’d been looking forward to dinner at home with his wife, and perhaps a glass of wine.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/12/christopher-steele-the-man-behind-the-trump-dossier" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Putin condemned for saying Jews may have manipulated U.S. election</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) March 11, 2018, by Avi Selk</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Jewish groups and U.S. lawmakers condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that the 2016 U.S. presidential election may have been manipulated by Russian Jews.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Putin’s remarks came during a long and occasionally surreal interview with NBC News on Saturday, in which he speculated that nearly anyone other than the Russian government could have been behind a program to disrupt the election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/03/11/putin-condemned-for-saying-jews-may-have-manipulated-u-s-election/?utm_term=.f843926de2ce" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Putin says Jews, Ukrainians, Tatars could be behind U.S. election meddling</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) March 10, 2018</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russian President Vladimir Putin says he doesn’t care about alleged Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election because the actions weren’t connected to his government.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In an interview with American broadcaster NBC News that aired Saturday, Putin also suggested that some of the 13 Russian nationals indicted by the United States may not be ethnically Russian.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Maybe they are not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews, but with Russian citizenship, which should also be checked,” he said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/03/10/putin-says-jews-russian-citizenship-could-behind-u-s-election-meddling/413321002/" target="_blank">here</a></b> and find links to the interview <b><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-u-s-election-interference-i-couldn-t-care-less-n855151" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Amid renewed scrutiny, Erik Prince to host fundraiser for Russia-friendly congressman</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) March 8, 2018, by Rebecca Berg</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Blackwater founder Erik Prince will host a fundraiser this month for Russia-friendly Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, as Prince faces new questions over a 2017 meeting currently being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/08/politics/erik-prince-fundraiser/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>What Happened in Moscow: The Inside Story of How Trump’s Obsession With Putin Began</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>His 2013 visit paved the way for a scandal that shook the world.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) March 8, 2018, by David Corn and Michael Isikoff</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">This is the first of two excerpts adapted from Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump (Twelve Books), by Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, and David Corn, Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones. The book will be released on March 13.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was late in the afternoon of November 9, 2013, in Moscow, and Donald Trump was getting anxious.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This was his second day in the Russian capital, and the brash businessman and reality TV star was running through a whirlwind schedule to promote that evening’s extravaganza at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall: the Miss Universe pageant, in which women from 86 countries would be judged before a worldwide television audience estimated at 1 billion.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/russian-connection-what-happened-moscow-inside-story-trump-obsession-putin-david-corn-michael-isikoff/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Russian Trolls Tried to Torpedo Mitt Romney’s Shot at Secretary of State</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Online campaign targeted the ex-GOP nominee as Donald Trump considered him in late 2016</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) March 8, 2018, by Rob Barry and Shelby Holliday</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Weeks after Donald Trump was elected president, Russia-backed online “trolls” flooded social media to try to block Mitt Romney from securing a top job in the incoming administration, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The operatives called the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, then a contender for secretary of state, a “two headed snake” and a “globalist puppet,” promoted a rally outside Trump Tower and spread a petition to block Mr. Romney’s appointment to the top diplomatic job, according to a review of now-deleted social-media posts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The revelation comes alongside a new report, in the New Yorker, that alleges the Kremlin pressured then-President Elect Trump to consider a candidate more favorable to Russian interests. Mr. Trump ultimately appointed former Exxon Mobil Corp. chief Rex Tillerson, who has said he has a “very close relationship with” Russian President Vladimir Putin, to lead the department.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-trolls-tried-to-torpedo-mitt-romneys-shot-at-secretary-of-state-1520505000" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller gathers evidence that 2017 Seychelles meeting was effort to establish back channel to Kremlin</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Washington Post</i>) March 7, 2018, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Sari Horwitz and Devlin Barrett</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin — apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In January 2017, Erik Prince, the founder of the private security company Blackwater, met with a Russian official close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and later described the meeting to congressional investigators as a chance encounter that was not a planned discussion of U.S.-Russia relations.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mueller-gathers-evidence-that-2016-seychelles-meeting-was-effort-to-establish-back-channel-to-kremlin/2018/03/07/b6a5fb8c-224b-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.46120ce41522" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Adviser to Emirates With Ties to Trump Aides Is Cooperating With Special Counsel</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) March 6, 2018, by Mark Mazzetti, David D. Kirtkpatrick and Adam Goldman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">An adviser to the United Arab Emirates with ties to current and former aides to President Trump is cooperating with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and gave testimony last week to a grand jury, according to two people familiar with the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Mr. Mueller appears to be examining the influence of foreign money on Mr. Trump’s political activities and has asked witnesses about the possibility that the adviser, George Nader, funneled money from the Emirates to the president’s political efforts. It is illegal for foreign entities to contribute to campaigns or for Americans to knowingly accept foreign money for political races.... <i>Read the full article here.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg called before grand jury, says he will refuse to go</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) March 5, 2018, by Josh Dawsey</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg said Monday that he has been subpoenaed to appear in front of a federal grand jury investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election but that he will refuse to go.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-trump-aide-sam-nunberg-called-before-grand-jury-says-he-will-refuse-to-go/2018/03/05/24c8b86a-20a9-11e8-badd-7c9f29a55815_story.html?utm_term=.bf74194da15c" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller team asks about Trump's Russian business dealings as he weighed a run for president</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) February 28, 2018, by Kara Scannell, Pamela Brown, Gloria Borger and Jim Sciutto</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller have recently been asking witnesses about Donald Trump's business activities in Russia prior to the 2016 presidential campaign as he considered a run for president, according to three people familiar with the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/27/politics/trump-russia-investigation/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Kushner, Russia bombshells rock the White House</b><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(CNN) February 28, 2018, Analysis by Stephen Collinson</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A volley of stunning <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/27/politics/jared-kushner-security-clearance/index.html" target="_blank">revelations over Jared Kushner</a></b> and the <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/27/politics/trump-russia-investigation/index.html" target="_blank">Russia probe are rocking</a></b> Donald Trump's inner circle and suggest a pivotal moment is at hand in the West Wing personnel wars that have raged throughout his presidency.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">First, it emerged Tuesday that chief of staff <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/27/politics/jared-kushner-security-clearance/index.html" target="_blank">John Kelly downgraded</a></b> the top secret security clearance for the President's son-in-law in a bid to clear up a scandal over whether top administration players are qualified to access the most sensitive intelligence.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/28/politics/donald-trump-jared-kushner-investigations/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Kushner’s overseas contacts raise concerns as foreign officials seek leverage</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) February 27, 2018, by Shane Harris, Carol D. Leonnig, Greg Jaffe and Josh Dawsey</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Officials in at least four countries have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/kushners-overseas-contacts-raise-concerns-as-foreign-officials-seek-leverage/2018/02/27/16bbc052-18c3-11e8-942d-16a950029788_story.html?utm_term=.8c76e85c7301" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller just made a move indicating that Rick Gates has something of significant value to offer him</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Business Insider) February 27, 2018, by Sonam Sheth</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday granted a motion by the special counsel Robert Mueller's office to dismiss several charges brought against Rick Gates, the former deputy chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-charges-rick-gates-dismissed-2018-2" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Rick Gates, Trump Campaign Aide, to Plead Guilty in Mueller Inquiry and Cooperate</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) February 23, 2018, by Mark Mazzetti and Maggie Habberman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A former top adviser to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign indicted by the special counsel was expected to plead guilty as soon as Friday afternoon, according to two people familiar with his plea agreement, a move that signals he is cooperating with the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The adviser, Rick Gates, is a longtime political consultant who once served as Mr. Trump’s deputy campaign chairman. The plea deal could be a significant development in the investigation — a sign that Mr. Gates plans to offer incriminating information against his longtime associate and the former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, or other members of the Trump campaign in exchange for a lighter punishment.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/us/politics/rick-gates-guilty-plea-mueller-investigation.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Special counsel Mueller files new charges in Manafort, Gates case</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">February 22, 2018 b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Devlin Barrett and Spencer S. Hsu</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">New charges were filed Thursday against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business partner, ratcheting up the legal pressure on them as they prepare for a trial later this year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A new indictment has long been expected in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s prosecution of Manafort and his right-hand man, Rick Gates, on fraud and money laundering charges. Manafort served as President Trump’s campaign chairman from June to August 2016. Gates also served as a top official on Trump’s campaign. The new indictment contains 32 counts, including tax charges.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/special-counsel-mueller-files-new-charges-in-manafort-gates-case/2018/02/22/7db99c9c-1716-11e8-8b08-027a6ccb38eb_story.html?utm_term=.775bd8cc79cc" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Charges Lawyer With Lying in Russia Probe</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) February 20, 2018, by David Voreacos and Stephanie Baker</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">An attorney who worked for a prominent law firm was charged with making false statements to federal authorities as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Alex Van Der Zwaan was charged Feb. 16 with lying to the FBI and Mueller’s office about conversations related to his work on a report prepared by his law firm on the legitimacy of the criminal prosecution of a former Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-20/skadden-arps-lawyer-is-charged-with-role-in-u-s-russia-probe" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Former Trump aide Richard Gates to plead guilty; agrees to testify against Manafort, sources say</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Los Angeles Times</i>) February 18, 2018, by</b> <b>David Willman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A former top aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign will plead guilty to fraud-related charges within days — and has made clear to prosecutors that he would testify against Paul Manafort, the lawyer-lobbyist who once managed the campaign.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The change of heart by Trump's former deputy campaign manager Richard Gates, who had pleaded not guilty after being indicted in October on charges similar to Manafort's, was described in interviews by people familiar with the case.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-rick-gates-plea-deal-20180218-story.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The 21st-century Russian sleeper agent is a troll with an American accent</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) February 17, 2018, by Anton Troianovski, Rosalind S. Helderman, Ellen Nakashima and Craig Timberg</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Not long after Marat Mindiyarov started working at the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll factory indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on Friday, he began hearing about the coveted “Facebook Department.” There, workers could earn more money and work alongside a younger, hipper crowd. But to gain entry, job candidates had to prove they could seamlessly insinuate themselves into the American political conversation.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/the-21st-century-russian-sleeper-agent-is-a-troll-with-an-american-accent/2018/02/17/d024ead2-1404-11e8-8ea1-c1d91fcec3fe_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trolls631pm%253Ahomepage%252Fstory&utm_term=.5ba6ccf20aaf" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A former Russian troll speaks: 'It was like being in Orwell's world'</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) February 17, 2018, by Anton Troianovski</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The indictment by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III of 13 Russians associated with a St. Petersburg online “troll factory” that allegedly interfered with the U.S. election has brought a sense of vindication to the handful of former employees who have already been speaking out about what they witnessed.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/17/a-former-russian-troll-speaks-it-was-like-being-in-orwells-world/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trolls631pm%253Ahomepage%252Fstory&utm_term=.81053858754c" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump ex-aide Manafort accused of bank fraud in bail offer: document</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Reuters) February 17, 2018</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has drawn a new accusation of bank fraud from U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office, according to court documents made public on Friday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-manafort/trump-ex-aide-manafort-accused-of-bank-fraud-in-bail-offer-document-idUSKCN1G104D?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5a87dc5404d3017f271142f1&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Russians Bought Bank Accounts From California Man, Mueller Says</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) February 16, 2018, by Nicholas Fandos</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was a lucrative business. For several years, Richard Pinedo, a Southern California computer science major, would open bank accounts in his name and sell them online to shadowy purchasers for cash. In other cases, he served as a middle man, buying accounts in other people’s names and flipping them on the internet.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/politics/richard-pinedo-russia-bank-accounts-guilty-plea-mueller.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Inside a 3-Year Russian Campaign to Influence U.S. Voters</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) February 16, 2018, by Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In September, as the first detailed evidence surfaced of Russia’s hijacking of social media in the 2016 election, Irina V. Kaverzina, one of about 80 Russians working on the project in St. Petersburg, emailed a family member with some news.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“We had a slight crisis here at work: the F.B.I. busted our activity (not a joke),” she wrote of the project in Russia.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/politics/russia-mueller-election.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Indicts 13 Russian Nationals for Election Interference, Says They Communicated With Trump Campaign</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) February 16, 2018</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election. The lead defendant is the “Internet Research Agency,” known as Russia’s “troll farm.” They are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft. “Some Defendants, posing as US persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign,” the criminal complaint claims. The document also names specific fake groups or events created by the Russian trolls, like “United Muslims of America” and “March for Trump,” which were previously revealed as trolls by The Daily Beast.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-indicts-13-russian-election-trolls?ref=home" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and the criminal complaint <b><a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>U.S. Secretly Negotiated With Russians to Buy Stolen NSA Documents— And the Russians Offered Trump-Related Material, Too</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Intercept) February 9, 2018, by James Risen</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The United States intelligence community has been conducting a top-secret operation to recover stolen classified U.S. government documents from Russian operatives, according to sources familiar with the matter. The operation has also inadvertently yielded a cache of documents purporting to relate to Donald Trump and Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/02/09/donald-trump-russia-election-nsa/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>U.S. Spies, Seeking to Retrieve Cyberweapons, Paid Russian Peddling Trump Secrets</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) February 9, 2019, by Matthew Rosenberg</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After months of secret negotiations, a shadowy Russian bilked American spies out of $100,000 last year, promising to deliver stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons in a deal that he insisted would also include compromising material on President Trump, according to American and European intelligence officials.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/us/politics/us-cyberweapons-russia-trump.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Republican lawmakers distance themselves from Trump on memo</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) February 4, 2018, </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>by Elise Viebeck and Shane Harris</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee dissented Sunday from President Trump’s view that corruption has poisoned the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In a sign of a growing rift within the House GOP, four members of the panel dismissed the idea pushed by Trump and other Republicans that a controversial memo criticizing how the FBI handled elements of its Russia probe undermines the investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III into possible coordination between Trump associates and the Kremlin.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/priebus-denies-that-trump-wanted-to-fire-mueller/2018/02/04/df0ac7d4-09c2-11e8-8890-372e2047c935_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_muellerprobe-1126am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.8c5046ecefa0" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Carter Page Touted Kremlin Contacts in 2013 Letter</b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>Time</i>) February 3, 2018, by Massimo Calabresi and Alana Abramson</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page bragged that he was an adviser to the Kremlin in a letter obtained by TIME that raises new questions about the extent of Page’s contacts with the Russian government over the years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The letter, dated Aug. 25, 2013, was sent by Page to an academic press during a dispute over edits to an unpublished manuscript he had submitted for publication, according to an editor who worked with Page.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Over the past half year, I have had the privilege to serve as an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin in preparation for their Presidency of the G-20 Summit next month, where energy issues will be a prominent point on the agenda,” the letter reads.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://time.com/5132126/carter-page-russia-2013-letter/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Carter Page, Ex-Trump Aide Once Shunned by Right, Is Back at the Center of the Russia Case</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) February 2, 2018, by Ali Watkins</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For months, Carter Page, the former Trump campaign adviser who was under government surveillance as part of the Russia investigation, has been shunned by Republicans and dismissed by the White House, which portrayed his campaign stint as inconsequential.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/us/politics/carter-page-republican-memo.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Sentence buried in GOP memo may undercut Trump efforts to discredit Russia probe</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">February 2, 2018, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Karen Tumulty and Rosalind S. Helderman</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Though President Trump and his allies hope that the controversial release of a GOP-written memo alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI will tarnish the legitimacy of the entire Russia probe, that argument may be undercut by a single sentence buried near the end of the four-page document.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It confirms for the first time that the event that set the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation in motion was not the surveillance of Trump adviser Carter Page — a subject upon which most of the memo dwells — but rather that it was opened as the result of information the bureau had received about another person connected to the Trump campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sentence-buried-in-gop-memo-may-undercut-trump-efforts-to-discredit-russia-probe/2018/02/02/4133ebe4-0846-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_probeorigin-320p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.59c776ed4006" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>‘Grassroots’ Media Startup Redfish Is Supported by the Kremlin</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The documentary outlet styles itself as independent and community-based, but its work airs on a state-supported TV network and most of its employees are from state-backed media.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) February 1, 2o18, by Charles Davis</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Redfish, a Berlin-based media collective, launched with a promise to deliver “radical, in-depth grassroots features,” with professional graphics, filed everywhere from Eastern Europe to South America. Its first report, on a fire at a public housing development in England that killed over 70 people, has been praised by Vice, as a “fantastic example of amateur community-produced media.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/grassroots-media-startup-redfish-is-supported-by-the-kremlin?ref=scroll" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump sees Nunes memo as a way to discredit the Russia investigation</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) February 1, 2018, by Kevin Liptak, Kaitlan Collins, Sara Murray and Dan Merica</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump continues to tell his associates he believes the highly controversial Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance tools could help discredit the Russia investigation, multiple sources familiar with White House discussions said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/01/politics/nunes-memo-donald-trump/index.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and the memo <b><a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/read-the-gop-memo/2746/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Russia: Republicans accused of tampering with memo on FBI</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(BBC) February 1, 2018</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The US House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat has accused Republicans of tampering with a memo about claims of FBI surveillance at the 2016 election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Adam Schiff said Republicans had changed the text after it was voted on.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42902537" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Zeros In on Story Put Together About Trump Tower Meeting</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) January 31, 2018, by Jo Becker, Mark Mazzetti, Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Aboard Air Force One on a flight home from Europe last July, President Trump and his advisers raced to cobble together a news release about a mysterious meeting at Trump Tower the previous summer between Russians and top Trump campaign officials. Rather than acknowledge the meeting’s intended purpose — to obtain political dirt about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government — the statement instead described the meeting as being about an obscure Russian adoption policy.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/us/politics/trump-russia-hope-hicks-mueller.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s gripes against McCabe included wife’s politics, Comey’s ride home</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(NBC) January 29, 2018, by Carol E. Lee</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The day after he fired James Comey as director of the FBI, a furious President Donald Trump called the bureau's acting director, Andrew McCabe, demanding to know why Comey had been allowed to fly on an FBI plane from Los Angeles back to Washington after he was dismissed, according to multiple people familiar with the phone call.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-s-gripes-against-mccabe-included-wife-s-politics-comey-n842161" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Launched Campaign to Discredit Potential FBI Witnesses</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Foreign Policy</i>) January 26, 2018, by Murray Waas</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump pressed senior aides last June to devise and carry out a campaign to discredit senior FBI officials after learning that those specific employees were likely to be witnesses against him as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/26/trump-launched-campaign-to-discredit-potential-fbi-witnesses/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Dutch agencies provide crucial intel about Russia's interference in US-elections</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>de Volkskrant</i>) January 25, 2018, by </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Huib Modderkolk</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Hackers from the Dutch intelligence service AIVD have provided the FBI with crucial information about Russian interference with the American elections. For years, AIVD had access to the infamous Russian hacker group Cozy Bear. That's what de Volkskrant and Nieuwsuur have uncovered in their investigation.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.volkskrant.nl/media/dutch-agencies-provide-crucial-intel-about-russia-s-interference-in-us-elections~a4561913/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Trump Ordered Mueller Fired, but Backed Off When White House Counsel Threatened to Quit</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) January 25, 2018, by Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, according to four people told of the matter, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/us/politics/trump-mueller-special-counsel-russia.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Flynn kept FBI interview concealed from White House, Trump</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(NBC News) January 24, 2018, by Carol E. Lee</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A year ago today, President Donald Trump’s newly sworn–in national security adviser, Michael Flynn, met privately in his West Wing office with FBI investigators interested in his communications with Russia's ambassador, without a lawyer or the knowledge of the president and other top White House officials, according to people familiar with the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/flynn-kept-fbi-interview-concealed-white-house-trump-n840491" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>In the crowd at Trump’s inauguration, members of Russia’s elite anticipated a thaw between Moscow and Washington</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) January, 20, 2018, by Craig Timberg, Rosalind S. Helderman, Andrew Roth and Carol D. Leonnig</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, a wealthy Russian pharmaceutical executive named Alexey Repik arrived in Washington, expressing excitement about the new administration.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He posted a photo on Facebook of a clutch of inauguration credentials arranged next to a white “Make America Great Again” hat, writing in Russian: “I believe that President Donald Trump will open a new page in American history.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amid-trumps-inaugural-festivities-members-of-russias-elite-anticipated-a-thaw-between-moscow-and-washington/2018/01/20/0d767f46-fb9f-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_russiainauguration-245pm%253Ahomepage%252Fstory&utm_term=.f2d184be8b97" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Allegations of money laundering at Trump properties surface in U.S. hearing transcript</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Globe and Mail</i>) January 18, 2018, by Mark MacKinnon</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A U.S. congressional committee investigating President Donald Trump's links to Russia has heard testimony alleging the Trump Organization may have engaged in money laundering via properties bearing Mr. Trump's name, including the former Trump International Hotel and Tower in downtown Toronto.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/mark-mackinnon/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>FBI investigating whether Russian money went to NRA to help Trump</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(McClatchy) </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">January 18, 2018,</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b> by Peter Stone and Greg Gordon</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The FBI is investigating whether a top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the presidency, two sources familiar with the matter have told McClatchy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">FBI counterintelligence investigators have focused on the activities of Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank who is known for his close relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the NRA, the sources said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article195231139.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Trump Tower meeting with Russians 'treasonous', Bannon says in explosive book</b><br />
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<li><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i>Former White House strategist quoted in Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolff</i></b></li>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) January 3, 2018, by David Smith</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president’s son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”, according to an explosive new book seen by the Guardian.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/03/donald-trump-russia-steve-bannon-michael-wolff" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Republicans’ Fake Investigations</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) January 2, 2018, by Glenn R. Simpson and Peter Fritsch, Opinion</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A generation ago, Republicans sought to protect President Richard Nixon by urging the Senate Watergate committee to look at supposed wrongdoing by Democrats in previous elections. The committee chairman, Sam Ervin, a Democrat, said that would be “as foolish as the man who went bear hunting and stopped to chase rabbits.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/opinion/republicans-investigation-fusion-gps.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and read Glenn Simpson's August 22, 2017, testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee <b><a href="https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/3/9/3974a291-ddbe-4525-9ed1-22bab43c05ae/934A3562824CACA7BB4D915E97709D2F.simpson-transcript-redacted.pdf" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">How the Russia Inquiry Began: A Campaign Aide, Drinks and Talk of Political Dirt</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) December 30, 2017, by Sharon LaFraniere, Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia’s top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/us/politics/how-fbi-russia-investigation-began-george-papadopoulos.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Kremlin trolls burned across the Internet as Washington debated options</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">December 25, 2017, b</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">y Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Jaffe</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The first email arrived in the inbox of CounterPunch, a left-leaning American news and opinion website, at 3:26 a.m. — the middle of the day in Moscow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Hello, my name is Alice Donovan and I’m a beginner freelance journalist,” read the Feb. 26, 2016, message.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/kremlin-trolls-burned-across-the-internet-as-washington-debated-options/2017/12/23/e7b9dc92-e403-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html?utm_term=.074334fc54a1" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Image of Cooperation Between White House and Mueller Starts to Fracture</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) December 17, 2017, by Michael S. Schmidt</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For much of the seven months since Robert S. Mueller III was appointed special counsel, President Trump’s lawyers have stressed their cooperation with him, believing that the more they work with his investigation, the sooner the president will have his name cleared.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/us/politics/trump-mueller-transition-emails.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Doubting the </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">intelligence, Trump </b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">pursues Putin and </b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>leaves a Russian </b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">threat unchecked</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 14, 2017, by Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe and Philip Rucker</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the final days before Donald Trump was sworn in as president, members of his inner circle pleaded with him to acknowledge publicly what U.S. intelligence agencies had already concluded — that Russia’s interference in the 2016 election was real.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Holding impromptu interventions in Trump’s 26th-floor corner office at Trump Tower, advisers — including Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and designated chief of staff, Reince Priebus — prodded the president-elect to accept the findings that the nation’s spy chiefs had personally presented to him on Jan. 6.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/national-security/donald-trump-pursues-vladimir-putin-russian-election-hacking/?utm_term=.14904166199b&wpisrc=nl_popup&wpmm=1" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Objects to Defense Law’s Anti-Russia Provisions</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The president, in signing the defense authorization, made clear his opposition to countering Kremlin ‘hybrid warfare operations.’</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) December 12, 2017, by Spencer Ackerman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump Tuesday night signaled his reluctance to enforce congressionally-passed restrictions on Russia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In signing the massive annual military spending bill, known formally as the National Defense Authorization Act, Trump objected to several measures Congress passed to toughen U.S. policy toward Russia, which U.S. intelligence has assessed interfered in the 2016 election to benefit him.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-objects-to-defense-laws-anti-russia-provisions" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold;">For Trump adviser at center of Russia probe, a rapid rise and dramatic fall in his ancestral land</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) December 10, 2017, by Griff Witte</b></span></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A brass band played, fighter jets streaked the clear blue sky and a red carpet adorned the airport tarmac on the day in May 2016 when Vladimir Putin came to Athens for a visit. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Mr. President, welcome to Greece,” the Greek defense minister, Panos Kammenos, said in Russian as he smiled broadly and greeted a stone-faced Putin at the base of the stairs from the plane.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Kammenos, a pro-Russian Greek nationalist who bragged often of his insider Moscow connections, would receive a second key visitor that day, but with considerably less fanfare.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/for-trump-adviser-at-center-of-russia-probe-a-rapid-rise-and-dramatic-fall-in-his-ancestral-land/2017/12/10/91bb696a-d390-11e7-9ad9-ca0619edfa05_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_greece-830pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.083d3d230322" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Paul Manafort says he edited Ukraine op-ed, is silent on colleague’s alleged ties to Russian intelligence</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>)</b> <b>December 7, 2017, b</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Spencer S. Hsu</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Attorneys for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort acknowledged Thursday that he edited an opinion piece for a Ukraine newspaper but did not publicly address allegations by special counsel prosecutors that he drafted it with a former colleague with ties to Russian intelligence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Manafort’s defense argued in a court filing to a federal judge in Washington that Manafort’s work on the op-ed piece for an English-language newspaper in Kiev defending himself did not violate a court gag order because it would not likely bias potential jurors in any U.S. trial.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/paul-manafort-says-he-edited-ukraine-op-ed-is-silent-on-colleagues-alleged-ties-to-russian-intelligence/2017/12/07/6d1d5e92-db6a-11e7-b859-fb0995360725_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_trumpemails1024pm%253Ahomepage%252Fstory&utm_term=.1c6cc1483846" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Investigators probe European travel of Trump associates</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Questions linger about 2016 trips by Donald Trump Jr., Carter Page, Michael Cohen and other Trump associates.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) December 6, 2017, by Josh Meyer</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Congressional investigators are scrutinizing trips to Europe taken last year by several associates of President Donald Trump, amid concern they may have met with Kremlin-linked operatives as part of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Several people close to then-candidate Trump visited Europe during and after the campaign, including his son Donald Trump Jr., Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and foreign policy advisers Carter Page, George Papadopoulos and Jeffrey Gordon. Their known destinations include London, Paris, Budapest and Athens.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/06/trump-europe-russia-travel-281134" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Manafort Associate Has Russian Intelligence Ties, Court Document Says</b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) December 4, 2017, by Kenneth P. Vogel</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and an associate with ties to Russian intelligence drafted an op-ed article last week about Mr. Manafort’s work for Russia-aligned interests in Ukraine, according to a court document filed Monday by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The filing seeks tougher bail restrictions against Mr. Manafort, arguing that writing the op-ed flouts a judge’s admonition against trying to use the news media to influence the case against Mr. Manafort and Rick Gates, another former campaign official.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/us/politics/manafort-russia-special-counsel-investigation.html?_r=0" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) December 4, 2017, by Michael S. Schmidt and Sharon LaFraniere</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee questioned on Monday whether a high-ranking official in Donald J. Trump’s transition team had been deceptive over the summer about her knowledge of discussions between Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, and a former Russian ambassador.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/us/politics/kt-mcfarland-flynn-russia-emails-congressional-testimony.html?rref=collection%2Fnewseventcollection%2FThe%20Trump%20White%20House&action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=Collection&region=Marginalia&src=me&version=newsevent&pgtype=article" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Sessions argued in Clinton impeachment that presidents can obstruct justice</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump’s personal lawyer said Monday that the ‘president cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer … and has every right to express his view of any case.’</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) December 4, 2017, by Kyle Cheney</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Donald Trump’s personal lawyer argued Monday that, as the nominal head of federal law enforcement, the president is legally unable to obstruct justice. But the exact opposite view was once argued by another senior Trump lawyer: Attorney General Jeff Sessions.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/04/jeff-sessions-president-obstruct-justice-bill-clinton-278517" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump lawyer says president knew Flynn had given FBI the same account he gave to vice president</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">December 3, 2017, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Carol D. Leonnig, John Wagner and Ellen Nakashima</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump’s personal lawyer said on Sunday that the president knew in late January that then-national security adviser Michael Flynn had probably given FBI agents the same inaccurate account he provided to Vice President Pence about a call with the Russian ambassador.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-lawyer-says-president-knew-flynn-had-given-fbi-the-same-account-he-gave-to-vice-president/2017/12/03/5c59a620-d849-11e7-a841-2066faf731ef_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trumpobstruct-1115pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.d638ce9e45ad" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump's lawyer: I wrote the president's 'sloppy' tweet about Flynn's dismissal</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(ABC News) December 3, 2017, by Jordyn Phelps, Katherine Faulders and Devin Dwyer</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, John Dowd, says he drafted the president's Saturday morning tweet that stated he fired former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for lying not only to Vice President Mike Pence but also to the FBI.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-lawyer-wrote-presidents-sloppy-tweet-flynns-dismissal/story?id=51541650" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Emails Dispute White House Claims That Flynn Acted Independently on Russia</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) December 2, 2017, by Michael S. Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Scott Shane</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When President Trump fired his national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in February, White House officials portrayed him as a renegade who had acted independently in his discussions with a Russian official during the presidential transition and then lied to his colleagues about the interactions.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/us/russia-mcfarland-flynn-trump-emails.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Michael Flynn Plea Agreement Documents</b></span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) December 1, 2017, by Matthew Kahn</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On Friday, the special counsel charged former national security adviser Michael Flynn with one count of making false statements to the FBI in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2) regarding his contacts with the former Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. Flynn pleaded guilty in D.C. federal district court at a 10:30 a.m. hearing. The special counsel's office has released a charging document, a statement of the offense, and a plea agreement. Flynn has released a statement. All documents are below.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/michael-flynn-plea-agreement-documents" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Michael Flynn Expected to Plead Guilty to Lying to the F.B.I.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) December 1, 2017, by Eileen Sullivan and Adam Goldman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, is expected to plead guilty on Friday to lying to the F.B.I. about two conversations with the Russian ambassador last December during the presidential transition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">The charges were the latest indication that Mr. Flynn was cooperating with the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mr. Flynn was scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington at 10:30 on Friday morning.<span style="font-size: medium;">... </span></span><i style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/us/politics/michael-flynn-guilty-russia-investigation.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and a CNN story with more details <b><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/01/politics/michael-flynn-charged/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>. S</span></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">ee the charging document <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-former-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn-charged-making-false-statements-fbi" target="_blank">here</a></b>. </i><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Al</i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">so read <b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/03/opinions/trump-flynn-fiasco-could-have-been-avoided-borger/" target="_blank">this CNN backgrounder</a></b> on how Trump failed to have Flynn properly vetted before appointing him to the key position. Oops. </i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Wants to Install a Reliable Mouthpiece on Russia at the CIA</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Tom Cotton, whom Trump reportedly aims to put in charge of the agency, has taken the president’s line in denying the Russia scandal.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) November 30, 2017</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The White House is considering replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo and giving Pompeo’s job to Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, the New York Times reports. In Cotton, who reportedly wants the CIA job, President Donald Trump would install at the intelligence agency one of the most vocal supporters of his efforts to dismiss the Trump campaign’s suspected collaboration with the Kremlin in an effort to interfere in the 2016 election.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/trump-wants-to-install-a-reliable-mouthpiece-on-russia-at-the-cia/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Pressed Top Republicans to End Senate Russia Inquiry</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 30, 2017, by Jonathan Martin, Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump over the summer repeatedly urged senior Senate Republicans, including the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to end the panel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, according to a half dozen lawmakers and aides. Mr. Trump’s requests were a highly unusual intervention from a president into a legislative inquiry involving his family and close aides.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/trump-russia-senate-intel.html?smid=tw-share" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Feds Flip Turkish Crook; Did He Rat on Michael Flynn?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump's ex-adviser allegedly discussed getting paid $15 million to help free Reza Zarrab. Now Zarrab is working with federal prosecutors, including possibly Robert Mueller.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) November 28, 2017, by Katie Zavadski</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Reza Zarrab, a Turkish businessman accused of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, pleaded guilty and will testify against his co-defendant, a federal court heard Tuesday. Zarrab's cooperation with federal prosecutors could have implications for Michael Flynn, who allegedly plotted on behalf of Turkish interests to help free Zarrab.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/turkish-businessman-reza-zarrab-pleads-guilty-with-possible-implications-for-michael-flynn" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 23, 2017, by Michael S. Schmidt, Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lawyers for Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, notified the president’s legal team in recent days that they could no longer discuss the special counsel’s investigation, according to four people involved in the case — an indication that Mr. Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors or negotiating a deal.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/us/politics/flynn-mueller-russia-trump.html?_r=1" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: Manafort flight records show deeper Kremlin ties than previously known</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(McClatchy) November 23, 2017, by Peter Stone and Greg Gordon</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Political guru Paul Manafort took at least 18 trips to Moscow and was in frequent contact with Vladimir Putin’s allies for nearly a decade as a consultant in Russia and Ukraine for oligarchs and pro-Kremlin parties.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Even after the February 2014 fall of Ukraine’s pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych, who won office with the help of a Manafort-engineered image makeover, the American consultant flew to Kiev another 19 times over the next 20 months while working for the smaller, pro-Russian Opposition Bloc party. Manafort went so far as to suggest the party take an anti-NATO stance, an Oppo Bloc architect has said. A key ally of that party leader, oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, was identified by an earlier Ukrainian president as a former Russian intelligence agent, “100 percent.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/article186102003.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: What Trump Really Told Kislyak After Comey Was Canned</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>During a May 10 meeting in the Oval Office, the president betrayed his intelligence community by leaking the content of a classified, and highly sensitive, Israeli intelligence operation to two high-ranking Russian envoys, Sergey Kislyak and Sergey Lavrov. This is what he told them—and the ramifications.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Vanity Fair</i>) November 22, 2017, by Howard Blum</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On a dark night at the tail end of last winter, just a month after the inauguration of the new American president, an evening when only a sickle moon hung in the Levantine sky, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 helicopters flew low across Jordan and then, staying under the radar, veered north toward the twisting ribbon of shadows that was the Euphrates River.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/trump-intel-slip" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Hidden History of Trump’s First Trip to Moscow</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>In 1987, a young real estate developer traveled to the Soviet Union. The KGB almost certainly made the trip happen.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 19, 2017</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was 1984 and General Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov had a problem. The general occupied one of the KGB’s most exalted posts. He was head of the First Chief Directorate, the prestigious KGB arm responsible for gathering foreign intelligence.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842?lo=ap_f1" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Top Russian Official Tried to Broker ‘Backdoor’ Meeting Between Trump and Putin</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 17, 2017, by Matt Apuzzo, Matthew Rosenberg and Adam Goldman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A senior Russian official who claimed to be acting at the behest of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia tried in May 2016 to arrange a meeting between Mr. Putin and Donald J. Trump, according to several people familiar with the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The news of this reached the Trump campaign in a very circuitous way. An advocate for Christian causes emailed campaign aides saying that Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank who has been linked both to Russia’s security services and organized crime, had proposed a meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump. The subject line of the email, turned over to Senate investigators, read, “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” according to one person who has seen the message.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/us/politics/trump-russia-kushner.html?action=click&module=Top%2520Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Ivanka and the fugitive from Panama</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i>Exclusive: How an alleged fraudster in Panama, working with Donald Trump's daughter, helped make Trump's first international hotel venture a success. The broker was in business with a money-launderer and two criminals from the former Soviet Union. Then he fled.</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Reuters) November 17, 2017, by Ned Parker, Stephen Grey, Roman Anin, Brad Brooks and Christine Murray</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the spring of 2007, a succession of foreigners, many from Russia, arrived at Panama City airport to be greeted by a chauffeur who whisked them off in a white Cadillac with a Donald Trump logo on the side.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The limousine belonged to a business run by a Brazilian former car salesman named Alexandre Ventura Nogueira, who was offering the visitors a chance to invest in Trump’s latest project – a 70-floor tower called the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower. It was the future U.S. president’s first international hotel venture, a complex including residential apartments and a casino in a waterfront building shaped like a sail.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-panama/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Dodgy ‘Hackers’ Target Bellingcat Investigators Who Call BS on Moscow</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Members of Bellingcat, the fact-checking collective known for exposing Kremlin lies, are being slurred by hijacked Twitter accounts posing to be their own.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) November 17, 2017, by Joseph Cox</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Personal data of veterans Ukrainian ATO,” one of the tweets, before linking to a cache of allegedly hacked data, published Thursday reads.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Tomorrow more,” the account, apparently belonging to Aric Toler, a researcher at open-source intelligence and journalism community Bellingcat, promised. “It will be a sensation, really,” the tweet added.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/polish-hackers-target-investigators-who-call-bs-on-moscow" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian ambassador says he won't name all the Trump officials he's met with because 'the list is so long'</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNBC) November 16, 2017, by Tucker Higgins</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak said on Wednesday that it would take him more than 20 minutes to name all of the Trump officials he's met with or spoken to on the phone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"First, I'm never going to do that," he said. "And second, the list is so long that I'm not going to be able to go through it in 20 minutes."... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/kislyak-wont-name-trump-officials-hes-met-because-list-is-so-long.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Christopher Steele believes his dossier on Trump-Russia is 70-90% accurate</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The respected ex-MI6 officer told Guardian journalist and author Luke Harding that his FBI contacts greeted his intelligence report with ‘shock and horror’</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) November 15, 2017, by Julian Borger</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who compiled an explosive dossier of allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, believes it to be 70% to 90% accurate, according to a new book on the covert Russian intervention in the 2016 US election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The book, Collusion: How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win, by the Guardian journalist Luke Harding, quotes Steele as telling friends that he believes his reports – based on sources cultivated over three decades of intelligence work – will be vindicated as the US special counsel investigation digs deeper into contacts between Trump, his associates and Moscow.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/15/christopher-steele-trump-russia-dossier-accurate" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>What Hillary Knew About Putin's Propaganda Machine</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Russian disinformation around Ukraine set the stage for the Kremlin’s election meddling here. Clinton saw it coming, but couldn't stop it.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) November 15, 2017, by Rick Stengel</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I was a magazine guy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After eight years as managing editor of Time, I left at the end of 2013 to become under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. It’s a fancy title, but that job is one of the few in Washington that’s tailored for someone with a media background like me. After I was nominated, some of my colleagues joked that I was now “head of U.S. propaganda,” but I thought of myself instead as the chief marketing officer of brand America. I figured I’d be spending a lot of my time combating America’s negative image in the Muslim world—and I did—but then the Russian annexation of Crimea happened in early 2014. What I saw Russia do online and in social media around this grave violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty was a revelation to me—and nothing short of a trial run for what they did to manipulate our presidential election in 2016. Few Americans realized it back then, but we were already in a global information war with Russia.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/15/hillary-clinton-putin-russia-propaganda-election-215826" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>WikiLeaks Set Off an Attack on Our Trump-Russia Project—Right After Messaging Donald Trump Jr. About It</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Was Julian Assange trying to conspire with the Trump campaign?</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) November 15, 2017, by Bill Buzenberg</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On Monday, The Atlantic published private messages from September 2016 in which WikiLeaks gave Donald Trump Jr. the password to a forthcoming site documenting his father’s ties to Russia. But there was more to the story of WikiLeaks’ apparent effort to conspire with the Trump campaign against PutinTrump.org—and I had a front row seat to it, as editorial director of the site. Within just minutes of reaching out to Trump Jr., Wikileaks also publicized the password, setting off a wave of online harassment, email bombs, and personal threats against people behind the site.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/wikileaks-donald-trump-jr-twitter-attack/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Secret Finding: 60 Russian Payments "To Finance Election Campaign Of 2016”</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The FBI is scrutinizing more than 60 money transfers sent by the Russian foreign ministry to its embassies across the globe, most of them bearing a note that said the money was to be used “to finance election campaign of 2016.”</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed News) November 14, 2017, by</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b> Jason Leopold, Anthony Cormier and Jessica Garrison</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On Aug. 3 of last year, just as the US presidential election was entering its final, heated phase, the Russian foreign ministry sent nearly $30,000 to its embassy in Washington. The wire transfer, which came from a Kremlin-backed Russian bank, landed in one of the embassy’s Citibank accounts and contained a remarkable memo line: “to finance election campaign of 2016.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That wire transfer is one of more than 60 now being scrutinized by the FBI and other federal agencies investigating Russian involvement in the US election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://xn--8ug/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Jeff Sessions says he now recalls Trump campaign meeting where Russia discussed</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>At issue is meeting attended by George Papadopoulos, who has pleaded guilty to lying about Russia contacts</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Thomson Reuters) November 14, 2017</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions now says he recalls a meeting with then candidate Donald Trump and aides where campaign connections to Russia were discussed, after earlier testifying he was unaware of any such contacts.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/jeff-sessions-faces-congress-amid-new-russia-probe-details-1.4401137" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Donald Trump Jr. communicated with WikiLeaks during 2016 campaign</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 13, 2017, by </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind S. Helderman</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump’s eldest son exchanged private messages with WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign at the same time the website was publishing hacked emails from Democratic officials, according to correspondence made public Monday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-jr-communicated-with-wikileaks-during-2016-campaign/2017/11/13/947e64d4-c8bb-11e7-aa96-54417592cf72_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_wikileaks-825pm%253Ahomepage%252Fstory&utm_term=.bb3b4a6219b0" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Says Putin ‘Means It’ About Not Meddling</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 11, 2017, by Julie Hirschfeld Davis</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump said on Saturday that he believed President Vladimir V. Putin was sincere in his denials of interference in the 2016 presidential elections, calling questions about Moscow’s meddling a politically motivated “hit job” that was hindering cooperation with Russia on life-or-death issues.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/world/asia/trump-putin-election.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A London Meeting of an Unlikely Group: How a Trump Adviser Came to Learn of Clinton ‘Dirt’</b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 10, 2017, by Sharon LaFraniere, David D. Kirkpatrick, Andrew Higgins and Michael Schwirtz</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At midday on March 24, 2016, an improbable group gathered in a London cafe to discuss setting up a meeting between Donald J. Trump, then a candidate, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There was George Papadopoulos, a 28-year-old from Chicago with an inflated résumé who just days earlier had been publicly named as a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump’s campaign. There was Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese academic in his mid-50s with a faltering career who boasted of having high-level contacts in the Russian government.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/us/russia-inquiry-trump.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Probes Flynn’s Role in Alleged Plan to Deliver Cleric to Turkey</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Under alleged plan, ex-Trump adviser and his son were to be paid millions to forcibly remove Fethullah Gulen from U.S. and deliver him to Turkish custody</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) November 10, 2017, by James V. Grimaldi, Shane Harris and Aruna Viswanatha</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating former White House national security adviser Mike Flynn’s alleged role in a plan to forcibly remove a Muslim cleric living in the U.S. and deliver him to Turkey in return for millions of dollars, according to people familiar with the investigation.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/mueller-probes-flynns-role-in-alleged-plan-to-deliver-cleric-to-turkey-1510309982" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">What to Make of the Latest Story About Flynn and Gulen?</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) November 10, 2017, by Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Wall Street Journal has another <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/mueller-probes-flynns-role-in-alleged-plan-to-deliver-cleric-to-turkey-1510309982" target="_blank">major story</a></b> today regarding disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Reportedly, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is now investigating allegations that both Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., plotted to either kidnap and render Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen to Turkey or to use Flynn’s influence as national security adviser to effectuate his extradition—all in exchange for up to $15 million.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-make-latest-story-about-flynn-and-gulen" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Russian oligarch questioned over Manafort links</b><br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="234" src="//fave.api.cnn.io/v1/fav/?video=politics/2017/11/10/deripaska-fake-news-chance-sot.cnn&customer=cnn&edition=international&env=prod" width="416"></iframe><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) November 10, 2017</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">CNN's Matthew Chance attempts to speak to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska about his ties to Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman.... <i>Watch the video <b><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/11/10/deripaska-fake-news-chance-sot.cnn" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Ex-Trump security chief testifies he rejected 2013 Russian offer of women for Trump in Moscow</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) November 9, 2017, b</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>y Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump's long-time confidant Keith Schiller privately testified that he rejected a Russian offer to send five women to then private-citizen Trump's hotel room during their 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant, according to multiple sources from both political parties with direct knowledge of the testimony.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/09/politics/keith-schiller-russian-offer-women-2013-moscow/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Trump adviser sent email describing ‘private conversation’ with Russian official</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) November 7, 2017, b</b>y <b>Rosalind S. Helderman, Matt Zapotosky and Karoun Demirjian</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to President Trump’s campaign whose visit to Moscow during the election has drawn scrutiny, sent an email to fellow Trump aides during his trip describing “a private conversation” with a senior Russian official who spoke favorably of the Republican candidate, according to records released late Monday by congressional investigators.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Page also wrote that he had been provided “incredible insights and outreach” by Russian lawmakers and “senior members” of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration during the trip.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The email appeared to contradict earlier statements by Page, who had said he had only exchanged brief greetings with the senior Russian official, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, after he delivered a speech at a Russian university.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-adviser-sent-email-describing-private-conversation-with-russian-official/2017/11/06/b39d4c84-c33b-11e7-84bc-5e285c7f4512_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_page-1055pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.cb6f173dbb99" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">CIA Director Met Advocate of Disputed DNC Hack Theory </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">— At Trump's Request</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Intercept) November 7, 2017, by Duncan Campbell and James Risen</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">CIA Director Mike Pompeo met late last month with a former U.S. intelligence official who has become an advocate for a disputed theory that the theft of the Democratic National Committee’s emails during the 2016 presidential campaign was an inside job, rather than a hack by Russian intelligence.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/11/07/dnc-hack-trump-cia-director-william-binney-nsa/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Jr. Hinted at Review of Anti-Russia Law, Moscow Lawyer Says</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">November 6, 2017, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Irina Reznik and Henry Meyer</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A Russian lawyer who met with President Donald Trump’s oldest son last year says he indicated that a law targeting Russia could be re-examined if his father won the election and asked her for written evidence that illegal proceeds went to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-06/trump-jr-said-anti-russia-law-may-be-reviewed-moscow-lawyer-says" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian Twitter Support for Trump Began Right After He Started Campaign</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>In three months after Mr. Trump announced his candidacy, tweets from Russian accounts offered far more praise for the businessman than criticism</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) November 6, 2017, by Mark Maremont and Rob Barry</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Kremlin-backed support for Donald Trump’s candidacy over social media began much earlier than previously known, a new analysis of Twitter data shows.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russian Twitter accounts posing as Americans began lavishing praise on Mr. Trump and attacking his rivals within weeks after he announced his bid for the presidency in June 2015, according to the analysis by The Wall Street Journal.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-twitter-support-for-trump-began-right-after-he-started-campaign-1509964380" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump commerce secretary's business links with Putin family laid out in leaked files</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Wilbur Ross stands to profit from company run by Russians, some of whom are under US sanctions</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) November 5, 2017, by Jon Swaine and Luke Harding</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, is doing business with Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law through a shipping venture in Russia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Leaked documents and public filings show Ross holds a stake in a shipping company, Navigator, through a chain of offshore investments. Navigator operates a lucrative partnership with Sibur, a Russian gas company part-owned by Kirill Shamalov, the husband of Putin’s daughter Katerina Tikhonova.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/trump-commerce-secretary-wilbur-ross-business-links-putin-family-paradise-papers" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russia funded Facebook and Twitter investments through Kushner associate</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Institutions with close links to Kremlin financed stakes through business associate of Trump’s son-in-law, leaked files reveal</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) November 5, 2017, by Jon Swaine and Luke Harding</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Two Russian state institutions with close ties to Vladimir Putin funded substantial investments in Twitter and Facebook through a business associate of Jared Kushner, leaked documents reveal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The investments were made through a Russian technology magnate, Yuri Milner, who also holds a stake in a company co-owned by Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/russia-funded-facebook-twitter-investments-kushner-associate" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Campaign Adviser Met With Russian Officials in 2016</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) November 3, 2017, by Mark Mazzetti and Adam Goldman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump presidential campaign, met Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip he took to Moscow, according to testimony he gave on Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/us/politics/trump-campaign-page-russian.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump says he dropped Manafort from campaign due to 'potential conflicts' with 'certain nations'</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">November 4, 2017, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Daniella Diaz</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump said he dropped Paul Manafort as his campaign chairman because of Manafort's involvement with "certain nations," according to excerpts of an interview published Saturday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/04/politics/donald-trump-paul-manafort-2016-election/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Jenna Abrams, Russia’s Clown Troll Princess, Duped the Mainstream Media and the World</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Roseanne Barr and Michael McFaul argued with her on Twitter. BuzzFeed and The New York Times cited her tweets. But Jenna Abrams was the fictional creation of a Russian troll farm.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) November 2, 2017, by Ben Collins and Joseph Cox</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Jenna Abrams had a lot of enemies on Twitter but she was a very good friend to viral content writers across the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Her opinions about everything from manspreading on the subway to Rachel Dolezal to ballistic missiles still linger on news sites all over the web.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jenna-abrams-russias-clown-troll-princess-duped-the-mainstream-media-and-the-world" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Sam Clovis withdraws his nomination for USDA’s top scientist post after being linked to Russia probe</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">November 2, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Juliet Eilperin and Philip Rucker</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientist nominee, <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/19/trump-just-nominated-a-climate-skeptic-to-usdas-top-science-post/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.fa48713f56fe" target="_blank">Sam Clovis</a></b> withdrew his name from consideration Wednesday amid revelations that he was among <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-campaign-adviser-pleaded-guilty-to-lying-about-russian-contacts/2017/10/30/d525e712-bd7d-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.1a7284e2a0e4" target="_blank">top officials on the Trump campaign</a></b> who was aware of efforts by foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos to broker a relationship between the campaign and Russian officials.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/11/02/sam-clovis-withdraws-nomination-for-udsas-top-scientist-post-after-being-linked-to-russia-probe/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_clovis-1145a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.cced28caa12d" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Reveals New Manafort Link to Organized Crime</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump’s former campaign manager didn’t just do business with accused gangsters. One of them transferred millions into a Manafort account, allegedly used for money laundering.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) November 2, 2017, by Betsy Woodruff</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Buried deep in Robert Mueller’s indictment of Paul Manafort is a new link between Donald Trump’s former campaign and Russian organized crime.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The indictment (<b><a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1007271/download" target="_blank">PDF</a></b>), unsealed on Monday, includes an extensive look into Paul Manafort’s byzantine financial dealings. In particular, it details how he used a company called Lucicle Consultants Limited to wire millions of dollars into the United States.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-reveals-new-manafort-link-to-organized-crime" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russia hackers had targets worldwide, beyond US election</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) November 2, 2017, by Raphael Satter, Jeff Donn and Justin Myers</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The hackers who disrupted the U.S. presidential election had ambitions well beyond Hillary Clinton’s campaign, targeting the emails of Ukrainian officers, Russian opposition figures, U.S. defense contractors and thousands of others of interest to the Kremlin, according to a previously unpublished digital hit list obtained by The Associated Press.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://apnews.com/3bca5267d4544508bb523fa0db462cb2" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>U.S. Prosecutors Consider Charging Russian Officials in DNC Hacking Case</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>At least six Russian government officials are identified as part of ongoing investigation</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) November 2, 2017, by Aruna Viswanatha and Del Quentin Wilber</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Justice Department has identified more than six members of the Russian government involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee’s computers and swiping sensitive information that became public during the 2016 presidential election, according to people familiar with the investigation.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/prosecutors-consider-bringing-charges-in-dnc-hacking-case-1509618203" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump aide's suspected middleman knew about Clinton 'dirt' -- source</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) November 2, 2017, by Nic Robertson and Hilary Clarke</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">An academic suspected of being the link between a Trump campaign adviser and the Russian government told a business contact that Moscow had a trove of information about Hillary Clinton in April 2016, months before the information was public, CNN has learned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Joseph Mifsud, a London-based academic from Malta, also boasted of his connections with Moscow and talked about how he had dinner in a small group with President Vladimir Putin, the business contact and a former assistant told CNN.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/31/politics/mifsud-papadopoulos-russia/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Michael Flynn Followed Russian Troll Accounts, Pushed Their Messages in Days Before Election</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump’s notoriously Kremlin-friendly national security adviser amplified Russian messages right when they mattered most—in the days leading up to Nov. 8, 2016.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) November 1, 2017, by Ben Collins and Kevin Poulsen</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn followed five Twitter accounts based out of the Russian-backed “troll factory” in St. Petersburg—and pushed their messages at least three times in the month before the 2016 election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/michael-flynn-followed-russian-troll-accounts-pushed-their-messages-in-days-before-election" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Manafort has 3 passports, traveled to China with phone registered under fake name</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) November 1, 2017, by Katelyn Polantz</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">How rich are Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, and where did they travel?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That question lingered over the pair's court hearing on Monday after both faced the first indictments from Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/31/politics/manafort-3-passports/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Top campaign officials knew of Trump adviser’s outreach to Russia</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) October 30, 2017, by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Several weeks after Donald Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination, his national campaign co-chairman urged a foreign policy adviser to meet with Russian officials to foster ties with that country’s government.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-campaign-adviser-pleaded-guilty-to-lying-about-russian-contacts/2017/10/30/d525e712-bd7d-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.1a7284e2a0e4" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Carter Page: I may have discussed Russia in emails with Papadopoulos</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) October 30, 2017, by Brent D. Griffiths</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, said he might have exchanged emails about Russia with a fellow adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the president's campaign and possible collusion with the Russian government.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/30/page-papadopoulos-russia-probe-244349" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Who’s who in the George Papadopoulos court documents</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) October 30, 2017, by Rosalind S. Helderman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Newly released court documents show that Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos communicated with several senior campaign officials about his outreach to the Russian government over a period of months. The recipients of Papadopoulos’s emails are not named in the filings, but The Washington Post has identified several individuals based on interviews and other documents. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty this month to lying to federal agents about his outreach to Russia.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whos-who-in-the-george-papadopoulos-court-documents/2017/10/30/e131158c-bdb3-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_whos-who-papadopoulos-10pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.7f15200d1b7c" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The not-so-hidden message in Mueller's court filings</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>The special prosecutor's indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates — and the plea deal struck with low-level adviser George Papadopoulos — suggest a road map for additional charges still to come.</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) October 30, 2017, by Darren Samuelsohn</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Robert Mueller delivered a punch in the rapidly expanding Russia investigation by simultaneously indicting Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, two of the most prominent figures in Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But the special counsel sent a more powerful signal to others around the president with the public release of a plea deal struck with low-level loyalist George Papadopoulos, which was full of details about the former foreign policy adviser’s email traffic to still-unnamed high-ranking campaign officials about a “request from Russia to meet Mr. Trump.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/30/mueller-congress-republicans-trump-244344" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian Influence Reached 126 Million Through Facebook Alone</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) October 30, 2017, by Mike Isaac and Daisuke Wakabayashio</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russian agents intending to sow discord among American citizens disseminated inflammatory posts that reached 126 million users on Facebook, published more than 131,000 messages on Twitter and uploaded over 1,000 videos to Google’s YouTube service, according to copies of prepared remarks from the companies that were obtained by The New York Times.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/technology/facebook-google-russia.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Paul Manafort, Once of Trump Campaign, Indicted as an Adviser Admits to Lying About Ties to Russia</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) October 30, 2017, by Adam Goldman and Nicholas Fandos</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was indicted Monday on charges that he funneled millions of dollars through overseas shell companies and used the money to buy luxury cars, real estate, antiques and expensive suits.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The charges against Mr. Manafort and his longtime associate Rick Gates represent a significant escalation in a special counsel investigation that has cast a shadow over Mr. Trump’s first year in office.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/paul-manafort-indicted.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and the indictment <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015f-6d73-d751-af7f-7f735cc70000" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Campaign Adviser Met With Russian to Discuss ‘Thousands’ of Clinton Emails</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) October 30, 2017, by Matt Apuzzo</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A professor with close ties to the Russian government told an adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in April 2016 that Moscow had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails,” according to court documents unsealed Monday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The adviser, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about that conversation. The plea represents the most explicit evidence connecting the Trump campaign to the Russian government’s meddling in last year’s election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/george-papadopoulos-russia.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and the statement of the offense <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2017/10/30/us/politics/read-the-statement-of-offense-against-george-papadopoulos/s/20171030-papadapolous-slide-EKKH.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Ex-CIA Director Spoke to Mueller About Flynn’s Alleged Turkish Scheme</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(NBC News) October 27, 2017, by Ken Dilanian</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Former CIA Director James Woolsey has been interviewed by FBI agents working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller about allegations that Mike Flynn discussed the potentially illegal removal of a Turkish cleric from the U.S., Woolsey's spokesman told NBC News.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/ex-cia-director-spoke-mueller-about-flynn-s-alleged-turkish-n815176" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>First on CNN: First charges filed in Mueller investigation</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) October 27, 2017, by Pamela Brown, Evan Perez and Shimon</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A federal grand jury in Washington on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources briefed on the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge. Plans were prepared Friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday, the sources said. It is unclear what the charges are.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/27/politics/first-charges-mueller-investigation/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Conservative website first paid Fusion GPS for Trump research</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) October 27, 2017, by Devlin Barrett, Sari Horwitz and Adam Entous</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A conservative publication said Friday it paid a Washington research firm to start probing Donald Trump’s background — a move that set in motion a chain of events leading to the explosive dossier alleging ties between Trump associates and Russia.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/conservative-website-first-paid-fusion-gps-for-trump-research/2017/10/27/ee05c1d6-bb6f-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_dossier-810pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.3c053ab3c3de" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Talking Points Brought to Trump Tower Meeting Were Shared With Kremlin</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) October 27, 2017, by Sharon LaFraniere and Andrew E. Kramer</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Natalia V. Veselnitskaya arrived at a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 hoping to interest top Trump campaign officials in the contents of a memo she believed contained information damaging to the Democratic Party and, by extension, Hillary Clinton. The material was the fruit of her research as a private lawyer, she has repeatedly said, and any suggestion that she was acting at the Kremlin’s behest that day is anti-Russia “hysteria.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But interviews and records show that in the months before the meeting, Ms. Veselnitskaya had discussed the allegations with one of Russia’s most powerful officials, the prosecutor general, Yuri Y. Chaika. And the memo she brought with her closely followed a document that Mr. Chaika’s office had given to an American congressman two months earlier, incorporating some paragraphs verbatim.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/us/politics/trump-tower-veselnitskaya-russia.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Republicans spoil for a fight over Russia probe budget</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Robert Mueller's first spending report must be reviewed by the Justice Department, but lawmakers are already questioning the open-ended use of taxpayer funds.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) October 26, 2016, by Darren Samuelsohn</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Republicans trying to hobble Robert Mueller’s sprawling probe into President Donald Trump and Russia matters are about to get a new weapon: the special counsel’s budget.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/26/robert-mueller-probe-budget-fight-244218?lo=ap_a1" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Trump-Russia Scandal Is a Huge Media Fail</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>If we don’t come to terms with this assault on American democracy, Trump and Co. win.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) October 26, 2017, by David Corn</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">About a year ago, I met a man named Christopher David Steele. It was unusual for him to be speaking with a journalist. He had spent most of his adult life in the shadows, as a counterintelligence officer for MI6, the British foreign intelligence service. His specialty was Russia.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/media/2017/10/the-trump-russia-scandal-is-a-huge-media-fail/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian Twitter Bot Targeted Maxine Waters, A Prominent Trump Impeachment Backer</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The infamous @TEN_GOP account went after the California Democrat well after the 2016 election had ended.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) October 26, 2017, by Ben Collins and Sam Stein</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A prominent Democratic congresswoman who has been a vocal proponent of Donald Trump’s impeachment says she was the target of a Russian-bot Twitter campaign that encouraged her own removal from office.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) wrote Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey on Thursday requesting information on the “total number of accounts linked to Russia that ever mentioned” her name, as well as the number of times those tweets were retweeted. In her letter, Waters reveals that the now-notorious Russian-bot account, @TEN_GOP, ginned up attacks against her after Trump’s elections, and did so—she alleges—with apparent knowledge of a town hall she was holding inside her district.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-twitter-bot-targeted-maxine-waters-a-prominent-trump-impeachment-backer" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Russia Probe Just Blew Up</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Republicans and Democrats are now pursuing their own investigations.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) October 25, 2017, by Dan Friedman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have broken up over Russia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The committee’s once bipartisan investigation into whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice or his campaign colluded with Russia has hit a partisan wall, with Republicans and Democrats saying they will now conduct their own probes.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/the-senate-judiciary-committees-russia-probe-just-blew-up/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Congress: Trump Won’t Implement Russia Sanctions—and He Won’t Tell Us Why</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Congress is close to powerless in compelling the Trump administration to implement sanctions that it already forced him to sign into law.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) October 23, 2017, by Andrew Desiderio</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When Congress sent President Donald Trump a bill in July that slapped new sanctions on Russia, the president signed the legislation reluctantly while lambasting it as an example of congressional overreach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The administration has since blown past an October 1 deadline to implement the sanctions. Lawmakers are now searching for answers as to whether the president is even planning to follow the law that they passed and he signed.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/congress-trump-wont-implement-russia-sanctionsand-he-wont-tell-us-why" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russia’s Favored Outlet Is an Online News Giant. YouTube Helped.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) October 23, 2017, by Daisuke Wakabayashi and Nicholas Confessore</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When the state-backed Russian news channel RT became the first news organization to surpass one billion views on YouTube in 2013, it marked the achievement with a retrospective of its most popular videos and a special guest — one of the Google-owned site’s senior executives.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/technology/youtube-russia-rt.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: Russian Propaganda Traced Back to Staten Island, New York</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Moscow may have paid for the memes, but a man in a quiet Staten Island neighborhood hosted them. It’s further evidence of how deep into America the Russian campaign extended.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) October 23, 2017, by Katie Zavadski, Ben Collins, Kevin Poulsen and Spencer Ackerman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russia’s propaganda campaign targeting Americans was hosted, at least in part, on American soil.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A company owned by a man on Staten Island, New York, provided internet infrastructure services to DoNotShoot.Us, a Kremlin propaganda site that pretended to be a voice for victims of police shootings, a Daily Beast investigation has found.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-propaganda-hosted-by-man-on-staten-island-new-york" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Campaign Staffers Pushed Russian Propaganda Days Before the Election</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Kellyanne Conway and Donald Trump Jr. pushed messages from an account operated from Russia’s ‘troll farm’—including allegations of voter fraud a week before Election Day.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) October 18, 2017, by Betsy Woodruff, Ben Collins, Kevin Poulsen and Spencer Ackerman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Some of the Trump campaign’s most prominent names and supporters, including Trump’s campaign manager, digital director, and son, pushed tweets from professional trolls paid by the Russian government in the heat of the 2016 election campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-campaign-staffers-pushed-russian-propaganda-days-before-the-election" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Jeff Sessions shifts ground on Russia contacts under Senate questioning</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The attorney general concedes for the first time it was possible he had discussed Donald Trump’s policy positions with Russian ambassador</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) October 18, 2017, by Julian Borger</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has given a new account of his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 election, conceding it was possible that they had discussed Donald Trump’s policy positions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Under intense questioning by the Senate judiciary committee, Sessions departed from his previous blanket denials about contacts with Russian officials, saying he did “not recall” elements of the conversations in three meetings in 2016 with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, and conceded for the first time that substantive issues may have been discussed.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/18/jeff-sessions-russia-senate-shifts-ground" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Memo Undermines Russian Lawyer’s Account of Trump Tower Meeting</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>It bolsters the case that she was acting on behalf of the Kremlin.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) October 17, 2017, by Dan Friedman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Russian lawyer at the center of a controversial June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower says there was in fact no controversy. Natalia Veselnitskaya attended the meeting where Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump campaign officials hoped to Russian receive dirt on Hillary Clinton. Now a memo she brought to that meeting has been disclosed, and she says it shows that she did not discuss politics with the Trump team and was acting independently, not as a Kremlin emissary. But she may want to read her own talking points a bit more carefully.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/memo-undermines-russian-lawyers-account-of-trump-tower-meeting/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Russian troll factory paid US activists to help fund protests during election</b><br />
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<li><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i>Investigation finds Russians posing as Americans made payments to activists</i></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i>Revelations likely to put further spotlight on Russian meddling in US election</i></b></li>
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The Guardian</i>) October 17, 2017, by Shaun Walker</b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russian trolls posing as Americans made payments to genuine activists in the US to help fund protest movements on socially divisive issues, according to a new investigation by a respected Russian media outlet.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/17/russian-troll-factory-activists-protests-us-election" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian journalists publish massive investigation into St. Petersburg troll factory's U.S. operations</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Meduza) October 17, 2017</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A day after Dozhd television published an interview with a former member of Russia’s infamous Internet Research Agency, the news agency RBC released a new detailed report on the same organization’s efforts to meddle in U.S. domestic politics. Meduza summarizes RBC’s new report here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Internet Research Agency, Russia’s infamous “troll farm,” reportedly devoted up to a third of its entire staff to meddling in U.S. politics during the 2016 presidential election. At the peak of the campaign, as many as 90 people were working for the IRA’s U.S. desk, sources told RBC, revealing that the entire agency employs upwards of 250 people.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://meduza.io/en/news/2017/10/17/russian-journalists-publish-massive-investigation-into-st-petersburg-troll-factory-s-u-s-operations" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>An ex St. Petersburg ‘troll’ speaks out</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Russian independent TV network interviews former troll at the Internet Research Agency</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Meduza) October 15, 2017</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One of the many remarkable things about 2017 is that American journalists no longer have the Irish Republican Army in mind when writing “IRA,” which is now used most often to mean Russia's Internet Research Agency — the “troll factory” responsible for buying ads on social media and polluting American online news discussion in an apparent effort to destabilize U.S. democracy. On October 15, the Russian independent news network Dozhd published the latest development in this ongoing story: an interview with a man who allegedly worked for the IRA from 2014-2015. Meduza summarizes that interview here.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2017/10/15/an-ex-st-petersburg-troll-speaks-out" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Twitter deleted data potentially crucial to Russia probes</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Social-media platform’s strict privacy policy led to deletions of Russian information of interest to investigators.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) October 13, 2017, by Josh Meyer</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Twitter has deleted tweets and other user data of potentially irreplaceable value to investigators probing Russia’s suspected manipulation of the social media platform during the 2016 election, according to current and former government cybersecurity officials.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/13/twitter-russia-data-deleted-investigation-243730" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Flynn ally sought help from 'dark web' in covert Clinton email investigation</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Barbara Ledeen, a staffer on the committee looking into Trump’s Russia ties and a friend of Mike Flynn, tried to launch her own investigation into Clinton’s emails</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">October 13, 2017, by </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Stephanie Kirchgaessner</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A close associate of Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn arranged a covert investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state, and through intermediaries turned to a person with knowledge of the “dark web” for help.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/13/michael-flynn-clinton-email-investigation-russia-dark-web" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Just Blew Off a Deadline for Implementing Russian Sanctions He Approved</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Lawmakers worry the president is planning to ignore parts of the law he signed under congressional pressure.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) October 11, 2017, by Dan Friedman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The White House has blown by an October 1 deadline for beginning to implement new sanctions targeting Russia, drawing concern in Congress that President Donald Trump is planning to ignore parts of a bill he grudgingly signed in August.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/trump-just-blew-off-a-deadline-for-implementing-russian-sanctions-he-approved/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russia Probe Now Investigating Cambridge Analytica, Trump’s ‘Psychographic’ Data Gurus</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>They were once Steve Bannon’s favorite analytics shop. Now investigators want to know if the Kremlin had a thing for Cambridge Analytica, too.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) October 11, 2017, by Betsy Woodruff and Spencer Ackerman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A data firm backed by some of Donald Trump’s closest allies is now facing scrutiny as part of an investigation into possible collusion between the president’s team and Russian operatives, The Daily Beast has learned.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-probe-now-investigating-cambridge-analytica-trumps-psychographic-data-gurus" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Presidential Obstruction of Justice: The Case of Donald J. Trump</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>(The Brookings Institution) October 10, 2017, by Barry H. Berke, Noah Bookbinder and Norman L. Eisen</b></span></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There are significant questions as to whether President Trump obstructed justice. We do
not yet know all the relevant facts, and any final determination must await further investigation,
including by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. But the public record contains substantial
evidence that President Trump attempted to impede the
investigations of Michael Flynn and Russian interference
in the 2016 presidential election, including by firing FBI
Director James Comey.... <i>Read the complete <b><a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/presidential-obstruction-of-justice-the-case-of-donald-j-trump-final.pdf" target="_blank">paper</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russia Recruited YouTubers to Bash ‘Racist B*tch’ Hillary Clinton Over Rap Beats</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Wannabe YouTube stars and diehard Donald Trump supporters ‘Williams & Kalvin’ totally swear they’re from Atlanta. In reality, they were working for the Kremlin.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) October 8, 2017, by Ben Collins, Gideon Resnick and Spencer Ackerman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to the YouTube page for “Williams and Kalvin,” the Clintons are “serial killers who are going to rape the whole nation.” </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Donald Trump can’t be racist because he’s a “businessman.” Hillary Clinton’s campaign was “fund[ed] by the Muslim.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">These are a sample of the videos put together by two black video bloggers calling themselves Williams and Kalvin Johnson, whose social media pages investigators say are part of the broad Russian campaign to influence American politics. Across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, they purported to offer “a word of truth” to African-American audiences.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-recruited-youtubers-to-bash-racist-btch-hillary-clinton-over-rap-beats" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: Russian-linked group sold merchandise online</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">October 6, 2017, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">by Donie O'Sullivan</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"Young, gifted and black." "Melanin and muscles." "Our sons matter." The slogans on the clothing that a group called "Blacktivist" offered for sale through Facebook were supposed to look like they came from American Black Lives Matter activists. But they were in fact being promoted by a Russian-linked group working to amplify political discord in the U.S. before the presidential election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/06/media/blacktivist-merchandise-facebook-russia/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Facebook Cut Russia Out of April Report on Election Influence</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The drafting of the report sparked internal debate over how much information to disclose about Russian influence campaigns on the social network</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) October 5, 2017, by Robert McMillan and Shane Harris</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Facebook Inc. cut references to Russia from a public report in April about manipulation of its platform around the presidential election because of concerns among the company’s lawyers and members of its policy team, according to people familiar with the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-cut-russia-out-of-april-report-on-election-influence-1507253503" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Ex-Trump adviser Paul Manafort conspired to mislead bankruptcy court, son-in-law charges</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>USA Today</i>) October 4, 2017, by Kevin McCoy and Brad Heath</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As federal authorities investigate former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's controversial ties to Russia, his estranged son-in-law is accusing him of conspiring to mislead a federal bankruptcy court about real estate investments.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Jeffrey Yohai made the allegation on Sept. 28, in a case that centers on four troubled California real estate investments that collectively total millions of dollars. Manafort's daughter, Jessica, filed for divorce from Yohai in March.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/10/04/ex-trump-adviser-paul-manafort-conspired-mislead-bankruptcy-court-son-in-law-charges/723689001/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Facebook says 10 million U.S. users saw Russia-linked ads</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Reuters) October 2, 2017, by David Ingram</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Some 10 million people in the United States saw politically divisive ads on Facebook that the company said were purchased in Russia in the months before and after last year’s U.S. presidential election, Facebook said on Monday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-advertising/facebook-says-10-million-u-s-users-saw-russia-linked-ads-idUSKCN1C71YM" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s company had more contact with Russia during campaign, according to documents turned over to investigators</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>October 2,</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b> by Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman and Adam Entous</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Associates of President Trump and his company have turned over documents to federal investigators that reveal two previously unreported contacts from Russia during the 2016 campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In one case, Trump’s personal attorney and a business associate exchanged emails weeks before the Republican National Convention about the lawyer possibly traveling to an economic conference in Russia that would be attended by top Russian financial and government leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with the correspondence.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-company-had-more-contact-with-russia-during-campaign-according-to-documents-turned-over-to-investigators/2017/10/02/2091fe5e-a6c0-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html?utm_term=.a2d3fcc1faef&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation&wpmk=1" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Did Manafort Use Trump to Curry Favor With a Putin Ally?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Emails turned over to investigators detail the former campaign chair's efforts to please an oligarch tied to the Kremlin.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Atlantic</i>) October 2, 2017, by Julia Ioffe and Franklin Foer</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On the evening of April 11, 2016, two weeks after Donald Trump hired the political consultant Paul Manafort to lead his campaign’s efforts to wrangle Republican delegates, Manafort emailed his old lieutenant Konstantin Kilimnik, who had worked for him for a decade in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/emails-suggest-manafort-sought-approval-from-putin-ally-deripaska/541677/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Facebook’s Russia-Linked Ads Came in Many Disguises</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) October 2, 2017, by Mike Isaac and Scott Shane</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Russians who posed as Americans on Facebook last year tried on quite an array of disguises.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There was “Defend the 2nd,” a Facebook page for gun-rights supporters, festooned with firearms and tough rhetoric. There was a rainbow-hued page for gay rights activists, “LGBT United.” There was even a Facebook group for animal lovers with memes of adorable puppies that spread across the site with the help of paid ads.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/technology/facebook-russia-ads-.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=image&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><b>Click <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2018/06/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my latest Trump-Putin bromance timeline, <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/08/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my earlier Aug.-Sept. 2017 timeline and <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/07/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my June 2015-July 2017 timeline.</b></i><br />
<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></i><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>See links to my investigative journalism <a href="http://albloggedup.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here</a>, including my book </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0994861761" target="_blank">Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence</a><i>, a finalist in the American Book Fest's 2017 Best Book Awards and winner or finalist in nine </i></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>other book prizes.</i></span></b>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-25167130167230700132017-08-01T11:01:00.001-04:002022-02-23T16:04:54.026-05:00COMRADE TRUMP—The Definitive Trump-Putin Bromance and "This Russia Thing" Timeline (Aug.-Sept. 2017)<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Having trouble keeping up with the drip-drip of revelations about ex-president Donald Trump and his cozy ties with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin? </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Stay up to date and check your facts with my definitive "Comrade Trump" timeline, compiling the latest Trump-Putin bromance news.</i> Feel free to send in your own tidbits via the comments. I don't necessarily endorse the articles linked below.</i><br />
<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></i><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Click <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2018/06/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my latest Trump-Putin bromance timeline, <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/10/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my Oct. 2017-May 2018 timeline and <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/07/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my June 2015-July 2017 timeline.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian TV network spent nearly $300,000 on tweets aimed at U.S. market in election</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(McClatchy) September 28, 2017, by Greg Gordon, Peter Stone and David Goldstein</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russia Today, the Kremlin-backed television network, spent $274,000 on more than 1,800 tweets on Twitter’s network that “definitely or potentially targeted the U.S. market” during the 2016 presidential campaign, representatives of the social media giant told congressional investigators Thursday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article175977216.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump-Russia investigators close in on sources named in explosive dossier</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Efforts to get ex-MI6 officer Christopher Steele to testify in US have fallen short, but Mueller's probe appears to be making steady progress</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Independent</i>) September 28, 2017, by Kim Sengupta</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Christopher Steele, the former MI6 officer who was at the centre of a storm over his explosive and contentious dossier on Donald Trump, is keeping a determinedly low profile.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-russia-investigation-dossier-christopher-steele-us-robert-mueller-us-election-senate-a7970821.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: Russians Impersonated Real American Muslims to Stir Chaos on Facebook and Instagram</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Kremlin trolls stole the identity of an authentic U.S. Muslim organization—first to smear John McCain and Hillary Clinton, then to sing her praises.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) September 27, 2017, by Ben Collins, Kevin Poulsen and Spencer Ackerman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Facebook group United Muslims of America was neither united, Muslim, nor American.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Instead, sources familiar with the group tell The Daily Beast, it was an imposter account on the world’s largest social network that’s been traced back to the Russian government.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-russians-impersonated-real-american-muslims-to-stir-chaos-on-facebook-and-instagram" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Twitter, With Accounts Linked to Russia, to Face Congress Over Role in Election</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) September 27, 2017, by Daisuke Wakabayashi and Scott Shane</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After a weekend when Americans took to social media to debate President Trump’s admonishment of N.F.L. players who do not stand for the national anthem, a network of Twitter accounts suspected of links to Russia seized on both sides of the issue with hashtags such as #boycottnfl, #standforouranthem and #takeaknee.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/technology/twitter-russia-election.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Manafort’s Offer to Russian Oligarch Was Tied to Disputed Deal</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">September 27, 2017, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Stephanie Baker, David Voreacos and Volodymyr Verbyany</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When Donald Trump’s campaign chairman offered private briefings to a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin last year, he wasn’t only appealing to a superpower, he was pursuing a personal mission: the end to a costly dispute over a failed business deal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The campaign’s chairman, Paul Manafort, wanted a meeting in hopes of resolving a long-simmering dispute with the Russian, said two people familiar with the offer.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-27/manafort-s-offer-to-russian-is-said-to-be-tied-to-disputed-deal" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: IRS shares information with special counsel in Russia probe</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">September 26, 2017, b</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">y Manu Raju, Pamela Brown and Evan Perez</span></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The IRS is now sharing information with special counsel Robert Mueller about key Trump campaign officials, after the two entities clashed this summer over both the scope of the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and a raid on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's home, people briefed on the matter tell CNN.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/26/politics/special-counsel-irs-russia-probe-information-sharing/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter and Muslims</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) September 25, 2017, by Adam Entous, Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in American society, with some ads promoting African American rights groups including Black Lives Matter and others suggesting that these same groups pose a rising political threat, say people familiar with the covert influence campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/russian-operatives-used-facebook-ads-to-exploit-divisions-over-black-political-activism-and-muslims/2017/09/25/4a011242-a21b-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.7a9b185373cd" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>'Russia hoax continues': Trump attacks investigation into Facebook ads</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump used Twitter to decry the investigation into some 3,000 ads purchased on the social media platform by Russians in the 2016 presidential election</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) September 22, 2017, by Sam Levin, Mark Oliver and agencies</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Donald Trump has attacked the escalating investigations into 3,000 adverts purchased on Facebook by Russians in the 2016 US presidential, using Twitter early Friday to say the “Russia hoax continues, now it’s ads on Facebook”.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/22/russia-hoax-trump-facebook-investigation-ads" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Putin Just Held a Meeting With Manafort’s Russian Billionaire Buddy</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>A Kremlin gathering hosts several business figured linked to the Russia investigation.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) September 22, 2017, by Hannah Levintova</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Washington Post <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/manafort-offered-to-give-russian-billionaire-private-briefings-on-2016-campaign/2017/09/20/399bba1a-9d48-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.3b1257f14958" target="_blank">reported</a></b> Wednesday that while serving as Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort offered to provide regular “private briefings” on the presidential race to Kremlin-friendly Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. There is no evidence that Deripaska received or accepted such briefings, but, as the Post noted, Manafort’s offer “created a potential opening for Russian interests at the highest level of a US presidential campaign,” noted the Post.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/09/putin-just-held-a-meeting-with-manaforts-russian-billionaire-buddy/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Skadden, Big New York Law Firm, Faces Questions on Work With Manafort</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) September 21, 2017, by Kenneth P. Vogel and Andrew E. Kramer</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Five years ago, Paul Manafort arranged for a prominent New York-based law firm to draft a report that was used by allies of his client, Viktor Yanukovych, the Russia-aligned president of Ukraine, to justify the jailing of a political rival. And now the report is coming back to haunt it.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/us/politics/law-firm-faces-questions-for-ukraine-work-with-manafort.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Facebook to Turn Over Russian-Linked Ads to Congress</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) September 21, 2017, by Scott Shane and Mike Isaac</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Under growing public pressure to reveal more about the spread of covert Russian propaganda on its site, Facebook said on Thursday that it was turning over more than 3,000 Russia-linked ads to Congressional committees investigating the Kremlin’s influence operation during the 2016 presidential election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/technology/facebook-russian-ads.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump campaign bodyguard linked to ex-con who’s key in Russia probes</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(McClatchy) September 21, 2017, by Ben Wieder and Kevin G. Hall</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Another connection has emerged between Donald Trump and Felix Sater, the Russian emigre and ex-con who's become a key figure in widening investigations into ties between Trump associates and Russian figures.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article174493821.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Manafort offered to give Russian billionaire ‘private briefings’ on 2016 campaign</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) September 20, 2017, by Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman, Carol D. Leonnig and Adam Entous</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Less than two weeks before Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, his campaign chairman offered to provide briefings on the race to a Russian billionaire closely aligned with the Kremlin, according to people familiar with the discussions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Paul Manafort made the offer in an email to an overseas intermediary, asking that a message be sent to Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate with whom Manafort had done business in the past, these people said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/manafort-offered-to-give-russian-billionaire-private-briefings-on-2016-campaign/2017/09/20/399bba1a-9d48-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.ff7c8bcb5233" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>How Matt Drudge became the pipeline for Russian propaganda</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Drudge Report has linked nearly 400 times to RT, Sputnik News, TASS since 2012</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(MediaMatters.org) September 20, 2017, by Matt Gertz</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing 298 passengers and crew. The next day, President Barack Obama alleged that the responsible parties were Russian-backed separatists seizing territory in the region following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Obama’s statement came amid a furious effort by Russian propaganda outlets to foster confusion about the act. In their telling, the tragedy had actually been a failed attempt by Ukrainians to shoot down President Vladimir Putin’s plane.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Russian propaganda effort received a substantial boost when right-wing internet journalist Matt Drudge highlighted a story on the topic from RT.com, the website of the Russian government-backed English-language news channel RT. Drudge titled the resulting item on the Drudge Report, his highly trafficked link aggregation website, “RT: Putin’s plane might have been target...” in bright red text.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/09/20/how-matt-drudge-became-pipeline-russian-propaganda/217989" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Exclusive: Russians Appear to Use Facebook to Push Trump Rallies in 17 U.S. Cities</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>‘Being Patriotic,’ a Facebook group uncovered by The Daily Beast, is the first evidence of suspected Russian provocateurs explicitly mobilizing Trump supporters in real life.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) September 20, 2017, by Ben Collins, Gideon Resnick, Kevin Poulsen and Spencer Ackerman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Suspected Russia propagandists on Facebook tried to organize more than a dozen pro-Trump rallies in Florida during last year’s election, The Daily Beast has learned.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/russians-appear-to-use-facebook-to-push-pro-trump-flash-mobs-in-florida" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Senate Cancels Meeting With Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(NBC) September 19, 2017, by Mike Memoli, Ken Dilanian and Carol E. Lee</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Senate investigators probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election canceled an interview on Tuesday with longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen because they believe Cohen broke an agreement by speaking with the media.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The committee will now subpoena Cohen, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC News.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-lawyer-cohen-answer-senate-questions-about-russia-n802321" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: US government wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) September 19, 2017, by Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz and Pamela Brown</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election, sources tell CNN, an extraordinary step involving a high-ranking campaign official now at the center of the Russia meddling probe.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/18/politics/paul-manafort-government-wiretapped-fisa-russians/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>With a Picked Lock and a Threatened Indictment, Mueller’s Inquiry Sets a Tone</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) September 18, 2017, by Sharon LaFraniere, Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Paul J. Manafort was in bed early one morning in July when federal agents bearing a search warrant picked the lock on his front door and raided his Virginia home. They took binders stuffed with documents and copied his computer files, looking for evidence that Mr. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, set up secret offshore bank accounts. They even photographed the expensive suits in his closet.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/us/politics/mueller-russia-investigation.html?smid=tw-share" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Latest Scoops from CNN and the New York Times: A Quick and Dirty Analysis</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Lawfare Blog) September 18, 2017, by Susan Hennessey, Shannon Togawa Mercer, Benjamin Wittes</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/18/politics/paul-manafort-government-wiretapped-fisa-russians/index.html?CNNPolitics=Tw" target="_blank">CNN</a></b> and the <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/us/politics/mueller-russia-investigation.html?smid=tw-share" target="_blank">New York Times</a></b> this evening published dueling scoops on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As Jim Comey might put it: Lordy, there appear to be tapes.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/latest-scoops-cnn-and-new-york-times-quick-and-dirty-analysis" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Did Jared Kushner's Data Operation Help Select Facebook Targets for the Russians?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The Russians used social media to rile the electorate. Investigators wonder if they had inside help.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Vanity Fair</i>) September 15, 2017, by Chris Smith</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The headlines were about Facebook admitting it had sold ad space to Russian groups trying to sway the 2016 presidential campaign. But investigators shrugged: they’d known or assumed for months that Facebook, as well as Twitter and other social-media platforms, were a tool used in the Kremlin’s campaign. “The only thing that’s surprising is that more revelations like this haven’t come out sooner,” said Congressman Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat and a member of the House Intelligence Committee. “And I expect that more will.”... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/09/jared-kushner-data-operation-russia-facebook" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Flynn Promoted Nuclear-Plant Project While in White House</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Then-Trump security adviser had his staff meet with those involved in Middle East proposal that once included Russian firms</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) September 13, 2017, by Christopher S. Stewart, Rob Barry and Shane Harris</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn promoted a controversial private-sector nuclear power plan in the Middle East that had once involved Russian companies, according to former security-council staffers and others familiar with the effort.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While working at the White House, Mr. Flynn advocated for a group of former senior U.S. military officers with whom he had worked while in the private sector. The project, which the former military officers were helping promote on behalf of several U.S. companies, envisions building and operating dozens of nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East, the people familiar with it said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/flynn-promoted-nuclear-plant-project-while-in-white-house-1505328226" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Michael Flynn 'promoted US-Russian nuclear project from White House'</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Investigators examine former Trump adviser’s alleged links to private plan to build Middle East power plants</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) September 13, 2017, by Stephanie Kirchgaessner</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">US congressional investigators are examining whether Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, secretly promoted a plan by private business interests to build US-Russian nuclear power plants in the Middle East while he was serving in the White House.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/13/michael-flynn-promoted-us-russian-nuclear-project-from-white-house" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Dems to Mueller: Flynn failed to disclose trip to broker Saudi-Russian business deal</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) September 13, 2017, by Manu Raju and Marshall Cohen</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">House Democrats sent special counsel Robert Mueller what they say is evidence that former national security adviser Michael Flynn failed to disclose a trip he took to the Middle East to explore a business deal with the Saudi government and a Russian government agency.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/09/13/politics/democrats-mueller-flynn-middle-east-trip-disclosure/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>How Donald Trump Lied to Conceal His Moscow Business Partner</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Perhaps this was his greatest deception of the 2016 campaign.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) September 12, 2017, by David Corn</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Donald Trump has told many lies and falsehoods. He’s lied about the Russia scandal. He’s lied about his ties to organized crime. Perhaps he’s lied so much that freshly excavated prevarications don’t register greatly. Yet recent news reports revealing that Trump was pursuing a huge development deal in Moscow in late 2015 and early 2016 show that during the campaign Trump committed a tremendous act of deception. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This mammoth duplicity was encompassed in a small fib. On December 2, 2015, during an interview with an Associated Press reporter, Trump was asked about his relationship with a fellow named Felix Sater.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/09/how-donald-trump-lied-to-conceal-his-moscow-business-partner/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The surprising new strategy of pro-Russia bots</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(BBC) September 12, 2017, by BBC Trending</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Co-ordinated groups of Twitter bots pushing pro-Russian propaganda have developed an odd but occasionally effective strategy - retweeting messages that the bot-makers disagree with and flooding their enemies with followers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Brian Krebs is an investigative journalist with a big social media following. But even he was surprised when one of his tweets was retweeted thousands of times.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41203789" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russia Sought A Broad Reset With Trump, Secret Document Shows</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>A Russian proposal obtained by BuzzFeed News reveals Moscow’s ambitious plan to break with the past and launch a major rapprochement with the United States.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed News) September 12, 2017, by</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b> John Hudson</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the third month of Donald Trump’s presidency, Vladimir Putin dispatched one of his diplomats to the State Department to deliver a bold proposition: The full normalization of relations between the United States and Russia across all major branches of government.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnhudson/russia-sought-a-broad-reset-with-trump-secret-document-shows?bftwnews&utm_term=.svR2O7vLR#.lvL9DxL2j" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: Russia Used Facebook Events to Organize Anti-Immigrant Rallies on U.S. Soil</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Pushing fake news was just one component of the Russian campaign to shape American minds. Part two: organizing anti-immigrant events echoing themes from the pro-Trump press.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) September 9, 2017, by Ben Collins, Kevin Poulsen and Spencer Ackerman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russian operatives hiding behind false identities used Facebook’s event management tool to remotely organize and promote political protests in the U.S., including an August 2016 anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rally in Idaho, The Daily Beast has learned.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-russia-used-facebook-events-to-organize-anti-immigrant-rallies-on-us-soil" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Some Trump Lawyers Wanted Kushner Out</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Aides, worried about complications arising from Russia probe, drafted statement explaining departure</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) September 11, 2017, by Peter Nicholas, Rebecca Ballhaus and Erica Orden</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Some of President Donald Trump’s lawyers earlier this summer concluded that Jared Kushner should step down as senior White House adviser because of possible legal complications related to a probe of Russia' involvement in the 2016 presidential election and aired concerns about him to the president, people familiar with the matter said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/some-trump-lawyers-wanted-kushner-out-1505175772?mod=e2tw&mg=prod/accounts-wsj" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">The Characters Who Tried to Make ‘Trump Tower Moscow’ a Reality</b></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Just when you thought Putin’s circle and Trump’s couldn’t be any more intertwined, meet these two tycoons.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) September 11, 2017, by Betsy Woodruff</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While he was running for president, Donald Trump’s company nearly inked a deal to build Trump Tower Moscow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was a dream years in the making—and helped along the way by two New York real estate tycoons, one of whom is considered the right-hand man of an oligarch linked to an infamous money laundering investigation. Naturally, this man is also considered a friend of Vladimir Putin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The two tycoons—Alex Sapir and Rotem Rosen—accompanied Donald Trump on his 2013 trip to Russia, where they reportedly tried to pull strings behind the scenes with to make Trump Tower Moscow a reality.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-characters-who-tried-to-make-trump-tower-moscow-a-reality" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Document details scrapped deal for Trump Tower Moscow</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) September 9, 2017, by Gloria Borger and Marshall Cohen</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Around the time presidential candidate Donald Trump was touting his real estate dealings at a Republican primary debate, a proposal was in the works to build a Trump Tower in Russia that would have given his company a $4 million upfront fee, no upfront costs, a percentage of the sales, and control over marketing and design. And that's not all: the deal included the opportunity to name the hotel spa after his daughter Ivanka.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Read the full article <b><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/08/politics/document-trump-tower-moscow/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russia’s Facebook Fake News Could Have Reached 70 Million Americans</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Facebook acknowledged that Russian propagandists spent $100,000 on election ads. It neglected to mention how many millions of people those ads reached.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) September 8, 2017, by Ben Collins, Kevin Poulsen and Spencer Ackerman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russian-funded covert propaganda posts on Facebook were likely seen by a minimum of 23 million people and might have reached as many as 70 million, according to analysis by an expert on the social-media giant’s complex advertising systems. That means up to 28 percent of American adults were swept in by the campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/russias-facebook-fake-news-could-have-reached-70-million-americans" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Fake Americans Russia Created to Influence the Election</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) September 7, 2017, by Scott Shane</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sometimes an international offensive begins with a few shots that draw little notice. So it was last year when Melvin Redick of Harrisburg, Pa., a friendly-looking American with a backward baseball cap and a young daughter, posted on Facebook a link to a brand-new website.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/us/politics/russia-facebook-twitter-election.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Jr. says he can’t recall White House role in explaining meeting with Russians</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) September 7, 2017, by Tom Hamburger and Karoun Demirjian</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Donald Trump Jr. took questions Thursday from Senate investigators about his meeting with a Russian lawyer and other topics central to inquiries into Russian influence in the 2016 election, but he frequently said he could not provide important details, according to people who attended the hearing.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-jr-says-nothing-came-of-2016-meeting-with-russians/2017/09/07/43f3f2ce-93e9-11e7-89fa-bb822a46da5b_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_trumpjr-150pm%253Ahomepage%252Fstory&utm_term=.b4cd20edc495" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russians Flock to Trump Properties to Give Birth to U.S. Citizens</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>While the president rails against children of undocumented immigrants, wealthy Russians rent his condos—at huge costs—so they can have American kids.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) September 6, 2017, by Katie Zavadski</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Anatoliy Kuzmin held out his daughter’s blue U.S. passport over a red Russian one and snapped a photo from a Florida beach.</span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Woohoo! Got dual citizenship for my daughter!” he wrote on Instagram.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/russians-flock-to-trump-properties-to-give-birth-to-us-citizens" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian firm tied to pro-Kremlin propaganda advertised on Facebook during election</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) September 6, 2017, by Carol D. Leonnig, Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that the social network has discovered that it sold ads during the U.S. presidential campaign to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters, according to several people familiar with the company’s findings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Facebook officials reported that they traced the ad sales, totaling $100,000, to a Russian “troll farm” with a history of pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda, these people said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/facebook-says-it-sold-political-ads-to-russian-company-during-2016-election/2017/09/06/32f01fd2-931e-11e7-89fa-bb822a46da5b_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_russianads-410pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.b490ffd3f5c3" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>As Mueller deepens Trump-Russia probe, congressional investigators face obstacles</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(McClatchy) September 5, 2017, by David Goldstein</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Congress returns to the Capitol Tuesday, but the questions over Russia’s role in the 2016 election have never gone away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The outlook, though, for bold, tough probes by lawmakers into whether the Kremlin colluded with President Donald Trump’s campaign could be dim.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article171248977.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Has Early Draft of Trump Letter Giving Reasons for Firing Comey</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) September 1, 2017, by Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has obtained a letter drafted by President Trump and a top political aide that offered an unvarnished view of Mr. Trump’s thinking in the days before the president fired the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/us/politics/trump-comey-firing-letter.html?mcubz=1" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: Mueller Enlists the IRS for His Trump-Russia Investigation</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Will the accountants take down key members of Team Trump? Or force the president’s tax returns into the open?</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) August 31, 2017, by Betsy Woodruff</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Special counsel Bob Mueller has teamed up with the IRS. According to sources familiar with his investigation into alleged Russian election interference, his probe has enlisted the help of agents from the IRS’ Criminal Investigations unit.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-mueller-enlists-the-irs-for-his-trump-russia-investigation" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">The Curious Link Between Trump’s Moscow Tower Deal and a Ukraine “Peace Plan”</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Both involved Trump associates Michael Cohen and Felix Sater—and US sanctions.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) August 30, 2017, by Dan Friedman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A pair of Trump associates, Michael Cohen and Felix Sater, appear to be gaining significance in the Trump-Russia investigation. News broke this week that during the presidential campaign the two sought a deal for the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow. And, as reported earlier this year, the pair pushed a Kremlin-backed proposal for the US to lift sanctions on Russia—part of a proposed “peace deal” between Ukraine and Russia that Cohen and Sater brought to Trump’s then national security advisor Michael Flynn.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/the-curious-link-between-trumps-moscow-tower-deal-and-a-ukraine-peace-plan/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller teams up with New York attorney general in Manafort probe</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The cooperation is the latest sign that the investigation into Trump's former campaign chairman is intensifying.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) August 30, 2017, by Josh Dawsey</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is working with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on its investigation into Paul Manafort and his financial transactions, according to several people familiar with the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The cooperation is the latest indication that the federal probe into President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman is intensifying. It also could potentially provide Mueller with additional leverage to get Manafort to cooperate in the larger investigation into Trump’s campaign, as Trump does not have pardon power over state crimes.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/30/manafort-mueller-probe-attorney-general-242191" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Attorney Says He Discussed Moscow Tower Deal With Trump During Campaign</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>In an interview, Michael Cohen says he talked with the then-candidate about the licensing deal on three occasions</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) August 28, 2017, by Rebecca Ballhaus</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Michael Cohen, an attorney for the Trump Organization, discussed a prospective real-estate deal in Moscow with Donald Trump on three occasions during the presidential campaign, Mr. Cohen said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-attorney-says-they-discussed-moscow-tower-deal-during-campaign-1503955486" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Top Trump Organization executive asked Putin aide for help on business deal</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 28, 2017, by Rosalind S. Helderman, Carol D. Leonnig and Tom Hamburger</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A top executive from Donald Trump’s real estate company emailed Vladimir Putin’s personal spokesman during the U.S. presidential campaign last year to ask for help advancing a stalled Trump Tower development project in Moscow, according to documents submitted to Congress Monday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Michael Cohen, a Trump attorney and executive vice president for the Trump Organization, sent the email in January 2016 to Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s top press aide.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-trump-organization-executive-reached-out-to-putin-aide-for-help-on-business-deal/2017/08/28/095aebac-8c16-11e7-84c0-02cc069f2c37_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-low_trump-russia-235pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.42bbd3a94a08" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s business sought deal on a Trump Tower in Moscow while he ran for president</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 27, 2017, by Carol D. Leonnig, Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While Donald Trump was running for president in late 2015 and early 2016, his company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow, according to several people familiar with the proposal and new records reviewed by Trump Organization lawyers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As part of the discussions, a Russian-born real estate developer urged Trump to come to Moscow to tout the proposal and suggested that he could get President Vladimir Putin to say “great things” about Trump, according to several people who have been briefed on his correspondence.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-business-sought-deal-on-a-trump-tower-in-moscow-while-he-ran-for-president/2017/08/27/d6e95114-8b65-11e7-91d5-ab4e4bb76a3a_story.html?utm_term=.aeadce3a30c4" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Special Counsel Examines Possible Role Flynn Played in Seeking Clinton Emails From Hackers</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Mueller probe of potential link between Trump campaign and Russia follows trail of GOP operative’s correspondence</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) August 25, 2017, by</b> <b>Shane Harris</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Special counsel Robert Mueller is examining what role, if any, former national security adviser Mike Flynn may have played in a private effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails from Russian hackers, according to people familiar with the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/special-counsel-examines-possible-role-flynn-played-in-seeking-clinton-emails-from-hackers-1503694304" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Mueller Seeks Grand Jury Testimony from PR Execs Who Worked With Manafort</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(NBC News) August 25, 2017, by Ken Dilanian, Carol E. Lee and Tom Winter</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued grand jury subpoenas in recent days seeking testimony from public relations executives who worked on an international campaign organized by Paul Manafort, people directly familiar with the matter told NBC News.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mueller-seeks-grand-jury-testimony-pr-execs-who-worked-manafort-n796066?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">At CIA, a watchful eye on Mike Pompeo, the president’s ardent ally</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 24, 2017, by Greg Miller</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As CIA director, Mike Pompeo has taken a special interest in an agency unit that is closely tied to the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, requiring the Counterintelligence Mission Center to report directly to him.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/at-cia-a-watchful-eye-on-mike-pompeo-the-presidents-ardent-ally/2017/08/24/18c1d716-7ed0-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_pompeo-620pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.2f2bff9d031b" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump clashed with multiple GOP senators over Russia</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The conversations are evidence of rising tensions between the president and congressional Republicans heading into a critical legislative span.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) August 23, 2017, by Josh Dawsey and Elana Schor</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump privately vented his frustration over Russia-related matters with at least two other Republican senators this month, according to people familiar with the conversations — in addition to the president's public admonishments of Mitch McConnell, John McCain and Jeff Flake.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/23/trump-senate-yell-phone-calls-241950" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Lobbyist at Trump Campaign Meeting Has a Web of Russian Connections</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) August 21, 2017, by Sharon LaFraniere, David D. Kirkpatrick and Kenneth P. Vogelaug</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian immigrant who met last summer with senior Trump campaign officials, has often struck colleagues as a classic Washington mercenary — loyal to his wife, his daughter and his bank account. He avoided work that would antagonize Moscow, they suggested, only because he profited from his reputation as a man with valuable connections there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But interviews with his associates and documents reviewed by The New York Times indicate that Mr. Akhmetshin, who is under scrutiny by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, has much deeper ties to the Russian government and Kremlin-backed oligarchs than previously known.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/us/rinat-akhmetshin-russia-trump-meeting.html?mcubz=1" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s Business of Corruption</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>What secrets will Mueller find when he investigates the President’s foreign deals?</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New Yorker</i>) August 21, 2017, by Adam Davidson</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow recently told me that the investigation being led by Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed by the Justice Department, should focus on one question: whether there was “coördination between the Russian government and people on the Trump campaign.” Sekulow went on, “I want to be really specific. A real-estate deal would be outside the scope of legitimate inquiry.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/08/21/trumps-business-of-corruption?intcid=inline_amp" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Did a Mole-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Leak Plot to Elect Trump?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>A brave lawyer defending people the Russian government accuses of treason says the case of cyber experts charged with working for the CIA is about the toughest he’s seen.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) August 20, 2017, by Anna Nemtsova</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For the first time in his two decades defending people accused of treason, Ivan Pavlov has come across a case he says he truly has trouble getting his head around. Everything about it is a guessing game for the defense lawyer, including the charges against his client, whose name he is not allowed to mention in public.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/did-a-mole-who-must-not-be-named-leak-plot-to-elect-trump" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>British spy behind Trump-Russia dossier could be forced to talk after US court ruling</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(ABC News) August 19, 2017, by Matthew Mosk, Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A U.S. District court judge has put a former British spy one step closer to facing questions under oath about the controversial dossier he authored alleging President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign team plotted with Russian agents.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A ruling by Judge Ursula Ungaro allows lawyers for a Russian technology executive named in the dossier to seek British approval to question onetime MI6 agent Christopher Steele about the funding and sourcing of the dossier under oath.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/british-spy-trump-russia-dossier-forced-talk-us/story?id=49271590" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Billionaire Ally of Putin Socialized With Kushner, Ivanka Trump</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) August 18, 2017, by Stephanie Baker, Irina Reznik and Katya Kazakina</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As federal investigators probe possible Kremlin links with the Donald Trump campaign, one connection that hasn’t gotten much attention is that between Jared Kushner and one of Russia’s most powerful and influential billionaires: Roman Abramovich. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The men have met three to four times in social settings, and their wives have been friends for a decade, facts that Kushner and Ivanka Trump revealed on their security-clearance forms to join the White House staff, according to a person familiar with the filings...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In 2014, the Kushners spent four days in Russia at the invitation of Abramovich’s wife, Dasha Zhukova.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-18/billionaire-ally-of-putin-socialized-with-kushner-ivanka-trump" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>‘Alt-right’ figure who set up Assange meeting refuses to cooperate with Senate intel probe</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Yahoo News) August 18, 2017, by Michael Isikoff</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A controversial “alt-right” journalist and provocateur who met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London this week says he is refusing to turn over documents and emails requested by the Senate Intelligence Committee about any contacts he has had with Russian agents, telling Yahoo News he has no intention of cooperating with the panel’s investigation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I’m absolutely not” going to cooperate with the committee, Charles C. Johnson said in an interview after returning from London, where he had set up a meeting this week between Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/alt-right-figure-set-assange-meeting-refuses-cooperate-senate-intel-probe-172020121.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A Putin-Friendly Oligarch’s Top US Executive Donated $285,000 to Trump</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The head of Viktor Vekselberg’s American subsidiary helped finance Trump’s inauguration.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) August 17, 2017, by David Corn and Dan Friedman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Earlier this year, as Donald Trump, then the president-elect, was trying to counter news reports that Russia had hacked the 2016 election to help him win, the head of the American subsidiary of a Russian conglomerate owned by a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin made a huge donation to Trump.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On January 6—the day the US intelligence community reported that Putin had approved a covert operation to subvert the presidential campaign to assist Trump—Andrew Intrater donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration fund.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/a-putin-friendly-oligarchs-top-us-executive-donated-285000-to-trump/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">In Ukraine, a Malware Expert Who Could Blow the Whistle on Russian Hacking</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) August 16, 2017, by Andrew E. Kramer and Andrew Higgins</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The hacker, known only by his online alias “Profexer,” kept a low profile. He wrote computer code alone in an apartment and quietly sold his handiwork on the anonymous portion of the internet known as the Dark Web. Last winter, he suddenly went dark entirely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Profexer’s posts, already accessible only to a small band of fellow hackers and cybercriminals looking for software tips, blinked out in January — just days after American intelligence agencies publicly identified a program he had written as one tool used in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/world/europe/russia-ukraine-malware-hacking-witness.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Paul Manafort Sought $850 Million Deal With Putin Ally and Alleged Gangster</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump’s one-time campaign chairman has a history of unorthodox real-estate deals. But this may have been the wildest of all.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) August 14, 2017, by Lachlan Markay and Spencer Ackerman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Paul Manafort partnered on an $850 million New York real-estate deal with an ally of Vladimir Putin and a Ukrainian moneyman whom the Justice Department recently described as an “organized-crime member.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That’s according a 2008 memo written by Rick Gates, Manafort’s business partner and fellow alumnus of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. In it, Gates enthused about finalizing with the financing necessary to acquire New York’s louche Drake Hotel.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/paul-manafort-sought-dollar850-million-deal-with-putin-ally-and-alleged-gangster" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump campaign emails show aide’s repeated efforts to set up Russia meetings</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 14, 2017, by Tom Hamburger, Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind S. Helderman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Three days after Donald Trump named his campaign foreign policy team in March 2016, the youngest of the new advisers sent an email to seven campaign officials with the subject line: “Meeting with Russian Leadership - Including Putin.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The adviser, George Papadopoulos, offered to set up “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump,” telling them his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity, according to internal campaign emails read to The Washington Post.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-campaign-emails-show-aides-repeated-efforts-to-set-up-russia-meetings/2017/08/14/54d08da6-7dc2-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html?tid=pm_pop&utm_term=.e1f3bbc1e862" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Manafort's son-in-law met with federal investigators, sources say</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) August 11, 2017, by Pamela Brown, Shimon Prokupecz and Evan Perez</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's son-in-law, Jeffrey Yohai, met with Department of Justice investigators in recent months, according to two sources familiar with the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Yohai provided information and documents to federal investigators in New York more than two months ago, according to one of the sources.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/10/politics/manafort-yohai-justice-department-investigation-russia/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Team Trump Shivs Paul Manafort: There’s ‘Plenty for Mueller to Work With’</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>As the Russia probe widens, White House aides are pointing fingers at Trump’s former campaign chair: ‘There is no trust… There never really was any to begin with.’</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) August 10, 2017, by Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump would have you believe that Paul Manafort wasn’t all that involved with his campaign, and for good reason: Behind the scenes, Trump’s aides fume that the former campaign chairman is at least partially responsible for the president’s deepening legal woes.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/team-trump-shivs-paul-manafort-theres-plenty-for-mueller-to-work-with" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Praises Putin Instead of Critiquing Cuts to U.S. Embassy Staff</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) August 10, 2017, by Peter Bakeraug</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump offered gratitude rather than outrage on Thursday for Russia’s decision to force the United States Embassy in Moscow to slash its personnel by 755 people, despite bipartisan condemnation from other American leaders who protested the Cold War-style move.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/world/europe/putin-trump-embassy-russia.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>With Bank Subpoenas, Mueller Turns Up the Heat on Manafort</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) August 10, 2017, by Christian Berthelsen and Greg Farrell</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller is bearing down on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as he directs a wide-ranging probe into Russian interference in last year’s presidential election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Mueller’s team of investigators has sent subpoenas in recent weeks from a Washington grand jury to global banks for account information and records of transactions involving Manafort and some of his companies, as well as those of a long-time business partner, Rick Gates, according to people familiar with the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-10/with-bank-subpoenas-mueller-is-said-to-turn-up-heat-on-manafort?utm_content=politics&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-politics" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Roger Stone Hates The National Enquirer’s Exposé Of His Pal Manafort</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>'It’s very disturbing. I’m trying to figure out the source,' Roger Stone tells the Daily Beast of the National Enquirer's report about his friend Paul Manafort's 'sick affair.'</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) August 10, 2017, by Lloyd Grove</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Add longtime Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone to the inquiring minds who want to know why and how the Trump-friendly National Enquirer came to splash a sordid story headlined “TRUMP ADVISOR SEX SCANDAL—PAUL MANAFORT’S SICK AFFAIR.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/roger-stone-hates-the-national-enquirers-expose-of-his-pal-manafort" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The ‘No-Nonsense’ Judge Who Could Decide Trump’s Fate</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>Judge Beryl Howell might be on her way from behind-the-scenes player to household name.</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) August 10, 2017 by Betsy Woodruff</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Robert Mueller may be the face of the independent investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, but a cybersecurity wonk on the federal bench may help decide Trump & Co.’s fate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Behind the scenes, Beryl Howell is in a position to make pivotal decisions. And her importance could only grow. Federal court rules indicate that she signed off on Mueller’s request to assemble a grand jury, a highly secretive gathering of about two dozen people in Washington’s E. Barrett Prettyman courthouse that will grill witnesses and demand Trump associates’ documents.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-no-nonsense-judge-who-could-decide-trumps-fate" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Feds sought cooperation from Manafort's son-in-law</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The former Trump campaign chairman is the focus of inquiries into his business dealings as well as Russian meddling in the 2016 election.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) August 9, 2017, by Josh Dawsey and Darren Samuelsohn</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Federal investigators sought cooperation from Paul Manafort’s son-in-law in an effort to increase pressure on President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, according to three people familiar with the probe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Investigators approached Jeffrey Yohai, who has partnered in business deals with Manafort, earlier this summer, setting off “real waves” in Manafort’s orbit, one of these people said. Another of these people said investigators are trying to get “into Manafort’s head.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/09/manafort-fbi-son-law-241464" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russia Is Continuing Its Cyberattack on America Right Now</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Meanwhile, Trump keeps calling the Russia investigation “a total fabrication.”</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) August 9, 2017, by Bill Buzenbergaug</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump trashed the Russia investigation once again last week at a rally in West Virginia, saying that “there were no Russians in our campaign” and denouncing “a total fabrication” to enthralled supporters. “Have you seen any Russians in West Virginia or Ohio or Pennsylvania?” he asked mockingly. “Are there any Russians here tonight? Any Russians?”...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As Trump spoke, Russian-linked social-media networks were busy attacking Trump’s national security adviser, Gen. H.R. McMaster, using the same type of digital operations that the Kremlin deployed against the 2016 presidential election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/russia-is-continuing-its-cyber-attack-on-america-right-now/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>FBI conducted predawn raid of former Trump campaign chairman Manafort’s home</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 9, 2017, by Carol D. Leonnig, Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">FBI agents raided the Alexandria home of President Trump’s former campaign chairman late last month, using a search warrant to seize documents and other materials, according to people familiar with the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-conducted-predawn-raid-of-former-trump-campaign-chairman-manaforts-home/2017/08/09/5879fa9c-7c45-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?utm_term=.d85e43bd8728" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Mueller, several team members gave up million-dollar jobs to work on special counsel investigation</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 8, 2017, by Matt Zapotosky</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Robert S. Mueller III left a $3.4 million partner job in the white-shoe law firm WilmerHale, where he worked for clients such as Facebook, Apple, Sony and the NFL, to serve as the special counsel overseeing the law enforcement investigation into whether the Kremlin and the Trump campaign coordinated to impact the 2016 election, according to documents released Tuesday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mueller-several-team-members-gave-up-million-dollar-jobs-to-work-on-special-counsel-investigation/2017/08/08/e11169da-7b78-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_specialcounsel-902pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.6c2ea688f24c" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Hunt for Trump dossier author inflames Russia probe</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>An overseas trip to contact a former British spy exposes friction among House, Senate investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) August 4, 2017, by Ali Watkins</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Two Republican House Intelligence Committee staffers traveled to London earlier this summer to track down the former British intelligence operative who compiled a controversial dossier on President Donald Trump and Russia, according to three people familiar with the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The previously unreported trip underscores the importance of the 35-page dossier Christopher Steele wrote last year to congressional probes into possible collusion between Moscow and the 2016 Trump campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/04/trump-steele-dossier-russia-241299" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Chafing over thwarted rapprochement, Trump blames Congress for Russia chill</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Reuters) August 3, 2017, b</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>y Eric Walsh</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump chafed on Thursday over the new dive in U.S. relations with Russia, widening a rift with his own Republican Party as he blamed Congress for causing the tensions with a new package of sanctions.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/295e7032-e969-355e-8fc5-ae2e4d6c3868/ss_trump-is-mad-at-congressional.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Grand jury issues subpoenas in connection with Trump Jr., Russian lawyer meeting: sources</b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">(Reuters) August 3, 2017, by </b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Karen Freifeld and John Walcott</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A grand jury has issued subpoenas in connection with a June 2016 meeting that included President Donald Trump's son, his son-in-law and a Russian lawyer, two sources told Reuters on Thursday, signaling an investigation is gathering pace into suspected Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN1AJ1SW-OCATP" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">One year into the FBI's Russia investigation, Mueller is on the Trump money trail</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) August 3, 2017, by Evan Perez, Pamela Brown and Shimon Prokupecz</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Federal investigators exploring whether Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russian spies have seized on Trump and his associates' financial ties to Russia as one of the most fertile avenues for moving their probe forward, according to people familiar with the investigation.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/03/politics/mueller-investigation-russia-trump-one-year-financial-ties/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s Objections to Russia Sanctions Law Suggest He Might Trade Crimea Away</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(TheIntercept.com) August 3, 2017, by Robert Mackey</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After President Donald Trump reluctantly signed a bill on Wednesday that makes it harder for him to lift sanctions on Russia, the White House issued a curious statement in his name, complaining that the new law includes “a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Specifically, the president complained about sections 253 and 257 of the legislation, which state that the United States “does not recognize territorial changes effected by force,” and will “never recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Government of the Russian Federation or the separation of any portion of Ukrainian territory through the use of military force.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/08/03/trumps-objections-russia-sanctions-law-suggest-might-trade-crimea-away/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump signs what he calls ‘seriously flawed’ bill imposing new sanctions on Russia</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) August 2, 2017, by Abby Phillip</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump on Wednesday signed a bill that imposes new sanctions on Russia, ending immediate hopes that he might be able to reset U.S. relations with the Kremlin as Congress overruled his opposition to the provisions' curb on his executive power.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trump's reluctant signing of the legislation came nearly a week after it was approved by an overwhelming, bipartisan majority in the Senate and after a similarly large majority in the House. The president issued two statements outlining his concerns with the bill, which he called “seriously flawed,” primarily because it limits his ability to negotiate sanctions without congressional approval.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/08/02/trump-signs-bill-imposing-new-sanctions-on-russia-but-issues-a-statement-with-concerns/?tid=hybrid_mostsharedarticles_1_na&utm_term=.4efe2efd66c6" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump 'weighed in' on son's Russia statement, White House confirms</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Richard Painter, ethics lawyer under George W Bush, says president’s involvement in Trump Jr comments suggests ‘obstruction of justice’</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) August 1, 2017, by Sabrina Siddiqui and Ben Jacobs</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The White House has confirmed Donald Trump played a role in drafting a misleading statement about his son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On Tuesday, the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, contradicted Trump’s attorney, Jay Sekulow, who said the president had had no involvement.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/01/trump-russia-statement-richard-painter-obstruction-justice" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Behind Fox News' Baseless Seth Rich Story: The Untold Tale</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(NPR) </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>August 1, 2017, by</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b> David Folkenflik</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Fox News Channel and a wealthy supporter of President Trump worked in concert under the watchful eye of the White House to concoct a story about the death of a young Democratic National Committee aide, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The explosive claim is part of a lawsuit filed against Fox News by Rod Wheeler, a longtime paid commentator for the news network. The suit was obtained exclusively by NPR.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Wheeler alleges Fox News and the Trump supporter intended to deflect public attention from growing concern about the administration's ties to the Russian government.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/08/01/540783715/lawsuit-alleges-fox-news-and-trump-supporter-created-fake-news-story" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Worked With Fox News on DNC Staffer Story, Suit Claims</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Bloomberg) August 1, 2017, by Andrew M Harris</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump collaborated with Fox News to concoct a story claiming a Democratic National Committee staffer was killed in retaliation for furnishing information damaging to Hillary Clinton to Wikileaks, according to a lawsuit by a private investigator for the slain man’s family.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rod Wheeler -- the investigator, a former Washington police detective, and an occasional Fox News contributor -- claims in his lawsuit that the president read the Fox story before it was published and suggested the insertion of quotes falsely attributed to Wheeler supporting the story’s premise. Trump wanted the story published to divert attention from the widening investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia, Wheeler claims.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-01/trump-worked-with-fox-news-in-dnc-staffer-story-suit-claims" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><b>Click <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2018/06/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my latest Trump-Putin bromance timeline, <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/10/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my Oct. 2017-May 2018 timeline and <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/07/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my June 2015-July 2017 timeline.</b></i><br />
<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></i><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>See links to my investigative journalism <a href="http://albloggedup.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here</a>, including my book </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0994861761" target="_blank">Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence</a><i>, a finalist in the American Book Fest's 2017 Best Book Awards and winner or finalist in nine </i></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>other book prizes.</i></span></b>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-16758861874566653482017-07-17T14:25:00.005-04:002022-02-23T16:05:10.337-05:00COMRADE TRUMP—The Definitive Trump-Putin Bromance and "This Russia Thing" Timeline (June 2015-July 2017)<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Having trouble keeping up with the drip-drip of revelations about ex-president Donald Trump and his torrid ties with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin? </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i style="font-size: large;">Stay up to date and check your facts with my definitive "Comrade Trump" timeline, compiling the latest Trump-Putin bromance news. </i><i>Feel free to send in your own tidbits via the comments. I don't necessarily endorse the articles linked below.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Click <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2018/06/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my latest Trump-Putin bromance timeline, <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/10/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my Oct. 2017-May 2018 timeline and <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/08/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>to see my Aug.-Sept. 2017 timeline.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump dictated son’s misleading statement on meeting with Russian lawyer</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 31, 2017, by Ashley Parker, Carol D. Leonnig, Philip Rucker and Tom Hamburger</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Germany last month, President Trump’s advisers discussed how to respond to a new revelation that Trump’s oldest son had met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign — a disclosure the advisers knew carried political and potentially legal peril.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-dictated-sons-misleading-statement-on-meeting-with-russian-lawyer/2017/07/31/04c94f96-73ae-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_airforceone-759pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.d8e8930c404b" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>President Trump silent on Russia after Putin announced expulsion of U.S. diplomats</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 31, 2017, by Karen DeYoung</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump said nothing Monday in response to Russia’s planned expulsion of hundreds of American diplomats, announced over the weekend by President Vladimir Putin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Right now we’re reviewing our options, and when we have something to say on it, we’ll let you know,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday after Trump’s silence continued through several public appearances.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/president-trump-silent-on-russia-after-putin-announced-expulsion-of-us-diplomats/2017/07/31/35a99ce6-7611-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-world%3Ahomepage%2Fcard&utm_term=.dd95beae9a45" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Justice Dept. Nominee Says He Once Represented Russian Bank</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) July 24, 2017, by Charlie Savage and Adam Goldman</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><b>—</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s criminal division, Brian A. Benczkowski, has disclosed to Congress that he previously represented Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s largest financial institutions, whose owners have ties to President Vladimir V. Putin.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/us/politics/brian-benczkowski-justice-alfa-bank.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Jared Kushner sealed real estate deal with oligarch's firm cited in money-laundering case</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Donald Trump’s son-in-law bought part of old New York Times building from Soviet-born tycoon, Guardian investigation into Russian money in NYC property market finds</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) July 24, 2017 by Wendy Dent, Ed Pilkington</b> <b>and Shaun Walker</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b>Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump, who acts as his senior White House adviser, secured a multimillion-dollar Manhattan real estate deal with a Soviet-born oligarch whose company was cited in a major New York money laundering case now being investigated by members of Congress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A Guardian investigation has established a series of overlapping ties and relationships involving alleged Russian money laundering, New York real estate deals and members of Trump’s inner circle.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/24/jared-kushner-new-york-russia-money-laundering" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Kushner arrives at Senate for closed-door questioning on Russia</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 24, 2017, by Philip Rucker and Karoun Demirjian</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b>Jared Kushner, President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, walked into Senate offices Monday morning to begin answering questions behind closed doors about his contacts with Russian officials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In written remarks made public prior to his appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Kushner denies any improper contacts or collusion.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/kushner-arrives-at-senate-for-closed-door-questioning-on-russia/2017/07/24/f5be2b26-7073-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_kushner1020am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.57ba9dcecd43" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>For Trump and Putin, Sanctions Are a Setback Both Sought to Avoid</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) July 23, 2017, by David E. Sanger</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Throughout 2016, both Donald J. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin complained that American-led sanctions against Russia were the biggest irritant in the plummeting relations between the two superpowers. And the current investigations, which have cast a shadow over Mr. Trump’s first six months in office, have focused on whether a series of contacts between Mr. Trump’s inner circle and Russians were partly about constructing deals to get those penalties lifted.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/23/world/europe/trump-putin-sanctions-hacking.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The man who drives Trump’s Russia connection</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 22, 2017, by Andrew Roth</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>—</b>In 2013, the Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov and his son, Emin, arranged an extravagant party entrance for their guest, Donald Trump: an armored Mercedes stretch limo driving off a freight elevator right into a ballroom with 3,000 bedazzled Russian guests.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-man-who-drives-trumps-russia-connection/2017/07/21/43485a0e-6c98-11e7-abbc-a53480672286_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_russiaoperator-523am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.ffb189dc77da" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Sessions discussed Trump campaign-related matters with Russian ambassador, U.S. intelligence intercepts show</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 21, 2017, by Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>—</b>Russia’s ambassador to Washington told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to public assertions by the embattled attorney general, according to current and former U.S. officials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s accounts of two conversations with Sessions — then a top foreign policy adviser to Republican candidate Donald Trump — were intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, which monitor the communications of senior Russian officials both in the United States and in Russia. Sessions initially failed to disclose his contacts with Kislyak and then said that the meetings were not about the Trump campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-discussed-trump-campaign-related-matters-with-russian-ambassador-us-intelligence-intercepts-show/2017/07/21/3e704692-6e44-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_sessions-7pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.5429b03a192d" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Moscow lawyer who met Trump Jr. had Russian spy agency as client</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Reuters) July 21, 2017, by Maria Tsvetkova and Jack Stubbs</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. after his father won the Republican nomination for the 2016 U.S. presidential election counted Russia's FSB security service among her clients for years, Russian court documents seen by Reuters show.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-lawyer-exclusive-idUSKBN1A61LZ" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Special Counsel Investigating Possible Money Laundering by Paul Manafort</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Probe by Mueller into former Trump campaign manager is part of examination of Russian meddling in election</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>) July 20, 2017, by Erica Orden</b></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">—</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating possible money laundering by Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, as part of his criminal investigation into what U.S. intelligence agencies say was a Kremlin-backed campaign to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, according to a person familiar with the matter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/special-counsel-investigating-possible-money-laundering-by-paul-manafort-1500587532" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump team seeks to control, block Mueller’s Russia investigation</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 20, 2017, by Carol D. Leonnig, Ashley Parker, Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger—</b>Some of President Trump’s lawyers are exploring ways to limit or undercut special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation, building a case against what they allege are his conflicts of interest and discussing the president’s authority to grant pardons, according to people familiar with the effort.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people.... <i style="font-style: italic;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-lawyers-seek-to-undercut-muellers-russia-investigation/2017/07/20/232ebf2c-6d71-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trumplegal-925pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.a95e3d300777" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) July 20, 2017, by Alan Rappeport</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Treasury Department on Thursday fined Exxon Mobil $2 million for violating sanctions that the United States imposed on Russia in 2014 while Rex W. Tillerson, now the secretary of state, was the oil company’s chief executive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The penalty was relatively small for the Treasury and a blip on Exxon’s mammoth balance sheet, but it came as controversy over Russia policy has engulfed Washington.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/us/politics/exxon-mobil-fined-russia-tillerson-sanctions.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Deutsche Bank expects subpoenas over Trump-Russia investigation</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Source reveals Robert Mueller’s team and Trump’s exclusive bankers have established informal contacts and requests for information are forthcoming</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) July 20, 2017, by Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Oliver Laughland</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Executives inside Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump’s personal bankers, are expecting that the bank will soon be receiving subpoenas or other requests for information from Robert Mueller, the special counsel who is investigating possible collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A person close to the matter who spoke to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity said Mueller’s team and the bank had already established informal contact in connection to the federal investigation.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/19/deutsche-bank-donald-trump-russia-investigation-subpoenas" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Hill Staffer at the Center of the Russia Intrigue</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Meet Paul Behrends, an aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher whose friendliness toward Moscow is raising hackles on Capitol Hill.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) July 20, 2017, by Ben Schreckinger</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the spring of 2016, a longtime Washington operative pulled aside French Hill during a trip to Moscow and introduced the conservative Arkansas congressman to two Russians who are now at the center of a firestorm over the activities of Donald Trump Jr.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the brief encounter, which took place two months before their now-infamous meeting with the president’s son in Trump Tower, the jet-setting pair proposed the same trade they would soon be pitching all over Washington: Lift the sanctions on Russia, and we’ll make sure Americans can adopt Russian babies once again</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/20/the-hill-staffer-at-the-center-of-the-russia-intrigue-215396" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Manafort Was in Debt to Pro-Russia Interests, Cyprus Records Show</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) July 19, 2017, by Mike McIntire</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Financial records filed last year in the secretive tax haven of Cyprus, where Paul J. Manafort kept bank accounts during his years working in Ukraine and investing with a Russian oligarch, indicate that he had been in debt to pro-Russia interests by as much as $17 million before he joined Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign in March 2016.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The money appears to have been owed by shell companies connected to Mr. Manafort’s business activities in Ukraine when he worked as a consultant to the pro-Russia Party of Regions.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/politics/paul-manafort-russia-trump.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump blasts AG Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 19, 2017, by Abby Phillip and Sari Horwitz</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump harshly criticized his attorney general and one of his most loyal supporters, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, indicating that he regretted the choice.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/07/19/trump-blasts-ag-sessions-for-recusing-himself-from-the-russia-probe/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_pp-sessions-845pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.daf44ee5cc99" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Big German Bank, Key to Trump’s Finances, Faces New Scrutiny</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) July 19, 2017, by Ben Protess, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Jesse Drucker</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">During the presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump pointed to his relationship with Deutsche Bank to counter reports that big banks were skeptical of doing business with him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After a string of bankruptcies in his casino and hotel businesses in the 1990s, Mr. Trump became somewhat of an outsider on Wall Street, leaving the giant German bank among the few major financial institutions willing to lend him money.... <i>Read full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/business/big-german-bank-key-to-trumps-finances-faces-new-scrutiny.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump ends covert CIA program to arm anti-Assad rebels in Syria, a move sought by Moscow</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 19, 2017, by</b> <b>Greg Jaffe and Adam Entous</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump has decided to end the CIA’s covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad, a move long sought by Russia, according to U.S. officials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The program was a central plank of a policy begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to step aside, but even its backers have questioned its efficacy since Russia deployed forces in Syria two years later.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-ends-covert-cia-program-to-arm-anti-assad-rebels-in-syria-a-move-sought-by-moscow/2017/07/19/b6821a62-6beb-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html?utm_term=.5f8dbafd7051" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump and Putin Held a Second, Undisclosed, Private Conversation</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) July 18, 2017, by Julie Hirschfeld David</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Hours into a dinner with world leaders who had gathered for the Group of 20 summit meeting, President Trump left his chair at the sprawling banquet table and headed to where President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was seated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The two presidents had met earlier in the day for the first time and, as the White House put it, had developed a rapport even as they talked about Russia’s interference in the United States’ 2016 elections.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The July 7 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, was the single most scrutinized of the Trump presidency. But it turned out there was another encounter: a one-on-one discussion over dinner that lasted as long as an hour and relied solely on a Kremlin-provided interpreter.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/world/europe/trump-putin-undisclosed-meeting.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Guest List at Donald Trump Jr.’s Meeting With Russian Expands Again</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) July 18, 2017, by Sharon LaFraniere and Adam Goldman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Seventeen years ago, congressional investigators looking into money laundering stumbled upon an obscure Soviet-born financier who offered special services to his Russian clients. He had opened 2,000 companies in Delaware and more than 100 bank accounts for Russian clients who moved hundreds of millions of dollars through those accounts to overseas destinations, they found.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On Tuesday, that man, Irakly Kaveladze, resurfaced as the latest foreign guest on the ever-expanding list of participants at the June 2016 meeting where Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump campaign officials were hoping to get damaging information about Hillary Clinton.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/us/politics/trump-meeting-russia.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Why Jared Kushner has had to update his disclosure of foreign contacts more than once</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 17, 2017, by Matt Zapotosky</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is likely to be interested in Jared Kushner’s evolving disclosure of foreign contacts during the security clearance process, legal analysts said, and it is possible that the president’s son-in-law could be in legal jeopardy for not fully detailing the interactions from the start.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Kushner, one of President Trump’s closest advisers, has filed three updates to his national security questionnaire since submitting it in mid-January, according to people familiar with the matter. That is significant because the document — known as an SF-86 — warns that those who submit false information could be charged with a federal crime and face up to five years in prison.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/why-jared-kushner-has-had-to-update-his-disclosure-of-foreign-contacts-more-than-once/2017/07/17/b04e8158-6b05-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_kushner-735pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.c5994d116071" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>6 defenses of Donald Trump Jr.’s Russia meeting — each more dubious than the last</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) July 17, 2017, by Aaron Blake</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It's been a week since the Donald Trump Jr. scandal broke, and the White House and its allies have trotted out a whole bunch of different defenses — some of them only suggestive — from the 39-year-old's age to blaming former attorney general Loretta Lynch to the idea that it was only attempted collusion. Over the weekend, President Trump's lawyer even tried to suggest the Secret Service had no problems with the meeting — only to have that argument quickly unravel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It's getting a little hard to keep track of all it. So below is a scorecard of each one, along with how plausible it is — scored from 0 to 10, with 10 being the most plausible.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/07/17/6-defenses-of-donald-trump-jr-s-russia-meeting-each-more-dubious-than-the-last/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_fix-6defenses-158pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.7a8e5402bdfa" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Russian-American lobbyist joined Trump's son's meeting, too</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) July 15, 2017, by Desmond Butler and Chad Day</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A prominent Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer attended a meeting with President Donald Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign chairman last year, the lobbyist said Friday, adding a new wrinkle to the Trump team’s evolving explanations about the June 2016 session.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his involvement to The Associated Press in an interview. He had not been previously identified as a participant in the meeting at Trump Tower in New York, which was billed as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republican’s White House campaign.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.apnews.com/dceed1008d8f45afb314aca65797762a/Russian-American-lobbyist-says-he-was-in-Trump-son's-meeting" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian-American at Trump Jr. meeting is ex-military officer</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) July 15, 2017, by Eric Tucker and Stephen Braun</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Russian-American lobbyist who attended a meeting at Trump Tower last year is a former military officer who has attracted congressional scrutiny over his political activities and has been shadowed by allegations of connections to Russian intelligence that he denies.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://apnews.com/135216fe8c2c459993d5f5740bc67c15" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s Russian Laundromat</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>How to use Trump Tower and other luxury high-rises to clean dirty money, run an international crime syndicate, and propel a failed real estate developer into the White House.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New Republic</i>) July 13, 2017, by Craig Unger</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In 1984, a Russian émigré named David Bogatin went shopping for apartments in New York City. The 38-year-old had arrived in America seven years before, with just $3 in his pocket. But for a former pilot in the Soviet Army—his specialty had been shooting down Americans over North Vietnam—he had clearly done quite well for himself. Bogatin wasn’t hunting for a place in Brighton Beach, the Brooklyn enclave known as “Little Odessa” for its large population of immigrants from the Soviet Union. Instead, he was fixated on the glitziest apartment building on Fifth Avenue, a gaudy, 58-story edifice with gold-plated fixtures and a pink-marble atrium: Trump Tower.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Real Scandal Now Is How Team Trump Helped Putin Conceal His Attack on America</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Keeping Russia’s secret.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) July 13, 2017, by David Corn</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece noting that whether or not Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin’s covert operation to subvert the 2016 campaign, the public record was already clear that Trump, knowingly or not, had aided and abetted Russia’s war on US democracy. He did so by repeatedly ignoring evidence and denying Moscow’s role in the criminal hacking of Democratic targets and the subsequent release of stolen emails. Those denials muddied the storyline and prevented a vigorous bipartisan response to Putin’s attack.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The disclosure this week of Donald Trump Jr.’s emails revealing that he, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort joined what they believed was a secret Russian government project to disseminate dirt on Hillary Clinton shows that the Trump campaign went far beyond creating a political climate favorable to Putin’s clandestine assault. The Trump camp actually protected Russian intelligence while it was waging information warfare against the United States—and Trump’s most intimate advisers knew they were doing so.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/the-real-scandal-now-is-how-team-trump-helped-putin-conceal-his-attack-on-america/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump-Russia investigators probe Jared Kushner-run digital operation</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(McClatchy Washington Bureau) July 12, 2017, by Peter Stone and Greg Gordon</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Investigators at the House and Senate Intelligence committees and the Justice Department are examining whether the Trump campaign’s digital operation – overseen by Jared Kushner – helped guide Russia’s sophisticated voter targeting and fake news attacks on Hillary Clinton in 2016.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article160803619.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>New details emerge on Moscow real estate deal that led to the Trump-Kremlin alliance</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Yahoo News) July 11, 2017, by Michael Isikoff</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While in Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant in November 2013, Donald Trump entered into a formal business deal with Aras Agalarov, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, to construct a Trump Tower in the Russian capital. He later assigned his son, Donald Trump Jr., to oversee the project, according to Rob Goldstone, the British publicist who arranged the controversial 2016 meeting between the younger Trump and a Kremlin-linked lawyer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trump has dismissed the idea he had any business deals in Russia, saying at one point last October, “I have nothing to do with Russia.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But Goldstone’s account, provided in an extensive interview in March in New York, offers new details of the proposed Trump project that appears to have been further along than most previous reports have suggested, and even included a trip by Ivanka Trump to Moscow to identify potential sites.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/new-details-emerge-moscow-real-estate-deal-led-trump-kremlin-alliance-190126219.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Trump-Russia Conspiracy Is Now Very Simple</b></span></span></div>
<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i>You don’t even have to connect dots.</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Mother Jones</i>) July 11, 2017, by David Corn</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here’s a point missing in much of the coverage of Donald Trump Jr.’s bombshell emails: If they are an accurate depiction of events, these messages show there was a conspiracy between the Putin regime and the Trump camp that was exceedingly simple and compact and quite easy to implement. The apparent plot—yes, it was a secret plot—involved a small number of people: three of Donald Trump’s closest advisers, a Trump business partner (and that man’s son), a Russian official close to Vladimir Putin, and two emissaries. Actually, none of this is surprising. Or complicated. You do not need Agent Mulder to get to the bottom of this.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/the-trump-russia-conspiracy-is-now-very-simple/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian Dirt on Clinton? ‘I Love It,’ Donald Trump Jr. Said</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) July 11, 2017, by Jo Becker, Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The June 3, 2016, email sent to Donald Trump Jr. could hardly have been more explicit: One of his father’s former Russian business partners had been contacted by a senior Russian government official and was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/us/politics/trump-russia-email-clinton.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s Son Met With Russian Lawyer After Being Promised Damaging Information on Clinton</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) July 9, 2017, by Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/us/politics/trump-russia-kushner-manafort.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>FBI documents detail how the Russians try to recruit spies</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) July 6, 2017, by Zachary Cohen</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It is a scene ripped from Hollywood spy thrillers: Russian agents living and working among everyday, American citizens as cover for their true mission of stealing state secrets.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/15/politics/russia-spy-recruitment-tactics-fbi-carter-page/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Campaign Chief’s Firm Got $17 Million From Pro-Russia Party</b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">(<i>The New York Times</i>) June 27, 2017, by Nicholas Confessore, Mike McIntire and Barry Meierjune</b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Paul Manafort, who was forced out as President Trump’s campaign chairman last summer after five months of infighting and criticism about his business dealings with pro-Russian interests, disclosed Tuesday that his consulting firm had received more than $17 million over two years from a Ukrainian political party with links to the Kremlin.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/us/politics/trump-campaign-chiefs-firm-got-17-million-from-pro-russia-party.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Kushner firm’s $285 million Deutsche Bank loan came just before Election Day</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) June 25, 2017, by Michael Kranish</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One month before Election Day, Jared Kushner’s real estate company finalized a $285 million loan as part of a refinancing package for its property near Times Square in Manhattan.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The loan came at a critical moment. Kushner was playing a key role in the presidential campaign of his father-in-law, Donald Trump. The lender, Deutsche Bank, was negotiating to settle a federal mortgage fraud case and charges from New York state regulators that it aided a possible Russian money-laundering scheme. The cases were settled in December and January.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/kushner-firms-285-million-deutsche-bank-loan-came-just-before-election-day/2017/06/25/984f3acc-4f88-11e7-b064-828ba60fbb98_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_kushner-deal-915pm%253Ahomepage%252Fstory&utm_term=.268bc6c3d7a7" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Russian official linked to South Florida biker club spent millions on Trump condos</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Miami Herald</i>) June 22, 2017, by Lily Dobrovolskaya and Nicholas Nehamas</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Out-of-town money pouring into South Florida real estate is as old as Henry Flagler.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But the tale of Igor Zorin offers a 21st-century twist with all the weirdness modern Miami has to offer: Russian cash, a motorcycle club named after Russia’s powerful special forces and a condo tower branded by Donald Trump.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article157640179.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>How Michael Flynn’s Disdain for Limits Led to a Legal Quagmire</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) June 18, 2017, by Nicholas Confessore, Matthew Rosenberg and Danny Hakimjune</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Michael T. Flynn was a man seething and thwarted. In the summer of 2014, after repeatedly clashing with other Obama administration officials over his management of the Defense Intelligence Agency — and what he saw as his unheeded warnings about the rising power of Islamic militants — Mr. Flynn was fired, bringing his military career to an abrupt end.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/18/us/politics/michael-flynn-intel-group-trump.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>How the Russia Investigation Entangled a Manafort Protégé</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) June 16, 2017, by Nicholas Confessore and Barry Meierjune</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Nearly everywhere Paul Manafort went, it seemed, Rick Gates followed, his protégé and junior partner. Election campaigns in Eastern Europe and Africa. Business ventures with a Russian tycoon. The upper ranks of Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Mr. Gates survived Mr. Manafort’s purge last summer amid allegations that his mentor had taken millions of dollars from Kremlin allies, retaining a central role on Mr. Trump’s campaign and inaugural committee. But Mr. Gates, 45, soon followed in Mr. Manafort’s footsteps once again: In April, amid new questions about Russian interference in the 2016 election, he was abruptly forced out of a lobbying group formed to advance President Trump’s agenda.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/us/politics/rick-gates-russia.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump’s lawyer in Russia probe has clients with Kremlin ties</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) June 9, 2017, by Shawn Boburg</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The hard-charging New York lawyer President Trump chose to represent him in the Russia investigation has prominent clients with ties to the Kremlin, a striking pick for a president trying to escape the persistent cloud that has trailed his administration.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Marc E. Kasowitz’s clients include Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is close to President Vladimir Putin and has done business with Trump’s former campaign manager. Kasowitz also represents Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank, U.S. court records show.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trumps-lawyer-in-russia-probe-has-clients-with-kremlin-ties/2017/06/09/5dba9518-4d4a-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_kasowitz-0945pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.db5d03fc1f81" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Did We Learn Anything New in Comey's SSCI Hearing?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(LawfareBlog.com) June 8, 2017, by Jane Chong, Susan Hennessey and Quinta Jurecic</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Former FBI Director James Comey testified for a little under three hours this morning in an open session before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Considering the detailed revelations included in his written statement released by the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday in the lead-up to today’s testimony, how much new information did today’s hearing really add? Below is a brief overview of what the hearing added in terms of additional information or new confirmation of previously reported facts.... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/did-we-learn-anything-new-comeys-ssci-hearing" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>How the Trump administration’s secret efforts to ease Russia sanctions fell short</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Yahoo News) June 1, 2017, by Michael Isikoff</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the early weeks of the Trump administration, former Obama administration officials and State Department staffers fought an intense, behind-the-scenes battle to head off efforts by incoming officials to normalize relations with Russia, according to multiple sources familiar with the events.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Unknown to the public at the time, top Trump administration officials, almost as soon as they took office, tasked State Department staffers with developing proposals for the lifting of economic sanctions, the return of diplomatic compounds and other steps to relieve tensions with Moscow.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-administrations-secret-efforts-ease-russia-sanctions-fell-short-231301145.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Russian ambassador told Moscow that Kushner wanted secret communications channel with Kremlin</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) May 26, 2017, by Ellen Nakashima, Adam Entous and Greg Miller</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-ambassador-told-moscow-that-kushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin/2017/05/26/520a14b4-422d-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html?utm_term=.10a10e7ed7de" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Jared Kushner now a focus in Russia investigation</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) May 25, 2017, by Matt Zapotosky, Sari Horwitz, Devlin Barrett and Adam Entous</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Kushner, who held meetings in December with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the people said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/jared-kushner-now-a-focus-in-russia-investigation/2017/05/25/f078db74-40c7-11e7-8c25-44d09ff5a4a8_story.html?aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.566j0j4&hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_kushner-645pm%253Ahomepage%252Fstoryory.html%3Fhpid%3Dhp_hp-banner-main_kushner-645pm%25253Ahomepage%25252Fstory&ie=UTF-8&sourceid=chrome&utm_term=.92564cd4a607" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>NYT: Trump brags to Russians about firing "nut job" Comey</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) May 19, 2017, by Dan Merica</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">President Donald Trump bragged to two top Russian officials last week that firing "nut job" FBI Director James Comey eased "great pressure" on him, The New York Times reported Friday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job," Trump said, according to the Times. "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off."... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/19/politics/trump-russians-nut-job-comey/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>First on CNN: Russian officials bragged they could use Flynn to influence Trump, sources say</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) May 19, 2017, by Gloria Borger, Pamela Brown, Jim Sciutto, Marshall Cohen and Eric Lichtbau</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russian officials bragged in conversations during the presidential campaign that they had cultivated a strong relationship with former Trump adviser retired Gen. Michael Flynn and believed they could use him to influence Donald Trump and his team, sources told CNN.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The conversations deeply concerned US intelligence officials, some of whom acted on their own to limit how much sensitive information they shared with Flynn, who was tapped to become Trump's national security adviser, current and former governments officials said.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/19/politics/michael-flynn-donald-trump-russia-influence/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump campaign members had 18 previously undisclosed discussions with Russia ahead of presidential election </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Daily News</i>) May 18, 2017, by Terence Cullen</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Several members of the Trump campaign — including ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn — had 18 previously undisclosed discussions with Russia in the seven months before the election, multiple sources told Reuters.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-campaign-members-18-undisclosed-talks-russia-article-1.3175933" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Hill</i>) May 17, 2017, by Max Greenwood</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A state-run Russian bank financed an asset sale in 2010 involving President Trump's partner in a Toronto hotel, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trump's partner, Russian-Canadian developer Alexander Schnaider, pumped money into Trump's Toronto hotel after selling his company's share in a Ukrainian steelmaker. The Russian bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) provided the money for the sale, according to the Journal — a transaction worth about $850 million.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/333835-russian-bank-financed-asset-sale-involving-former-trump-hotel" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>House majority leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) May 17, 2017, by Adam Entous</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_transcript-6pm%253Ahomepage%252Fstory&utm_term=.0b986061be5f" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Donald Trump admits 'this Russia thing' part of reasoning for firing Comey</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>President admits the allegations of collusion between his advisers and Russian officials played into sacking of FBI director</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) May 12, 2017, by David Smith, Julian Borger and Lauren Gambino</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Donald Trump has said he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he decided James Comey’s fate – contradicting the White House rationale that he fired the FBI director for mishandling the Clinton email investigation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Comey had been leading an investigation into possible collusion between Trump advisers and Russian officials when he was dismissed by the president. Defending that decision in an interview on NBC News on Thursday, Trump said: “And, in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said: ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.’”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/11/donald-trump-james-comey-firing-russia-investigation" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A Hidden Hand in the Trump-Russia Drama Owns a Ramen Shop. No, Seriously.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>He’s interviewed Carter Page and tracked down many figures in the Trump-Russia orbit. But Jeff Jetton’s not a professional investigator. He owns one of D.C.’s hotter restaurants.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Daily Beast) May 8, 2017, by Tim Mak</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One of the better-connected, more knowledgeable people on the ties between the Kremlin and Trump Tower—other than the investigators currently working full-time on the topic—is a ramen shop owner named Jeff Jetton.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Over the past few months, Jetton, who helped found the popular Washington, D.C. noodle restaurant Toki Underground, has inserted himself smack-dab into the investigation of possible Trump-Russia connections.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/a-hidden-hand-in-the-trump-russia-drama-owns-a-ramen-shop-no-seriously" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Flynn’s Turkish lobbying linked to Russia</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The former national security adviser’s client had business dealings in Russia and worked with an executive in Russian oil companies on Turkish lobbying projects.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) April 25, 2017, by Isaac Arnsdorf</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Turkish man who gave Mike Flynn a $600,000 lobbying deal just before President Donald Trump picked him to be national security adviser has business ties to Russia, including a 2009 aviation financing deal negotiated with Vladimir Putin, according to court records.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The man, Ekim Alptekin, has in recent years helped to coordinate Turkish lobbying in Washington with Dmitri “David” Zaikin, a Soviet-born former executive in Russian energy and mining companies who also has had dealings with Putin’s government, according to three people with direct knowledge of the activities.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/25/michael-flynn-turkey-russia-237550" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Flynn May Have Broken Law by Not Disclosing Russia Dealings, Lawmakers Say</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) April 25, 2017, by Emmarie Huetteman and Adam Goldman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, may have violated federal law by not fully disclosing his business dealings with Russia when seeking a security clearance to work in the White House, top House oversight lawmakers from both parties asserted on Tuesday.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/us/politics/michael-flynn-white-house-documents-russia.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Sources: Russia tried to use Trump advisers to infiltrate campaign</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CNN) April 22, 2017, by </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Pamela Brown, Shimon Prokupecz, Jim Sciutto and Marshall Cohen</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The FBI gathered intelligence last summer that suggests Russian operatives tried to use Trump advisers, including Carter Page, to infiltrate the Trump campaign, according to US officials.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/21/politics/russia-trump-campaign-advisers-infiltrate/index.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Putin-linked think tank drew up plan to sway 2016 US election - documents</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Reuters) April 19, 2017, by Ned Parker, Jonathan Landay and John Walcott</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A Russian government think tank controlled by Vladimir Putin developed a plan to swing the 2016 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump and undermine voters’ faith in the American electoral system, three current and four former U.S. officials told Reuters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">They described two confidential documents from the think tank as providing the framework and rationale for what U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded was an intensive effort by Russia to interfere with the Nov. 8 election.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-election-exclusive-idUSKBN17L2N3" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Adviser’s Visit to Moscow Got the F.B.I.’s Attention</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) April 19, 2017, by Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti and Adam Goldman</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ever since F.B.I. investigators discovered in 2013 that a Russian spy was trying to recruit an American businessman named Carter Page, the bureau maintained an occasional interest in Mr. Page. So when he became a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign last year and gave a Russia-friendly speech at a prestigious Moscow institute, it soon caught the bureau’s attention.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/carter-page-russia-trump.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Former MI6 chief Richard Dearlove says Donald Trump borrowed money from Russia during 2008 financial crisis</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Days before taking office, Mr Trump said Russia had never had any 'levarage' over him</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Independent</i>) April 14, 2017, by Mythili Sampathkumar</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The former head of MI6 has said Donald Trump borrowed money from Russia for his business during the 2008 financial crisis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Richard Dearlove told Prospect Magazine that “what lingers for Trump may be what deals – on what terms – he did after the financial crisis of 2008 to borrow Russian money” when other banks and lenders would not risk the money, given Mr Trump’s history of bankruptcy.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/richard-dearlove-mi6-trump-russia-money-2008-financial-crisis-us-election-a7684341.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) April 11, 2017, by Ellen Nakashima, Devlin Barrett and Adam Entous</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia, according to the officials.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-obtained-fisa-warrant-to-monitor-former-trump-adviser-carter-page/2017/04/11/620192ea-1e0e-11e7-ad74-3a742a6e93a7_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_page710pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.75ad97c06813" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) April 3, 2017, by Adam Entous, Greg Miller, Kevin Sieff and Karen DeYoung</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_no-name%253Ahomepage%252Fstory&utm_term=.91d239fb334c" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Is Trump's Chaos Tornado a Move From the Kremlin's Playbook</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>It’s terrifying to think that the Trump administration is simply winging it, in a swirl of lies, contradictions, and Twitter rants. A scarier possibility is that there is, in fact, a plan, taken straight from Putin 101.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Vanity Fair</i>) April 2017, by Mike Mariani</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On March 12, 2014, the Russian author Natan Dubovitsky published a short story titled “Without Sky” in the literary journal Russian Pioneer. In the story, which takes place in a dystopian future, a man recalls the events of the fifth World War, decades earlier. He describes these events as the first “non-linear war.” Instead of fighting in a traditional sense, as a battle between two sides, World War V was a more byzantine conflict. Multiple nations all fought one another at once and could switch sides at any time. Simplistic approaches to victory were seen as obsolete, as armed conflict itself was just one phase of a longer, more insidious “process.” Some even joined conflicts to facilitate their own defeat. Around the midpoint of the story, Dubovitsky writes that the complexity of the war was only “realized and analyzed later by historians and economists.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/is-trumps-chaos-a-move-from-the-kremlins-playbook" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump's business network reached alleged Russian mobsters</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>USA Today</i>) March 28, 2017, by Oren Dorell</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">To expand his real estate developments over the years, Donald Trump, his company and partners repeatedly turned to wealthy Russians and oligarchs from former Soviet republics — several allegedly connected to organized crime, according to a USA TODAY review of court cases, government and legal documents and an interview with a former federal prosecutor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The president and his companies have been linked to at least 10 wealthy former Soviet businessmen with alleged ties to criminal organizations or money laundering.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/28/trump-business-past-ties-russian-mobsters-organized-crime/98321252/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>AP Exclusive: Before Trump job, Manafort worked to aid Putin</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) March 22, 2017, by Jeff Horwitz and Chad Day</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Before signing up with Donald Trump, former campaign manager Paul Manafort secretly worked for a Russian billionaire with a plan to “greatly benefit the Putin Government,” The Associated Press has learned. The White House attempted to brush the report aside Wednesday, but it quickly raised fresh alarms in Congress about Russian links to Trump associates.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to benefit President Vladimir Putin’s government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.apnews.com/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Russian elite invested nearly $100 million in Trump buildings</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>A Reuters review found that at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Reuters) March 17, 2017, by Nathan Layne, Ned Parker, Svetlana Reiter, Stephen Grey and Ryan McNeill</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump downplayed his business ties with Russia. And since taking office as president, he has been even more emphatic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia,” President Trump said at a news conference last month. “I have no loans in Russia. I don’t have any deals in Russia.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But in the United States, members of the Russian elite have invested in Trump buildings.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump associates' links with Russia: what we know so far</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Questions continue to be asked about the scale of alleged Russian influence over the president and the campaign that took him to the White House. Here we look at the links – known and alleged – between Donald Trump’s associates and allies and Moscow</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) March 2, 2017</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Jeff Sessions met Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice last year - encounters that the attorney general did not disclose when asked under oath at his Senate confirmation hearing in January about possible contacts between Trump’s presidential campaign and Moscow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The former senator from Alabama was one of Trump’s early and most vocal surrogates on the campaign trail. Asked point-blank at his confirmation hearing “Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day?”, Sessions responded: “No.”... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/mar/02/donald-trump-russia-campaign-moscow" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Kushner and Flynn Met With Russian Envoy in December, White House Says</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) March 2, 2017, by Michael S. Schmidt, Matthew Rosenberg and Matt Apuzzo</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Michael T. Flynn, then Donald J. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, had a previously undisclosed meeting with the Russian ambassador in December to “establish a line of communication” between the new administration and the Russian government, the White House said on Thursday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and now a senior adviser, also participated in the meeting at Trump Tower with Mr. Flynn and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/us/politics/kushner-flynn-sessions-russia.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Sessions met with Russian envoy twice last year, encounters he later did not disclose</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Post</i>) March 1, 2017, by Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-spoke-twice-with-russian-ambassador-during-trumps-presidential-campaign-justice-officials-say/2017/03/01/77205eda-feac-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.9308efbbeb93" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>All of Trump’s Russia Ties, in 7 Charts</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Politico) March/April 2017, by Michael Crowley</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What is the real story of Donald Trump and Russia? The answer is still unclear, and Democrats in Congress want to get to the bottom of it with an investigation. But there’s no doubt that a spider web of connections—some public, some private, some clear, some murky—exists between Trump, his associates and Russian President Vladimir Putin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">These charts illustrate dozens of those links, including meetings between Russian officials and members of Trump’s campaign and administration; his daughter’s ties to Putin’s friends; Trump’s 2013 visit to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant; and his short-lived mixed martial arts venture with one of Putin’s favorite athletes. The solid lines mark established facts, while dotted ones represent speculative or unproven connections.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/connections-trump-putin-russia-ties-chart-flynn-page-manafort-sessions-214868" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Curious Case of Paul Manafort</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The former Trump campaign chairman may have been the victim of a blackmail plot.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Vanity Fair</i>) February 23, 2017, by Abigail Tracy</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As the Russian intrigues surrounding Donald Trump and his presidential campaign have continued to pile up, one name has resurfaced at nearly every turn: Paul Manafort. Less than two weeks after it was revealed that United States law-enforcement and intelligence agents reportedly intercepted communications between suspected Kremlin operatives and a number of key Trump associates—including the president’s former campaign chairman—Politico reports that Manafort may also have been subjected to blackmail while he was serving on Trump’s campaign last summer.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/02/paul-manafort-blackmail" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Despite Denials, Michael Flynn Discussed Sanctions on Calls with Russian Ambassador</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(LawfareBlog.com) February 9, 2017, by Susan Hennessey</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This evening the <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/national-security-adviser-flynn-discussed-sanctions-with-russian-ambassador-despite-denials-officials-say/2017/02/09/f85b29d6-ee11-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?utm_term=.47e664c0ee24" target="_blank">Washington Post</a></b> reported that, National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn discussed sanctions during his December phone calls with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Previously both Flynn and the White House had repeatedly denied the accusation. The Post cites “nine current and former officials” in senior positions at federal agencies as confirming the account.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Shortly after the inauguration, Jordan Brunner and I recapped the known state of investigations into the staff and associates of President Donald Trump and ties to Russia. At the time, here is what we said about the investigations into this particular set of phone calls... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/despite-denials-michael-flynn-discussed-sanctions-calls-russian-ambassador" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>What we know – and what's true – about the Trump-Russia dossier</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The dossier includes lurid details from Trump’s 2013 visit to Moscow and claims an ‘extensive conspiracy’ between his team and the Kremlin – is it true?</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) January 11, 2017, by Luke Harding</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>The big picture</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>What does the dossier which John McCain passed to FBI chief James Comey say?</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It says Vladimir Putin’s Russia has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting Trump for at least five years”. Moscow’s aim is “to encourage splits and divisions in the western alliance” and to upend the “ideals-based international order” set up after the second world war. Putin’s preference, according to the report, is for a return to the “Great Power” politics of the 19th century, where big states pursue their own interests.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The dossier says that Trump was offered “various sweetener business deals” by the Kremlin, but turned them down. The Kremlin also supplied Trump with “a regular flow of intelligence”, including on the Democrats and other political rivals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Russian spies put together compromising dossiers on both Clinton and Trump, the dossier says. The Clinton one was innocuous and mostly included bugged conversations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Trump material, by contrast, was explosive. It includes lurid details from Trump’s visit in 2013 Moscow for the Miss Universe beauty pageant. According to the dossier, Trump stayed in the Ritz Carlton hotel, in the same suite used by Barack Obama. It says Russia’s FSB spy agency obtained compromising sexual material – kompromat – from the hotel suite. “FSB has compromised TRUMP through his activities in Moscow sufficiently to be able to blackmail him,” it says.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/11/trump-russia-dossier-explainer-details" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>A dossier, compiled by a person who has claimed to be a former British intelligence official, alleges Russia has compromising information on Trump. The allegations are unverified, and the report contains errors.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(BuzzFeed.com) January 10, 2017, by </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Ken Bensinger, Miriam Elder and Mark Schoofs</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A dossier making explosive — but unverified — allegations that the Russian government has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” President-elect Donald Trump for years and gained compromising information about him has been circulating among elected officials, intelligence agents, and journalists for weeks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The dossier, which is a collection of memos written over a period of months, includes specific, unverified, and potentially unverifiable allegations of contact between Trump aides and Russian operatives, and graphic claims of sexual acts documented by the Russians. BuzzFeed News reporters in the US and Europe have been investigating various alleged facts in the dossier but have not verified or falsified them.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/these-reports-allege-trump-has-deep-ties-to-russia?utm_term=.nmgPxGG7Lb#.kf9KeMM1XV" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Intent on Unsettling E.U., Russia Taps Foot Soldiers From the Fringe</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times</i>) December 24, 2017, by Andrew Higgins</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">To his neighbors in a village in western Hungary, 76-year-old Istvan Gyorkos was just an old man who mostly kept to himself. Hardly anyone looked askance at his passion for guns and for training youths in paramilitary tactics.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/24/world/europe/intent-on-unsettling-eu-russia-taps-foot-soldiers-from-the-fringe.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Danger Close: Fancy Bear Tracking of Ukrainian Field Artillery Units</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(CrowdStrike.com) December 22, 2016, by Adam Meyers</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In June CrowdStrike identified and attributed a series of targeted intrusions at the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and other political organizations that utilized a well known implant commonly called X-Agent. X-Agent is a cross platform remote access toolkit, variants have been identified for various Windows operating systems, Apple’s iOS, and likely the MacOS. Also known as Sofacy, X-Agent has been tracked by the security community for almost a decade, CrowdStrike associates the use of X-Agent with an actor we call FANCY BEAR. This actor to date is the exclusive operator of the malware, and has continuously developed the platform for ongoing operations which CrowdStrike assesses is likely tied to Russian Military Intelligence (GRU). The source code to this malware has not been observed in the public domain and appears to have been developed uniquely by FANCY BEAR.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/danger-close-fancy-bear-tracking-ukrainian-field-artillery-units/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Meet Rex Tillerson, Vladimir Putin's Pal and Donald Trump's Nominee for Secretary of State</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>Newsweek</i>) December 13, 2016, by Owen Matthews</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, personifies two major concerns about the incoming Trump administration: conflicts of interest and ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.As the long-serving CEO of U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil, Tillerson has a close personal relationship with Putin, according to the latter’s business associates in Russia, who asked for anonymity because they still live in the country. “Probably closer than any other American,” says one senior Western banker who has worked in the country for nearly 20 years and has met Tillerson frequently. “There’s no other private U.S. citizen,” says a veteran oil industry financier, “that could get Putin on the phone.”... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/putin-tillerson-trump-exxonmobil-russia-secretary-state-washington-moscow-531590" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump advisers waged covert influence campaign</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(The Associated Press) August 19, 2016, by Jeff Horwitz and Chad Day</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A firm run by Donald Trump’s campaign chairman directly orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine’s ruling political party, attempting to sway American public opinion in favor of the country’s pro-Russian government, emails obtained by The Associated Press show. Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, never disclosed their work as foreign agents as required under federal law.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The lobbying included attempts to gain positive press coverage of Ukrainian officials in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press. Another goal: undercutting American public sympathy for the imprisoned rival of Ukraine’s then-president. At the time, European and American leaders were pressuring Ukraine to free her.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://apnews.com/6eed1ef61eb744e1aac584f8ac1f7247/trump-advisers-waged-covert-influence-campaign" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>How Trump's campaign chief got a strongman elected president of Ukraine</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><i>Paul Manafort, who reportedly was a recipient of $12.7m in Ukraine, helped Viktor Yanukovych to victory. Could he do the same for Trump?</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Guardian</i>) August 16, 2016, by Luke Harding</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>—</b>T</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">he scene was Ostroh, western Ukraine, on the eve of parliamentary elections.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A tall figure bounded on to a stage to cheers from a crowd of elderly flag-waving supporters. They chanted: “Yan-u-kov-ych, Yan-u-kov-ych.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The man addressing them was Viktor Yanukovych, who at this point – autumn 2007 – was Ukraine’s pro-Russian prime minister. Three years earlier he had tried to cheat his way to victory in the country’s presidential election, triggering the pro-democracy uprising known as the Orange Revolution, which swept Yanukovych’s rival Viktor Yushchenko into power.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/16/donald-trump-campaign-paul-manafort-ukraine-yanukovich" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>How The Trump Campaign Weakened The Republican Platform On Aid To Ukraine</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(NPR) August 6, 2016</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One of the questions raised over the course of this year's presidential race is about how a President Trump would deal with Russian president Vladimir Putin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One reason to wonder: the Republican Party platform's new language on policy towards Ukraine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When Republican Party leaders drafted the platform prior to their convention in Cleveland last month, they had relatively little input from the campaign of then-presumptive nominee Donald Trump on most issues — except when it came to a future Republican administration's stance on Ukraine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It started when platform committee member Diana Denman tried to insert language calling for the U.S. to provide lethal defensive weapons to the Ukrainian government, which is fighting a separatist insurrection backed by Russia. Denman says she had no idea she was "going into a fire fight," calling it "an interesting exchange, to say the least."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Denman is a long time GOP activist from Texas. When she presented her proposal during a platform subcommittee meeting last month, "two gentleman," whom Denman said were part of the Trump campaign, came over, looked at the language, and asked that it be set aside for further review.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/08/06/488876597/how-the-trump-campaign-weakened-the-republican-platform-on-aid-to-ukraine" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Quiet American</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Paul Manafort made a career out of stealthily reinventing the world’s nastiest tyrants as noble defenders of freedom. Getting Donald Trump elected will be a cinch.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(Slate.com) April 28, 2016, by Franklin Foer</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">M</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">ar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s palace, is impressive by the standards of Palm Beach—less so when judged against the abodes of the world’s autocrats. It doesn’t, for instance, quite compare with Mezhyhirya, the gilded estate of deposed Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych. Trump may have 33 bathrooms and three bomb shelters, but his mansion lacks a herd of ostrich, a galleon parked in a pond, and a set of golden golf clubs. Yet the two properties are linked, not just in ostentatious spirit, but by the presence of one man. Trump and Yanukovych have shared the same political brain, an operative named Paul Manafort.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ukrainians use the term “political technologist” as a favored synonym for electoral consultant. Trump turned to Manafort for what seemed at first a technical task: Manafort knows how to bullwhip and wheedle delegates at a contested convention. He’s done it before, assisting Gerald Ford in stifling Ronald Reagan’s insurgency at the GOP’s summer classic of 1976. In the conventions that followed, the Republican Party often handed Manafort control of the program and instructed him to stage-manage the show. He produced the morning-in-America convention of 1984 and the Bob Dole nostalgia-thon of 1996.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/04/paul_manafort_isn_t_a_gop_retread_he_s_made_a_career_of_reinventing_tyrants.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Trump Adviser Compared U.S.-Russia Policy to Slavery, Police Shootings</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>GOP frontrunner’s new aide outside Republican mainstream on major foreign policy issues</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The Washington Free Beacon</i>) March 23, 2016, by</b> <b>Lachlan Markay</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Energy investor Carter Page, one of Donald Trump’s handpicked foreign policy advisers, has heavily criticized what he considers American aggression toward Russia, even comparing U.S. policy to American slavery and high-profile police shootings.... <i>Read the full article <b><a href="http://freebeacon.com/politics/trump-adviser-compared-u-s-russia-policy-to-slavery-police-shootings/" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">European Parliament resolution of 10 June 2015 on the state of EU-Russia relations</b><br />
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<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></i><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">... </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">15. Is deeply concerned at the ever more intensive contacts and cooperation, tolerated by the Russian leadership, between European populist, fascist and extreme right-wing parties on the one hand and nationalist groups in Russia on the other; recognises that this represents a danger to democratic values and the rule of law in the EU; calls in this connection on the EU institutions and Member States to take action against this threat of an emerging ‘Nationalist International’;</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">16. Is deeply concerned with Russia's support for and financing of radical and extremist parties in the EU Member States; considers a recent meeting in St Petersburg of the far right parties an insult to the memory of millions of Russians who sacrificed their lives to save the world from Nazism.... <i>Read the full resolution <b><a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P8-TA-2015-0225+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The Agency</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>From a nondescript office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, an army of well-paid “trolls” has tried to wreak havoc all around the Internet — and in real-life American communities.</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>(<i>The New York Times Magazine</i>) June 2, 2015, by Adrian Chen</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Around 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 11 last year, Duval Arthur, director of the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, got a call from a resident who had just received a disturbing text message. “Toxic fume hazard warning in this area until 1:30 PM,” the message read. “Take Shelter. Check Local Media and columbiachemical.com.”... </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Read the full article <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</i><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></b><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><b>Click <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2018/06/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my latest Trump-Putin bromance timeline, <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/10/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my Oct. 2017-May 2018 timeline and <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2017/08/comrade-donald-trump-ties-vladimir-putin-russia-bromance-timeline.html" target="_blank">here</a> to see my Aug.-Sept. 2017 timeline.</b></i><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>See links to my investigative journalism <a href="http://albloggedup.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here</a>, including my book </i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0994861761" target="_blank">Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence</a><i>, a finalist in the American Book Fest's 2017 Best Book Awards and winner or finalist in nine </i></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>other book prizes.</i></span></b>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-6874282599531993172017-02-09T16:40:00.001-05:002017-07-17T20:38:20.954-04:00Why Police Commit up to 15 Times More Domestic Violence Than Others: "Police Wife" Book and Blog Tell the Story<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Why do police officers commit up to 15 times more domestic violence than the public? How do cops in some police departments get away with lighter discipline for assaulting their wife or girlfriend than for stealing or lying?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Find out in my updated and revised second edition of the award-winning book <i><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0994861761" target="_blank">Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence</a></b></i>, now available on Amazon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The first edition of <i>Police Wife </i>won these international book awards:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">- American Society of Journalists and Authors' Arlene Book Award</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">- Hollywood Book Festival non-fiction book award (runner-up)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">- eLit Book Awards (silver)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">- INDIEFAB Book of the Years Awards (bronze)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">- Next Generation Indie Book Awards (finalist)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>No abusive cops terminated: documents</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The second edition of the book includes a new memoir by journalist Amy Morrison about her marriage to a violent, controlling police officer -- and how she escaped, along with her two young daughters. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It also includes pioneering research on the official response to police officer-involved domestic violence worldwide, including the first-ever international survey of dozens of agencies in 10 countries. One of the findings: Only one in five police departments worldwide typically terminates a cop even after two sustained incidents of domestic violence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In Canada, I obtained police documents showing that not a single abusive cop had been terminated from their job at any of four of the country's largest police departments in recent years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Tips for survivors, family and advocates</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Also find new details about the connections between police officer-involved domestic violence and other issues, such as police killings of African Americans, police sexual harassment of women cops and young female drivers and growing social inequality.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The new book also includes updated tips and resources for survivors of officer-involved domestic violence, family and friends and recommendations for police, governments, advocates, journalists, academics and the public.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0994861761" target="_blank">Click here</a></b> to find the <i>Police Wife </i>book on Amazon. And r</span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">ead a free extended excerpt of </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">Police Wife</i><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1YX72AsAKMUVHBMRFhMbDlFbVk/view" target="_blank">here</a></b><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">. Also follow </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/PoliceWifeDomesticViolence/" target="_blank">my <i>Police Wife </i>Facebook page</a></b><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"> to get updates and learn more. And visit my </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://policedomesticviolence.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Police Wife blog</a></b><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"> for updates and online resources.</span>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-83608222080486193942014-11-13T20:07:00.011-05:002022-03-17T06:02:42.275-04:00Russia Invades Ukraine -- Investigating the Kremlin's Hybrid War (Updated)<i>Has the world's second-most powerful military invaded Ukraine? From secret Russian troop burials to photos and soldiers speaking out, the evidence that Moscow has invaded Ukraine is overwhelming.</i><br />
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<i>My Russian invasion timeline </i><i>continues from <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/09/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">my earlier post</a></b> chronicling events of Aug. 25 to Nov. 3, 2014. </i><i>I'll update the timeline as new details emerge. Latest update: March 17, 2022 (all times in GMT).</i><br />
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<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 5, 2014</span></i></b><br />
Fifty percent of Russians say their government should focus on social and economic problems at home, "and not interfere in events in Ukraine," a 1,600-person survey in late October by Russia's Levada Centre <b><a href="http://www.levada.ru/05-11-2014/ukrainskii-krizis-politika-rossii-otvetstvennost-i-peremirie" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
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Only 36 percent agree that "Russia's geopolitical, strategic interests are more important than internal social and economic problems of Russia itself."<br />
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The findings jive with earlier surveys. In August, the Russian daily newspaper <i>Kommersant</i> <b><a href="http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2552583" target="_blank">reported</a></b> only 5 percent of Russians believed Moscow should send troops to help gunmen in Ukraine fighting the government.<br />
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And in September, a Levada <b><a href="http://www.levada.ru/eng/russian-paratroopers-pskov-who-had-died-ukrainian-territory" target="_blank">survey</a></b> found 40 percent of Russians said the combat deaths of Russian troops in Ukraine are "unacceptable and unjustified insofar as Russia is carrying out a hidden, undeclared war." Thirty percent said the deaths were "inevitable and justified."<br />
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<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 8</span></i></b><br />
Two convoys with 49 unmarked tanks, troop carriers and artillery-towing trucks are seen moving west toward the front lines in Ukraine through areas held by Moscow-backed militants, observers of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe say in a <b><a href="http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/126483" target="_blank">report</a></b>.<br />
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Two additional convoys with 34 unmarked military trucks, half towing artillery, are seen moving west the next day, the OSCE <b><a href="http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/126485" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span></b> AP journalists <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq1iBchjVFk" target="_blank">report</a></b> seeing three convoys of 80 unmarked military vehicles moving through militant-held areas of Ukraine, mainly trucks, some towing artillery with other carrying troops.<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></b>
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 10</span></i></b><br />
Only 13 percent of Russians say they would support their son volunteering to fight alongside Moscow-backed fighters in Ukraine, according to <b><a href="http://www.levada.ru/10-11-2014/prisoedinenie-kryma-i-uchastie-rossiiskikh-dobrovoltsev-v-konflikte-na-vostoke-ukrainy" target="_blank">a survey</a></b> by Russia's Levada Centre polling firm.<br />
<br />
Sixty-eight percent would try to stop them or convince them not to go.<br />
<br />
Also, 41 percent say they support Russian activist groups that <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/09/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">are investigating</a></b> combat deaths of Russian soldiers in Ukraine "because we need to know the truth." Only 9 percent denied Russian troops are fighting in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"I'm answerable only to president Putin and our Lord."</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">- Nikolai "Daddy" Kozitsyn, a </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">commander </span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">of Moscow-backed gunmen in Ukraine</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 11</span></i></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">4:12 p.m.: </span></b>Ukrainian Jewish leaders strongly support the Kyiv government and reject Kremlin claims that Ukraine is anti-Semitic, the BBC <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29991777" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
Prominent Ukrainian Jewish businessman Ihor Kolomoisky, the regional governor of Dnipropetrovsk, is a leading financial backer of Ukraine's military effort, while the murder of a Jewish businessman in militant-held Donetsk in August has prompted the exodus of Jewish families from areas controlled by Moscow-backed forces, the story notes.<br />
<br />
(See <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/4-myths-ukraine-crisis-crimea-nato-russia.html" target="_blank">here</a></b> for more Ukrainian Jewish community responses to Kremlin claims that it has intervened in Ukraine because of anti-Semitism.)<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day: </span></b>"I'm answerable only to president Putin and our Lord," Nikolai "Daddy" Kozitsyn, a commander of Moscow-backed gunmen in Ukraine, <b><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-rebels-disunited-front-run-warlords-124041693.html" target="_blank">tells</a></b> AP.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 12</span></i></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">7 a.m.: </span></b>Six hundred and thirty people in "military clothing" crossed a Russia-Ukraine border point in the previous week, "mostly to Ukraine," while another 35 crossed at a second border point, OSCE observers say in <b><a href="http://www.osce.org/node/126629" target="_blank">a report</a></b>.<br />
<br />
The observers are stationed at two crossing points controlled by Moscow-backed militants in eastern Ukraine where militants and military hardware have <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/07/ukraine-mh17-timeline-malaysia-airlines-buk-missile-igor-girkin-strelkov.html" target="_blank">previously crossed</a></b> from Russia into Ukraine.<br />
<br />
"The OM (observer mission) observed the highest number of persons in military-style clothing crossing the border in both directions since the beginning of its mandate. The OM observed them crossing the border more often in groups than previously. They were formed also of a higher number of people, in one instance of 24 persons," the OSCE says.<br />
<br />
Observers also noted a van marked "Cargo 200" (a Russian term for military combat deaths) crossing into Ukraine on Nov. 11 and then back out again a few hours later.<br />
<br />
The 665-person total was far higher than in the OSCE's <b><a href="http://www.osce.org/om/126412" target="_blank">previous report</a></b> on Nov. 5, which said 386 people in military-style dress had crossed at the two border points in the prior week.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"We were given maps of Russia with coordinates </span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">and targets. We didn't even know these </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">were </span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">populated communities of Ukraine."</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">- Russian officer sent to Ukraine</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day, </span></b>NATO commander Gen. Philip Breedlove confirms <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/09/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b> of a growing Russian military buildup in eastern Ukraine.<br />
<br />
"Across the last two days we have seen the same thing that OSCE is reporting," he <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/world/europe/ukraine-russia-military-border-nato.html?_r=0" target="_blank">says</a></b>. "We have seen columns of Russian equipment, primarily Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defense systems and Russian combat troops entering Ukraine."<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"They sent 600 of us. Twenty-four came back. </span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Where are the rest? Nobody is interested."</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">- Russian officer sent to Ukraine</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day, </span></b>Russian activist Elena Vasilieva, who is investigating Russian combat deaths in Ukraine, <b><a href="http://www.evasiljeva.ru/2014/11/1.html#more" target="_blank">publishes</a> </b>excerpts of letters on her blog that she says she got from Russian officers sent to fight in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
"Nobody cares about us. Meat is meat. But we're people," one writes. "A breakdown is happening. Nobody wants to go to this Ukraine. They sent 600 of us. Twenty-four came back. Where are the rest? Nobody is interested."<br />
<br />
"These DPRists (a reference to militants of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic) are on a lot of drugs and shoot at everybody," another says. "They've killed more of us than the Ukrainians have."<br />
<br />
"We were initially sent on training," an officer writes in a letter in a <b><a href="http://www.evasiljeva.ru/2014/11/2.html#more" target="_blank">second post</a></b>. "We were given maps of Russia with coordinates and targets. We didn't even know these were populated communities of Ukraine. After the shelling we found out these were towns, with people.<br />
<br />
"Those who come back from this hellhole are angry like dogs. They wait for our media to report this, but they are silent and push some nonsense about Novorossia (the Kremlin's term for areas of eastern and southern Ukraine). There is no Novorossia. There are just a bunch of criminals with automatics... Everybody's lying. Why are we shooting at peaceful people?"<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"(Russian) soldiers are doing anything </i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>they can to avoid getting sent to war."</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>- Russian activist Elena Vasilieva</i></b></span></div>
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span></b> Valentina Melnikova, secretary of the influential Russian Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees, <b><a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/66070.html" target="_blank">tells</a></b> the Russian newspaper <i>Novaya Gazeta</i> that 250 Russian conscripts refused to sign contracts agreeing to fight in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
When their commander said he'd send them anyway, several got in touch with Melnikova. She says only her complaint to the Russian defense ministry saved the men from being forcibly sent to Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Melnikova has <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/09/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">previously said</a></b> Russian soldiers have been sent to fight in Ukraine against their will.<br />
<br />
She says nearly 4,000 Russian soldiers are presently fighting in Ukraine. They are promised combat pay equivalent to $3,000 USD, but no one has received the payouts, she says.<br />
<br />
Soldiers and families of those killed in action can't complain because Russia denies sending troops to Ukraine, she says.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 15</span></i></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">8 a.m.: </span></b>The war in eastern Ukraine "will end within a month, not later, because (Russian president Vladimir) Putin will soon run out of troops," <b><a href="http://m.gordonua.com/publications/Rossiyskaya-pravozashchitnica-Vasileva-Voyna-zakonchitsya-cherez-mesyac-ne-pozzhe-potomu-chto-u-Putina-skoro-zakonchatsya-soldaty-51242.html" target="_blank">says</a></b> Russian activist Elena Vasilieva, citing information from Russian military contacts.<br />
<br />
"They tell me there's nobody left to send to Donbass (eastern Ukraine). Soldiers are doing anything they can to avoid getting sent to war," she tells Ukraine's Gordon.ua news site.<br />
<br />
"Contract soldiers in Donbass will be replaced with conscripts, but these are inexperienced boys who could die right away or surrender."<br />
<br />
Vasilieva is in Kyiv working on a documentary about Russia's covert war in Ukraine. She says Russian authorities have launched a criminal case against her.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 16</span></i></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">11 p.m.: </span></b>In an interview with Germany's ARD TV network, Russian president Vladimir Putin <b><a href="http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/23253" target="_blank">confirms</a></b> what he denied last March -- that he moved troops into Ukraine's Crimea peninsula before staging a rigged referendum on independence there last March on accession to Russia.<br />
<br />
"I make no secret of it, it is a fact and we never concealed that our Armed Forces, let us be clear, blocked Ukrainian armed forces stationed in Crimea, not to force anybody to vote, which is impossible, but to avoid bloodshed," he says according to a transcript on the Kremlin's website.<br />
<br />
Asked whether Russia sends weapons and soldiers to militants in eastern Ukraine, Putin didn't deny it. "Nowadays people who wage a fight and consider it righteous will always get weapons," he said, adding that Ukraine wants to "annihilate everyone" in the eastern part of the country.<br />
<br />
"We won't let it happen," he said.<br />
<br />
Last March, Putin <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-images-contradict-putins.html" target="_blank">insisted</a></b> to reporters that the thousands of heavily armed soldiers with no insignia who had flooded into Crimea -- much like is currently happening in eastern Ukraine -- were "local self-defence units."<br />
<br />
When a reporter asked Putin if the troops wearing what appeared to be Russian army uniforms were indeed Russian, he said such uniforms could be bought in a store.<br />
<br />
"But were they Russian soldiers or not?" a reporter asked.<br />
<br />
"Those were local self-defence units," Putin said.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 18</span></i></b><br />
Over 20 Russian-made models of tanks, armoured personnel vehicles, missiles and other weapons not known to be in the possession of the Ukrainian military have been documented in the hands of Moscow-backed militants in eastern Ukraine, Australia-based consulting firm Armament Research Services says in <b><a href="http://armamentresearch.com/Uploads/Research%20Report%20No.%203%20-%20Raising%20Red%20Flags.pdf" target="_blank">a report</a></b> detailing weapons used in the conflict in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
The report contradicts militant claims that all their weaponry was captured from Ukrainian forces.<br />
<br />
Weapons systems photographed in militant hands include two different models of T-72 tanks, the sophisticated 1RL239 battlefield surveillance radar system and an anti-tank missile captured with paperwork indicating it was in a Russian military stockpile as recently as April 2014.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 19</span></i></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">3:02 a.m.: </span></b>The UK embassy in Ukraine tweets a guide for the Kremlin to spot its T-72BM series tanks in Ukraine. These tanks, which aren't used by Ukrainian forces, have been <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/09/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">photographed</a></b> several times since August in the hands of Moscow-backed militants in Ukraine.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Putin?src=hash">#Putin</a> still denying <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Russia?src=hash">#Russia</a>’s troops & hardware are in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash">#Ukraine</a>. Here’s a guide to help the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kremlin?src=hash">#Kremlin</a> spot its tanks: <a href="http://t.co/RYPeeK0Paf">pic.twitter.com/RYPeeK0Paf</a><br />
— UK in Ukraine (@UKinUkraine) <a href="https://twitter.com/UKinUkraine/status/535014678842593280">November 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 20</span></i></b><br />
Moscow-backed militants were close to defeat and preparing to flee to Russia in mid-August when Russian soldiers -- supposedly "on leave" -- entered Ukraine and reversed the tide of the war.<br />
<br />
So acknowledges<b> <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/05/ukraine-militia-leader-igor-girkin-strelkov-fsb-bezler-konstantin-malofeyev.html" target="_blank">Igor "Shooter" Girkin</a></b>, a former colonel in Russia's FSB security agency (successor to the notorious KGB) and the militia's former "defence minister," in <b><a href="http://zavtra.ru/content/view/kto-tyi-strelok/" target="_blank">an interview</a></b> with <b><a href="http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=63&x_article=154" target="_blank">Alexander Prokhanov</a></b>, the anti-Semitic editor of far-right Russian newspaper <i>Zavtra</i> ("Tomorrow").<br />
<br />
"The last days were quite desperate," Girkin says. "We were so spread out that even the military police was sent into battle... We were down to our reserves -- supply and headquarters staff, which mostly consisted of the elderly and untrained people."<br />
<br />
Girkin says the "vacationing" soldiers led the attack on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol that opened a new front in the war in late August, far to the south of the previous fighting.<br />
<br />
"Militant units were subordinated to them. But mainly it was 'the vacationers' who attacked toward Mariupol," he says.<br />
<br />
A Russian activist <b><a href="http://www.dw.de/%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%89%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0-%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B4%D0%B0-%D0%B3%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B7-200-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE-%D0%BD%D0%B5-%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%82-%D0%B4%D0%BE-%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0/a-17955851?maca=rus-rss_rus_UkrNet_All-4190-xml" target="_blank">said</a></b> in September Russian soldiers were being forced by commanders to sign a contract saying they were going "on leave" and then were sent to fight in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
A militant leader <b><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/08/28/uk-ukraine-crisis-idUKKBN0GS10A20140828" target="_blank">said</a></b> in August his ranks included 3,000 Russian "volunteers."<br />
<br />
Girkin, who now lives in Russia, also takes credit in the interview for starting the war in the first place.<br />
<br />
"At first nobody wanted to fight... I pulled the trigger that started the war. If our unit hadn't crossed the border, everything would have ended like in Kharkiv and Odessa -- a few dozen people dead, burned, arrested.<br />
<br />
"I am personally responsible for what is happening there."<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span></b> a UN human rights report <b><a href="http://www.un.org.ua/en/information-centre/news/1930" target="_blank">says</a></b> areas of eastern Ukraine under the control of Moscow-backed militants have seen a "total breakdown in law and order" and "serious human rights violations" against civilians, including torture, disappearances, executions, forced labour and sexual violence.<br />
<br />
"The continuing presence of a large amount of sophisticated weaponry, as well as foreign fighters that include servicemen from the Russian Federation, directly affects the human rights situation in the east of Ukraine," the UN says.<br />
<br />
People have been held and tortured in secret detention facilities, the report says. "Thousands of individuals remain missing. Ad hoc graves continue to be found and exhumed."<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 21</span></i></b><br />
Five Russian military aircraft entered Ukrainian airspace in the eastern Luhansk region, the Russian-language Informator.lg.ua site <b><a href="http://informator.lg.ua/?p=49100" target="_blank">reports</a></b>, citing Luhansk residents.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 22</span></i></b><br />
Nearly 7,500 Russian soldiers are presently stationed in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine's military intelligence chief Stepan Poltorak <b><a href="http://uapress.info/uk/news/show/48694" target="_blank">says</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 24</span></i></b><br />
A Russian woman <b><a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/66219.html" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Russian newspaper <i>Novaya Gazeta </i>that her boyfriend, Sergey Andriyanov, a paratrooper with Russia's 106th Guards Airborne Division, was killed in combat in Ukraine in late August.<br />
<br />
Asked where he died, the woman says, "It's not a secret for anybody. Everyone knows very well that he died in Ukraine."<br />
<br />
Andriyanov had told his girlfriend he was being deployed to the Russian city of Rostov for training.<br />
<br />
When his body was sent home, the woman and Andriyanov's mother were shocked to find it covered in dirt, with open eyes and mouth and blood on his lips and teeth.<br />
<br />
"It's very frustrating for me that he gave his life, and they brought him like that."<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span> <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-11-24/russias-big-bet-on-the-french-far-right?cmpid=yhoo" target="_blank">eyebrows</a></b> are being raised in France over a 9-million-euro Russian bank loan to the far-right National Front party, which strongly backs Putin's policies in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
"The loan has the Kremlin's fingerprints on it," Bloomberg View reports, noting that it was orchestrated by National Front legislator with close ties to the Kremlin.<br />
<br />
The loan is one of several Russian loans to Europe's growing far-right or fascist parties -- Greece's Golden Dawn, Belgium's Vlaams Belang, Italy's Northern League, Hungary's Jobbik and the Freedom Party of Austria, UK's <i>The Week</i> magazine <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/europe/61498/russia-funds-french-national-front-is-moscow-sowing-european-unrest" target="_blank"><b>reports</b></a>.<br />
<br />
Like the National Front, these parties <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-putin-russia-far-right-neo-nazi.html" target="_blank">support</a></b> Putin's foreign policy, including in Ukraine, and conservative domestic policies, such as anti-gay legislation.<br />
<br />
The loans occurred amid "growing evidence of a secret Kremlin campaign to buy influence in European politics," the magazine said, citing <i>The Times </i>of London.<br />
<br />
The campaign belies Kremlin claims that it has intervened in Ukraine because its new government is fascist.<br />
<br />
The Interpreter Mag website, which analyzes Russian media, provides a more detailed <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/the-french-far-right-secure-a-e9m-loan-from-a-russian-bank-close-to-putin/" target="_blank">report</a></b> on the close Kremlin connections to the Russian bank that provided the loan to the National Front in France as well as Kremlin ties to Europe's far right.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day, </span></b>Germany's <i>Bild</i> newspaper <b><a href="http://www.bild.de/politik/inland/wladimir-putin/russlands-praesident-greift-nach-der-afd-kreml-netzwerk-38690092.bild.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b> that the country's rightist eurosceptic AfD party is secretly financed by the Kremlin through covert gold sales.<br />
<br />
The financing is part of a Kremlin campaign to influence European governments. Details of the campaign are contained in a strategy paper from a Moscow think tank titled "Putin: the new leader of international conservatism."<br />
<br />
The EUObserver site carried an English <b><a href="http://www.thelocal.de/20141124/putin-euro-influence-strategy-targets-afd" target="_blank">report</a></b> on the story (see also this <b><a href="http://www.thelocal.de/20141124/putin-euro-influence-strategy-targets-afd" target="_blank">report</a></b>).<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day, </span></b>Ukrainian security officials <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-live-day-280-3-ukrainian-soldiers-killed-over-last-24-hours/" target="_blank">say</a></b> Russia has resumed artillery shelling of Ukrainian positions from across the border.<br />
<br />
The U.S. State Department said last July that Russia had shelled Ukraine from across the border. In September, OSCE observers at a Russia-Ukraine border post reported hearing artillery fire originating in Russia. (See the reports in my earlier <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/09/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">Russian invasion timeline</a></b>.)<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day, </span></b>OSCE parliamentary assembly president Ikka Kanerva <b><a href="http://www.osce.org/pa/127178" target="_blank">says</a></b> "Russia must withdraw all forces and equipment from Ukraine and away from its border and end its support for separatist forces.<br />
<br />
"The ball is clearly in Russia's court."<br />
<br />
In a statement, Kanerva also rejects Russia's insistence that Ukraine not join NATO, noting that the first core principle in the OSCE's 1975 founding act says OSCE member countries have the right to belong to any international organization or alliance they choose.<br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
"Simply put, it's up to Ukraine and no one else," Kanerva says.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 25</span></i></b><br />
<i>The Independent</i> of London carries <b><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/putins-farright-ambition-thinktank-reveals-how-russian-president-is-wooing--and-funding--populist-parties-across-europe-to-gain-influence-in-the-eu-9883052.html" target="_blank">more details</a></b> of Russia's growing links to the European far-right.<br />
<br />
The newspaper notes that the Kremlin-owned Russia Today news channel launched a German version of its broadcast earlier this month, which has already been criticized in Germany media for using journalists with far-right views.<br />
<br />
One was sacked recently by German public channel RBB for making anti-Semitic comments.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 26</span></i></b><br />
Russia's so-called "humanitarian aid" convoys, which the Kremlin has repeatedly sent into militant-held areas of Ukraine without Kyiv's consent or verification, have supplied fuel for tanks, Victoria Nulland, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, <b><a href="https://meduza.io/feature/2014/11/26/rossiyskaya-gumanitarnaya-pomosch-eto-toplivo-dlya-tankov" target="_blank">tells</a></b> the Meduza Project, an Russian independent news site.<br />
<br />
"Since the Minsk peace deal was signed, hundreds of tanks, howitzers, artillery systems, 'Grad' (rocket) launchers have entered eastern Ukraine from Russia. How can this be called respect for the agreement, which calls for the withdrawal of foreign soldiers and equipment?"<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day, </span></b>a Russian mother, Olga Korneyeva, says in <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-OW2pw5FCU" target="_blank">a YouTube video</a></b> that her son Mikita Zhiltsov, a Russian army conscript, is being forcibly sent to fight in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Zhiltsov was initially told he was being sent for training near the Ukrainian border, but he wound up in a border village and was informed he'd be sent into combat in Ukraine, the mother <b><a href="http://uapress.info/uk/news/show/49460" target="_blank">says</a></b>.<br />
<br />
"I am against this as a mother. I support my son's position. He isn't afraid to die or defend his country... But he doesn't understand why. Me too. This is my position as a citizen, as is my son's. He is against war activities on foreign territory."<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 27</span></i></b><br />
Russian families of soldiers killed in so-called training exercises -- a euphemism for combat deaths in Ukraine -- will get the equivalent of $100,000 in compensation, Russian newspaper <i>Novaya Gazeta </i><b><a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/66279.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>, citing Russia's deputy defence minister, Nikolai Pankov.<br />
<br />
Pankov made the announcement at a meeting of a Russian human rights commission. When asked where the soldiers were killed, "military officials made round eyes and said they wouldn't discuss that," the newspaper said.<br />
<br />
The circumstances of soldier deaths are "personal information," a human rights worker said she was told.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span></b> Taras Kuzio, a research associate at the University of Alberta, says in a <i>Financial Times</i> <b><a href="http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2014/11/27/guest-post-in-ukraine-it-is-time-to-call-a-war-a-war/" target="_blank">blog piece</a></b> that Russian combat deaths in Ukraine -- <b><a href="http://tsn.ua/politika/pislya-minskih-domovlenostey-na-donbasi-zaginuli-300-rosiyskih-viyskovih-pravozahisnicya-370434.html" target="_blank">estimated</a></b> by one Russian activist at nearly 4,000 in September -- were at that point about the same after five months of conflict as in the nine-year U.S. war in Iraq and about a third of the combat death toll of the Russian military in the 1980s war in Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 30</span></i></b><br />
A<b> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAcs6P2JFGI" target="_blank">newly released video</a></b> on YouTube shows dozens of unarmed people wounded and some apparently dead in downtown Kyiv as riot police stroll by on Feb. 18, 2014, the day security forces of Ukraine's then Moscow-backed government opened fire on demonstrators with live ammunition in an attempt to crush pro-democracy protests.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-video-sniper-maidan-killings-kyiv.html" target="_blank">Earlier-released videos</a></b> show government snipers moving to attack demonstrators and numerous unarmed protesters and medics being gunned down, some while withdrawing.<br />
<br />
The crackdown was part of a failed plan involving over 20,000 police to assault the Maidan mass protests against Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, Ukrainian parliamentarian and former security official Hennady Moskal <a href="http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/02/24/mp-moskal-releases-details-on-perpetrators-of-violence-against-protesters/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">later said</a>.<br />
<br />
Over 100 protesters were killed and more than 1,000 were injured before Yanukovych fled from Kyiv on Feb. 21, eventually escaping to Russia.<br />
<br />
Thirty members of Russia's FSB security agency (successor to the KGB) helped Yanukovych's government plan the assault on the mass protests, a Ukrainian investigation <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-kyiv-russia-fsb-sniper-maidan-killings-berkut-sergei-beseda.html" target="_blank">found</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">DECEMBER 8</span></i></b><br />
"At least 30,000" Russian citizens have gone to Ukraine to fight the Kyiv government, Russian communist member of parliament Vyacheslav Tetekin <b><a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/66413.html" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Russian newspaper <i>Novaya Gazeta</i>.<br />
<br />
"It's clear that it's not hundreds but tens of thousands," he says.<br />
<br />
Tetekin says he will propose legislation to grant veteran's benefits to Russians who have fought in Ukraine, including a pension, cheaper utility rates and the equivalent of about $100,000 USD in the event of death.<br />
<br />
The goal is to motivate more Russians to fight in Ukraine. "I welcome the increase of the flow of volunteers to go there," he says.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">DECEMBER 14</span></i></b><br />
Only 30 percent of Russians approve of Russian military intervention in Ukraine, while just 6 percent are ready to lose social benefits, pensions or income to finance the takeover of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and Russia's hybrid war on Ukraine, Russian polling firm Levada-Center <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/12/14/ne_bilshe_6_rosiyan_hotovi_zmyrytysya_zi_znyzhennyam_dokhodiv_cherez_pryyednannya_krymu" target="_blank">says</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">DECEMBER 20</span></i></b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i0.wp.com/euromaidanpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/25.jpg?resize=296%2C308" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i0.wp.com/euromaidanpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/25.jpg?resize=296%2C308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A 30-year-old woman working with Russia's GRU <br />
military intelligence agency was arrested on St.<br />
Nicholas Day in Kyiv after leaving this explosives-<br />
filled handbag in downtown Kyiv's busy Maidan <br />
square, Ukraine's SBU security agency says.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Russia's GRU military intelligence agency plotted to set off a five-kilogram bomb in downtown Kyiv's busy Independence Square (known in Ukrainian as the "Maidan," site of anti-government protests that toppled Ukraine's previous pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych), Ukraine's SBU security agency <b><a href="http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/12/19/russian-special-services-planned-terrorist-attack-in-central-kyiv/" target="_blank">says</a></b>.<br />
<br />
The attack was to occur yesterday, on St. Nicholas Day, when the capital's downtown is full of shopping families.<br />
<br />
A 30-year-old woman who had arrived in Kyiv from the militant-held eastern Luhansk region was arrested after leaving a handbag with the explosives in the square, the SBU says.<br />
<br />
She is said to have been working for Kremlin-backed militants in coordination with the GRU.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">DECEMBER 22</span></i></b><br />
Up to 8,000 Russian Federation soldiers are presently deployed illegally in militant-held areas of eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian defence minister Stepan Poltorak <b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/ukrainian/news_in_brief/2014/12/141222_hk_poltorak_russia_soldiers" target="_blank">is quoted saying</a></b> by BBC-Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Just 15 to 20 percent of the 30,000-some people fighting with the Kremlin-backed militia in eastern Ukraine are local residents, Poltorak said.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">JANUARY 15, 2015</span></i></b><br />
A new type of machine gun used only by the Russian military, the PKP Pecheneg, has been photographed in the hands of Kremlin-backed forces in Ukraine, the British embassy in Kyiv says in <b><a href="https://twitter.com/UKinUkraine/status/555707568522551296/photo/1" target="_blank">a Twitter post</a> -- </b>"further proof of Russian military involvement in Ukraine," in the embassy's words.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Volnovakha?src=hash">#Volnovakha</a> attack shows need for ceasefire in east <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash">#Ukraine</a>. Harder while <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Russia?src=hash">#Russia</a> still sending arms to separatists: <a href="http://t.co/3o7PQGISw5">pic.twitter.com/3o7PQGISw5</a><br />
— UK in Ukraine (@UKinUkraine) <a href="https://twitter.com/UKinUkraine/status/555707568522551296">January 15, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">JANUARY 19</span></i></b><br />
Over 100 Russian airborne and infantry soldiers were killed in combat in eastern Ukraine today, bringing the total Russian military death toll in Ukraine to 5,600, Russian-language blogger Oleh Yarchuk <b><a href="http://oyblogg.blogspot.se/" target="_blank">writes</a></b> on his blog chronicling Russian combat deaths in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Russian combat deaths totalled nearly 300 in the past three days, according to Yarchuk's data.<br />
<br />
That number coincides with the <b><a href="https://twitter.com/euromaidan/status/557282215001075712" target="_blank">estimate</a></b> of Ukrainian officials of approximately 300 killed among Kremlin-backed forces in Ukraine in escalated fighting in the last several days, most notably around the Donetsk airport.<br />
<br />
Russian activist Elena Vasilieva, who publishes her own tallies of Russian combat deaths in Ukraine, <b><a href="http://www.evasiljeva.ru/2015/01/blog-post_19.html" target="_blank">offers</a></b> a slightly higher estimate of 382 Russian military combat deaths and up to 500 injured in the past three days, including among special forces, paratroopers and marines.<br />
<br />
Over 6,200 Russian soldiers have died fighting in Ukraine or disappeared since the Russian covert war began last spring, she estimates based on her sources in Russian military families.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day, </span></b><i>The Guardian </i>publishes <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/19/russia-official-silence-for-families-troops-killed-in-ukraine?CMP=twt_gu" target="_blank">a story</a></b> quoting Russian rights activists and opposition politician Lev Schlossberg saying thousands of Russian soldiers have been sent to fight in Ukraine, in some cases after being pressured to go.<br />
<br />
One mother said her son told her his unit was being sent to Ukraine. He was killed there in an artillery strike, his comrades later said.<br />
<br />
The mother said her son told her commanders offered a 400,000-ruble (USD$6,000) bonus to soldiers who agreed to fight in Ukraine, "then simply ordered them forward when volunteers weren't forthcoming.<br />
<br />
Families of killed soldiers are threatened with cut-off benefits if they speak out, rights advocates say.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">JANUARY 21</span></i></b><br />
<b><a href="http://en.censor.net.ua/news/320892/another_2000_russian_soldiers_crossed_the_ukrainian_border_poroshenko" target="_blank">Two thousand Russian soldiers</a></b> have crossed illegally into eastern Ukraine in recent days, including <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/severe-fights-go-on-near-donetsk-airport-more-russian-troops-reportedly-enter-ukraine-377783.html" target="_blank">two Russian army battalion tactical groups</a></b>, Ukrainian officials say.<br />
<br />
The deployments bring the total Russian military presence in Ukraine to "about 9,000" troops, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko <b><a href="http://president.gov.ua/en/news/32091.html" target="_blank">says</a></b>.<br />
<br />
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov <b><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/01/21/uk-ukraine-crisis-lavrov-idUKKBN0KU0PD20150121" target="_blank">denies</a></b> the accusations. "Please present proof," he told reporters in Berlin. But he acknowledged Kremlin-backed militants hold more territory than agreed to in the Minsk ceasefire agreement signed in September.<br />
<br />
Ukrainian officials <b><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/01/21/uk-ukraine-crisis-lavrov-idUKKBN0KU0PD20150121" target="_blank">say</a></b> the militants have seized over 500 square kilometres of additional land since the deal.<br />
<br />
And despite the ceasefire, Russia has doubled its quantity of military equipment deployed in Ukraine since December, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe, <b><a href="http://www.ukrinform.ua/ukr/news/za_chas_tishi_u_boyovikiv_stalo_vdvichi_bilshe_zbroii___amerikanskiy_general_2012750" target="_blank">says</a></b>.<br />
<br />
"It is irrefutable that they [militants] are getting direct support from Russia," he <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/01/21/world/europe/ap-eu-russia-ukraine.html" target="_blank">said</a></b> during a visit to Kyiv.<br />
<br />
An Associated Press reporter observed nine Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers, six anti-tank cannons, four Grad multiple rocket launchers, four trucks carrying ammunition and 15 "pristine-looking tanks" in militant-held areas headed toward an embattled checkpoint held until recently by Ukrainian forces, <i>The New York Times </i><b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/01/21/world/europe/ap-eu-russia-ukraine.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span></b> blogger Oleh Yarchuk <b><a href="http://oyblogg.blogspot.se/" target="_blank">reports</a></b> over 80 Russian soldiers from various tank, airborne, artillery and other units were killed in combat in Ukraine in the past two days.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span> </b>Boris Vishnevsky, a Russian politician in St. Petersburg,<b> <a href="http://nr2.com.ua/News/world_and_russia/Boris-Vishnevskiy-V-Kamenke-pod-Peterburgom-srochnikov-pod-davleniem-zastavlyayut-podpisyvat-kontrakty-i-hotyat-poslat-na-Ukrainu--88776.html" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Russian newspaper <i>Novy Region</i> that Russian army conscripts "are being strongly pressured and forced to sign contracts and are being sent to Ukraine."<br />
<br />
The Russian army's 138th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade is being deployed to Ukraine in coming days, Vishnevsky says.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://conflictreportdotinfo.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/grad-k.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://conflictreportdotinfo.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/grad-k.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New evidence of Russia's invasion of Ukraine: Ultramodern Russian 2B26 Grad-K multiple <br />
rocket launcher filmed in militant-held eastern Ukraine. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">JANUARY 23</span></i></b><br />
New photos have emerged confirming Russia's covert (or not-so-covert) military intervention in eastern Ukraine.<br />
<br />
An ultramodern Russian-made 2B26 Grad-K multiple rocket launcher was videotaped deep inside Ukraine in a militant-head area near the embattled Donetsk airport, blogger Conflict Reporter <b><a href="http://conflictreport.info/2015/01/23/hard-evidence-the-regular-russian-army-invades-ukraine/" target="_blank">writes</a></b>.<br />
<br />
The system was delivered to Russian forces only in 2012 and isn't in possession of the Ukrainian military, meaning it couldn't have been captured from Ukraine, the post says.<br />
<br />
Also near Donetsk, a powerful Russian-made BM-33 Smerch multiple rocket launcher was said to be filmed yesterday -- a system that is also in Ukrainian military hands but that hasn't been stationed anywhere near front lines and thus couldn't have been captured by Kremlin-backed militants, Conflict Reporter says.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span> </b>Russian soldiers' rights activists say Russian army conscripts are being tricked and forced to fight in Ukraine under threat of criminal prosecution, the Russian newspaper <i>Novaya Gazeta </i><b><a href="http://novayagazeta.livejournal.com/2731072.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
The Russian newspaper <i>Komersant</i> carries <b><a href="http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2658548" target="_blank">a similar report</a></b> several days later.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">JANUARY 25</span></i></b><br />
Former militant commander Igor "Strelkov" Girkin, who <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/05/ukraine-militia-leader-igor-girkin-strelkov-fsb-bezler-konstantin-malofeyev.html" target="_blank">says</a></b> he was a colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence agency, <b><a href="http://echo.msk.ru/blog/serguei_parkhomenko/1480416-echo/" target="_blank">acknowledges</a></b> on Russian TV that Moscow-backed militants in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula forcibly gathered regional deputies to stage a <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-7-reasons-crimea-referendum-fraud-fake-results-sergei-aksyonov.html" target="_blank">fraud-riddled referendum</a></b> on joining Russia last March.<br />
<br />
"I did not see any support from (Crimea) state authorities in Simferopol (the regional capital)," he says. "It was the militants who gathered the deputies so they would accept this (the referendum)." (See an English account of Girkin's remarks <b><a href="http://uatoday.tv/news/moscow-agent-strelkov-admits-russian-army-behind-crimean-referendum-404995.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.)<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">JANUARY 28</span></i></b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3bhUl44VeSPuuKiKC3xvXXsl9o_F1xYMwA4mvxpXVi6hNP0dZB7GtWP0Z-Eqj_n_SArilOJ447eq3cCjdkNmUXIyZGFNdwchyphenhyphenUwaubRb9xPo6dTnAHHLtX1qKBH8_SlAPQV5_x00qlTE/s1600/Ilovaisk+15.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3bhUl44VeSPuuKiKC3xvXXsl9o_F1xYMwA4mvxpXVi6hNP0dZB7GtWP0Z-Eqj_n_SArilOJ447eq3cCjdkNmUXIyZGFNdwchyphenhyphenUwaubRb9xPo6dTnAHHLtX1qKBH8_SlAPQV5_x00qlTE/s1600/Ilovaisk+15.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Google Earth images show multiple vehicle tracks crossing <br />
the Russian border in the area where a Ukrainian military <br />
advance was pushed back last August, the <br />
Ukraine@war blog reports.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Satellite images on Google Earth show how "50 to 100" Russian artillery units crossed the Ukrainian border last summer in the area where Ukrainian forces were subject to massive artillery barrages that killed dozens of retreating Ukrainian soldiers offered safe passage last August, the Ukraine@war blog <b><a href="http://ukraineatwar.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/google-earth-shows-how-russians-crossed.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
The images show military vehicles lined up in rows and multiple vehicle tracks crossing the border, then heading toward a staging area from where Ukrainian forces were attacked.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">JANUARY 30</span></i></b><br />
A widely watched <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WQQw1JmwAw" target="_blank">video</a></b> falsely claimed that U.S. heavy weapons have been shipped to Ukraine, <b><a href="http://www.stopfake.org/en/video-fake-american-military-machinery-in-ukraine/" target="_blank">reports</a></b> the StopFake website, which investigates media claims about the conflict in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
In fact, as the site demonstrates, the video was filmed in Latvia and shows equipment being shipped to Lithuania.<br />
<br />
The Obama administration has yet to send any arms to Ukraine but started deliberating the idea after Moscow-backed militants escalated attacks on Ukrainian forces in recent weeks.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 1</span></i></b><br />
The Russian military suffered one of its worst casualty tolls in combat today in eastern Ukraine, with 182 combat deaths and 249 wounded, according to Russian-language <b><a href="http://oyblogg.blogspot.se/" target="_blank">blogger Oleh Yarchuk</a></b>, who chronicles Russian military combat deaths in Ukraine using various open sources.<br />
<br />
Today's death toll brings total Russian military combat deaths in Ukraine to 6,214, with another 2,897 missing in action, according to Yarchuk's calculations. His death toll includes only casualties of Russian regular soldiers, not those of Moscow-backed militants in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span> </b>the <b><a href="http://www.stopfake.org/en/fake-the-u-s-has-deployed-400-us-mercenaries-on-ukrainian-soil/" target="_blank">StopFake website</a></b> debunks <b><a href="http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=883_1422547919" target="_blank">a story</a></b> on the site LiveLeak that claims the U.S. "has deployed 400 mercenaries on Ukrainian soil." The story say the U.S. government hired the mercenaries from the security firm Academi.<br />
<br />
In fact, a photo of heavily armed men accompanying the story shows contractors from another company, GK Sierra Security, taken not in Ukraine but in Afghanistan in 2010.<br />
<br />
Academi says on its site the claim is "completely false" and it "has no personnel in Ukraine."<br />
<br />
The LiveLeak report echoes earlier debunked <b><a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/09/353918/blackwater-members-in-ukraine/" target="_blank">claims</a></b> last March that 300 contractors from the Blackwater firm and other security companies had arrived in Ukraine. The claims originated from state-controlled media in Russia and Iran and cited <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlHbrdYsD7E" target="_blank">a video</a></b> of a group of armed men running around in Donetsk in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
In fact, as StopFake <b><a href="http://www.stopfake.org/en/fake-american-mercenaries-have-appeared-in-donetsk/" target="_blank">said</a> </b>at the time, the video most likely shows Ukrainian security personnel attempting to protect an ex-Donetsk governor who was being attacked by a crowd.<br />
<br />
The StopFake report links a Russian-language <b><a href="http://lb.ua/news/2014/03/03/258027_eksgubernatora_shishatskogo_napali.html" target="_blank">report</a></b> on the LB.ua news site, which covers eastern Ukraine. That report included another video taken from a different perspective that shows a crowd carrying a Russian flag beating the ex-governor, who the story said escaped with the help of Ukrainian security personnel.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 6</span></i></b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6ML8vjCYAA1Agz.jpg:large" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6ML8vjCYAA1Agz.jpg:large" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These BPM-97 armoured vehicles, used only by Russia's<br />
border guards, were photographed alongside forces of<br />
Moscow-backed militants in eastern Ukraine, The<br />
Interpreter Mag reports.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Updated variants of the T-72 tank and BMP-2 armoured vehicle, both known to be in use only in the Russian military, have been spotted in use by Kremlin-backed forces in Ukraine, <i>The Moscow Times</i> <b><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/5-heavy-weapons-in-ukraine-s-rebel-war-that-may-have-come-from-russia/515557.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day, </span></b>The Interpreter Mag site publishes <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-live-day-354-humanitarian-corridor-out-of-debaltsevo-announced/" target="_blank">photos</a></b> of BPM-97 ("Vystrel") armoured vehicles, used only by Russia's border guards, in use by Moscow-backed forces in eastern Ukraine.<br />
<br />
The Bellingcat investigative journalism site <b><a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/01/03/did-russia-send-a-new-batch-of-military-vehicles-to-separatists-controlled-ukraine/" target="_blank">geolocates</a></b> the photos in militant-held Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span> </b>Oxford University political scientists Paul Chaisty and Stephen Whitfield <b><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/02/06/support-for-separatism-in-southern-and-eastern-ukraine-is-lower-than-you-think/" target="_blank">report</a></b> that in a survey of eastern and southern Ukrainians in December, less than 5 percent favoured the breakup of the country (the option favoured at various times by Moscow-backed militants), while 28 percent favoured federalism (the option reportedly espoused by the Kremlin at this month's peace talks in Minsk).<br />
<br />
Slightly more than 50 percent backed the current unitary form of government.<br />
<br />
Only six percent believed the Donbass region, where fighting has raged, should become independent, while four percent wanted it to join Russia.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 9</span></i></b><br />
Russia's military isn't prepared for protracted conflict with Ukraine and faces personnel shortages, forcing it to deploy conscripts to the battle and bring in units normally deployed in Central Asia, <b><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/russian-army-facing-big-problems-in-ukraine/515636.html" target="_blank">writes</a></b> Russian newspaper editor Alexander Golts in <i>The Moscow Times</i>.<br />
<br />
"That is why Russia's military leaders might have concluded that they need to force or trick conscripts into signing on for longer stints," writes Golts, deputy editor of the online newspaper <i>Yezhednevny Zhurnal</i>.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 10</span></i></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">9:44 a.m.: </span></b>Moscow-backed militants in eastern Ukraine "always seem to have new weapons" to replace those lost in battle, and these weapons "must come from the other side," meaning Russia, <b><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ukraine-crisis-osce-claims-separatists-always-seem-have-new-weapons-hand-1487310" target="_blank">says</a></b> Lamberto Zannier, secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which has hundreds of monitors observing the conflict in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
"What we see is that as weapons get destroyed during the military operations, the separatists' side, they always have new weapons at hand, so these weapons must come from somewhere," Zannier says.<br />
<br />
"We are present in larger numbers on the Ukrainian side and we have never seen weapons from there going into the East, so our conclusion is that they must come from the other side."<br />
<br />
Asked if he meant Russia, Zannier said, "Obviously that's the Russian border, yes."<br />
<br />
"There are multiple rocket launchers and there are heavy artillery including howitzers, heavy howitzers on tracks and tanks, of course, and various artillery systems of many calibres. They seem to have plenty of ammunition, so the conflict is really continuing and the availability of weapons and ammunition and fuel doesn't seem to be a problem."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/FaEw-09q14o/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FaEw-09q14o?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: right; float: right;" width="320"></iframe></div>
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 12</span></i></b><br />
Ukrainian forces <a href="http://inforesist.org/ukrainskaya-pvo-unichtozhila-rossijskij-bespilotnik-orlan-10-video/" target="_blank"><b>shoot down</b></a> a Russian-made Orlan-10 drone operated by Moscow-backed militants over government-held territory near the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.<br />
<br />
The recently developed Orlan-10 is only in use by the Russian military, Australia-based Armament Research Services <b><a href="http://armamentresearch.com/Uploads/Research%20Report%20No.%203%20-%20Raising%20Red%20Flags.pdf" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
An Orlan-10 drone was first shot down by Ukrainian forces last May, the firm says.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span> </b>Russian students posted a <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VklUdwiiuGE#t=50" target="_blank">YouTube video</a></b> apologizing to Ukrainians for their government's covert war in Ukraine and annexation of the Crimea.<br />
<br />
"We are ashamed by this undeclared criminal war, in which many of our countrymen are taking part. We are ashamed that our country violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine, which we had pledged to respect, and annexed the Crimean peninsula. We are ashamed that Ukrainian citizens are illegally being held in Russian prisons. Please forgive us," the students say.<br />
<br />
"In the information war, it is criminal not to be on the side of the truth. The flow of lies on TV doesn't end. The degree of hatred and aggression in society grows each day. Not everyone wants to think, verify and question.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span> </b>the Bellingcat citizen investigative journalism website publishes <b><a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2015/02/03/ukraine-conflict-vehicle-tracking-launch/" target="_blank">the results</a></b> of the first week of its <b><a href="https://bellingcat-vehicles.silk.co/" target="_blank">Ukraine Conflict Vehicle Tracking Project</a></b>.<br />
<br />
The effort seeks to document illegal cross-border movement of Russian military vehicles into Ukraine. It collects information from public sources on sightings of military vehicles on both sides of the border and includes 165 entries at the end of its first week.<br />
<br />
Among them are sightings of equipment used only by the Russian military, such as the Pantsir-1 air-defence missile system (photographed three times in Ukraine in the past month and three other times in Russia near the Ukrainian border) and BPM-97 "Vystrel" armoured vehicles (photographed seven times in Ukraine since December).<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 13</span></i></b><br />
One hundred and five Russian soldiers have died in fighting in Ukraine in the two days since the Minsk II peace agreement was signed, bringing the total Russian military combat loss to 6,856, blogger Oleh Yarchuk <b><a href="http://oyblogg.blogspot.se/" target="_blank">reports</a></b> on his blog chronicling Russian combat deaths in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
About 1,500 of the Russian soldiers were killed since mid-January, according to Yarchuk's data, which he says is based on open source information such as social media. The total doesn't include deaths of Moscow-backed militants.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span></b> Russia's TV Dozhd channel <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/spch_poprosil_minoborony_proverit_zhaloby_kontraktnikov_na_ustnyj_prikaz_o_komandirovke_k_ukrainskoj_granitse-381929/" target="_blank">reports</a></b> nearly 20 Russian soldiers in Murmansk are refusing to be deployed to the Russian city of Rostov, from where their commander said they may be sent to fight in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
The soldiers refused to go in the absence of a written order, Dozhd reports, quoting Serhiy Krivenko, a member of the Kremlin's human rights committee who travelled to Murmansk to interview the soldiers. Krivenko says the soldiers are voluntary contracted members of the Russian military, not conscripts.<br />
<br />
The soldiers' commander threatened to relieve the soldiers from the military if they refused to go to Ukraine, Krivenko told Dozhd.<br />
<br />
In the same story, a Russian rights activist in Murmansk, Irena Paykevich, says 23 other Russian soldiers in the region were told in late January they were about to be sent to the border with Ukraine, also for possible deployment into Ukraine.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span> </b>a<b> </b>Finnish report on the Minsk II peace deal <b><a href="http://www.fiia.fi/fi/publication/485/the_new_minsk_ceasefire/#.VN3_ZrP0PLQ.twitter" target="_blank">notes</a></b> that the agreement mentions the Tornado-S multiple rocket launcher system as one of the heavy weapons that must be withdrawn from the front lines.<br />
<br />
The Tornado-S entered into service with the Russian military in 2012 "and is operated by no other state," the report says.<br />
<br />
"If
Tornados are to be withdrawn from
the conflict zone, they could not
have originated from anywhere but
Russia."<br />
<br />
A Canadian government <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-live-day-361-heavy-fighting-near-debaltsevo/" target="_blank">tweet</a></b>, citing the Finnish report, says, "Oops: Putin has unwittingly acknowledged his own forces' involvement in the war in Ukraine."<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 14</span></i></b><br />
The U.S. releases <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/world/europe/us-says-images-show-russian-armaments-near-embattled-ukraine-town.html?_r=0" target="_blank">satellite images</a></b> showing what it says are a number of Russian artillery units deployed near Debaltseve, a government-held city under fierce militant attack in eastern Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Moscow-backed forces in Ukraine are now better armed than some NATO countries, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31470645" target="_blank">says</a></b>, noting that Russia is preparing a large supply shipment to the militants.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
“<a href="https://twitter.com/USNATO">@USNATO</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash">#Ukraine</a>: "We are confident these are <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Russia?src=hash">#Russia</a> military, not separatist systems" <a href="http://t.co/kTCJDyxqJj">http://t.co/kTCJDyxqJj</a> <a href="http://t.co/xzR1VyI3Og">pic.twitter.com/xzR1VyI3Og</a>”<br />
— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) <a href="https://twitter.com/APDiploWriter/status/566615113390493696">February 14, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 16</span></i></b><br />
The European Union says for the first time in its official documents that the Russian military is involved in combat in Ukraine, the EUObserver site <b><a href="https://euobserver.com/foreign/127667" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
The EU official journal says two Russian deputy defence ministers, Arkady Bakhin and Anatoly Antonov, are "involved in supporting the deployment of Russian troops in Ukraine."<br />
<br />
It says a third top Russian military commander, Andrei Kartapolov, is "involved in shaping and implementing the military campaign of Russian forces in Ukraine."<br />
<br />
All three men are added to the EU's list of individuals facing visa bans and freezes of their assets in the EU due to Russia's covert war in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
An EU official says the explicit language isn't an accident. The EUObserver says it is based in part on a confidential EU intelligence document circulated among European capitals in late January.<br />
<br />
It "is a clear and understandable message against Russian propaganda and all the lies about non-Russian engagement in the military conflict," an EU diplomat says.<br />
<br />
The EU also slapped sanctions on several entities associated with the Moscow-backed forces, including the so-called Novorossiya group run by <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/05/ukraine-militia-leader-igor-girkin-strelkov-fsb-bezler-konstantin-malofeyev.html" target="_blank">Igor "Strelkov" Girkin</a></b>, who the EU says is a staff officer of Russia's GRU military intelligence service.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day, </span></b>one of Poland's leading daily newspapers, <i>Gazeta Wyborcza</i>, <b><a href="http://wyborcza.pl/1,75477,17417333,Rosyjscy_zolnierze_nie_chca_ginac_na_Ukrainie.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b> that Russian soldiers in an artillery unit based in Murmansk secretly recorded one of their officers telling them they would likely be sent to fight in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
The soldiers were initially told they were being sent on a training mission, but they learned there was no training planned and that they were actually being sent into combat in Ukraine, the newspaper says.<br />
<br />
"I'm not going to deny there is a possibility of crossing into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (of Ukraine) with the goal of giving direct support," the soldiers' officer was reportedly recorded saying.<br />
<br />
"We have to help because it's our personal, moral and military duty."<br />
<br />
The soldiers gave the recording to Serhiy Krivenko, a member of the Kremlin's human rights council.<br />
<br />
Eight soldiers who refused to go to Ukraine were locked in barracks and told if they didn't go they would be kicked out of the army and lose their housing and pension benefits, the newspaper says.<br />
<br />
Other soldiers in the unit wound up in Ukraine without even realizing it, the story says. "We got orders to go straight across an open field," one soldier is quoted saying.<br />
<br />
"We could see signs of a shoot-out, destroyed Kamazes (Russian-made military trucks). We went to ask someone for cigarettes and asked where we were.<br />
<br />
"We heard we were just outside Luhansk. We were in shock. Nobody had told us we were going to cross the border."<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 17</span></i></b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://wp4553-flywheel.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Bild8.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://wp4553-flywheel.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Bild8.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bellingcat investigative journalism site uses Google <br />
Earth to trace evidence of Russian artillery attacks <br />
on Ukrainian forces from across the border.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Ukrainian officials accused Russia of shelling its forces from across the border last summer more than 100 times, which they said forced Ukraine to withdraw troops from many border areas, allowing Russian arms and fighters to stream across.<br />
<br />
The Bellingcat investigative journalism website used Google Earth to study 1,355 artillery impact craters in eastern Ukraine and possible firing locations in Russia and compared them with other evidence, such as videos of artillery firing in Russia.<br />
<br />
"There is compelling evidence that artillery attacks on Ukrainian territory and against Ukrainian armed forces originated from the territory of Russia," the site says in <b><a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/02/17/origin-of-artillery-attacks/" target="_blank">a report</a></b> today.<br />
<br />
In one attack last July, the site studied a field in Ukraine with 330 impact craters and determined the trajectory of the shells by studying the shape of the craters.<br />
<br />
Tracing back the trajectory led the team to a site 14 km away just across the border in Russia, where there were burn marks on the ground consistent with artillery firing. Multiple vehicle tracks were visible on satellite images at the probable firing location, originating from deeper in Russia.<br />
<br />
The tracks were consistent with BM-21 Grad or 9K51M Tornado-S multiple rocket launchers, the site says.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"There is documentary proof that the </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Russian </span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">army is present there (in Ukraine)."</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>- Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov,</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>hours before he was gunned down outside</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>the Kremlin</i></b></span></div>
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 18</span></i></b><br />
The UK embassy in Ukraine tweets photos of sightings of Russia's advanced Pantsir-1 anti-aircraft missile system in eastern Ukraine. The system is not used by Ukrainian forces and thus couldn't have been captured by Moscow-backed militants in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en-gb">
World concerned about <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Debaltseve?src=hash">#Debaltseve</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Russia?src=hash">#Russia</a> must implement <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Minsk?src=hash">#Minsk</a> & withdraw weapons such as these from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash">#Ukraine</a> <a href="http://t.co/XkvFg6vKx3">pic.twitter.com/XkvFg6vKx3</a><br />
— UK in Ukraine (@UKinUkraine) <a href="https://twitter.com/UKinUkraine/status/567995706549653504">February 18, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 19</span></i></b><br />
Russian army soldiers from an unnamed motor rifle brigade, stationed near the strategic city of Debaltseve which saw fierce combat in recent weeks, say their commanders encouraged them to go to fight in Ukraine to "defend their homeland" and advised them when and where to go in Ukraine, <b><a href="http://kommersant.ru/doc/2671088" target="_blank">reports</a> </b>the Russian newspaper <i>Kommersant</i>, a leading business-oriented daily.<br />
<br />
Moscow-backed militants in Ukraine conceal the presence of Russian soldiers by manning roadblocks with miners when journalists are around, the story says.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 20</span></i></b><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/B4OgynH-7Is/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/B4OgynH-7Is?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: right; float: right;" width="320"></iframe>Top Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov, sometimes known as Putin's foreign policy architect and mastermind of Russia's policies toward Ukraine, directed snipers who killed protesters during last year's Maidan demonstrations in Kyiv that drove Ukraine's former pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych from power, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/02/20/world/europe/20reuters-ukraine-crisis-surkov.html?ref=world&_r=0" target="_blank">says</a></b>, citing police evidence.<br />
<br />
"Special forces operatives gave evidence that the Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov led the organization of groups of foreign snipers on the Maidan," Poroshenko says.<br />
<br />
Phone records showed evidence of regular conversations between Yanukovych and Russia's security services that revealed a "clear Russian link" to the shootings, Poroshenko says.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/qSvj8F_Br4M/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qSvj8F_Br4M?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: right; float: right;" width="320"></iframe></div>
"They prepared for the shooting together in advance."<br />
<br />
Over 100 protesters were killed and more than 1,000 were injured in February last year as the Yanukovych government attempted to disperse the protest encampment in downtown Kyiv's Maidan square and surrounding areas, which at various times were estimated to have held up to one million protesters.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-video-sniper-maidan-killings-kyiv.html" target="_blank">Videos</a> </b>show numerous unarmed protesters and volunteer medics being gunned down, some while attempting to withdraw, and government snipers moving to attack demonstrators.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://euromaidanpr.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/content.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://euromaidanpr.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/content.jpg" width="296" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sniper killings of protesters in February last year<br />
were directed by Kremlin aide Vladislav<br />
Surkov, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko<br />
says. The killings were part of a failed plan to<br />
disperse mass protests against the former pro-<br />
Moscow government of Ukraine, another<br />
Ukrainian official said.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The attack was part of a failed plan involved over 20,000 police to forcibly disperse the protesters, Ukrainian parliamentarian and former security official Hennady Moskal later <b><a href="http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/02/24/mp-moskal-releases-details-on-perpetrators-of-violence-against-protesters/" target="_blank">said</a></b>.<br />
<br />
Thirty members of Russia's FSB security agency (successor to the notorious KGB) helped Yanukovych's government plan the assault on the protests, a Ukrainian investigation <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-kyiv-russia-fsb-sniper-maidan-killings-berkut-sergei-beseda.html" target="_blank">found</a></b> last April.<br />
<br style="background-color: white;" />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 21</span></i></b><br />
Russian human rights groups have received "dozens" of complaints in the past month alone from Russian conscripts who say they were "strong-armed or duped" into signing on to become professional soldiers, after which they were sent to participate in drills in the southern Rostov region near Ukraine's border and many in fact wound up fighting in Ukraine, Associated Press <b><a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_RUSSIA_SOLDIERS_FEARS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
"Those who have been there (to the Rostov region) before know that in actual fact it means Ukraine," says Valentina Melnikova, head of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, which protects soldiers' rights.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">FEBRUARY 28</span></i></b><br />
Former Russian deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, a vociferous critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, was shot and killed outside the Kremlin yesterday because he planned to reveal evidence of Russia's military involvement in Ukraine, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko <b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/nemtsov-planned-reveal-russian-links-ukraine-conflict-poroshenko-150410635.html" target="_blank">says</a></b>.<br />
<br />
Poroshenko says Nemtsov told him a couple of weeks ago he had proof of Russia's role in Ukraine and would reveal it.<br />
<br />
"He said he would reveal persuasive evidence of the involvement of Russian armed forces in Ukraine. Someone was very afraid of this... They killed him," Poroshenko says.<br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
Yevgenia Albats, editor of Russia's <i>New Times</i> political weekly and an old friend of Nemtsov, also says Nemtsov told her about two weeks ago he wanted to publish an exposé of the Kremlin's military involvement in Ukraine, to be called "Putin and the War," <i>The New York Times</i> <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/world/europe/russian-authorities-say-fellow-opposition-members-may-have-killed-boris-nemtsov.html?ref=world&_r=0" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
On Feb. 10, Nemtsov <b><a href="http://sobesednik.ru/politika/20150210-boris-nemcov-boyus-togo-chto-putin-menya-ubet" target="_blank">told</a></b> Russia's Sobesednik news website that he feared Putin would have him killed because of his opposition activities.<br />
<br />
Just hours before the killing, Nemtsov in <b><a href="http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/year2015/1500184-echo/" target="_blank">a radio interview</a></b> called on Russians to join a March 1 march in Moscow and other Russian cities opposing the Kremlin's covert involvement in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
"There is documentary proof that the Russian army is present there (in Ukraine)," Nemtsov said.<br />
<br />
He noted that Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula violated the 1994 Budapest agreement, in which Ukraine agreed to give up its large nuclear weapons force in exchange for guarantees of territorial integrity from Russia, the U.S. and UK.<br />
<br />
Nemtsov put out <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfFhnqw0sE8" target="_blank">this video</a></b> last summer with evidence of Russia's involvement in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
His <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/winter-olympics-in-the-sub-tropics-corruption-and-abuse-in-sochi/" target="_blank">report</a></b> on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, showed how Russian businesspeople and companies close to Putin were the main beneficiaries of the $50-billion spent on the event -- four times over-budget and more than the cost of sports facilities of all previous Winter Olympics combined.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">MARCH 2</span></i></b><br />
The cousin of murdered Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov believes Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered Nemtsov's assassination last week because he planned to release information about Russia's military involvement in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
"He (Putin) got rid of him so the truth about the war wouldn't get out," Igor Eidman, a Russian sociologist, <b><a href="http://gordonua.com/publications/Brat-Nemcova-Eydman-Esli-by-Putin-ne-ubil-Boryu-to-poteryal-by-avtoritet-v-glazah-svoey-kremlevskoy-bratvy-69078.html" target="_blank">tells</a> </b>the Russian-language Gordonua news site.<br />
<br />
Eidman says Nemtsov was also killed to "scare society. Putin sent Russians a clear message: If I can openly kill a world-known opposition leader in the middle of Moscow, a few steps from the Kremlin, it'll be easy with you."<br />
<br />
Putin also didn't appreciate Nemtsov's personal attacks. "Putin has the mentality of a mafia boss... If someone openly insults an organized crime member, he is obliged to kill the offender or he will lose his status," Eidman says.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">MARCH 3</span></i></b><br />
Russian security services have tried to disrupt the Dutch investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over a militant-held area of Ukraine last July, even as Dutch investigators have become increasingly certain that the plane was shot down by a Russian-made Buk anti-aircraft missile very likely operated by Russian military personnel, the Dutch public broadcaster NOS <b><a href="http://nos.nl/artikel/2022540-vijf-vragen-over-het-mh17-onderzoek.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
"The research findings point in one direction. MH17 was brought down by a Buk missile that was fired from a Russian system, highly probably operated by the Russian military," NOS reports.<br />
<br />
"The Buk system was transported shortly before the disaster from Russia to Ukraine. This is evident from various videos that have surfaced on the Internet. But Dutch investigators in Ukraine also spoke with eyewitnesses."<br />
<br />
Complicating the criminal investigation is the whereabouts of the Russian missile crew, the story says. "The soldiers have become untraceable because they have received new identities from Russian security services in an attempt to erase all traces of Russia's involvement."<br />
<br />
The story says Russian security services are also trying to hack into Dutch police computers. See more evidence of Russia's involvement in the MH17 disaster, which claimed 298 lives, in my <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/07/ukraine-mh17-timeline-malaysia-airlines-buk-missile-igor-girkin-strelkov.html" target="_blank">MH17 timeline</a></b>.<br />
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<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">MARCH 4</span></i></b><br />
Russia has 14,400 troops inside Ukraine aiding over 29,000 Moscow-backed militants, says Stephen Blank, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, in <b><a href="http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Blank%20Testimony.pdf" target="_blank">Congressional testimony</a></b>.<br />
<br />
"These units are well equipped with the latest main battle tanks, armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, plus hundreds of pieces of tube and rocket artillery," he says.<br />
<br />
Another 85,000 Russian troops are massed in Russia near the Ukrainian border or in the annexed Crimean peninsula, Blank says.<br />
<br />
Russian military strategy revolves around massive shelling of Ukrainian positions, "typically placed adjacent to kindergartens, hospitals or apartment buildings, so that Ukrainian units are
unable to launch any strikes against them without causing unacceptable and horrific
collateral casualties," he says.<br />
<br />
"The numbers of shells being expended periodically forces Russia to accept
truces in order to replenish its forces in Ukraine who are in full command of this
operation."<br />
<br />
The Russian military has incurred massive combat losses in Ukraine, and the Kremlin is "reputedly very afraid of media
reports of the true extent of what evidently are sizeable numbers of Russian casualties," Blank says.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">JULY 6, 2018</span></i></b><br />
A Russian military officer, Senior Lieutenant Oleg Leontyev, acknowledges in a court hearing that he participated in an operation in "a neighbouring country," most likely a reference to Ukraine, according to a <b><a href="https://meduza.io/en/news/2018/07/06/with-a-slip-of-the-lip-a-russian-senior-lieutenant-supplies-more-evidence-of-moscow-s-military-intervention-in-ukraine" target="_blank">report</a></b> by independent Russian media outlet Meduza.<br />
<br />
"I've already participated in one of these operations, but the only thing is that it was on the territory of a neighbouring country where we were absent, as it were," Leontyev told the court, where he is on trial in connection with the death of a soldier under his command.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">MARCH 14, 2019</span></i></b><br />
Svitlana Driuk, a top commander among Russian-backed militant forces in eastern Ukraine, has defected to Ukraine and says Russian regular military units are surreptitiously active in Ukraine, their presence concealed through an elaborate system of false documents, <i>The Kyiv Post </i><b><a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/female-warlord-defects-to-ukraine-details-russias-involvement-in-donbas.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
A Russian regular military officer controlled the militant regiment where she served as chief executive officer, says Driuk, who has previously been featured in Kremlin-friendly media reports about the militants and was the inspiration for a feature-length film billed as the first "blockbuster" of the militant-held areas.<br />
<br />
A Russian military officer also coordinated live fire tests of Russia's newly modified T-72B3 main battle tank in eastern Ukraine, Driuk says.<br />
<br />
Driuk also disclosed details about Russian military involvement in Ukraine in a Ukrainian-language <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1yrYFKlXfU&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=%D0%A2%D0%A1%D0%9D" target="_blank">report</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">AUGUST 19</span></i></b><br />
Massive Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine helped sway the tide in a major battle between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed gunmen in 2014, which included the killing of 366 unarmed Ukrainian combatants when Russian and Russian-backed units violated an agreement for a safe-passage corridor, according to <b><a href="https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/the-battle-of-ilovaisk" target="_blank">research</a></b> by a University of London-based investigative agency affiliated with the International Criminal Court.<br />
<br />
The Russian military involvement included nearly 300 Russian military vehicles identified in the region of the August 2014 battle of Ilovaisk and nearby areas. The vehicles included T-72B3 tanks, a new model operated only by the Russian military. (See also <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/18/new-video-evidence-of-russian-tanks-in-ukraine-european-court-human-rights" target="_blank">this article</a></b> on the research in <i>The Guardian</i> newspaper.)<br />
<br />
The agency, Forensic Architecture, was commissioned by the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre and Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group to support a legal claim currently being heard by the European Court of Human Rights.<br />
<br />
Some Ukrainian personnel captured by the Russian forces were turned over to Russian-backed militia and say they were subsequently tortured and subjected to forced labour. They are now seeking damages at the ECHR.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 14</span></i></b><br />
Russian-backed militia leaders in Ukraine requested military support and political guidance from Russia in the period before the shooting down of flight MH17, according to <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/mh17-investigators-say-phone-calls-show-ukraine-rebels-ties-to-russia" target="_blank">new recordings</a></b> of intercepted phone calls released by Dutch-led investigators.<br />
<br />
Militia leaders were caught on the calls speaking with Vladislav Surkov, a top aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin, and refer to coordination with Russia's defence minister and the director of the FSB (successor to the KGB), the Guardian newspaper reported. In one conversation, Surkov promises to send "combat-ready" reinforcements.<div><br /></div><div><b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 4, 2021</span></i></b><br /><div>One of the most comprehensive <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/03/world/weapons-ukraine-russia.html" target="_blank">studies</a> </b>to date of weapons and ammunition used in the war in Ukraine shows Russia has systematically fanned the conflict with arms shipments. </div><div><br /></div><div>Researchers funded by the European Union and the German government studied dozens of rifles, grenade launchers and antiaircraft missiles and thousands of rounds of ammunition taken from Russia-backed fighters in Ukraine. </div><div><br /></div><div>Serial numbers and other identifying marks were traced back to manufacturers. The conclusion: The arms could have come from nowhere but Russian military arsenals.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">NOVEMBER 17</span></i></b><br /><div>Alexander Borodai, who served in the summer of 2014 as prime minister of a Russian-occupied area in eastern Ukraine and was recently elected to Russia's parliament as a representative of Putin's United Russia party, <b><a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/putins-ukraine-war-russian-mp-recalls-efforts-to-push-civil-war-myth/?fbclid=IwAR1Q7J8XOkE4CwsEvUM-v8RXTn93RLUC6BZHr88YJ42jMrS0wNuviEyRAII" target="_blank">openly spoke</a></b> about Russian involvement in Ukraine in an October 19 interview with Zvevda Live, a YouTube channel connected to Russia's defense ministry.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Asked why he left his post in August 2014, Borodai explained: "At that time, the leadership of the Donetsk People's Republic was a strange spectacle. I am from Moscow. My first deputy was from Moscow. The power ministries were controlled by Muscovites, and defense minister Igor Strelkov (Igor Girkin) was also from Moscow. It was a little too blatant from a propaganda perspective.</div><div><br /></div><div>"It was clear that it would be necessary to identify new leaders for the republics from among the local population," he said, adding that the pro-Russian militias fighting in eastern Ukrain are actually "Russian forces." "I consider this a point of principle," he said. "They [in eastern Ukraine] are Russian forces, and the armed forces of the Russian Federation are also Russian forces. Both are Russian forces. What's the difference?"</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">MARCH 17, 2022</span></i></b><br /><div>A death notice for a Russian soldier, Valery Berezovsky, 33, on Russian social media site VKontakte discloses that he was sent as a Russian army soldier to Ukraine in 2014.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Valery's first assignment was to Ukraine in 2014, where he took part in military operations under a contract," the post <a href="https://vk.com/wall477847541_1184" target="_blank"><b>says</b></a>. "He performed his duties conscientiously and efficiently. After the contract expired, he returned to Irkutsk and got a job." (See web-archived version <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20220317094524/https://vk.com/wall477847541_1184" target="_blank">here</a></b>.) </div></div><div><br /></div><div>The post says Berezovsky returned to the Russian military in Feb. 2020 and told family and friends on Feb. 21, 2022, that he was being ordered back to Ukraine. He died in March 2022.</div>
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b><i>SEE ALSO:</i></b><br />
<b><i>- <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/4-myths-ukraine-crisis-crimea-nato-russia.html" target="_blank">4 Myths About the Ukraine Crisis, Crimea and NATO</a></i></b><br />
<b><i>- <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/07/ukraine-mh17-timeline-malaysia-airlines-buk-missile-igor-girkin-strelkov.html" target="_blank">Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 -- the Definitive Whodunit</a></i></b><br />
<b><i>- <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/09/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">Russia Invades Ukraine -- Chronicling the Covert War and Cargo 200 (Aug.-Nov. 2014)</a></i></b></div>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-86032224787812502112014-09-08T13:13:00.000-04:002017-08-15T09:40:09.359-04:00Russia Invades Ukraine -- Investigating the Kremlin's Hybrid War (Aug.-Nov. 2014)<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140923002308/http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77206000/jpg/_77206671_tanktank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #888888; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140923002308im_/http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77206000/jpg/_77206671_tanktank.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">A T-72BM tank photographed in eastern Ukraine<br />
as part of a tank convoy. Only Russia operates<br />
this type of tank, BBC <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28961080" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</td></tr>
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<i>Has the world's second most powerful military invaded Ukraine? From secret Russian troop burials to photos and soldiers speaking out, the evidence is overwhelming. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i><i>My Russian invasion timeline chronicles the latest stage in Russia's covert war on Ukraine. This post covers events from Aug. 25 to Nov. 3, 2014. For more recent events, see <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/11/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">this post</a></b>.</i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><i>AUGUST 25</i></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>8:40 a.m. (all times in GMT): </b></span>Morgues in the Russian city of Rostov, near the border with eastern Ukraine, are full with bodies, Russian social activist Elena Vasilieva <b><a href="http://echo.msk.ru/blog/evasiljeva/1386700-echo/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">writes</a></b> on the site of Russia's Echo Moscow radio.</div>
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She advises families of missing Russian soldiers to look in the Rostov morgues for their bodies and, failing that, to contact Ukrainian security officials.</div>
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She says Ukrainian authorities have been forced to bury bodies of Russian conscripts and mercenaries killed fighting in Ukraine because they have gone unclaimed.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">8 p.m.: </span></b>Only 5 percent of Russians believe the Kremlin should send Russian soldiers to help the pro-Russian gunmen fighting the Kyiv government in Ukraine, <b><a href="http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2552583" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">says</a></b> Russian daily <i>Kommersant</i> citing a survey of 1,000 Russians on Aug. 16 and 17.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span></b> nine Russian paratroopers of the 98th Guards Airborne Division are captured in Ukraine near the village of Dzerkalne, 20 kilometres from the Russian border, Ukrainian authorities <b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11056312/Russian-paratroopers-captured-in-Ukraine-accidentally-crossed-border.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">announce</a></b>.</div>
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Russia's defence ministry says the soldiers were on border patrol and crossed the border "likely by mistake."</div>
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Russia's RBK TV later <b><a href="http://top.rbc.ru/politics/27/08/2014/945298.shtml" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b> that two other Russian soldiers in the same unit were killed in Ukraine, while 10 others were wounded and are being treated in hospitals in Russia's Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, according to soldiers' families.</div>
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Families of the captured soldiers angrily lashed out at Russian authorities for not disclosing information about their fate (see English subtitled video <b><a href="http://flashvideo.rferl.org/Videoroot/Pangeavideo/2014/08/6/63/638ae95d-7c69-47b4-9f25-7ed38bbef998_mobile.mp4" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a></b>).</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><i>AUGUST 26</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">12:46 p.m.: </span></b>Eleven Russian soldiers from the 18th Guards Independent Motor Rifle Brigade were killed while fighting in Ukraine on Aug. 9 and 11, the head of a group of soldiers' mothers, Lyudmila Bogatenkova, <b><a href="http://www.gazeta.ru/social/2014/08/26/6190369.shtml" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a> </b>Russia's Gazeta.ru news website (see English summary <b><a href="http://en.censor.net.ua/news/299700/mothers_of_russian_soldiers_army_discharge_of_11_soldiers_killed_in_ukraine_was_antedated" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a></b>).</div>
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The soldiers were killed near the Ukrainian city of Snizhne, not far from where Kremlin-backed militia <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/07/ukraine-mh17-timeline-malaysia-airlines-buk-missile-igor-girkin-strelkov.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">are thought</a></b> to have shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on July 17.</div>
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Two members of Russian president's human rights council, Ella Polyakova and Sergey Krivenko, have called for an investigation. The official explanation was the soldiers died while training in the Rostov region, which borders war-torn eastern Ukraine.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1:44 p.m.:</span></b> The Russian government is fooling its soldiers into committing "criminal acts" by secretly sending them to fight in Ukraine as part of "illegal armed groups," Russian opposition politician Lev Schlossberg <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/deputat_lev_shlosberg_o_pogibshih_desantnikah_ljudej_ne_preduprediv_poslali_sovershat_prestuplenija_-374568/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Russia's independent TV Dozdh.</div>
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Schlossberg is a member of the regional council in Pskov, the city where two Russian paratroopers were buried who he says were killed fighting in Ukraine.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3:08 p.m.: </span></b>One hundred wounded Russian soldiers have been flown for medical treatment to St. Petersburg, Russia, says Ella Polyakova, a member of the Kremlin's human rights council and head of a group of soldiers' mothers, in a <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/chlen_soveta_po_pravam_cheloveka_pri_prezidente_soobschila_o_dostavke_100_ranenyh_v_peterburg-374580/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">story</a></b> for Russia's TV Dozhd (see English summary <b><a href="http://en.censor.net.ua/news/299731/100_wounded_soldiers_brought_to_st_petersburg_member_of_the_human_rights_council_under_the_president" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a></b>).</div>
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Officials said they were injured while training in the Rostov region. Polyakova has asked for an investigation.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6:37 p.m.: </span></b>Dozens of heavily armed men with Russian accents, no insignia and carrying military rations with Russian writing have arrived in Kolosky, a Ukrainian village 10 km from the Russian border, Reuters <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/26/us-ukraine-crisis-fighters-idUSKBN0GQ1X520140826" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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Local residents tell Reuters the men arrived with a column of 38 armoured personnel carriers, artillery, anti-aircraft systems and "numerous" other military vehicles.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b>France24.com <b><a href="http://www.france24.com/en/focus/20140826-far-right-russian-jihad-fighters-cross-ukraine/?aef_campaign_date=2014-08-26&aef_campaign_ref=partage_user&ns_campaign=reseaux_sociaux&ns_linkname=emission&ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=FB" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b> that it tagged along with a group of far-right Russian nationalists who drive across the border through a field to fight in Ukraine.</div>
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"Ideologically we are all Russian imperialist nationalists," their recruiter says. They're given AK-47s and bullets after crossing the border.</div>
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The report also shows a column of Russian armoured military vehicles parked on a highway leading to Ukraine, just a few kilometres from the border.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"The silence and vague official comments </i></b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">only increase the atmosphere of suspicion."</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>- Editorial in Russia's Vedomosti daily</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><i>AUGUST 27</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">9:37 a.m.:</span></b> Russian soldiers in Dagestan who agreed to fight in Ukraine got one-time payments of up to $7,000 (250,000 rubles), Ella Polyakova, a member of the Kremlin's rights council and leader of a group of soldiers' mothers, <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/chlen_spch_rasskazala_ob_oplate_uchastija_voennyh_iz_dagestana_v_ukrainskom_konflikte-374602/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Russia's TV Dozhd.</div>
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Injured soldiers are dismissed from military service on their return, she says.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10:15 a.m.: </span></b>Two Russian journalists looking into secretive burials of Russian paratroopers killed in Ukraine were attacked, threatened and told to leave town, the <i>Moscow Times</i> <b><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-journalists-attacked-on-fact-seeking-assignment-about-ukraine/505973.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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A YouTube <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuUWShP9rRM" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">video</a></b> shows two men in hooded jackets trying to block the journalists' car and banging its windows.</div>
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Other journalists reported similar incidents this day, the story says.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">12:57 p.m.:</span></b> Nearly 400 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded fighting in Ukraine, Lyudmila Bogatenkova, head of a group of Russian soldiers' mothers, <a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/komitet_soldatskih_materej_sostavil_spisok_iz_400_ranenyh_i_ubityh_rossijskih_soldat-374625/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><b>tells</b></a> TV Dozhd (English version <b><a href="http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/08/27/mothers-compiled-a-list-of-400-russian-soldiers-killed-and-wounded-in-ukraine/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a></b>).</div>
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The casualties are from three Russian military brigades and don't include those of other units, she says.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2:25 p.m.:</span></b> A Russian soldier killed fighting in Ukraine was delivered to his family without his head and no official explanation about how he was killed, TV Dozhd <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/v_bashkirii_proshli_tajnye_pohorony_obezglavlennogo_soldata-374632/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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The family eventually learned he was killed in Ukraine, along with 60 other Russian soldiers.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">8:43 p.m.: </span></b>About 15,000 Russian soldiers are presently fighting in Ukraine, Valentina Melnikova, head of a group of Russian soldiers' mothers, <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/sojuz_komitetov_soldatskih_materej_soobschil_o_nasilnoj_otpravke_soldat_v_ukrainu-374649/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a></b> TV Dozhd.</div>
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"We're sending you to Luhansk (in eastern Ukraine)," she quotes one colonel telling his unit's members. "If you don't sign (a contract agreeing to go), I'll sign it for you."</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">11:09 p.m.: </span></b>A T-72BM tank photographed in eastern Ukraine could only have come from Russia, the BBC <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28961080" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>, citing UK military expert Joseph Dempsey.</div>
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Russia is the only country that operates this model of tank, the report says. The tank is not known to have been exported or operated outside Russia.</div>
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The T-72BM was photographed as part of a tank convoy of the Kremlin-backed militia in Ukraine.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b>Russian business daily <i>Vedomosti</i> asks in <b><a href="http://www.vedomosti.ru/opinion/news/32616101/voyuem-li-my?full#cut" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">an editorial</a></b>, "Is Russia at war with Ukraine?" "The number of unanswered questions about dead and captured Russian soldiers in Ukraine has reached a critical mass," the editorial says.</div>
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"The silence and vague official comments only increase the atmosphere of suspicion and recall unfortunate examples of Russian and Soviet times," it says, referring to past official denials about Russian combat deaths in Afghanistan and Chechnya.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>AUGUST 28</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1:19 p.m.:</b> </span>Nearly 1,000 Russian paratroopers based in the the city of Pskov were sent to fight in Ukraine, one soldier's wife <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/on_zvonil_tolko_odin_raz_s_ukrainskogo_nomera_rasskaz_zheny_pskovskogo_desantnika-374681/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Russia's TV Dozhd.</div>
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The last time she heard from her husband, he had called from a Ukrainian phone number and said his unit had been under bombardment for a week and was about to go on the attack.</div>
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He had previously won a medal for his actions in the "reunification of Crimea."</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1:49 p.m.: </span></b>Twelve wounded Russian paratroopers from the 160th Guards Air Mobile Division have been flown for treatment to St. Petersburg's Kirov Military Medical Academy, Russia's TV Dozhd <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/istochnik_dozhdja_12_ranenyh_desantnikov_iz_rjazani_dostavleny_v_peterburg_-374683/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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The hospital has treated nearly 180 wounded troops so far, the story says.</div>
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Wounded troops are being brought to St. Petersburg because hospitals in Rostov and Volgograd, nearer to Ukraine, are full, the story says.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"When masses of people, under </i></b><b><i>commanders' </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>orders, on tanks, APCs </i></b><b><i>and with the </i></b><b><i>use of </i></b><b><i>heavy </i></b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">weapons, (are) on the territory of another </span></i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>country...</i></b><b><i> I consider this an invasion."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>- </i></b><b><i>Ella Polyakova, member of the </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Kremlin's </i></b><b><i>human rights council </i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4:07 p.m.: </span></b>The head of a group of Russian soldiers' mothers, Lydia Sviridova, advises families to track down their soldier-relatives to find out where they are stationed and make sure they're safe, Russia's Svobodnye Novosti <b><a href="http://top.rbc.ru/society/26/08/2014/945198.shtml" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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She vows to push for an investigation of how Russian soldiers wound up in Ukraine and punishment of those responsible.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">11:46 p.m.: </span></b>More than 100 Russian soldiers died in a single battle in the city of Snizhne, Ukraine, on August 13, two Kremlin human rights council members, Ella Polyakova and Sergey Krivenko, <b><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/08/28/uk-ukraine-crisis-idUKKBN0GS10A20140828" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tell</a></b> Reuters.</div>
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"When masses of people, under commanders' orders, on tanks, APCs and with the use of heavy weapons, (are) on the territory of another country, cross the border, I consider this an invasion," Polyakova says.</div>
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About 3,000 Russian "volunteers" are fighting in Ukraine, a Kremlin-backed militia leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, says in the story.</div>
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Three hundred soldiers were wounded in the Snizhne battle, another Reuters story on the incident <b><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/08/28/uk-ukraine-crisis-russia-casualties-idUKKBN0GS20H20140828" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b>Valentina Melnikova, the head of a group of Russian soldiers' mothers, <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/28/russian-moms-denounce-putin-s-not-so-secret-ukraine-invasion.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">says</a></b> in <i>The Daily Beast</i> that she was "personally humiliated as a citizen of the Russian Federation by our commander-in-chief's pure, direct crime."</div>
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Russian conscripts are being forced to sign contracts agreeing to fight in Ukraine, she says.</div>
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As Russia invades Ukraine, she says, president Vladimir Putin is "violating not only international laws, not only the Geneva Convetion, (he) also is breaking Russian Federation law about defence... and as for Vladimir Shamanov (commander of Russian airborne troops), we should be too disgusted to even mention his name -- he forces his servicemen to fight in a foreign state, Ukraine, illegally, while mothers receive coffins with their sons, anonymously."</div>
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Melnikova also <b><a href="http://top.rbc.ru/society/28/08/2014/945691.shtml" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Russia's RBK TV this day that 250 Russian conscripts in the city of Ryazan have been forced to sign contracts agreeing to fight in Ukraine and are about to be shipped off across the border.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b>NATO releases <b><a href="http://aco.nato.int/new-satellite-imagery-exposes-russian-combat-troops-inside-ukraine.aspx" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">satellite photos</a></b> of what it says is Russian self-propelled artillery operating in Ukraine.</div>
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The artillery is part of a "significant escalation" of Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine in the previous two weeks, NATO says, <b><a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/08/28/ukraine-crisis-nato-idINL5N0QY3YV20140828" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">including</a></b> "well over" 1,000 Russian troops.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140923002308/http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77221000/jpg/_77221029_023659940-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #888888; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140923002308im_/http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77221000/jpg/_77221029_023659940-1.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">One of several NATO satellite <b><a href="http://aco.nato.int/new-satellite-imagery-exposes-russian-combat-troops-inside-ukraine.aspx" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">photos</a></b> said to show<br />
Russian self-propelled artillery operating in Ukraine.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>AUGUST 29</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>7:26 a.m.: </b></span>"The war in Ukraine is a crime," writes Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in <b><a href="http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/nemtsov_boris/1389578-echo/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">a letter</a></b> to Russian soldiers published on the site of Russia's Echo Moscow radio.</div>
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"At any moment you may be sent to fight with Ukraine (and some of you have already been sent)... This is not your war. This is not our war. This is Putin's war for his power and money," Nemtsov writes.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>12:24 p.m.: </b></span>Apart from over 1,000 regular soldiers, Russia has sent to Ukraine up to 100 main battle tanks, 80 armoured personnel carriers, 100 shoulder-launched missile weapons, 500 anti-tank weapons and more than 100 artillery pieces, <i>The Guardian</i> of London <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/29/russia-100-battle-tanks-ukraine-uk-tells-united-nations?CMP=twt_gu" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>, citing UK's ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">9:32 p.m.: </span></b>Soldiers now guard the graves of soldiers buried in the Russian city of Pskov, preventing anyone from approaching or photographing them, Russian opposition politician and journalist Lev Schlossberg <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/08/30/na_mohylakh_pskovskykh_desantnykiv_vstanovyly_viyskovu_okhoronu___shlosberh" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a> </b>Ukraine's Espreso.tv.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>AUGUST 30</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>8:11 a.m.: </b></span>Lev Schlossberg, a Russian opposition politician and journalist, was attacked from behind, knocked unconscious and hospitalized for 10 days due to his injuries, Reuters <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/30/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-funerals-idUSKBN0GU0B020140830" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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He believes he was attacked because he revealed information about Russia's military intervention in Ukraine and resulting Russian casualties.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>AUGUST 31</i></b></span></div>
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Units of two Russian airborne divisions, three regular army brigades, a special forces brigade and a special combat unit of the FSB security agency (successor to the notorious KGB secret police) are operating in Ukraine, the Ukrainian military analysis site Burko News <b><a href="http://burkonews.info/updated-information-regarding-russian-army-troops-directly-observed-eastern-regions-ukraine/#more-1316" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 1</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1:24 p.m.: </b></span>Russian conscripts in the Tula region have been forced to sign contracts agreeing to leave service and fight in Ukraine, Russia's TV Dozhd <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/materi_tulskih_srochnikov_rasskazali_o_prinuditelnom_podpisanii_kontraktov_-374829/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b> citing soldiers' parents.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span></b> Russian newspaper <i>Novaya Gazeta</i> <b><a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/65075.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">gives</a></b> harrowing details of the decimation of the Russian unit in Snizhne and the death of another Russian soldier, Anton Tumanov.</div>
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In early July, members of Tumanov's unit were asked if they want to fight in Ukraine. "What am I, stupid? Nobody here wants to," he is quoted telling his mother. Volunteers were promised over $10,000 (400,000 rubles) to fight a certain length of time in Ukraine.</div>
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At the end of July, Tumanov suddenly told his fiancée that members of his unit were going to fight in Ukraine "as rebels." He was sent twice for short periods of time, then told his mother on Aug. 10 by phone he was being sent to Donetsk in Ukraine for two or three months.</div>
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The unit was ordered to cross the border on Aug. 11, the story reports, citing members of Tumanov's unit. Those who didn't want to go were threatened with criminal prosecution.</div>
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They were told to turn in documents and phones. Vehicle insignia and registration numbers were painted over. They were told to tie white ribbons around their legs and arms to identify each other.</div>
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The unit of 1,200 crossed the border the night of Aug. 12 and made its way to Snizhne. That day, Ukrainian rocket strikes killed 120 members of the unit and wounded 450. The troops immediately returned to Russia.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"</i></b><b><i>It's not </i></b><b><i>a covert war. </i></b><b><i>It's a f--k up. Our guys </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>are </i></b><b><i>dying, </i></b><b><i>and we are being silent about it."</i></b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">- Russian paratrooper</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 2</i></b></span></div>
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Just as Ukrainian forces had encircled the two main enclaves of Kremlin-backed militia in Donetsk and Luhansk, Russia attacked them from the rear with paratroopers and special forces supported by artillery starting on Aug. 24 and 25, <b><a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/columns/65084.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">writes</a></b> Russian defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer in Russia's <i>Novaya Gazeta </i>newspaper.</div>
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Russian troops -- including conscripts forcibly sent to Ukraine -- are now leading the counterattack against Ukrainian forces, while the Kremlin-backed militants who had fought Kyiv are playing "support roles," he writes, saying the latter are "poorly organized" and led by "incompetent commanders."</div>
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Russian fighters in this "secret and lying war" will have a hard time getting injury and other benefits, while the dead are being buried covertly "like terrorists," he writes.</div>
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The Russian attackers captured the Luhansk airport, where Felgenhauer writes drily that the militants can now base their "newly formed air force," claiming it was created from "trophy" planes captured from Ukraine -- the same kind of trophies they purport make up their armoured columns.</div>
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If Ukraine doesn't agree to settle with Russia, he predicts an even larger-scale Russian military assault, including air strikes.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b>the <i>Pskov Gubernia</i> newspaper prints <b><a href="http://gubernia.pskovregion.org/number_706/00.php" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">a transcript</a></b> (see <b><a href="http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/09/03/russian-soldiers-fighting-in-ukraine-describe-scale-of-russian-losses-theyve-downed-the-whole-company/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a></b> in English) of grisly conversations it says took place between Russian soldiers about how an entire company of Russia's 76th Guards Air Assault Division was nearly wiped out in a battle on August 20 in Ukraine.</div>
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Only 10 men out of about 90 in the unit survived, says one of the surviving soldiers, who was injured. He says higher commanders have "banned" soldiers from talking about the incident. "No talking at all about this."</div>
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The unit's members were told they were going on exercises, but were actually sent to Ukraine as part of a battalion of Russian troops. The soldier says Russian T-90 tanks are also being sent into Ukraine.</div>
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After the losses, he says Russian soldiers won't agree to sign contracts agreeing to fight in Ukraine. "Of course not, after they found out all this shit," he says. "There's almost no f-----g conscripts left."</div>
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The soldiers also complain that they and their families are being ordered to stay silent about the war. "It's not a covert war. It's a f--k up. Our guys are dying, and we are being silent about it," the second soldier says.</div>
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<i>The New York Post</i> picks up on the story with an <b><a href="http://nypost.com/2014/09/21/leaked-transcripts-reveal-putins-secret-attack-in-ukraine/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">account</a></b> on Sept. 21.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"We didn't experience such big losses </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">in Chechnya. Up to 50 percent (of a unit) </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">end up injured, killed or as deserters."</span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Ex-Russian soldier</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 3</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>7:58 a.m.: </b></span>More than 2,000 Russian soldiers died while fighting in Ukraine in August alone, Russian social activist Elena Vasilieva <b><a href="http://en.censor.net.ua/news/300868/over_2000_russian_soldiers_killed_in_ukraine_in_august_alone_activist_claims" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">says</a></b>.</div>
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Vasilieva created the "Cargo-200" Facebook page, which chronicles Russian combat deaths in Ukraine. ("Cargo 200" is a Russian military term for the transport of a killed soldier.)</div>
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A Ukrainian security official later <b><a href="http://www.radiosvoboda.org/content/article/26578291.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">concurs</a></b> that about 2,000 Russian soldiers have died fighting in Ukraine. Another 8,000 have been wounded, he says.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span></b> a <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz3Fwf0DYDw" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">YouTube video</a></b> shows a huge column in Ukraine of what are said to be Russian tanks, armoured personnel vehicles and military trucks -- more than 100 vehicles in all.</div>
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The Ukraine@war blog <b><a href="http://ukraineatwar.blogspot.nl/2014/09/russian-moves-huge-convoy-of-armor-into.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">geolocates</a></b> the column near Krasnodon, by the border with Russia -- the same area where a Russian Buk anti-missile system <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/07/ukraine-mh17-timeline-malaysia-airlines-buk-missile-igor-girkin-strelkov.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">is believed</a></b> to have crossed into Ukraine that Kremlin-backed militants used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on July 17.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Also this day,</b> </span>observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe <b><a href="http://www.osce.org/om/123151" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">report </a></b>"a net increase in activity of young people dressed in military style crossing back and forth at the border crossing point" in the previous week at a Russian border post in Donetsk, Russia.</div>
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Observers also report hearing artillery fire originating east and south-east of the border post, areas within Russia.</div>
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Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said Russia is firing artillery from within Russia at Ukrainian forces -- a claim <b><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/two-ukraine-parties-quit-parliament-coalition-to-trigger-election/article19736487/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">backed</a></b> in July by the U.S. State Department, citing intelligence reports.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"If somebody told me earlier about </i></b><b><i>the truth, </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>none of us would have signed </i></b><b><i>up for $1,000 </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>a </i></b><b><i>month to get fried alive </i></b><b><i>in Ukraine."</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>- Russian paratrooper</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span></b> an ex-Russian soldier who has fought in Ukraine describes "huge losses" in the fighting. "We didn't experience such big losses in Chechnya," he <b><a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/65096.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Russia's <i>Novaya Gazeta</i> newspaper.</div>
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"Up to 50 percent (of a unit) end up injured, killed or as deserters. Many really don't understand where they're going. There's a real, full-scale war.</div>
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"One unit with 300 men had 200 injured or killed in the first week... In another unit, out of 82 people, in the first days 30 were wounded, 19 dead."</div>
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Many of the dead are buried in Ukraine without identification, he says.</div>
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The ex-soldier says the Ukrainian populace is more favourable to Russian soldiers than the Kremlin-backed militants because they loot less from civilians. "They say, 'You ask, but they steal.'"</div>
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The ex-soldier depicts the Russian intervention as "a mess," rife with incompetence and corruption.</div>
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He says columns of armoured military vehicles are being sent across the border to fight in Ukraine "practically every day." But poorly trained militants end up wrecking them or losing them in the first battle.</div>
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He says some commanders stole money meant for payments to soldiers.</div>
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The ex-soldier says Russia's FSB security agency and defence ministry are coordinating the intervention.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 4</i></b></span></div>
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More than 3,000 Russian soldiers and hundreds of armoured vehicles are now fighting in Ukraine, a senior NATO official <b><a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/nato-thousands-russian-troops-ukraine-122333812.html#0c25f9T" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a></b> UK's Sky News.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 5</i></b></span></div>
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Russian soldiers are "unprepared" and "taking huge losses" while fighting in Ukraine, <b><a href="http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/09/05/pskov-councilman-tells-about-russian-soldiers-killed-in-ukraine-they-werent-just-deceived-they-were-humiliated/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">says</a></b> Lev Schlossberg, an opposition Russian politician and journalist, in an English-language interview.</div>
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"They've been not only deceived, but humiliated. Many officers I talk to are outraged by exactly that," he says. "When they're fighting and the whole chain of command is publicly lying -- that's humiliating.</div>
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"The soldiers know they are outlaws... They know the basics of the criminal code and know that taking part in military actions abroad without a lawful order is a criminal offence punishable by up to seven years of jail."</div>
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Schlossberg says he first heard about Russian combat losses in Ukraine in the first half of July among special forces troops.</div>
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On Aug. 16 and 17, the first combined brigade of the Pskov-based 76th Guards Air Assault Division, numbering 1,000 men, was sent to Ukraine.</div>
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"Several days later rumours of losses started circulating," he says. The exact number wasn't known, but casualties were said to be "heavy" and in the dozens.</div>
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The Kremlin's lies about the war in Ukraine are worse even than during the war in Chechnya, when Russian officials initially covered up losses only to admit them later, Schlossberg says.</div>
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"The scale of lies has grown several orders of magnitude in 14 years. Back then it was bureaucratic lies fed by the officials' fear for their posts, but now it's global political lies."</div>
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Schlossberg made <b><a href="http://www.dw.de/disowned-and-forgotten-russian-soldiers-in-ukraine/a-17888902" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">similar comments</a></b> in a story by Germany's Deutsche Welle on Aug. 29.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 6</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">9:14 a.m.: </span></b>Germany parliamentarian Marieluise Beck, a member of the Bundestag foreign affairs committee, tweets from Luhansk, a Ukrainian city held by Kremlin-backed militia: "We realize what the real situation is. The city is full of Russian military."<br />
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Dann Fahrt in die Oblast <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Lugansk?src=hash">#Lugansk</a> . Wir erfahren, was der reale Zustand ist. Die Stadt ist voll von russischem Militär.<br />
— Marieluise Beck (@MarieluiseBeck) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarieluiseBeck/status/508181507064987648">September 6, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 7</i></b></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/imagecache/news-highlight/199247_Satellite_Photograph_-_Ukraine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/imagecache/news-highlight/199247_Satellite_Photograph_-_Ukraine.jpg" height="160" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of several satellite photos Amnesty<br />
International says show Russian artillery<br />
in Ukraine "fuelling separatist crimes."</td></tr>
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Amnesty International publishes <b><a href="http://www.amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/imagecache/news-highlight/199247_Satellite_Photograph_-_Ukraine.jpg" target="_blank">satellite photos</a></b> it commissioned of Russian artillery in Ukraine and <b><a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/ukraine-mounting-evidence-war-crimes-and-russian-involvement-2014-09-05" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">accuses</a> </b>Russia of"fuelling separatist crimes."</div>
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"Our evidence shows that Russia is fuelling the conflict, both through direct interference and by supporting the separatists in the East. Russia must stop the steady flow of weapons and other support to an insurgent force heavily implicated in gross human rights violations," the group says.</div>
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Ukraine's security and defence council publishes <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/09/07/rnbo_oprylyudnylo_suputnykovi_fotodokazy_rosiyskoho_ozbroyennya_ta_artyleriyi_na_skhodi_ukrayiny" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">other satellite photos</a> </b>it says show Russian artillery in Ukraine.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 9</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7:48 a.m.: </span></b>The Russian site <b><a href="http://mamasoldata.org/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">MamaSoldata.org</a></b>, created to chronicle Russian combat deaths in Ukraine, <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/mamasoldata/posts/1506275202950042" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">says</a></b> on Facebook it has to move to an internet host outside Russia "because of constant threats from the secret services and the constant attempts to 'kill' our site with DDoS (denial of service) attacks."</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 10</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3:23 p.m.: </span></b>A Russian paratrooper's wife describes the secrecy around her husband's deployment to Ukraine as "a trap created by a schizophrenic" in a <b><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2014/09/19/russian-soldiers-reveal-truth-behind-putins-secret-war-269227.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><i>Newsweek</i> story</a></b> on Putin's secret war in Ukraine.</div>
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"I had no idea we were to go to Ukraine," says a paratrooper officer from Russia's 98th Guards Airborne Division. "We all believed they brought us to a base for the usual routine exercises. If I knew it was for war, I'd have quit back in Kostroma, as I have two little children at home.</div>
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"I never volunteered for this; but any attempts to quit would be useless -- they are sending us back to the meat grinder tomorrow; if somebody told me earlier about the truth, none of us would have signed up for $1,000 a month to get fried alive in Ukraine."</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 11</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">8:32 p.m.: </span></b>Russia has withdrawn 70 percent of its troops from Ukraine in recent days, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko says, but about 1,000 Russian soldiers remain in Ukraine, with another 20,000 massed at the border, a NATO military official <b><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/11/world/europe/ukraine-crisis/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a></b> CNN.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 12</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5:38 a.m.: </span></b>A Russian soldier <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/12/us-ukraine-crisis-russians-special-repor-idUSKBN0H70S920140912" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Reuters he was "two or three steps away" from two soldiers in his unit -- Russia's 18th Guards Independent Motor Rifle Brigade -- when they were killed in rocket fire in Snizhne, Ukraine, on Aug. 13.</div>
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The soldiers were among more than 100 Russian troops killed in the battle, Russian human rights workers told Reuters, citing accounts from Russian soldiers.</div>
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<a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/9/12/1410535512065/An-unidentified-pro-Russi-011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/9/12/1410535512065/An-unidentified-pro-Russi-011.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3:27 p.m.: </span></b>An armoured personnel carrier with the symbol of the Russian army's "peacekeeping forces" is photographed by <i>The Guardian </i>newspaper well within Ukraine near the city of Luhansk, the newspaper <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/12/armoured-russian-vehicle-inside-ukraine" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 14</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">12:29 p.m.: </span></b>Over 3,500 Russian soldiers have died in combat in Ukraine, says Russian social activist Elena Vasilieva, who compiles information on Russian combat deaths in Ukraine, on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/people/%D0%95%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0/1686617069?fref=nf" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">her Facebook page</a></b> (in English <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/3500-russian-soldiers-died-in-putins-war-in-ukraine-rights-activists-say/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a></b>).</div>
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That includes only those about whom reports have surfaced, she says. About 600 corpses of those killed were disposed of in mine shafts in Ukraine, her post says.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4:35 p.m.: </span></b>Two assailants severely beat Ksenya Batanova, a host and producer at Russia's TV Dozhd, as she approached her apartment in Moscow, the independent Russian channel <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/v_moskve_izbita_shef_prodjuser_dozhdja_ksenija_batanova-375359/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b> on its site.</div>
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Without saying a word, the attackers struck Batanova more than 10 times in the face. She is recovering in hospital with a fractured skull and concussion.</div>
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The channel is one of the country's few media outlets to report on Russian combat deaths in Ukraine.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b>Ukrainian defence minister Valery Heletey <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/09/14/v_ukrayini_voyuyut_3_5_tysyachi_rosiyskyy_viyskovykh____heletey" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">said</a></b> 3,500 Russian troops are now operating in Ukraine -- up from 1,000 just three days earlier.</div>
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"They are commanding the insurgents and operating the high-precision weapons and artillery that requires specific technical knowledge," he said.</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"It's not the (local) militia here any more, </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">it's mostly Russians who take part </span></i></b><b style="line-height: 1.4;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">in</span></i></b><br />
<b style="line-height: 1.4;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">combat... </span></i></b><b style="line-height: 1.4;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">It's the professionals here now."</span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">- Fighter in Russian paratrooper </span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">attire in Ukraine tells Reuters</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 15</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">11:03 a.m.: </span></b>Writing on the site of the Echo Moscow radio station, Russian human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov <b><a href="http://echo.msk.ru/blog/lev_ponomarev/1400338-echo/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">publishes</a></b> letters from parents of three Russian conscripts saying their sons were forced to sign contracts agreeing to be sent to fight in Ukraine.</div>
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"Return our sons," one father writes. "We don't want our son to be seen as an occupier, to shoot people and to see soldiers' corpses, which is traumatizing."</div>
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Writes another parent: "As a mother, I categorically oppose my son being sent (repeatedly, as it turns out) to take part in combat on the territory of another nation."</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2:53 p.m.: </span></b>A fighter in Ukraine wearing the trademark blue beret and blue-and-white striped undershirt of a Russian paratrooper said he left the Russian armed forces to fight in Ukraine and will return to the Russian military afterward, Reuters <b><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mounting-evidence-of-russian-paratroopers-in-ukraine-2014-9" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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"It's not the (local) militia here any more, it's mostly Russians who take part in combat... It's the professionals here now," he said.</div>
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"The locals are mainly farmers, miners who have no combat experience. And the guys who are coming in -- they are experienced people who have been through more than one war."</div>
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The fighter said these "professionals" were behind the recent militia advances against Ukrainian forces.</div>
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The Reuters reporter says he passed through 14 militia-controlled checkpoints on the road between Donetsk and Luhansk, mainly manned by fighters dressed in Russian paratrooper's attire.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 16</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">11:57 a.m.: </span></b>Russian forces in Ukraine still number "elements of probably four battalion task groups," NATO commander Phil Breedlove <b style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://www.stripes.com/news/officials-air-force-cuts-in-europe-might-be-delayed-1.303418?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+starsandstripes%2Fgeneral+(Stars+and+Stripes)" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">says</a></b><span style="line-height: 1.4;">.</span></div>
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The number is down from its peak of "well over 10" battalion task groups several days ago, but the forces remain poised by the border with Ukraine -- "close enough to be quickly brought back to bear," he says. "None of it has departed."</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1:27 p.m.: </span></b>The Sept. 14 assault on TV Dozhd host and producer Ksenya Batanova in Moscow was one of 42 separate attacks on independent journalists, activists and opposition politicians in Russia in the first nine months of the year, Russian internet news outlet Slon.ru <b><a href="http://slon.ru/russia/izbitye_aktivisty-1157725.xhtml" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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The attackers tend to be members of ultranationalist groups, the report says, and the trend is reminiscent of the government-backed <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-video-sniper-maidan-killings-kyiv.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><i>titushki</i> thugs</a></b> who beat, kidnapped and tortured dozens of Ukrainian activists and journalists under the regime of ousted president Viktor Yanukovych.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 18</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">12:24 p.m.: </span></b>A BBC crew investigating the death of a Russian soldier seemingly in Ukraine was attacked and had a camera smashed and stolen by several "aggressive individuals," the BBC <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29249643" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</div>
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Police then questioned the journalists for more than four hours, and upon their departure, the news team found that a computer hard drive and memory sticks in their car had been wiped clean.</div>
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Before he was killed, the soldier had called his sister and told her he was about to go to Ukraine, the report says.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4:43 p.m.: </span></b>More than "hundreds" of Russians with military experience organized in their own separate battalions are fighting in Ukraine against the Kyiv government, Reuters <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/18/us-ukraine-crisis-commander-idUSKBN0HD1U720140918" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b>, citing Alexander Khodakovsky, a commander of Kremlin-backed militants in Ukraine.</div>
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"I think there aren't just hundreds (from Russia), there are more," he told Reuters, noting they come from virtually all of Russia's armed forces branches -- infantry, motorized infantry, airborne, the navy and border guards.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; color: black; float: right; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140923002308/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Pantsir-S1_(tracked)_-_Engineering_Technologies_2012_-1.jpg/800px-Pantsir-S1_(tracked)_-_Engineering_Technologies_2012_-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #888888; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140923002308im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Pantsir-S1_(tracked)_-_Engineering_Technologies_2012_-1.jpg/800px-Pantsir-S1_(tracked)_-_Engineering_Technologies_2012_-1.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Russia's sophisticated Pantsir air defence system,<br />
which Germany's <i>Bild</i> newspaper says Russia<br />
has given Kremlin-backed militants in Ukraine.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"They fight better than us... If specialists from the Russian army volunteer and get involved in the process and pass on their experience... We will accept it."</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b>Germany's Deutsche Welle news service <b><a href="http://www.dw.de/bild-%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8B-%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B5-%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8B-%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B8-%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B8-%D0%BF%D0%B2%D0%BE/a-17931847" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b> that Russia has supplied militants in Ukraine with its sophisticated Pantsir air defence system (in English <b><a href="http://en.censor.net.ua/news/303181/russia_supplied_terrorists_with_latest_air_defense_systems_german_intelligence_service" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a></b>).</div>
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Citing a report in the newspaper <i>Bild</i> that referenced Germany's BND intelligence agency, the story says militants got training in Russia to use the equipment.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 20</i></b></span></div>
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Russian opposition parties published a <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfFhnqw0sE8" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">video</a></b> documenting "five facts that prove Putin is behind the conflict in Ukraine" (now subtitled in English by the Ukrainian group EuromaidanPR).</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 21</i></b></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; color: black; float: right; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140923002308/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ByDp_t1IEAAqydO.jpg:large" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #888888; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140923002308im_/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ByDp_t1IEAAqydO.jpg:large" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">"Better to be active today... than radioactive tomorrow."<br />
Protesters at Moscow's "March for Peace" on Sept. 21<br />
against the Kremlin's actions in Ukraine.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Chanting "Ukraine without Putin," "Putin - criminal" and "The junta is in the Kremlin, not Kyiv," 10,000 to 25,000 people in Moscow join a "March for Peace" to protest Russia's actions in Ukraine.</div>
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Russia's TV Dozhd <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/marsh_mira_hronika-375595/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">estimated</a></b> the number at 10,000 to 15,000, while the Associated Press <b><a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/10b36233e89f482d82ec7bfe110eda4c/ukraine-says-it-wont-pull-back-troops-just-yet" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">estimated</a></b> 20,000 and a Russian vote monitoring group <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/marsh_mira_hronika-375595/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">calculated</a></b> 26,000.</div>
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Police gave a lower figure of 5,000.</div>
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Protests against the Kremlin's covert war were also held this day in other cities across Russia (including <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/russia-this-week-rights-or-revanchism-russian-human-rights-commissioner-blasts-ukraine-baltic-states/#4359" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">estimates</a></b> of 5,000 to 30,000 in St. Petersburg, where authorities refused to issue the march a permit), Ukraine, Europe and the U.S.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 22</i></b></span><br />
<b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3:13 p.m.:</span></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> Journalists in Russia investigating the deaths of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine have faced violence, threats and arbitrary detention, </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="https://cpj.org/blog/2014/09/journalists-investigating-deaths-of-russian-soldie.php#" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based press freedom watchdog.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"</i></b><i><b>Readiness for a strategic offensive can be </b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>expected this winter... This will be the time </b></i><i><b>to </b></i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.1000003814697px; text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">'reconsider' the Minsk (ceasefire) agreement."</span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">- Kremlin-backed militia social media post</span></b></i></div>
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<b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">9:30 p.m.:</span></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> Top Putin foreign policy advisor </span><a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/05/05/how_putin_is_reinventing_warfare" style="color: #888888; font-weight: bold; line-height: 23.1000003814697px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Vladislav Surkov</a><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">, said to be an architect of the Kremlin's covert war against Ukraine, "celebrated victory" over dinner in a Moscow restaurant with leaders of the Kremlin-backed militia fighting in Ukraine, </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="https://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_19716" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">writes</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> former militia commander </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/05/ukraine-militia-leader-igor-girkin-strelkov-fsb-bezler-konstantin-malofeyev.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Igor Girkin</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> in a social media post.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">The diners were celebrating Ukrainian legislation that gives militia-held areas autonomy for three years, </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://www.newsru.com/russia/23sep2014/strelkov.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reported</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> Russian online news outlet Newsru.com.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">In </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://voicesevas.ru/news/yugo-vostok/5084-strelkov-na-izvestnom-tainstvennom-forume.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">other versions</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> of this post, Girkin goes on to call Surkov a "modern-day Midas -- except that everything he touches (and that touches him) instantly turns to shit."</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.1000003814697px; text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">"The influx of volunteers from Russia and </span></b></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.1000003814697px; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>other countries hasn't weakened. </b></i><i><b>Through </b></i></span></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">various 'methods,' Russia legalizes its help."</span></b></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.1000003814697px; text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">- Kremlin-backed militia social media post</span></b></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span></b> <i>The New York Times</i> <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/world/europe/soldiers-graves-bear-witness-to-russias-role-in-ukraine.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b> that Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine are often secretively buried at dawn or early in the morning to limit public attention.</div>
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<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">"Their bodies have been returned in recent weeks to loved ones who in many cases had no idea where they were sent to fight, have received little information about how they died and, in any event, are being pressured not to talk about it," says the story, which investigates how Russia is hiding the deaths of troops killed in combat in Ukraine.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">"Some families have even been threatened with losing any compensation if they do."</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 23</i></b></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Kremlin-backed militants plan to "reconsider" the Minsk ceasefire agreement this winter and launch an offensive against Ukrainian forces when rivers are frozen and "can't be an obstacle to the attacking side," says a </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="https://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_19849" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">post</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> from the militia on its VKontakte social media page.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">That's thanks to a constant influx of "volunteers" and unspecified "help" from Russia and "the possibility of virtually unlimited ammunition and fuel," says the post, </span></span><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">titled "Perspectives of the army on a winter campaign."</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">"The army yearns for an attack on Kyiv...</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">"The influx of volunteers from Russia and other countries hasn't weakened. Through various 'methods,' Russia legalizes its help. Moreover, this help will be permanent through 'rotations,'" the post says, seemingly a reference to recently reported </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://uapress.info/uk/news/show/40325" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">rotations</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> of some Russian military units out of Ukraine and their replacement with fresh units.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">"Readiness for a strategic offensive can be expected this winter... This will be the time to 'reconsider' the Minsk agreement."</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 24</i></b></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Despite reports that the Kremlin has withdrawn some soldiers from Ukraine, nearly 300 Russian soldiers have died fighting in Ukraine since the Minsk ceasefire agreement came into effect on Sept. 5, Russian social activist Elena Vasilieva </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://tsn.ua/politika/pislya-minskih-domovlenostey-na-donbasi-zaginuli-300-rosiyskih-viyskovih-pravozahisnicya-370434.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">That brings the total Russian combat death toll in Ukraine to nearly 4,000, she says.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">The total includes over 20 Russian soldiers from the 21st Motorized Rifle Brigade killed in artillery fire near the Ukrainian-held city of Debaltseve on Sept. 17, Vasilieva </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://www.evasiljeva.ru/2014/09/blog-post_24.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">says</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> on her blog. Nearly 40 members of the unit were wounded in the incident.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 25</i></b></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">More details on how Russia is covertly sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Soldiers being sent to Ukraine are forced to sign an agreement saying they're voluntarily going on leave, without a specified starting date, Russian activist Elena Vasilieva </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://www.dw.de/%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%89%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0-%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B4%D0%B0-%D0%B3%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B7-200-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE-%D0%BD%D0%B5-%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%82-%D0%B4%D0%BE-%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0/a-17955851?maca=rus-rss_rus_UkrNet_All-4190-xml" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tells</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> Germany's Deutsche Welle.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">"If they die, the commanders have a document they can backdate to say the person was on leave in an unknown location, and that's why the commanders aren't responsible for his whereabouts," she says.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Some soldiers also aren't told they're being sent to Ukraine, she says.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">"Paratroopers returning from Ukraine told us they thought they were on a training exercise in Russian territory. They were tossed into a field, and it turned out they were in Ukraine, in the cauldron of a war."</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 26</i></b></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Two blasts rocked Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv last night, The Interpreter Mag </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-221-russia-threatens-to-cut-gas-supplies-while-buffer-zone-group-meets/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">. The explosions -- one at the office of a local politician, the other at a bank ATM -- follow a grenade attack the previous night in Ukraine's largest port city, Odessa.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Both cities are well outside the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine. But The Interpreter Mag, which translates Russian-language media articles, reports videos and posters have appeared in recent days calling on Kharkiv residents to rally against the Ukrainian government.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Also this day, masked men calling themselves "Kharkiv partisans" appear in a YouTube </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbx6HkypS1I" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">video</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> threatening the families of Ukraine interior minister Arsen Avakov and other government officials.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.szona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/%D0%9F%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD-%D0%9F%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%9A%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B0-%D0%9E%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%96%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #888888; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="http://www.szona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/%D0%9F%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD-%D0%9F%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%9A%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B0-%D0%9E%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%96%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE.jpg" height="179" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Putin's "strategic goal" is to partition Ukraine, a<br />
former Putin aide <b><a href="http://www.szona.org/%D0%BF%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD-%D0%BF%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0/" target="_blank">says</a></b>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Meanwhile, Kremlin-backed militants </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://russian.rt.com/article/51577" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">vow</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> to seize more territory from Ukrainian forces in coming weeks, including the cities of Mariupol and Sloviansk, despite the Minsk ceasefire agreement.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"></span>
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">And Russian far-right leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the deputy speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, </span><a href="http://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/wladimir-schirinowski/im-interview-die-ukraine-hat-keine-zukunft-mehr-37685694.bild.html" style="color: #888888; line-height: 23.1000003814697px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><b>candidly tells</b></a><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> Germany's </span><i style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Bild</i><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> newspaper that Ukraine "has no future" and will be largely partitioned by its neighbours by 2019.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Russian economist Andrei Illarianov, a former Putin advisor, </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://www.szona.org/%D0%BF%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD-%D0%BF%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">says</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> Zhirinovsky's prediction should be taken as a window into Putin's "strategic goals."</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Meanwhile, only 3 percent of Odessa and Kharkiv residents say they want their regions (where there are large <b><a href="https://twitter.com/motryatomycz/status/517439389547642881/photo/1" target="_blank">Russian-speaking populations</a></b>) to join Russia, versus 87 percent who want to stay in Ukraine, according to a recent Russian </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="https://navalny.com/p/3836/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">survey</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> (</span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomanis/2014/09/23/ukrainians-still-dont-want-to-join-nato/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">English story</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> on the results).</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Russian activist Elena Vasilieva </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/activist-says-4000-russians-killed-or-missing-in-ukraine-war-366118.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">says</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> Russia used its so-called humanitarian convoys to transport back to Russia some of the bodies of the 4,000 Russian soldiers and mercenaries she believes were killed fighting in Ukraine.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">At a press conference in Kyiv, she also says 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers died in the fighting -- far more than the confirmed death toll that Ukraine has reported.</span><br />
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">At the height of the Russian intervention in late August, up to 30,000 Russian soldiers were in Ukraine, she says.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23.1000003814697px; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.1000003814697px; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Despite the ceasefire... the Russian army </span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.1000003814697px; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: large;">has been shelling Mariupol for several </span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.1000003814697px; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: large;">hours. Commander-in-chief Putin is a liar."</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.1000003814697px; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: large;">- Russian activist Elena Vasilieva</span></span></div>
<div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://www.ifes.org/~/media/Files/Publications/White%20PaperReport/2014/IFES%20Ukraine%20Survey%20Sep%202014%20PP" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">a survey</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> in September finds 42 percent of residents of Ukraine's war-torn Donbass say separatists there "represent only a small proportion of the people." Just 16 percent say they represent "a majority" of the population.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">In eastern Ukraine outside Donbass, 61 percent say separatists represent only a small minority, while 9 percent say they represent a majority.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 27</i></b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Ukrainian journalist and political analyst Dmitro Potekhin, freed after 49 days of detention by Kremlin-backed gunmen in Donetsk, </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma6NJ__B-T0" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">says</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> one of his interrogators "was presented to me as an officer of the FSB."</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Russia's FSB security agency is a successor to the notorious KGB.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">The FSB officer, Potekhin says, asked him about various events he had attended. "It was obvious they had collected information about me."</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 28</i></b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7:51 p.m.:</span></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> Forty-two Russian special forces troops were killed in a battle in Ukraine near the city of Mariupol the night of Sept. 26, Russian activist Elena Vasilieva </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://www.unn.com.ua/ru/news/1390153-sered-viysk-rf-42-zagiblikh-pid-mariupolem-vantazh-200" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" /></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">"Despite the Minsk ceasefire... the Russian army has been shelling Mariupol for several hours. Commander-in-chief Putin is a liar," she says.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><b><a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2501761" target="_blank">a study</a></b> by Harvard University internet researcher Bruce Etling finds much more support for Ukraine's Maidan revolution than expected among Russian speakers in both Ukraine and Russia.</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Seventy-four percent of Russian-language social media posts in Ukraine from Nov. 2013 to Feb. 2014 supported the Maidan protests against Ukraine's former president Yanukovych. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Fifty-two percent of social media posts in Russia backed the protests.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 29</i></b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Forty percent of Russians say the deaths of Russian soldiers while supporting militants in Ukraine are "unacceptable and unjustified insofar as Russia is carrying out a hidden, undeclared war," according to a </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://www.levada.ru/eng/russian-paratroopers-pskov-who-had-died-ukrainian-territory" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">survey</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> of 1,600 Russians Sept. 19 to 22.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Thirty percent say the deaths are "inevitable and justified."</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<br style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;">
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">Forty-two percent say they believe reports of Russian combat casualties in Ukraine, while 31 percent say they don't.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><b><i>"My husband died, and he died </i></b></span></span><b style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>through</i></b></span><br />
<b style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">the fault of our government."</span></i></b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">- Wife of Russian officer killed in Ukraine</span></i></b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> two Ukrainian soldiers just released from militia captivity </span><b style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"><a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/09/29/ukraine-crisis-prisoners-idINKCN0HO1R320140929" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tell</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;"> Reuters their unit was attacked near Ilovaisk, Ukraine, by troops from a Russian airborne assault battalion stationed in Kostroma, Russia, on Aug. 25.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">That's the same day Ukrainian forces captured nine Russian paratroopers from Kostroma near Ilovaisk (see above).</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>SEPTEMBER 30</i></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">"Hundreds of Russian troops, including special forces, still remain inside Ukraine," a NATO spokesman <b><a href="http://www.focus-fen.net/news/2014/09/30/349936/nato-says-hundreds-of-russian-troops-still-in-ukraine.html" target="_blank">says</a></b>.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.1000003814697px;">No reduction has been seen in the past week, and 20,000 Russian troops still remain deployed near the Ukraine border, he says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>OCTOBER 1</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">8:08 a.m.:</span></b> Russia is fostering close ties and providing "generous financing" to Europe's quickly growing far-right groups, <b><a href="http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=542668763A8D6" target="_blank">says</a></b> the news site of Russian chess master and Putin critic Garry Kasparov.</div>
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"It's not hard to see what the right likes about Putinism... homophobia, militarism, nationalism, xenophobia."</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">the wife of a Russian military officer says her husband was killed in combat in Ukraine on Aug. 13 "through the fault of our government," Russian newspaper <i>Novaya Gazeta</i> <b><a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/65502.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Irena Timinu, wife of second lieutenant Zachar Timinu, says her husband "was not a volunteer" in Ukraine, but rather an active-duty officer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"He was just following orders because there was no other choice, you understand," she says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">When a Russian TV channel called her saying they were investigating "Ukrainian media lies" about captured Russian soldiers who were actually alive at home, Timinu says she told the journalist: "I'd help you, but about the subject about Russian media lies... You've confused me with someone else. My husband died, and he died through the fault of our government."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><b>Also this day, </b>Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemiliev <b><a href="http://news.dneprcity.net/2014/10/01/v-krymu-govoryat-o-skorom-vtorzhenii-vojsk-rf-v-ukrainu-dzhemilev/" target="_blank">says</a></b> "there is open discussion about the imminent start of military action against Ukraine from Crimea," the peninsula that thousands of Russian troops seized from Ukraine in March.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"We have observed a huge cluster of Russian military forces on the Crimean territory," he says.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/10/01/Foreign/Graphics/w-606ukraine-ceaseFire-10-1-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/10/01/Foreign/Graphics/w-606ukraine-ceaseFire-10-1-14.jpg" height="320" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <i style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">The Washington Post</i><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"Threats are also circulating that with the beginning of military action, the first step will be to destroy the 'fifth column' in Crimea -- starting with the Crimean Tatar people, who don't recognize the legality of Russia's takeover of Crimea. And this is nothing else but a threat of the repeat of the deportation and genocide of the Crimean Tatar nation."</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span> </b><i style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;">The Washington Post </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">publishes <b><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/rebels-make-gains-during-cease-fire/2014/10/01/a3e6346a-4993-11e4-891d-713f052086a0_graphic.html" target="_blank">a map</a></b> showing Russian-backed gunmen made substantial land gains in the four weeks after the Sept. 5 ceasefire.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 2</i></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4:01 a.m.: </span></b><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Elements of 11 Russian airborne and motorized units have been deployed to fight in Ukraine, according to an <b><a href="http://top.rbc.ru/politics/02/10/2014/542c0dcfcbb20f5d06c1d87a" target="_blank">investigation</a></b> by Russia's RBK TV (English translation <b><a href="http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/10/03/russian-soldiers-in-ukraine-an-investigation/" target="_blank">here</a></b>).</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">RBK compiled the list using reports of deaths of Russian servicemen in Ukraine. "There are a lot of holes in the official story that paratroopers died during training in (Russia's) Rostov district, while only volunteers went to (Ukraine's) Donbass," the story says.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">"Russian soldiers on leave must inform their command where they will be, and going into a war zone in another country is illegal," RBK quotes a Russian human rights worker saying.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">8:33 a.m.:</span></b> Russian "howitzers, armored combat vehicles and multiple rocket launchers, which we believe may be destined for separatist forces, are continuing to depart from a deployment site near the Russian border," Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, <b><a href="https://twitter.com/GeoffPyatt/status/517574956092502016" target="_blank">tweets</a></b>.<br />
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Pyatt tweets satellite photos showing the heavy equipment at what is said to be a Russian training facility on Sept. 26, then gone two days later.</span><br />
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1/3 Howitzers, armored combat vehicles and multiple rocket launchers, <a href="http://t.co/IcZF0qDAHj">pic.twitter.com/IcZF0qDAHj</a><br />
— Geoffrey Pyatt (@GeoffPyatt) <a href="https://twitter.com/GeoffPyatt/status/517574956092502016">October 2, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>OCTOBER 3</i></b></span></div>
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<b style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">12:39 p.m.:</span></b><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> Russian military officers are indeed present in Donetsk, but they are there as "mediators," Andrei Purgin, self-styled prime minister of the "Donetsk People's Republic" group of gunmen, </span><b style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29473617" target="_blank">tells</a></b><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> the BBC.</span><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"></span></div>
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"The warring parties cannot talk with mediators, so please see the Russian officers in this capacity," he says.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>9:55 p.m.: </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Russian-backed militia are experiencing large losses in their near-daily attacks on the government-held Donetsk airport, one gunman <b><a href="http://ura.ru/content/chel/01-10-2014/articles/1036263086.html" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Russia's URA online news site.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"A hundred went in (on the attack), 60 came back. The rest are dead or wounded," he says, blaming "ignorant commanders" in the militia for many of the losses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Ninety percent of the gunman's unit is from Russia -- half from Siberia, the other half from the Ural mountain region. Only 10 percent are local residents.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"> Russian airborne soldiers and other newly arrived troops from Russia participated in a massive attack on the government-held Donetsk airport today, a Donetsk resident <b><a href="http://m2-ch.ru/po/res/6182069.html#6182728" target="_blank">says</a></b> in a Russian-language discussion forum after returning from speaking with wounded Russian troops in the hospital.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">The assault involved nearly 500 soldiers and gunmen, including a 60-man special forces unit, dozens of tanks and a huge artillery barrage launched from Makiyivka, a city 16 km to the east, he writes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">The first wave of attackers was beaten back with two tanks destroyed. In a second, larger attack, the paratroopers managed to seize the airport's old terminal, hotel, garage and part of a new terminal. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">None of the paratroopers survived a Ukrainian counterattack, which managed to reestablish government control over the airport, the resident writes. "Not less than 200" attackers died. "No one returned alive from the new terminal. No one saw any of the special forces after that (their commander's body was later returned)."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Ukrainian forces have held the airport since the spring, fighting off near-daily attacks during the Minsk ceasefire.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span> </b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">the OSCE reports that it discovered a Russian military officer impersonating an OSCE personnel member at a monitoring centre in Ukrainian government-held territory in the city of Soledar.</span></div>
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"One military officer from the Russian Federation was wearing an OSCE patch on his uniform as well as carrying an ID card with the OSCE logo. The SMM (special monitoring mission) made the necessary demarches in response to this unauthorized use of OSCE insignia."</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"> the OSCE also acknowledges "a breach of our internal security regulations" in early September in militia-held Donetsk. "The (special monitoring mission to Ukraine) regrets the incident where two uniformed individuals boarded our vehicle,"</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> the OSCE says in a terse statement.</span><br />
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The statement doesn't give details about who the individuals were or why they were allowed in an OSCE vehicle or acknowledge whether they were armed.</div>
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The statement was issued after a U.S. blogger tweeted photos of two armed men climbing into an OSCE car. The blogger says the OSCE briefly blocked his account after he posted the photos.</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en-gb" style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/OSCE_SMM">@OSCE_SMM</a> statement ⬆︎
Photos in question:
<a href="https://twitter.com/OSCE_RFoM">@OSCE_RFoM</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/mil_in_ua">@mil_in_ua</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DmitryTymchuk">@DmitryTymchuk</a>
<a href="https://twitter.com/hrw">@hrw</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/HromadskeTV">@HromadskeTV</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NATOpress">@NATOpress</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NATO">@NATO</a> <a href="http://t.co/wgOj5UFJk6">pic.twitter.com/wgOj5UFJk6</a><br />
— Silver Surfer (@RobPulseNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/RobPulseNews/status/517328868865495041">October 1, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>OCTOBER 7</i></b></span></div>
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<b style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">8:59 p.m.:</span></b><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> Russian families looking for missing soldier relatives can contact a new Russian-language <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/10/07/sbu_zaklykaye_rosiyan_zvertatysya_na_haryachu_liniyu_dlya_poshuku_svoyikh_rodychiv__yaki_propaly_v_ukrayini" target="_blank">hotline</a></b> set up by Ukraine's SBU security agency.</span><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Meanwhile, Russian activist Elena Vasilieva <b><a href="http://www.evasiljeva.ru/2014/10/blog-post_3.html#more" target="_blank">advises</a></b> Russians looking for missing soldier relatives to contact Ukrainian authorities and provide DNA to help identify their bodies in Ukrainian morgues. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Hundreds of unidentified bodies and body parts from the combat zone are being kept in the morgues or have been buried with DNA information preserved.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>OCTOBER 8</i></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0lvvwqH2Kb0Q-R4OVn8iAniVv9rUcltO3b5yoipQ2kuE2Vf-OX8Go5RNXADuxKkY0rAXl2p8LUeUEZtZfpLG2g1ywRAsfMXyXO_ACuyCSHjx5DVS1YYiTIvOXR5eFVlANL4wiXD6iVFR5/s1600/Ukraine-Russia-ArmyRations.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0lvvwqH2Kb0Q-R4OVn8iAniVv9rUcltO3b5yoipQ2kuE2Vf-OX8Go5RNXADuxKkY0rAXl2p8LUeUEZtZfpLG2g1ywRAsfMXyXO_ACuyCSHjx5DVS1YYiTIvOXR5eFVlANL4wiXD6iVFR5/s1600/Ukraine-Russia-ArmyRations.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Russian military rations that Ukrainian<br />
volunteers say they found near <br />
Ilovaisk, Ukraine.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7:30 p.m.:</span></b><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> Ukraine's Information Resistance website publishes <b><a href="http://sprotyv.info/ru/news/6199-ilovaysk-dokazatelstva-prebyvaniya-tam-rossiyskih-voysk-foto" target="_blank">photos</a></b> taken by Ukrainian fighters near Ilovaisk showing what they say is evidence of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, including Russian military ration packets.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Russia's </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;">Novaya Gazeta</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"> newspaper <b><a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/65601.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b> on a dramatic rise in traffic accidents involving military vehicles that have flooded into Russia's Rostov district neighbouring Ukraine's war-torn Donbass region.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Thirteen have died (including seven civilians), and another 20 have been injured in the accidents. In a recent incident, on Sept. 21, drunken soldiers in an armoured vehicle fled from police for 4 km through the city of Rostov-on-Don, killing two local residents and damaging nine civilian vehicles.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Relatives have turned to social media for witnesses because the military hasn't investigated previous such accidents, RBK reports.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"A huge number of military vehicles" has appeared in the area, says a Russian taxi driver who lives on the border with Ukraine. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"Tanks, armoured vehicles, Urals and Kamazes (military trucks), artillery-towing vehicles, Grads (multiple-rocket launchers). Where it went and where it is now, I don't know. But almost every day from morning to evening you can see army vehicles going in both directions -- from the border and to the border."</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"> activist Oksana Gorelova from the group "Cargo 200 from Ukraine to Russia" </span><b style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/yaksvda?fref=ts" target="_blank">publishes</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"> an updated list of 179 Russian soldiers killed in combat in Ukraine.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 11</i></b></div>
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<b style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3:14 p.m.:</span></b><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> Three rows of freshly dug graves have appeared in Rostov-on-Don, a Russian city near the Ukraine border, a local resident <b><a href="http://uapress.info/uk/news/show/42679" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</span></div>
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Most of the grave markers don't reportedly include a name and indicate the deceased as being aged 20 to 25 or 40 to 45, while the date of death is usually given as the summer or fall of 2014.</div>
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The city is a staging point for Russian military units deploying to Ukraine.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>OCTOBER 14</i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1:15 p.m.: </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">A Russian special forces general, Sergei Andreychenko, was killed along with two Russian soldiers and a Kremlin-backed militant in a battle with Ukrainian forces near Mariupol, Ukraine, on Oct. 9, Ukrainian security officials <b><a href="http://interfax.com.ua/news/general/228602.html" target="_blank">say</a></b>.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Ukrainian officials and journalists are disputing the Kremlin's claims that it is pulling its 17,000 troops from the Ukraine border.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Ukrainian military analyst Dmitro Tymchuk says the Russian move is more accurately described as a "rotation," <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/dmitry.tymchuk?fref=ts" target="_blank">noting</a></b> yesterday on Facebook that new Russian special forces and airborne units have appeared near the border to take the place of departing troops.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Ukrainian security official Andriy Lysenko today <b><a href="http://en.censor.net.ua/news/306985/large_special_unit_of_russian_military_intelligence_arrives_at_novoazovsk_nsdc_says" target="_blank">said</a></b> a large Russian military intelligence unit has recently appeared in the southern portion of the militia-held territory in Ukraine, near the city of Mariupol.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Ukrainian journalist Boris Humeniuk <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/borys.humenyuk" target="_blank">said</a></b> on his Facebook page today that two Russian airborne regiments recently crossed into Ukraine with plans to attack the Ukrainian-held Donetsk airport.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Meanwhile, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">UK journalist Oliver Carroll <b><a href="https://twitter.com/olliecarroll" target="_blank">tweets</a></b> that a Kremlin-backed militia official predicts the battle for the Donetsk airport will be over "within next few days" and that "new 'special divisions' [were] sent there."</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 15</i></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3:44 p.m.: </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">The families of 131 active-duty Russian soldiers who have gone missing have turned to a new hotline of Ukraine's SBU security agency for help to find their soldier relatives, Ukrainian interior ministry official Markian Lubkivsky <b><a href="http://interfax.com.ua/news/general/228872.html" target="_blank">says</a></b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">He notes Russia may have sent the missing soldiers to fight in Ukraine and that they may have died in combat there.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">top NATO commander Philip Breedlove </span><b style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/nato-chief-no-big-russian-withdrawal-near-ukraine-123723649.html" target="_blank">says</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Russia has not made any "major movement" to pull its troops from the Ukraine border and maintains a "very, very large force and a very, very capable force sitting on the border of Ukraine</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">."</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 16</i></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2:41 p.m.: </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Ukraine has turned 16 captured Russian soldiers over to the Russian government as part of a prisoner exchange, Ukrainian interior ministry official Markian Lubkivsky <b><a href="http://ua.112.ua/golovni-novyni/sbu-zayavlyaye-pro-obmin-16-rosiyskih-viyskovih-na-ukrayinskih-zaruchnikiv-130850.html" target="_blank">says</a></b>.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 17</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">9:02 a.m.: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"Let's be honest. The days of the DNR and LNR (Donetsk and Luhansk people's republic militia groups) would already long be over without Russia," </span><b style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://belapan.com/archive/2014/10/17/734133/" target="_blank">says</a> </b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5:52 p.m.:</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"> Russian authorities have appealed to the country's supreme court to have Memorial, one of Russia's oldest human rights groups, "liquidated" due to alleged violations of the law and constitution, Reuters </span><b style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/17/us-russia-rights-memorial-idUSKCN0I622N20141017" target="_blank">reports</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Memorial had spoken out about Russian soldiers' deaths in fighting in Ukraine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">7:58 p.m.: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Russian authorities have searched the office of a soldiers' mothers group in St. Petersburg and detained its 73-year-old head on unspecified charges, Russia's TV Dozhd <b><a href="http://tvrain.ru/articles/rassledovavshuju_gibel_voennyh_eksperta_spch_arestovali-376775/" target="_blank">reports</a></b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">L</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">yudmila Bogatenkova's lawyer hasn't been able to reach her. Bogatenkova spoke out in August about </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Russian combat deaths in Ukraine (see above). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Bogatenkova is detained two days after signing a statement she won't leave town. She is hospitalized on Oct. 22 with heart trouble, <i>The Moscow Times</i> <b><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/activist-from-soldiers-mothers-committee-hospitalized-after-police-detention/509936.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">In September, Russia's Slon.ru internet news site <b><a href="http://slon.ru/russia/izbitye_aktivisty-1157725.xhtml" target="_blank">documented</a></b> 42 attacks on Russian journalists, activists and politicians this year -- many after criticizing Russia's covert war in Ukraine.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 19</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">12:52 p.m.: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Kremlin-backed gunmen used a Buk anti-aircraft missile to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 passenger plane in July, killing 298, Germany's BND intelligence agency <b><a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/german-intelligence-blames-pro-russian-separatists-for-mh17-downing-a-997972.html" target="_blank">has concluded</a></b> after a detailed analysis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">The BND rejects Russian claims that Ukraine shot down the plane and says the findings are "unambiguous," German newspaper <i>Der Spiegel</i> reports.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">The Interpreter Mag offers <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-244-german-intelligence-claims-russian-backed-militants-downed-mh17/" target="_blank">this comment</a></b> on the report.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day,</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"> a Russian militant who has just returned from fighting in Ukraine <b><a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/65749.html" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Russia's <i>Novaya Gazeta</i> newspaper that 75 percent of Kremlin-backed gunmen are Russians.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Told that Russia claims not to be involved in Ukraine, he replies: "So who is sending the tanks and 'Grads' (rocket launchers) there? Are they appearing there all by themselves? Yes, the rebels are capturing some from the (Ukrainian) National Guard. But some still appear through another route."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">The story also quotes a mother at the burial of her 18-year-old son </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">near St. Petersburg, Russia</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">. He died in Luhansk, Ukraine, fighting alongside Kremlin-backed militants on Oct. 10.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"I want more people to know how my son died -- how he was recruited, tricked, had his emotions played on... We won't keep this secret," she says. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"Maybe it will help other parents. Maybe it will save other children."</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">The family had to pay 20,000 rubles (USD $4,900) to transport the teenager's body from Rostov, Russia, the story says.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Russian activist Elena Vasilieva <b><a href="http://www.evasiljeva.ru/2014/10/900-200.html#more" target="_blank">estimates</a></b> 4,360 Russian soldiers have died in combat in Ukraine, including virtually the entirety of two elite units -- the 22nd Guards Spetznaz Brigade and the 45th Separate Reconnaissance Regiment.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">The death toll is nearly 1,000 higher than Vasilieva's mid-September estimate of 3,500 just after the Minsk ceasefire agreement was signed.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">In a blog post, Vasilieva also links two "Cargo 200" <b><a href="http://lostivan.com/map" target="_blank">interactive maps</a></b> (and <b><a href="https://mapsengine.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=zSdyBi_jCiiI.kixLkxDRSz0M" target="_blank">here</a></b>) showing the communities the killed Russian soldiers came from.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also this day, </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">former Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski <b><a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/vladimir-putins-coup-112025_full.html#.VEVVwyLF-Sp" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Politico.com that Putin tried to convince Poland to help dismember Ukraine.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"He wanted us to become participants in this partition of Ukraine," Sikorski says. "Putin wants Poland to commit troops to Ukraine. These were the signals they sent us... We have known how they think for years.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"This was one of the first things that Putin said to my prime minister, Donald Tusk, when he visited Moscow. He went on to say Ukraine is an artificial country and that Lviv is a Polish city and why don't we just sort it out together. Luckily Tusk didn't answer. He knew he was being recorded...</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"We made it very, very clear to them -- we wanted nothing to do with this."</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 22</i></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">6:32 p.m.: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Six Russian active-duty soldiers in Luhansk, Ukraine, invite </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Financial Times</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> reporter Courtney Weaver and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">BuzzFeed journalist Max Seddon </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">to have a drink with them at one of Luhansk's two functioning restaurants, </span><b style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/76bac354-59c2-11e4-9787-00144feab7de.html#axzz3GuRPkEfD" target="_blank">Weaver</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> and </span><b style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/as-rebels-build-a-state-in-east-ukraine-russia-still-casts-t" target="_blank">Seddon</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> report.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"We're Russian military servicemen," they say by way of introduction. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">The men all wore identical recent-issue green camouflage Russian military uniforms -- unlike the motley dress of local gunmen, Weaver writes.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">They had been in the city for about a month and were sent there to "train the local population," one soldier identifying himself as Maxim says.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"No one sent us here. We're volunteers," Maxim says. "They gave us an order: Who wants to go volunteer? And we put our hands up like this," he says, meekly raising his hand in mock compliance. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-size: 17px; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://s2.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20141023&t=2&i=985726135&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=700&pl=378&r=LYNXNPEA9M0KF" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://s2.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20141023&t=2&i=985726135&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=700&pl=378&r=LYNXNPEA9M0KF" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Destroyed T-72s photographed in a militant-held <br />
area near Donetsk are evidence of Russian<br />
involvement in Ukraine, Reuters <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/23/us-ukraine-crisis-tanks-exclusive-idUSKCN0IC1GE20141023" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Their apparent officer, who gave his name as Slava, had a Russian flag patch, two stars and the inscription "RUSSIAN ARMED FORCES" on his uniform.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 23</i></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">2:02 p.m.: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Two charred Russian army T-72 tanks are photographed in a militant-held area southeast of Donetsk, Reuters <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/23/us-ukraine-crisis-tanks-exclusive-idUSKCN0IC1GE20141023" target="_blank">reports</a></b> citing independent military experts.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">One of the tanks is a Russian-made T-72BM, a variant of the tank that Russia is not known to have exported or operated outside Russia, four experts say.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">The second tank is either a T-72BM or T-72B1, the experts say. The latter variant is also not believed to be in active service in Ukraine, undermining claims of Moscow-backed militants that they captured all their tanks from Ukrainian forces, the story says.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">A similar photo has appeared before. On Aug. 27, the BBC published a photo of a T-72BM in a militant tank convoy in eastern Ukraine, saying it was evidence of Russian military involvement in Ukraine.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">4:52 p.m.: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill granting a military pension equal to $350 a month to families of Russian soldiers missing in action, <i>The Moscow Times</i> <b><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/new-law-grants-pensions-to-missing-soldiers-families/509988.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">A senior legislator says the Russian legislature is seeking to extend the benefits to "volunteers" fighting in Ukraine. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">But the new law essentially allows pensions for the families of soldiers who disappear in Ukraine, "as long as those families keep silent that the soldiers may have gone missing in action in Ukraine," the story says.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 24</i></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">7:15 a.m.: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">A group of Russian intellectuals has called on Russian state-run Channel One TV to acknowledge "falsifications" in its reporting on Ukraine, which they blame for the deaths of young Russians who "immediately rush" to fight in Ukraine, <i>The Moscow Times</i> <b><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-intellectuals-ask-state-run-tv-to-acknowledge-falsifications-in-ukraine-reports/510005.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</span></div>
<div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"It's not a secret to anybody that leading Russian television companies resort to various falsifications when covering the Ukrainian crisis. The authors of those falsifications share the responsibility for the blood that is being shed in the brotherly country," the Congress of Intelligentsia Against War, Self-Isolation of Russia and Restoration of Totalitarianism says in an open letter.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">"I won't hide the fact that we used our</span></b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">armed forces to block Ukrainian </span></b></i></span><br />
<i style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">soldiers stationed in Crimea."</span></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">- Putin, Oct. 24, 2014</span></b></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">"Those were local self-defence units."</span></b></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>- Putin, March 4, 2014</i></b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">2:19 p.m.: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Russian president Vladimir Putin acknowledges Russian troops blocked Ukrainian military units in Crimea before a <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-7-reasons-crimea-referendum-fraud-fake-results-sergei-aksyonov.html" target="_blank">rigged March referendum</a></b> that Putin used to explain his seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">"I won't hide the fact that we used our armed forces to block Ukrainian soldiers stationed in Crimea," Putin <b><a href="http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/news/2014/10/24/n_6591529.shtml" target="_blank">is quoted</a></b> saying on Russia's Gazeta.ru news site.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">In the days before the referendum, Putin <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-images-contradict-putins.html" target="_blank">insisted</a></b> that the thousands of heavily armed soldiers without insignia who had flooded into Crimea were "local self-defence units."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">A reporter asked Putin if the people blocking Ukrainian army units in Crimea wearing what appeared to be Russian army uniforms were Russian soldiers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Putin replied that such uniforms could be bought in a store.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"But were they Russian soldiers or not?" a reporter asked.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">"Those were local self-defence units."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="font-size: medium; line-height: 23.7999992370605px; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"If Moscow didn't support us, </i></span></b></span><b style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>we </i></span></b><b style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>wouldn't</i></span></b><br />
<b style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>last two weeks."</i></span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: medium; line-height: 23.7999992370605px; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>- Oleg Tsariov, leader of </i></span></b></span><b style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Moscow-backed militants</i></span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 25</i></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">A tank and armoured personnel carrier <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yvjiyIXT7A" target="_blank">are said to be filmed</a></b> in militant-held Donetsk painted with Ukrainian military markings.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">The video, uploaded today on YouTube, coincides with Ukrainian interior ministry <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/10/25/7041916/" target="_blank">claims</a></b> that Moscow-backed militants may stage attacks that can be blamed on Ukrainian forces.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">The claims come amid <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0r9X_0kTis&noredirect=1" target="_blank">reports</a></b> of dozens of militant tanks and armoured vehicles massing in Donetsk near the Ukrainian-held airport, possibly in preparation for an attack to coincide with tomorrow's Ukrainian parliamentary election.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 26</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">11:03 p.m.: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Dozens of tanks, military trucks, artillery pieces, armoured vehicles and radiolocation units are spotted today moving in several large columns through militant-held areas of eastern Ukraine, the Luhansk-based Informator news site <b><a href="http://informator.lg.ua/?p=43007#more-43007" target="_blank">reports</a></b>, citing local citizens.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">The columns include nearly 20 tanks spotted moving into Ukraine from the Izvarine border crossing, t</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">he site says.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> Russian military vehicles and troops have previously crossed here into Ukraine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Another column of 100 military trucks was seen passing through Torez, closer to Donetsk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">A source close to the Moscow-backed militants tells the site they vow "a difficult Monday" for Ukrainian forces.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 27</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">9 a.m.: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Twenty or more trucks with no license plates driven by camouflage-clad men cross the Russia-Ukraine border, <i>Kyiv Post</i> editor Christopher Miller tweets.</span></div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en-gb" style="font-size: 17px;">
At <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Donetsk?src=hash">#Donetsk</a>-<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Russia?src=hash">#Russia</a> border today, slow flow of vehicles sans ID plates driven by camo-clad men, 20+ convoy of trucks <a href="http://t.co/JYZ44tH958">pic.twitter.com/JYZ44tH958</a><br />
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/526750345545142274">October 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
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A few hours later, Miller tweets: "Today, 1.5km from #Russia border on #Donetsk side, met 3 men in military garb who needed gas for car. All had 'Russian Armed Forces' patches."</div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 28</i></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Russian newspaper </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Novata Gazeta</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"> <b><a href="http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/65878.html" target="_blank">asks</a></b> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">Oleg Tsariov, a leader of the Moscow-backed militants in Ukraine, if the Kremlin supports his goal of taking over additional parts of Ukraine</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">"If Moscow didn't support us, we wouldn't last two weeks," he says.</span></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>OCTOBER 31</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">The Russian state media censor has issued a warning to Russia's Echo Moscow radio station, claiming it aired "information justifying practices of war and other crimes" in a report on fighting at Ukraine's Donetsk airport, the site Euronews <b><a href="http://www.euronews.com/newswires/2768622-russian-media-watchdog-blasts-radio-station-over-ukraine-coverage/" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">The warning is over an interview about the battle for the Donetsk airport with <i>Los Angeles Times</i> reporter Sergey Loiko and Echo Moscow reporter Timur Oleksy, who recently visited the airport. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">The station was forced to remove a transcript from the site, but it's available here at <b><a href="http://news.liga.net/news/politics/3879310-zapreshchennyy_efir_ekha_moskvy_o_donetskom_aeroporte_polnyy_tekst.htm" target="_blank">Liga.net</a> </b>(Russian) and in an English translation <b><a href="http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3662635&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=113" target="_blank">here</a></b> (scroll down to the ninth post).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">A second warning within a year can lead to a media outlet being shut down. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Echo Moscow has reported critically about the Kremlin's covert war in Ukraine (see above).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Another media outlet that has exposed Russia's role in the fighting, TV Dozhd (or Rain), was taken off the air earlier this year by several Russian TV providers in a move the channel called censorship, Euronews also said.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>NOVEMBER 1</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">Russian forces in eastern Ukraine are planning a massive strike after militant leaders stage an illegal unmonitored election there on Nov. 2, Ukrainian military analysts <b><a href="https://burkonews.info/general-summary-november-1-2014-informnapalm-group/" target="_blank">warn</a></b> at the Burko News site, citing sources on the ground and open-source information.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;">A huge influx of Russian regular troops has been noted in eastern Ukraine, they say. The assault would begin after a "provocation" staged to make it appear as a Ukrainian attack, they add.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>NOVEMBER 2</i></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">Russia has sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in the past two days along with hundreds of tanks, armoured vehicles and anti-aircraft systems, increasing by 10-fold the number of its forces there, Ukrainian security officials <b><a href="http://newsdaily.com.ua/post/530266" target="_blank">say</a></b>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">"Almost all the Russian Federation forces that were near the border have entered Ukraine," the site Ukraine News Today reports, citing the Ukrainian government's anti-terrorist centre.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">NATO said in late September 20,000 Russian troops were stationed near Ukraine's border (see above).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">The news coincides with journalist and eyewitness <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/11/2/7042984/" target="_blank">reports</a></b> today (see also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bOmLq-nkyQ" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>) of massive military convoys moving through areas held by Moscow-backed militants of eastern Ukraine toward frontline zones.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i>NOVEMBER 3</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">6:20 a.m.: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">Russian regular troops and mercenaries in Ukraine now number 14,000 to 15,000, with local Moscow-backed militants numbering 10,000 to 12,000, Ukrainian military analyst Dmitry Tymchuk says in a Facebook <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/dmitry.tymchuk?fref=ts" target="_blank">post</a></b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif;">The Russian forces include 110 to 115 tanks, 250 to 280 armoured personnel carriers and 80 to 100 artillery pieces, he says.</span></div>
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<i style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><b>SEE ALSO:</b></i></div>
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<b style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i>- <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/11/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">Russia Invades Ukraine -- Chronicling the Covert War (Since Nov. 2014)</a></i></b><br />
<i style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><b>- <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/07/ukraine-mh17-timeline-malaysia-airlines-buk-missile-igor-girkin-strelkov.html" target="_blank">Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Timeline - the Definitive Whodunnit</a></b></i></div>
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<div style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 17px;">
<span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><i><b>- <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-putin-russia-far-right-neo-nazi.html" target="_blank">Ukraine Crisis: 7 Signs of Russia's Far-Right Turn</a></b></i></span></div>
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Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-54944568246548896072014-07-18T13:13:00.016-04:002023-02-08T09:11:50.676-05:00Ukraine Crisis: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Timeline -- the Definitive Whodunnit (UPDATED)<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Who downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17? My MH17 timeline chronicles the evidence. I'll update it as new details emerge. Latest update: February 8, 2023 (all times in GMT).</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 16, 2014</i></span></b><br /><b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">11 p.m. (all times in GMT): </span></b>A Buk anti-aircraft missile system is smuggled from Russia into Ukraine for use by Kremlin-backed gunmen fighting the government in eastern Ukraine, according to the<a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/avakov-irrefutable-evidence-shows-that-kremlin-backed-separatists-shot-down-malaysian-plane-356730.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank"><b> </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Kyiv Post</i></a> citing <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVAOTWPmMM4" target="_blank">intelligence</a></b> from Ukraine's SBU security service.<br />
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Russian-made Buk missiles can hit targets at an altitude of up to 22,000 metres and have a range of 40 kilometres, according to the <b><a href="http://www.janes.com/article/40907/missile-profile-9k37-buk" target="_blank">Jane's defence site</a></b>.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 17<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://espreso.tv/uploads/article/44978/images/im578x383-Bswy4VtCUAAJCDS.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="578" height="240" src="https://espreso.tv/uploads/article/44978/images/im578x383-Bswy4VtCUAAJCDS.jpg" title="Buk anti-aircraft missile system said to be photographed in the rebel-held town of Torez, 14 km south of where Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in Ukraine." width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Buk anti-aircraft missile system <b><a href="https://espreso.tv/news/2014/07/17/meshkanci_snizhnoho_poshyryuyut_foto_buka" target="_blank">said</a></b> to be<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">photographed in the rebel-held town of<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Torez, 14 km south of where Malaysia<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"></div><div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Airlines flight MH17 crashed in Ukraine.</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">9 a.m.: </span></b>Russian-backed militia in eastern Ukraine move a Buk anti-aircraft system to the area where Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down, according to <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVAOTWPmMM4" target="_blank">phone calls</a></b> between Russian-backed militia and Russian military intelligence that Ukraine's SBU security service says it intercepted.<br />
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"Where should we unload this beauty?" a militia fighter known as "Buryat" asks Serhei Petrovskyi, identified as a Russian military intelligence officer with the nom de guerre Khmuryi, in one of the calls.<br />
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"Which one? That one?" Petrovskyi replies.<br />
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"Yes, yes, yes. Buk, Buk," the fighter says.<br />
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"Is it with a crew?" Petrovskyi asks.<br />
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"Yes, with the crew."<br />
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A Russian diplomat <b><a href="http://en.ria.ru/world/20140721/191073257/Russian-Ambassador-Calls-Militia-Phone-Call-Intercepts-Fake.html" target="_blank">later says</a></b> these and other SBU recordings are "totally fabricated fakes."<br />
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The U.S. <b><a href="http://ukraine.usembassy.gov/statements/asmt-07192014.html" target="_blank">says</a></b> in a July 20 assessment the recordings were "evaluated by Intelligence Community analysts who confirmed these were authentic conversations between known separatist leaders, based on comparing the Ukraine-released internet audio to recordings of known separatists."<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this morning, </span></b>a Buk missile system is photographed in militia-controlled Torez, a town 14 kilometres south of where MH17 went down, according to <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/07/17/meshkanci_snizhnoho_poshyryuyut_foto_buka" target="_blank">The Interpreter Mag</a></b>, a site that translates Russian media stories and posted a geolocation analysis of the photo. (See the photo above.)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/eA77Xn-KijM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe><div>The Interpreter Mag also posts a <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA77Xn-KijM">YouTube video</a></b> apparently taken Thursday showing a Buk system that the site <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-150-ukrainian-troops-describe-grad-rocket-attack-from-russia/#3408" target="_blank">says</a></b> it has geolocated as being in Snizhne, 16 km southeast of the MH17 crash site.<br />
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The site says the system would have been within range to shoot down MH17.<br />
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The militia use T-72 tanks to escort the Buk missile system into the area, <i>The New York Post</i> <b><a href="http://nypost.com/2014/07/20/how-the-russians-led-the-missile-strike-that-downed-flight-mh17/" target="_blank">said in a July 20 story</a></b> citing reported accounts from Ukrainian intelligence sources.<br />
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The convoy is reportedly <b><a href="http://ukraineatwar.blogspot.nl/2014/07/russian-transport-of-buk-into-ukraine.html" target="_blank">filmed</a></b> en route and geolocated between Donetsk and Snizhne.<br />
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A Buk missile system is also <b><a href="http://www.parismatch.com/Actu/International/EXCLU-MATCH-Un-camion-vole-pour-transporter-le-systeme-lance-missiles-577289" target="_blank">photographed</a></b> on a truck on the road between Donetsk and Snizhne this morning by the newspaper <i>Paris Match</i>. Using geolocation, the blog Ukraine@war <b><a href="http://ukraineatwar.blogspot.nl/2014/07/another-photo-of-mh17-buk-transport.html" target="_blank">confirms</a></b> the photo was taken in a Donetsk suburb.<br />
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Locals later tell <b><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/locals-say-rebels-moved-missile-launcher-shortly-before-mala" target="_blank">BuzzFeed</a></b>, <i><b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/20/malaysia-airlines-mh17-videos-missile-launcher-torez-snizhne" target="_blank">The Guardian</a></b></i> and <i><b><a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-officials-lay-out-case-against-russians-1406063846" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal</a></b> </i>they saw what they thought was a Buk launcher being driven in Torez the day MH-17 was downed.<br />
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One resident tells the <i>The Wall Street Journal </i>of seeing the launcher before the disaster and what looked like the same launcher again after the downing -- the second time with one of its missiles gone.<br />
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BuzzFeed also locates the spot where the smoke trail of a missile launch that day in the same vicinity was reportedly <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WowihaY/status/489807649509478400/photo/1" target="_blank">photographed</a></b>.<br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>2:10 p.m.:</b></span> A Russian operator reports to a militia officer known as "Miner" that the missile system has picked up a high-altitude aircraft, the <i>New York Post</i> <b><a href="http://nypost.com/2014/07/20/how-the-russians-led-the-missile-strike-that-downed-flight-mh17/" target="_blank">says</a></b> citing a report in <i>The Sunday Times of London</i>.<br />
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Miner allegedly gives the order to fire, the story says.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">2:15 p.m.: </span></b>Air traffic control <b><a href="http://www.interaksyon.com/article/91422/mh17--malaysia-airlines-plane-shot-down-over-ukraine-295-feared-dead" target="_blank">loses contact</a></b> with MH17 while it is flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres above Ukraine near the town of Torez, about 40 km from the Ukraine-Russian border.<br />
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The FlightRadar24 site, which tracks air traffic, later <b><a href="https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/489806795725348864" target="_blank">says</a></b> the signal from MH17 is lost at 2:21 p.m. at 33,000 feet (10,058 m).<a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">2:18 p.m.: </span></b>Russia's pro-Kremlin newspaper Vzglyad.ru <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/was-col-strelkovs-dispatch-about-a-downed-ukrainian-plane-authentic/" target="_blank">reports</a></b> that the pro-Russia militia in eastern Ukraine has shot down a Ukrainian AN-26 military cargo plane near the militia-controlled town of Torez. (The time 2:18 p.m. is the time stamp given at the top of the story. The actual time of publication may have been different.)<br />
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In fact, no Ukrainian plane is shot down this day.<br />
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The report says the militia has a Buk anti-aircraft missile system in this area and had previously used it Monday to shoot down another Ukrainian military plane.<br />
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The pro-Kremlin Itar-Tass media outlet soon after <b><a href="http://itar-tass.com/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/1325017" target="_blank">also reports</a></b> the militia downed a Ukrainian AN-26 near Torez.<br />
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Russia's LifeNews TV channel, which often runs stories sympathetic to the militia, also carries a report saying the militia has shot down a Ukrainian AN-26, according to this <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuX6rEOjyqA" target="_blank">YouTube recording</a></b> of the item.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">2:33 p.m.: </span></b>A Kremlin-backed militia member in Ukraine identified by the nickname "Major" says<b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000003007434/intercepted-audio-of-ukraine-separatists.html" target="_blank"> in an intercepted phone call</a></b> that Cossack militia fighters from the Chernukhino check point in the Donetsk region have shot down a plane, according to Ukraine's SBU security service, which released what it said is a recording of the call.<br />
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"Major" tells another militant, "Greek," that a body from the plane has been found--a civilian.<br />
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Greek <b><a href="http://cgrozev.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/an-interview-with-grek/" target="_blank">later tells</a></b> Austria-based blogger Christo Grozev that "part of the call may have taken place... Such a call as is being shown there, it never happened... But there were calls later, where we talked about... is this a military plane, is this not a military plane... We were trying to figure it out."<br />
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Greek, however, insists the militia couldn't have shot down MH17 because it didn't have the weapons to do so at such a high altitude.<br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>Also around this time,</b></span> the social media page belonging to Igor Girkin, "defence minister" of the Russia-backed militia in Donetsk who <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/05/ukraine-crisis-rebel-leader-igor-girkin.html" target="_blank">has acknowledged</a></b> he was a colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence service up to last year, <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20140717152222/http://vk.com/strelkov_info" target="_blank">boasts</a></b> that militia forces have shot down a Ukrainian AN-26 military transport plane in the Torez area.<br />
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"In the Torez district, we just down shot down a plane, an AN-26. It is lying somewhere near the Progress mine. We have issued warnings not to fly in our airspace," the post on the VKontakte site says.<br />
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A video of smoke from the crash site is linked, which in fact is likely the MH17 wreckage. The post is later removed and <b><a href="http://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_7369" target="_blank">a note</a></b> is added saying Girkin doesn't write all the posts and that some are by other militia members.<br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-weight: bold;">2:40 p.m.:</span> Igor "Bes" Bezler, another militia leader who <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/05/ukraine-crisis-rebel-leader-igor-girkin.html" target="_blank">has described himself</a></b> as a Russian military lieutenant colonel (his nickname means "Devil" in Russian), says in an <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000003007434/intercepted-audio-of-ukraine-separatists.html" target="_blank">intercepted phone call</a></b> to Russian military intelligence colonel Vasili Geranin that militia forces have downed a plane.<br />
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"We just shot down a plane. Miner's group. It fell past Yenakievo," Bezler tells Geranin.<br />
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Bezler later confirms the call with Geranin did occur, but he says he was discussing a different plane, according to a <b><a href="http://lenta.ru/news/2014/07/18/bezler/" target="_blank">report July 18</a></b> on Russia's Lenta.ru news site.<br />
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"In the recording, you can clearly hear the discussion is about a plane in Yenakievo," Bezler is quoted saying.<br />
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"The Boeing fell in Snizhne. There is 100 kilometres between them. I don't have any weapons that can hit a plane that far away."<br />
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In fact, Bezler in the recording says the plane fell "past" Yenakievo, not in the town. Also, Yenakievo is actually only <b><a href="http://tjpeiffer.com/crowflies.html" target="_blank">34 km west</a></b> of the MH17 crash site and was on the plane's flight path.<br />
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The Interpreter Mag site <b><a href="http://pressimus.com/Interpreter_Mag/press/3466" target="_blank">says</a></b> Bezler's statement is significant because it confirms the SBU recording wasn't fabricated and that the militia has close ties with Russian military intelligence.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">2:52 p.m.:</span> </b>An Associated Press journalist <b><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ukraine-air-force-jet-downed-russian-missile-24598894" target="_blank">reports</a></b> seeing a Buk missile system in Snizhne, a town held by Russian-backed rebels 16 km southeast of where MH17 went down.<br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>3:32 p.m.:</b> </span>"Major" says in another intercepted call from the crash site: "It was definitely a civilian plane."<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">3:42 p.m.:</span> </b>An unidentified militia fighter says in <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000003007434/intercepted-audio-of-ukraine-separatists.html" target="_blank">another intercepted call</a></b> released by the SBU that there is "a sea of corpses of women and children. The Cossacks are there checking it out."<br />
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Another fighter says, "They say on TV it's an AN-26, a Ukrainian transport plane. But they say it has a Malaysia Airlines logo on it. What was it doing in Ukrainian territory?"<br />
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A man identified as Russian Cossack leader Nikolai Kositsyn says, "That means they were carrying spies. (Expletive) them. They shouldn't be (expletive) flying. There's a war going on."<br />
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Unidentified militant: "Understood."<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">4:32 p.m.:</span> </b>Ukrainian defence ministry <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/07/17/terorysty_pomylkovo_vluchyly_u_pasazhyrskyy_litak" target="_blank">says</a></b> a Ukrainian military transport plane was flying along a similar trajectory as the downed airliner and may have been the target of the Russia-backed militia.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">6:37 p.m.: </span></b>Russia's Interfax media agency <b><a href="http://lenta.ru/news/2014/07/17/president/" target="_blank">says</a></b> the Ukrainian military shot down MH17 thinking it was a plane carrying Russian president Vladimir Putin.<br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>6:37 p.m.:</b> </span>A Ukrainian interior ministry official <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/07/17/7032237/" target="_blank">says</a></b> the nearest Ukrainian forces to the crash site near the plane's flight path are over 70 kilometres away -- well outside the 40-km range of a Buk missile system.<br />
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"There's no way our military could have shot down the passenger plane," he says.<br />
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He says local residents reported seeing Russian-backed militia driving a Buk system through the nearby town of Torez in the hours before the crash.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">6:42 p.m.: </span></b>Ukraine's defence ministry <b><a href="http://www.mil.gov.ua/news/2014/07/17/za-period-provedennya-antiteroristichnoi-operaczii-zenitno-raketni-kompleksi/" target="_blank">says</a></b> no Ukrainian fighter planes were in the air at the time of the crash and that it has never used anti-aircraft rockets during the fighting in eastern Ukraine.<br />
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Ukraine <b><a href="http://en.ria.ru/world/20140715/190936092/Military-Aviation-in-Eastern-Ukraine-Halted-Over-An-26-Plane.html" target="_blank">grounded</a></b> its military planes after pro-Kremlin militia shot down a Ukrainian military cargo plane flying at 6,500 metres on July 14.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 18</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">2:50 a.m.: </span></b>A Buk missile system is filmed being driven on a truck through the militia-controlled town of Krasnodon 10 km from the Ukraine-Russia border, according to Ukraine's interior minister Arsen Avakov. Here is a <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4HJmev5xg0" target="_blank">YouTube video</a></b>, which was later <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/russia-this-week-defense-ministry-claim-about-buk-video-doesnt-add-up/#0631" target="_blank">geolocated</a></b> in the nearby militia-held city of Luhansk.<br />
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Avakov says in a <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/arsen.avakov.1/posts/670837696339673" target="_blank">Facebook post</a></b> that at least one of the missiles that the Buk unit would normally carry is missing.<br />
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Krasnodon and Luhansk has been a key transit point for Russian tanks and other equipment moving from Russia into Ukraine. In this case, Ukrainian officials say the Buk was taken back to Russia to hide its involvement in the MH17 tragedy.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">9 a.m.:</span></b> The Russia-backed gunmen had intended to shoot down a Ukrainian military transport plane that they thought would be flying overhead based on a leak from "traitors" in the Ukrainian government, says <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/borys.filatov?fref=nf" target="_blank">a Facebook post</a></b> by Borys Filatov, deputy head of the regional government in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine.<br />
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The Ukrainian plane didn't end up taking off, he says.<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b><br /></b></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>9:02 a.m.: </b></span>Bizarrely, militia leader Igor Girkin <b><a href="http://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_7586" target="_blank">says</a></b> on his VKontakte social media page that some of the people whose bodies were found at the crash site appear to have died long before the plane was downed.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">12:09 p.m.: </span></b>Ukraine's SBU security agency detains two Russians suspected of being Buk operators at the Ukraine-Russia border in Donetsk, <b><a href="http://www.unian.ua/politics/941247-sbu-zatrimala-dvoh-rosiyan-yakih-pidozryuyut-u-koriguvanni-vognyu-z-ustanovki-buk.html" target="_blank">reports</a> </b>Ukraine's Unian news agency.<br />
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Both have Russian passports, and one has military documents indicating he is an artillery fire control specialist, the SBU says.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">12:57 p.m.:</span></b> Sara Firth, a correspondent at Russian state-owned media outlet Russia Today, resigns in protest over the channel's coverage of the MH17 disaster, which <b><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/russia-today-correspondent-resigns-over-coverage-of-ukranian?bftw=main" target="_blank">she says</a></b> unfairly blamed the Ukrainian government for the crash.<br />
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"I couldn't do it any more. Every single day we're lying," she said.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">4:15 p.m.: </span></b>Malaysian transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said MH-17 "was following the right route," the same one that other airlines used in preceding hours, <i>The Guardian</i> <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh17-route-minister" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
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Lai, facing questions from reporters, said there had been "no last-minute instructions" given to the pilots to change their route. Ukrainian authorities had banned planes from flying below 32,000 feet. MH-17 was at 33,000 feet when hit.<br />
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The flight plan had been okayed by Eurocontrol, which approves routes in European skies.<br />
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MH17's pilots reportedly asked to alter their initial flight path over Ukraine to avoid thunderstorms, another <i>Guardian </i>story <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/19/mh17-changing-course-storms-pilot" target="_blank">says</a></b>. They had asked local air traffic control to fly at 35,000 feet but were told to fly at 33,000 due to other traffic.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">6:10 p.m.: </span></b>A senior militia commander asks emergency workers at the crash site to ensure the MH17 plane's "black box," a device that records flight data, remains in militia hands, according to <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ff_LTlZZI8&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">intercepted phone calls</a></b> released by Ukraine's SBU security service.<br />
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"I have a request for you. It is not my request. Our friends from high above are very much interested in the fate of the black boxes. I mean people from Moscow," says Aleksander Khodakovsky, commander of the militia's Vostok battalion, in a call with an emergency worker named Andriy.<br />
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"All that you find must not come into somebody else's hands. Only yours or Strelkov's people [the nom de guerre of militia leader <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/05/ukraine-crisis-rebel-leader-igor-girkin.html" target="_blank">Igor Girkin</a></b>] or Khmuryi's."<br />
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(Khmuryi is the man involved in the delivery of the Buk anti-aircraft missile to the area where MH17 was shot down, according to <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVAOTWPmMM4">other calls</a></b> the SBU says it recorded.)<br />
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"Try to take everything you find so it doesn't get into somebody else's hands, all those people who are coming, OSCE and so on," Khodakovsky says.<br />
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"Understood," Andriy says.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">6:52 p.m.: </span></b>Russia-backed militia ordered rescuers at the crash site to depart and then loaded 36 bodies of MH17 passengers onto vehicles, then drove off to the regional capital Donetsk, says the Donetsk regional government in <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/07/18/terorysty_vykraly_36_til_zahyblykh_pry_katastrofi_malaziyskoho_laynera___donoda" target="_blank">a report</a></b> on Espreso.tv.<br />
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Regional officials believe the gunmen were seeking to hide evidence from investigators, the story says.<br />
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Passengers' bodies are a critical part of a plane crash investigation, <b><a href="https://plus.google.com/+EuroMaidanPR/posts/S8hqS7yPbK2" target="_blank">later explains</a></b> Yevhen Marchuk, former head of Ukraine's SBU security agency.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">7:26 p.m.:</span></b> Heavily armed pro-Russia militia stopped 30 inspectors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe from getting full access to the MH17 crash site, the <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/mh17-crash-pro-russia-rebels-block-access-ukraine" target="_blank">Guardian reports</a></b>.<br />
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The inspectors left after an hour-long standoff and a warning shot fired by a militia commander, despite <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/malaysia-airlines-crash-flight-recorder-found-as-anger-at-russia-mounts-live-updates#block-53c922dee4b06812cbaead04" target="_blank">earlier militia claims</a></b> that international inspectors would get complete access.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 19</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">7:01 a.m.: </span></b>Kremlin-backed militia commander Igor Girkin complains on <b><a href="http://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_7849" target="_blank">his social media page</a></b> that his forces had to stop using their anti-aircraft weapons after MH17.<br />
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He writes that Ukrainian military planes are heavily bombing some of his fighters. "The Ukrainians are taking full advantage of the 'Boeing.' Ukrainian planes are dominating the sky with absolute freedom from punishment," he says.<br />
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The post raises the question of why Girkin had to stop using AA weapons if his forces weren't involved in shooting down MH17. An indirect admission of responsibility for MH17 and/or that those systems are now back in Russia?<br />
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The militia had shot down 14 Ukrainian military planes and helicopters before MH17, <b><a href="http://uapress.info/uk/news/show/31738" target="_blank">said</a></b> Ukraine's deputy prime minister Volodymyr Groisman Saturday. One -- an AH-26 cargo plane -- was reportedly hit at an altitude of 6,000 metres.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">11:30 a.m.: </span></b>An emergency worker at the crash site says 65 bodies have been removed from the area, <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/investigation-into-malaysia-airlines-disaster-hampered-as-crash-site-remains-under-rebel-control-updates-356879.html" target="_blank">says Christopher Miller</a></b>, an editor of the <i>Kyiv Post</i> at the scene. It's not clear where the bodies were taken, he says.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">12 p.m.: </span></b>Bodies of passengers are being moved to a roadside and placed in body bags by people claiming to be fellow experts, says OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw at the scene in <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/investigation-into-malaysia-airlines-disaster-hampered-as-crash-site-remains-under-rebel-control-updates-356879.html" target="_blank">a <i>Kyiv Post</i> story</a></b>.<br />
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He says the OSCE team was prevented by heavily armed militia members from questioning those moving the bodies.<br />
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Militia fighters were "impolite and unprofessional" while some "even looked slightly intoxicated," Bociurkiw said in a <b><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/osce-barred-from-accessing-crash-site-by-intoxicated-gunmen/503754.html" target="_blank"><i>Moscow Times </i>story</a></b>.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 20</i></span></b><br /><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>12:43 a.m.:</b> </span>U.S. secretary of state John Kerry says Russia-backed militia shot down MH17.<br />
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"We picked up the imagery of this launch. We know the trajectory. We know where it came from. We know the timing, and it was exactly at the time that this aircraft disappeared from the radar," AP quotes Kerry saying in a <b><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2014/s4050660.htm" target="_blank">TV interview</a></b>.<br />
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"We also know from voice identification that the separatists were bragging about shooting it down afterward," Kerry is quoted saying.<br />
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">3:35 a.m.: </span></b>The U.S. has determined that Russia supplied Buk anti-aircraft missile launchers to pro-Kremlin militants in Ukraine and then attempted to move at least three of the launchers back into Russia after MH17 was shot down, a U.S. official <b><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ukranian-officials-accuse-rebel-militias-of-moving-bodies-tampering-with-evidence/2014/07/19/bef07204-0f1c-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203" target="_blank">tells the <i>Washington Post</i></a></b>.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MvKOm-Td7D6pU8ywISjQltgSZmagvr2yaS0NdbhZ8s2fm3vX_1PyBB0Iu-J5jbODiFKv2l4ak903jD5RGpELWodSB0oEBg0XiIaY0sOeBGGy5GqxiQF1ls81gXCxQEXPR91yLnGdRabkCoL4DPZ4XFrHkAb3RjUz-juERI5KUFHAZ2NlPTr97R5kDw/s720/14%20MH17%20flight%20path-US%20embassy.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MvKOm-Td7D6pU8ywISjQltgSZmagvr2yaS0NdbhZ8s2fm3vX_1PyBB0Iu-J5jbODiFKv2l4ak903jD5RGpELWodSB0oEBg0XiIaY0sOeBGGy5GqxiQF1ls81gXCxQEXPR91yLnGdRabkCoL4DPZ4XFrHkAb3RjUz-juERI5KUFHAZ2NlPTr97R5kDw/s320/14%20MH17%20flight%20path-US%20embassy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The U.S. embassy in Kyiv on July 22 <b><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140801002829/https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/p180x540/10488370_10152288664556936_5007498342550463350_n.jpg" target="_blank">released</a></b> this<br />depiction of the flight path of the Buk anti-aircraft<br />missile it believes brought down MH17.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">11:42 p.m.: </span></b>MH17 "was likely downed by a SA-11 surface-to-air missile from separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine," says a <b><a href="http://ukraine.usembassy.gov/statements/asmt-07192014.html" target="_blank">U.S. assessment</a></b> posted on the site of the U.S. embassy in Kyiv.<br />
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"At the time that flight MH17 dropped out of contact, we detected a surface-to-air missile (SAM) launch from a separatist-controlled area in southeastern Ukraine. We believe this missile was an SA-11," the statement says. ("SA-11" is the U.S. military code name for the Buk system.)<br />
<br />
"Ukraine also operates SA-11 systems, but we are confident no Ukrainian air defense systems were within range of the crash. Ukrainian forces have also not fired a single surface-to-air missile during the conflict, despite often complaining about violations of their airspace by Russian military aircraft," the assessment says.<br />
<br />
The U.S. has also "detected an increasing amount of heavy weaponry to separatist fighters crossing the border from Russia into Ukraine" in the past month, the assessment says. That included a 150-vehicle convoy last weekend with tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and multiple rocket launchers.<br />
<br />
"Russia is providing training to separatist fighters at a facility in southwest Russia, and this effort included training on air defense systems," the assessment says.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 21</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">1:07 a.m.: </span></b>Kremlin-backed militia fighters threaten to "shoot our heads off" if Dutch journalist Rudy Bouma, who is covering MH17, doesn't delete photos of fighters.<br />
<br />
Bouma manages to tweet <b><a href="https://twitter.com/rudybouma/status/491147539404828672/photo/1" target="_blank">a photo</a></b> of one heavily armed fighter with a Russian military patch on his uniform.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Was forced to delete shots rebels Donetsk station "or they will shoot our heads off" <a href="https://twitter.com/Nieuwsuur">@Nieuwsuur</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/nosnieuws">@nosnieuws</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/fighting?src=hash">#fighting</a> <a href="http://t.co/34A51OfKFG">pic.twitter.com/34A51OfKFG</a><br />
— rudy bouma (@rudybouma) <a href="https://twitter.com/rudybouma/statuses/491147539404828672">July 21, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">2:17 p.m.: </span></b>Russian Air Force lieutenant-general Igor Makushev told a press conference in Moscow that Russian radar had detected a Ukrainian military plane -- "presumably an Su-25" -- flying three to five kilometres away from MH17 before it was shot down, <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/21/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-ministry-idUSKBN0FQ16C20140721" target="_blank">Reuters reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
Lt.-Gen Andrei Kartapolov, also speaking at the press conference, <b><a href="http://en.itar-tass.com/world/741655" target="_blank">said</a></b> the Su-25 "can fly at altitudes up to 10 km."<br />
<br />
Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko <b><a href="http://www.enca.com/russia-under-fire-obama-calls-crash-site-chaos-insult" target="_blank">dismissed</a></b> the claim as "irresponsible and false."<br />
<br />
The Russian officials didn't say they had data showing the Ukrainian plane fired at MH17.<br />
<br />
In fact, the Su-25 has a ceiling of <b><a href="http://www.sukhoi.org/eng/planes/military/su25k/lth/" target="_blank">7 km</a></b> when not carrying any external weapons or stores, according to the manufacturer Sukhoi and the site <b><a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/su-25-specs.htm">GlobalSecurity.org</a></b> -- and an <b><a href="http://forums.airbase.ru/2000/04/t6333--official-specs-for-a-10-su-25.7640.html" target="_blank">even lower ceiling</a></b> of 5 km when loaded with weapons. MH17 was hit at 10 km.<br />
<br />
The Su-25 is also a relatively slow <b><a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/su-25-specs.htm" target="_blank">ground attack plane</a></b> with a <b><a href="http://www.sukhoi.org/eng/planes/military/su25k/lth/" target="_blank">maximum speed</a></b> when unloaded of 1,010 km/h -- slower than the Boeing 777's <b><a href="http://www.boeing.com/boeing/commercial/777family/pf/pf_200product.page" target="_blank">cruising speed</a></b> of 1,030 km/h.<br />
<br />
And the Su-25 carries a small air-to-air missile very unlikely to have caused the catastrophic damage seen on the MH17 fuselage, according to <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/mh17-and-moscows-magical-mystery-jets/" target="_blank">an analysis</a></b> by The Interpreter Mag.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rt.com/files/news/2a/94/c0/00/snimok_ekrana_2014-07-21_v_18.47.57.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://rt.com/files/news/2a/94/c0/00/snimok_ekrana_2014-07-21_v_18.47.57.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Russian <b><a href="http://rt.com/files/news/2a/94/c0/00/snimok_ekrana_2014-07-21_v_18.47.57.png" target="_blank">satellite image</a></b> purportedly of a<br />
Buk anti-aircraft missile system in<br />
Zarashchinskoye on the day MH17 was<br />
downed. The town, 23 km southwest of<br />
the MH17 crash site, was deep within<br />
territory controlled by pro-Russia<br />
militia on the day MH17 was downed. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Kartapolov presented what he said was a Russian <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEbiSRFYTZY#t=2m24s" target="_blank">radar image</a></b> depicting the purported Su-25 flight path.<br />
<br />
The image shows an object described as the Ukrainian plane "gaining height" until it intersects with MH17 at 2:20 p.m. GMT. That is in fact the moment that the signal from MH17 was lost.<br />
<br />
The image then shows MH17 appearing to slow down, flying somewhat erratically and finally disappearing from radar at 2:24 p.m.<br />
<br />
Kartapolov didn't present evidence to back the presumption that the mystery object was a Ukrainian Su-25. If the radar image is authentic, could the object in fact be a Buk missile launcher?<br />
<br />
The image appears to show the object's flight path as starting at 2:19 p.m. from what would be militia-held territory just to the south of where MH17 crashed. That would be close to the same spot from where the U.S. <b><a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/p180x540/10488370_10152288664556936_5007498342550463350_n.jpg" target="_blank">says</a></b> the Buk missile was launched that brought down the plane.<br />
<br />
Moscow-based individuals <b><a href="http://pressimus.com/Interpreter_Mag/press/3486" target="_blank">later attempted</a></b> to edit the SU-25 Wikipedia page to state that the plane has a ceiling of 10,000 metres. (In a Wikipedia <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Sukhoi_Su-25" target="_blank">forum</a></b>, the edits are ascribed to "vandalism by 'Putinbots.'")<br />
<br />Kartapolov also <b><a href="http://en.itar-tass.com/world/741655" target="_blank">said</a></b> Russia has <b><a href="http://rt.com/files/news/2a/94/c0/00/snimok_ekrana_2014-07-21_v_18.47.57.png" target="_blank">a satellite image</a></b> of a Buk missile system in <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Zaroshchens'ke,+Donetsk+Oblast,+Ukraine/@47.9870648,38.3107469,11z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x40e057e8f685d511:0xb4a12a24e11411da" target="_blank">Zarashchinskoye</a></b>, 50 km east of Donetsk and 23 km southwest of the MH17 crash site, taken hours before the plane was shot down on July 17.<br />
<br />
He claimed this Buk system is Ukrainian. In fact, this location was deep within territory controlled by the Kremlin-backed militia, according to maps of the conflict zone published by <i><b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/02/27/world/europe/ukraine-divisions-crimea.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a></b></i> and the <b><a href="http://en.inforesist.org/the-situation-in-the-ato-area-july-17-map/" target="_blank">Ukrainian government</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Later this day,</span> </b>Russian military expert Vadim Lukashevich <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L13uJ9nhTdE" target="_blank">dismisses</a></b> the idea that a Ukrainian Su-25 could have shot down MH17.<br />
<br />
"The Su-25 is a ground-attack plane. The purpose of this machine is to work close to the ground and give direct support to troops on the battlefield," he says in an interview on Russia's RBK TV channel.<br />
<br />
"Shooting down a plane at an altitude of 11,000 [metres] with an Su-25 -- that's not serious."<br />
<br />
Lukashevich later called the Russian government claims "an obvious lie" in a <b><a href="http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/lukashevich_v/1368480-echo/" target="_blank">blog post</a></b> on the website of Echo Moscow, an independent radio station.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">4:05 p.m.:</span></b> <i>The Financial Times</i> publishes <b><a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/1d6a9ac2-10e3-11e4-b116-00144feabdc0.html#axzz387pgCIDp" target="_blank">a photo</a></b> of a piece of the MH17 plane that experts say shows shrapnel damage consistent with a surface-to-air missile strike.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MH17?src=hash">#MH17</a> fuselage from port side cockpit section showing heavy shrapnel damage consistent with SA-11 hit, credit <a href="https://twitter.com/FT">@FT</a> <a href="http://t.co/F4TWSXWvTZ">pic.twitter.com/F4TWSXWvTZ</a><br />
— Justin Bronk (@Justin_Br0nk) <a href="https://twitter.com/Justin_Br0nk/statuses/491199910872883200">July 21, 2014</a></blockquote>
A <i>New York Times</i> <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/21/world/europe/wreckage-offers-clues-on-why-flight-17-went-down.html" target="_blank">analysis</a></b> of the MH17 wreckage on July 21 also concludes the shrapnel damage is consistent with a Buk missile strike.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">10:01 p.m.:</span></b> After 12 hours of negotiations, Kremlin-backed militia leaders handed over two MH-17 black boxes to a Malaysian delegation and agreed to release bodies from the crash site, the <i>Kyiv Post</i> <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/kremlin-backed-rebels-hand-over-mh17-black-boxes-to-malaysia-357245.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
Militia leader Alexander Borodai arrived at the negotiations with a pistol in one hand and cigarette in the other, <b><a href="https://twitter.com/PaulSonne/status/491295633051889664" target="_blank">tweets</a></b> <i>Wall Street Journal</i> reporter Paul Sonne.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 22</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">11:18 a.m.: </span></b>OSCE monitors tell BBC "major pieces" of the MH17 wreckage have been "cut into" and "look different than when we first saw them." One main cone section was almost split in half, OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw <b><a href="https://soundcloud.com/bbc-world-service/world-update-osce-says-parts-of-the-wrecked-mh17-have-been-cut-into" target="_blank">says</a></b>.<br />
<br />
OSCE monitors saw uniformed men cutting the wreckage with a diesel power saw, he says.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">12:17 p.m.: </span></b>Kremlin-backed militia soldiers <b><a href="http://www.corriere.it/english/14_luglio_22/how-malaysian-plane-was-shot-down-51e99c60-118f-11e4-affb-3320a03d21e8.shtml" target="_blank">are quoted</a></b> telling an Italian journalist the day MH17 went down: "We thought we had shot down a Kiev plane, our superiors told us. We thought we were looking for bailed-out Ukrainian pilots, but instead we found dead civilians."<br />
<br />
Militia troops said they heard a "huge explosion in the sky," then 10 minutes later were ordered into trucks with their weapons and "plenty of ammunition" and sent to round up any survivors who may have parachuted out, Italian newspaper <i>Corriere Della Sera</i> reports.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 23</i></span></b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/7/22/1406065962727/8ef81aa1-fb1c-4041-acdd-652c7c765730-460x368.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/7/22/1406065962727/8ef81aa1-fb1c-4041-acdd-652c7c765730-460x368.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kremlin-backed militia have been taught to use<br />
anti-aircraft weapons at a training base in<br />
Russia near Ukraine's eastern border,<br />
according to <b><a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-officials-lay-out-case-against-russians-1406063846" target="_blank">U.S. intelligence officials</a></b>.<br />
They released <b><a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/7/22/1406065962727/8ef81aa1-fb1c-4041-acdd-652c7c765730-460x368.jpeg" target="_blank">aerial photos above</a></b> that they<br />
said show the base.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">2:58 a.m.: </span></b>Shrapnel damage to the MH17 wreckage is consistent with a surface-to-air missile, such as a Buk, U.S. intelligence officials <b><a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-officials-lay-out-case-against-russians-1406063846" target="_blank">are quoted</a></b> saying at a briefing in Washington.<br />
<br />
The officials said Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems were nowhere near the MH17 crash site. They also ruled out Russia's suggestion that a Ukrainian military plane could have shot down MH17 saying the shrapnel is consistent with a surface-to-air missile, not one from an aircraft.<br />
<br />
The officials corroborated some of the Ukrainian SBU recordings of phone calls of militia members discussing MH17, citing voiceprint analysis by the National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency.<br />
<br />
The officials released aerial photos of what they said is a training base in Russia near Ukraine's border where militia members have been taught to use anti-aircraft weapons.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">6:39 a.m.: </span></b>Sergei Neverov, deputy speaker of the Russian parliament's lower chamber, says Ukrainian billionaire Ihor Kolomoysky should be investigated for possible involvement in the MH17 shoot-down, Russia's Vesti newspaper <b><a href="http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=1826892" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
Neverov cites Kolomoysky's ownership of several aviation companies and his financial support for Ukraine's defence efforts. "Here is the question: Does he have planes and Buk systems? I advise the leaders of the U.S. and Europe to carefully investigate this," Neverov is quoted saying.<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />
10:19 a.m.: </span></b>Russian soldier Vadim Grigoryev posts a photo of artillery guns and spent shells with the caption, "Been shelling Ukraine all night," according to a copy of the post <b><a href="http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/07/23/russian-soldier-boasts-shelling-ukraine-all-night-on-social-network/" target="_blank">published</a></b> by the EuroMaidan Press site. The post is later removed.<br />
<br />
The photos are geotagged and were apparently taken in the <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir//Matveyevo-Kurgansky+District,+Rostov+Oblast,+Russia/@47.5609157,38.6047335,10z/data=!4m8!4m7!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x40e114abaee60083:0x547a1060fcfbee9!2m2!1d38.6733997!2d47.5609362" target="_blank">Matveevo-Kurganskiy</a></b> district of Russia's Rostov region, 20 km from the border with Ukraine, EuroMaidan Press says.<br />
<br />
Earlier in July, <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6RcvjvDq2c" target="_blank">videos</a></b> (see also <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MBNSp4-r5s" target="_blank">here</a></b>) were posted on YouTube of rocket attacks from Russia into Ukraine that were <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-149-russian-tanks-and-artillery-reach-donetsk/#3372" target="_blank">geolocated</a></b> in the Russian city of <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Gukovo,+Rostov+Oblast,+Russia//@47.9839262,40.033112,9z/data=!4m8!4m7!1m5!1m1!1s0x40e1fbb7bc731f37:0xf9db5be1eeda417a!2m2!1d39.933333!2d48.05!1m0" target="_blank">Gukovo</a></b>, also near the Ukraine border.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Morning: </span></b>The Buk system that hit MH17 was operating alone with its own limited radar system and not its usual support grid of sophisticated radar that could have differentiated the MH17 from a military plane, <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/23/exclusive-ukraine-asked-u-s-for-tech-to-counter-russia-s-jet-killers.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b> The Daily Beast citing three senior U.S. intelligence officials.<br />
<br />
"The Russians gave the separatists the weapon but not the support system to use it properly," the story says.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">4:43 p.m.: </span></b>Ukrainian security official Andriy Lysenko <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/07/23/poperedno_ukrayinski_su_25_buly_zbyti_z_terytoriyi_rosiyi___rnbo" target="_blank">says</a></b> two Ukrainian Su-25 ground-attack planes were shot down near Dmytrivka, which is is 4 km from the Russian border. Preliminary information suggests they were hit by missiles fired from Russia, he says.<br />
<br />
The planes were flying at 5,200 metres when hit, suggesting they were struck by high-powered anti-aircraft weapons, he says. Dmytrivka is 30 km southeast of the MH17 crash site.<br />
<br />
Russia later denies shooting down the planes.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">4:59 p.m.: </span></b>A senior pro-Russia militia commander acknowledges the militia mistakenly shot down MH17 with a Buk missile system obtained from Russia, then "probably" hid the evidence, Reuters <b><a href="http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN0FS1V920140723?sp=true" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
But he says Ukraine "provoked" militia to fire the missile by launching air strikes at the time MH17 was flying in the area.<br />
<br />
"I knew that a Buk came from Luhansk. At the time I was told that a Buk from Luhansk was coming under the flag of the LNR," says Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the militia's Vostok battalion. "LNR" refers to the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic militia group.<br />
<br />
"That Buk I know about. I heard about it. I think they sent it back... They probably sent it back in order to remove proof of its presence.<br />
<br />
"The question is this: Ukraine received timely evidence that the volunteers have this technology, through the fault of Russia. It not only did nothing to protect security, but provoked the use of this type of weapon against a plane that was flying with peaceful civilians.<br />
<br />
"They knew that this Buk existed; that the Buk was heading for Snezhnoye," he says, referring to Snizhne, a village 16 km southeast of the MH17 crash site where the Buk was reportedly filmed and <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-150-ukrainian-troops-describe-grad-rocket-attack-from-russia/#3408" target="_blank">geolocated</a></b> the day of the disaster.<br />
<br />
"They knew that it would be deployed there, and provoked the use of this Buk by starting an air strike on a target they didn't need, that their planes hadn't touched for a week.<br />
<br />
"And that day, they were intensively flying, and exactly at the moment of the shooting, at the moment the civilian plane flew overhead, they launched air strikes. Even if there was a Buk, and even if the Buk was used, Ukraine did everything to ensure that a civilian aircraft was shot down."<br />
<br />
He says the Buk may have come from Russia and that Buk systems the militia captured from Ukrainian forces weren't operational. "Russia could have offered this Buk under some entirely local initiative," he says.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyUmw-1ixwVNtedbXfhs0W5knRR0s2gmO2S6floUZSocbuZ4LozW_hYYPeNaGo6_Vq7aYjyLK38WYqPWSIFXUZ2tOmwfTcdSAeK8M95ADCY4YTwNBqAc6iRMGUJ0s1piHwmqPMYLv8Rc8/s1600/schorched+11.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyUmw-1ixwVNtedbXfhs0W5knRR0s2gmO2S6floUZSocbuZ4LozW_hYYPeNaGo6_Vq7aYjyLK38WYqPWSIFXUZ2tOmwfTcdSAeK8M95ADCY4YTwNBqAc6iRMGUJ0s1piHwmqPMYLv8Rc8/s1600/schorched+11.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Exact location" (red circle) where the Buk missile<br />
was launched near the town of Snizhne that<br />
downed MH17, according to geolocation by the<br />
<b><a href="http://ukraineatwar.blogspot.nl/2014/07/exact-location-pinpointed-of-mh17.html" target="_blank">Ukraine@war blog</a></b>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Ukraine says its military planes weren't in the air at the time. It <a href="http://en.ria.ru/world/20140715/190936092/Military-Aviation-in-Eastern-Ukraine-Halted-Over-An-26-Plane.html" target="_blank"><b>had suspended</b></a> flights after the militia shot down a Ukrainian military cargo plane on July 14.<br />
<br />
Khodakovsky <b><a href="http://lifenews.ru/news/137189" target="_blank">later tells</a></b> Russia's pro-Kremlin LifeNews agency he was misquoted. "We were speaking about different versions. One of the versions was blaming the militia. As a commander, if I had this weapon, I wouldn't have used it. None of the commanders would have used it so irrationally," he says.<br />
<br />
"I absolutely truthfully say the militia doesn't have a Buk system and never did."<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Afternoon: </span></b>Using online photos and geolocation, the blog Ukraine@war <b><a href="http://ukraineatwar.blogspot.nl/2014/07/exact-location-pinpointed-of-mh17.html" target="_blank">says</a></b> it has located the "exact" spot where the Buk missile was launched near the town of Snizhne that downed MH17.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 24</i></span></b><br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="340" scrolling="no" src="https://english.share.rferl.org/flashembed.aspx?t=vid&id=25468569&w=640&h=363&skin=embeded" width="530"></iframe> </div><div><b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Morning: </span></b>Reuters releases <b><a href="http://www.rferl.org/media/video/25468569.html" target="_blank">audio</a></b> (with English subtitles) of part of its interview with militia commander Alexander Khodakovsky, which confirms key comments attributed to him in the story.<br />
<br />
The audio clarifies a key passage in the story in which it's not clear if Khodakovsky is saying Ukraine learned "through the fault of Russia" that the militia had a Buk system. That passage can also be read as him saying the militia received the Buk "through the fault of Russia."<br />
<br />
The audio makes it clear that Khodakovsky said the militia got the weapon from Russia. The translation in the subtitles differs slightly from the version in the story: "Ukraine well in advance received information that the rebels, because of Russia, had this kind of weapon," Khodakovsky says.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">11:02 a.m.: </span></b>The U.S. <b><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/two-ukraine-parties-quit-parliament-coalition-to-trigger-election/article19736487/" target="_blank">says</a></b> it has evidence Russia is firing artillery across the border into Ukraine.<br />
<br />
"We have new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine, and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military positions," <i>The Globe and Mail</i> quotes state department spokeswoman Marie Harf saying.<br />
<br />
The report confirms evidence of the shelling from a Russian soldier's social media post July 23 and videos on YouTube (see above).<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Afternoon: </span></b>Russia has backed off an earlier promise to let international observers monitor part of its border with Ukraine, the U.S. <b><a href="http://pressimus.com/Interpreter_Mag/press/3532" target="_blank">says</a></b>. The promise came amid negotiations to stop the inflow of fighters and weapons into Ukraine.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">6:01 p.m.: </span></b>Pro-Russia gunmen chased Dutch investigators and Ukrainian emergency workers away from the MH17 crash site, officials <b><a href="http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL6N0PZ6P420140724?sp=true" target="_blank">say</a></b>.<br />
<br />
"There are still some lunatics there," Dutch police mission chief Jan Tuinder says. "It's very hard for us to get to the remains."<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AevopLkBe5o/TUKvSPiA7WI/AAAAAAAAIXM/p--i-xokPD8/s400/001212_685998.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AevopLkBe5o/TUKvSPiA7WI/AAAAAAAAIXM/p--i-xokPD8/s400/001212_685998.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Russia's newly designed "Tornado" multiple-<br />
rocket launcher has been smuggled across<br />
the border into Ukraine, a border monitoring<br />
group <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/07/24/na_luhanschyni_kordon_peretnula_nastupnycya_hradu___tornado" target="_blank">says</a></b>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">8:12 p.m.: </span></b>Russia's newly designed "Tornado" multiple-rocket launcher has been smuggled across the border to pro-Russia militia in Ukraine, <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/07/24/na_luhanschyni_kordon_peretnula_nastupnycya_hradu___tornado" target="_blank">says</a></b> Dmitro Snehiriov of the group Prava Sprava, which has sources monitoring the Ukrainian border.<br />
<br />
The powerful Tornado came into service in 2011 and can fire 160 kg of explosives 90 km.<br />
<br />
It's significantly more powerful than the Grad multiple-rocket launchers that the militia has used until now, which can fire 25 kg of explosives 45 km.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 25</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Morning: </span></b>Ukraine's SBU security agency <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emfVpkBKoow&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">releases</a></b> what it says is a recorded phone call between militia members discussing a plane flying nearby at 2:18 p.m. GMT on July 17 -- two minutes before air traffic control lost contact with MH17.<br />
<br />
A pro-Kremlin militia fighter nicknamed Naimanets ("Mercenary") calls militia commander Igor Bezler to say a "bird" is flying toward Bezler's position.<br />
<br />
"Reconnaissance plane or a big one?" Bezler asks.<br />
<br />
"I can't see behind the clouds... Too high," the fighter says.<br />
<br />
"Understood. Report to the commanders," Bezler says.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day,</span> </b>the SBU releases what is says is a <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpHJKaPTlfg" target="_blank">recorded call</a></b> that describes the Kremlin's close ties with militia forces.<br />
<br />
In the call, Alexander Borodai, self-appointed prime minister of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, complains about a lack of funds to Oleksy Chesnakov, deputy secretary of the ruling United Russia party of Russian president Vladimir Putin.<br />
<br />
Chesnakov says more funds can be made available. "If there is no flow, we'll arrange more using the same channel."<br />
<br />
Borodai also reveals that economists connected to the Russian government devised a plan for the militia to tax local business people.<br />
<br />
Chesnakov also appears to ask Borodai to get Igor Girkin, the militia's "defence minister," to praise Putin.<br />
<br />
"It would be important if the 'legendary one' [Girkin] gave an interview solidly saying something like, 'I've gotten to Donetsk... I am an officer. I have a commander-in-chief. At this point, of course, I do not execute his direct orders because I am in another country, but I respect him greatly. I think he is the most outstanding leader of the present times. Owing to him, Russia has stood up from its knees, and we are all looking at him with great hope,'" Chesnakov says.<br />
<br />
"Okay," Borodai says.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">12:05 p.m.:</span></b> Kremlin-backed militia leader Igor Girkin reportedly took part in the 1992 Serbian ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia, <b><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/igor-strelkov-key-mh17-crash-suspect-linked-massacre-3000-bosnian-muslims-1992-1458304" target="_blank">says</a></b> the New York-based <i>International Business Times</i> citing a Bosnian media account.<br />
<br />
Girkin fought as a volunteer with Serbian forces who massacred at least 3,000 Muslims in a 1992 attack in which Muslim men were lined up and murdered, the story says.<br />
<br />
Women were reportedly mass raped, while others were locked in houses that were set on fire.<br />
<br />
Girkin's social media page boasted his forces had downed a plane shortly after MH17 was shot down (see above).<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">6:38 p.m.: </span></b>A high-placed militia fighter <b><a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_UKRAINE_PLANE_WHAT_HAPPENED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" target="_blank">acknowledged</a></b> that the Kremlin-backed militia accidentally shot down MH17, according to a detailed Associated Press account of the day of the disaster.<br />
<br />
He said a unit of Russians and Ukrainians fired a Buk (aka SA-11) missile from near Shizhne that brought down the plane, thinking it was a Ukrainian military plane.<br />
<br />
The fighter said the highest-ranking rebel with the unit was a man nicknamed Sapper, who was under the command of militia leader Igor Bezler. Bezler told AP he wasn't connected with shooting down the plane.<br />
<br />
The story also cites Snizhne residents and AP reporters who saw a Buk system in Snizhne between noon and 1 p.m. on the day of the shoot-down.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 26</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">2:34 p.m.: </span></b>Data from the MH17 black box flight recorder shows the plane suffered "massive explosive decompression" from a missile explosion that sent shrapnel through the plane's fuselage, CBS <b><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-flight-17-black-box-findings-consistent-with-blast/" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 27</i></span></b><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>11:16 a.m.: </b></span>Russian citizens occupy the leading positions in the Kremlin-backed militia in eastern Ukraine, Reuters <b><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/27/us-ukraine-crisis-rebels-insight-idUKKBN0FW07020140727" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
That includes Vladimir Antyufeyev, appointed July 10 as "deputy prime minister" and security chief of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic militia in eastern Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Siberian-born Antyufeyev earned a "fearsome reputation" during 20 years as security head in Transnistria, a sliver of territory that split from Moldava with Russia's military support in 1992, the story says.<br />
<br />
Two other Russians are the top officials in the Donetsk People's Republic: self-proclaimed prime minister <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/05/ukraine-crisis-rebel-igor-girkin-strelkov-fsb-konstantin-malofeyev-malofeev.html" target="_blank">Alexander Borodai</a></b> and "defence minister" <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/05/ukraine-crisis-rebel-igor-girkin-strelkov-fsb-konstantin-malofeyev-malofeev.html" target="_blank">Igor Girkin</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">2:17 p.m.: </span></b>The threat of more serious Western sanctions against Russia following the MH17 downing is fuelling a power struggle within the Kremlin between hardliners and oligarchs worried about business impacts, <b><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/vladimir-putin/10993971/Splits-emerging-in-Putins-Russia-as-oligarchs-locked-in-power-struggle-with-Kremlin-hardliners.html" target="_blank">says</a></b> London's <i>Telegraph</i> citing accounts of German intelligence reports.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">5:22 p.m.: </span></b>British lawyers are preparing a multi-billion-dollar class action lawsuit in U.S. courts against Russian president Vladimir Putin and senior Russian military commanders and politicians for their alleged role in the MH17 downing, <b><a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/07/27/vladimir-putin-facing-multi-million-dollar-lawsuit-for-aiding-separatists-who-shot-down-mh17-lawyers-say/" target="_blank">reports</a></b> London's <i>Sunday Telegraph</i>.<br />
<br />
"Those immediately responsible are not only the separatists who are alleged to have fired the rocket at Flight MH17, causing the death of hundreds of innocent victims, but those, be they states, individuals or other entities, who provided them with financial and material support and the means to do so," said a statement from McCue & Partners, the London law firm preparing the suit.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/HT_1_rocket_launcher_strike_ukraine_jt_140727_5x4_992.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://a.abcnews.com/images/International/HT_1_rocket_launcher_strike_ukraine_jt_140727_5x4_992.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of several U.S. <b><a href="http://photos.state.gov/libraries/ukraine/895/pdf/evidence-russian-firing.pdf" target="_blank">satellite images</a></b> that the U.S. <br />
has released to show evidence of Russian artillery<br />
fire at Ukrainian military units across the border.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">5:28 p.m.: </span></b>The U.S. releases <b><a href="http://photos.state.gov/libraries/ukraine/895/pdf/evidence-russian-firing.pdf" target="_blank">satellite images</a></b> it says show Russia has fired on Ukrainian military units across the border using multiple rocket launchers in recent days, <i>The Washington Post</i> <b><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-releases-images-it-says-show-russia-has-fired-artillery-over-border-into-ukraine/2014/07/27/f9190158-159d-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 28</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">12:46 p.m.: </span></b>The downing of MH17 "may amount to a war crime," Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, is <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28520813" target="_blank">quoted saying</a></b> of the downing of MH17.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 29</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">4:07 p.m.: </span></b><i>The Guardian</i> correspondent Shaun Walker <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/29/-sp-ukraine-rebel-igor-bezler-interview-demon" target="_blank">reports</a></b> on his disturbing encounter with Igor Bezler, the militia commander whose unit is suspected of shooting down MH17.<br />
<br />
Walker was granted a rare interview with Bezler. But before they had a chance to discuss MH17, Bezler started screaming and threatened to have Walker and a Russian journalist shot, Walker reports.<br />
<br />
Bezler said his forces summarily execute captured Ukrainian National Guard volunteer soldiers. "We question them and then shoot them on the spot," Walker quotes Bezler as saying. "I will hang those f---ers from lampposts!"<br />
<br />
While shouting "at the top of his voice," Bezler noticed the Russian journalist's dictaphone was on and that Walker was writing notes in his notebook. Walker reports that Bezler grabbed the dictaphone, ordered a fighter to throw it against a wall, then took Walker's notebook and frantically ripped out pages.<br />
<br />
"Burn their notebooks!" Bezler barked at his subordinates. "Seize their electronics! Search everything for compromising material and then destroy it! If you find anything, execute them as spies!<br />
<br />
"Don't think for a minute I will hesitate to have you shot," he yelled at the journalists, who were eventually released unharmed.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>JULY 30</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">11:41 a.m.: </span></b>Ukraine's SBU agency <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/21/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-ministry-idUSKBN0FQ16C20140721" target="_blank">releases</a></b> what it says are satellite photos showing Russia doctored images it released July 21 purportedly of Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile systems.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">6:43 p.m.:</span></b> The SBU releases what it says is an <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GevvjU5z0Us" target="_blank">intercepted call</a></b> (translated <b><a href="http://pressimus.com/Interpreter_Mag/press/3599" target="_blank">here</a></b>) of Russian-backed militia commander Igor Girkin acknowledging Russian artillery involvement in the fighting in eastern Ukraine.<br />
<br />
"Go on move out," Girkin tells another militia fighter, whom he orders to attack Ukrainian forces east of the city of Donetsk.<br />
<br />
"You're covered from the south by Russian artillery."<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>AUGUST 6</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">5:21 p.m.: </span></b>An OSCE observer mission at the Ukraine-Russia border <b><a href="http://www.osce.org/node/122444" target="_blank">reports</a></b> witnessing "several groups of ten to twelve young men in military-style dress with backpacks" crossing from Russia into Ukraine and in the other direction.<br />
<br />
"In some instances, some of the young men coming back from Ukraine were visibly lightly wounded and on two occasions, the OM [observer mission] observed a flag of the so-called 'Luhansk People's Republic' on some young men's clothes," the OSCE says in a statement. (The LPR is one of the Kremlin-backed militia groups in Ukraine.)<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>AUGUST 7</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">3:05 p.m.: </span></b>Alexander Borodai, the former self-appointed prime minister of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic militia, reportedly told a senior Russian journalist that his Kremlin-backed militia shot down MH17, Russia's Echo Moscow radio station <b><a href="http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/personalno/1373814-echo/" target="_blank">reports</a></b>. (The Interpreter Mag website provides <a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/novaya-gazeta-editor-boroday-called-moscow-press-about-downing-of-civilian-airliner/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">an English translation</a> of parts of the interview.)<br />
<br />
"Likely we shot down a civilian airline," Borodai is reported to have said to the head of one of Russia's main media outlets in a call approximately 40 minutes after MH17 was downed.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>AUGUST 14</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">7:38 p.m.: </span></b>A column of 23 Russian armoured personnel carriers and support vehicles crossed the border into Ukraine this night, <i>The Guardian</i> <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/14/russian-military-vehicles-enter-ukraine-aid-convoy-stops-short-border" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
The vehicles had official Russian military plates and crossed along a rough dirt track through a gap in a barbed wire fence that demarcates the border, the newspaper says.<br />
<br />
The Ukraine@war blog <b><a href="http://ukraineatwar.blogspot.nl/2014/08/russian-hardware-spotted-approaching.html" target="_blank">geolocated</a></b> the Russian convoy crossing the border at the same spot where Ukrainian officials previously said a Russian Buk anti-aircraft missile launcher passed into Ukraine before MH17 was shot down and then passed back into Russia after the shoot-down.<br />
<br />
The blog also identified some of the Russian hardware as components of a Buk anti-aircraft missile system.<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>AUGUST 16</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">9:05 p.m.: </span></b>Kremlin-backed militia leader Alexandr Zacharchenko in Donetsk says in a <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjAvnUa1Wak" target="_blank">YouTube video</a></b> that his forces have received reinforcements of 1,200 soldiers who had trained in Russia for four months, along with 30 tanks and 120 other armoured military vehicles. (Echo Moscow carries <b><a href="http://www.echo.msk.ru/news/1380954-echo.html" target="_blank">this reports</a></b> on the video, and the <i>Kyiv Post</i> reports on it <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/rebel-leader-says-1200-russian-fighters-weapons-en-route-to-eastern-ukraine-video-360913.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.)<br />
<br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>SEPT. 6</i></span></b><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">6:04 a.m.: </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak said intelligence reports on the downing of MH17 are "pretty conclusive" and investigators are now collecting evidence that can be presented in court against the perpetrators of what he called an "atrocious crime," the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> reports.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Razak spoke at a joint press conference with Australian prime minister Tony Abbott.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>SEPT. 8</i></span></b></div>
<div style="color: black; line-height: normal;">
<b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">5:12 p.m.: </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Russian soldiers were operating and escorting a Buk system in Snizhne just before MH17 was shot down, eyewitnesses told BBC's Panorama program.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: black; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The crew and escort troops spoke with a distinctive Russian accent and were "well-disciplined, unlike the rebels, and not wearing the standard Ukrainian camouflage uniform sported by government and rebel troops alike," the report <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29109398" target="_blank">said</a></b>.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; line-height: normal;">
<b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Also this day, </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Russian journalist Iggy Ostanin <b><a href="https://bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2014/09/08/images-show-the-buk-that-downed-flight-mh17-inside-russia-controlled-by-russian-troops/" target="_blank">says</a></b> a Buk system photographed near the vicinity of the MH17 shoot-down was filmed a few weeks before in Russia as part of a large military convoy.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: black; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ostanin identifies the Buk by examining distinctive markings that are identical in all the images.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The convoy was part of the 53rd air defence brigade of the Moscow Military District. The brigade's convoy was filmed moving away from its base in Kursk toward Ukraine, Ostanin reports on the Bellingcat citizen investigative journalism site.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: medium;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium;">
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>SEPT. 12</i></span></b></div>
<div>
<div style="color: black;">
<b style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">5:52 a.m.: </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">MH17 was "most likely" shot down by a surface-to-air missile, Dutch prosecution service chief Fred Westerbeke, who is leading the international inquiry into the MH17 disaster, is quoted saying in an Associated Press <b><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/09/12/uk-ukraine-crisis-mh17-investigation-idUKKBN0H718020140912" target="_blank">report</a></b>.</span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dutch investigators have recovered 25 metal shards from baggage and bodies that could provide clues.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium;">
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>SEPT. 17</i></span></b></div>
<div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">German fraud investigation firm Wifka <b><a href="http://www.wifka.de/who-shot-down-mh17-30-million-dollars-reward-for-information.html" target="_blank">offers</a></b> a $30-million USD reward for information about who shot down MH17.</span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The money was put up by a mysterious client whose identity even Wifka doesn't know.</span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's the largest bounty ever offered worldwide -- greater even that the $25 million offered for clues leading to Osama bin Laden.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>OCT. 19</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">12:08 p.m.: </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kremlin-backed gunmen used a Buk anti-aircraft missile to shoot down MH17, Germany's BND intelligence agency <b><a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/german-intelligence-blames-pro-russian-separatists-for-mh17-downing-a-997972.html" target="_blank">has concluded</a></b> after a detailed analysis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The BND rejects Russian claims that Ukrainian forces shot down the plane and says the findings are "unambiguous," German newspaper <i>Der Spiegel</i> reports. The agency says the missile system was captured from a Ukrainian military base.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Interpreter Mag offers <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-244-german-intelligence-claims-russian-backed-militants-downed-mh17/" target="_blank">this comment</a></b> on the report.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>OCT. 20</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">3:55 p.m.: </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ukrainian officials <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/10/20/minoborony_zaperechuye__scho_malayziyskyy_quotboyinh_777quot_terorysty_mohly_zbyty_z_ukrayinskoyi_ustanovky" target="_blank">deny</a></b> the German BND spy agency's suggestion that Moscow-backed gunmen captured a Buk anti-aircraft missile system at a Ukrainian military base.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">They say a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile unit was moved out of the Donetsk region well before the militants moved in. The implication is that the Buk system could only have come from Russia.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i>OCT. 27</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">2:07 p.m.: </span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dutch prosecutor Fred Westerbeke, head of a team of dozens of prosecutors, forensic experts and police officers investigating MH17, <b><a href="http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/mh17-ermittler-westerbeke-ueber-den-absturz-in-der-ukraine-a-999193.html" target="_blank">tells</a></b> Germany's <i>Der Spiegel</i> that "based on the available information, a strike by a ground-to-air missile in my eyes is still the most likely scenario."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">While Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte recently criticized Putin for his lack of support for the MH17 investigation, Westerbeke says "we have no evidence that Kyiv has not been completely open with us. They give us all the information we want."</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>NOV. 8</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Bellingcat citizen investigative journalism site publishes a <b><a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2014/11/08/origin-of-the-separatists-buk-a-bellingcat-investigation/" target="_blank">definitive analysis</a></b> of open-source photos and other material establishing that Moscow-backed fighters in Ukraine obtained a Buk system from Russia and stationed it in the area where MH17 was shot down on July 17.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>MARCH 5, 2015</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Russian security services have tried to disrupt the Dutch investigation into the downing of MH17, even as Dutch police have become increasingly certain that the plane was shot down by a Russian-made Buk anti-aircraft missile very likely operated by Russian military personnel, the Dutch public broadcaster NOS <b><a href="http://nos.nl/artikel/2022540-vijf-vragen-over-het-mh17-onderzoek.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"The research findings point in one direction. MH17 was brought down by a Buk missile that was fired from a Russian system, highly probably operated by the Russian military," NOS reports.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"The Buk system was transported shortly before the disaster from Russia to Ukraine. This is evident from various videos that have surfaced on the Internet. But Dutch investigators in Ukraine also spoke with eyewitnesses."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Complicating the criminal investigation is the whereabouts of the Russian missile crew, the story says. "The soldiers have become untraceable because they have received new identities from Russian security services in an attempt to erase all traces of Russia's involvement."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The story says Russian security services are also trying to hack into Dutch police computers.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>MARCH 11</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Vladimir Babak, chief designer of the Su-25 ground attack plane, says the craft couldn't have shot down MH17 at its flight altitude of 10,000 metres, according to </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><a href="https://en.censor.net.ua/news/328019/ukrainian_attack_plane_could_not_down_the_malaysian_flight_mh17_chief_designer_of_su25_denies_russian" target="_blank">several reports</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> cited by Ukrainian news site Censor.net.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The plane was designed for use at low to medium altitudes, Babak is reported to have said. His views contradict the Kremlin suggestion that a Ukrainian Su-25 shot down the Boeing passenger craft.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>MARCH 19</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A piece of metal embedded in the hull debris of MH17 Dutch news site is a fragment from a Buk missile, </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><a href="https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/buitenland/evidence-proving-flight-mh-17-was-taken-down-buk-missile" target="_blank">reports </a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dutch news site RTL Nieuws. A Dutch journalist had the fragment analyzed by an independent institute.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>JULY 16</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Families of MH17 victims have sued a former Russian insurgent leader for $900 million over the downing of the passenger plane, AFP </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/mh17-families-sue-ukraine-rebel-900-mn-124701019.html#dEusna3" target="_blank">reports</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The suit claims that <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/05/ukraine-militia-leader-igor-girkin-strelkov-fsb-bezler-konstantin-malofeyev.html" target="_blank">Igor Strelkov</a></b>, a former Russian intelligence agent who spearheaded the fighting against Ukrainian forces in 2014, was acting with the "actual or apparent" authority of Russian president Vladimir Putin's government when MH17 was shot down.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>OCTOBER 13</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A Russian-made Buk missile downed MH17, the Dutch Safety Board </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34511973" target="_blank">concludes</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. The impact pattern couldn't have been caused by an air-to-air missile, it said. Fragments from a Buk warhead were found in the wreckage and bodies of crew members, it found.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="color: black; float: right; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/936/cpsprodpb/C665/production/_89898705_mh17wapen07.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="179" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/936/cpsprodpb/C665/production/_89898705_mh17wapen07.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exhaust debris from a Buk missile found at the<br />
MH17 crash site.</td></tr>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>JUNE 6, 2016</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">International investigators have published a photo of a large Buk missile component found at the MH17 crash site, BBC </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36462853" target="_blank">reports</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 28</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The surface-to-air missile that downed MH17 came from Russia and was fired from territory held by pro-Moscow militants, a Dutch-led investigation </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/dutch-probe-missile-brought-from-russia-downed-malaysia-airline-plane-over-ukraine/2016/09/28/05a9770c-84c5-11e6-b57d-dd49277af02f_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_ukraineplane-745a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.821868baea2e" target="_blank">concludes</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The missile was launched from a Buk TELAR battery, said a senior Dutch national police investigator, Wilbert Paulissen. A day after the downing, the launcher was returned to Russia. It had been smuggled into Ukraine from Russia just hours before the missile was fired.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>SEPTEMBER 20, 2017</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Right-wing news aggregator site The Drudge Report has linked to Russian government propaganda sites nearly 400 times since 2012, according to <b><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/09/20/how-matt-drudge-became-pipeline-russian-propaganda/217989" target="_blank">an analysis</a></b> by media watchdog group Media Matters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">That included a story on Russia's RT.com site about MH17 suggesting Russian president Vladimir Putin's plane may have been the real target of the attack, with the implication that Ukrainian forces were behind the tragedy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The number of links to Russian news items shot up to 79 in 2015 and 122 in 2016 as the U.S. presidential election campaign heated up, Media Matters found.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>MAY 24, 2018</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Buk missile that shot down Malaysia Air flight MH17 originated from the Russian military's 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, based in Kursk, Dutch-led investigators have <b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/dutch-led-investigators-say-russian-military-missile-shot-down-flight-mh17-over-ukraine-in-2014/2018/05/24/1e2ff92e-5f3c-11e8-8c93-8cf33c21da8d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4f326ae2451c" target="_blank">concluded</a></b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"All of the vehicles in the convoy carrying the missile were part of the Russian armed forces," Dutch national police official Wilbert Paulissen was quoted saying by <i>The Washington Post</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Investigators said the Buk missile system was towed to Ukrainian territory shortly before the attack and brought back to Russia shortly after. Investigators have "legal and convincing evidence that will stand in a courtroom," Paulissen said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A Russian official dismissed the findings, calling them "an old story," but investigators said they have evidence they will show in eventual court proceedings.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>MAY 25</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A mysterious man wanted in connection with the downing of flight MH17 appears to be a high-level Russian military intelligence officer, McClatchy said in <b><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article211836174.html" target="_blank">a report</a></b> on its joint investigation conducted with</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> investigative websites Bellingcat in the UK and The Insider in Moscow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The report identified the man, previously known only by his call sign Orion, as Oleg Vladimirovich Ivannikov. Orion's identity has been sought by Dutch-led investigators. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">He was reportedly captured on cellphone intercepts discussing a Buk missile with a senior Russian military officer, Nikolai Federovich Tkachev, who is reported to have used the alias Delfin.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>MAY 31, 2019</i></b></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">The Kremlin-backed agency that sought to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election swung into "conspiracy-theory overdrive" when flight MH17 was shot down two years before, working to blame the Ukrainian government and deflect attention from Russian-backed militants, according to the </span><b style="color: black; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/mh17-russia-deployed-its-trolls-to-cover-up-the-murder-of-298-people" target="_blank">Daily Beast news site</a></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The agency posted 111,486 tweets about MH17 in just three days, including promoting a concocted story about a non-existent air traffic control worker in Ukraine who claimed to have seen fighter jets near the plane. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The disinformation campaign bore fruit, with right-wing European activists and U.S. president Donald Trump parroting elements of the Russian propaganda, the Daily Beast reports.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>JUNE 19</i></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Three former Russian intelligence operatives and the commander of a Russian-backed militia unit in eastern Ukraine will face murder charges in the downing of flight MH17, international investigators </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/19/mh17-criminal-charges-ukraine-russia" target="_blank">have said</a></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The suspects include <b><a href="https://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/05/ukraine-militia-leader-igor-girkin-strelkov-fsb-bezler-konstantin-malofeyev.html" target="_blank">Igor Girkin</a></b>, a hardline former colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence agency (successor to the KGB), who acted as a self-appointed "minister of defence" of the Russian-supported gunmen.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>NOVEMBER 14</i></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Russian-backed militia leaders in Ukraine requested military support and political guidance from Russia in the period before the shooting down of flight MH17, according to <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/mh17-investigators-say-phone-calls-show-ukraine-rebels-ties-to-russia" target="_blank">new recordings</a></b> of intercepted phone calls released by Dutch-led investigators.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Militia leaders were caught on the calls speaking with Vladislav Surkov, a top aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin, and refer to coordination with Russia's defence minister and the director of the FSB (successor to the KGB), the <i>Guardian </i>newspaper reported. In one conversation, Surkov promises to send "combat-ready" reinforcements.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>APRIL 28, 2020</i></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Russian FSB Colonel General Andrey Ivanovich Burlaka, one of the spy agency's top officers, has been identified as a key person of interest in the downing of MH17, </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/04/28/burlaka/" target="_blank">reports</a></b><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"> the Bellingcat citizen journalism site. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Burlaka, chief of operational staff of the FSB's border service and first deputy to the head of the border service, supervised activities of Russian-backed gunmen in Ukraine and oversaw the movement of weapons from Russia to Ukraine</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, Bellingcat's investigation found</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. His voice was identified in phone intercepts in the days before the plane was shot down, Bellingcat said.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><div><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>NOVEMBER 17, 2022</i></b></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">A Dutch court <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mh17-judgment-day-verdicts-due-suspects-trial-93466382" target="_blank"><b>has convicted</b></a> in abstentia ex-FSB colonel Igor Girkin and two of his subordinates, Sergey Dubinskiy and Leonid Kharchenko, of the murders of 298 people who died in the downing of MH17 and sentenced them to life imprisonment. </span></div><div style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">The court also said Russia controlled the proxy forces in eastern Ukraine who launched the Buk missile that shot down the plane.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;"><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b><i>FEBRUARY 8, 2023</i></b></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Evidence suggests Russian president Vladimir Putin approved the supply of the Buk missile used to shoot down MH17, international investigators <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64566297" target="_blank"><b>conclude</b></a>. They cite a court ruling that Moscow had "overall control" over proxy militias in eastern Ukraine where the missile was launched.</span></span></div><div style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif;"><div>Investigators say also cite Russian officials who say in recorded telephone conversations that the decision to provide military support to the militias "rests with the President."</div><div><br /></div><div>"There is concrete information that the separatists' request was presented to the president, and that this request was granted," investigators said.</div></span>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="color: black;">- </b><b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2017/02/Police-Wife-domestic-violence-officer-involved-book-Roslin.html" target="_blank">Why Police Commit up to 15 Times More Domestic Violence Than Others: "Police Wife" Book and Blog Tell the Story</a></b></span></i></div></div></div>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-59400269238112419742014-05-07T21:29:00.001-04:002018-07-18T11:34:48.471-04:00Ukraine Crisis: Militia Leader Igor Girkin a Hardline Russian Ex-FSB Colonel (Updated)<h4>
<i>
Girkin opens up about eliminating Russia's enemies, the menace of "alien" migrant workers and the "new type of war."</i> <i>Latest update: Jan. 25, 2015.</i></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://voicesevas.ru/img/d6aea7a1e5a4c3ed11bb1b5d8cea6eff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://voicesevas.ru/img/d6aea7a1e5a4c3ed11bb1b5d8cea6eff.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Igor "Strelkov" Girkin, commander of pro-Russia<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">gunmen in eastern Ukraine, says Russia faces<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">disintegration similar to Yugoslavia and Syria<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">unless it takes "decisive measures" that "might<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">even violate human rights," according to his<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">comments at a round table on Russian military<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">strategy last year.</span></div>
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Igor Girkin is the soft-spoken man with a pencil moustache who has bedeviled Ukrainian authorities as leader of the pro-Russia gunmen taking over government buildings in eastern Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Kremlin officials have insisted Russian soldiers aren't orchestrating the building takeovers and that protesters are merely "local self-defence forces."<br />
<div>
<br />
But Russian media accounts reveal the militia commander is a hardline Russian reserve officer who has extremist views on migrant workers and has called for the "timely elimination" of opponents of the Russian state.<br />
<br />
In <b><a href="http://anna-news.info/node/11634" target="_blank">this June 2013 story</a></b>, the pro-Kremlin ANNA News agency said Girkin is a Russian reserve colonel who ANNA News invited to speak at a round table on Russian military strategy.<br />
<br />
The story identified Girkin by his pseudonym Igor Strelkov. (Strelkov can be translated as "Shooter" or "Sniper" in Russian.)<br />
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Girkin appears in a photo accompanying the story (at the bottom, seated with moustache).<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">"Let's be straight. He is a 'f-----g insane colonel.'"</span></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">- Militia's "deputy prime minister" </span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Andrei Purgin </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">on Igor Girkin</span></b></i></div>
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<i><b>UPDATE (July 11, 2014):</b> Girkin acknowledged at <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hMwsEwYD20" target="_blank">a news conference</a></b> yesterday in Donetsk that he served in Russia's FSB intelligence agency (successor to the notorious KGB) until March 31, 2013</i>. <i>He said he was discharged with the rank of reserve colonel.</i><br />
<br />
<b>New Type of War</b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140429114658im_/http://anna-news.info/sites/default/files/2011/u1/NVO_round_table.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140429114658im_/http://anna-news.info/sites/default/files/2011/u1/NVO_round_table.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333320617676px;">Girkin can be seen seated at the bottom of the </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333320617676px;">photo </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333320617676px;">(with<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span>moustache) at a round table on<br />
Russian military strategy<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>organized<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>by<br />
pro-Kremlin news outlet ANNA News in June<br />
2013. Strelkov is<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>identified as a colonel in the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
Russian military reserves in a story about<br />
the event.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In a foreshadowing of his activities in Ukraine, Girkin advocated a "new type of war" that involves "special operations rather than large-scale military ones," according to the ANNA News story. (See <b><a href="https://storify.com/ystriya/waging-war-igor-girkin-aka-strelkov" target="_blank">here</a></b> for an English translation of his comments.)<br />
<br />
The new strategy, he said, would be based on "the timely elimination of selected leaders, even if by methods that are not always outwardly legal."<br />
<br />
Girkin warned that Russia is threatened by a "massive" influx of migrant workers, whose presence could spark disintegration and war "similar to what we witnessed in Yugoslavia and what we are seeing in Syria today."<br />
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<b>"Alien" Migrants Threaten Russia</b><br />
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Migrant workers are drawn to "shady business" and "radical Islam," Girkin said.<br />
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"Some of these people are quite alien to our society," he said.<br />
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"As soon as an economic crisis starts, war will begin immediately. If we fail to draw the appropriate conclusions, we will meet the same fate as (Syrian leader) Assad, (Libya's) Qaddafi and (Serbia's) Milosevic."<br />
<br />
Girkin said Russia faces "exactly the same situation" as in the 1917 communist revolution. Then, he said, "a portion of the political elite" sided with "propagandized street crowds" to overthrow the Russian government -- "guided and supported by foreign embassies as well as other covert and secret international structures."<br />
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The government fell because it "had failed to take timely measures to neutralize this elite."<br />
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<b>"Decisive Measures"</b><br />
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The implication is a similar scenario could occur today.<br />
<br />
Girkin called for "decisive measures" that "might even violate human rights."<br />
<br />
"If the situation deteriorates, it will be necessary to proceed to the next phase of military operations, and at that point, targeted special operations alone will no longer be sufficient," he said.<br />
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<b>"He Really Is an Officer, But Not GRU"</b><br />
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"Strelkov" was also described as a Russian reserve officer in <b><a href="http://www.kp.ru/daily/26225/3108701/" target="_blank">this sympathetic story</a></b> last week in the pro-Kremlin <i>Komsomolskaya Pravda</i> newspaper.<br />
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The story described Strelkov as "our hero" and quoted an old friend of his who fought alongside Strelkov in the Russian military campaign in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria in 1992. The article said Strelkov also fought in Chechnya.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i072.radikal.ru/1410/5e/29385b2a475a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i072.radikal.ru/1410/5e/29385b2a475a.jpg" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="599" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Girkin
is a fan of historic military reenactments.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Here he is a Roman legionary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The article said Ukraine's SBU security agency believes Strelkov's actual name is Igor Girkin and that he is a member of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency.<br />
<br />
"We won't say if they have correctly identified him or not," the article cryptically said, then added, "He really is an officer, but not the GRU. And he has been in the reserves a long time!"<br />
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The story said the militia commander is a fan of historic military reenactments and included a photo of him dressed up as a Roman legionary.<br />
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<b>Many Militia Not Ukrainians</b><br />
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In a video interview accompanying the story, Girkin acknowledged that many of his gunmen aren't Ukrainians. "More than half or maybe two thirds" are from Ukraine, he said.<br />
<br />
"The unit I came with to Sloviansk was formed in Crimea. I won't hide that," he said. (An English translation of the interview is available <b><a href="https://storify.com/ystriya/interview-with-gru-officer-igor-strelkov" target="_blank">here</a></b>.)<br />
<br />
After the SBU announced Girkin's Russian passport number and address in a Moscow apartment building last week, Ukraine's TSN news program <b><a href="http://tsn.ua/svit/rosiyskiy-diversant-stryelkov-zminiv-im-ya-pered-tim-yak-yihati-v-ukrayinu-347458.html" target="_blank">interviewed Girkin's</a></b><b><a href="http://tsn.ua/svit/rosiyskiy-diversant-stryelkov-zminiv-im-ya-pered-tim-yak-yihati-v-ukrayinu-347458.html" target="_blank"> neighbours</a></b> in the building, who identified him after being shown images of the militia commander in the media.<br />
<br />
"He's a soldier," one neighbour said.<br />
<br />
Girkin's mother and sister live in the same building, but they refused to answer questions, TSN reported.<br />
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<b>EU Sanctions "Strelkov"</b><br />
<br />
Last week, the European Union included "Strelkov" on its expanded <b><a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1399408000449&uri=CELEX:32014D0238" target="_blank">list of Russian officials and others</a></b> targeted for sanctions for undermining Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty.<br />
<br />
The EU identified him as a GRU member and "assistant on security issues" to <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-new-pro-russian-crimean.html" target="_blank">Sergei Aksyonov</a></b>, leader of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.<br />
<br />
The BBC's Russian-language service cited Russian military experts last week <b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/international/2014/04/140430_ukraine_donetsk_pushilin_moscow.shtml" target="_blank">who said</a></b> "Strelkov" had worked with Russia's FSB intelligence agency in a counterterrorism unit.<br />
<br />
The BBC quoted a Moscow representative of the pro-Russia forces describing Strelkov as an "Orthodox Russian officer" who went to Ukraine as "a volunteer."<br />
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<b>Girkin in FSB 18 Years: Report</b><br />
<br />
This week, hacker group Anonymous International published what it said were Girkin's personal emails revealing he had served in the FSB from 1996 to March 2014, including in Chechnya from 1999 to 2005, according to <b><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/santa-for-hire-soapmaker-run-insurgency-in-ukraines-east/500217.html" target="_blank">this <i>Moscow Times</i> story</a></b>.<br />
<br />
The self-proclaimed pro-Russia mayor in Sloviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, who described himself as an old friend of Girkin's, said the information about Girkin was true, the <i>Moscow Times</i> reported.<br />
<br />
The newspaper also said Girkin was born in Moscow and that it contacted him by email and phone but that he wouldn't confirm the claims.<br />
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<b>Torture, Attacks on Roma, Anti-Semitism</b><br />
<br />
Since Girkin's fighters took over Sloviansk in mid-April, three pro-Ukraine activists have been found <b><a href="http://24tv.ua/home/showSingleNews.do?the_third_man_tortured_to_death_by_the_separatists_in_slovyansk_is_identified&objectId=439389&lang=en" target="_blank">tortured to death</a></b> in the city's environs.<br />
<br />
Reports have multiplied of Russian-backed gunmen attacking and robbing <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-attacks-on-minorities.html" target="_blank">local Roma</a></b> (Gypsy) people and <b><a href="https://news.vice.com/article/simon-ostrovsky-on-his-kidnapping-detainment-and-release" target="_blank">kidnapping and beating</a></b> journalists and activists. Girkin's forces also detained an observer mission from the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe for over a week.<br />
<br />
Pro-Russia militants in Sloviansk <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-pro-russia-militants.html" target="_blank">vowed to fight "zombie Zionists"</a></b> in a local TV broadcast that the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress condemned as anti-Semitic. The broadcast <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-7-signs-of-russias-far.html" target="_blank">followed reports</a></b> that far-right Russian extremists had joined the pro-Kremlin protests in Ukraine.<br />
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<b>"Slava, Please Take Care of the Corpse"</b><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20140423&t=2&i=891209853&w=580&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBREA3M0XSG00" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20140423&t=2&i=891209853&w=580&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBREA3M0XSG00" height="238" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Local city council member Volodymyr Rybak being<br />
led away by pro-Russia militants after he tried to<br />
remove a Russian flag from a government building<br />
occupied by militants in eastern Ukraine. His<br />
body was later found near militia-held Sloviansk<br />
with gruesome signs of torture.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Ukraine's SBU security agency has released several intercepted phone calls involving Girkin that it says show his complicity in torture and connections to Russia.<br />
<br />
In <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6zACg4uAjA" target="_blank">one intercepted phone call</a></b>, Girkin asks Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-proclaimed local pro-Russia mayor, to dispose of a body that is "lying here, stinking." (<b><a href="http://euromaidanpr.com/2014/04/25/security-service-of-ukraine-releases-conversation-of-terrorists-who-killed-deputy/" target="_blank">Here</a></b> is an English transcript.)<br />
<br />
The SBU says the body was that of Volodymyr Rybak, a city council member tortured to death after he tried to remove a Russian flag from a government building the gunmen had seized.<br />
<br />
Rybak <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX2zQRGx50I" target="_blank">was filmed</a></b> being led away by pro-Russian militants and was later found in a river with his stomach cut open and multiple knife wounds.<br />
<br />
"Slava, please take care of the corpse," Girkin apparently tells Ponomaryov.<br />
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"The corpse? Yes, yes, in a moment. I'll just finish with the journalists and take care of it," Ponomaryov says. "I'll go right away to take care of burying that faggot."<br />
<br />
<b>Contacts in Russia</b><br />
<br />
The SBU had previously released <b><a href="http://foreignpolicynews.org/2014/04/15/leaked-recording-russian-paramilitary-ukraine-phone-moscow/" target="_blank">another series of intercepted calls</a></b><b> </b>of Girkin apparently reporting to contacts with phone numbers in Russia. (<b><a href="http://euromaidanpr.com/2014/04/15/russian-subversion-group-communication-leak-from-sloviansk-eastern-ukraine-video-with-subs/" target="_blank">Here</a></b> is an English transcript in which Girkin is identified as "Shooter.")<br />
<br />
Girkin tells a contact named Alexander about how his forces ambushed Ukrainian security personnel in a bloody firefight on April 13 that left an SBU captain dead and others injured.<br />
<br />
"What's your status?" Alexander asks.<br />
<br />
"We fought off the first attack. They ran into our men and incurred significant losses."<br />
<br />
"Great," Alexander says. He tells Girkin he is coming to Sloviansk with reinforcements.<br />
<br />
"Tell them to bring more anti-tank weapons," Girkin says.<br />
<br />
<b>Reporting to Crimean Leader</b><br />
<br />
In another conversation, Girkin apparently tells a second contact from Russia named Konstantin Valerevich about the ambush.<br />
<br />
"Did you report to Aksyonov?" the man asks Girkin, possibly a reference to Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov.<br />
<br />
"No, not yet," Girkin says.<br />
<br />
"Keep trying to call him. I am meeting him here tomorrow. He flies in this evening."<br />
<br />
"Yes, sir. Of course," Girkin says.<br />
<br />
On April 14, Aksyonov was in Moscow to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin, according to <b><a href="http://eng.special.kremlin.ru/news/7017" target="_blank">the Kremlin's website</a></b>. The SBU said Girkin's calls occurred on April 13.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">"Fewer enemies will die than the peaceful </span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">population </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">that he is freeing... </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">He will </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">ruin </span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">a </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">million-strong city to kill 10,000 Ukes."</span></b></i></div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">- Militia's "deputy prime minister" </span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Andrei Purgin </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">on Igor Girkin</span></b></i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<b style="font-style: italic;">UPDATE (May 19, 2014): </b><i>Ukraine's TSN news program </i><b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://ru.tsn.ua/politika/bratoubiystvennuyu-voynu-na-vostoke-ukrainy-blagoslovil-rossiyskiy-patriarh-kirill-366179.html" target="_blank">reports today</a></b><i> that Konstantin Valerevich is in fact Russian oligarch Konstantin Valerevich Malofeyev, founder of a large Russian investment fund named Marshall Capital Partners.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><i>Meanwhile, Russian journalist Oleh Kashin <b><a href="http://slon.ru/russia/iz_kryma_v_donbass_priklyucheniya_igorya_strelkova_i_aleksandra_borodaya-1099696.xhtml" target="_blank">reported today</a></b> on Slon.ru that "Alexander," Girkin's other Russian contact, is Alexander Borodai, a Russian political consultant chosen on May 16 as prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.</i><br />
<br />
The Moscow Times<i> </i><b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/news-in-brief/244605.html" target="_blank">has reported</a></b><i> Borodai was once deputy editor at the far-right Russian nationalist newspaper </i>Zavtra<i>. (</i>Zavtra <i>editor Alexander Prokhanov has openly blamed Jewish people for Russia's problems, according to </i><b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=63&x_article=154" target="_blank">this report</a></b><i>.)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Ukrainska Pravda<i> <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/05/19/7025726/" target="_blank">said today</a></b> Malofeyev </i><i>(sometimes transliterated as Malofeev) </i><i>once employed both Borodai and Girkin at his investment fund.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><i>Oleh Kashin's report on Slon.ru said the Crimea takeover was apparently "a public-private partnership" between the Russian military and Malofeyev. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Kashin </i><i>said Malofeyev had previously done "delicate work in the interests of the Russian state." </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Kashin also reported first coming across Girkin and </i><i>Borodai in Crimea in March where he said both men were active in Russia's takeover of the Ukrainian peninsula.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
The Interpreter<i>, an online publication, carried <b><a href="http://www.interpretermag.com/is-separatist-colonel-strelkov-the-kremlins-wag-the-dog-gone-out-of-bounds/" target="_blank">this English-language report</a></b> on Kashin's story.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>UPDATE (May 23, 2014):</b> In <b><a href="http://m.forbes.ru/article.php?id=257791" target="_blank">an interview</a></b> with </i>Forbes Russia <i>Wednesday, Malofeyev acknowledged employing Borodai as a PR consultant, calling him "one of the best in Russia," but denied having a "professional relationship" with Girkin.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Malofeyev also denied financing pro-Russia groups in Ukraine.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>UPDATE (May 24, 2014):</b> Malofeyev has helped finance the World Congress of Families, a U.S.-based umbrella of the religious right that has lobbied for anti-gay legislation in Russia and elsewhere, according to <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/world-congress-families-russia-gay-rights" target="_blank">this </a></b></i><b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/world-congress-families-russia-gay-rights" target="_blank">Mother Jones</a></b><i><b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/world-congress-families-russia-gay-rights" target="_blank"> investigation</a></b>.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>UPDATE (July 24, 2014): </b>"I want the Russian Empire back," Malofeyev says in a <b><a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/84481538-1103-11e4-94f3-00144feabdc0.html#axzz38OU2vD5u" target="_blank">profile</a></b> today in </i>The Financial Times<i>, titled, "Malofeev: the Russian billionaire linking Moscow to the rebels."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Malofeyev is reported to have attended a far-right conference in Vienna this spring along with France's Marie Le Pen and Austria's Heinz-Christian Strache. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Moscow political analyst Alexei Makarkin calls Malofeyev</i><i> "very ideological, patriotic and believes in the idea of a great and Orthodox Russia. There is basically no difference between his views and Strelkov's."</i><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<b>Girkin Discusses His "Instructions"</b><br />
<br />
The authenticity of the SBU-released calls hasn't been independently verified. But Kremlin official Vladimir Lukin did confirm the authenticity of other SBU-released calls between himself and Girkin (see <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXZuHUyWQuw&feature=youtube" target="_blank">here</a></b> with English subtitles).<br />
<br />
The calls related to Lukin's arrival in eastern Ukraine in early May to discuss the release of OSCE observer mission members whom Girkin's forces had detained for several days.<br />
<br />
Girkin says in one call he has received "instructions" from an unnamed party related to the OSCE observers. Lukin asks Girkin if he has any objection to Lukin's mission. "I have no objections for one simple reason. All this has already been discussed with me," Girkin says.<br />
<br />
"Very well. Then the problem is how are we going to get there to carry this out. So let me call you a bit later," Lukin says.<br />
<br />
"Call me, call. But I had instructions to help you and not the European partners," Girkin says.<br />
<br />
"I understand."<br />
<br />
Ukrainian authorities <b><a href="http://www.uatoday.info/?p=1112&lang=en" target="_blank">say</a></b> the calls and Lukin's success getting the observers released show the Kremlin's hand behind Girkin.<br />
<br />
Lukin confirmed the calls took place but denied they showed Russia controls Girkin's forces, <b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/international/2014/05/140503_ukraine_osce_observers.shtml" target="_blank">BBC reported</a></b>.<br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b><i>UPDATE (July 28, 2014): </i></b><i>Girkin reportedly took part in the 1992 Serbian ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia, <b><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/igor-strelkov-key-mh17-crash-suspect-linked-massacre-3000-bosnian-muslims-1992-1458304" target="_blank">says</a></b> the New York-based International Business Times citing a Bosnian media account.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Girkin fought as a volunteer with Serbian forces who massacred at least 3,000 Muslims in a 1992 attack in which Muslim men were lined up and murdered, </i><i>the story says. W</i><i>omen were reportedly mass raped, while others were locked in houses that were set on fire.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/hpHJKaPTlfg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe><i><b>AS WELL, </b>the SBU has released what is says is a <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpHJKaPTlfg" target="_blank">recorded call</a></b> (with English subtitles) in which a top militia leader complains about Girkin.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Let's be straight. He is a 'f-----g insane colonel,'" says Andrei Purgin, "deputy prime minister" in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, in a call with Denis Pushilin, "chairman" of the republic until he resigned in mid-July.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"When he calls the city mayor and says, 'Let's stop public transport and blow up nine-storey buildings in the city suburbs' -- that's nonsense," Purgin says.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"He has fully destabilized and disrupted the work of all trade networks. That's it, we are about to starve because we can't persuade Strelkov to let even something in.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Fewer enemies will die than the peaceful population that he is freeing... They're robbing the city... It's going to be a f-----g disaster! He will ruin a million-strong city to kill 10,000 Ukes."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>In a second call <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpHJKaPTlfg" target="_blank">released</a> by the SBU at the same time,</b> Girkin's name comes up in an alleged conversation between Oleksy Chesnakov, deputy secretary of the ruling United Russia party of Russian president Vladimir Putin, and </i><i>Alexander Borodai, self-appointed prime minister of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Chesnakov appears to ask Borodai to get Girkin to praise Putin.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"It would be important if the 'legendary one' [Girkin] gave an interview solidly saying something like, 'I've gotten to Donetsk... I am an officer. I have a commander-in-chief. At this point, of course, I do not execute his direct orders because I am in another country, but I respect him greatly. I think he is the most outstanding leader of the present times. Owing to him, Russia has stood up from its knees, and we are all looking at him with great hope,'" Chesnakov says.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Okay," Borodai says.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In the call, Borodai also complains about the militia's shortage of funds. Chesnakov says more funds can be made available: "If there is no flow, we'll arrange more using the same channel."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>"Everything he touches (and that </b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>touches </b></span></i><i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>him) </b></span></i><i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>instantly turns to shit."</b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>- Igor Girkin</b></span></i><i><span style="font-size: large;"><b> on Putin </b></span></i><i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>advisor Vladislav Surkov</b></span></i></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>UPDATE (Aug. 14, 2014): </b>Girkin is <b><a href="http://mashable.com/2014/08/14/strelkov-steps-down/#:eyJzIjoidCIsImkiOiJfN3Mwazk1cm9tczA4ODRmMHFqZWVjeXdndnRfIn0" target="_blank">reported</a></b> to have resigned his self-appointed post as defence minister of the Donetsk People's Republic after a <b><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/ukraine-s-rebel-leader-igor-strelkov-steps-down/505175.html" target="_blank">report</a></b> by pro-militia media that he was severely wounded in fighting, later denied by some militia leaders.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The DPR says in a <b><a href="http://dnr.today/news/naznacheny-novyj-ministr-oborony-i-nachalnik-glavnogo-shtaba-mo-dnr/" target="_blank">statement</a></b> that Girkin has moved on to "other work," though no details are given. Another man is appointed defence minister, while a man with the same moniker, Nykolay Vladimirovich Strelkov, is appointed chief of the DPR's "general staff." </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Also by bizarre coincidence, the second Strelkov is said to be born in 1970, the same year as Igor Strelkov/Girkin, and to also be a retired Russian colonel. A pro-militia website <b><a href="http://rusvesna.su/news/1408038465" target="_blank">says</a></b> the DPR has never previously mentioned the second Strelkov.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Meanwhile, a recruiter for the Russian-backed militia says in an early morning <b><a href="https://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_12056" target="_blank">post</a></b> on Aug. 15 on Girkin's social media page that he has been inundated with questions about Girkin. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"All I know is that he [Girkin] was in Russia in the last few days," the post says. "I don't have complete information. The situation is changing rapidly... Everyone in Donetsk who knows what's going on can't be reached or won't speak by phone."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>UPDATE (Aug. 15, 2014):</b> Girkin is no longer in the DPR, says militia member Oleksander Zhychkovsky in a <b><a href="https://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_12133" target="_blank">post</a></b> on Girkin's social media page.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"His return to the position of defence minister is not planned (his future plans aren't known yet)," the post says.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"For me this is sad news. But the war goes on, and we have to work with the new command."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">"Destroying nine-storey buildings on </span></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">the outskirts of Donetsk is insane."</span></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">- Self-proclaimed militia "prime minister" </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">on Girkin's </span></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">plan to mount defence from ruined buildings</span></b></i></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>UPDATE (Sept. 30, 2014) #1:</b> A bitter Girkin takes a shot at top Putin foreign policy advisor Vladislav Surkov, said to be an architect of the Kremlin's covert war against Ukraine, in social media posts.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>He <b><a href="https://vk.com/strelkov_info?w=wall-57424472_19716" target="_blank">scoffs</a></b> that Surkov "celebrated victory" over Ukraine at a dinner in a Moscow restaurant with leaders of the Kremlin-backed gunmen fighting in Ukraine.</i><br />
<br />
<i>The diners were celebrating Ukrainian legislation that gives gunmen-controlled areas autonomy for three years, <b><a href="http://www.newsru.com/russia/23sep2014/strelkov.html" target="_blank">reported</a></b> Russian online news outlet Newsru.com.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In <b><a href="http://voicesevas.ru/news/yugo-vostok/5084-strelkov-na-izvestnom-tainstvennom-forume.html" target="_blank">another version</a></b> of his post, Girkin goes on to call Surkov a "modern-day Midas -- except that everything he touches (and that touches him) instantly turns to shit."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>"At first nobody wanted to fight... </b></span></i><i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>I pulled the </b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>trigger that started the war."</b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>- Girkin tells far-right Russian newspaper Zavtra</b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<i><b>UPDATE (Sept. 30, 2014) #2:</b> Girkin has become persona non grata in Russian media, <b><a href="https://el-murid.livejournal.com/2017168.html" target="_blank">reports</a></b> Russian pro-Putin blogger Anatoliy "El Murid" Nesmeyan. "My journalist colleagues in Russian mass media told me privately that there has been a ban on showing not only Strelkov's image but also the mention of his name," Nesmeyan writes on his blog.</i><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<i><b>UPDATE (Oct. 8, 2014):</b> Alexander Zakharchenko, the self-proclaimed "prime minister" of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" group, slams Girkin for a ruthless disregard for local inhabitants in <b><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/separatist-leader-says-strelkov-alienated-troops-in-eastern-ukraine/508652.html" target="_blank">an interview</a></b> with the </i>Russian Reporter<i> newspaper.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"He was a person who fought alongside us. But 90 percent of his troops did not support his views on how to conduct military activities," Zacharchenko says.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>An example of Girkin's ruthlessness was an apparent plan to destroy nine-story buildings to "defend ourselves from among ruins... For me, destroying nine-storey buildings on the outskirts of Donetsk is insane... We would have done things differently when it came to trying to resolve certain issues at the expense of the lives of our fellow countrymen."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The interview confirms the authenticity of a phone call between militia leaders complaining about Girkin that Ukraine's SBU security agency says it intercepted in July (see above).</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>UPDATE (Nov. 20, 2014):</b> Girkin takes credit for starting the war in eastern Ukraine in <b><a href="http://zavtra.ru/content/view/kto-tyi-strelok/" target="_blank">an interview</a></b> with Alexander Prokhanov, the anti-Semitic editor of far-right Russian newspaper</i> Zavtra<i> ("Tomorrow").</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"At first nobody wanted to fight," the ex-FSB colonel says of the situation last spring in eastern Ukraine. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"I pulled the trigger that started the war. </i><i>If our unit hadn't crossed the border, everything would have ended like in Kharkiv and Odessa -- a few dozen people dead, burned, arrested," Girkin says.</i><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: start;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>"I am personally responsible for what is happening there."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>(Reuters carries this <b><a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/11/25/should-putin-fear-the-man-who-pulled-the-trigger-of-war-in-ukraine/" target="_blank">English-language analysis</a></b> of the interview.)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>UPDATE (Jan. 25, 2015):</b> Girkin <b><a href="http://echo.msk.ru/blog/serguei_parkhomenko/1480416-echo/" target="_blank">acknowledges</a></b> on Russian TV that Moscow-backed militants in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula forcibly gathered regional deputies to stage a <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-7-reasons-crimea-referendum-fraud-fake-results-sergei-aksyonov.html" target="_blank">fraud-riddled referendum</a></b> on joining Russia last March.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"I did not see any support from (Crimea) state authorities in Simferopol (the regional capital)," he says. "It was the militants who gathered the deputies so they would accept this (the referendum)." (See an English account of Girkin's remarks <b><a href="http://uatoday.tv/news/moscow-agent-strelkov-admits-russian-army-behind-crimean-referendum-404995.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.)</i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: start;">
<i><br /></i></div>
</div>
<b>Bezler a Second Former High-Ranked Russian Officer</b><br />
<br />
<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/_gqK12jj6sg/0.jpg" height="266" style="clear: right; float: right;" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_gqK12jj6sg&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/_gqK12jj6sg&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>Girkin isn't the only former high-ranking Russian officer to have surfaced at the heart of the turbulence in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
In April, a <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DinMf_7dQK4" target="_blank">YouTube video</a></b> appeared of a man describing himself as a "lieutenant-colonel of the Russian army" giving instructions to police in the eastern Ukrainian city of Horlivka after pro-Russia militants had forcibly taken over their police station.<br />
<br />
Ukrainian authorities <b><a href="http://www.sbu.gov.ua/sbu/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=124342&cat_id=39574" target="_blank">later identified</a></b> the man as Igor Bezler, a retired GRU lieutenant-colonel who they say the GRU sent to participate in the Russian military takeover of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March and then sent to eastern Ukraine.<br />
<br />
<b>Bezler On Kidnapping</b><br />
<br />
A man who appears to be Bezler can be briefly seen among pro-Russia militants during the police station takeover in <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTdkY8tl2b0" target="_blank">this <i>Vice News</i> item</a></b> (at 3:52 and 3:56 seconds in).<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/MTdkY8tl2b0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The SBU has released <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6zACg4uAjA" target="_blank">intercepted phone calls</a></b> of what it says is Bezler discussing the kidnapping of murdered council member Rybak. Bezler apparently instructs another militant to "tie his hands and make sure he can't see anything."</div>
<br />
Bezler and the militant speak again in a second call in which the militant assures Bezler there is no video footage implicating the pro-Russia gunmen in Rybak's kidnapping.<br />
<br />
<b><i>UPDATE (July 29, 2014): </i></b>The Guardian <i>correspondent Shaun Walker <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/29/-sp-ukraine-rebel-igor-bezler-interview-demon" target="_blank">reports</a></b> on his disturbing encounter with Bezler, the militia commander whose unit <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/07/ukraine-mh17-timeline-malaysia-airlines-buk-missile-igor-girkin-strelkov.html" target="_blank">is suspected of having shot down MH17</a></b>.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Walker was granted a rare interview with Bezler. But before they had a chance to discuss MH17, Bezler started screaming and threatened to have Walker and a Russian journalist shot, Walker reports.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">"Don't think for a minute </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">I </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">will </span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">hesitate to </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">have you shot!"</span></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">- Russian gunman commander </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Igor Bezler </span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">screaming at Guardian journalist</span></b></i></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i>Bezler said his forces summarily execute captured Ukrainian National Guard volunteer soldiers. "We question them and then shoot them on the spot," Walker quotes Bezler as saying. "I will hang those f---ers from lampposts!"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>While shouting "at the top of his voice," Bezler noticed the Russian journalist's dictaphone was on and that Walker was writing notes in his notebook. Walker reports that Bezler grabbed the dictaphone, ordered a fighter to throw it against a wall, then took Walker's notebook and frantically ripped out pages.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Burn their notebooks!" Bezler barked at his subordinates. "Seize their electronics! Search everything for compromising material and then destroy it! If you find anything, execute them as spies!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Don't think for a minute I will hesitate to have you shot," he yelled at the journalists, who were eventually released unharmed.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Protesters Paid: Report</b><br />
<br />
Ukrainian authorities <b><a href="http://ukr.lb.ua/news/2014/04/25/264333_sizo_nahodyatsya_25_sotrudnikov.html" target="_blank">said in April</a></b> they had detained 25 Russian military intelligence agents in Ukraine involved in organizing pro-Russia protests.<br />
<br />
Ukrainian border police <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/04/17/5_milyoniv_hryven_z_krymu_separatystam_ne_dovezly" target="_blank">have reported</a></b> detaining couriers trying to bring large sums of money into Ukraine to finance the pro-Russia protests.<br />
<br />
In the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, pro-Russia militants offered residents the equivalent of $35 to help block Ukrainian security forces and $90 to participate in attacks on soldiers or act as "human shields" for pro-Russia gunmen, according to <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/05/3/7024277/" target="_blank">this</a></b> <i>Ukrainska Pravda</i> newspaper story last week.<br />
<br />
<b>1,200 Got Payments in Luhansk: Prosecutor-General</b><br />
<br />
Authorities in Ukraine detained a Ukrainian citizen who admitted in <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/04/30/7024036/" target="_blank">a video</a></b> posted by <i>Ukrainska Pravda </i>in mid-April that he was recruited as a GRU agent to lead a 10-person unit participating in building takeovers in eastern Ukraine.<br />
<br />
The man said those who participated in attacks were paid the equivalent of $10 a day, while those with military training got "several times more."<br />
<br />
Some 1,200 people in the eastern Luhansk region alone got payments to participate in pro-Russia protests and disrupt planned May 25 presidential elections, Ukraine's prosecutor-general <a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/04/24/na_luhanschyni_vykryto_1200_provokatoriv_yaki_hotovuly_terakty_ta_dyversiyi___hpu" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">said in April</a>.<br />
<br />
A Ukrainian <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-russian-personnel.html" target="_blank">investigation reported</a></b> last month that 30 members of Russia's FSB intelligence service had helped plan a Ukrainian government crackdown on mass protests in February that left 76 dead, provoking an uprising that swept pro-Moscow Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych out of power.<br />
<br />
<b><i>See also</i></b><br />
<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/4-myths-about-ukraine-crisis-crimea-and.html" target="_blank">4 myths about the Ukraine crisis, Crimea and NATO</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-7-signs-of-russias-far.html" target="_blank">7 signs of Russia's far-right turn</a></b></div>
Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-82822821670311532902014-04-23T19:38:00.000-04:002014-08-05T10:49:45.405-04:00Russian-Backed Militants Oppose "Zombie Zionists" and "Jewish Junta" in Ukraine Amid Rise in Russian Anti-Semitism<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdtSP0gyAunOgEocWwrf9Dy2P3VbJ_B9J1_JReKw9rjuuIaksoAcRZnv7YusIVp3pumeNwMH_WiqiTymkl6tbLfv9eC713k0U6fa9btYp2ySpV-cIUlw8wliMPksxQjl5gBzjuWG49co/s1600/14514_yulia-tymoshenko-primera-dama-ucraniana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdtSP0gyAunOgEocWwrf9Dy2P3VbJ_B9J1_JReKw9rjuuIaksoAcRZnv7YusIVp3pumeNwMH_WiqiTymkl6tbLfv9eC713k0U6fa9btYp2ySpV-cIUlw8wliMPksxQjl5gBzjuWG49co/s1600/14514_yulia-tymoshenko-primera-dama-ucraniana.jpg" height="400" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yulia Tymoshenko, a former Ukrainian prime<br />
minister currently running for president,<br />
"completely hides" her Jewish ancestry,<br />
according to a recent Russian TV <br />
documentary that one report says is part <br />
of a new anti-Semitic campaign.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Pro-Russia militants have vowed in a TV program to oppose "zombie Zionists" in Ukraine, according to the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, which called the broadcast anti-Semitic.<br />
<br />
The development comes amid reports of an upsurge of anti-Semitism in pro-Kremlin media stories and Russian government support for far-right Russian groups active in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Three unidentified pro-Russia militants promised a "powerful blow" against "zombie Zionists" in an inaugural broadcast Sunday of a new pro-Russia TV channel in Sloviansk, a city in eastern Ukraine under control of pro-Kremlin gunmen, according to <b><a href="http://eajc.org/page16/news44513.html" target="_blank">this statement</a></b> Monday from the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.<br />
<br />
The congress, an umbrella group of Jewish groups in the ex-Soviet states, said it was one of the first broadcasts on the new station launched after gunmen backed by "Russian military experts" seized a local TV transmission tower and took Ukrainian TV off the air.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
The broadcast (seen <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFOSSfPHY8w" target="_blank">here</a></b> on YouTube) features the logo and website of a pro-Russia group called the "People's Liberation Movement."<br />
<br />
The group's website home page features <b><a href="http://nod-rus.su/entry/dostizheniya-evrejskoj-khunty" target="_blank">this post</a></b> about a so-called "Jewish junta" it says controls Ukraine.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://nod-rus.su/entry/evrei-saentologi-pytayutsya-skhavat-ukrainu" target="_blank">Another post</a></b> claims "a bunch of rich Jew-Scientologists" runs Ukraine's government.<br />
<br />
After the broadcast, the channel aired a lecture by the late Konstantin Petrov, a retired Russian general who headed an "anti-Semitic Russian nationalist-Stalinist neopagan sect," the Jewish congress said in its statement.<br />
<br />
<b>Russian TV "Discloses" Politicians' Jewish Roots</b><br />
<br />
The developments occur amid what the <i>Jewish Daily Forward</i> <b><a href="http://forward.com/articles/196864/the-real-truth-about-those-anti-semitic-flyers-in/" target="_blank">said in this story Tuesday</a></b> is a new Kremlin effort to embrace the "dark forces of the Russian ultra-right," including "using anti-Semitism as an ingredient in the anti-Ukrainian campaign."<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"The Kremlin is spreading the line that </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">the Ukrainian leaders are Jews."</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">- David Fishman, director of </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jewish </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">studies at Russian </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">State </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">University of the Humanities</span></i></b></div>
<br />
"The Kremlin's attempt, back in late February and March, to paint the new Ukrainian regime as Nazi and anti-Semitic has failed. It didn't pick up much traction in world public opinion," the New York-based newspaper's story said.<br />
<br />
"So now the Kremlin is spreading the line that the Ukrainian leaders are Jews. Or at the very least, servants and lackeys of Jews. The intended audience is no longer international; it is domestic."<br />
<br />
The story's author is David Fishman, director of Jewish studies at Moscow's Russian State University for the Humanities and a Jewish history professor at the New York-based Jewish Theological Seminary.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
Fishman cited a Russian TV documentary in late March that portrayed former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is now running for president, as a back-stabbing criminal and embezzler who had secretly ordered assaults and killings.<br />
<br />
The documentary culminated with the "disclosure" that Tymoshenko has Jewish ancestry, which she "completely hides. But for many, it is no secret that the father of this woman with a hair-braid -- Viktor Abramovich Kapitelman -- has Jewish roots."<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"This is a coup, a coup perpetrated </span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">by Zionists." </span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">- speaker at pro-Russia rally in Ukraine</span></i></b></div>
<br />
"The implication," Fishman wrote, "was that now, in light of that fact, her pattern of lies, theft and murder all made sense."<br />
<br />
The same news program aired a similar documentary a few days later on Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatseniuk. "He is a Jew on his mother's side and is one of the 50 most famous Zionists in Ukraine," the documentary said.<br />
<br />
This line was echoed at a recent pro-Russian demonstration in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, Fishman said. One speaker spoke about the mass protests that drove pro-Moscow Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych from power in February.<br />
<br />
"Let's see how many Ukrainians have come to power. Yatseniuk?" the speaker asked. The crowd called out: "He's a Jew!"<br />
<br />
The speaker listed other Ukrainian politicians, adding their alleged Jewish names: "What about Klitchko-Ettinson, or Yulia Kapitelman?" Someone yelled, "She's a Jew!" The speaker continued, "This is a coup, a coup perpetrated by Zionists."<br />
<br />
The crowd burst into applause.<br />
<br />
<b>Return of Czarist-Era Black Hundred</b><br />
<br />
Especially disturbing, Fishman wrote, is the sudden appearance in eastern Ukraine of a virulently anti-Semitic far-right Russian group called the Black Hundred, the reincarnation of a czarist-era group that incited pogroms against Jewish people.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://lenta-ua.net/uploads/posts/2014-03/1396127435_organizacii-chernaya-sotnya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://lenta-ua.net/uploads/posts/2014-03/1396127435_organizacii-chernaya-sotnya.jpg" height="320" width="310" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Logo of the Black Hundred (Chernaya Sotnya). <br />
The virulently anti-Semitic far-right Russian<br />
group is reportedly supported by the Kremlin<br />
and active in pro-Russia protests in Ukraine.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In March, Ukrainian security detained a Black Hundred member, Anton Raevskii, after he set up a camp in Ukraine to train pro-Russia militants in hand-to-hand combat and called on trainees to attack the Ukrainian military and Jewish people, Fishman wrote.<br />
<br />
Raevskii, whose arms are tattooed with Nazi symbols, was deported to Russia.<br />
<br />
"Putin has decided to wage his war on Ukraine with the help of paid volunteers from the Black Hundreds," Fishman wrote.<br />
<br />
Fishman doesn't provide sources for his claims that the Kremlin orchestrated the anti-Semitic media reports or pays Black Hundred members, but <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-7-signs-of-russias-far.html" target="_blank">other accounts</a></b> have said Russian media, increasingly under the Kremlin's tight grip, has cranked up jingoistic and anti-Semitic rhetoric in its Ukraine coverage.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26786213" target="_blank">This BBC story</a></b> in March said Russian state TV host Dmitry Kiselov, who is known to be <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26839216" target="_blank">close to the Kremlin</a></b>, and other pro-Kremlin Russian journalists have lately run several reports highlighting the purported Jewish roots of government critics or making otherwise anti-Semitic comments.<br />
<br />
The trend reflects a "shift in Russian public national politics towards openly anti-Semitic rhetoric," the story quoted the website Jewish.ru saying.<br />
<br />
Israel's Cursor Info news site <b><a href="http://cursorinfo.co.il/news/xussr/2014/04/18/separatisti-donbassa-prodolzhayut-antisemitskuyu-kampaniyu/" target="_blank">said in this item</a></b> Friday that the "Nazi" Black Hundred "acts openly in modern Russia and is supported by Russian authorities." The group is now active in pro-Russia protests in eastern Ukraine, the story said.<br />
<br />
The news comes amid <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-attacks-on-minorities.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">reports of violent attacks</a> on Roma (Gypsy) people in Sloviansk, the rebel-held city where the anti-Semitic broadcast occurred, and <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-7-signs-of-russias-far.html" target="_blank">mounting evidence</a></b> that the Kremlin supports far-right groups in Ukraine and elsewhere.<br />
<br />
<b><i>See also</i></b><br />
<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-7-signs-of-russias-far.html" target="_blank">7 signs of Russia's far-right turn</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/4-myths-about-ukraine-crisis-crimea-and.html" target="_blank">4 myths about the Ukraine crisis, Crimea and NATO</a></b>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-29234285045593494372014-04-19T15:09:00.000-04:002014-05-07T20:19:15.140-04:00Ukraine Crisis: Attacks on Minorities Reported in Areas Held by Pro-Russia Gunmen<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDg3CkYMNi3cvgUCPb7rR-IPOx-lfCL4vHssVK0cblQ1IBxCFPRIRPqDsJFmfUSBozp3zvZoxSuoUpnUcu_kIbtm0nJ3OIhc199YKaTRBE8idcalvgxe8_IXR_NHB2iYaNxeEI7N6LYoOH/s1600/Ukraine-Donetsk-FarRight-OtherRussia-Flag-UkPravda-18ap14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDg3CkYMNi3cvgUCPb7rR-IPOx-lfCL4vHssVK0cblQ1IBxCFPRIRPqDsJFmfUSBozp3zvZoxSuoUpnUcu_kIbtm0nJ3OIhc199YKaTRBE8idcalvgxe8_IXR_NHB2iYaNxeEI7N6LYoOH/s1600/Ukraine-Donetsk-FarRight-OtherRussia-Flag-UkPravda-18ap14.jpg" height="226" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The flag of Other Russia, an ultranationalist anti-<br />
migrant Russian group, flew this week in front of a <br />
barricaded building seized by pro-Russia gunmen<br />
in Ukraine, according to <b><a href="http://life.pravda.com.ua/society/2014/04/18/164299/" target="_blank">this photo</a></b> in <i>Ukrainska </i><br />
<i>Pravda</i>. The flag features a hand grenade on a<br />
red background. Far-right Russian militants are<br />
<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-7-signs-of-russias-far.html" target="_blank">reportedly active</a></b> in pro-Russian protests<br />
in eastern Ukraine<i>.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Roma people (also known as Gypsies) are reportedly being attacked in their homes, beaten and robbed in Sloviansk, a city in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russia gunmen, says <b><a href="http://novosti.dn.ua/details/223201/" target="_blank">this item today</a></b> in the Russian-language <i>News of Donbass</i>.<br />
<br />
The news follows <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/04/18/7022999/" target="_blank">a report on Espreso.tv</a></b> Friday that pro-Russia militia leader Vyacheslav Ponomaryov had asked Sloviansk residents to report suspicious people, "particularly those who speak Ukrainian."<br />
<br />
Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk Friday <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/04/19/yacenyuk_poobicyav_scho_vin_ne_dopustyt_rozpalyuvannya_mizhnacionalnoyi_vorozhnechi_v_ukrayini" target="_blank">condemned</a></b> the attacks on the Roma and an anti-Semitic leaflet handed out in Donetsk calling on Jewish residents to register with pro-Russia militants and pay a $50 fee or be deported and have their property confiscated.<br />
<br />
"The ideology and practice of pogroms, which is being exported from one of our neighbouring countries, will not succeed in Ukraine," he said.<br />
<br />
Ukraine's SBU security agency has opened <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/04/19/7023041/" target="_blank">an investigation</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Far-Right Russian Activists</b><br />
<br />
Pro-Russia militants of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic denied issuing the leaflet, but <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/17/jews-in-east-ukraine-are-being-threatened-but-by-whom.html" target="_blank"><i>The Daily Beast</i> reports</a></b> some in the local Jewish community are still concerned.<br />
<br />
Donetsk chief rabbi Pinhas Vyshedski said the spokesman of the pro-Russia gunmen, Aleksander Kriakov, is "the most famous anti-Semite in the region."<br />
<br />
Vyshedski questioned how a group purporting to oppose "fascists" in Ukraine's new government could pick Kriakov as its spokesman.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"Until today, there were all sorts of thugs and confused men in this building."</b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>- Dmitry Sinegorsky, pro-Russia gunman</b></span></i></div>
<br />
Dmitry Sinegorsky, a "security supervisor" with the pro-Russia gunmen, said the leaflet may have been an attempt to discredit his group or a "pure provocation."<br />
<br />
"See, until today, there were all sorts of thugs and confused men in this building," he told <i>The Daily Beast</i>. "But as from today we begin a self-cleansing process."<br />
<br />
The developments follow <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-7-signs-of-russias-far.html" target="_blank">growing evidence</a></b> that Russian president Vladimir Putin has aligned himself with far-right and neo-Nazi groups at home and abroad to pursue his policies, including in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Far-right Russian activists have appeared at pro-Russia protests in eastern Ukraine, including from the ultranationalist anti-migrant group Other Russia, <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/russias-deep-ties-to-donetsks-kremlin-collaborators-342833.html" target="_blank">this <i>Kyiv Post </i>item</a></b> said.<br />
<br />
The group's flag, featuring a hand grenade on a red background, flew this week in front of a barricaded building seized by pro-Russia militants, according to a photo in <b><a href="http://life.pravda.com.ua/society/2014/04/18/164299/" target="_blank">this <i>Ukrainska Pravda</i> story</a></b> yesterday.<br />
<br />
Over 200 Ukrainian Jewish community leaders signed an <b><a href="http://www.ucsj.org/2014/03/06/to-the-president-of-the-russian-federation-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin/" target="_blank">open letter to Putin</a></b> in March dismissing his claims that Ukraine's new government is anti-Semitic and saying anti-Semitism is worse in Russia than in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
The letter said Russian neo-Nazis "are encouraged by your security services."<br />
<br />
<b><i>See also</i></b><br />
<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/4-myths-about-ukraine-crisis-crimea-and.html" target="_blank">4 myths about the Ukraine crisis, Crimea and NATO</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-7-reasons-why-crimea.html" target="_blank">7 reasons why the Crimea referendum results aren't credible</a></b>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-21586397785458968002014-04-12T23:07:00.002-04:002022-03-07T17:17:17.863-05:00Ukraine Crisis: 7 Signs of Russia's Far-Right Turn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1373102/ukraine-sbu-arrests-russian-spy-maria-koleda-kherson-mykolaiv.jpg?w=660&h=576&l=50&t=40" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="279" src="http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1373102/ukraine-sbu-arrests-russian-spy-maria-koleda-kherson-mykolaiv.jpg?w=660&h=576&l=50&t=40" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ukrainian security detained Maria Koleda in<br />
April alleging she shot three people during<br />
protests in Ukraine. Koleda, a Russian citizen,<br />
appears to have associated with Russian neo-<br />
Nazis, according to <a href="http://vk.com/iskra1905" target="_blank"><b>her social </b><b>media posts</b></a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Russian president Vladimir Putin has increasingly embraced far-right and neo-Nazi groups in Russia and Europe to promote his policies at home and abroad, including efforts to disrupt Ukraine and divide Europe.<br />
<br />
So said <b><a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/168504/kirchick-putin-ukraine?all=1" target="_blank">this report last week in <i>Tablet</i></a></b>, a U.S. Jewish current-affairs magazine.<br />
<br />
Here are seven signs that Putin's Russia has taken a hard swerve to the far right.<br />
<br />
<b>1) Putin's New Friends -- Marie Le Pen & Co. </b><br />
<br />
Putin has closely allied himself with Europe's <b><a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4508776,00.html" target="_blank">fast-growing far-right parties</a></b> -- France's National Front, Hungary's Jobbik party, Greece's Golden Dawn and the Ataka party in Bulgaria, according to <i>Tablet </i>and <b><a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141067/mitchell-a-orenstein/putins-western-allies" target="_blank">this report</a></b> in the journal <i>Foreign Affairs</i>.<br />
<br />
Russia is thought to have funded some of the parties, says the <i>Foreign Affairs</i> report, written by Northeastern University political scientist Mitchell Orenstein.<br />
<br />
Europe's far right, in turn, has defended Putin's invasion of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and ultraconservative social policies such as his anti-gay legislation.<br />
<br />
"I am very surprised that the European Union has now announced a kind of Cold War against Russia, which absolutely doesn't fit with the traditionally friendly relations between our countries," French National Front leader Marie Le Pen <b><a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/french-far-right-leader-backs-russia-s-ukraine-stance-114041200673_1.html" target="_blank">was quoted saying</a></b> today during a visit to Moscow.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i><b>"Even the Soviet Union wasn't like this."</b></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><i><b> - opposition leader Boris Nemtsov</b></i></span></div>
<br />
Le Pen reportedly told the speaker of Russia's lower house Sergei Naryshkin she backed Russia's policies on Ukraine.<br />
<br />
Le Pen has previously praised Putin. "As Vladimir Putin correctly stated, 20 years from now France will have become a colony of its former colonies," she <b><a href="http://imrussia.org/russia-and-the-world/645-putins-far-right-friends-in-europe" target="_blank">was quoted telling</a></b> Russian state television channel Rossia 1.<br />
<br />
<b>2) Putin Befriends U.S. Religious Right.</b><br />
<br />
Putin also seems to be tight with segments of the U.S. religious right.<br />
<br />
The World Congress of Families, an umbrella of the religious right, was apparently a key force behind Russia's anti-gay legislation, <b><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/world-congress-families-russia-gay-rights" target="_blank"><i>Mother Jones</i> reported</a></b> in February.<br />
<br />
"We're convinced that Russia does and should play a very significant role in defence of the family and moral values worldwide," the group's executive director Larry Jacobs is <b><a href="http://worldcongress.ru/english/static-en/151-world-congress-of-families-viii-2014-moscow.html" target="_blank">quoted saying</a></b> on its website.<br />
<br />
The group's spokesman Don Feder <b><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/us-conservatives-to-go-ahead-with-pro-life-olympics-in-mosco" target="_blank">wrote an article</a></b> in March titled "Putin Doesn't Threaten Our National Security, Obama Does."<br />
<br />
<b>3) Far Right Invited to Monitor Crimea Referendum.</b><br />
<br />
In March, <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-new-pro-russian-crimean.html" target="_blank">Russian-appointed authorities</a></b> in Crimea invited prominent <b><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117048/crimean-referendum-was-electoral-farce" target="_blank">European far-right and neo-Nazi leaders</a></b> to act as observers in a <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-7-reasons-why-crimea.html" target="_blank">jury-rigged referendum</a></b> on joining Russia.<br />
<br />
Despite <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-7-reasons-why-crimea.html" target="_blank">widespread reports of fraud</a></b>, the observers <b><a href="http://www.eode.org/eode-press-office-referendums-in-the-republic-of-crimea-and-sevastopol-joint-statement-by-the-independent-international-observers/" target="_blank">declared</a></b> the vote was "open and transparent."<br />
<br />
<b>4) Russian State Media Stokes Anti-Semitism.</b><br />
<br />
Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Russian state media, according to <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26786213" target="_blank">this BBC report</a></b> citing the Russian Jewish Congress.<br />
<br />
In one incident in February, Evelina Zakamskaya, a presenter on the state-owned Rossiya 24 news channel, was interviewing Aleksandr Prokhanov, a far-right author who <b><a href="http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=63&x_article=154" target="_blank">openly blames Jewish people</a></b> for Russia's problems.<br />
<br />
Referring to Jewish people who joined protests against Ukraine's pro-Moscow then-president Viktor Yanukovych, Prokhanov said: "Don't they realize that with their own hands they are hastening a second Holocaust?"<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/The_Other_Russia_flag.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/The_Other_Russia_flag.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flag of Russian ultranationalist anti-migrant group<br />
Other Russia. It and other far-right Russian groups<br />
are active in pro-Russia protests in eastern <br />
Ukraine, the <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/russias-deep-ties-to-donetsks-kremlin-collaborators-342833.html" target="_blank"><i>Kyiv Post</i> reports</a></b>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Zakamskaya replied: "They also hastened the first one."<br />
<br />
The state-owned Russia Today news channel <b><a href="http://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/view/123046-rothschild-hereda-patente-semiconductores-avion-malasio" target="_blank">hinted last month</a></b> that the loss of a Malaysian passenger jet in the ocean in March could have been the fault of British billionaire Jacob Rothschild, who the story noted is Jewish and is now the sole holder of a valuable semiconductor patent.<br />
<br />
The European Jewish Congress <b><a href="http://www.eurojewcong.org/russian-federation/10947-russian-tv-peddles-anti-semitic-theory-for-malaysian-plane-end.html" target="_blank">said the article</a></b> "peddles (an) anti-Semitic theory."<br />
<br />
<b>5) Putin's Anti-Semitic Remark.</b><br />
<br />
Putin himself was accused of anti-Semitism over a remark he made last year at Moscow's Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center.<br />
<br />
Putin claimed 80 to 85 percent of the first Soviet government was Jewish, which <b><a href="http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/putin-perpetuates-antisemitic-lie-of-first-soviet-mostly-jewish/2013/06/20/" target="_blank">this <i>Jewish Press</i> item</a></b> noted is false (only one of the 16 commissars was Jewish), calling the remark anti-Semitic.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>6) Kremlin Backs Neo-Nazis at Home.</b><br />
<br />
Putin's security services have supported Russia's neo-Nazi groups, according to <b><a href="http://www.ucsj.org/2014/03/06/to-the-president-of-the-russian-federation-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin/" target="_blank">this open letter to Putin</a></b> from Ukrainian Jewish leaders.<br />
<br />
The letter, published in March in <i>The New York Times</i> and other newspapers, dismissed Putin's claims that Ukraine's new pro-Western government is anti-Semitic.<br />
<br />
"It seems you have confused Ukraine with Russia, where Jewish organizations have noticed growth in anti-Semitic tendencies last year," the letter said.<br />
<br />
A Kremlin-backed youth movement called Nashi (Russian for "ours") has actively recruited Russian far-right skinheads from groups active in attacks on protesters, environmentalists and even rival extremists, <b><a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/046a3e30-0ec9-11e0-9ec3-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2yimXy7aZ" target="_blank">this <i>Financial Times</i> story</a></b> reported.<br />
<br />
The story said the Russian government also appears to have repeatedly given "lenient treatment" to a skinhead group called Russian Image, which <b><a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/23/moscow_on_thames" target="_blank">this <i>Foreign Policy </i>report</a></b> said is "a neo-Nazi outfit" linked to several murders.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">"Freedom evaporates with a clap of hands."</span></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">- Tatyana Lokshina of Human Rights Watch</span></b></i></div>
<br />
Rights groups have also accused Russian authorities and state media of <b><a href="http://www.muslimophobia.com/news.php?nid=437" target="_blank">stoking anti-migrant fears</a></b> and xenophobia and depicting migrants as criminals.<br />
<br />
In one incident last October, police arrested 1,200 migrant workers -- mostly Muslims from the Caucasus and Asia -- at a warehouse that had been attacked by ultranationalist groups earlier that day.`<br />
<br />
"Authorities are going after the victims, which seems completely absurd," <b><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/russia-police-arrest-azerbaijani-murder-suspect-orkhan-514081" target="_blank">said</a></b> a Human Rights Watch official.<br />
<br />
At the same time, Russia's media, increasingly <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/09/us-russia-media-idUSBRE9B80I120131209" target="_blank">under the Kremlin's tight control</a></b>, has cranked up its <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26411396" target="_blank">ultranationalistic rhetoric</a></b> during the conflict with Ukraine.<br />
<br />
After Putin in March denounced domestic critics as "traitors" and a "fifth column," Russia closed down opposition websites and blogs, <b><a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/04/09/life_for_russias_liberals_just_got_a_whole_lot_worse" target="_blank">this <i>Foreign Policy </i>article</a> </b>said.<br />
<br />
The article said Russia's growing nationalist fervour is silencing critics. "Freedom evaporates with a clap of hands," Tatyana Lokshina, director of the Moscow branch of Human Rights Watch, was quoted saying.<br />
<br />
"Even the Soviet Union wasn't like this," opposition leader Boris Nemtsov is quoted writing in <b><a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/world/europe/xenophobic-chill-descends-on-moscow.html?referrer" target="_blank">this <i>New York Times</i> story</a></b> yesterday on Russia's "xenophobic chill."<br />
<br />
"March 2014 marks a turn in the country from authoritarianism to dictatorship," he said.<br />
<br />
One of the biggest backers of Putin's invasion of Crimea has been far-right leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the openly anti-Semitic deputy speaker of Russia's lower house. He <b><a href="http://fpif.org/brown-new-black/" target="_blank">has called</a></b> for Russia to annex much of Ukraine.<br />
<br />
<b>7) Russian Far Right Active in Ukraine Unrest.</b><br />
<br />
A number of far-right Russian activists have also turned up in Ukraine participating in pro-Russia protests, seemingly as part of the Kremlin's strategy of using <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-new-reports-of-pro.html" target="_blank">provocateurs and crime gangs</a></b> to destabilize Ukraine.<br />
<br />
In March, Ukrainian security forces detained Oleg Bakhtiyarov, leader of the far-right Eurasian Youth Union of Russia, for allegedly <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-new-reports-of-pro.html" target="_blank">planning an armed attack</a></b> on Ukraine's parliament and government offices.<br />
<br />
Bakhtiyarov reportedly recruited 200 people for the attack, promising them $500 apiece. He was apparently working with Russian TV channels to arrange for coverage of the raid, the <i>Kyiv Post</i> reported.<br />
<br />
In April, Ukraine detained <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-new-groups-of.html" target="_blank">Maria Koleda</a></b>, another Russian citizen, for allegedly shooting three people during protests in the southern region of Mykolaiv.<br />
<br />
She reportedly participated in anti-Ukraine protests and had a pistol when she was detained. Her social media posts <b><a href="http://vk.com/iskra1905" target="_blank">suggest</a></b> she associated with Russian neo-Nazis and hard-right nationalists.<br />
<br />
Ukraine has also detained <b><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117048/crimean-referendum-was-electoral-farce" target="_blank">Pavel Gubarev</a></b>, a pro-Russian far-right activist who proclaimed himself the "people's governor" of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/russian-war-tourists-stirring-trouble-in-east-ukraine" target="_blank">This <i>BuzzFeed </i>story</a></b> says Russian neo-Nazi and far-right groups have sent members to Ukraine to stoke unrest.<br />
<br />
One group, the Russian People's National Socialist Initiative, reportedly posted footage of members receiving military training before heading to Ukraine.<br />
<br />
The article quotes Russian ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin, who is <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/23/ukraine-crimea-what-putin-thinking-russia" target="_blank">close to Putin</a></b>, advising pro-Russian activists in Ukraine "not to find a common language with the new authorities in Kyiv but rather (to) act radically."<br />
<br />
Members of two other Russian extremist anti-migrant groups, Moscow Shield and Other Russia, have also been active in the pro-Russia protests in Ukraine, <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/russias-deep-ties-to-donetsks-kremlin-collaborators-342833.html" target="_blank">this <i>Kyiv Post</i> story</a></b> said Thursday.<br />
<br />
<b><i>See also:</i></b><br />
<b><a href="https://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/4-myths-ukraine-crisis-crimea-nato-russia-fascism-far-right.html" target="_blank">4 Myths About the Ukraine Crisis, Crimea and NATO</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-7-reasons-why-crimea.html" target="_blank">7 Reasons Why Crimea Results Aren't Credible -- and Why Media Coverage Stinks</a></b>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-69907409560865050972014-04-05T11:58:00.000-04:002015-02-27T17:05:40.636-05:00Russia's FSB Agency Helped Plan Maidan Sniper Killings: Ukrainian Investigation<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/B4OgynH-7Is/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/B4OgynH-7Is?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: right; float: right;" width="320"></iframe>Thirty members of Russia's FSB security service, the successor to the KGB, helped Ukrainian authorities plan a police assault on mass protests in Kyiv that left 76 dead and hundreds injured Feb. 18-20, Ukrainian security officials <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/putins-drive-to-destroy-ukraine-accessory-to-murder-342033.html" target="_blank">said Thursday</a></b> announcing preliminary results of their investigation into the killings.<br />
<br />
Ukrainian authorities also announced the arrest of 12 former riot police officers identified as government snipers who shot protesters in February.<br />
<br />
They said dozens of other police and security personnel involved in the killings have fled to Russian-occupied Crimea.<br />
<br />
The FSB and Russia's defence ministry also shipped five tonnes of grenades and other explosives to Ukrainian security forces, which used them against protesters, officials said.<br />
<br />
Officials said hired civilian goons were also involved in killings of protesters and a journalist.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Russia denied being involved in the shootings, but later <b><a href="http://www.interfax.ru/russia/369704" target="_blank">acknowledged</a></b> that an FSB officer, Sergei Beseda, was in Kyiv Feb. 20-21 to check security at the Russian embassy.<br />
<br />
<i><b><u>UPDATE:</u> </b>Ukrainian military analyst Dmitry Tymchuk said today on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/dmitry.tymchuk/posts/478989562229704?stream_ref=10" target="_blank">his Facebook page</a></b> (translated <b><a href="http://maidantranslations.com/2014/04/05/dmitry-tymchuk-fsb-presence-in-ukraine-on-february-20-21/comment-page-1/" target="_blank">here</a></b>) that Beseda is a colonel-general who commands FSB intelligence operations against ex-Soviet republics. His role doesn't involve embassy security.</i><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/qSvj8F_Br4M/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qSvj8F_Br4M?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: right; float: right;" width="320"></iframe><i><br /></i>
<i>Tymchuk said sources informed him Beseda arrived in Kyiv Feb. 20 with a delegation of seven FSB officers.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In addition, Tymchuk names 20 other members of the FSB and other Russian intelligence agencies, half of them ranked lieutenant-colonel or above, who he says were already present in Kyiv at the time.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>New Footage of Bloodbath</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/03/ukraine-fingers-russian-advisors-and-ex-president-yanukovych-in-february-massacre.html" target="_blank">This <i>Daily Beast </i>story</a></b> on the shootings includes previously unreported details and new images of security personnel apparently readying to attack protesters and, afterwards, packing up vans as they fled. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
BBC also has this <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26868119" target="_blank">new footage</a></b> of the carnage.<br />
<br />
<b>Footage Best Documenting Shootings</b><br />
<br />
But the footage I think best documents the bloodbath remains <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-footage-from-bloodbath.html" target="_blank">this pair of videos</a></b> showing heavily armed police with sniper rifles going into action -- as well as a 41-minute protesters' POV showing numerous unarmed protesters and medics getting shot, some while withdrawing.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
The shootings were reportedly part of a failed larger plan involving over 20,000 police to crush the mass protests against Ukraine's pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych before he fled power Feb. 22, Toronto's <i>Globe and Mail</i> <b><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/yanukovych-was-planning-harsh-clampdown-leak-reveals/article17073307/" target="_blank">reported in February</a></b>.<br />
<br />
The story cited <a href="http://euromaidanpr.com/2014/02/24/mp-moskal-releases-details-on-perpetrators-of-violence-against-protesters/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">these documents</a> from Hennadiy Moskal, a Ukrainian parliament member and former deputy chair of Ukraine's SBU security service.</div>
Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-31706100366102700952014-04-05T11:16:00.001-04:002014-04-12T23:31:39.671-04:00Ukraine Crisis: Alleged Provocateurs Detained With 300 Machine Guns (UPDATED)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1-ps.googleusercontent.com/x/www.pravda.com.ua/img.pravda.com/images/doc/9/2/926094a-bknnt0xiuaan-it.jpg.pagespeed.ce.dK7ir3gYg-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1-ps.googleusercontent.com/x/www.pravda.com.ua/img.pravda.com/images/doc/9/2/926094a-bknnt0xiuaan-it.jpg.pagespeed.ce.dK7ir3gYg-.jpg" height="400" width="287" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ukraine's SBU security service said Monday it <br />
had detained Russian military intelligence <br />
operative Roman Bannik (above)<br />
Saturday. Bannik had directed anti-<br />
Ukraine protests in the eastern city of<br />
Luhansk, the SBU said.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Ukrainian authorities <b><a href="http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/199310.html" target="_blank">said today</a></b> they had detained 15 people reportedly plotting an armed seizure of power in the eastern region of Luhansk, near the Russian border.<br />
<br />
Authorities say they seized 300 machine guns, an anti-tank grenade launcher and Molotov cocktails.<br />
<br />
The announcement comes on the heels of <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-new-reports-of-pro.html" target="_blank">two separate reports</a></b> Monday of pro-Russia provocateurs being detained in other parts of Ukraine, including a Russian far-right leader allegedly planning to storm the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-amnesty-calls-for-rights.html" target="_blank">Reports have multiplied</a></b> of Russian soldiers and busloads of Russian citizens arriving in Ukraine to stage attacks and promote accession of various regions to Russia.<br />
<br />
Amping up tensions, Russia's FSB security service, the successor to the KGB, <b><a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/report+Ukrainian+citizens+arrested+Russia+suspicion/9695789/story.html" target="_blank">said Thursday</a></b> it had detained 25 Ukrainians on suspicion of spying on Russian military movements and planning sabotage.<br />
<br />
(<u style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE:</u> Russian state media <b><a href="http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/727154" target="_blank">reported April 9</a></b> that three of the arrested Ukrainians had been deported to Ukraine and banned from Russia for up to five years because they had planned to spy on the Russian military. The reports didn't mention the earlier sabotage allegations or the other Ukrainians reportedly detained.)<br />
<br />
<b>Pro-Russia Protesters Paid $500 Apiece: Report</b><br />
<br />
<b><u>UPDATE #2:</u> </b>Pro-Russia protesters were paid $500 apiece for participating in the seizure of a government building in Luhansk over the weekend, <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/04/07/landik_separatystiv_u_luhansku_kupuvaly_za_500" target="_blank">says Volodymyr Landik</a></b>, a former Ukrainian parliamentarian from the Party of Regions, the party of ousted president Viktor Yanukovych.<br />
<br />
He said the protesters include <i><b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-amnesty-calls-for-rights.html" target="_blank">titushki</a></b></i>, hired thugs whom Yanukovych had hired to attack opponents and journalists.<br />
<br />
Landik said most people in the city don't support the protesters' demand that the region joins Russia.<br />
<br />
A <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/04/6/7021553/" target="_blank">new survey</a></b> of Ukrainians in mid-March found only 14 percent supported implementation of a federal system of government in Ukraine, one of Russia's demands to resolve the crisis in the region.<br />
<br />
The support rose to 45 percent in Ukraine's east, but still fell short of majority territory.<br />
<br />
In <b><a href="http://www.kiis.com.ua/?lang=ukr&cat=reports&id=236&page=1" target="_blank">another survey</a></b> in February, only 12.5 percent of Ukrainians said they wanted Ukraine to join Russia. In Luhansk, just 24 percent wanted accession to Russia.<br />
<br />
<u style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE #3:</u><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>Ukraine's SBU security service <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/04/7/7021609/" target="_blank">said Monday</a></b> it had detained a Russian military intelligence operative, Roman Bannik, on Saturday.<br />
<br />
Bannik had been directing anti-Ukraine protests in Luhansk, the SBU said.<br />
<br />
<b><u>UPDATE #4:</u> </b>The SBU <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/news/2014/04/09/sbu_zatrymala_rosiysku_shpyhunku_yaka_zchynyla_strilyanynu_v_mykolayevi" target="_blank">said April 9</a></b> it had detained a Russian citizen, <b><a href="http://vk.com/iskra1905" target="_blank">Maria Koleda</a></b>, for allegedly shooting three people during street clashes in the southern region of Mykolaiv.<br />
<br />
She reportedly participated in anti-Ukraine protests and had a pistol when she was detained.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/russian-spy-ukraine-social-postings-/25327334.html" target="_blank">Her social media posts</a></b> suggest she associated with Russian neo-Nazis and ultanationalists.<br />
<br />
<b><u>UPDATE #5:</u></b> <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/21/u-s-eyes-russian-spies-infiltrating-ukraine.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">This <i>Daily Beast</i> story</a> says a U.S. intelligence report warned in late February that Russia would send special forces and intelligence personnel into Ukraine to foment unrest to undermine Ukraine's new government.Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-26016505155612877722014-03-31T14:48:00.000-04:002014-03-31T17:14:03.272-04:00Ukraine Crisis: New Reports of Pro-Russia Provocateurs Undercut Moscow PledgeFact check: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov <b><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/ukraine-crisis-us-russia-fail-to-reach-deal-20140331-zqow5.html" target="_blank">said after his meeting</a></b> Sunday with U.S. secretary of state John Kerry that the two men had agreed to work with Ukraine on "the dismantling of irregular forces and provocateurs."<br />
<br />
But just a day later, two new reports have emerged of pro-Russia provocateurs planning attacks in Ukraine.<br />
<br />
The reports add to earlier accounts of Russia <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-amnesty-calls-for-rights.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">dispatching agitators</a> and <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-how-russia-uses-crime.html" target="_blank">working with organized crime</a></b> in Ukraine to destabilize the country.<br />
<br />
<b>Attacks Reportedly Planned</b><br />
<br />
Ukraine's security service <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/sbu-detains-russian-provocateur-believed-to-have-planned-raid-on-ukrainian-parliament-cabinet-341555.html" target="_blank">said today</a></b> it had detained Russian extremist Oleg Bakhtiyarov, leader of the far-right <b><a href="http://rt.com/news/imperial-march-staged-in-moscow/" target="_blank">Eurasian Youth Union of Russia</a></b>, for allegedly planning an armed attack on Ukraine's parliament and government offices.<br />
<br />
Bakhtiyarov reportedly recruited 200 people for the attack, promising them $500 apiece. He was apparently working with Russian TV channels to arrange for coverage of the raid, the <i>Kyiv Post</i> said.<br />
<br />
In a <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/new/2014/03/31/kapitan__kdb_prydnistrov%E2%80%99ya_namahavsya_nalahodyty_kanal_postachannya_zbroyi_dlya_zryvu_vyboriv_v_ukrayini" target="_blank">separate report</a></b>, Ukrainian security said it detained an intelligence officer from neighbouring Transnistria, a small region that Russian forces helped break away from Moldova in 1992.<br />
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The officer, identified as S. Kuzhmuk, was reportedly planning to smuggle arms into Ukraine to use to destabilize the country and disrupt upcoming Ukrainian elections in May.<br />
<br />
<b>New Images Undermine Russian Sniper Claims</b><br />
<br />
In a related story, <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/30/exclusive-photographs-expose-russian-trained-killers-in-kiev.html" target="_blank"><i>The Daily Beast </i>reported Sunday</a></b> that Russian intelligence worked closely with Ukrainian security forces involved in shootings of protesters in February before then-president Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia.<br />
<br />
The <i>Daily Beast</i> piece includes exclusive photos of heavily armed elite Ukrainian soldiers on one of the bloodiest days.<br />
<br />
The photos and <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-footage-from-bloodbath.html" target="_blank">earlier video footage</a></b> of government snipers and other soldiers going into action undermine <b><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/lavrov-says-nationalists-to-blame-for-kiev-snipers/497089.html" target="_blank">Russian claims</a></b> that Ukrainian protesters were themselves behind the shootings of protesters.Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-38201061434472000492014-03-26T22:25:00.000-04:002015-02-13T10:40:15.605-05:004 Myths About the Ukraine Crisis, Crimea and NATO (Updated)Truth is one of the first victims of war. The Russian "hybrid war" on Ukraine is no different.<br />
<br />
Here are four common myths about the crisis in Ukraine propagated by the Kremlin and its backers in the West.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Myth #1</u></b><br />
<b>Russia's invasion of Crimea was a logical reaction to a U.S. and European plot to expand NATO. </b><b>Part of the plot was overthrowing Ukraine's pro-Moscow president and installing a new pro-NATO government.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>This <b><a href="http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/03/17/andrew-coyne-the-wests-foreign-policy-realists-are-actually-apologists-for-russia/" target="_blank">commonly made claim</a></b> may make sense if Ukraine's new government actually wanted to join NATO.<br />
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In fact, the new government isn't interested in NATO, Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Deshchytsia <b><a href="http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/1578490/Fluchtet-die-Ukraine-in-die-Neutralitaet" target="_blank">told Vienna daily <i>Die Presse</i></a></b> Saturday.<br />
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"The Finnish model (of non-alignment) is an option for Ukraine: neighbour of Russia, member of the EU but not a member of NATO," he said.<br />
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U.S. president Barack Obama, for his part, also said today NATO isn't planning to admit Ukraine as a member, a situation he said won't change any time soon, <b><a href="http://rt.com/news/russia-nato-presence-expand-429/" target="_blank">reports state broadcaster </a></b><b><a href="http://rt.com/news/russia-nato-presence-expand-429/" target="_blank">Russia Today</a></b><i>.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
NATO previously rejected Ukraine for membership in 2008.<br />
<i><br /></i>Meanwhile, in Russia, many don't agree that intervention in Ukraine was the logical reaction to events there.<br />
<br />
In a survey in February, only 15 percent of Russians agreed Moscow should intervene in Ukraine to help pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych stay in power, according to the <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/in-news-ukraine-only-15-of-russians.html" target="_blank">Kremlin's own pollster</a></b>.<br />
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Seventy-three percent disagreed with intervention in what they believed was an internal matter for Ukrainians.<br />
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In mid-March, <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-russian-incursion.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">tens of thousands of Russians</a> marched in Moscow to protest the Crimea invasion.<br />
<br />
<i><b>UPDATE (Nov. 30, 2014):</b> Despite months of covert Russian military intervention in eastern Ukraine, a majority of Ukrainians shifted to supporting NATO accession only in August after the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 -- <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/07/ukraine-mh17-timeline-malaysia-airlines-buk-missile-igor-girkin-strelkov.html" target="_blank">by all evidence</a></b>, with a Russian-supplied anti-aircraft missile operated by Moscow-backed militants -- and then a <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/09/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">full-scale invasion</a></b> by units of Russia's regular army involving thousands of troops.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>A new Ukrainian Parliament elected in October has as a result pledged to put Ukraine on the road to joining NATO. Pro-NATO sentiment in Ukraine thus followed Russia's actions. It didn't predate them.</i><br />
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<b><u>Myth #2</u></b><br />
<b>"Washington spent $5 billion of U.S. taxpayer dollars engineering a coup in Ukraine."</b><br />
<br />
This <b><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/26/the-crisis-in-ukraine/" target="_blank">claim</a></b>, made in the progressive publication <i>Counterpunch</i> in February, has also showed up in <b><a href="http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/ukraine-revolution-usa-support-246/" target="_blank">this item</a></b> from state broadcaster Russia Today and on conspiracy sites.<br />
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The claim is based on a distortion of Dec. 2013 comments by U.S. diplomat Victoria Nuland.<br />
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What <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2fYcHLouXY#t=504" target="_blank">Nuland actually said</a></b> was that the U.S. had given Ukraine $5 billion in aid since Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.<br />
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"The money in question was spent over more than 20 years," said <b><a href="http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/mar/19/facebook-posts/united-states-spent-5-billion-ukraine-anti-governm/" target="_blank">this article debunking the claim</a></b> in the <i>Tamba Bay Times</i>' Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact column.<br />
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"Yanukovych was elected in 2010. So any connection between the protests and the $5 billion is inaccurate."<br />
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The mass protests in Ukraine that swept Yanukovych out of power in February started only last November.<br />
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As well, the bulk of the aid appears to have gone to the Ukrainian government for such things as border security and nuclear non-proliferation -- not NGOs.<br />
<br />
In fact, given the <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-investigative-reporters.html" target="_blank">astonishing corruption</a></b> of Yanukovych's regime, a good part of the U.S. aid since 2010 likely wound up in his pockets or those of his cronies.<br />
<br />
Fun fact: The U.S. has also given Russia $17.8 billion in economic and military aid since 1991 -- more than triple what Ukraine got -- according to <b><a href="http://gbk.eads.usaidallnet.gov/query/do?_program=/eads/gbk/countryReport&unit=N" target="_blank">data from the U.S. Agency for International Development</a></b>.<br />
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As for the mass protests that overthrew Yanukovych, even Russian president Vladimir Putin has said Yanukovych's corruption was the key motivation for the protests.<br />
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"Generally, people wanted change," he said in <a href="http://eng.news.kremlin.ru/news/6763/print" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">a press conference</a> after he invaded Crimea in late February. He didn't mention NATO once.<br />
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A December <b><a href="http://www.dif.org.ua/en/events/gvkrlgkaeths.htm" target="_blank">survey of participants</a></b> in the protests found that their three main motivations were police brutality, Yanukovych's refusal to sign an agreement on association with the European Union and a "desire to change life in Ukraine."<br />
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Their main demands were new elections and release of arrested protesters. Again, no mention of NATO.<br />
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Ninety-two percent said they didn't belong to any party or civic organization.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Myth #3</u></b><br />
<b>Ukraine's new leaders are anti-Semitic Nazis.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>Putin and other Russian officials frequently accuse Ukraine's new government of being anti-Semitic Russophobes to justify the invasion of Crimea.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/03/ukraine-intervention-and-americas-doublethink/" target="_blank">Some commentators in the West</a></b> have parroted these claims, calling Kyiv's new authorities "Nazis."<br />
<br />
While some far-right elements were indeed present among the hundreds of thousands whose protests swept Yanukovych out of power, Ukrainian Jewish leaders have dismissed the anti-Semitism claims.<br />
<br />
In <b><a href="http://www.ucsj.org/2014/03/06/to-the-president-of-the-russian-federation-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin/" target="_blank">an open letter to Putin</a></b> in March, over 200 prominent Ukrainian Jewish figures denounced his invasion of Crimea and said anti-Semitism is more of a problem in Russia than Ukraine.<br />
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They said Ukraine's new cabinet includes several minority members, including a Jewish deputy prime minister, two ethnic Russians and an Armenian.<br />
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"We do not wish to be 'defended' by sundering Ukraine and annexing its territory," they said. "We decisively call for you not to intervene in internal Ukrainian affairs, to return Russian armed forces to their normal fixed peacetime location and to stop encouraging pro-Russian separatism.<br />
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"Our very few nationalists (in Ukraine) are well controlled by civil society and the new Ukrainian government -- which is more than can be said for the Russian neo-Nazis, who are encouraged by your security services."<br />
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<a href="http://vaadua.org/rubrika/vaads-news-english" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">A series of articles</a> on the website of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine -- the country's largest Jewish umbrella group -- says anti-Semitism wasn't a problem in the anti-Yanukovych protests and that Jewish activists played prominent roles on the barricades.<br />
<br />
See more Jewish perspectives on the protests <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-jewish-perspectives.html" target="_blank">here</a> </b>and more analysis debunking Putin's claims <b><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/mar/01/ukraine-haze-propaganda/" target="_blank">here</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/mar/07/crimea-putin-vs-reality/" target="_blank">here</a></b> from Yale historian Timothy Snyder, a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's committee on conscience.<br />
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As for Russophobia, 26 percent of participants in the anti-Yanukovych protests <b><a href="http://www.dif.org.ua/en/events/gvkrlgkaeths.htm" target="_blank">said in a survey</a></b> they spoke Russian at home. Another 19 percent spoke both Russian and Ukrainian.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Putin himself came under fire last year for making <b><a href="http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Putin-First-Soviet-government-was-mostly-Jewish-317150" target="_blank">anti-Semitic remarks</a></b> at Moscow's Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center.<br />
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Putin has also <b><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117048/far-right-forces-are-influencing-russias-actions-crimea" target="_blank">increasingly aligned himself</a></b> with Russia's own <b><a href="http://fpif.org/brown-new-black/" target="_blank">far right</a></b> (see also <b><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/has-putin-bought-into-these-dangerous-ideas/article17610287/" target="_blank">here</a></b>), which has <b><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/crimea-crisis-putin-adviser-proposes-division-of-ukraine-along-nazisoviet-lines-and-says-its-never-too-late-to-correct-historical-errors-9212925.html" target="_blank">strongly backed</a></b> his Crimea invasion and other policies, such as his <b><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/cbn-denounces-putins-suppression-religious-freedom-joins-anti-gay-kremlin-summit" target="_blank">anti-gay legislation</a></b>.<br />
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<i><b>UPDATE (Nov. 30, 2014): </b>Ukraine's pro-democracy movement has been inaccurately depicted as "fascist" by the Kremlin and its supporters in the West, <b><a href="http://anton-shekhovtsov.blogspot.fi/2014/02/pro-russian-network-behind-anti.html" target="_blank">writes</a></b> Anton Shekhovtsov, a University College London researcher specializing in Europe's far right who edits the "Explorations of the Far Right" book series.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Ironically, the propaganda masks the Kremlin's own links with European fascist groups, he says. "The large network consisting of pro-Russian authors and institutions is a hard/extreme right breeding-ground of all kinds of conspiracy theories, Euroscepticism, racism and anti-democratic theories."</i><br />
<br />
<i>Since Russia began <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/11/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">its covert war</a></b> in Ukraine last spring, Russian state media and Kremlin-backed militants in Ukraine have <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-militia-opposes-zombie-zionist-jewish-junta-russia-antisemitism.html" target="_blank">stepped up</a></b> anti-Semitic rhetoric and xenophobia, while Moscow has forged <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ukraine-crisis-putin-russia-far-right-neo-nazi.html" target="_blank">closer ties</a></b> with Europe's far right. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In late November, a Kremlin-linked Russian bank <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/11/Russia-invades-Ukraine-Russian-invasion-Donetsk-Cargo-200.html" target="_blank">loaned</a></b> France's far-right National Front 9 million euros amid more revelations about Moscow's links with far-right political parties across Europe that support Putin's foreign policy in Ukraine and anti-gay stance at home.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b><u>Myth #4</u></b><br />
<b>Crimea is historically Russian and shouldn't be part of Ukraine anyway.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Crimea is historically the homeland of the Crimean Tatar people, not Russians.<br />
<br />
Tatars and their Mongol allies controlled Crimea for more than five centuries from the 1230s until Russia invaded in 1783.<br />
<br />
Prior to the 1230s, much of it had <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Crimea" target="_blank">belonged to Kyivan Rus'</a></b> (the predecessor of modern-day Ukraine) for over 200 years.<br />
<br />
After the Russian invasion in 1783, Tatars became a minority due to a policy of Russification and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's mass deportation of the entire Tatar population to Siberia and the Far East after World War II. Half of Tatars died in the deportation.<br />
<br />
Today, many Tatars have returned to their land, and they now make up 12 percent of Crimea's population.<br />
<br />
Their leaders strongly back staying in Ukraine and <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-7-reasons-why-crimea.html" target="_blank">say 99 percent</a></b> of their people boycotted the<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-7-reasons-why-crimea.html" target="_blank"> fraud-riddled March 16 Crimean referendum</a></b> on accession to Russia, which they considered illegitimate.<br />
<br />
Alarm has increased since Tatar rights activist Reshat Ametov, a father of three, was <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-two-crimean-tatars-dead.html" target="_blank">found dead</a></b> in mid-March with signs of torture after he was kidnapped by men in military uniforms.<br />
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Tatar leaders <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/25/us-ukraine-crisis-crimea-tatars-idUSBREA2O1F320140325" target="_blank">announced yesterday</a></b> they are considering holding their own referendum on whether to be part of Ukraine or Russia.<br />
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"Nobody asked us, the Crimean Tatars... in what conditions we want to live," Tatar official Renat Chubarov said.<br />
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<i><b>UPDATE (Nov. 30, 2014): </b>The Russian president's own human rights council has rejected the results of the Crimean referendum on joining Russia in March.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The body said in <b><a href="http://www.president-sovet.ru/structure/gruppa_po_migratsionnoy_politike/materialy/problemy_zhiteley_kryma.php" target="_blank">a report</a></b> in May that only 50 to 60 percent of Crimea residents supported accession to Russia (not 97 percent as claimed officially) and that turnout was only 30 to 50 percent (not 83 percent as claimed officially). </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In other words, only 15 to 30 percent of eligible voters backed joining Russia -- even less than in <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-7-reasons-crimea-referendum-fraud-fake-results-sergei-aksyonov.html" target="_blank">recent surveys</a></b>, which generally showed 40 to 45-percent support for the idea.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In <b><a href="http://en.censor.net.ua/news/301005/only_27_of_simferopol_residents_identify_themselves_as_russian_citizens" target="_blank">another survey</a></b> in September by an institute close to local Moscow-backed authorities, only 27 percent of residents of Simferopol, Crimea's administrative centre, said they consider themselves as Russian citizens.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Since the Russian takeover, the human rights situation for Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea has deteriorated gravely, the <b><a href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/OHCHR_seventh_reportUkraine20.11.14.pdf" target="_blank">United Nations</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/11/17/crimea-human-rights-decline" target="_blank">human rights groups</a></b> have reported.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><b>UPDATE (Jan. 25, 2015): </b>Former militant commander Igor "Strelkov" Girkin, who <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/05/ukraine-militia-leader-igor-girkin-strelkov-fsb-bezler-konstantin-malofeyev.html" target="_blank">says</a></b> he was a colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence agency, <b><a href="http://echo.msk.ru/blog/serguei_parkhomenko/1480416-echo/" target="_blank">acknowledges</a></b> on Russian TV that Moscow-backed militants in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula forcibly gathered regional deputies to stage a <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-7-reasons-crimea-referendum-fraud-fake-results-sergei-aksyonov.html" target="_blank">fraud-riddled referendum</a></b> on joining Russia last March.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"I did not see any support from (Crimea) state authorities in Simferopol (the regional capital)," he says. "It was the militants who gathered the deputies so they would accept this (the referendum)." (See an English account of Girkin's remarks <b><a href="http://uatoday.tv/news/moscow-agent-strelkov-admits-russian-army-behind-crimean-referendum-404995.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.)</i>Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-62279161962349596552014-03-25T16:34:00.000-04:002014-07-31T11:29:16.307-04:00Ukraine Crisis: How Russia Used Crime Gangs to Seize Crimea, Destabilize UkraineRussia's Vladimir Putin used organized crime groups to help him take control in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, says <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/23/the-mob-and-the-mobs-in-eastern-ukraine.html" target="_blank">this report</a></b> in the <i>Daily Beast</i>.<br />
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And he's been doing the same thing in Ukraine's eastern regions.<br />
<br />
The story is reminiscent of reports about the thousands of government-backed thugs called <i><b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-amnesty-calls-for-rights.html" target="_blank">titushki</a></b></i> who helped Ukraine's deposed pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych keep his grip on power by attacking demonstrators and journalists.<br />
<br />
Earlier reports have detailed the <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-new-pro-russian-crimean.html" target="_blank">alleged organized crime links</a></b> of Sergei Aksyonov, Crimea's Russian-backed prime minister, and the <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-investigative-reporters.html" target="_blank">astonishing corruption</a></b> that prevailed under Yanukovych.<br />
<br />
Yanukovych's ousting by mass protests in February prompted Russia to send <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-second-soldier-in-crimea.html" target="_blank">thousands of soldiers without insignia</a></b> into Crimea, where they oversaw <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-new-pro-russian-crimean.html" target="_blank">Aksyonov's instalment as prime minister</a></b> and the holding of a <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-7-reasons-why-crimea.html" target="_blank">fraud-riddled referendum</a></b> in March on the region's accession to Russia.Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-45447438195414711472014-03-21T13:35:00.000-04:002014-07-24T17:05:48.469-04:00Ukraine Crisis: Crimean Tatar Rights Activist Found Dead With Signs of TortureCrimea Tatar concerns about their fate under Russian occupation have sharpened after a Tatar rights activist was found dead Monday with signs of torture.<br />
<br />
Thousands attended the funeral Tuesday of Tatar rights activist Reshat Ametov, 38, the <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine-abroad/ametov-murdered-crimean-tatar-called-first-victim-of-russian-occupation-339911.html" target="_blank"><i>Kyiv Post</i> reports</a></b>.<br />
<br />
Ametov was a father of three, <b><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/russia-annexes-crimea-tatars-mourn-tortured-father-three-reshat-ametov-1440851" target="_blank">this story said</a></b>.<br />
<br />
Ametov had been missing since he was hauled off from a protest by <b><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/russia-annexes-crimea-tatars-mourn-tortured-father-three-reshat-ametov-1440851">three men in military uniforms</a></b> in Simferopol, Crimea, in early March.<br />
<br />
His naked body was found Monday, the day after Crimeans voted in a <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-7-reasons-why-crimea.html">fraud-riddled referendum</a> </b>on whether to quit Ukraine and join Russia.<br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE:</b> Videos have appeared on YouTube (see <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3BZ2R4TIoc#t=14" target="_blank">here</a></b> and <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBsfNh2GNSc" target="_blank">here</a></b>) showing Ametov being detained by three men, reports Ukrainska Pravda in <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/03/27/7020527/" target="_blank">this item</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<b>"Only the Beginning"</b><br />
<br />
"This wasn't an ordinary death," Tatar rights activist Ayder Ismailov is quoted telling the <i>Kyiv Post</i>.<br />
<br />
"It was a kind of genocide, an inhuman crime, and we understand that we have to come together and consolidate and be very wary because I'm convinced this is only the beginning," Ismailov said.<br />
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Thousands of <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-second-soldier-in-crimea.html" target="_blank">Russian soldiers without insignia</a></b> took control of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in late February after mass protests forced out the country's pro-Moscow president.<br />
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<b>"Lawless" Climate in Crimea</b><br />
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Rights groups have since <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-rights-abuses-escalate.html" target="_blank">decried the "lawless" climate</a></b> in Crimea, including detention of journalists and pro-Ukraine activists.<br />
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Tatar leaders have said their people fear leaving their homes at night and walking in city centres, while up to 200 Tatar families have fled to Ukraine.<br />
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Tatar and Ukrainian officials called for a boycott of the Crimean referendum, calling it illegitimate.<br />
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Some Tatars have said they fear a repeat of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's post-World War II mass deportation of Tatars, in which half their population died.Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-22466993773917447292014-03-17T19:20:00.004-04:002022-04-13T17:59:18.457-04:00Ukraine Crisis: 7 Reasons Why Crimea Results Aren't Credible -- And Media Coverage StinksMedia reporting on Sunday's referendum in Crimea is a study in bad journalism.<br />
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An <b><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/17/crimea-referendum-final-results_n_4977250.html" target="_blank">Associated Press story today</a></b> on the results was typical. </div>
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"Crimea Referendum: Final Results Show 97 Percent of Voters in Crimea Support Joining Russia," the title uncritically said.</div>
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Crimean electoral chief Mikhail Malyshev is quoted saying his officials hadn't gotten "a single complaint" about the vote.</div>
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The results are beyond dispute, Russian parliamentarian Valery Ryazantsev is quoted saying. </div>
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"(There are) absolutely no reasons to consider the vote results illegitimate."</div>
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Voter turnout was supposedly 83 percent, Malyshev said in other stories.</div>
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<b>North Korea-Style Results</b></div>
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The AP story was typical of much of the coverage.<br />
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Like many other stories on the vote, AP portrayed the implausible 97-percent result with no qualification. It also failed to note reports of intimidation, fraud and misinformation in Crimea that raise questions about the referendum results. </div>
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The Wall Street Journal's similarly unqualified headline was <b><a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304914904579441563920333966" target="_blank">"Ukraine Region Votes to Join Russia."</a></b> Even U.S. government-run Voice of America ran with the uncritical title <b><a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/crimea-votes-in-favor-of-union-with-russia/1872698.html" target="_blank">"Crimea Votes in Favor of Union With Russia."</a></b></div>
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In fact, the Crimean results are reminiscent of similarly absurd votes in Turkmenistan (<b><a href="http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/02/13/the_dictators_dilemma_to_win_with_95_percent_or_99" target="_blank">whose president won 97 percent of votes in 2012</a></b>), North Korea (where Kim Jong-un recently won <b><a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/saletan/2014/03/17/crimea_referendum_2014_russia_s_margin_of_victory_shows_the_election_was.html?wpisrc=burger_bar" target="_blank">100 percent of votes</a></b>) and Chechnya (where one overenthusiastic polling station made the mistake of <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/world/europe/fraudulent-votes-for-putin-abound-in-chechnya.html?_r=0" target="_blank">reporting a 107-percent turnout</a></b> in 2012, with all but one of the votes going to Russia's Vladimir Putin).</div>
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<b>7 Reasons Official Results Not Credible</b></div>
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Here are seven reasons to suggest the Crimean referendum result is implausible -- and that we actually have no idea if most Crimeans really voted to join Russia:</div>
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<b>1) Reports of Fraud:</b> Russian citizens were reportedly allowed to vote in the referendum, while one person was able to vote four times, the <i>Kyiv Post</i> <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/massive-violations-in-crimean-vote-strengthen-case-by-ukraine-west-to-ignore-referendurm-339713.html" target="_blank">reported today</a></b>.<br />
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<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.ca/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-referendum-ballots.html" target="_blank">News reports</a></b> also said some referendum ballots reportedly arrived pre-marked.</div>
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Malyshev, the Crimean electoral chief, also acknowledged that deceased people may have been included on electoral lists, raising more possibility for fraud, the <i>Kyiv Post</i> said.<br />
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In <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/voting-in-crimean-referendum-starts-even-as-ukraine-government-declares-it-illegitimate-339523.html" target="_blank">another <i>Kyiv Post </i>story</a></b>, a Russian journalist is quoted saying she was allowed to vote after showing a temporary one-year residency permit and disclosing to an election official that she is a Russian citizen.<br />
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"According to all the laws, this is illegal," the journalist says in <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXG67YJVZuQ" target="_blank">this interview on YouTube</a></b> describing how she managed to vote.<br />
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"I am a foreign citizen. How can I decide the destiny of the Crimean Autonomous Republic of Ukraine?" she asked, saying she "obviously questions the legitimacy of the whole referendum."</div>
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<b>2) Turnout Was Closer to 30%, Tatar Leader Says: </b>Crimean Tatar officials monitoring the vote report that 99 percent of Tatars boycotted the vote, while overall turnout was actually only about 30 percent, said <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/new/2014/03/16/dzhemilyev_spravzhnya_yavka_na_psevdoreferendumi_u_mezhakh_30" target="_blank">this Espreso.tv story</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/news/voter_turnout_at_pseudo_referendum_in_crimea_was_maximum_30_40_percent___mejlis_318657" target="_blank">this Ukrinform item</a></b>.</div>
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The huge turnout claimed for Sunday's referendum is also in sharp contrast to historic turnout in recent elections in Crimea, which hovers at around 50 percent, Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev told Espreso.tv.</div>
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For example, only <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_parliamentary_election,_2007" target="_blank">56 percent</a></b> of Crimeans voted in the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election. </div>
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In addition, for the vote Sunday, Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian officials called for a boycott. Tatars and Ukrainians make up 36 percent of the Crimean population, further suggesting the claimed turnout is implausible.</div>
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<b>3) Surveys Show Only 40-45% Pro-Russia Support:</b> <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-polls-suggest-most.html" target="_blank">Two recent surveys</a></b>, including one in early March, suggest only 40 to 45 percent of Crimeans actually support accession to Russia.</div>
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Support wasn't in majority territory and was nowhere close to the overwhelming result claimed by Crimea's pro-Russia government, which <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-new-pro-russian-crimean.html" target="_blank">was installed</a></b> at gunpoint after pro-Russia soldiers without insignia took over Crimea's legislature.</div>
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<b>4) No International Observers: </b>Outside monitors weren't present to monitor the vote -- a point many reporters failed to mention in their stories.</div>
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The Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe was in fact <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-rights-abuses-escalate.html" target="_blank">prevented from sending observers</a></b> into Crimea on three occasions in the days leading up to the vote, while UN envoy Robert Serry was threatened by pro-Russian armed gunmen when he entered the region and was forced to leave.</div>
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Crimean authorities later invited the OSCE to send observers, but by this point the organization declined, citing its previous failed attempts to enter the territory and calling the vote illegal.</div>
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A small number of unofficial observers were invited from other countries, including a delegation of the European <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_referendum,_2014#Observers" target="_blank">far right and neo-Nazis</a></b>. The Russian government <b><a href="http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/03/11/7018430/" target="_blank">reportedly offered</a></b> to pay expenses of any Russian-speaking EU citizens who wanted to act as an observer.</div>
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Reporters were also not allowed to observe voting, the <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/massive-violations-in-crimean-vote-strengthen-case-by-ukraine-west-to-ignore-referendurm-339713.html" target="_blank"><i>Kyiv Post</i> reported</a></b> today.</div>
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<b>5) Intimidation by Pro-Russia Forces: </b>Few stories mentioned the<b> <a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-rights-abuses-escalate.html" target="_blank">multiplying reports of rights abuses</a></b> in Crimea since Russian soldiers took control of the Ukrainian territory.</div>
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The rights climate again suggests voting wasn't conducted in legitimate circumstances.</div>
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The group Reporters Without Borders has called the region "lawless," while journalists and pro-Ukraine activists have been detained and gone missing. </div>
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Crimean authorities took Ukrainian TV off the air, while blanketing the region with signs and messages supporting accession to Russia.</div>
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Heavily armed pro-Russia gunmen and gangs are ubiquitous and have created a climate of intimidation. Tatars say their people are afraid to venture into city centres and are fleeing to Ukraine.<br />
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Adding to concerns, a Tatar rights activist was found dead Monday in Crimea with signs of torture, the <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine-abroad/ametov-murdered-crimean-tatar-called-first-victim-of-russian-occupation-339911.html" target="_blank"><i>Kyiv Post</i> reports</a></b>.</div>
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<b>6) Climate of Deception and Legal Impunity:</b> Few reports questioned whether the vote could be credible in a generalized climate of misinformation and legal violations. </div>
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That includes bizarre <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-second-soldier-in-crimea.html" target="_blank">Russian and Crimean government denials</a></b> that the thousands of Russian-speaking soldiers who have taken control of Crimea are in fact Russian soldiers.</div>
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It also includes Russia's <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-jewish-perspectives.html" target="_blank">discredited claims</a></b> that it intervened in Crimea to stop anti-Semitic attacks.<br />
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Also salient, of course, is Russia's <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-russian-incursion.html" target="_blank">creeping invasion</a></b> of Ukraine in violation of international law.</div>
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7) <b>Exit Poll Dubious Too: </b>The referendum result coincided closely with a widely reported exit poll yesterday that supposedly found 93 percent of voters favoured accession to Russia.</div>
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This poll was also uncritically reported in many stories. (See for example <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26598832" target="_blank">this BBC item</a></b> yesterday.)</div>
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Unmentioned in most stories was the fact that the poll <b><a href="http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/848944.shtml#.Uyd9GKh_mSo" target="_blank">was commissioned</a></b> by the KrimInform news service, which was <b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/world/europe/pressure-and-intimidation-sweep-crimea-ahead-of-secession-vote.html" target="_blank">recently created</a></b> by Russia's state-owned Itar-Tass news agency.</div>
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The connection is important to note because of the Russian government's <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/09/us-russia-media-idUSBRE9B80I120131209" target="_blank">tightening control</a></b> over media and the Russian media's <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26411396" target="_blank">notoriously pro-Kremlin coverage</a></b> of the crisis in Ukraine.</div>
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Not sure why reporters outside Russia didn't do a better job.</div>
Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-37467273121293368912014-03-15T11:29:00.001-04:002014-03-15T12:24:14.938-04:00Ukraine Crisis: Russian Incursion Repelled, Moscow Anti-War March Draws Up to 50,000Ukrainian authorities say they repelled an attempted Russian military incursion into Ukraine, marking a dramatic escalation in the crisis in the region, says this <i><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/ukrainian-goverment-still-hoping-for-diplomatic-solution/article17507709/" target="_blank"><b>Globe and Mail</b></a></i> item.<br />
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Russian military helicopters reportedly attempted to land several dozen paratroopers in the Kherson area, north of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, which Russian soldiers invaded in late February.<br />
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Ukrainian-language Espreso.tv <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/new/2014/03/15/mzs_vymahaye_vid_rosiyi_nehayno_vyvesty_viyska_z_terytoriyi_ukrayiny" target="_blank">reported</a></b> that the incursion involved about 80 Russian soldiers supported by several armoured vehicles and military helicopters.<br />
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They <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/new/2014/03/15/rosiyski_desantnyky_zakhopyly_hazorozpodilnu_stanciyu_na_arabatskiy_strilci" target="_blank">reportedly seized</a></b> natural gas facilities and a village in Kherson. Crimea is heavily reliant on infrastructure in Kherson for gas supplies, electricity and water.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Up to 50,000 at Moscow Anti-War March</span><br />
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The incident follows <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-amnesty-calls-for-rights.html" target="_blank">earlier reports</a></b> of Russian soldiers and provocateurs attempting to enter Ukraine incognito in recent days.<br />
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Ukrainian defense official Andriy Parubiy <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/parubiy-warns-of-full-scale-russian-invasion-in-ukraine-339305.html" target="_blank">has warned</a></b> that Russia appears to be massing troops to mount a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<br />
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Meanwhile, tens of thousands -- possibly as many as 50,000 -- marched today in Moscow to oppose their government's invasion of Crimea, <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26593249" target="_blank">BBC reports</a></b>.Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-12543758955823387852014-03-14T16:09:00.001-04:002014-07-24T17:08:06.258-04:00Ukraine Crisis: Surveys Suggest Most Crimeans Oppose Joining RussiaTwo surveys suggest most Crimeans don't want to join Russia.<br />
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The autonomous Ukrainian region is poised to vote on the question Sunday in a referendum hastily organized after thousands of Russian soldiers invaded Crimea in recent weeks.<br />
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International observers won't be present to monitor. The G-7 nations say they won't recognize the vote, calling it "deeply flawed."<br />
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In the latest poll, only 19 percent of residents of Ukraine's south, including Crimea, said they want Crimea to join Russia.<br />
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This, according to a <b><a href="http://www.ratinggroup.com.ua/en/products/politic/data/entry/14083/" target="_blank">survey of 2,000 people</a></b> conducted March 1 to 7 by Kyiv-based Rating Group.<br />
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Seventy-nine percent want Crimea to remain in Ukraine.<br />
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The two million Crimeans make up 30 percent of the Ukrainian southern region's 6.7 million people.<br />
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What portion of Crimeans themselves support joining Russia? The survey doesn't say.<br />
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But if we assume that non-Crimeans in this region favour Crimea joining Russia in the same portion as residents in Ukraine's heavily Russian-speaking Donbass region (where 8 percent favour the idea), then we can extrapolate that about 45 percent of Crimeans support joining Russia.<br />
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Less than a majority -- and far from an overwhelming portion.<br />
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<b>Majority of Crimeans Oppose Joining Russia: Second Poll</b><br />
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Another recent poll showed similar results.<br />
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Forty-one percent of Crimeans said they favoured joining Russia in <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-most-crimeans-easterners.html" target="_blank">a February survey</a></b> for the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.<br />
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Support for joining Russia fell to 33 percent in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk and to 15 percent in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine's largest city, while it was 12.5 percent nation-wide.Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-90711565730174983732014-03-14T15:05:00.002-04:002014-03-23T19:46:10.534-04:00Ukraine Crisis: Referendum Ballots Already Marked to Join Russia<a href="http://espreso.tv/image/data/news/2014/03_1/byuleteny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://espreso.tv/image/data/news/2014/03_1/byuleteny.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a>It's two days before Crimea's disputed referendum to quit Ukraine and join Russia.<br />
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And some referendum ballots have already been filled out with a check-mark in support of joining Russia, <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/image/data/news/2014/03_1/byuleteny.jpg" target="_blank">reports Ukrainian-language Espreso.tv</a></b> today.<br />
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It appears ballots were already filled in when sent out from the printer, the news site says.<br />
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<b>UPDATE: </b>A senior U.S. official said there was "concrete evidence" that some ballots in the referendum arrived pre-marked, <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/17/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSBREA1Q1E820140317">this Reuters story</a></b> later reported.<br />
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<b>Plans to Falsify Vote</b><br />
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The photo originally appeared in <b><a href="http://uainfo.org/yandex/292109-byulleteni-dlya-referenduma-v-krymu-prihodyat-uzhe-s-otmetkoy.html" target="_blank">an item</a></b> on the widely read Russian-language UAInfo.org news site.<br />
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That story cited a source in the Crimean government who reported that authorities now in control of the region plan to falsify the referendum with fake ballots and voting by Russians.<br />
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The target is to achieve a 73-percent vote in favour of joining Russia, the source is quoted saying.<br />
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<b>Busloads of Russians</b><br />
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On that score, Espreso.tv also reported busloads of Russian citizens have been arriving in Crimea, ostensibly to participate in Sunday's vote.<br />
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The referendum has been widely denounced by Ukraine and other nations as illegal.<br />
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It was announced after Russian-speaking soldiers without insignia took control over the Ukrainian region.<br />
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The troops oversaw the ousting of existing Crimean authorities and installment as prime minister of a <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-new-pro-russian-crimean.html" target="_blank">little-known pro-Russia politician with alleged organized crime ties</a></b>.<br />
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No international monitoring of the vote is planned.<br />
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Observers from the UN and Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe have been denied entry to Crimea or kicked out of the region by pro-Russia gunmen.Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4647319014949761146.post-53179897767535130322014-03-14T14:26:00.002-04:002014-03-14T16:36:35.423-04:00Ukraine Crisis: Amnesty Calls for Rights Monitors After Pro-Russia Activists Kill TwoInternational human rights monitors should be deployed across Ukraine amid rising violence and abuses by pro-Russia forces, says Amnesty International <b><a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/ukraine-clashes-and-abductions-ahead-disputed-crimea-vote-2014-03-14" target="_blank">in this statement today</a></b>.<br />
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The group says police in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk let pro-Russia activists through a police cordon to attack a pro-Ukrainian unity and anti-war demonstration Thursday.<br />
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The attackers were armed with sticks, metal tubes and knives. At least two pro-Ukraine marchers were killed, while about 50 were injured, according to <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/russia-says-it-has-right-to-intervene-in-donetsk-after-clashes-339401.html" target="_blank">this report</a></b> from the <i>Kyiv Post</i> and <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/new/2014/03/13/pislya_biyky_sprovokovanoyi_separatystamy_v_donecku_pomerla_lyudyna" target="_blank">this one</a></b> on Ukrainian-language Espreso.tv.<br />
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<b>Reports of Russian Provocateurs, Soldiers Entering Ukraine</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-images-contradict-putins.html" target="_blank">Earlier reports</a></b> indicate Russian provocateurs have arrived by the busload in eastern Ukraine and organized protests in the region.<br />
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Ukrainian authorities have also reported detaining a number of Russian soldiers trying to enter Ukraine incognito. A Russian military intelligence spy was detained Thursday near the Crimean border with an assault rifle and ID giving different names, <b><a href="http://espreso.tv/new/2014/03/14/zatrymanyy_rosiyskyy_viyskovyy_shpyhun_bude_dokazom_dlya_yespl" target="_blank">Espreso.tv reports</a></b>.<br />
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Ukrainian security officials <b><a href="http://www.focus-fen.net/news/2014/03/12/329812/ukrainian-special-services-detain-russian-soldiers-in-kherson-oblast.html" target="_blank">announced Wednesday</a></b> that a Russian military reconnaissance unit had been detained also near Crimea.<br />
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The Russian foreign ministry <b><a href="http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/russia-says-it-has-right-to-intervene-in-donetsk-after-clashes-339401.html" target="_blank">said</a></b> after the Donetsk clash it has the right to intervene in Ukraine to protect Russian citizens.<br />
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(Russian president Vladimir Putin <b><a href="http://newsru.com/russia/12mar2014/putinukr.html" target="_blank">was reported Wednesday</a></b> to have said Ukraine's 1991 separation from the Soviet Union was legally questionable, even though Russia separated from the Soviet Union in a similar manner the same year.)<br />
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The incident in Donetsk is reminiscent of previous attacks by gangs of armed thugs known as titushki, <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-footage-from-bloodbath.html" target="_blank">who were employed</a></b> by Ukraine's recently deposed pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych to attack anti-government protesters.<br />
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<b>Pro-Ukraine Activists Missing</b><br />
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Amnesty International's statement also decried the disappearance of three pro-Ukrainian unity activists on Thursday in the Crimean capital of Simferopol.<br />
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The disappearance is just the latest of <b><a href="http://albloggedup-investigative.blogspot.com/2014/03/ukraine-crisis-rights-abuses-escalate.html" target="_blank">numerous reports</a></b> of detentions of journalists and activists and other rights abuses in Crimea since thousands of Russian soldiers took over the Ukrainian region in late February.<br />
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"Reports of the harassment and intimidation of activists and journalists by the de facto military forces operating in Crimea are an extremely worrying development where human rights abuses are already rife," said Amnesty's John Dalhuisen.<br />
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"We reiterate our calls for both the Crimean authorities and those in de facto military control of the region to allow people to peacefully exercise their human rights without the threat of intimidation or violence."Alex Roslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203588321742142651noreply@blogger.com0