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Sitting alone at a desk in a grand, columned Kremlin room, Vladimir Putin looked across an expanse of parquet floor at his security council and asked if anyone wished to express an alternative opinion. He was met with silence. A few hours later, the Russian president appeared on state television to give an angry, rambling lecture about Ukraine, a country that in Putin’s telling had become “a colony with a puppet regime”, and had no historical right to exist.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday filed a motion to dismiss charges against a pair of shell companies accused of financing a Russian troll farm that sought to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors argued that the companies, Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering, were taking advantage of the discovery process to obtain material about U.S. efforts to combat election interference and that a court proceeding was not necessary because it wouldn't lead to "meaningful punishment in the event of conviction." In a nine-page filing, the prosecutors said that the Concord companies were intent on reaping...

In the course of his lengthy annual address to the Russian Federal Assembly this year, President Vladimir Putin excoriated the United States for abandoning the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty while asserting that “the work on promising prototypes and weapon systems that I spoke about in my Address last year continues as scheduled and without disruptions.” Putin went on to say that Russia had entered serial production of the Avangard hypersonic glide system, which was to be deployed later in 2019. He added that the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, which he asserted was “of unprecedented power,” was in the...

The Russian capital has been the site of the biggest anti-government protests in years after authorities last month barred more than a dozen opposition politicians from taking part in a Moscow city election. Police have briefly detained over 2,000 people, sometimes violently, at rallies that the authorities said were illegal. “The main task at the job is to protect public order and ensure public safety at mass gatherings in Moscow,” reads the National Guard’s ad posted on Russia’s HeadHunter job site on Monday. The recruits will be required to “suppress ... uprisings, public-order crimes committed by groups and mass pogroms.”...

Nearly 50,000 Russian opposition activists and their supporters have taken to Moscow’s streets for a fifth consecutive weekend in spite of a government crackdown as support from citizens and celebrities grows across the county. The protests, which demand that Moscow authorities allow independent candidates to appear on the ballot in the city’s upcoming elections, have been the largest wave of demonstrations in Russia since 2011-2012. Independent polling this week said that Moscow residents are more likely to support the protests than oppose them. Moscow police have detained more than 2,300 people at rallies this summer protesting the candidates' exclusion. While...

The Democrats’ Biggest Expert Accusing Republicans of Russian Trolling Was a Russian Troll They invented the Russian conspiracy, then they faked the crimes. December 31, 2018 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. When the Democrats and the media wanted to prove that Russian trolls were everywhere, and supporting Republicans, they turned to Jonathon Morgan and Renee DiResta. Morgan and DiResta had originally been part of Obama’s futile effort to fight ISIS on social media, before discovering a much more lucrative...

President Donald Trump on Thursday told reporters, "you'll soon find out" whether the US will strike Iran as tensions between the two countries ratcheted up. This is breaking news please check back for updates.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed Tuesday that embattled Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was preparing to leave the country for Cuba, but was talked out of it by Russia. "We've watched throughout the day, it's been a long time since anyone's seen Maduro," Pompeo said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room." "He had an airplane on the tarmac, he was ready to leave this morning as we understand it and the Russians indicated he should stay." "He was headed for Havana," Pompeo said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on responsible treatment of animals, which outlaws all forms of cruelty to animals and establishes rules of pet ownership, according to documents uploaded to the official online database of Russian legislative information on Thursday. The law was introduced to the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, in 2010 and took eight years to be passed. The law contains the basic principles of pet ownership, based on responsible, ethical and humane treatment of animals.....

Ukrainian Orthodox priests are due to hold a historic council in Kiev to create a new national church - a move condemned as schism by Russian clergy. This comes after the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodoxy, recognised the independence of the Ukrainian Church from Moscow.

WARNING: Profanity Victoria Nuland, Asst. Sec. of State for Europe, phone call to US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, in a phone call leaked to the news media on 4 February 2014. [expletive] the EU What's really important here is the level of planning for the coup that overthrew the elected President Viktor Yanukovych, which brought to power (as heard on the recording) a group of select individuals described as "moderate democrats." In fact, most of them, including Oleh Tyahnybok (whom Nuland insists the new head of state consult four times weekly), are a far-right nationalist faction with overt and...

AUSTIN, Texas — U.S. leaders say Vladimir Putin used a familiar cyber playbook to “muck around” in the midterm elections last month, but intelligence officials and key lawmakers believe a much more sinister, potentially devastating threat lies just down the road — one that represents an attack on reality itself. Policy insiders and senators of both parties believe the Russian president or other actors hostile to the U.S. will rely on “deep fakes” to throw the 2020 presidential election cycle into chaos, taking their campaign to influence American voters and destabilize society to a new level. The eerie process, which...

Up to and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, we all heard plenty about Russian interference. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his lackeys to plant false news stories, create faux hype, and generally confuse American voters. And he is doing it again — this time in Georgia. Georgia, which shares a contested border with Russia, is currently in the midst of its own presidential election. And Russia is back to its old tricks. This election is vital. After an October 28 primary election among 25 candidates, the field narrowed to two finalists who face off in a Wednesday, November 28,...

NATO officials and diplomats are assembling for an “extraordinary meeting” on Monday with Ukrainian officials following a naval clash between Ukraine and Russia off Crimea’s coast, the military alliance announced. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg scheduled the NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting at the request of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, reports noted. Stoltenberg made contact with the commission and scheduled the meeting after Russian naval forces fired on Ukrainian vessels attempting to enter the Kerch Strait, which is a vitally important waterway that connects Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol to the Black and Mediterranean seas. Russia has steadily tightened its control of the...

The Ukrainian navy has accused Russia of opening fire on some of its ships in the Black Sea, striking two vessels and wounding two crew members. The navy made the statement after a day of rising tensions during which Russia stopped three Ukrainian navy vessels from entering the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait by placing a huge cargo ship beneath a Russian-controlled bridge.

Russia is set to discuss this incident with the Turkish side, which is guarantor of the armed opposition's cessation of hostilities in the Idlib de-escalation zone. Russian military experts in chemical protection arrived in the city of Aleppo hours after militants launched a chlorine attack on residential districts of the city, the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, told reporters on Sunday. "Groups of specialists from units of nuclear, chemical and biological warfare protection deployed at observation posts in Syria urgently arrived to the area of the attack, carrying special equipment with them. They are working with the...

Russia “indisputably” poses a far greater threat to national security than Islamic terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and Isis, the new head of the British army has warned. General Mark Carleton-Smith said the UK cannot be complacent about the threat Russia poses “or leave it uncontested”. The former SAS commander said Russia had made plain its preparedness to use force to expand its interests, while it had also been “systematic” in its efforts to exploit cyber space and undersea military arenas. “The Russians seek to exploit vulnerability and weakness wherever they detect it,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “Russia today...

Sochi, October 19, Interfax - Russia would use nuclear weapons only after it is certain that a potential aggressor has launched a strike on it, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. "Our strategy of nuclear weapons use doesn't envision a preemptive strike. Our concept is a launch under attack," Putin said at the plenary session of the Valdai Club in Sochi. This means that Russia is ready to use and would use nuclear weapons "only when we are certain that someone, a potential aggressor, is delivering a strike on Russia." The essence of Russia's launch-under-attack nuclear strategy is that...

Russia will transfer two to four S-300 air defense missile systems to Syria within the next two weeks, the Russian news website Kommersant reported Tuesday, citing a source familiar with the details. The amount of systems may increase in the future. The Assad regime will use the systems to defend Syria's coastline and its borders with Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, the report said. According to the official, Russia may end up transferring up to eight systems to Syria, depending on the circumstances.Meanwhile, Russian outlet Izvestia reported that Moscow is boosting its electronic warfare systems in Syria, which were brought...