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The Trump administration is hitting Russia with new sanctions punishing President Vladimir Putin's government for using a chemical weapon against an ex-spy in Britain, U.S. officials told NBC News Wednesday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed off on a determination that Russia violated international law by poisoning the former spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter in March, officials said, a decision that was announced Wednesday afternoon by State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert. Although the U.S. joined European countries in publicly blaming Moscow within days of the attack, the Trump administration had never issued the formal determination that triggers automatic sanctions...

MOSCOW – An attempt by NATO to incorporate the former Soviet republic of Georgia could trigger a new, "horrible" conflict, Russia's prime minister said Tuesday in a stern warning to the West marking 10 years since the Russia-Georgia war. Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with the Kommersant daily broadcast by Russian state television that NATO's plans to eventually offer membership to Georgia are "absolutely irresponsible" and a "threat to peace." Medvedev was Russia's president during the August 2008 war, which erupted when Georgian troops tried unsuccessfully to regain control over the Moscow-backed breakaway province of South Ossetia and Russia...

European firms that stop doing business with Iran because of reimposed U.S. sanctions could in turn be sanctioned by the E.U., a special adviser to the 28-country bloc's top diplomat has warned. “If E.U. companies abide by U.S. secondary sanctions they will, in turn, be sanctioned by the E.U.," Nathalie Tocci, an aide to E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, told Britain’s BBC Radio 4 on Monday night.

In the lead-up to the July 15 Helsinki Summit between Putin and Trump, three countries in the Eurasian landmass were expecting the meeting with particular fear and concern. The first is Ukraine, which struggles with pro-Russian forces in the east of the country. However, the summit was hailed by many Russian analysts as well as politicians as not really bringing about any changes. In fact, the strongest expression of the unchangeable US stance on Ukraine after the summit was the “Crimea Declaration,” released by the Department of State on July 25, where Russian moves against Ukraine were once again ostracized....

The action actor became a Russian citizen last year and is a martial arts expert just like President Valdimir Putin. Russia has handed Hollywood movie star Steven Seagal the task of keeping relations cordial with the United States . The Russian foreign minister announced on Facebook that the actor will be its special envoy for humanitarian ties with the US. It said Seagal would "facilitate relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges". The post is unpaid.

While Pyongyang is cut off from the international financial system, it is able to make up to $2.3 billion in hard currency a year by sending some 100,000 or more workers abroad, according to estimates. Up to 80 per cent of them go to China and Russia, where they are employed in what the UN has called “slave-like conditions” and give up to 90 per cent of their wages to Kim Jong-un's regime. Contractors have said North Koreans helped build the World Cup stadium in St Petersburg, where at least one died on site. Previously many of them worked in...

The Trump administration on Friday announced new sanctions targeting a Russian bank, two North Korean entities and one North Korean citizen for facilitating "illegal financial activity." The Russian-registered bank Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank (Agrosoyuz) was sanctioned for doing business with Han Jang Su, a North Korean who Treasury said was the "Moscow-based chief representative of Foreign Trade Bank (FTB), North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank." "The United States will continue to enforce UN and U.S. sanctions and shut down illicit revenue streams to North Korea. Our sanctions will remain in place until we have achieved the final, fully-verified denuclearization of North...

US counter-intelligence investigators discovered a suspected Russian spy had been working undetected in the heart of the American embassy in Moscow for more than a decade, the Guardian has learned. The Russian national had been hired by the US Secret Service and is understood to have had access to the agency’s intranet and email systems, which gave her a potential window into highly confidential material including the schedules of the president and vice-president. The woman had been working for the Secret Service for years before she came under suspicion in 2016 during a routine security sweep conducted by two investigators...

“You are criminalizing diplomacy” .....Watch to the end. I guarantee you he won’t be invited back again. The man has been doing this for nearly 50 years and the two yahoos just want to push current political narratives with no historical context

President Trump on Monday insisted that the United States will not drop sanctions against Moscow. “Sanctions on Russia will remain as is,” Trump said, even as Putin demands that they be dropped. Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte first broached the subject and said lifting the sanctions would be “unthinkable.” Trump also scolded Germany — just as he did at the NATO summit — for agreeing to use a Russian natural gas pipeline while, in his estimation, not paying enough for defense.

Sen. Bernie Sanders said President Trump "sold the American people out" last week in Helsinki, Finland, during his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Vermont senator made the remarks in a joint interview with breakout Democratic Party star and candidate for Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The interview will air Sunday morning on CBS News' "Face the Nation." Asked whether Mr. Trump should withdraw an invitation to Putin for a second meeting in Washington this fall, Sanders said it's "hard to comment on anything that Trump says because he could change his mind tomorrow."

The Adidas soccer ball Russian President Vladimir Putin gave to President Trump at their summit in Finland appears to contain a chip that can transmit information to nearby cell phones, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The publication noted that photos of the ball show a logo for a near-field communication (NFC) tag, a chip that is included in the Adidas 2018 FIFA World Cup ball. Russia hosted this year's World Cup. Adidas AG soccer balls, similar to the one Putin presented to Trump during a joint press conference last week, contain a small chip that can send content to mobile devices. Users...

Full title...........Trump puts off meeting with Putin he touted after Helsinki summit and blames the Mueller 'witch hunt' for delay............ White House announces next Putin meeting will be after the first of the year Blamed special counsel Robert Mueller's probe for the delay The statement announcing the delay indicates the White House thinks the Mueller investigation of Russia's role in 2016 will not be wrapped up this year Trump had invited Putin to come to the White House this fall Putin was coy in his response, suggesting the two could talk at the next G20 summit in Argentina at the...

Full title: Maxine Waters: Trump Is 'Putin's Apprentice,' Republicans Should Protest Putin Meeting Outside White House Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) accused President Trump of being “Putin’s apprentice” on MSNBC Sunday following the news that Trump will be meeting with the Russian president at the White House in the fall. Waters also claimed that she knew what Putin and Trump discussed during their private meeting in Helsinki, Finland earlier this month. Waters, who has issued dramatic calls for Trump’s impeachment since the beginning of his presidency, said she believes Trump discussed lifting sanctions on Russia during his private meeting with Putin....

I suppose that when NBC News commissioned its latest poll on President Trump's popularity in the wake of Helsinki, the network's people were not expecting it to rise to the highest level ever of his presidency. After all, the nearly unanimous media and "expert" reaction, including among many Republicans, was that something unspeakable happened in the press conference following the meeting with Putin. That was gospel. But the American people failed to react as their media masters would have them do. MSNBC host Kasie Hunt complained, "We are living in a different space-time continuum, where even gravity works differently." Well,...

Helsinki agreement provides new hope for Syria The understanding on Syria reached by US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16, especially regarding the return of refugees, represents a potential watershed in recasting US-Russian coordination to expand humanitarian assistance and bring the seven-year war to a close. The attention given to Trump’s remarks on Russian meddling in the 2016 election at the summit may be drowning out awareness of the impact of Helsinki, which is already being felt in the region. There seems to have been a list of short- and long-term action items for both...

Hillary Clinton on Saturday described President Donald Trump's recent summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin "alarming on many, many levels" and called the secrecy surrounding the president's one-on-one meeting with the Russian leader "deeply disturbing" during her appearance at a New York City festival on Saturday. Clinton questioned the president's motives when he failed to defend the US intelligence community and blamed the US for poor relations with Russia while standing beside Putin at a press conference in Helsinki earlier this month. "The great mystery is why this president has not spoken up for our country, and we saw this...

The announcement that the US rejected a Russian-backed proposed referendum on eastern Ukraine came after Washington agreed to provide more military aid. Ukrainian Government forces continue to clash there with independence-seeking pro-Russian separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people. Russia is accused of arming separatists in the east of the country. Ambassador Anatov said President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin discussed the possibility of a referendum on eastern Ukraine during their Helsinki summit. In separate remarks, Ambassador Anatov said through an interpreter that the two leaders discussed several ideas but complained that Ukraine's government refuses...

A top Republican on Sunday criticized President Trump for missing a “good opportunity” to confront Moscow about election meddling during his controversial news conference with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. “The president missed, I think, a really good opportunity to distinguish the United States from any other country, but especially from Russia,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday.” The South Carolina lawmaker urged Trump to listen to his advisers and the intelligence community when they tell him the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 presidential election. If he doesn’t listen, they should step...

President Trump's performance this past week aside Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki sparked outrage among congressional Democrats in all ways but one: There's been no surge in support for impeachment. Instead, Democratic leaders have tamped down the impeachment push in the name of political pragmatism, fending off — for now — an effort by animated caucus liberals to escalate their oust-Trump campaign following his broadly maligned joint press conference with Putin in the Finnish capital on Monday. Not only is impeachment highly unlikely under a GOP-controlled Congress, the leaders argue, but it could undermine the chances of Democrats winning...