Moose & Squirrel v Boris & Natasha: what's the deal with the rooskies and trumpland?

[China]

Russia is pouring millions into Kremlin propaganda targeting the U.S.

 

Russian media outlets reported spending more than $146 million on foreign influence operations and propaganda in the U.S. since 2016, with over $16 million on propaganda targeting the U.S. in 2021, OpenSecrets’ analysis of new Foreign Agents Registration Act records shows. 

 

And that’s just the spending that Russian foreign agents have disclosed to the Justice Department under FARA.

 

The U.S. government has identified multiple online media sites that are directed by Russian intelligence services and not disclosed through FARA, spreading disinformation to undermine COVID-19 vaccines produced outside Russia. Social media platforms have also become a breeding ground for even more Russian propaganda campaigns that are often not disclosed in FARA filings.

 

Faced with rising concerns about Russian interference in U.S. elections and foreign influence more generally, the Justice Department has compelled multiple broadcasters and other middlemen helping Russian propaganda efforts targeting the U.S. to register as foreign agents.

 

During the 2020 presidential election, the Kremlin poured money into TV and media outlets aimed at influencing voters while tensions rose between the two countries. During the 2016 presidential election, the Russian government interfered to boost former President Donald Trump. Russia’s top media spenders include RIA Novosti and Rossiya Segodnya, government entities that administer global broadcasts of Russian state-funded networks RT and Sputnik. 

 

In August 2020, Rossiya Segodnya contracted with Ghebi LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based production company incorporated by the editor-in-chief of a U.S. production company working for the Russian media entity called RIA Global. Since then, the LLC has reported more than $2.7 million in payments from the Russian government’s media entity that administers Sputnik.

The Russian government’s propaganda spending is rivaled most intensely by China, which spent more than any other country in 2020. 

 

Chinese foreign agents reported about $67.2 million in total 2020 lobbying and influence spending. More than 80% of China’s foreign influence spending in the U.S. came from Chinese state-owned media outlet CGTN TV and the CCP’s English-language newspaper, China Daily.

 

Like Russia’s state media apparatus, many of China’s state-owned outlets have also been compelled to register under FARA.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Ball Security]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi-raids-russian-oligarch-deripaskas-home-washington-nbc-news-2021-10-19/
 

Home of Russian oligarch in DC was raided by the FBI today.  This guy also employed Paul Manafort.

[Recovering_Spaz]

On 7/15/2021 at 11:48 AM, Ball Security said:

I never understood the kompromat angle with Trump.  If he had some prostitutes piss on him or whatever, how many votes does he lose?  The Russians could have video of him beheading children and his disciples and followers would justify it.

 

The Kompromat angle only makes sense to me if it endangers Trump's money. Maybe he engaged in money laundering or tax evasion using a Russian bank.  

[Larry]

40 minutes ago, Recovering_Spaz said:

 

The Kompromat angle only makes sense to me if it endangers Trump's money. Maybe he engaged in money laundering or tax evasion using a Russian bank.  

 

Oh, if I were writing a fictional scenario for Trump?  

 

It would be that he's completely broke.  And has been for 40 years.  

 

Every piece of property with his name on it, is actually mortgaged to a Russian mobster.  For three times it's market value.  

 

For 40 years, he's simply been a front man for the Russian mob, money laundering division.  Periodically, he comes to them and begs them for more money, for him to blow in spectacular public fashion, to keep up his image as the front man.  

 

That, they could hold over him.  They have the power, to make him go get a job working the drive thru at a Burger King.  

[China]

6 hours ago, Ball Security said:

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi-raids-russian-oligarch-deripaskas-home-washington-nbc-news-2021-10-19/
 

Home of Russian oligarch in DC was raided by the FBI today.  This guy also employed Paul Manafort.

 

If you want more background on this guy (including his dirty dealings with Moscow Mitch), you can read this:

 

Why is McConnell Getting Away with the Deripaska Scandal?

[China]

The amount of corruption is staggering...

 

Ex-Giuliani Ally Gained Easy Access to Trump's Orbit, Texts Show

 

The messages, written in Russian and shared on WhatsApp in October 2018, were celebratory.

 

“How is Washington?” Andrey Kukushkin asked in a message to an associate, Igor Fruman.

 

“Everything is great!!” Fruman wrote back. “We are taking over the country!!!!” Soon after, Fruman’s business partner, Lev Parnas, provided some evidence: a picture of himself, beaming as he stood between Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

 

 

Three years later, Parnas and Kukushkin are on trial in Manhattan, accused of funneling foreign money into U.S. political campaigns in an attempt to buy favorable treatment for a fledgling marijuana business.

 

Parnas and Fruman, who pleaded guilty in the case in September, are perhaps best known for their roles assisting President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, as he led a shadow campaign in 2018 and 2019 to pressure Ukraine to investigate President Joe Biden, then a leading Democratic presidential candidate.

 

But a trove of messages presented at the trial show how easily Parnas and Fruman ingratiated themselves into Trump’s orbit using campaign contributions and the promise of more to follow. Almost immediately, the messages suggest, they used their new proximity to power as currency to advance their own business interests.

 

There is little doubt that Parnas genuinely wanted to help Republican candidates. But the messages suggest he saw the donations largely as a pathway to political connections, and that he and Fruman used those connections to persuade Kukushkin and Andrey Muraviev, a Russian tycoon, to give them more money.

 

Click on the link for the full article

Edited October 22, 2021 by China

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Authorities Arrest Analyst Who Contributed to Steele Dossier

 

An analyst who was a key contributor to Democratic-funded opposition research into possible links between Donald J. Trump and Russia was arrested on Thursday and charged with lying to the F.B.I. about his sources.

 

The analyst, Igor Danchenko, was a primary researcher for claims that went into the so-called Steele dossier, a compendium of rumors and unproven assertions suggesting that Mr. Trump and his 2016 campaign were compromised by and conspiring with Russian intelligence officials to help him defeat Hillary Clinton.

 

In a 39-page indictment obtained by the special counsel, John H. Durham, a grand jury accused Mr. Danchenko of five counts of making false statements to the F.B.I. about his sources for certain claims in the dossier.

 

The indictment showed that two and a half years after then-Attorney General William P. Barr appointed him to scour the Trump-Russia investigation for any wrongdoing, and a year after Mr. Trump lost re-election, Mr. Durham continues to press ahead.

 

“The special counsel’s investigation is ongoing,” the Justice Department said in a release that described the indictment but provided no direct statement from Mr. Durham.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Possible defenestration at play:

 

Russian diplomat found dead outside Berlin embassy

 

A Russian diplomat was found dead last month outside the country's embassy in the German capital, it has emerged.

 

The man's body was discovered on the pavement on 19 October by police guarding the Berlin compound, Der Spiegel website reported.

 

He had apparently fallen from an upper floor, but it was unclear how, it added.

 

Russia's embassy called the death of the diplomat - who has not been officially named - a "tragic accident".

 

Germany's foreign ministry confirmed the man's death but would not give further details. Police in Berlin have not publicly commented on the death, which was reported for the first time on Friday.

 

Reports say the man was 35 years old and was listed as a second secretary of the Russian embassy.

 

Investigative website Bellingcat said it had used open source data to establish the man was the son of the deputy director of the Second Service of Russia's FSB intelligence agency.

 

It has previously linked the Second Service to the murder of Georgian national and former Chechen rebel commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who was shot in the head in a Berlin park in August 2019.

 

Germany has accused Russia of ordering the murder.

 

Second Service officials have also been linked to the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny in 2020.

 

According to Der Spiegel, the Russian embassy did not agree to a post-mortem examination following the diplomat's death last month.

 

Click on the link for the full story

 

 

[Dan T.]

“Falling out of window” is now the leading cause of death among Russian foreign service personnel, surpassing heart attack and alcohol poisoning from vodka.

[visionary]

 

 

[China]

Russia's military buildup has Ukraine and NATO on edge

 

With roughly 100,000 Russian troops amassed close to the border with Ukraine, warships deployed in the nearby Black Sea, and Russian tanks streaming down from the north, fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin is poised to launch an invasion continue to grow inside the former Soviet republic and among NATO allies.

 

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a startling announcement that he had “received information that a coup d’état will take place in our country.” According to Zelensky, it would happen as soon as Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

 

Zelensky stopped short of accusing the Kremlin of hatching a plot to overthrow his government, but added that taped conversations suggest the possible involvement of Rinat Akhmetov, a Moscow-linked oligarch in Ukraine who controls much of the country’s media and coal resources. Ahkmetov has furiously denied any role in the planning of the alleged coup, but some Ukrainians, including investigative journalist and former parliamentarian Serhiy Leshchenko, believe that he is actively working with the Russian president to weaken Ukraine.

 

“This is the first time that Putin is connected with an internal political battle, when pro-Russian oligarchs, including Rinat Akhmetov, are trying to destabilize politics from within — to make Ukraine weaker on the eve of a possible Russian attack,” Leshchenko told Yahoo News.

 

Analysts differ about what’s causing the rocky internal politics in Ukraine, where Zelensky’s approval ratings have been falling as he attempts to lessen the media powers and political clout of oligarchs, but there is widespread concern about Russia’s military buildup.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[visionary]

 

 

[Ball Security]

13 minutes ago, visionary said:

 

 

So what is our move in response to this?

[Larry]

2 minutes ago, Ball Security said:

So what is our move in response to this?

We want the Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden. 
 

But more seriously?  I think you we should have added Ukraine to NATO, when Russia first started this ****. 
 

Used to be, preventing Russia from using their military to conquer people was one of our nation's hard lines. One that I'm sad to see us sacrifice. 

[visionary]

 

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

Looks like all they are going to do is economic sanctions, which I think is probably best, as it seems like Russia wants to invade Ukrainian for economic reasons (fuel lines and ports). If you make the economic costs (sanctions) out way the economic benefit maybe they won’t invade.

 

on the other hand that is one advantage that less democratic countries have, the ability to play the long game without having to look over their shoulder every two years. Putin can shrug off the initial economic penalties, spin it to his base as “American interference” and wait for the next administration to be more reconciliatory. They have Ukrainian and their cake too. But really, what alternative is there?

[China]

 

[Llevron]

Totally normal behavior there. You will go to heaven they will just die. Cool cool cool cool cool 

 

How long until the gun loving cult brained nut bags here adopt that mentality? 

[Chachie]

2 hours ago, Llevron said:

How long until the gun loving cult brained nut bags here adopt that mentality? 

 

 

Not long. We are witnessing the beginning of a civil war... and we'll lose this one, at least in body count.

[China]

 

[Larry]

Love the implication that Putin became master of the World after Trump.  

 

[Renegade7]

On 12/3/2021 at 7:57 PM, Larry said:

We want the Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden. 
 

But more seriously?  I think you we should have added Ukraine to NATO, when Russia first started this ****. 
 

Used to be, preventing Russia from using their military to conquer people was one of our nation's hard lines. One that I'm sad to see us sacrifice. 

 

I disagree. 

 

Adding former Warsaw Pact countries after its collapse to NATO all the way up to Russia's border is a huge reason we are in this mess in the first place.

 

We need to own that, it was a mistake.  I do not agree with everything Russia does, but it was unwise to think they would jus take that lying down, especially after the end of the cold war.  That was the time to do the reset button, its too late now.

 

And not wanting to send troops pretty much guarantees Russia will invade.  Why do we have a red line with Taiwan and not Ukraine, a country that at one time came close to joining NATO and the EU?  NATO was made to counter possible Russian aggression like this, and they are going to do nothing here?

 

This whole thing is one giant shotgun shot to the foot, the GOP ads write themselves on this one...

[China]

Rep. Schiff reminds GOP colleague that Trump-Russia collusion was all too real

 

Contrary to Donald Trump’s usual attempts to pulverize reality into an unrecognizable heap of dust he can power-snort directly into his fib-pickled brain, the Trump-Russia investigation was neither a witch hunt nor a hoax.

 

For one thing, Robert Mueller’s report—which former Attorney General Bill Barr (mostly successfully) hid from public scrutiny like a 3-year-old flushing a poopy Underoo—identified at least 10 instances of likely obstruction on the part of our erstwhile pr*sident. The report flatly stated that Trump “engaged in a second phase of conduct, involving public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts both in public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation.”

 

That sure smells like obstruction to me, and because Trump’s involved, it’s also faintly redolent of deep-fried lard pops with rainbow sprinkles. Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress and elsewhere have taken it as an article of faith that Trump was fully exonerated by Mueller, even though Mueller pointedly stated he’d done no such thing. But Republicans have long since decided to pretend that the most corrupt and dishonest human ever to sully this nation’s shores is America’s true savior and lone beacon of truth.

 

But despite Republicans’ efforts to sweep Trump-Russia collusion under the rug, it’s still there. And occasionally Rep. Adam Schiff, a dogged critic of Trump who was front-and-center during the venal makeup mannequin’s first impeachment, brings some of that dirt back out to show everyone what Trump really was—and is.

 

Here he was on Thursday, slapping down yet another lost GOP sheep, Kentucky Rep. James Comer:

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

G7 warns Russia of 'massive consequences' if Ukraine is attacked

 

Russia faces massive consequences and severe costs if President Vladimir Putin attacks Ukraine, the Group of Seven warned in a statement on Sunday.

 

U.S. intelligence assesses that Russia could be planning a multi-front offensive on Ukraine as early as next year, involving up to 175,000 troops.

 

The Kremlin denies it plans to invade and says the West is gripped by Russophobia. Moscow says the expansion of NATO threatens Russia and has contravened assurances given to it as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

 

At a meeting in the northern English city of Liverpool, the G7 delegates said they were united in their condemnation of Russia's military build-up near Ukraine and they called on Moscow to de-escalate.

 

"Russia should be in no doubt that further military aggression against Ukraine would have massive consequences and severe cost in response," said the statement, which confirmed a draft version previously reported by Reuters.

 

Click on the link for the full article