The Russiagate conspiracy theory

[Neven]

An extension of the TRNN interview with Paul Jay above:

[TerryM]

As the full extent of Russia's interference in the 2016 election is revealed to congressional investigators by Google's CEO, the $4,700 is compared to the $1.6 Billion raised for the Democratic candidate by Google employees and executives.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-13/google-ceo-exposes-shocking-full-extent-russian-meddling-2016

I wonder what the party will run on in 2020?
Terry

[TerryM]

Lurk
It appears that you may be guilty of participating in Putin's Humor Offensive.
My sincere apologies if your attempt was mere titillation.
Terry

[TerryM]

Russian bots that disrupted American election identified by NYT

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-20/democrats-orchestrated-elaborate-false-flag-operation-posing-russian-bots-during

It turns out that they were just Democrats spending $100,000 linking Roy Moore to fake Russian bots.
While I suppose it's all legal, it certainly lowers the bar and begs us to question the stories that MSM has been breathlessly (and baselessly?) feeding us.

Democrats spend $100,000 aimed at influencing the outcome of an election.
Russians spend $4,700 trying to sell dildos during the election cycle.

I wonder how much Mueller has spent trying to discover why Hillary lost "her" election?
Terry

[Neven]

This stuff gets more crazy by the day... 

[sidd]

security firm accused by FBI of spying actually helped FBI catch a spy in NSA: Kaspersky turned in Martin to FBI

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/09/russia-kaspersky-lab-nsa-cybersecurity-1089131

Those damn Russians !

sidd

[sidd]

Russia continues dollar dump: moves deeper into yuan and euro

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russia-dumps-101-billion-dollar-085753166.html

sidd

[ASILurker]

Integrity Initiative wipes it's entire website pending probe into ‘theft’ of disturbing leaked data

 The British state-funded Integrity Initiative, exposed last year for conducting Europe-wide political influence campaigns in leaked files, has removed all of its website content “pending an investigation” into the data “theft.”

A group claiming association with the loose hacktivist collective Anonymous has been dumping private Integrity Initiative documents online in various batches since November. The leaks revealed that the Scotland-based, government-funded organization, which bills itself as a non-partisan disinformation-busting charity, was actually using “clusters” of journalists, politicians, and academics to carry out secret anti-Russia campaigns, interfere in domestic politics across Europe and smear anyone who questioned its narratives.

    The realisation has only really just struck me hard that the people who have been most vocal in making totally false claims that I am in any way paid by Russia, were themselves being secretly paid to make those claims by my former employer, the FCO, via the Integrity Initiative.
    — Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) January 22, 2019

In a surprise move on Monday, the Integrity Initiative abruptly announced on Twitter that it had “temporarily removed” all content from its site “pending an investigation into the theft of data” from the Institute of Statecraft, the II’s London-based parent operation.

    We've temporarily removed all content from our website, pending an investigation into the theft of data from the Institute for Statecraft and the Integrity Initiative. The website will be relaunched shortly. https://t.co/aS5fnnmffV
    — Integrity Initiative (@InitIntegrity) January 21, 2019

In a statement posted on its now mostly bare website, the II claimed the leaks were "part of a campaign to undermine the work" of the Initiative which it said involved “researching, publicising and countering the threat” Europe faces in the in the form of “disinformation” and “hybrid warfare” – ironically, exactly what the shady organization itself was accused of engaging in with its hefty government paycheck.

more details with some funny social media comments
https://www.rt.com/news/449451-integrity-initiative-deletes-content/



Ref from above:

Professor David Miller gets reported on by Russia Today .... no other Fourth Estate MSM seem to think it's a "story" worth sharing with The People.

‘They made a mess & are fighting fires’: UK academic says Integrity Initiative fatally hurt by leaks - Published time: 8 Jan, 2019

 Despite being ignored by Western media, leaks from Integrity Initiative have paralyzed the operations of this UK-funded covert influence network, and could lead to its dismantling, says a leading British academic.

“This has made a mess of [Integrity Initiative’s] operations, they are spending most of their time now trying to fire-fight on the coverage this is getting. And they are not doing essentially what they are being paid to do, which is to counter the Russians,” David Miller, Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Bristol School for Policy Studies, told RT.

“The British government is getting bad value for money, if it was ever getting better value.”

As part of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media, which studies Western attempts to control media coverage of key international events, Miller has played a crucial role in studying the four tranches of data anonymously uploaded and sourced from the previously little-known group, which has been backed by the UK Foreign Office, NATO and Facebook, to the tune of over £1 million per year.

[Rob Dekker]

Russia continues dollar dump: moves deeper into yuan and euro

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russia-dumps-101-billion-dollar-085753166.html

sidd

Often, it's good to take a closer look at a news report like this one, to see what's really going on.

For starters, this move by Russia to sell dollars and buy yuan and euro is not really "news" since it happened in Q2 last year :

Russia’s central bank dumped $101 billion in U.S. holdings from its huge reserves, shifting into euros and yuan last spring amid a new round of U.S. sanctions.

The central bank moved the equivalent of $44 billion each into the European and Chinese currencies in the second quarter

“Russia is making a strategic shift in its reserves towards holding fewer dollars and more assets in other currencies,” said Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

This was a risky move by Russia because :

The shift has reduced the credit quality of Russia’s reserves, with the share of AA-rated assets dropping to 27 percent from 43 percent, according to the central bank report.

And also it seems that in hind-sight it was a pretty dumb move by Russia.
Not only did they lose credit quality, but they also lost asset value :

The yuan lost some 8 % against the dollar since Q2 last year.

[Neven]

I re-watched Dr. Strangelove last week. That's what this Integrity Initiative stuff looks like to me. A bunch of parasitic idiots/madmen, thirsty for war. They do everything they accuse Russia of, and worse. These people, everyone involved with the 'Integrity' Initiative, are the lowest of the lowest.

[TerryM]

I re-watched Dr. Strangelove last week. That's what this Integrity Initiative stuff looks like to me. A bunch of parasitic idiots/madmen, thirsty for war. They do everything they accuse Russia of, and worse. These people, everyone involved with the 'Integrity' Initiative, are the lowest of the lowest.

Ramen!
They've read Orwell as an operations manual, rather than as cautionary works of fiction.


The Atlantic Council posing as "The Legion of Truth", should have had them rolling in the aisles. Now that it's a fait accompli, reacting to their ongoing gaffes by highlighting the source of their funding would cause them to hide their heads in shame - were they capable of feeling shame.


Reopen the asylums, we've a fresh batch of boobies ready for their hatch.
Terry

[sidd]

Ooo, look Russians ! Pushing Gabbard !

" Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii ... has become a favorite of the sites Moscow used when it interfered in 2016."

"Several experts who track websites and social media linked to the Kremlin have also seen what they believe may be the first stirrings of an upcoming Russian campaign of support ..."

" "Her promulgation of positions compatible with Russian geo strategic interests can help them mainstream such discussion in the [Democratic] party," said Alex Stamos, former chief security officer at Facebook and now an NBC News analyst. Gabbard, said Stamos, helps them with all their "lines of attack." "

"Experts in Russian on-line propaganda say Gabbard appeals to pro-Russian sites because her positions —and her appeal as an outsider in her own party — can be used to create division among Democrats."

"reminiscent of Russian media promotion of Jill Stein"

"You can just see it coming. They're telegraphing what coming the next two years, which is playing in the left."

"Stamos agrees that Gabbard could be used to inject pro-Russian positions into the Democratic Party's discussions"

"Experts who track inauthentic social media accounts, however, have already found some extolling Gabbard's positions "

"three of the top 15 URLs shared by the 800 social media accounts affiliated with known and suspected Russian propaganda operations directed at U.S. citizens were about Gabbard."

" "A few of our analysts saw some chatter on 8chan saying she was a good 'divider' candidate to amplify," said New Knowledge's director of research Renee DiResta ..."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/russia-s-propaganda-machine-discovers-2020-democratic-candidate-tulsi-gabbard-n964261

All the usual suspects pushing this story. Gabbard has them scared. She must be stopped. This attack never gets old for war parties and corporate democrats.

Meanwhile, I have seen chatter that says nbcnews is a running dog of western imperialism ...

sidd

[Rob Dekker]

A court in Oryol has sentenced a local Jehovah's Witnesses elder to six years in prison for alleged extremist activity, for being... a Jehovah's Witness. Before hearing his verdict, Dennis Christensen, a Danish citizen, told reporters that he hoped Russia would observe his right to religious freedom.

Oryol courts banned Jehovah's Witnesses in 2016, a year before Russia’s Supreme Court outlawed the religious group as an extremist organization. Since the national ban, more than 80 criminal cases have been filed against Jehovah's Witnesses across Russia.

Dennis Christensen moved to Russia in 1999, settling in Murmansk, where he met his future wife, a recent convert to the Jehovah's Witnesses. They married in 2002 and four years later moved to Oryol, where Christensen works as a private contractor. He was detained by police in late May 2017, becoming the first Jehovah's Witness to be arrested after the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling.

https://meduza.io/en/news/2019/02/06/russian-court-sentences-jehovah-s-witnesses-elder-to-six-years-in-prison-for-extremism

[Rob Dekker]

<moved to Political theatre thread; N.>

[Neven]

Sidd on another thread:

Prof. Lukin takes a thoughtful look back: paying for past sins

"Many Russians who advocated democratic reforms in the early 1990s and for whom both the Yeltsin kleptocracy and the Communist dictatorship were anathema now have reason to blame Talbott and his like-minded associates for contributing to authoritarianism in Russia. Those policies served to discredit Russia’s pro-Western forces completely ..."

"Putin was not initially opposed to the West. Not only did he make several significant concessions to the United States shortly after coming to power ..."

"Putin went through the same stages as Yeltsin had: from hopes of establishing equal cooperation with the United States to the understanding that it was impossible and transitioning to a more independent course. Gorbachev went through a similar process, but only after he was no longer in power. Today, Gorbachev is extremely skeptical about the United States. The similar evolution in the views of three initially pro-Western Moscow leaders shows that it is nearly impossible to establish equal cooperation with the United States because Washington does not, in fact, accept this concept. "

"Like the “true communism” that never actually emerged, Western ideology anticipates a “liberal world order” that has never actually existed, but that the United States and its allies—as the global avant-garde—hope to create."

"the real Russia turned out to be very different from the Russia of their imaginations. In fact, the same can be said about the real America ..."

Read the whole thing:

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/how-united-states-got-russia-wrong-42977

Prof. Lukin is kinder than I would be.

sidd

[sidd]

Everybody who speaks out against corporate Democrats must be Russian: Chavez at the Intercept

"these critics are Russian bots ...  “paid for by Russia.” ... “it originated from Russian bots.”

"that the ADOS hashtag is a way to identify foreign influence. “A lot of the ones that are pretending to be black people, black women in particular, who are focusing on black identity, have these sort of aspects in the ways that they’re talking about language,” she said. She went on to say that bots are posing as black Americans using “the vernacular or the language of someone that believes they are a part of our community” to claim authority to represent black Americans."

"The creators of the hashtag — Antonio Moore, an attorney in California, and Yvette Carnell, a political commentator — are neither Russian nor bots "

" ... accusations like Reid’s are a McCarthyite tactic in the same vein as the attempts to publicly discredit Martin Luther King Jr. “It’s troubling, the lengths that these people will go to undermine authentic Black advocacy in order to prop up the Democratic establishment,”  "

https://theintercept.com/2019/02/13/ados-kamala-harris-cory-booker-russian-bots/

sidd

[Martin Gisser]

OMG I am not going to quote two Russian media sources on a Russia Russia Russia thread reporting the News of what just happened in Russia am I?

Of course you forget to mention that Putin's party is trying to rewrite Afghan-Russian history. And that somehow got into Trump's brain. Waiting for Jimmy Dore to chime in.

[Rob Dekker]

After uncovering the two prime suspects in the Skripal case (GRU agents Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin), Bellingcat now also uncovered the identity of the third suspect, who entered the UK under the (cover) name Sergey Fedotov :

It's Denis Sergeev, High-Ranking GRU Officer, a graduate of Russia’s Military Diplomatic Academy.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2019/02/14/third-suspect-in-skripal-poisoning-identified-as-denis-sergeev-high-ranking-gru-officer/

[Neven]

Did Bellingcat get that info from some intelligence agency directly, or did it first pass through the Integrity Initiative? Maybe New Knowledge was involved, or perhaps even the good people from Cambridge Analytica?

[Martin Gisser]

Bellingcat will tell next week how they found that Fedotov's real name is Denis Sergeev. Meanwhile Russia has started to erase the internet traces that led to the discovery.
More about "Fedotov":
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/10/revealed-name-third-russian-agent-sent-gru-target-sergei-skripal/

[...]
The Telegraph had previously reported the existence of a third member of the Russian intelligence hit squad and a trawl of flight records by the Fontanka news agency matched it to Fedotov.
[...]
Fedotov’s passport number differs by only a few digits. It is of the same ‘64 series’ linked to not only Chepiga and Mishkin but also to other suspected agents such as Col Eduard Shishmakov, who is accused of the failed plot to assassinate the prime minister of Montenegro before its referendum to join Nato.

According to Fontaka, Fedotov previously travelled to the UK in March 2016 and March 2017 and again this year. It said he also flew to the Czech Republic with Mishkin in January and February 2014 ahead of an apparent operation to monitor the movements of Col Skripal, who at the time was said to be briefing Czech secret services.

It raises the prospect that Col Skripal, who had been living in the UK since a spy swap in 2010, had been a GRU target for at least four years. Chepiga and Mishkin returned to the Czech Republic in October 2014, the same month that Skripal travelled to the country to advise local intelligence officers on Russian espionage activities.

Looks like a huge conspiracy of anti-Russian media

[sidd]

Even for the moonie paper, this is pretty low: Sandernistas are Russians

“I consider it extremely suspicious,”

“We do believe many of them are coming from foreign entities, particularly Russia or the Middle East.”

" “For hundreds of years we hunted witches,” he said. “Now it’s the Russians. "

"one of the largest subreddits supporting Bernie Sanders has unexplained strange activity"

“Of course, they know,” Mr. Russell said. “His campaign should definitely be aware of these things, and we know that nefarious things might be happening.”

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/14/prominent-pro-sanders-subreddit-wayofthebern-aims-/

sidd

[Martin Gisser]

Sandernistas are Russians

What logic is this? Denial shooting its own foot? Some Russian trolls trolling for Bernie does not imply all Berners are Russian subverted.

[Rob Dekker]

Moscow court orders US investor of Baring Vostok to be held in custody over $37mn fraud allegations 

For those of us who know a little bit about the Magnitsky case, or who have read Bill Browder's book "Red Notice", this arrest is not a surprise, but merely a confirmation of how Russia is ruled.

Especially after Magnitsky, US investors in Russia played it safe : play by the rules and do not get involved in politics, and never, ever, criticize or challenge or question the Putin government.

Yet, Mike Calvey (and his team at Baring Vostok) get arrested any way.

In a response, Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia gave some good advice :

https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1096553539906740224

If they can arrest Calvey, they are not afraid to arrest anyone. To my  Americans friends still doing in business in Russia, it’s time to come home.

[Rob Dekker]

These are Russia's charges against American investment manager Michael Calvey, and here's why he says it's all baloney :

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2019/02/16/these-are-the-charges-against-american-investment-manager-michael-calvey-and-here-s-why-he-says-it-s-all-baloney

Specifically, this is of interest :

....In response, Baring Vostok filed a lawsuit in the London Court of International Arbitration. Calvey says Yusupov is trying to use false criminal allegations in Moscow to pressure Baring Vostok into withdrawing its lawsuit in London, and prevent the dilution of Avetisyan’s Vostochny Bank shares in a follow-on offering planned this April (to boost the bank’s capital reserves, in accordance with demands from Russia’s Central Bank).

So Baring Vostok DID (indirectly) challenge the Putin government, using the rule of law as an argument.

Big mistake.

That's what got Magnitsky killed.

[Neven]

What got Magnitsky killed, was his involvement in Browder's crony capitalist activities.

[Rob Dekker]

Here's what we know so far about the criminal case against one of Russia's biggest foreign investors, U.S. citizen Michael Calvey. (Venture capitalists are calling it a disaster for Russia.)

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2019/02/15/here-s-what-we-know-so-far-about-the-criminal-case-against-one-of-russia-s-biggest-foreign-investors-u-s-citizen-michael-calvey …

[Rob Dekker]

Investors Ask Who’s Safe in Russia After Fund Manager’s Arrest :

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-19/investors-wonder-who-is-safe-in-russia-after-fund-manager-arrest

Most analysts agree that Calvey has run his business by the book. What’s more, they argue that Calvey’s arrest will have a chilling effect on foreign investment in Russia.

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-arrest-american-investor-emergency-economy-putin-ally-1336410

[Rob Dekker]

Oh. Oh. This is not good.
The judge in the Michael Calvey case is Artur Karpov :

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-business-detention/russian-court-extends-custody-of-baring-vostoks-calvey-until-april-idUSKCN1Q50DZ

Judge Artur Karpov extended the custody until April 13 after listening to the prosecutors, ....

This is the same judge that convicted Navalny :

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/world/europe/aleksei-navalny.html

The fraud case on Friday that Judge Karpov ruled on is one of several criminal prosecutions brought against Mr. Navalny that seem politically motivated and intended largely to give the authorities ways to limit his movements and communication and to silence his criticism of Mr. Putin.

And the same judge who refused the lawsuit from Magnitsky’s mother seeking to compel the Russian Investigative Committee to investigate the torture and murder of her son :

https://www.russian-untouchables.com/eng/artur-karpov/

This is not good, folks... Not good at all.

[Rob Dekker]

Did Bellingcat get that info from some intelligence agency directly, or did it first pass through the Integrity Initiative? Maybe New Knowledge was involved, or perhaps even the good people from Cambridge Analytica?

Bellingcat promised to disclose how they figured out the identity of the third suspect in the Skripal case, and they delivered :

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2019/02/21/the-search-for-denis-sergeev-photographing-a-ghost

The search for the identity of the third Skripal suspect “Fedotov” was markedly more difficult than that for the other two suspects, “Boshirov” and “Petrov”. The reason for this, on one side, was the fact that British authorities released no information about – and crucially, no photographs of – the third suspect. On the other side, after Bellingcat’s initial identifications of Col. Chepiga and Col. Mishkin, the Russian authorities apparently took unprecedented measures to purge any traces of this person’s existence.

Ironically, Bellingcat was able to witness this clean-up operation in real time, as data on this person that was originally available in online databases at the start of the investigation (in October 2018), became incrementally purged over the subsequent few months, with the person completely vanishing from all state-run registers by early 2019.

[Martin Gisser]

Lots of McCabe interviews around... Colbert's perhaps best:

[ASILurker]

Feeling ‘betrayed’ by UK, ‘Novichok’ victim’s son writes letter to PUTIN
Published time: 3 Mar, 2019


 Ewan Hope, the son of Amesbury poisoning victim Dawn Sturgess, has written a letter to Vladimir Putin, saying that the Russian leader is his only hope to bring justice for his mother as the UK government has abandoned his family.

"It is almost a year since my mother Dawn was killed by novichok in Salisbury and the pain never goes away for me or my family," Hope said in his letter to the Russian president, published by The Mirror.

"I am appealing to you as a human being," he wrote, asking Putin to allow the UK investigators to question two Russian nationals, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

Hope also said that he wrote to Putin because he was "desperate," and believes the Russian leader to be "the only man who can make sure justice prevails."

"I feel betrayed and let down by the [UK] Government," the 20-year-old confessed, adding that his mother was "an innocent victim, but we've never heard anything from [UK Prime Minister] Theresa May or the Government – not a phone call, a letter, or anything. We haven't even heard from our MP. We just find out things on the news the same as everyone else."

When questioned about Hope’s letter, the Russian embassy in London told media that "We feel deep sympathy towards Mr Hope. Just like him, we would like to see his mother's death to be fully investigated."

The embassy grilled the UK authorities over their unwillingness to support their accusations against Russia with evidence as they instead "prefer to feed the public with multiple leaks, while refusing to confirm or deny them."

"Now it turns out that even the closest relatives of those affected are kept in the dark over what actually happened, and they have to seek truth in Russia," it said.

Also on Saturday, the Russian mission published a long press-release on the Skripal saga, showing in detail how Britain has refused to cooperate with Russia on the case. According to the paper, out of 41 diplomatic requests and questions by Moscow regarding the fate of the Skipals and the investigation, only one was fulfilled by London, while 36 were "ignored,""denied" or met with an "unsatisfactory" response.

https://www.rt.com/news/452934-uk-russia-skripal-sturgess-putin/


SALISBURY: UNANSWERED QUESTIONS (4 March 2019)
https://www.rusemb.org.uk/fnapr/6762


 First responder in Skripal poisoning turns out to be Britain’s most senior military nurse
Published time: 21 Jan, 2019

It was previously reported by British media that the first person to provide medical assistance to the Skripals after they collapsed on a bench in Salisbury was “an off-duty nurse who had worked on the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.”

However, the healthcare professional turned out to be not just any nurse. She was Colonel Alison McCourt, a veteran service member who currently holds the position of chief nursing officer in the British Army.

https://www.rt.com/uk/449312-salisbury-first-resonder-identified/

16 year old Abigail noticed that the Skripals were not well, misdiagnosed Sergei as having suffered a heart attack, and called her mom.

Smart move. I mean why would anyone ever call the local Ambulance if they saw someone having a heart attack in a  park? That'd be just too stupid. So stupid in fact that the "nurse" did not telephone the emergency ambulance service either - then she arrived on the scene before any Ambulances did. Good show. Very brave, Very logical, Very good Nursing.

[Fisch]

How to Understand the End of the Mueller Investigation (Hint: You Can’t Yet)


https://www.lawfareblog.com/how-understand-end-mueller-investigation-hint-you-cant-yet

I have a confession: I don’t understand the reaction to the news of the Mueller investigation’s end. I don’t understand the evident glee among some of the president’s defenders. I don’t understand the gloom among some of the president’s critics. I don’t understand either why people seem surprised at news that has been foreshadowed for months in a sequence of stories by good reporters in a variety of different reputable news outlets.

The news we have learned so far about the investigation’s end is broadly consistent with everything we previously knew. It is consistent with Robert Mueller having conducted a vigorous probe. It is consistent with his having prosecuted a raft of suspects both for Russian interference in the 2016 election campaign and—on the U.S. side—for lying about interactions with Russian officials and cutouts. It is consistent with Mueller’s having investigated and prosecuted various possible obstructions of the probe. And it is consistent with his having largely finished his work and written a report detailing his findings, having also investigated a variety of matters that did not pan out into additional criminal charges.
…
If the Mueller report declares that there was, as a factual matter, no cause for concern about the relationship between President Trump and the Russian Federation, I will accept that finding. If it declares that the evidence of an untoward relationship between Trump world and Russia is insufficient to justify criminal prosecution, I will accept that finding. If Mueller concludes that the president’s interactions with law enforcement were all within his Article II powers, I will confine my future criticisms of Trump on this score to the normative acceptability of his conduct and accept the judgment that the criminal law has nothing to say about such presidential behavior. But to accept these conclusions, one needs to be in the same position that one is in at the end of a normal high-profile investigation. That is, one needs to know within a certain broad set of parameters not merely that the investigation has concluded but why.

We don’t know that yet. Until we do, the end of the Mueller investigation means very little—a great deal less than many people seem to imagine.

[sidd]

Attorney General letter on Mueller enquiry:

"did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."

"determined that there were two main Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election." [social media hacking and email hacking]

Re: obstruction

"while this report does not conclude that the President that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him"

"Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."

https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/democrats.judiciary.house.gov/files/documents/AG%20March%2024%202019%20Letter%20to%20House%20and%20Senate%20Judiciary%20Committees.pdf

O dear. No Russian conspiracy by campaign. No evidence for prosecution on obstruction of justice. No more indictments. But wait a minute: perhaps Mueller is Russian agent.

One of my favorite quotes from "Yes, Prime Minister"

“if one of us could one of them, and if two of us could be, you know, two of them, then all of us… could be… that is to say… could be…”

"…all of them?”

sidd

[sidd]

Bershidsky at Bloomberg has a thoughtful take:

"the level of Russia expertise in the U.S. media and intelligence community is lower than it should be."

" while spies, former and current, make titillating sources ...  it may not be a great idea to trust them without fully understanding their agenda."

"the Mueller investigation has provided a valuable collection of facts on what Putin’s Russia can and cannot do against the U.S."

"The Kremlin, in other words, picked some low-hanging fruit. But Mueller’s inability to find collusion despite leaving no stone unturned shows the limited reach of Kremlin networks in the U.S. "

" I’m also willing to allow that Russian intelligence lacked the skills and access needed for a conspiracy. Like other Russian institutions under Putin, it has lost the subtlety and the skill to pull off such a gamble. "

"But the most important learning I draw from Russiagate is about the search for external enemies as a political method beloved of both Russian and U.S. politicians. Russiagate fueled that love in both countries. "

"It allowed the domestic Russian propaganda to portray the U.S. as inherently Russophobic and willing to disregard or twist facts in fits of McCarthyism ... it distracted many Americans from the real causes of Hillary Clinton’s defeat and Trump’s victory. "

"Both countries’ biggest enemies, of course, are inside, not outside"

I do no necessarily agree in entirety, but read the whole thing:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-25/r-i-p-russiagate-here-s-what-we-learned

sidd

[sidd]

van Buren at american conservative: there was no russiagate

"Everything—everything—else we have been told since the summer of 2016 falls, depending on your conscience and view of humanity, into the realm of lies, falsehoods, propaganda, exaggerations, political manipulation, stupid reporting, fake news, bad judgment, simple bull, or, in the best light, hasty conclusions."

"The short version of Russiagate? There was no Russiagate."

"Another generation of journalists soiled themselves."

"The short version: there were no WMDs in Iraq. That was a lie and the media promoted it shamelessly while silencing skeptical voices ... Russiagate was a lie and the media promoted it shamelessly while silencing skeptical voices."

Read the whole thing:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/it-was-all-a-lie/

sidd

[b_lumenkraft]

Mueller: What?

Shifting the conversation away from the real issues: The mainstream media.

[sidd]

The Valdai Club is often a glimpse of Russian strategic thinking. Here is Suslov with a pessimistic view of Russo-US relations.

"Instead of resolving the stalemate, the Mueller report has extended it at least until the 2020 presidential election. It has not even drawn the bottom line under Russiagate."

" political infighting in the United States will not ease off, Russiagate will continue to be used in this fight as a weapon, and the US political system will remain in torpor. "

"the Mueller investigation has not removed or at least weakened the fundamental reasons for the dramatic polarization in the US political system and society"

"the demographic and economic trends are pushing the Republican Party to the right, with a new core of Trump devotees being formed within it, and the Democratic Party – to the left, inducing the growth of socialist sentiments among its electorate. To make matters worse, the traditional elites and their neoliberal economic and migration policies are losing popularity with both the Democratic and Republican electorates. The situation is further complicated by the confrontation between the old and new elites: the latter are still described as populist but they will gradually become the new mainstream. As a result, the Republicans and the Democrats, on the one hand, and the old and new elites, on the other hand are locked in an extremely intensive, irreconcilable struggle that has plunged the US political system in torpor and will continue unabated until both parties and their political platforms are thoroughly reformed. Russiagate is just a tool in, not the cause of this struggle. "

"US foreign policy will continue to be used as a weapon in domestic political battles both under Trump and after him, regardless of Russiagate, until both parties complete the cycle, which started in the 1960s with a civil rights revolution and followed hard on Reagan’s conservative revolution. Their next step will be to reform their political platforms and thereby overcome the current polarization. Mueller’s investigation will have no influence on this whatsoever. "

http://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/mueller-report-extends-us-russia-stalemate/

sidd

[b_lumenkraft]

This belongs here

A Message From Rachel Maddow (TMBS 83)

[Rob Dekker]

Europe’s top rights court said yesterday that it had notified Russia of cases, brought by nearly 400 relatives of those killed in the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, that allege Moscow was to blame for the disaster.

A Netherlands-led probe concluded in May 2018 that the plane was struck by a BUK surface-to-air missile controlled by Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade, based in the city of Kursk.
Australia and the Netherlands blamed Russia for the disaster.

In 2015, Russia vetoed a proposal by Malaysia, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ukraine for the United Nations Security Council to set up an international tribunal to prosecute those suspected of downing the aircraft.

American Quinn Lucas Schansman, 18, was aboard MH17 on his way to meet his parents for a family vacation.

“We realise that we will never get our son back. But we are committed to shedding light on – and holding accountable – all who participated in his murder,” his father Thomas Schansman said in a statement.

https://www.gulf-times.com/story/627876/Top-rights-court-notifies-Russia-of-MH17-lawsuits

[sidd]

Russia wins at WTO:

" The case was related to Russia banning Ukrainian trains from direct transit to Russia, arguing they have to stop in Belarus first because of ongoing relations. Ukraine argued that it cost them large amounts of trade in Asia and the Caucasus. The WTO found that Russia’s claim of a national security issue at the border was “objectively true” and that Russia was allowed to limit direct rail traffic."

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/04/05/russias-wto-win-sets-precedent-for-national-security-affecting-trade-rules/

sidd

[Rob Dekker]

The G7 foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union have called on Russia to release the 24 Ukrainian Navy sailors seized along with their three naval vessels last year near the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

https://www.unian.info/politics/10507650-g7-foreign-ministers-call-on-russia-to-release-ukrainian-sailors.html

Can't believe that these guys are in Russian prisons after they did NOTHING wrong and literally got rammed by a Russian vessel :

[Hefaistos]

Summing up Russiagate.

[Tom_Mazanec]

New Russian energy doctrine: Fighting AGW OK as long as it doesn't hurt our FF interests
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/ecology/2019/06/moscows-new-energy-doctrine-warns-against-green-shift

[sidd]

Russia back in Council of Europe:

"Moscow was barred from the international assembly five years ago"

"Russia was readmitted by 118 votes in favour and 62 against, with 10 abstentions."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-sanctions-council-europe-ukraine-crimea-echr-human-rights-malaysian-airlines-a8973791.html

sidd

[Neven]

The fact that so many otherwise intelligent people fell for this Russiagate propaganda (and still do), will never cease to amaze and depress me:

[TerryM]

The fact that so many otherwise intelligent people fell for this Russiagate propaganda (and still do), will never cease to amaze and depress me:

While I agree that it's depressing, the power of modern propaganda no longer surprises or amazes me.


I'd been living in the US for decades when Freedom Fries made their unexpected entrance into the vernacular. News broadcasts overnight became exemplars of Orwell's "hate minutes". If you went hiking for a week and left the radio behind, you returned to a world where France went from an unimportant ally, to a nation of surrender monkeys undeserving of anything other than your utter contempt.


 It was enough to remind me of my own nationality, to recognize once again that America was not a safe country to live in, and to begin planning for my own return to Canada.


Very few stood up to the constant stream of hatred spewing from the media. Intelligence had a moderate dampening effect, educational achievement apparently counted even less.


The few that had clearly seen through Bush's demonization of all things French were suddenly swept up in Hillary's Russiagate. It never occurred to them that the Right's ridiculous disparagement of France was being replayed by the Left as they vilified Putin and all things Russian.


The memes propagated would make Goebbels blush.
Terry

[Pragma]

It was enough to remind me of my own nationality, to recognize once again that America was not a safe country to live in, and to begin planning for my own return to Canada.

The memes propagated would make Goebbels blush.
Terry

Terry,
Much as I agree with you, we shouldn't get too smug.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/election-interference-october-protocol-1.5205485

If someone is in the business of providing security (which doesn't exist IMHO), then the best way to ensure a strong budget and continued employment is to promote insecurity. Be afraid, be very afraid!!

And if you can use paranoia to slip in a few choice new laws and reduce privacy, so much the better.

Many have expressed sadness or disappointment but I am a bit more resigned.

The Hegelian Dialectic is as old as the trees and it never gets stale because it works, and it will work as long as the cheese keeps voting for the rats.

*edit* typo

[TerryM]

Pragma

If "smug" was the attitude I projected let me apologize. I've found my fellow Canadians as eager to believe in the Evil Ruskies as those south of the border. We'll soon be voting and I've little doubt that the Rabid Conservatives will be back in control.
I'm embarrassed that my countrymen have such short memory spans. It was only 5 years ago that we breathed a huge sigh of relief when we swept Harper's Conservatives from power.
I'll be supporting my local Liberal MP, but the National Leadership has instigated policies, particularly foreign policies that I simply can't abide.
Sorrowfully
Terry

[Pragma]

Pragma

If "smug" was the attitude I projected let me apologize. I've found my fellow Canadians as eager to believe in the Evil Ruskies as those south of the border. We'll soon be voting and I've little doubt that the Rabid Conservatives will be back in control.
I'm embarrassed that my countrymen have such short memory spans. It was only 5 years ago that we breathed a huge sigh of relief when we swept Harper's Conservatives from power.
I'll be supporting my local Liberal MP, but the National Leadership has instigated policies, particularly foreign policies that I simply can't abide.
Sorrowfully
Terry

Ha! You think you have it bad...

I'm in Alberta

Then again, if you're in Ford country, well.. what can I say?

Cheers

[TerryM]

Ha! You think you have it bad...

I'm in Alberta

Then again, if you're in Ford country,  well.. what can I say?

Cheers

It's amazing when well educated, relatively affluent people with great "safety nets" in place vote for a jerk that's against all of the advantages that we pride ourselves in having built.


I've yet to run into anyone who admits to having voted for Ford.


Is there a charismatic NDP anywhere on the horizon?
Terry