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How the House Voted on Foreign Aid to Ukraine, Israel and TaiwanVotes on the Foreign Aid Bills Source: Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of RepresentativesThe House passed a long-stalled foreign aid package on Saturday that gives funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, with a majority of lawmakers backing money for American allies across the globe. A majority of Republicans voted against Ukraine aid on Saturday, in a reflection of the stiff resistance within the G.O.P. to continuing to aid Ukraine against President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia’s invasion. While all Democrats voted in favor of aid to Ukraine and all but Ms. Tlaib supported funding to Taiwan, 37 left-leaning Democrats defected to vote against the Israel aid bill. The opposition to the Israel aid represented a minority of Democrats, but reflected the deep resistance to unconditional aid and the divisions in the party on Gaza.

Persons: Mike Johnson, Kevin McCarthy’s, Mr, McCarthy, Vladimir V, Putin, Elise Stefanik, Rashida Tlaib, Bob Good, Good, “, Tlaib, Jamie Raskin, Donald S, Beyer Jr, Earl Blumenauer of, John Garamendi of Organizations: Foreign Aid, Foreign, House, Senate, House Progressive Caucus, Fund, Caucus, Republican, Republicans, ”, Maryland, Democrats Locations: Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, New York, Michigan, Virginia, Gaza, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, John Garamendi of California, United States

☆ With Nuclear Deal Dead, Containing Iran Grows More Fraught
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( David E. Sanger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Iran agreed to a deal in 2015 that would require it to surrender 97 percent of the uranium it could use to make nuclear bombs, Russia and China worked alongside the United States and Europe to get the pact done. The Russians even took Iran’s nuclear fuel, for a hefty fee, prompting celebratory declarations that President Vladimir V. Putin could cooperate with the West on critical security issues and help constrain a disruptive regime in a volatile region. A lot has changed in the subsequent nine years. China and Russia are now more aligned with Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” to an American-led order, along with the likes of North Korea. The disappearance of that unified front is one of the many factors that make this moment seem “particularly dangerous,” said Vali Nasr, an Iranian-born professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, “maybe the most dangerous in decades.”

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, ”, Biden, Vali Nasr Organizations: White, Johns Hopkins School, International Locations: Iran, Russia, China, United States, Europe, American, North Korea, Israel, Beijing, Moscow, Iranian

☆ Before He Died in Prison, Aleksei Navalny Wrote a Memoir. It’s Coming This Fall.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Alexandra Alter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

During the years leading up to his death in a Russian prison, Aleksei A. Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, was writing a memoir about his life and work as a pro-democracy activist. Titled “Patriot,” the memoir will be published in the United States by Knopf on Oct. 22, with a first printing of half a million copies, and a simultaneous release in multiple countries. Navalny, who rose to global prominence as a fierce critic of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, resisted the Kremlin’s repeated attempts to silence him through physical harm, arrests and imprisonment in a remote Arctic penal colony, where he died in February, at age 47. The book, telling his story in his own words, comes as a final show of defiance, his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said in a statement, and could have a galvanizing effect on his followers.

Persons: Aleksei A, Vladimir V, Putin, Yulia Navalnaya Organizations: Knopf Locations: Russian, United States, Russia

☆ Riding Rage Over Israel to Online Prominence
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | Tiffany Hsu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jackson Hinkle has cultivated an online persona so incendiary that he has been kicked off YouTube, Twitch and Instagram. Along the way, he has employed false or misleading content, promoted manipulated images and made comments that watchdog organizations have denounced as antisemitic. He calls himself an American patriot even as he praises American adversaries, including Vladimir V. Putin, Xi Jinping and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “DROP A LIKE if you stand with IRAN in the face of ISRAELI TERRORISM!” he wrote last week on X after an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed several Iranian military officials. A day later he addressed the Houthi leadership in Yemen over video, praising the group for its attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

Persons: Jackson Hinkle, Vladimir V, Putin, Xi Jinping, Ali Khamenei, ” Organizations: YouTube Locations: Israel, American, IRAN, Syria, Yemen, Red

☆ Xi Meets With Russia’s Foreign Minister, Reaffirming Ties
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( David Pierson | Ivan Nechepurenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, met in Beijing on Tuesday, in a session seen as laying the groundwork for an expected visit to China by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and pushing back against mounting pressure from the United States and its allies. Mr. Lavrov’s visit came just days after Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen warned of “significant consequences” if Chinese companies provided material support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. It also took place as President Biden was set to host the leaders of Japan and the Philippines on Wednesday to boost economic and security ties to counter China’s growing assertiveness in Asia. Earlier in the day, Mr. Lavrov met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, and said the two sides had talked about deepening security ties to resist the West's “anti-Chinese” and “anti-Russian orientation.” In a sign of the Kremlin’s continued deference to China, Mr. Lavrov reaffirmed Russia’s rejection of any “outside interference” over Beijing’s claims to the de facto independent island of Taiwan. “There is no place for dictatorships, hegemony, neocolonial and colonial practices, which are now being widely used by the United States and the rest of the ‘collective West,’” Mr. Lavrov said.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Sergey V, Lavrov, Vladimir V, Putin, Lavrov’s, Janet L, Yellen, Biden, Wang Yi, ’, Mr Locations: Beijing, China, Russia, United States, Ukraine, Japan, Philippines, Asia, Taiwan

☆ Russia's former president is calling for a 'maximum reward' bounty to be put on the heads of any NATO troops sent to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewFormer Russian President Dmitry Medvedev launched a scathing verbal attack against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Thursday, calling for a bounty on any Western troops that may enter Ukraine. The Russian official said any NATO forces in Ukraine would be considered part of the "regular forces" fighting against Moscow. Key to that rhetoric has been Russia amplifying the idea that NATO may escalate tensions by sending troops to Ukraine. Advertisement"We don't have any plans of having any NATO combat troops inside Ukraine," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Wednesday. AdvertisementOn March 8, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said that NATO troops were "already present in Ukraine" but did not say how many were deployed or for what purpose.

Persons: —, Dmitry Medvedev, Medvedev, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Mikhail Svetlov, Emmanuel Macron —, Jens Stoltenberg, Radek Sikorski, Sikorski, Maria Zakharova, shouldn't, Sinead Baker, Tony Soprano's, Edward Lucas Organizations: Service, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Russia's Security, Business, NATO, Moscow, Hitler's, Kremlin, Nazi, Russian, Hague, Security, Pentagon, Polish, Center for Locations: Ukraine, Western Ukraine, Moscow, Soviet, Nazi Germany, Nazi, Russia, Russian, Kyiv, France

A pile of flowers blanketed a small memorial in the center of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius after the death of the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny last month. The impromptu tribute at the memorial, an unassuming pyramid commemorating victims of Soviet repression, has highlighted Vilnius’s growing status as the center of Russian political opposition. In Vilnius, exiled Russian journalists have set up studios to broadcast news to millions of compatriots back home on YouTube. Russian activists have rented offices to catalog the Kremlin’s human rights abuses, and exiled Russian musicians have recorded new albums for the audience back home. The arrival of the Russian dissidents in Vilnius has added to a larger wave of Russian-speaking refugees and migrants from Belarus and Ukraine over the past four years.

Persons: Aleksei A, “ Putin, ”, Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: Lithuanian, YouTube Locations: Lithuanian, Vilnius, Russia, Ukraine, Russian, Belarus

☆ U.S. Intelligence Warning to Moscow Named Specific Target of Attack
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Julian E. Barnes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The U.S. warning to Russia ahead of a terrorist attack near Moscow was highly specific: Crocus City Hall was a potential target of the Islamic State, according to U.S. officials. The warning had the right venue but imprecise timing, suggesting that the attack could come within days. Indeed, the public warning by the United States Embassy on March 7 warned of potential terrorist attacks in the next two days. Gunmen stormed the hall on March 22, killing 144 people, the deadliest attack in Russia in nearly 20 years. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, and Russia charged four men from Tajikistan, accusing them of carrying out the massacre.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: Islamic, United States Embassy, Gunmen, Islamic State Locations: Russia, Moscow, Crocus, Islamic State, Tajikistan, Ukraine

☆ Russia could turn on Putin as the nation's economic strength wanes and sanctions keep tightening, economists say
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-31 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Russia's economic strength is likely to wane this year, economists say. Putin's economic fantasyThe tailspin Sonnenfeld, Tian, and Guriev are predicting seems contradictory to what Russia is presenting on the surface. Russian inflation is also high, clocking in at 7.58%, according to data from Russia's economic ministry. Guriev doesn't believe Russia's economy will completely unravel, as central bankers will work hard to limit the damage. Advertisement"It's unlikely the Russian economy will spiral into a macroeconomic meltdown, and that the Russian political system will," he said.

Persons: Putin, Joe Biden, —, Vladimir Putin, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Steven Tian, Tian, Trump's, Sergei Guriev, Sonnenfeld, he's, Guriev, Putin's Organizations: Service, Yale, London Business School, Russia Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Russian, Moscow, Soviet

☆ Syria Blames Israel for Deadly Attack in Aleppo
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Gaya Gupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the strikes, but it has previously acknowledged carrying out hundreds of assaults on Iran-linked targets in Syria. Friday’s attack was at least the second deadly attack in Syria in less than a week. On Tuesday, airstrikes in eastern Syria killed several people. The Iranian state news media said that Israel was responsible, while the Syrian state news agency attributed it to American forces. The Tuesday strikes killed a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to Iranian state news media reports.

Persons: —, SANA, Ali Abdulhassan Naim, Yoav Gallant, “, ”, Firas Makdesi, Saleh al, Bashar al, Assad, al, Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir V, Putin, Israel, Johnatan Reiss Organizations: Syrian Observatory, Human Rights, —, Lebanese, Hezbollah, Reuters, United Nations, Pentagon, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, World Health Organization Locations: Syrian, Aleppo, Britain, Syria, Lebanese, Iran, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria’s, Israeli, Damascus, Beirut, United States, Russia

☆ After the Moscow Attack, Putin’s Next Escalation Is Coming - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Hanna Notte | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In the wake of the terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall last Friday, which killed at least 143 people, Russia is in mourning. Despite ISIS claiming responsibility for the attack, the Russian leadership has repeatedly blamed Ukraine and its Western backers. But even without the Crocus City Hall attack, Mr. Putin was primed to step up his assault on Ukraine. After his landslide victory in this month’s rubber-stamp presidential election, Mr. Putin is more secure than ever in his position and free to focus fully on the war effort. The timing is good, too: With Western military support for Kyiv mired in uncertainty, the next few months offer Moscow a window of opportunity for new offensives.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, “, ”, Dmitri Peskov, Putin Organizations: Moscow’s, ISIS Locations: Moscow’s Crocus, Russia, Ukraine, Kyiv, Crocus, Russian, Moscow

☆ Why Russia Is Protecting North Korea From Nuclear Monitors
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( David E. Sanger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Through the most tense encounters with President Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia over the past decade, there has been one project in which Washington and Moscow have claimed common cause: keeping North Korea from expanding its arsenal of nuclear weapons. On Thursday, Russia used its veto power in the United Nations Security Council to kill off a U.N. panel of experts that has been monitoring North Korea’s efforts to evade sanctions over its nuclear program for the past 15 years. Moscow once welcomed the panel’s detailed reports about sanctions violations and considered Pyongyang’s nuclear program to be a threat to global security. But more recently, the panel has provided vivid evidence of how Russia is keeping the North brimming with fuel and other goods, presumably in return for the artillery shells and missiles that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is shipping to Russia for use against Ukraine. The group has produced satellite images of ship-to-ship transfers of oil, showing how the war in Ukraine has proved to be a bonanza for the North.

Persons: Vladimir V, Kim Jong Organizations: Putin’s, United Nations Security Council, North Korean, Ukraine Locations: Putin’s Russia, Washington, Moscow, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine

☆ Czechs Accuse Men of ‘Russian Influence Operation’ in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Monika Pronczuk | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Czech Republic has frozen the assets of two men and a news website it accuses of running an influence operation in Europe that supports “the foreign policy interests of the Russian Federation,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The ministry identified the men as Viktor Medvedchuk, a high-profile, pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and the leader of the effort, and Artem Marchevskyi, a Ukrainian-Israeli citizen who allegedly ran the website, the Czech-registered Voice of Europe. Long known as an ally of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, Mr. Medvedchuk was arrested in Ukraine and handed over to Russia in a prisoner exchange in 2022. “We cracked down on a Russian influence operation that was directed by Viktor Medvedchuk directly from Russia,” Jan Lipavsky, the Czech foreign minister, said in a statement. “The aim was to spread pro-Russian narratives undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty while infiltrating the European Parliament.”While the Czech authorities refused to provide immediate comment on how expansive the effort was or how richly financed, officials promised further revelations.

Persons: Viktor Medvedchuk, Artem Marchevskyi, Long, Vladimir V, Putin, Medvedchuk, ” Jan Lipavsky Organizations: Russian Federation, Foreign, Europe Locations: Czech Republic, Europe, Russian Ukrainian, Ukrainian, Czech, Ukraine, Russia

☆ Putin Offers Both Reassurance and Threat on a Wider War
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Ivan Nechepurenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has warned that if F-16 fighter jets supplied to Ukraine by its Western allies operated from airfields in other countries, the bases would be “legitimate targets” for attack. In a speech to Russian Air Force pilots late Wednesday, however, Mr. Putin rejected suggestions from some Western leaders that Russia is planning to invade NATO countries as “complete nonsense.”The threat that Russia might move against other countries has become one of the main arguments used by the Ukrainian government and its supporters to try to persuade the U.S. to dispatch more military aid to the country. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said again in an interview with CBS News published on Thursday that war “can come to Europe, and to the United States of America.”

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, ” Organizations: Russian Air Force, CBS Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Ukrainian, U.S, Europe, United States of America

A day before the U.S. embassy in Moscow put out a rare public alert this month about a possible extremist attack at a Russian concert venue, the local C.I.A. station delivered a private warning to Russian officials that included at least one additional detail: The plot in question involved an offshoot of the Islamic State known as ISIS-K.American intelligence had been tracking the group closely and believed the threat credible. Within days, however, President Vladimir V. Putin was disparaging the warnings, calling them “outright blackmail” and attempts to “intimidate and destabilize our society.”Three days after he spoke, gunmen stormed Crocus City Hall outside Moscow last Friday night and killed at least 143 people in the deadliest attack in Russia in nearly two decades. ISIS quickly claimed responsibility for the massacre with statements, a photo and a propaganda video. What made the security lapse seemingly even more notable was that in the days before the massacre Russia’s own security establishment had also acknowledged the domestic threat posed by the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, called Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, ” Organizations: Crocus City Hall, Moscow, ISIS, Islamic State Locations: U.S, Moscow, Russian, Islamic, Crocus, Russia, Afghanistan, State Khorasan Province

☆ Worries Over Ethnic Tensions Have Kremlin Treading Carefully on Massacre
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Anton Troianovski | Milana Mazaeva | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At a memorial service this week outside the concert hall where Islamist extremists are suspected of carrying out a deadly terrorist attack, one of Russia’s most popular pro-Kremlin rappers warned “right-wing and far-right groups” that they must not “incite ethnic hatred.”At a televised meeting about the attack, Russia’s top prosecutor, Igor Krasnov, pledged that his service was paying “special attention” to preventing “interethnic and interfaith conflicts.”And when President Vladimir V. Putin made his first comments on the tragedy last weekend, he said he would not allow anyone to “sow the poisonous seeds of hatred, panic and discord in our multiethnic society.”In the wake of the assault near Moscow that killed 139 people last Friday, there has been a recurring theme in the Kremlin’s response: a fear that the tragedy could spur ethnic strife inside Russia. While Mr. Putin and his security chiefs are accusing Ukraine — without evidence — of having helped organize the killing, the fact that the four detained suspects in the attack are from the predominantly Muslim Central Asian country of Tajikistan is stoking anti-migrant rhetoric online.

Persons: “, ”, Igor Krasnov, “ interethnic, Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: Kremlin, Ukraine, Central Locations: Moscow, Russia, Central Asian, Tajikistan

☆ Opinion: Watch carefully what Putin does next
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Literally and figuratively, Putin was telling Russians — who would soon vote in a presidential election — that he was the man to protect them. Once in office, attack after attack gave him the pretext to dismantle democracy brick by brick. Once in office, attack after attack gave him the pretext to dismantle democracy brick by brick. Patrushev, incidentally, now heads the national security council, and as I recently wrote, is a possible successor to Putin. The terrorist attack was a glaring failure by the president and his regime.

Persons: Frida Ghitis, Vladimir Putin, Boris Yeltsin, Putin, —, ”, Yeltsin, Nikolai Patrushev, Alexander Litvinenko, Denis Sinyakov, Moscow’s, beholden, Oleg Nikishin, Crocus Organizations: CNN, Washington Post, Politics, Frida Ghitis CNN, Crocus City Hall, ISIS, Putin, FSB, European Court, Human Rights, Kremlin, Chechen, Getty Locations: Crocus, Moscow, Ukraine, Washington, Chechnya, Russian, Ryazan, AFP, Russia, Beslan, ”

☆ Russia Amps Up Online Campaign Against Ukraine Before U.S. Elections
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Julian E. Barnes | David E. Sanger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russia has intensified its online efforts to derail military funding for Ukraine in the United States and Europe, largely by using harder-to-trace technologies to amplify arguments for isolationism ahead of the U.S. elections, according to disinformation experts and intelligence assessments. In recent days, intelligence agencies have warned that Russia has found better ways to hide its influence operations, and the Treasury Department issued sanctions last week against two Russian companies that it said supported the Kremlin’s campaign. The stepped-up operations, run by aides to President Vladimir V. Putin and Russian military intelligence agencies, come at a critical moment in the debate in the United States over support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. While opposition to additional aid may have started without Russian influence, the Kremlin now sees an opportunity. Russian operatives are laying the groundwork for what could be a stronger push to support candidates who oppose aiding Ukraine, or who call for pulling the United States back from NATO and other alliances, U.S. officials and independent researchers say.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: Ukraine, Treasury Department, Russia, Kremlin, NATO Locations: Russia, United States, Europe, Russian, Ukraine

☆ The Islamic State Claimed the Moscow Attack. The Kremlin Is Still Blaming Others.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even before the deadly toll of the attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday became clear, officials in Russia linked it to the war against Ukraine and a broader conflict with the West. Ninety minutes after first reports of the attack, Dmitri A. Medvedev, the former president and the deputy chairman of the Kremlin’s security council, darkly hinted at “terrorists of the Kyiv regime.”The claim of responsibility by the Islamic State did little to temper the Kremlin’s narrative, which has unspooled in a torrent of unsupported accusations and baseless, even fanciful conspiracy theories spread across social media. When President Vladimir V. Putin said “radical Islamists” had carried out the attack, he called it “just an element in a series of attempts of those who have been at war with our country since 2014,” an explicit reference to Ukraine and the upheaval that year that led to the illegal annexation of Crimea. “They need a ‘Big Lie,’” said Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at the New School in New York, who has written extensively on Russian politics and propaganda.

Persons: Dmitri A, Medvedev, Vladimir V, Putin, “, ”, ’ ”, Nina Khrushcheva Organizations: Ukraine, West, New School Locations: Moscow, Russia, Kyiv, Ukraine, Crimea, “, New York

☆ Lukashenko undermines Putin’s Ukraine claim on Moscow concert hall attack
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Christian Edwards | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko appears to have cast doubt on Russia’s claims that Ukraine was involved in the brutal attack at a Moscow concert hall last week. Putin on Saturday claimed that a “window” had been prepared for the attackers to escape to Ukraine, which Kyiv has denied. But Lukashenko, one of Putin’s most loyal allies, on Tuesday appeared to contradict the Kremlin’s claims, saying that the attackers initially intended to enter Belarus rather than Ukraine. Putin lights a candle on Sunday in memory of victims of the Crocus City Hall attack. Shamil Zhumatov/ReutersA total of 11 people have been arrested in connection with the attack on the concert hall, Russian officials said.

Persons: Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin, Putin, ”, Lukashenko, …, ” Lukashenko, Belta, “, Alexander Bortnikov, Putin “, Dalerdzhon, Shamil Zhumatov, It’s Organizations: CNN, Belarusian, ISIS, Saturday, Kyiv, Crocus City, Central, Monday, Putin, Russia’s Federal Security Services, Reuters Locations: Ukraine, Moscow, Belarus, “, Belarusian, Russia, Crocus, Tajikistan, Russia’s Bryansk, Kremlin, Bryansk, Basmanny

☆ Russia’s political class is taking a dark and vengeful turn
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Nathan Hodge | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Now comes another shock to the system, with the appalling murder of at least 139 people in a terror attack at a concert hall just outside Moscow. And with its brutal official response to the attack, Russia seems to have taken an even darker turn. But after Friday’s Crocus City attack, the brutality of Russian security services appeared on naked display. It sends a message to ordinary Russians – and the world – that Russian state security forces are capable of anything. “Everyone asks me, what is to be done?” Medvedev said, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Persons: Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin, Putin, – implausibly, ”, Dmitry Peskov, ” Peskov, ” Putin, Tatyana Makeyeva, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, Margarita Simonyan, approvingly, Simonyan, “, Alexander Zemlianichenko, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s, ” Medvedev, Vladimir Vasiliev Organizations: CNN, ISIS, “ Intelligence, Kremlin, KGB, Getty, VK, Putin, “, United Russia, Novosti Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Kyiv, United States, Chechnya, Crocus, Basmanny, AFP, Russian

☆ Vowing the U.S. Will ‘Do Our Job,’ Johnson Searches for a Path on Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Catie Edmondson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Speaker Mike Johnson opened the floor for questions at a closed-door luncheon fund-raiser in New Jersey last month, Jacquie Colgan asked how, in the face of vehement opposition within his own ranks, he planned to handle aid for Ukraine. What followed was an impassioned monologue by Mr. Johnson in which he explained why continued American aid to Kyiv was, in his view, vital — a message starkly at odds with the hard-right views that have overtaken his party. He invoked his political roots as a Reagan Republican, denounced President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as a “madman” and conceded the issue had forced him to walk a “delicate political tightrope.”Reminded by Ms. Colgan, a member of the American Coalition for Ukraine, a nonprofit advocacy group, of the adage that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil was for good people to do nothing, Mr. Johnson replied that he kept a copy of the quotation framed in his office. “That’s not going to be us,” he assured her. “We’re going to do our job.”The exchange reflects what Mr. Johnson has privately told donors, foreign leaders and fellow members of Congress in recent weeks, according to extensive notes Ms. Colgan took during the New Jersey event and interviews with several other people who have spoken with him.

Persons: Mike Johnson, Jacquie Colgan, Mr, Johnson, Vladimir V, Putin, ”, Ms, Colgan, “ That’s, “ We’re Organizations: Reagan Republican, American Coalition for Ukraine Locations: New Jersey, Ukraine, Kyiv, Russia, Jersey

☆ Putin expected to use deadly Moscow attack to Russia's advantage, whoever's to blame
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

U.S. officials and defense experts agreed that it's highly likely that IS was responsible for the attack. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that "what happened yesterday in Moscow is obviously just Putin and the other scum trying to blame it on someone else." Moscow openly rebuffed and ignored a warning from the U.S. earlier in March that "extremists" had "imminent plants" to attack large gatherings in Moscow. Law enforcement officers stand guard near the Crocus City Hall concert venue following a reported shooting incident, near Moscow, Russia. Just days before the attack, Putin instructed Russia's security services to focus their efforts on supporting Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Metzel, Vladimir Putin's, Olga Maltseva, hasn't, Ukraine —, Putin, Ali Cura, Dmitry Medvedev, Medvedev, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Maksim Blinov, Maximilian Hess, Hess, Putin's, Tatyana Makeyeva Organizations: Sputnik, Afp, Getty, Hall, Islamic State, Ukraine, West, Crocus City Hall, Anadolu, Russia's Security, NBC News, Foreign Policy Research Institute, CNBC, Islamic Locations: Russian, Moscow, Russia, Crocus, Ukraine, Kyiv, Europe, Basmanny, U.S, Chechen, Islamic State, Syria, Afghanistan

☆ As Russia Mourns Attack Victims, State Media Intensifies Blame of Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Ivan Nechepurenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As Russians grieved Monday for victims of the bloody assault on a concert hall near Moscow that killed at least 137 people, President Vladimir V. Putin was scheduled to meet with government officials to discuss the tragedy, the worst such attack in the capital in two decades. The government appears to be stepping up efforts to pin the blame on Ukraine. On Sunday, hours after a district court arraigned four men suspected of carrying out the Friday night attack, the main evening news shows on Russia’s main television channels featured reports suggesting that Ukraine was responsible. The main message was that Western countries were pushing a theory that a branch of the Islamic State was behind the attack, which took place at Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow, to shift blame away from Ukraine. “The United States and Europe understand that any connection between Ukraine and the attack against Crocus City Hall would be suicidal for Kyiv and the whole anti-Russian alliance,” said one anchor, Dmitri Melnikov, in a report on Vesti Nedeli, the flagship weekly news show on Rossiya-1, the main state-owned television network.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, ”, Dmitri Melnikov, Nedeli Organizations: Islamic, Crocus City, Kyiv Locations: Moscow, Ukraine, Islamic State, United States, Europe

☆ Ukrainians Shun Kremlin Suggestions Their Country Was Behind Moscow Attack
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ukrainians have reacted with a mixture of concern and mockery to the narrative pushed by the Kremlin and Russian state media that Ukraine was behind the terrorist attack Friday on a Moscow concert hall, a claim made despite the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility. “This is a typical provocation,” Iryna Blakyta, 24, a resident of Kyiv, said on Monday. “It’s typical for Russia.” She said President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would use the attack to create a rally-around-the flag effect directed against Ukraine, after more than two years of war have worn down the Russian population. “He needs to mobilize people,” Ms. Blakyta said, “he needs to show who the enemy is.”That worry was palpable Monday morning in Kyiv, which was targeted by two ballistic missiles in broad daylight, the third air assault against the Ukrainian capital in five days. A university building in a central part of the city was reduced to rubble in the attack, and officials said at least 10 people were injured.

Persons: Iryna, “, ”, Vladimir V, Putin, Ms, Blakyta Organizations: Kremlin, Ukraine Locations: Ukraine, Moscow, Kyiv, Russia

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