Section: The Atlantic (USA)
A Suspected Russian Spy, With Curious Ties to Washington
A longtime Republican operative with ties to the controversial data firm hired by President Donald Trump’s campaign team also has a nearly two-decade-long friendship and business relationship with a suspected Russian intelligence agent, Konstantin Kilimnik, who has landed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s crosshairs.The...
American Sanctions Are Getting Closer to Putin
Even though Donald Trump himself has encouraged better relations with the Russians, his administration keeps finding new ways to punish them. It has sanctioned Russians; expelled Russians; and then sanctioned more Russians. And the new round of sanctions announced on Friday brings the punishment ever closer to Vladimir Putin himself.That’s...
‘The Ball Is Very Much in the Russian Court’
On Thursday, it was Americans who learned they were being kicked out of Russia. On Friday, it was Europeans. Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of several European nations and ordered the expulsion of their diplomats; their number precisely mirrored the number of Russian diplomats expelled by Western nations on Monday. In...
Facebook’s Ideological Imperialism
It’s mostly forgotten now, but for a time, expanding the reach of social networks—making Facebook, Twitter, and others like it as large as possible—was an avowed foreign-policy goal of the United States. That is, at least, what the secretary of state said in the early days of this decade, in a speech at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.“New...
Why Is Trump Turning Against Russia Now?
No single stand has hobbled Donald Trump’s presidency more than his attitude toward Russia.During the presidential campaign, he conspicuously praised Vladimir Putin, and refused to condemn his seizure of Crimea. Trump also publicly called for Russia to release emails hacked from Hillary Clinton, something his aides said was a joke....
The U.S. and Russia Are Caught in a Downward Spiral
Russia ordered 60 U.S. diplomats to leave the country by April 5, and said the American consulate in St. Petersburg must close by March 31. This action—the expulsion of 60 diplomats and the closing of a consulate—is a precise parallel to a move announced this week by the Trump administration, which was responding to Moscow’s alleged role in...
The Shadowy Operative at the Center of the Russia Scandal
Buried in a late-night court filing in Robert Mueller’s expansive probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was an explosive claim: An adviser to President Donald Trump’s campaign and transition teams had knowingly been in contact with a former Russian intelligence officer as late as September 2016, prosecutors...
Diplomatic Expulsions Won’t Deter Russia
In the span of a day, more than 100 Russian diplomats across North America and Europe were told that they’d be getting the boot—a mass expulsion coordinated by 23 countries in response to this month’s nerve-agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury. The move was a...
Putin Finally Went Too Far
When Britain threw out 23 Russian diplomats in response to an assassination attempt on Russian agent Sergei Skripal, Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia and current bad boy of modern geopolitics, shrugged it off. With relations between London and Moscow so strained, the embassy didn’t have all that much to do, anyway. The cost, Putin no...
Trump’s ‘Good Relationship’ With Russia Is Slipping Away
Donald Trump says building a “good relationship” with Russia isn’t about his interests, but America’s. Russia “can help solve problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iran and even the coming Arms Race,” the president noted last week in explaining why he had congratulated Vladimir Putin on his victory in an unfree election.On...
