McCain on Kushner backchannel reports: 'I don't like it'

By Saba Hamedy, CNN

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The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee also said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin poses a bigger threat to national security than ISIS.

"I think ISIS can do terrible things," McCain said. "But it's the Russians who tried to destroy the fundamental of democracy and that is to change the outcome of an American election."

McCain said the Russians "tried, and are still trying" to affect the outcome of elections -- most recently with their interference in the French election. He also called for sanctions on Russia.

"We have done nothing since the election last November to respond to Vladimir Putin's attempt to change the outcome of our elections," he said. "So, way to go Vladimir. We haven't responded at all ... Hopefully, when we get back from recess the Senate will enact sanctions on Russia."

More: http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/29/politics/john-mccain-jared-kushner-russia-putin-isis/index.html?sr=twCNN053017john-mccain-jared-kushner-russia-putin-isis0240AMN/ALink&linkId=38136732

Obama administration shutters Russian retreat on Eastern Shore in Maryland
Dec 29, 2016

Responding to what it described as a hacking campaign by the Russian government to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, the Obama administration kicked dozens of Russian officials out of the country Thursday and closed two properties — including one on Maryland's Eastern Shore — that the White House said have been used to gather intelligence.

In the strongest retaliation against Russia the United States has leveled in decades, the administration sanctioned two Russian intelligence services and gave 35 government officials 72 hours to leave the country.

More: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-russian-hacking-maryland-base-20161229-story.html

NSA in Unprecedented Hunt for KremlinGate Evidence

America’s most important spy agency pulls out all the stops in its investigation of Russian interference in 2016
By John R. Schindler • 05/29/17 8:02am

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On this basis, Admiral Rogers confirmed the existence of highly classified signals intelligence which establishes some sort of collusion between Team Trump and the Kremlin during the 2016 election campaign. However, now that the Justice Department has appointed Robert Mueller special counsel charged with running the Russia investigation, NSA is apparently pulling out all the stops to track down any additional evidence which might be relevant to the expanded inquiry into KremlinGate.

Specifically, last week NSA is believed to have sent out an unprecedented order to the Directorate of Operations, the agency’s largest unit. The DO, as insiders term it, manages all of NSA’s SIGINT assets worldwide, making it the most important spy operation on earth. The email sent to every person assigned to the DO came from the Office of General Counsel, the NSA’s in-house lawyers, and it was something seldom seen at the agency—a preservation order.

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An undertaking of this size and scope has never happened in NSA’s 65-year history. Although preservation orders have been issued previously, never has the entire DO been told to search all its databases for SIGINT on named individuals, then preserve anything that’s discovered. KremlinGate is a unique event in our nation’s history, with accusations of nefarious meddling by hostile intelligence agencies in our democracy, and it’s bringing about unprecedented developments in our spy agencies too.

More: http://observer.com/2017/05/mike-rogers-nsa-issues-preservation-order-kremlingate-russia-trump/

Editor shot dead in Russia's Siberia

May 25, 2017 5:10 PM ET

New York, May 25, 2017--Russian authorities must bring to justice those responsible for the killing of Dmitry Popkov, chief editor of independent local newspaper Ton-M in Siberia, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Popkov's body was found with five bullet wounds in his backyard late last night in the city of Minusinsk in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russian and international media reported. Popkov is the second journalist to be killed in Russia this year.

"We call on Russian authorities to conduct a thorough, unbiased, and effective investigation into the brutal slaying of Dmitry Popkov and bring those responsible to justice," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "Russia is a country where too many journalists have been murdered for their work while their killers walk free. This toxic cycle of impunity must be reversed once and for all."

Popkov, 42, who co-founded Ton-M in 2014, was known for his investigative reports on abuse of power and corruption, as well as his criticism of functionaries from the leading Kremlin-backed United Russia party. The newspaper, published under the motto, "We write what other people stay silent about," was well-known in Krasnoyarsk Krai and had been subject to threats and pressure from authorities. It has also been the target of politically motivated police raids, according to media reports. In an August 2016 editorial, Popkov wrote that Ton-M was "accustomed to being a pain in the neck for many officials who are trying to [silence us] in every possible way," through "phone threats, intimidating searches, and interrogations." He added that the authorities were concerned about the "corruption incidents that we reveal."

Sergei Shishov, editor of the Minusinsk-based independent news website Sreda24, said in an interview with the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda today that Popkov was killed for his journalism, particularly for his recent reports about a federal parliamentary audit that revealed corruption in the local administration.

More: https://cpj.org/2017/05/editor-shot-dead-in-russias-siberia.php

Russian linked to Manafort denied immunity by congressional panels: report

A Russian oligarch with ties to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort offered to cooperate with congressional committees probing Russia's efforts to interfere in the election, but lawmakers declined to accept his conditions, The New York Times reported Friday.

Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate in Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, made the offer on the condition of full immunity, three congressional officials told the Times. Lawmakers reportedly declined because it would cause problems for federal criminal investigators.

More: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/335385-russian-with-ties-to-manafort-offers-to-testify-before-congress-if