The Russian Report

Senate intelligence report warns of repeat of Russian interference in US election

edition.cnn.com/2020/08/19/politics/senate-intelligence-report-russia-2020/index

A cross party group of MPs is threatening to sue Boris Johnson over his refusal to investigate Russian interference in our elections.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/21/mps-threaten-to-sue-boris-johnson-unless-he-acts-over-russian-meddling-in-uk-polls

On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee dropped a bombshell about Russia's interference in the 2016 election -- and its ongoing efforts to disrupt the 2020 contest as well.

edition.cnn.com/2020/08/19/politics/russia-investigation-fbi-paul-manafort-donald-trump-jr-donald-trump/index.html

varian

It is an interesting subject to follow and it gives other aspects issues that are not widely reported in the UK or on some networks/media in the US. Politics in the US is even more partisan than here as with the judiciary. It can be a farce at times.

Anybody interested would find it fascinating and the afore mentioned plea of guilty by FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith admitting falsifying /doctoring the FISA application is the first (possibly last?) criminal charge to be made re the Trump Campaign and taking office.

It is being called Obamagate in some quarters and obviously that is trashed in other quarters.

However the evidence thus far is in my opinion is quite damning but I await more information and watching more testimonies from the relevant parties such as Former FBI director James Comey.

The Durham Investigation: What We Know and What It Means

www.lawfareblog.com/durham-investigation-what-we-know-and-what-it-means

Sorry, POGS, you overestimate my knowledge of this but hope this article helps.

Varian

You appear to have a wide knowledge of this subject so can I ask you :-

What do you think so far about the released papers to the Durham Investigation?

What do you think about yesterday's 'guilty' plea by former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith?

Kevin Clinesmith yesterday, wednesday, was in federal court and pleaded guilty to ' falsifying ' a document as part of the bureau’s early-stage probe into whether President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with the Russian. government.

Kevin Clinesmith admitted to doctoring a CIA email the FBI used in 2017 when it applied to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to renew its application for a secret wiretap to monitor Carter Page.

Clinesmith was helping to prepare the application, and in doing so, he altered an email which originally stated that Carter Page was a government "source," as he had publicly claimed. However Clinesmith added words to make it appear that the government agency, which was later revealed to be the CIA, said that Page was "not a source," according to the Justice Department's information in the case.

A Senate report into the links between the President and the Kremlin showed what was, to all intents and purposes, "a Russian spy at the heart of the Trump campaign".

www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/james-obrien/evidence-report-russian-collusion/

Duncan Hames, Director of Policy at Transparency International UK, said:

“This report confirms Britain’s ongoing role as a ‘laundromat’ for dirty money and reputations and has major national security implications. Action needs to be taken urgently to root out illicit wealth and nefarious influence.

“The National Crime Agency should be properly resourced with the funds and powers to counter the threat posed by powerful individuals with suspicious wealth and links to hostile states. Those in the private sector should fulfil their duty as the first line of defence against dirty money, with firm penalties for those that fail to do this.

“Finally, parliamentary oversight and transparency should be strengthened to prevent MPs and peers from becoming unwitting agents of hostile states. Adopting these measures would ensure that Britain is more resilient in the face of hostile state action, making both our democracy and economy more secure.”

The report in picture form

But restful.
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Urmstongran

I can sleep easier tonight safe in the knowledge you good ladies are on the Russian case.
?

That would be very foolish of you.

I can sleep easier tonight safe in the knowledge you good ladies are on the Russian case.
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MaizieD

Lebedev's father is a 'former' KGB agent. I've seen comment to the effect that once a KGB agent, always a KGB agent. The proximity seems too close for comfort to me.

The Kremlin now has a direct line to the British legislature..

Exactly!

Lebedev's father is a 'former' KGB agent. I've seen comment to the effect that once a KGB agent, always a KGB agent. The proximity seems too close for comfort to me.

The Kremlin now has a direct line to the British legislature..

He also owns the Independent and the Evening Standard, so I wonder when the other influential press barons will become real barons.

Money?

Evgeny Lebedev been sponsored by Johnson for House of Lords. What can a Russian billionaire contribute to our political life?

The curious case of the Eurotunnel interconnector

Seems to me to have a link to the suspicions aroused by the Russia Report

Reporting by Robert Peston for ITV:

Aquind, a company that has donated more than £240,000 to the Tory party, and which has a director, Alexander Termerko, who has donated £1.3m to the Tories, is awaiting a government decision on its plan to invest £1.2bn on a new power connector under the Channel.

According to the Times, there is a "Russian tycoon" behind the project, whom senior Tories - such as Iain Duncan Smith - want outed, in the wake of last week's report by parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee into alleged Russian meddling in the UK's democratic processes.

But, oddly enough, there's another, closer to home, company involved, too:

Against that backdrop, I've been given details of a rival project to connect the power systems of France and the UK - by Getlink, the company that owns Eurotunnel - that is significantly further advanced than Aquind's but where regulatory approval has been delayed.

Getlink has already spent €500m on the connector and could be operational by the middle of next year. But regulatory approval from the British authorities has not been given, for reasons its directors find difficult to understand.

See more at:
www.itv.com/news/2020-07-25/eurotunnel-dont-understand-delays-to-power-project

Cross-post varian

How many people here have read the actual report?

It's not just about taking money, the details of which have been redacted anyway.

There is also information about the social media activity of Russian bots and trolls. I'm not clever enough to trace the source of online messages, although plenty of people are.

However, after a while, it became quite easy to spot them. GN won't admit it of course, but I suspect there were some on here (cue deletion of post!)

It's quite easy to spot bots and trolls from other sources too, although they're getting sneaky and target posters they think will be sympathetic from stated interests, likes and people others follow. If it's obvious you're not going to be sympathetic, you don't get to see half of what's going on. Hence part of the obsession with big data.

RT and Sputnik published no fewer than 261 media articles on the EU referendum in the UK, or with a strong anti-EU sentiment which mentioned Brexit from 1 January 2016 until 23 June 2016. The report shows the social reach of these anti-EU articles published by the Kremlin-owned channels was 134 million potential impressions, in comparison with a total social reach of just 33 million and 11 million potential impressions for all content shared from the Vote Leave website and Leave.EU website respectively.

Mike Harris, CEO of 89up said:

“The Kremlin’s propaganda channels had three times more impact on Twitter than both the official Leave campaigns combined. The Russian government has two media outlets based in the UK, Sputnik and Russia Today (RT), who ran hundreds of misleading news articles in the run-up to the EU referendum that were seeded across social media. We don’t know how much the Russian government is paying social networks to spread their propaganda, or how much Russia is spending on their media networks. We need Parliament to get to grips with a clear and deliberate attempt by an autocratic foreign power to interfere in our democracy.”

Social media activity by the two channels spiked on the day of the referendum, with both platforms increasing their Twitter activity significantly which matched the surge in Russian bot activity on the day.

Many of the articles by the platforms during the referendum were highly misleading, with RT and Sputnik publishing grossly exaggerated or false stories on European refugee flows, immigration to the UK, the role of MI5 during the referendum and the CIA role in creating the EU.

89up.org/russia-report

Former Tory party chairman and cabinet minister Brandon Lewis has defended taking money from Russian donors, and supported 14 of his colleagues for doing so, despite a number having links to Vladimir Putin.

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/brandon-lewis-defends-russian-donations-on-sky-news-1-6759259

My MP was never a district councillor anywhere. After a few attempts to get selected, she was put on a list of names sent to the local Tory party. I know for a fact that the local Tory leader didn't want her. She's not from the area and is rarely here, despite promising people she would relocate.

This is an ultra-safe Tory seat. Whoever was selected has a job for life, if they want it. The people on the list were a) my current MP b) one of Theresa May's SpAds, who was the party favourite but was implicated in electoral fraud c) a makeweight, whom nobody's ever heard of again.

The local membership were put off by the idea of Theresa May's SpAd, because they thought he might be prosecuted, so they voted for the one we have now. Her politics are horrendously right-wing, but (most importantly) she just doesn't care. She hardly ever responds to constituents, repeats Tory PR statements on social media and pops up every now and then for photo ops with the local farmers (she supports fox hunting) and the occasional visit to a school or hospital.

I, and many others here, feel totally unrepresented and disenfranchised.

And, yes, I have known some good councillors (from all parties), but they're being increasingly replaced by snake oil salespeople with vested interests. Some of them even participate in the name calling and smearing on social media.

“That's just lazy thinking, dayvidg. It insults those who go into politics with the intention of doing good for the country and its people and encourages the venial to perpetrate the system.“

Many go into politics honestly for the good of the community, most dont last long, party politics dictates how long they last. Most begin at District Council level, failing to tow the party line there and you will be deselected, upset the local hierarchy or the party agent and you’re out.

So if you want to survive (most don’t) you sell your soul to whichever party you represent. I’ve seen it time and again good councilors dumped, it’s a safe Tory seat and they don’t tolerate dissenters.

There will always be people who genuinely believe in the sort of values the Tory represents. Nothing will change them.

My late parents believed in the sort of values the Tories represent, they will be spinning in their graves at the adulterer and liar who has the top job, and as a persom who spent the latter part of his career investigating company fraud, my Father would have very strong opinions on the like of Patel, Jenrick, Shapps etc., and that is without mentioning all those who received gifts from Putin. This shower of sh*t in no 10 is not representative of the Tory party many used to support. They are venal. They are however, representative of Murdoch et al, the owners of the right wing press and too many people take their guidance and morals from the them.