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Clinesmith falsified documents and helped the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Team omit exonerating evidence about Carter Page on four separate FISA applications. The FBI was told Carter Page was a U.S. intelligence agency source months before the agency began keeping that information from the secret court that authorized spying on him and nearly a full year before the agency altered documents to claim otherwise. Federal charging documents against Kevin Clinesmith, the top FBI attorney who was expected to plead guilty today to altering documents, show that the FBI withheld in three separate spying applications the fact that Page had served as...

Leading Russian firms saw their share prices collapse Monday, as the fallout from Moscow rejecting an oil production pact with Saudi Arabia rocks global financial markets. Among the biggest losers were state-backed lenders Sberbank and VTB, which both plunged by more than 20% when European markets opened. Oil major Rosneft, also state-owned, recorded a 20% drop — equivalent to a $15 billion fall in value — while Gazprom shares crashed by almost 25% initially, before recovering slightly to stand 15% down. Markets in Russia are closed Monday for a public holiday, but shares in a number of Russian companies are...

Russia is now "so deeply invested in the Maduro regime that the only realistic option is to double down." Financial Times' Alexander Gabuev says that Rosneft owns two offshore gas fields in Venezuela and holds stakes in assets boasting more than 20 million tonnes of crude. Caracas owes Rosneft USD 3 billion. Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido last month declared himself interim president, winning the backing of the United States. Russia, meanwhile, supported Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolás Maduro, who has led the oil-rich nation since 2013. The Kremlin is extending help to Maduro while the United States is imposing sanctions...

CARACAS, September 17 (RIA Novosti) - Five of the largest Russian oil companies want to set up a consortium to boost operations in Latin American countries, a deputy prime minister said Wednesday. Rosneft, LUKoil, Gazprom Neft, Surgutneftegaz and TNK-BP came up with the proposal. Igor Sechin, who chairs the board of state-controlled Rosneft, Russia's largest oil company, said: "It would be strange for Russia, which shares first place in global oil production with the Saudis, not to interact, say, with Venezuela, which holds fifth or sixth place."

Investigative journalist Michael Isikoff said Friday that he was surprised to find out that an article he wrote about Carter Page prior to the election was used to obtain a spy warrant against the former Trump campaign adviser.The revelation, which was made in a memo released by the House Intelligence Committee on Friday, “stuns me,” Isikoff said in an episode of his podcast, “Skullduggery.”The four-page memo alleges that the DOJ and FBI submitted inaccurate and incomplete information in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Page. The spy warrant was granted on Oct. 21, 2016.One “essential” part of the...

An ex-KGB chief suspected of helping the former MI6 spy Christopher Steele to compile his dossier on Donald Trump may have been murdered by the Kremlin and his death covered up. it has been claimed. Oleg Erovinkin, a former general in the KGB and its successor the FSB, was found dead in the back of his car in Moscow on Boxing Day in mysterious circumstances. Erovinkin was a key aide to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister and now head of Rosneft, the state-owned oil company, who is repeatedly named in the dossier.

[Full title and subtitle: DIRTY DOSSIER DEATH Russian spy linked to Donald Trump’s dirty dossier found DEAD in his car in Moscow: Oleg Erovinkin is suspected of being Brit spy Christopher Steele's key source behind widely discredited allegations against President Trump]A FORMER KGB spy chief suspected of helping Brit spook Christopher Steele compile the Trump ‘dirty dossier’ has been found dead in mysterious circumstances.Oleg Erovinkin, described as a key source behind the widely discredited document, was found dead in the back of his car in Moscow on Boxing Day. Media reports in Russia suggest his death was the result of...

Thu Dec 23,12:15 PM ET Igor Sechin, former deputy chief of staff for President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), is seen during a parade marking the Victory Day on Red Square in Moscow, in this May 9, 2004 file photo. Igor Sechin now is chairman of the board of Rosneft oil company which bought a little- known company, BaikalFinansGroup, that just days earlier had purchased Yukos' most important production unit, Yuganskneftegaz. (AP Photo/Konstantin Zavrazhin, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)