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In February 2017, the Washington Post’s Miller had the lead byline on a story based on leaks of Trump’s conversations with Australia’s prime minister and Mexico’s president. Six months later, the Post published the entire transcripts of both conversations in another Miller story. It was through such national security correspondents that anti-Trump sources -- intelligence officials -- pushed leaks of classified information and other tidbits intended to damage Trump into the media. There it merged with other anti-Trump currents in nearly every corner of the press, where it blossomed into Russiagate. After a nearly two-year investigation, the special counsel found...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Rosneft, one of the world's top oil producers and exporters, has notified customers that future tender contracts for oil products will be denominated in euros not dollars, five trading sources told Reuters. The move, which could come as soon as this year, is likely to be seen as an attempt to offset any potential negative impact of U.S. sanctions on Russia. Rosneft, which accounts for over 40% of oil output in Russia, produced 45.8 million tonnes of oil products at home in the first six months of this year - from diesel and gasoline to fuel...

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...

<p>CARACAS - The surprise arrival of a giant Russian passenger plane to Venezuela amid a wave of anti-government unrest is fueling intrigue on social media and charges by the opposition that President Nicolas Maduro’s administration is looking to shuttle abroad what’s left of the country’s depleted gold reserves.</p>

Shortened title. Full title: Carter Page Says Clinton Campaign Was Spreading Rumors of Russian Collusion Months Before Dossier Surfaced Carter Page went on with Tucker Carlson on Monday to discuss the release of the FISA court documents used to spy on the Trump campaign. Carter Page was spied on by the Obama regime despite never even meeting the Russian officials he was accused of dealing with in the junk Steele dossier. Carter Page: It’s funny in July of 2016, two months before the Yahoo news article came out I started getting these calls from various news reporters, the Wall Street...

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...

Qatari former diplomat claims Michael Cohen asked him for a fee of $1 million for his services amid a conversation about a potential Qatari investment in U.S. infrastructure. Washington D.C. is abuzz with speculation of a new Trump - Qatar scandal this week, after photos were posted on Twitter Sunday by attorney Michael Avenatti, who is representing porn star Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer. The photos show Ahmed al-Rumaihi, a former Qatari diplomat in the United States and the current head of Qatar Investments - a division of the world’s...

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said that total Rosneft investment in the Kurdistan Region is possibly around $3 billion after signing a preliminary Memorandum of Understanding with the Russian oil giant. The agreement signed last week in St. Petersburg will not come into effect for another at least three months, after it is ratified by the Kurdish government, he explained. During that time, the two sides will enter negotiations to put the final touches on the oil and gas agreement aimed at increasing oil exports to up to 1 million barrels. The deal also touches on...

NEW YORK — Russia is on the verge of taking control of a US oil company. In a crazy twist of international events, Russia’s state-owned oil company Rosneft might end up owning Citgo, a US energy company based in Houston, Texas. [snip] If PDVSA can’t pay its bills on time, Rosneft will almost certainly get control of Citgo. All Rosneft would need to do is buy a few more of PDVSA’s bonds to get over the 50% ownership threshold. “The Russians have a lot to gain through the PDVSA-Rosneft-Citgo asset transfer to the detriment of US interests,” wrote Republican Congressman...

Senators are alarmed about the national security implications of Russia acquiring a significant ownership share in an oil company whose terminals span 20 states across the nation. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who is chairman of the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) say he needs to be prepared to protect U.S. energy infrastructure should Rosneft carry through with seizing control of CITGO Petroleum Corporation’s Venezuelan parent company, state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. Oil...

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...

Executives at a Bermudan firm funneling money to U.S. environmentalists run investment funds with Russian tycoons. A shadowy Bermudan company that has funneled tens of millions of dollars to anti-fracking environmentalist groups in the United States is run by executives with deep ties to Russian oil interests and offshore money laundering schemes involving members of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. One of those executives, Nicholas Hoskins, is a director at a hedge fund management firm that has invested heavily in Russian oil and gas. He is also senior counsel at the Bermudan law firm Wakefield Quin and the vice president...

...faces unprecedented challenges to its long-term expansion and modernization plans.... Last week Rosneft said it would cut staff to reduce costs: Kommersant business daily said Rosneft's Moscow headquarters would see cuts of up to 25 percent from the current 4,000. These would be the first significant job losses at a company that swelled via the acquisition of rivals such as YUKOS, pushed into bankruptcy some ten years ago by the government of President Vladimir Putin. Since then Rosneft's output has risen 10-fold to exceed 4 million barrels per day or four percent of global supply. But last week it reported...

Russian oil production, the major source of government revenue (40 + percent) of state revenues, may decline ..., the Energy Ministry said on Monday. Russia's economy (is) heavily dependent on crude exports and on the brink of collapse. Oil production has been broadly in decline this year mostly due to the depletion of West Siberia's oilfields.

Russia's Rosneft , which produces more oil than Iraq or Iran, is seeking a $42 billion loan from a fund earmarked for Russian pensions to help it weather Western sanctions imposed over Moscow's role in Ukraine. Analysts expected the Russian government to turn down the proposal by the world's largest listed oil producer, one fifth owned by BP and run by a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, unless political pressure is brought to bear. It was one of the most stunning of several proposals for the Russian state to help firms hit by U.S. and European sanctions over Moscow's...

No, Putin isn't re-building the third Reich: Chamberlain isn't a historic villain because he did nothing after Hitler seized neighboring German-speaking territories. He's a historic villain because he did nothing after Hitler blamed Christianity for poisoning Europe with weakness, swore to destroy the Jews, build a master race, set fire to the Reichstag, seized all police powers, built concentration camps and THEN invaded German-speaking lands. No, Putin isn't re-building the Soviet Union: He has implemented a flat, low tax rate, struck the authority of local commissars to impose taxes, decriminalized tax disputes, decentralized agriculture and industry, seen the numbers of...

FERNHURST, England — Europe’s newest weapon in the battle of wills with Russian President Vladimir Putin lies buried deep beneath the ancient oaks and rolling green pastures of this quintessentially English village. There, wedged in the bedrock, lie vast quantities of oil and natural gas — enough, when combined with the spoils of hundreds of other sites like it, to help kick Europe’s addiction to Russian energy. Or so says David Cameron. Ever since Russian forces took hold of Crimea last month, the British prime minister has been leading a chorus of conservative politicians and energy executives in a refrain...

Why Poland Loves Ukraine ... For Now MARCH 28, 2014 Slawomir Sierakowski Eastern Europe, which beginning with Poland is celebrating its 25th anniversary of freedom from Communism, has suddenly awakened from a beautiful dream about the end of history. No less an authority than Adam Michnik, the legendary Polish anti-Communist dissident, recently announced that 2014 marks the end of the best period in Poland’s history in three centuries. We are entering uncertain times: In contrast to Eastern Europe’s foray into independence after World War I, no close intraregional alliances were formed in the aftermath of 1989; rather, each country placed...

Guys...remember the Peak Oil debates? They seem to have, well, peaked. Check out all the money Russian oil giant Rosneft is throwing around at global oil supplies these days.