Free Republic

This is collusion. The real thing. Dossier author Christopher Steele identified a former Russian spy chief and a top adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin as being involved in handling potentially compromising information about President Donald Trump, State Department notes show. In her notes, State Department official Kathleen Kavalec also referred to the two Russians — former Russian foreign intelligence chief Vyacheslav Trubnikov and Putin aide Vladislav Surkov — as “sources.” The references to Trubnikov and Surkov, which have not previously been reported, are not definitive proof that either were sources for Steele’s dossier or that they were involved in an...

Vladimir Putin is 'alive' but 'neutralised' as shadowy security chiefs stage a stealthy coup in Moscow, it was claimed last night. Former FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev was behind the plot, claimed chairman of the pro-Kremlin national Islamic Committee, Geydar Dzhemal. Snip... 'I think that Putin is neutralised at the moment, but of course, he is alive,' said Dzhemal, seen as a Kremlin loyalist. 'He is under the control of the power-wielding agencies, who have, in my opinion, organised a coup d'etat.' snip.. 'My information is that Patrushev met Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in Pyatigorsk on 11 March and tempted him...

MOSCOW, April 05. /ITAR-TASS/. Kremlin presidential chief of staff Sergei Ivanov wrote a letter to his namesake who had been denied the right to buy sneakers in an American online shop because of the U.S. sanctions against Russian officials. US imposes sanctions on 20 Russian officials “Dear namesake and fellow citizen! I was surprised to find out that the sanctions imposed by the U.S. administration, including against me, have created certain inconveniencies for you. Your parcel was delayed and the U.S. Post showed that it could place ignorance and corporate zeal above elementary logic. We may face such farce again...

A distinctive feature of the Russian power vertical is that leaders do not bother determining what government officials have already said on a particular subject before preparing their own remarks. At a meeting on security agency budgets on May 24, President Dmitry Medvedev set the goal of modernizing at least 30 percent of Russia’s weaponry by 2015. The president was apparently unaware of the previous arms program, announced by then-Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov three years ago. In 2007, Ivanov told State Duma deputies that the program would rearm 45 percent of the military by 2015. It failed miserably. In addition,...

On the grimy walls of the Ivanovo Machine Tools Factory, a declining Soviet behemoth once venerated as a model of Socialist efficiency, hangs a solitary display of safety guidelines. In a series of fading illustrations, it instructs workers how to behave in the event of a Nato nuclear attack: don your gas masks, head for the nearest shelter and dispatch messengers on horseback to warn outlying villages. Sergei Ivanov, the visiting joint first deputy prime minister of Russia, might not have seen the posters as he strode on to the factory floor, in Ivanovo, a gloomy city 220 miles north...

SARANSK, Russia (Reuters) - Sergei Ivanov walks and talks like a man who wants to be the next president of Russia, except for one thing: he has not said he is running for the job. On a trip to a central Russian province that had all the hallmarks of a campaign trip, he toured factories, chatted with townsfolk and squeezed the hand of a four-year-old girl. Then came the awkward moment. "We hope to see you as president," one resident shouted out. Ivanov, a suave former KGB spy, tensed for just a fraction of a second, blinked and then resumed...

MOSCOW. Feb 15 (Interfax) - President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree appointing Sergei Ivanov first deputy prime minister and relieving him of the duties of defense minister. At a Thursday meeting with Cabinet members where he announced the decision Putin said he had appointed Anatoly Serdyukov, previously head of the Federal Tax Service, as the new defense minister

"Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov inspected the Northern Nuclear Testing Site on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. " Ivanov visited the town of Belushya, where experts responsible for testing nuclear weapons live. News agencies covering his trip noted some major changes there.

Russia has every right to sell arms to Iran, its defense minister said on Wednesday, responding to mounting criticism of a $1 billion deal announced last week. The United States, calling Iran a "state sponsor of terror", said selling weapons to the Islamic Republic did not help the Middle East. "This deal, this contract is absolutely legitimate. Like it or not, it's our affair. There are plenty of things we don't like either," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said in comments shown on NTV television.

As BBC news reported yesterday, under the title "Russia Bares its Military Teeth" : "Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has said his country does not rule out a pre-emptive military strike anywhere in the world if the national interest demands it. " The title hides the REAL message : Russia enters new territory : for the first time it threatens NATO in the media with a pre emptive strike. More details from de.news.yahoo.com (translated fom german). The reason for the threat : "continuation of NATO in its current form".

Putin's nuclear show blows up in his face By Julius Strauss in Moscow (Filed: 18/02/2004) Russia's biggest military exercise since the collapse of communism flopped yesterday, ruining an attempt to project Vladimir Putin as a global leader and reaffirm the country's status as a nuclear superpower. With Mr Putin and a host of military officials watching from the nuclear submarine Arkhangelsk, two intercontinental ballistic missiles went wrong during a firing from a submarine believed to be the Novomoskovsk. They were aimed at Kamchatka on the Pacific coast. A malfunctioning satellite was blamed. Putin promised that Russia will again be a...

The Today show's "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?" sweeps month ratings gimmick brought Lauer to Moscow's Red Square on Thursday where he repeatedly pressed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to trash the Bush administration's foreign policy. Lauer asked: "Was Russia right and were the Americans wrong?" on WMD in Iraq and, "Do you think the credibility of the United States and this particular administration has been damaged internationally in this last year?" Not all have succeeded in Russia's semi-free enterprise economy, but virtually all have more personal, political and religious freedom, yet Lauer suggested many were better off...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian forces are so poorly equipped they could not launch an offensive war, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted as saying Tuesday. Ivanov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has spearheaded military reform in Russia and is trying to transform bloated Soviet-style conscript units into a modern professional force. "Conditions are on an acceptable level only for the fulfillment of nuclear deterrent, counter-terrorist and peace-keeping activities," Ivanov told a meeting of military top brass also attended by Putin, according to Interfax news agency. Only last month, Ivanov said Russia reserved the right to launch pre-emptive non-nuclear...

MOSCOW: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov on Wednesday criticised the Russian military’s level of combat readiness, saying that both he and President Vladimir Putin wanted to see improvements. ``Neither the president nor I am fully satisfied with the current state of combat-readiness in the Armed Forces,’’ the Interfax Military News Agency quoted Ivanov as saying. Ivanov singled out the navy in particular. ``We are going to do everything so that the departure of ships to the sea isn’t a special occasion, but becomes a regular occurrence,’’ Ivanov said. Russia’s navy has struggled to find funds to maintain its warships and...

MOSCOW, Aug 10, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov raised the possibility on Saturday of creating a multinational defense force in the resource-rich Caspian Sea, a Russian news agency reported. "I can't exclude the creation in the Caspian of a military group which would include Russia, Kazakhstan and other Caspian Sea countries," Ivanov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. Ivanov is currently in the Caspian Sea city of Kaspiisk in Russia's Dagestan region to observe large-scale naval maneuvers in the disputed Caspian waters. The former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are also...