Kremlin

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security released a joint report Thursday on Russian “malicious cyber activity” that included a thorough list of the peculiar secret code names used by Russian hackers. The joint analysis report — which refers to the Russian activity headlined by its efforts hack into US government and political organizations as […]

The Kremlin on Friday issued a stark warning to the United States, saying it would respond in kind to the U.S. expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and other sanctions following the Russian hacking of U.S. political parties before the 2016 presidential elections. “I cannot say now what the response will be, although, as we know, […]

According to the Kremlin, nearly all formal communications between the United States and Russia has stopped, highlighting the tension between the two nations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agency RIA that the Russian government did not anticipate the oncoming Trump administration withdrawing funding from NATO, adding, “Almost every level of dialogue with the United States […]

Russia has hung like a bad omen over this entire, ill-begotten election. Here’s Donald Trump praising Vladimir Putin, and there’s Mike Pence echoing that praise. There’s Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid asking the FBI to look into Trump’s campaign advisors for nefarious Russia ties. Here are Democrats, howling that the Kremlin is hacking this election in […]

Amnesty International, a campaign group which has accused the Kremlin of violating human rights with its bombing campaign in Syria, was evicted from its Moscow office on Wednesday. The Moscow city government, from which Amnesty leased the premises in the Russian capital’s center, said the group was behind on the rent, but Amnesty said it […]

And during the time it takes to train and shift the US’s intelligence capabilities against Russia, the US remains greatly outnumbered by Russian operatives.

“The counterintelligence operation that [Moscow] runs against the US Embassy measured in the thousands,” Michael McFaul, a Stanford University professor and former US ambassador to Russia, told the Post. “It always felt, especially sitting in Moscow, of course, that we were in a counterintelligence and collection battle that was an asymmetric fight.”

CIA Director John Brennan recently addressed Russia’s “exceptionally capable and sophisticated” infiltration abilities.

“I think that we have to be very, very wary of what the Russians might be trying to do in terms of collecting information in a cyber realm, as well as what they might want to do with it,” Brennan explained on CBS.

Though hidden from public view, the escalation in espionage activity is part of a broader renewal of conflict and competition between the United States and Russia after a two-decade lull. Surging tensions now cut across nearly every aspect of the U.S-Russia relationship.

Russia’s new, asymmetric approach is perhaps best exemplified by its state-run nuclear contractor Rosatom’s strategy of creating security vulnerabilities in Europe. A recent report from a think tank in Finland – where Rosatom partly owns a nuclear power plant being built in Pyhajoki – suggested that the Kremlin is striking deals such as these to create dependencies in other countries. Separately, Lithuania has said it may file a lawsuit over the poor-quality construction of the Astravets nuclear power plant, which is being built by Rosatom in neighboring Belarus with no supervision and at a very low cost. Lithuanian officials are worried that Rosatom is using substandard Russian security systems that are likely much weaker than their Western equivalents – a state of affairs that analysts believe could pave the way for a nuclear disaster. Recent reports that at least ten workers died in mysterious circumstances while working at Astravets, and that a 330-ton reactor shell was dropped thus triggering an emergency situation, have hardly reassured Vilnius. Outside of Europe, Rosatom is also playing a very delicate role in Iran’s nuclear program, working on the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant while the Obama administration tries to preserve its controversial Iran nuclear deal.

Nevertheless, everyone locally involved was destined to perform a series of events that may very well launch an extremely bloody war.

Seizing Crimea seemed a good idea in 2014, and it was achieved with remarkable ease. As the Russian writer Leonid Kaganov put it, however, it was a bit like stealing an expensive phone without its charger.

The Russian occupying authorities suspended, for unknown reasons, the handling of citizens and vehicles crossing the administrative border with Crimea.

While Russia races to catch up to the United States in one particular aspect of orbital reconnaissance—that is, imagery detail—the United States is plotting a sort of technological sidestep that could actually extend its lead over its rivals in space-based espionage.