👓 Most major outlets have used Russian tweets as sources for partisan opinion: study | Columbia Journalism Review

Read Most major outlets have used Russian tweets as sources for partisan opinion: study by Josephine Lukito and Chris Wells (Columbia Journalism Review)
In a new study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we look at how often, and in what context, Twitter accounts from the Internet Research Agency—a St. Petersburg-based organization directed by individuals with close ties to Vladimir Putin, and subject to Mueller’s scrutiny—successfully made their way from social media into respected journalistic media. We searched the content of 33 major American news outlets for references to the 100 most-retweeted accounts among those Twitter identified as controlled by the IRA, from the beginning of 2015 through September 2017. We found at least one tweet from an IRA account embedded in 32 of the 33 outlets—a total of 116 articles—including in articles published by institutions with longstanding reputations, like The Washington Post, NPR, and the Detroit Free Press, as well as in more recent, digitally native outlets such as BuzzFeed, Salon, and Mic (the outlet without IRA-linked tweets was Vice).
How are outlets publishing generic tweets without verifying the users actually exist? This opens up a new type of journalistic fraud in which a writer could keep an army of bots and feed out material that they could then self-quote for their own needs without a story really existing.

🎧 The Daily: Russian Trolls’ Favorite Weapon | The New York Times

Listened to Listen to ‘The Daily’: Russian Trolls’ Favorite Weapon by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com
The indictment secured by the special counsel makes it clear that Facebook was used extensively in the campaign to disrupt the 2016 election. How did Russia do it?

👓 A Democratic Memo Undercuts Key Republican Complaints About the FBI | The Atlantic

Read A Democratic Memo Undercuts Key Republican Complaints About the FBI by Natasha Bertrand (The Atlantic)
The document, drafted by minority members of the House Intelligence Committee, sought to rebut claims that the bureau abused its power during the election.

🎧 The Daily: The Russia Indictment, and the Trump Response | The New York Times

Listened to Listen to ‘The Daily’: The Russia Indictment, and the Trump Response by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com
The special counsel’s charges against 13 Russians reveal a sophisticated plot to turn Americans against one another — one that seems to still be working.

🔖 The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen

Bookmarked The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen (Riverhead Books)
The essential journalist and bestselling biographer of Vladimir Putin reveals how, in the space of a generation, Russia surrendered to a more virulent and invincible new strain of autocracy. Award-winning journalist Masha Gessen's understanding of the events and forces that have wracked Russia in recent times is unparalleled. In The Future Is History, Gessen follows the lives of four people born at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Each of them came of age with unprecedented expectations, some as the children and grandchildren of the very architects of the new Russia, each with newfound aspirations of their own--as entrepreneurs, activists, thinkers, and writers, sexual and social beings. Gessen charts their paths against the machinations of the regime that would crush them all, and against the war it waged on understanding itself, which ensured the unobstructed reemergence of the old Soviet order in the form of today's terrifying and seemingly unstoppable mafia state. Powerful and urgent, The Future Is History is a cautionary tale for our time and for all time.
Bookmarked after listening to an episode of The Atlantic Interview.

🎧 Masha Gessen | The Atlantic Interview

Listened to Masha Gessen by Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic Interview
Author and activist Masha Gessen’s new book about Russia won the 2017 National Book Award for nonfiction. The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg talks with Gessen about what Vladimir Putin wants, what Donald Trump’s election means, and how Americans should think about Russia's interference in 2016.

Transcript

A stunning interview on Russia and how it relates to world politics. I’m ordering Gessen’s book The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia.

👓 Chiefs Of Three Russian Intelligence Agencies Travel To Washington | Radio Free Europe

Read Chiefs Of Three Russian Intelligence Agencies Travel To Washington by Mike Eckel (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
WASHINGTON -- The directors of Russia's three main intelligence and espionage agencies all traveled to the U.S. capital in recent days, in what observers said was a highly unusual occurrence coming at a time of heightened U.S.-Russian tensions. Russia's ambassador to the United States had earlier confirmed that Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), was in Washington in recent days to meet with U.S. officials about terrorism and other matters.
Unmentioned in this article: there’s a pending election in Russia which is creating optics for voters there as well.

👓 Sessions discussed Trump campaign-related matters with Russian ambassador, U.S. intelligence intercepts show | Washington Post

Read Sessions discussed Trump campaign-related matters with Russian ambassador, U.S. intelligence intercepts show (Washington Post)
The accounts from Sergey Kislyak to his superiors, intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, contradict public assertions by the attorney general.

👓 Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador | Washington Post

Read Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador (The Washington Post)
President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. The information the president relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said. The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency.
For someone who always insists he doesn’t want to tell the “bad guys” what he intends to do, this is just sounds painfully inept.

Kushner and Flynn Met With Russian Envoy in December, White House Says | New York Times

Read Kushner and Flynn Met With Russian Envoy in December, White House Says by Michael S. Schmidt, Matthew Rosenberg and Matt Apuzzo (nytimes.com)
The president’s son-in-law and incoming national security adviser met with the ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, for 20 minutes at Trump Tower in December.

📺 Is There a Russian Coup Underway in America? | The Closer S2 E11

Watched Is There a Russian Coup Underway in America? from GQ Videos
Why we urgently need a special prosecutor to investigate Russia’s meddling in the election