Donald Trump Praises Vladimir Putin For Holding Back In US-Russia Spy Dispute

December 31, 2016

Moscow, Dec 31: US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for refraining from retaliation in a dispute over spying and cyber attacks, in another sign that the Republican plans to patch up badly frayed relations with Moscow.

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Putin earlier on Friday said he would not hit back for the US expulsion of 35 suspected Russian spies by President Barack Obama, at least until Trump takes office on January 20.

"Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

Obama on Thursday ordered the expulsion of the Russians and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies over their involvement in hacking political groups in the November 8 US presidential election.

"We will not expel anyone," Putin said in a statement, adding that Russia reserved the right to retaliate.

"Further steps towards the restoration of Russian-American relations will be built on the basis of the policy which the administration of President D Trump will carry out," he said.

Trump has repeatedly praised Putin and nominated people seen as friendly toward Moscow to senior administration posts, but it is unclear whether he would seek to roll back Obama's actions, which mark a post-Cold War low in US-Russian ties.

Trump has brushed aside allegations from the CIA and other intelligence agencies that Russia was behind the cyber attacks. "It's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things," Trump said on Thursday, though he said he would meet with intelligence officials next week.

US intelligence agencies say Russia was behind hacks into Democratic Party organizations and operatives before the presidential election. Moscow denies this. US intelligence officials say the Russian cyber attacks aimed to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Russian officials have portrayed the sanctions as a last act of a lame-duck president and suggested Trump could reverse them when he takes over from Obama, a Democrat.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the Obama administration "a group of embittered and dim witted foreign policy losers."

Should Trump seek to heal the rift with Russia, he might encounter opposition in Congress, including from fellow Republicans.

Republican John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has scheduled a hearing for Thursday on foreign cyber threats. Other senior Republicans, as well as Democrats, have urged a tough response to Moscow.

A total of 96 Russians are expected to leave the United States including expelled diplomats and their families.

MOVEMENT AT COMPOUNDS

As part of the sanctions, Obama told Russia to close two compounds in New York and Maryland that the administration said were used by Russian personnel for "intelligence-related purposes."

In both locations, the Russians were given until noon on Friday to vacate the premises. Convoys of trucks, buses and black sedans with diplomatic license plates exited without incident.

In Maryland, some passengers smiled and waved as they rode away.

A former Russian Foreign Ministry employee told Reuters that the facility in Maryland was a dacha used by diplomatic staff and their children. The 45-acre complex includes a Georgian-style brick mansion, swimming pool, tennis courts and cottages for embassy staff.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said the closures showed the US government lacked family values.

"I think it's quite scandalous that they chose to go after our kids, you know? They know full well that those two facilities ... they're vacation facilities for our kids. And this is Christmas time," he told reporters.

Putin said he was inviting all children of American diplomats accredited in Russia to the New Year and Christmas party in the Kremlin.

In a separate message of New Year congratulations to Trump, Putin said Russia-US relations were an important factor for maintaining global safety and stability.

Obama had promised consequences after US intelligence officials blamed Russia for hacks intended to influence the 2016 election. Officials accused Putin of personally directing the efforts and primarily targeting Democrats.

Washington also put sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies, the GRU and the FSB, four GRU officers and three companies that Obama said "provided material support to the GRU's cyber operations."

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News Network
February 4,2020

Kolkata, Feb 4: A Thailand national on Tuesday gave birth during a flight from Doha to Bangkok.

The unnamed woman passenger went into labour and delivered the baby with the help of a cabin crew of Qatar airways at around 3 am.

The aircraft made the emergency landing in Kolkata and the woman was admitted to a private hospital here. Both the mother and the baby are doing fine.

"An unscheduled flight from Doha to Bangkok QR-830 landed around 03:09 am at Kolkata airport in medical priority landing. The pilot of Qatar flight had asked SOS to ATC for medical priority landing. The flight landed safely, the airport team with the doctor was attending the concerned." Kolkata Airport official said while speaking to news agency.

More details in this regard are awaited.

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Agencies
June 8,2020

China is aggressively pursuing a diverse range of tactics -- from cyber-attacks to recruiting insiders for economic espionage, Indian security agencies have warned. The specific alert circulated among key stakeholders suggests that Chinese operatives are not only planning to steal classified cutting-edge defense technology but also eyeing to recruit best academicians and researchers around the globe, especially from the US.

Sources said they have noticed that China has authorized an "aggressive program of stealing US science and technology information by recruiting Americans in the technology sector with access to trade secrets".

In the technology sector of the US, many Indians scientists are working at the forefront. "This is a serious matter for Indian government and security establishments," said a top source further adding that Chinese always pursue economic espionage because it suits their low cost manufacturing sector on the basis of stolen research and costly design developed by top companies across the globe.

"An alert was also issued in early January about Chinese cyber intrusion attempts at several companies where Indian researchers are working. The espionage attempt was to target UAV technology and certain top-end military equipment designs. After stealing the techniques and design, China starts producing these equipment domestically and sells at a cheaper rate, inflicting irreparable damage to the original equipment manufacturers," the sources in the security establishment observed.

Recently, the US accused China for targeting academia by sending researchers to American labs and using talent recruitment programme to steal scientific analysis. The US has also found that young recruits of the People's Liberation Army posing as students are entering into various universities across the globe to get research papers and recruit academia.

Earlier this year, the US charged a former Boston University student of visa fraud for failing to disclose the status as a lieutenant in the China's People's Liberation Army.

The US intelligence agencies have found that their "universities have become a soft target in the global espionage war with China".

In January this year, the US Department of Justice charged a leading academician at the Harvard University for hiding his alleged role in a Chinese government programme.

In July last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray had revealed that the FBI is probing nearly 1,000 cases of economic espionage and attempted intellectual property theft, nearly all of them leading back to China.

Accordingly, Indian Missions have been informed about the threats being posed by Chinese spies and attempts to recruit Indian scientists and technologists working in the US and other parts of the world.

Sources further stated that security establishments in India have informed the scientist fraternity to be on alert amid threat posed by Chinese spies.

The Chinese had earlier recruited a personnel, Dongfan Chung, working at Boeing for economic espionage. Chung had stolen secret technology to benefit Chinese government and during the raid at his house more than 2.5 lakh classified pages related to Boeing were recovered.

"There has been intense debate on the international platforms regarding Chinese-sponsored theft of intellectual property. American agencies have gone on record to say that China was targeting trade secrets. In the backdrop of pandemic and global health crisis, Indian establishments in defence and technology sectors have been told to be extra cautious as China is planning to become the most advanced economy while the other countries are crippled by the highly contagious virus," the sources further added.

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News Network
May 25,2020

Islamabad, May 25: Pakistan’s coronavirus cases on Monday reached 56,349 with 1,748 new patients while the death toll climbed to 1,167, the health ministry said.

The Ministry of National Health Services reported that 22,491 cases were diagnosed in Sindh, 20,077 in Punjab, 7,905 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 3,407 in Balochistan, 1,641 in Islamabad, 619 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 209 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

So far 1,167 people have died of the COVID-19 including 34 who lost their lives in the last 24 hours. A total of 17,482 patients have recovered from the deadly contagion.

The authorities have conducted 483,656 tests in the country, including 10,049 on Sunday. The trajectory showed that the number was steadily going up with authorities fearing a rise in cases in the wake of the easing of lockdown before Eid which was observed in the country on Sunday.

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