"We've always made it clear we want a productive, load-bearing relationship" w/#Russia, #Britain Ambassador to US @KarenPierceUK tells @CSIS
"The fundamental question has to be why does Russia reject these overtures" from #UK, other countries
"All these things we're seeing are synonymous w/the rise of President #Putin", per @KarenPierceUK, re poisonings, disinfo campaigns, support of #Syria's use of chemical weapons
"They're putting a lot of effort into undermining" the West, she adds
#Russia-#China: "I doubt very much its a partnership of two equals" per @KarenPierceUK, adding she wonders if Russia is being more manipulative w/China than #Beijing is being w/#Moscow
#Russia - "To halt them, we have to be very firm early on" per @KarenPierceUK "The West is not always as forceful w/Russia as we might be"
"I think they were surprised by the strength of the #Skripal response" per British Ambassador to US @KarenPierceUK "I don't think the Russians expected the hard time they got in the [@UN] Security Council"
But she notes "they're very good at regrouping"
"I fear, & this is just speculation, that they will divert their attention to outer countries whose internal systems are not quite so robust" per #Britain's @KarenPierceUK about pushback vs #Russia by #UK
"Bosnia, I think, is very vulnerable," she says, adding West must continue to strengthen #EU@NATO ties "and probably more government support"
"We could get back to a much more constructive path if the #Russia|ns just wanted to take it" per #UK Ambassador to the US @KarenPierceUK, suggesting more work via the P5...
"I do worry that the Russians just might not want to come into that discussion"
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NEW: US charges American TV presenter for Channel One #Russia & his wife in scheme to evade US sanctions
@TheJusticeDept unsealed the indictment vs 76yo Dimitri Simes & 55yo Anastasia Simes Thursday
They have a home in #Virginia but "remain at large...believed to be in Russia"
Dimitri & Anastasia Simes each charged w/1 count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 1 count of violating the IEEPA & 1 count of conspiracy to commit int'l money laundering
Per @TheJusticeDept, it's a maximum of 20 years per count
Dimitri Simes alleged to have violated sanctions by "serving as a presenter & producer of programming, & by receiving over $1 million, a personal car & driver, a stipend for an apartment in #Moscow... a team of 10 employees from Channel One Russia" per DOJ
Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash & Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi were charged in June 2008 & then again in May 2012 for their alleged roles in planning the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on #NewYork's World Trade Center & the Pentagon
JUST IN: US issues new National Counterintelligence Strategy
Updated strategy, signed by @POTUS Thursday, based on 3 pillars, per @NCSCgov:
-outmaneuver/constrain foreign intelligence entities
-protect US strategic advantages
-invest in the future
"Foreign intelligence and security services & their proxies persist in seeking to acquire our most
sensitive information, technology, and intellectual property" per @POTUS in the just-released strategy
"Non-state actors are following suit"
Foreign intelligence entities "also seeking to take advantage of the proliferation of commercially available tools to conduct surveillance; collect vast amounts of previously unavailable personal data;
& position themselves to disrupt our infrastructure..." per @POTUS
Some nuggets from @FBI Dir. Christopher Wray's appearance Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies...
#ArtificialIntelligence & #Election2024-"We are, of course, seeing & I've been warning about this for some time, the role of AI to enhance efforts that our foreign adversaries have already been engaged in" per @FBI's Wray
"It's not that it [#ArtificialIntelligence] changes fundamentally what it is our adversaries want to do...it allows them to amplify to do it, to make it more sophisticated, more deceptive, cheaper, faster" per @FBI's Wray