Vladimir v putin

By Andrew E. Kramer The New York Times Sat., Dec. 8, 2018 MOSCOW—A nearly 20-year taboo on reporting in the Russian news media about President Vladimir Putin’s personal life has unraveled — just a little — with an interview broadcast on state television with a woman who has been described as his daughter. The interview suggested some softening of Putin’s steely image and the prospect that his two adult daughters may be easing into public life. Russia has no enduring tradition of a public first family, and Soviet and post-Soviet leaders have taken various approaches. Putin, a former spy, has mostly kept his daughters out of sight. He has occasionally spoken with affection of his daughters, and last year announced that he was a grandfather. Still, throughout his tenure Putin has insisted that his family life remain private — even as state television has lavished coverage on his leisure time spent alone in the Siberian outdoors, … [Read more...] about Woman said to be Putin’s daughter appears on Russian TV

By Sheera Frenkel Nicholas Confessore Cecilia Kang Matthew Rosenberg Wed., Nov. 14, 2018 Sheryl Sandberg was seething. Inside Facebook’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, top executives gathered in the glass-walled conference room of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. It was September 2017, more than a year after Facebook engineers discovered suspicious Russia-linked activity on its site, an early warning of the Kremlin campaign to disrupt the 2016 American election. Congressional and federal investigators were closing in on evidence that would implicate the company. But it wasn’t the looming disaster at Facebook that angered Sandberg. It was the social network’s security chief, Alex Stamos, who had informed company board members the day before that Facebook had yet to contain the Russian infestation. Stamos’s briefing had prompted a humiliating boardroom interrogation of Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, and her … [Read more...] about How Facebook’s leaders fought through the Russia crisis

By Eileen Sullivan The New York Times Katie Benner Fri., July 13, 2018 WASHINGTON—Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, on Friday announced new charges against 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton presidential campaign. The announcement came just a few days before President Trump is expected to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Helsinki, Finland. The indictments are part of the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Russia has denied that its government had any role in the hacks that preceded the presidential election. Mr. Rosenstein discussed the charges during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington as Mr. Trump met with Queen Elizabeth in Britain, creating a bizarre split screen on cable news of presidential pomp and an ongoing investigation that has ensnared some of the … [Read more...] about 12 Russian intelligence officers indicted in hacking tied to Clinton campaign