[ April 23, 2024 ]
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin put a call in to President Donald Trump to thanks him for providing a tip, via the CIA, about a planned bombing of sites in St. Petersburg.
The bomb plot was ultimately thwarted.
This was the second call the two presidents traded in three days.
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Here’s a bit more about the Trumo-Putin relationship — including Putin’s praising of the U.S. leader and condemnation of the ongoing American Russia collusion investigation.
The Associated Press has more:
Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned U.S. President Donald Trump Sunday to thank him for a CIA tip that helped thwart a series of bombings in St. Petersburg, the Kremlin and the White House said.
During the call, the two leaders’ second in three days, Putin expressed gratitude for the CIA information. The Kremlin said it led Russia’s top domestic security agency to a group of suspects that planned to bomb St. Petersburg’s Kazan Cathedral and other crowded sites this weekend.
“The information received from the CIA proved sufficient to find and detain the criminal suspects,” the Kremlin said.
he White House said in its readout of the conversation that “based on the information the United States provided, Russian authorities were able to capture the terrorists just prior to an attack that could have killed large numbers of people.”
The White House added that Putin extended his thanks and congratulations to CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the entire agency. Trump then called Pompeo “to congratulate him, his very talented people, and the entire intelligence community on a job well done!”
“President Trump appreciated the call and told President Putin that he and the entire United States intelligence community were pleased to have helped save so many lives,” the White House said in its statement. “President Trump stressed the importance of intelligence cooperation to defeat terrorists wherever they may be. Both leaders agreed that this serves as an example of the positive things that can occur when our countries work together.”
The Kremlin said Putin assured Trump that “if the Russian intelligence agencies receive information about potential terror threats against the United States and its citizens, they will immediately hand it over to their U.S. counterparts via their communications channels.”
The CIA’s tip to Russia comes even as Russia-U.S. ties have plunged to their lowest level since the Cold War era — first over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine, more recently over allegations that Moscow interfered in the U.S. presidential election to help Trump.
While Russian officials have said the two countries were continuing to exchange some terror-related intelligence, Sunday’s statement from the Kremlin was Russia’s first public assertion that information from the United States helped prevent an attack.
The conversation was the second between the Russian and U.S. presidents since Thursday, when Trump thanked Putin for his remarks “acknowledging America’s strong economic performance,” according to the White House.
During the first call, they also discussed during ways to work together to address North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic weapons program, the White House said.
The Federal Security Service, or FSB, announced Friday that seven suspected followers of the Islamic State group had been arrested for allegedly planning to carry out terror attacks in St. Petersburg this weekend.
The agency said the suspects were plotting a suicide bombing in a church and a series of other explosions in the city’s busiest areas this coming weekend on IS orders. It said a search of a St. Petersburg apartment found explosives, automatic weapons and extremist literature.
Russian news reports said that Kazan Cathedral, a landmark 19th century Russian Orthodox church on St. Petersburg’s central Nevsky Prospect, was the prime target.
If the suspects succeeded in bombing the cathedral, it would have been the first major attack on a Russian Orthodox Church by Islamic terrorists, who have blown up apartment buildings, passenger planes and transport facilities in Russia.
In April, a suicide bombing in the St. Petersburg’s subway left 16 dead and wounded more than 50.
Russian TV stations have aired footage daily since Friday of the suspects in the foiled attacks being apprehended and questioned. One segment showed FSB operatives outside a St. Petersburg apartment building detaining a suspect, who appeared later saying he was told to prepare homemade bombs rigged with shrapnel.
“My job was to make explosives, put it in bottles and attach pieces of shrapnel,” the suspect, identified by Russian media as 18-year old Yevgeny Yefimov, said in the footage released by the FSB.
Several other suspects came from mostly Muslim regions in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus, and one man was from the ex-Soviet nation of Tajikistan that borders Afghanistan.
The TV reports included footage of a metal container, which the suspects used as a laboratory for making explosives, according to the FSB. Another video showed operatives breaking the doors and raiding an apartment used by other suspects.
Last week, the FSB said it also arrested several IS-linked suspects in Moscow, where they allegedly were plotting a series of suicide bombings to coincide with New Year’s celebrations.
The latest calls between Putin and Trump came after the Russian leader praised his U.S. counterpart during a marathon news conference on Thursday.
Putin hailed Trump’s achievements, saying that global markets have demonstrated investors’ confidence in Trump’s economic policies. He said he hoped the U.S. president would be able to follow through on his campaign promises to improve ties with Russia despite pressure from his political foes at home.
During the news conference, Putin also reaffirmed his multiple denials of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and argued that the U.S. is only hurting itself with investigations of alleged collusion between Trump and Russia. The allegations were “invented” by Trump’s foes to undermine his legitimacy, Putin said.
Alexei Chepa, a deputy head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of Russia’s parliament, hailed the CIA tip as a “step toward cooperation.”
“The more such actions we have, the better it will be for both our countries,” Chepa told the state RIA Novosti news agency.
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22 Comments
6 years ago
Democrats won’t be happy until they set off WW3. Then they’ll blame it on Trump. And then tell you that you must be disarmed so you can be safe from looting.
6 years ago
Reply to
peakpower
God took care of McCain who also was a One World Order war monger , like most Dem’s
6 years ago
Reply to
michaelofsydney
not yet but he wishes he was…… He has been involved in more deaths then Hitler
6 years ago
Russia will taste the islamic terrorism more and more.Terrorism financed and managed by its own ”allies” iran ; turkey and hezbolle. Russia needs to wake up and not repeat the gigantic mistake of the ribenthrop/molotov agreement folloew by millions of rusian victims in the WW2.
6 years ago
For me and other informed observers, this relationship between America and Russia, Trump and Putin is of the utmost importance, they still share the ISS and this sharing of intel re the threat both states are under from Islam could prove to be a very useful asset in years to come, saving lives this way builds trust.
Ukraine starts too far east, the people there speak Russian, use the Cyrillic alphabet and remember what freeing the area cost them during 1943. Another mistake the west made re Russia was in 1980 when we fed the Taliban arms and training against a Russian conscript “army” made up largely of undeveloped youths.
The cold war was the excuse for aiding Islamic terrorists against a European Christian nation, a classic mistake.
Turkey and Russia are historic enemy’s, Turkey will turn soon enough, as for Iran, they too are using Russian power as a shield, when they don’t need it, the atmosphere will alter, frost expected.
Russia is going to need us and we them, both sides are bleeding, the enemy is a common one, let the small dust of history be, Ukraine threatens nobody, we ALL have bigger fish to catch – and fry.
6 years ago
World leaders have got to talk, there are a lot of common problems that civilized nations have to deal with, islam being the biggest one and the cause of many others.
6 years ago
Reply to
Mahou Shoujo
Mmmm. Islam is but a symptom of the sickness methinks. They are tools of a globalist agenda that has at it’s core Satan. Discuss
6 years ago
Reply to
michaelofsydney
islam and one world global domination complement each other for now, but will be at war the instant there is any chance one can dominate the other.
6 years ago
Reply to
Mahou Shoujo
Exactly. This is “statesmanship” on Trump’s part. Unfortunately, young people don’t know what it is and college students are too stupid to care.
D
6 years ago
Good way to build cooperation between Russia and USA, having security agencies working together, below the radar of MSM.
6 years ago
good to see them talking….. Together Russia and America would be a very good thing for the American people…. I was shocked how good Russians live in Russia.I worked in Russia foe 1 year and learned that I was mislead about Russia all my life….. Free healthcare , 1 month paid vacation every year for all Russians , 14 paid holidays. Men retire at 60 women at 55. Government don’t all GMO’s and don’t allow steroids or antibiotics in their meat . No sexual marches or sexual propaganda where children are allowed to go. Total freedom of speech (no sexual harassment or racial slurs) to worry about….
6 years ago
Reply to
ties
When you are a slave, your master has to feed you and insure your health.
Your continual praise of Russia and Putin, in all your posts, means you must be a communist democrat POS.
6 years ago
Reply to
Craig
Putin is a hard core globalist who’s in the process of aligning Russia with certain muslim countries. But I like to hear him praise Trump if only for the pain it causes the left.
6 years ago
Reply to
Craig
I love Putin and Trump , I worked in Russia for over a year 2 times and they live like Americans did in 1965…. Hopefully Trump will put us back there and make the media tell the truth
6 years ago
The Russians told rat obama’s FBI that the Tsarnaev Brothers were terrorists.
The all-knowing anti-American activist rat obama ignored Russia.
Countries informing other countries is what they do. It keeps us all safe.
6 years ago
In his “Honorable Men” former CIA Director William Colby tells of a tense encounter he had with a Russian official complaining about US surveillance. He told the Russian, “The more we know about each other, the safer we all will be.”
6 years ago
Leftards fear strong leaders like President trump and Vlad Putin.They much prefer the weak and malleable [obasta*d] ones who toe the party line/agenda and hate the USA.
Growing up in the “Duck and cover” age and seeing hard line communists like Kruschev pounding the podium in the UN with his shoe while yelling “We will bury you” and the Cuban missile crisis which took us to the brink makes me appreciate the current “detente” situation even more than those who weren’t present and accounted for then..
Hard line communism does NOT work,yet leftards seem to LOVE Bernie Sanders style of communism..
Odd and deranged,they hate Russia because of it’s past,yet supported a present US communist for POTUS.
IMO our countries have more in common than not,and a USA/USSR alliance would be in EVERYONES benefit….well,maybe not everyones..Islamoterrorists would definitely NOT benefit..
As a US Marine I am happy that we never went to war against the Russians.Hitler tried it and had his a$$ kicked.The Russians are some TOUGH SOBs..
Try ANY Spetznatz operator on for size and you’ll find out they are as tough as our SPECOPS people are,and “political correctness” doesn’t play much of a role in their ops,unlike our PC hobbled people.
Perhaps the “White Guilt” of leftards make them blindly hate the Russians where the adjective “Caucasian” originated..
Semper Fi
http://www.silverbulletgunoil.net – .com
6 years ago
Obama and Hillary wanted war with Putin after they got rich off him while Trump a real president works for peace.
6 years ago
This is called “statesmanship” on Trump’s part, for those of you who are too young to know what it is and college students who are too stupid to care.
6 years ago
To dilute America, sap its strength, and then take it over. They call it “diversity.”
