About Those Russian Bounties
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2020
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The New York Times and Washington Post both report that a Russian intelligence unit is paying bounties to Taliban-affiliated militants for killing coalition, including U.S., soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan. The White House denies that the president has been briefed on the subject, although the newspapers report that the White House was alerted to it and didn't do anything about it. Congress is asking questions, and Trump's critics are certain that this is the latest example of the president bowing before Vladimir Putin.
Benjamin Wittes spoke with Scott Anderson, Susan Hennessey and David Priess of Lawfare, and Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis, about how solid the intelligence is, what we can say about the president's knowledge—or lack thereof—of the situation, and why Russia would want to do this in the first place.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:33.9 | The important piece of this incident that we're discussing when it comes to understanding |
| 0:39.5 | where Russian policy, strategy and lead activities might be heading is that this is a pretty profound |
| 0:47.2 | escalation. |
| 0:48.2 | I mean, the Russians know that it's a big deal to try to kill Americans. |
| 0:55.3 | I'm Benjamin Whittes and this is the LawFair podcast June 30, 2020. |
| 1:01.5 | It's one of those crazy Russia stories that the Trump era seems to spew out in abundance. |
| 1:08.9 | A Russian intelligence unit, the New York Times and Washington Post, both report, is paying |
| 1:16.1 | bounties to Taliban-affiliated militants for killing coalition, including US, soldiers |
| 1:24.8 | on the ground in Afghanistan. |
| 1:27.4 | The White House denies the president has been briefed on the subject, although the newspapers |
| 1:33.6 | report that the White House was alerted to it and didn't do anything about the Russian |
| 1:39.9 | bounties. |
| 1:41.5 | Congress is asking questions. |
| 1:44.1 | Trump's critics are certain this is the latest example of the president bowing before Vladimir |
| 1:50.0 | Putin. |
| 1:51.3 | And we gathered an all-star panel to talk it through. |
| 1:55.6 | Alina Poliakova, president and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis, Scott |
... |
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