National Security Advisor John Bolton says he told Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia’s National Security Council, the U.S. will not stand for election interference during the upcoming midterms.
CNN:
"I made it clear that we wouldn't tolerate meddling in 2018 and that we were prepared to take necessary steps to prevent it from happening," Bolton told reporters after meeting with his Russian counterpart in Geneva, Switzerland.
Bolton did not elaborate on what those preventive steps might be. The White House reportedly blocked new election security legislation from moving forward in the Senate Wednesday.
CNN:
Bolton said he had spoken with Trump moments before stepping to the podium and that his performance in Geneva was consistent with the President's expectations despite the fact that he had failed to reach an agreement with his Russian counterpart on election interference.
"On the whole, I'd say we made considerable progress. I think that's what the two presidents had in mind for us, and hopefully they'll agree with our assessment that in fact we did make progress," he said.
Despite saying that progress had been made on other issues, Bolton told reporters the disagreement over election interference had driven the decision to hold his own news conference rather than release a joint statement.
In answer to a question, Bolton said that he had not raised the statement by Microsoft Corp on Monday that hackers linked to Russia’s government had sought to launch cyber attacks on U.S. political groups. He noted Microsoft was not a U.S. governmental institution.
“I think we made a lot of progress, we identified certain areas where lines of communication could be restored and more work done by the affected agencies - State Dept, Defense Department, other agencies as well,” Bolton said.
Patrushev was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying they had broadly agreed to re-open communication lines between their respective foreign and defense ministries.
(...)
Patrushev had not sought Russian waivers on sanctions during their talks, [Bolton] added.
However, the Russian government continues to put pressure on the U.S. to release suspected Russian spy Maria Butina, claiming she is being held in unacceptable conditions even though there is no evidence to support that claim.
TASS:
"We demand that all necessary assistance is provided to Maria Butina and politically motivated charges are dropped," [Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova] noted [at a press briefing Thursday]. "We hope that the global community will pay attention to the US law enforcement agencies’ actions against the Russian citizen that humiliate human dignity."
Bolton warns Russia over election interference, denies Trump is a 'security risk' (CNN)
Moscow demands US drop charges against Maria Butina (TASS)
Bolton says warned Russian envoy against election meddling in 2018 (Reuters)