Russian Dirt on Clinton? ‘I Love It,' Trump Jr. Said
New York Times
Emails between Donald Trump Jr. and an intermediary offer a chronicle of how a meeting last June with a Kremlin-connected lawyer came about — and just how eager Trump was to accept what he was told was Russian government help. Trump says the meeting led to nothing, and nothing has emerged to gainsay him. But the back story illustrates a cast of characters the Trump family knew from its business dealings in Moscow. The Record on Dems Spreading False Russian Info
Washington Times
While the liberal news media hunt for evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, the public record shows that Democrats have used Moscow disinformation against Donald Trump and his administration. The disinformation came in the now-infamous Russian-sourced dossier written by an ex-British spy. It contains unverified criminal charges against Trump aides, and some Democrats have widely circulated the discredited information. Probe Afoot Into Russian Funding of Green Front Groups
Wall Street Journal
Republican lawmakers see mounting evidence that Russia has been engaged in a long-term campaign to disrupt the energy agenda now promoted by Donald Trump. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is being asked to investigate whether Russia engaged with green groups opposing shale gas to maintain dependence on imported Russian gas. The article suggests light could be shed by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and John Podesta, who served on the board of a solar energy start-up in which Russia invested. Inside Google's Academic Influence Campaign
Wall Street Journal
A little-known program run by Google enlists professors from Harvard to the University of California, Berkeley, to influence opinion and public policy in the search giant's favor. Over the past decade, Google has helped finance hundreds of research papers, paying stipends of $5,000 to $400,000, the Wall Street Journal found. The professors give the company prepublication review and don't always reveal its backing in their research. Kaspersky Tied to Russian Intelligence
Bloomberg
Kaspersky Lab has 400 million users worldwide, and that global reach is starting to worry U.S. national security officials. Its boisterous boss, Eugene Kaspersky, insists that claims of ties to the Kremlin are "total BS." But now internal company emails show that the company has maintained a much closer working relationship with Russia's main intelligence agency, the FSB, than it has publicly admitted. Blackwater Founder and Financier Recruited on Afghan Options
New York Times
Two top Trump advisers, Stephen K. Bannon and Jared Kushner, recruited the founder of Blackwater International and the head of the giant military contractor DynCorp International to devise alternatives to the Pentagon's plan to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan. But Defense Secretary Jim Mattis doesn't appear eager to go this route, suggesting a rift in strategy for dealing with a war now 16 years old. Kazakhstan: A Kingdom for a Horse
Virgina Quarterly Review
Forget Borat. Think a horse named Lazer. The paradox of Kazakhstan, a nomadic land now modernizing and urbanizing, is reflected in the brutal ancient sport of kokpar -- played on horseback like polo but with a headless goat carcass instead of a ball. The sport is alive and well today, albeit increasingly professionalized, with salaried players and televised matches. Of all the stars, there is none brighter than the Mongolian steed calmly nipping the grass and sniffing the air on a chilly recent morning at the hippodrome. | 
