Advisers to the US President Donald Trump have become less likely to notify him of “Russia-related threats to the United States”, CNN reported citing former officials from the Trump administration.
According to statements by many former administration officials who attended intelligence briefings and drafted documents for them, Trump’s opposition to intelligence warnings about Russia made the president’s national security team less likely to inform him of “Russian-related threats”.
“The president has created an environment that discourages, if not forbids, mentioning any kind of intelligence information that is unfavorable for Russia”, – the channel quoted one of the former senior officials involved in US national security.
Earlier, the New York Times, citing anonymous U.S. intelligence representatives, published an article claiming that Russian military intelligence offered rewards to Taliban-linked militants for attacks on American soldiers in Afghanistan and that U.S. President Donald Trump was informed about this. No evidence was provided.
The Russian embassy in the United States demanded that the country’s authorities respond adequately to the threats that come to the diplomats due to news about Russia and Afghanistan. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the media reports fake. Trump called the article “ordering”. The White House, the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence said that there is currently no confirmation of the reports and that Trump was not informed about them.
A spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the New York Times publication about Russia’s “conspiracy” with the Taliban, said these allegations were a lie. When asked by journalists about whether Trump had somehow discussed this topic with Vladimir Putin during the course of this year, Peskov answered in the negative.