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In a press release last month, Senator Richard Burr's press office said that the 2017 Intelligence Authorization Bill, which was passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee in May, "requires the President to establish an interagency committee to counter Russian active measures," however no details on the requirements have been listed.
According to the BuzzFeed news outlet, the intelligence bill calls to revive the Cold War-era presidentially-appointed group to counter "Russian spies and Russian-sponsored assassinations" in the United States. The group would have to also investigate the funding of Russian "covert broadcasting, media manipulation" and secret funding.
Comment: Are there any Russian-sponsored assassination in the US? Or covert media manipulation by Russia? These are all activities that the US government engages in to a large degree. Congress should investigate its own government's activities. Maybe then they'd actually be engaging in a fruitful endeavor, instead of creating a committee to investigate that which does not exist, merely to demonize Russia and spread anti-Russian propaganda.
The bill, among other measures, calls to tighten how Russian diplomats can travel within the United States without official notifications to US authorities, limiting it to a 50-mile perimeter around the embassy. All movement outside that perimeter would have to be investigated by the security services, the media outlet reported.
The bill now must be passed by the Senate.
Since 2014, relations between Russia and the United States deteriorated. Washington and its allies have introduced several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions over the reunification of Crimea with Russia and Moscow's alleged interference in the Ukrainian conflict.
Russia has repeatedly refuted the allegations, warning that the Western sanctions are counterproductive and undermine global stability.
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