The new punitive measures imposed on Russia by the outgoing US administration seem to be an attempt to take revenge on Republican Donald Trump for winning the presidency, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has noted.

"The outgoing administration isn't giving up on its attempts to worsen bilateral relations, not understanding that they can't get any worse," Zakharova said in an interview with RIA-Novosti.

"Honestly, there is a feeling that the Democratic team is just trying to take revenge on Trump for his victory, making plainly absurd decisions a month before his inauguration," she said.

The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman cited the Obama administration's plans to supply MANPADS to Syrian militants, which Washington still see as a tool to remove Syria's president, Bashar Assad, as an example of such "absurd decisions."

Earlier in December, Congress added a provision to the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that will allow the US to send shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to rebel factions in Syria, where Russia is providing air support for the government forces fighting terrorist groups.

A Wall Street Journal staff reporter detained by Turkish authorities earlier this week has returned safely to the U.S.

Dion Nissenbaum, 49 years old, was held for 2½ days this past week and wasn't permitted contact with his family or attorneys before his release. He and his family arrived in San Francisco on Saturday evening.

Police took Mr. Nissenbaum from his Istanbul apartment on Tuesday evening. He was released from a detention center on Friday morning.

A person familiar with the matter said he was held for allegedly violating a government ban on publication of images from an Islamic State video.

"While we are relieved that Dion was released unharmed after nearly three days, we remain outraged at his peremptory detention, without any contact with his family, legal counsel or colleagues," said Gerard Baker, editor in chief of the Journal.

In a recent interview with Russia 1 TV channel, Russian government spokeswoman Maria Zakharova exposes the direct, murderous threats that were leveled at the Russian government and military by Western politicians, in particular officials from the US State Department, including John Kerry.


(Those outside of the U.S. may be able to view the video on YouTube.)

Zakharova cites statements made at private discussions between Russian Foreign Minister Segey Lavrov and John Kerry, and at other high-level meetings, where Russia was directly threatened with "pain" and a "media campaign" to twist the truth of what Russia was doing in Syria:

Sen. John McCain has pledged U.S. support to the security of Russia's three Baltic neighbors amid worries that the United States may not be fully committed to the defense of NATO allies following statements by President-elect Donald Trump.

McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said during a visit to Estonia on Tuesday that Washington should consider at least basing troops permanently in that country. He says the U.S. remains committed to NATO, but that having soldiers assigned to Estonia full-time instead of during rotations would strengthen military ties between the two nations.

McCain, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is touring Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania this week with fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar. The lawmakers also plan to visit Ukraine, Georgia and Montenegro.

President-elect Donald Trump is stocking his administration with businessmen and regulatory reformers who are intent on cutting through what they see as red tape from Washington. Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor, will oversee the Trump administration's regulatory reform efforts. He will be joined by several other Wall Street investors and corporate executives who have first-hand experience dealing with government rules. Here are six figures in the Trump administration poised to have an outsized role in scaling back regulations.

After Putin's skillful countermove Obama's transparently partisan misuse of the Russian hacking scandal to embarrass Donald Trump begins to backfire. Over the last few weeks I have repeatedly made the point that Barack Obama's recent moves, especially his criticisms of Israel and his hyping up of the hacking scandal against Russia, are first and foremost intended to box in and undermine his successor Donald Trump.

What is interesting is how what was essentially a lone view when I first expressed it ten days ago is now rapidly becoming the consensus. Obama's moves and Putin's counter-moves of the last three days has brought all this into stark relief by making Obama's motives altogether too transparent. A flood of articles appeared in the British and US media yesterday, some written in an obviously gloating tone, lauding the "difficult dilemma" in which Obama had supposedly placed Trump by imposing more sanctions on Russia.

Supposedly Trump now faced a choice: either he rescinded the sanctions, in which case he risked being branded (including by some leaders of his own party) as a stooge of the Kremlin, or he failed to do so, in which case he supposedly risked antagonising Putin and the Russians.

Either way the legitimacy of his election would be called into question, with the claim he owed his election to Russian election manipulation being given extra force.

The FBI report supposedly bursting with evidence that Russian hackers breached US servers contains no real proof, computer experts say - among them former NSA technical director and whistleblower William Edward Binney. The report was meant to provide the American public with much-delayed proof that Russia had hacked the DNC to influence the US election. While it failed to do this, it did serve as the Obama administration's justification for expelling 35 Russian diplomats and their families from the United States.


"I think that's the whole point," Binney told RT. "I've seen absolutely nothing that shows any involvement of the Russian government in passing data to WikiLeaks." He recalled Julian Assange's recent admission that the leaks had not come from Russia, as well as Craig Murray, the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, who said that he had personally met the insider who had leaked the incriminating data to the whistleblowing website.

The ex-NSA director did not find the report produced this week by the FBI and DHS convincing. "It is simply an outline of how a phishing attack occurs, that's all it was to me. It didn't prove anything to me. It didn't give the IP addresses, the Mac numbers or any other details about them," he explained, adding "it also didn't show how they hacked in, and how they ex-filtrated the data, how much data they took," or how it was consequently passed on to the Russian government.They didn't show any of that trace routing. And that's what they should have shown to prove it," he stressed.

While 2016 was a tumultuous year indeed, December proved to be especially trying in light of a spectacular presidential temper tantrum courtesy of outgoing US President Barack Obama. And you'll never guess who got stuck in the middle. Israel.

I can hear the wolves at the gate already. Quick disclaimer: The following analysis will not tackle the Palestinian peace process or Israel's aggressive occupation of Palestinian land. However important those subject matters maybe, we ought to realize that the latest UN resolution - which made a loud political and diplomatic bang - was really meant as a poisoned apple.

I would like to think that by now we are well-equipped to smell a political set-up. If anything, Syria has taught the world how insanely conniving and manipulative the United States can be when it comes to pushing its narrative forward - to hell with the consequences.

Is the new Cold War postponed? The expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and the closure of two intelligence-gathering operations in Maryland and New York by President Obama followed allegations that Russia had hacked into emails of prominent Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, during the election campaign. The conventional response to this, familiar during the days of the Cold War, would have been a tit-for-tat expulsion by Russia of a similar number of US diplomats posted there. This was indeed the request of the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. His ministry asked for President Putin's approval to expel 31 diplomats from the US embassy in Moscow and a further four from the consulate in St Petersburg. But President Putin turned it down.

"The new unfriendly measures by the US administration are regarded as provocative, designed to further undermine relations," Mr Putin said. But he added: "We will not create problems for American diplomats. We will not expel anyone."

This is the clearest signal yet that Russia is seeking a reset of its relations with the United States, a sign that it is seeking a rapprochement with the new, inexperienced - but evidently friendly to Russia - President Trump. There are rational reasons why it should want to do so. Western sanctions have undoubtedly damaged the Russian economy, which barely grew in 2014, shrank sharply in 2015 and almost certainly fell further this year. The fall in oil and gas prices will have played a large part in this contraction, but the measures agreed by the G7 countries in 2014, following the annexation of the Crimea and the incursions into eastern Ukraine, have made recovery much more difficult. These existing sanctions were extended earlier this month by both the EU and Japan, and have now been reinforced by further measures by the US.

The Washington Post has corrected an article in which it said that Russian hackers had infiltrated the US power grid at a Vermont utility. The newspaper now says authorities have no such "indications" as people on social media claim the outlet promotes "fake news."

On Friday, Burlington Electric, a Vermont-based power company, raised an alarm after finding malware code on a company laptop. Referring to undisclosed officials, the Washington Post then ran a damning headline, saying that "Russian operation hacked a Vermont utility" which posed a risk "to US electrical grid security."

Yet it turns out that the laptop that was penetrated wasn't even attached to the power network, according to a statement from Burlington Electric. "We detected suspicious internet traffic in a single Burlington Electric Department computer not connected to our organization's grid systems," the message reads.

No evidence of a Russian trace has been released either. Eventually, the Washington Post issued a correction to its article. "An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the US electric grid. Authorities say there is no indication of that so far," the statement said. The headline, blatantly accusing "Russian hackers" of breaching the US power grid, remains, though.