tual campaign event that it was a “truly
shocking revelation” that the com-
mander-in-chief of American troops
had known for months about the incen-
tive scheme run by Russian military in-
telligence and “done worse than noth-
ing” in response.
“His entire presidency has been a gift
to Putin, but this is beyond the pale,” Mr
Biden said on Saturday. “It’s a betrayal
of the most sacred duty we bear as a
nation, to protect and equip our troops
when we send them into harm’s way.”
A former senior Pentagon official
said that protestations by the president
that he had not been informed of such
a controversial piece of intelligence
beggared belief.
Mr Trump tweeted yesterday that
“nobody briefed or told me”, Mike
Pence, the vice-president, or Mark
Meadows, the chief of staff, about “so-
called attacks on our troops in Afghan-
istan by Russians”.
John Ratcliffe, America’s top intelli-
gence official, earlier denied that Mr“Nobody briefed me”: Mr Trump took
time for a round of golf on SaturdayA satirical video that mocks pro-
Kremlin propaganda urging voters to
support rules that would keep
President Putin in power until 2036 was
so successful that many Russians failed
to realise it was a parody.
The two and a half minute film de-
picts a nightmarish vision of Russia in
2035, when Nato bases have replaced
playgrounds, sex-change operations
are mandatory, and history books say
the country was founded by a Japanese
video game character.
“If we had voted for the amendments,
there would be a backyard and no Nato
base,” says a man, to a background of
sad music. “If we had voted back then,
Symphony of anger Musicians play violins at protests in Aurora, Colorado, to honour
police in the city. In Newark, New Jersey, residents paint Black Lives Matter slogansA secretive Russian intelligence unit
has been offering the Taliban bounties
to kill British and American soldiers in
Afghanistan.
The Times understands that Amer-
ican intelligence officials informed
their British security counterparts that
the Russian group at the centre of the
claims is believed to be Unit 29155. This
is the elite subversion and assassination
wing of the GRU, Russia’s military intel-
ligence arm, whose agents were
charged with the attempted murder of
Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury in
2018.
The size of the bounties and any
evidence that the Taliban carried out
the GRU’s wishes in targeted attacks
last year remain uncertain.
No British soldiers among the 1,000
still deployed in Afghanistan were
killed last year. The US, which has
about 10,000 troops there, had 22 fatali-
ties in 2019, all but four in combat. That
was the highest American death toll in
a year since US-led Nato combat oper-
ations ended in 2014.
British sources did not deny the accu-
racy of the allegations against the GRU
and gave every indication that the
report of bounties being offered to the
Taliban was based on fact.
In the US, the White House’s lack of
response to the allegations — and then
claims that President Trump had not
been briefed on them — were met with
anger and incredulity.
Last night it was reported that US in-
telligence officers and Special Opera-
tions forces in Afghanistan had raised
the alarm as early as January to the sus-
pected Russian plot, according to offi-
cials briefed on the matter.
Joe Biden, the likely Democratic
Party presidential nominee, told a vir-
Trump and Mr Pence had been briefed
on the bounty payments, first reported
by The New York Times (which, con-
trary to Mr Trump’s tweet, made no
claims that Russian operatives had
directly attacked US troops).
Neither Mr Ratcliffe nor Kayleigh
McEnany, the White House press sec-
retary, denied the veracity of the news-
paper’s report, which claimed that the
national security council had been
deliberating what action to take against
Moscow for the past three months.
Liz Cheney, the third-ranking
Republican in the House of Represent-
atives, demanded yesterday that the
White House explain why the presi-
dent and vice-president were not
briefed, asking “what has been done in
response to protect our forces” and
“hold Putin accountable?”
The Russian embassy in Washington
claimed the “unsubstantiated” allega-
tions had led to death threats against its
diplomats in the US and Britain.
A spokesman for the Taliban denied
the bounty claim, insisting there was no
such deal with the Russian intelligence
agency. “Our target killings and assassi-
nations were ongoing years before and
we did it on our own resources,” he said.
Attacks on US, British and other
coalition troops were halted after the
peace agreement signed by the US and
the Taliban on February 29 this year.
The denials of a GRU-Taliban
arrangement met with scepticism
among US security officials. One
former senior Pentagon official said “it
beggars the imagination” that Mr
Trump and Mr Pence were not briefed,
adding: “It suggests gross dereliction of
duty by senior US government officials
or a colossal breakdown of the national
security decision-making process.”
Mr Biden said: “Donald Trump has
continued his embarrassing campaign
of deference and debasing himself
before Vladimir Putin.”Putin paid Taliban
in plot to kill US
and British troops
United States
Michael Evans
Ben Hoyle Los Angeles
Joke on Kremlin power grab taken as fact
[Mr Putin] would still be our president.”
The proposed reforms would allow
Mr Putin, 67, who was due to stand
down in 2024, to run for two more six-
year terms. Other changes would see “a
faith in God” and “family values” given
constitutional status. Another defines
marriage as “a union between a man
and a woman”. The referendum on the
proposals runs until July 1.
In the video, the man tells his wife he
is late for his sex change operation, and
she consoles him: “Honey, don’t worry,
everything will be OK. God willing.” He
says: “God doesn’t exist any more. He
wasn’t enshrined in the constitution.”
A portrait of “Tsar Pikachu”, a
Pokémon character, hangs on a wall.
“Did Pikachu really establish Russia?”
the woman says. “Who knows?” hesays. “History can be rewritten now.”
The video, produced by the Little
Tlen film company in Volgograd, has
received hundreds of thousands of
views. “I was really scared until I read
that it was propaganda,” said Tatiana
Kuznetsova, a Twitter user. “Is this real?
Even after the Pikachu scene I was still
thinking — what if this isn’t a send-up,
but serious?” wrote another.
The parody was released last week
after a pro-Kremlin media outlet
warned Russians in a video that unless
they back the reforms, same-sex cou-
ples would be allowed to adopt child-
ren. “What country will you choose?” it
says, as a gay man hands his adopted
son a purple dress.
It was removed by YouTube after
complaints from LGBT groups.Russia
Marc Bennetts Moscow
Uproar as Trump praises
President Trump poured fuel on
America’s combustible debate on race
yesterday when he shared a video that
included one of his supporters chanting
“white power”.
When he retweeted the footage of a
man in a golf buggy decorated with
Trump posters and other supporters
confronting protesters at a retirement
complex in Florida, the president
praised the “good people” in the video.
Hours later he deleted the tweet.
Joe Biden, Mr Trump’s likely
Democratic opponent in November’s
election, responded that Americans
were “in a battle for the soul of the
nation — and the president has pickeda side. But make no mistake: it’s a battle
we will win.”
A White House spokesman claimed
that the president did not hear the
racist language in the video, which Tim
Scott, the only black Republican in the
US Senate, called offensive yesterday.
The episode came amid a national
reckoning with the enduring impact of
systemic racism in American life.
Princeton University, one of Amer-
ica’s most elite educational institutions,
announced it would remove the name
of Woodrow Wilson from its school of
public policy and a college because of
the former US president’s “racist think-
ing and policies”.
Five years after student protests
forced a review of Princeton’s record on
race relations, the trustees revisited theJacqui Goddard Miami
Ben Hoyle Los Angeles26 2GM Monday June 29 2020 | the times
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