Thursday, May 2, 2024

Congress passes bill that could unlock billions in frozen Russian assets for Ukraine

russia house

One attentive listener, "Goethe", asks him privately whether he truly believes in the possibility of such a world. The critically acclaimed music to The Russia House was composed and conducted by veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith. The score featured a mixture of Russian music and jazz to complement the nationalities and characteristics of the two main characters. There were four main featured soloists, with only one receiving a card on the opening titles - Branford Marsalis on soprano saxophone. Other soloists include a duduk player (an Armenian double reed instrument), pianist Mike Lang and double bassist John Patitucci. Barley sends a note to Ned explaining that during a pre-arranged phone call to Katya, Dante used a code word to let her know that he had been compromised by the KGB and that her life was in danger.

‘Rebel’ redacted: Rebel Wilson’s book chapter on Sacha Baron Cohen struck from some copies

Russell states he would help the British operation out of a true ideological belief in glasnost, although this would not be good news to his "customers" in the weapons industry, who need an arms race for continued prosperity. Katya sets up a meeting with Yakov, going to great lengths to avoid being followed. Barley explains that the manuscript is in the hands of British and American authorities.

Ukrainians contemplate the once unthinkable: Losing the war with Russia

Having read the book, I knew that Barley would have to be Sean Connery or perhaps Michael Caine (John Hurt would have been good, but is not a box office name). And so what develops is one of those infinitely gentle, sad le Carre plots in which men who have worked too long within the mole tunnels of intelligence come out into the sunlight and stand, blinking and disoriented, in the glare of beauty, romance, truth and fresh air. All of which needs to be talked about a great deal, especially by men who have been spies too long. These include the Americans (Roy Scheider and John Mahoney) who take over the case from the impotent British.

DC’s Mysterious Russian Embassy Spy House Is for Sale - Washingtonian

DC’s Mysterious Russian Embassy Spy House Is for Sale.

Posted: Wed, 21 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Movie Info

Most spy movies are a male preserve, but Michelle Pfeiffer brings such lyrical tenderness to her role--she looks like a sorrowing Chekhov heroine--that Barley’s love for her has an almost mystical inevitability. She’s the emblem of all that’s worth saving in this spy-infested world. Most spy movies, including many of the best ones, are slinky, dark-toned affairs. Paranoia is integral to the spy genre but, in the glasnost era, the genre has rapidly become unmoored.

Drones attack the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, according to plant officials

“We aren’t ready for it because the return to a dialogue on strategic stability ... As it was conducted in the past is impossible until the U.S. revises its deeply hostile policy course in relation to Russia,” Ryabkov told reporters in comments carried by Russian news agencies. Ryabkov said Wednesday that the Russian Foreign Ministry had received U.S. proposals to resume a dialogue on strategic stability and arms control issues, but noted that Moscow doesn’t consider it possible in the current political environment. The CTBT, adopted in 1996, bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world, but the treaty was never fully implemented. In addition to the U.S., it is yet to be ratified by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran and Egypt. The bill to end ratification will now be sent to Putin for final approval.

The legislation includes $60 billion for Kyiv; $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza; and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region. It would direct the president to seek repayment from the Ukrainian government of $10 billion in economic assistance, a concept supported by former President Donald J. Trump, who had pushed for any aid to Kyiv to be in the form of a loan. But it also would allow the president to forgive those loans starting in 2026. The scene on the House floor reflected both the broad support in Congress for continuing to help the Ukrainian military beat back Russia, and the extraordinary political risk taken by Mr. Johnson to defy the anti-interventionist wing of his party who had sought to thwart the measure. Minutes before the vote on assistance for Kyiv, Democrats began to wave small Ukrainian flags on the House floor, as hard-right Republicans jeered. NAR said the median purchase price among Russian buyers between April 2015 and March 2021 was $325,000, just slightly higher than the $303,200 median purchase price among all US foreign buyers.

The House passes billions in aid for Ukraine and Israel after months of struggle

This unmooring was the subtext of Le Carre’s novel and it’s true to an even greater degree of the movie. More than a year later, after several unconfirmed sightings in Moscow, Barley shows up in Portugal, offering no explanation for his absence. Neither the CIA nor MI6 are inclined to interrogate him, reasoning that the KGB has already worn him down to get the information they needed. They are resigned to the fact that the "manuscript" had been KGB bait all along. The truth, however, is that Barley traded the questions for the freedom of Katya and her family.

russia house

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“Your leadership through legislative action will increase the likelihood that the administration does what is necessary to confiscate Putin’s billions,” wrote Chairman Garry Kasparov and CEO Uriel Epshtein. The Renew Democracy Initiative, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization promoting democracy and American interest overseas, sent a letter Friday urging Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to work together to get the REPO Act passed. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government invested heavily in the euro and the dollar over the years to keep the ruble stable, planting $300 billion worth of foreign currency reserves. As a result of his move, Johnson could face a vote on his ouster in the coming weeks. The GOP speaker, however, has grown more willing to confront the threat from the right, and Democrats have suggested that they're willing to protect him from an ouster effort if he allowed a vote on Ukraine aid.

Pummeled by airstrikes, Ukrainians in Kharkiv defy Russia by getting on with daily life

russia house

Dante’s hope, if he is to be believed, is that Barley will publish the text and thereby persuade the West that a nuclear build-up is irrelevant. The House acted not a moment too soon in passing an aid package so Kyiv can get US-made artillery shells, air-defense systems and drones. After House lawmakers passed the earlier TikTok legislation in just over a week, many senators called for slowing down deliberations in the upper chamber. Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), whose committee has jurisdiction over the bill, initially expressed concerns about whether the proposal could withstand legal scrutiny and called for hearings. The House has pushed a $95-billion national security aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies closer to passage. "One could conjecture that when it comes to purchasing vacation homes, Russian foreign buyers may be purchasing properties in Europe, as it is more convenient to travel to Europe due to proximity when compared to the United States," Cororaton said.

Russian efforts to create anti-satellite weapons are cause for US concern - The Associated Press

Russian efforts to create anti-satellite weapons are cause for US concern.

Posted: Thu, 15 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Many Russian hawks have spoken in favor of a resumption of the tests. Russia’s military conducted drills on Wednesday, overseen by President Vladimir Putin, that simulated a nuclear strike in response to a nuclear attack and involved multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles. ” says the average foreigner within the first 20 minutes of his/her first trip to Russia, before realizing shortly afterwards that those enormous, somber-looking concrete blocks they see all round them are the houses. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. A film based on the novel was released in 1990, starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, directed by Fred Schepisi. It was one of the first western films to be shot on location in the Soviet Union.

The Senate plans to take the matter up Tuesday, Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement emailed to The Post. European allies, for their part, had watched the drawn-out aid drama with mounting anxiety and exasperation. But most quickly pivoted to public expressions of optimism and unity.

Her name is Katya, she is played by Michelle Pfeiffer, and she is, in Barley's words, "seriously beautiful." Yes, of course she is. But she is also the one woman to strike a spark of hope and romance in old Barley's breast, to make him believe that after all these decades of boozing and self-contempt and weary cynicism, he can dare to hope and love. He tells her these things, in more or less those words, and then the plot deepens because the manuscript comes from a scientist (Klaus Maria Brandauer) who might also feel some of the same things about her. Under full British-American surveillance, Barley takes the shopping list to Yakov's apartment. Ned suddenly concludes that the Soviets know all about the operation and will steal the list to learn what the British and Americans know, and is convinced that Barley has made a deal to turn over the questions to the KGB.

British intelligence officers track Barley to his holiday flat in Lisbon and interrogate him about his ties to Katya, but realize he knows as little as they do. MI6 knows that the manuscript is also of vital importance to the CIA, with both agencies seeking Barley to work on their behalf. The effort is likely to face significant legal hurdles, as have previous attempts by the Trump administration and states to force a sale or ban of the app.

Of course this is not always the case, but generally speaking, the smallest residential apartment blocks in Russia will have at least five floors (the least luxurious being the Khrushchev-era “pyatietazhki” built in the 1950s or 1960s). Even the sight of a massive courtyard full of five-story buildings can seem pretty ominous to Europeans – not to mention that it’s also common to find modern residential blocks as high as 20 stories. The early scenes in which Barley finagles information from Katya while trying to seduce her carry a comic charge. Barley, wired for sound, is being monitored; his intimacies are fodder for the spymasters’ dossier.

It is only as a spy that he comes into his own, because it confirms his own wild-eyed romantic notions of himself. And, set loose in Moscow and Leningrad, Barley feels like he’s adrift in a minaret-studded, fairy-tale dreamscape. The film, like John le Carre's novel, takes place in a world where glasnost is eroding the old certainties about the Cold War. It tells the story of a small-time, alcoholic London book publisher named Barley (Sean Connery), who is sent a manuscript by a beautiful Russian woman he claims never to have met.

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