Nielsen: Russia using social media to divide Americans

That might be explained as a good cop-bad cop strategy with Russia. But the mixed messaging has left America’s friends and allies confused, particularly after a contentious NATO summit where Trump questioned the value of the alliance that Putin has long denounced and sought to weaken.

Just three days before the Helsinki summit, the Justice Department announced the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers in special counsel Robert Muller’s investigation into Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. That brings to 25 the number of Russians charged in the investigation. Trump has denied any collusion with Russia and has repeatedly cited Putin’s denials of any Russian interference in the campaign, suggesting there is little or nothing he can do to demand accountability. The Kremlin has denied that the Russian state interfered in the election. control” and that he would never allow any country to have weapons “even close to what we have,” although Russia already does.

How these seemingly competing instincts will play out in his talks Monday with Putin in Helsinki could profoundly affect the direction of U.S. defense policy.

Before leaving a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, Trump was asked by a reporter whether he would raise long-standing U.S. allegations that Russia is violating a Cold War-era nuclear arms treaty, and whether he favors extending a separate treaty that he has criticized in the past as disadvantaging the U.S.

His one-word answer to the two-part question was “yes” — the first public indication that he wants to extend the New Start treaty, which expires in three years. Then on Friday, he vaguely spoke about how “it would be a tremendous achievement if we could do something about nuclear proliferation.”

HOMELAND SECURITY

The U.S. homeland security secretary said on Saturday there are no signs that Russia is targeting this year’s midterm elections with the same “scale or scope” it targeted the 2016 presidential election.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen spoke at a convention of state secretaries of state, an event that’s usually a low-key affair highlighting voter registration, balloting devices and election security issues that don’t get much public attention. But coming amid fresh allegations into Russia’s attempts to sway the 2016 election, the sessions on election security have a higher level of urgency and interest.

Nielsen said her agency will help state and local election officials prepare their systems for cyberattacks from Russia or elsewhere.