WASHINGTON – America’s most sweeping expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold War may have seemed like a dramatic escalation in Washington’s response to Moscow, but the groundwork for a more confrontational U.S. posture had been taking shape for months — in plain sight.
While President Donald Trump’s conciliatory rhetoric toward Moscow has dominated headlines, officials at the U.S. State Department, Pentagon and White House made a series of lower-profile decisions over the past year to counter Russia around the world — from Afghanistan to North Korea to Syria.
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KEYWORDS
Vladimir Putin,
Russia,
chemical weapons,
Hacking,
U.K.,
espionage,
scandals,
Republicans,
cyberattacks,
Donald Trump,
2016 U.S. presidential election,
russia probe
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