White House Uses Russian Technology

8/23/18
Russian-made communication technology is being used by the White House as a direct line between Washington and Moscow, Russia’s state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec has said. A direct link between the Kremlin and the White House became operational on Aug. 30, 1963, a year after the Cuban missile crisis that had almost led to nuclear war. The teletype was replaced by fax machines and, in the past decade, computer communications. A Rostec unit that specializes in encryption and secure communications, Avtomatika, reportedly supplies the White House with products that allow Trump to communicate directly with President Vladimir Putin. “U.S. experts tested and recommended to equip the Moscow-Washington direct line with the system,” an unnamed Rostec representative told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday. “In all its years of existence, the direct line uses only Russian-made equipment,” the representative said without elaborating.

Click to expand...

“U.S. experts tested and recommended to equip the Moscow-Washington direct line with the system,” an unnamed Rostec representative told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday.

Click to expand...

Oceanborn said:

Your e-boner for Russian conspiracies is worse than Alex Jones tin foil hattery.

Click to expand...

Rogue Valley said:

White House Uses Russian Technology to Communicate With Kremlin, Rostec Says





The Homeland Security Department has ordered all US government agencies and the US military to cease using all Russian/Chinese digital equipment, Russian/Chinese software, and software that contains any Russian/Chinese elements and coding.

Apparently, this Russia/China DHS digital-security-prohibition either doesn't include the US White House, or the White House is ignoring this security protocol.

Click to expand...

Rogue Valley said:

The Moscow Times is independent. Shows what you know. Only what Hannity tells you.

Click to expand...

A Rostec unit that specializes in encryption and secure communications, Avtomatika, reportedly supplies the White House with products that allow Trump to communicate directly with President Vladimir Putin.

“U.S. experts tested and recommended to equip the Moscow-Washington direct line with the system,” an unnamed Rostec representative told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday.

“In all its years of existence, the direct line uses only Russian-made equipment,” the representative said without elaborating.

Click to expand...

Rogue Valley said:

The WH isn't denying it. Why would Rostec lie? Trump is their guy right?

Click to expand...

Rogue Valley said:

White House Uses Russian Technology to Communicate With Kremlin, Rostec Says





The Homeland Security Department has ordered all US government agencies and the US military to cease using all Russian/Chinese digital equipment, Russian/Chinese software, and software that contains any Russian/Chinese elements and coding.

Apparently, this Russia/China DHS digital-security-prohibition either doesn't include the US White House, or the White House is ignoring this security protocol.

Click to expand...

Oceanborn said:

I do not watch cable tv, Hannity or any of that crap. Try a bit more creativity.

Click to expand...

Oceanborn said:

Your e-boner for Russian conspiracies is worse than Alex Jones tin foil hattery.



The word of a state run agency in Russia...not so convincing.

Click to expand...

Rogue Valley said:

Take off your Trump blinders and consider the problem. An entire Russian system is installed and running in the WH.

DHS doesn't want even a single line of Russian code in any software the US government/military purchases/uses.

Click to expand...

Rogue Valley said:

White House Uses Russian Technology to Communicate With Kremlin, Rostec Says





The Homeland Security Department has ordered all US government agencies and the US military to cease using all Russian/Chinese digital equipment, Russian/Chinese software, and software that contains any Russian/Chinese elements and coding.

Apparently, this Russia/China DHS digital-security-prohibition either doesn't include the US White House, or the White House is ignoring this security protocol.

Click to expand...

I had to pinch myself watching Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson on Fox News. These men, railing furiously against plots and traitors, were eerily reminiscent of the propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov on Channel One Russia.

But that was not all. The mounting hysteria about foreign influence. The professional trolls and Twitter accounts laying blame on MI6. I felt like I had seen it all before...

Looking back on it, I realize that every story I ever filed from Russia was not just a politics story, or a crime story, or a spy story—but almost always, on some level, also a corruption story.

That’s one final, spooky way that Washington now feels just like Moscow.

Click to expand...

Oceanborn said:

I do not have Trump blinders... but the hate for this president is blinding a lot of people. Folks get their champagne bottles out each time they think Trump will fail or be impeached. Why is it so easy for the Russians to create this internal chaos in the US? Because of blind partisan hate. You start more threads about Russian conspiracy than anyone else here as far as I can tell. What is your agenda?

Click to expand...

ultmd said:

This is a silly comment.

You say you don't have "Trump blinders", but you clearly have Trump sympathies.

The "internal chaos" in the US created by the Russians has been made possible by the blind partisanship of right wingers, and the their obsequience to Donald Trump. That's why we see so much pro-Russian rhetoric on right wing blogs, and even some pro-Russian signs at gatherings of conservatives these days.

This is a picture from the crowd at CPAC this year, just before Trump began his speech:

40% of all Republicans hold FAVORABLE views of Putin and Russia. That's not a fluke. Before Trump came on the scene, Americans of all stripes held overwhelmingly negative views about Russia and Putin (i.e. net (-)50-60% overall). Today, Republicans and Trump supporters are nearly split on Russia and Putin. Those numbers have been rising, steadily, over the last few years.

"Blind Partisan hatred" is THE primary determining factor of a Trump supporter. Those "Better Putin than Democrat" signs out there at Trump rallies speak for themselves.

Click to expand...

Rogue Valley said:

I looked into this a bit more deeply (the hotline agreements and technical annexes). The WH does have Russian communication equipment installed, and the Kremlin has US communication equipment installed. The long and short of it is that Russian equipment in the WH is there basically to receive and decrypt messages (telegram/fax/email) from Moscow sent in the Russian language. There is still the original duplex-wire telegraph line (the Russians refuse to discontinue this), a duplex radiotelegraph (teleprinter) line for redundancy, a fiber optic digital line, and dedicated satellite channels from the Intelsat and Malniya II (Russian) satellites. Both nations feel that a video-conference hotline is unwise, due to the possibility of misreading facial tics and vocal changes in tone and loudness.

The upshot ..... Russian hotline equipment is indeed installed in the US White House. I understand why, but this doesn't square with recent DHS security directives.

Click to expand...