Thread by @PaulaChertok

Senator @MarcoRubio: "Russia's election is a farce. I will stand with the Russian people in your fight for freedom." Watch first ever #PutinCon live stream here: putincon.com (Beware the nose)

.@Kasparov63 #PutinCon: We thought about opening our conference with a moment of silence for the many victims of Putin. But they were not silent. We could spend the whole day saying 'We told you so.' But the world wasn't ready to listen. Putin was welcomed as a democratic leader

.@Kasparov63: When Putin saw he was not challenged by West, he didn't have to pretend to be a democratic leader. He cracked down, destroyed the opposition & entered the final stage of dictatorship. He no longer needed friends; he needed enemies–"invaders from outside." #PutinCon

.@Kasparov63: Putin tested the waters in 2007 in anti-NATO speech in Munich. No reaction from West, so he kept going. He invaded Georgia. Punished? No, Bush instead did a reset. Then, after Sochi Olympics adulation, 2014 Putin was confident enough to invade Ukraine. #PutinCon

.@Kasparov63: Putin made clear he wouldn't allow fmr Soviet states to join NATO, EU b/c it would send a wrong signal to people of Russia. He built propaganda/troll machine against Russians, then used it to spread chaos Westward to Baltics, Estonia, Ukraine, Europe, US. #PutinCon

.@DavidSatter: Putin regime–dictatorship, repression, terror–is no accident. Putin is the result of an act of terror on his own people, the 1999 apartment bombings–the original sin of the Putin regime in Russia. It was a provocation comparable to Reichstag under Hitler. #PutinCon

Babchenko: 1999 Apartment Bombings led to Chechen War 2 which was used to put Putin in power. Russians had viewed Chechen War 1 as a mistake. Then govt turned against Chechens–inhuman people, had to be killed. Propaganda of hate is the foundation of Putin's regime. #PutinCon

Evgeny Kiselev: Putin's rise to power was aided by a well-planned campaign to take control of literally every media outlet capable of influencing public opinion in Russia. Complete control of TV, newspapers, magazines, websites is characteristic feature of Putin regime. #PutinCon

Kiselev: Putin understood he owed his own rise to pro-Kremlin media which created his image as a popular 'regular' guy, whose ability to lie shamelessly is a strength. TV was too powerful a weapon not to control. He destroyed not only parody "Kukly" but all indep TV. #PutinCon

Kiselev: West must monitor & publicize treatment, repression of journalists in Russia. Sanctions should be imposed on officials/managers of state-owned media. These people don't qualify as journalists producing journalism. They fall outside protection of 1st Amendment. #PutinCon

.@anders_aslund: Putin's kleptocracy takes $40-50BIL/year out of Russia. US is the biggest money-laundering hub in the world. We can go after money: 1) ban anonymous corps, 2) ban law firms acting as banks, 3) ban real estate sector from using banks for transactions. #PutinCon

.@anders_aslund sums up Putin regime: Putin stabilized macro-economics but destroyed all other institutions. He's an anachronism, taking Russia back to Tsar Nicholas 1 era – 1) overcentralization of personal power, 2) ruling thru secret police, 3) increasing repression. #PutinCon

#PutinCon @IlvesToomas: Democracy's under attack from several vectors in Digital Age:
1) hacking - stealing info
2) doxing - publishing info
3) spreading disinformation - including 'trolls'
4) bots - social media campaigns
5) dark ads - highly targeted
6) hacking voter rolls

.@IlvesToomas: How we do democracy is under threat. Cyberwarfare has made traditional concepts of conflict irrelevant. Digital threats do not recognize distance or borders. Everyone is vulnerable. We need a Cyber-NATO to respond–a league of democracies to defend us. #PutinCon

.@jkirchick: In 2007 in Munich Putin declared political solutions to the world's problems to be over. He wants a new "post-Western" world order to replace liberal democracies, destabilizing from w/in–backing via extremist parties & w/out–NATO intimidation, nuke rattling #PutinCon

.@MollyMcKew: Russia uses hybrid means to achieve political, economic, military goals. Hybrid warfare is an equalizer for Kremlin, focusing an economy of resources on stronger opponent to erode our will to fight, our psych'l defenses, to alter perception of ourselves. #PutinCon

.@MollyMcKew: Kremlin will continue to use information operations, proxies & intelligence ops to stoke levels of violence & unrest that remain below the level of warfare to try to demonstrate NATO/EU are alliances that can collapse under weight of nationalism, populism. #PutinCon

.@MollyMcKew: The Kremlin's hybrid warfare exposes it's working to advance a worldview that is cynical & atomized–and surprisingly effective–in an environment of eroding belief in ability of democracies to deliver to their own ppl. We need to see Russia for what it is. #PutinCon

🎯🔥@MollyMcKew: Neither Russia nor the West has confronted Russia's history. Russians have no idea of the truth of their last century–Who they are, who their families were. Whether they were victims or villains. How that separates or connects them to rest of the world. #PutinCon

.@MollyMcKew: We haven't confronted Russia's history either. We're not good at admitting everything we've done since USSR collapse as penance for leaving millions of ppl enslaved as Soviets for 50yrs. We never apologized for pretending we knew nothing of GULAG, famines…#PutinCon

.@MollyMcKew: In USSR prisoners were never liberated. Prisoners were let out, made their way home, told not to bring it up again. Then it all collapsed & everyone moved on. There was never the moral clarity of victor over oppressor. It's allowed Putin to rewrite history #PutinCon

.@MollyMcKew: Remember that there's nothing the Kremlin uses on its external opponents that it doesn't use on its own people first. Maybe the worst part of the future of hybrid warfare will be looking inward, as Putin engineers whatever comes next in Russia. #PutinCon (art pic!)

.@lukeharding1968: Like in a horror film, 8 yrs after #Skripal was officially pardoned by Medvedev and went into exile, he & daughter were spotted on Salisbury bench frothing, comatose, spasming–attacked by rare Soviet nerve agent. It was a crime of contempt & arrogance #PutinCon

.@lukeharding1968: Skripal was mere instrument. Targets: 1) Britain, 2) Russians–Russia under siege by hostile West may galvanize ppl to vote, 3) Russian special services thinking of cooperating w/ Mueller collusion investigation. Msg: We can strike you+family anywhere. #PutinCon

.@lukeharding1968: We've been here before. Litvinenko was murdered w/ similarly esoteric substance–polonium. Case was impt as inquiry (possible bc outside Russia) found #Putin approved the op–ie #Russia's head of state uses his spy services to kill ppl he doesn't like. #PutinCon

James Fallon "on Putin's brain" discusses neuroscience findings on personality traits of dictators, psychopathy, sociopathy, narcissism, convergence of genetic predisposition & childhood trauma. Suggests whole cultures w/ PTSD show attraction to dictators. Some slides #PutinCon

V. Nalyvaichenko: Putin has been waging war on Ukraine for 4 years–in Donbas, Crimea. Russian military also authorized the terrorist attack that killed 298 civilians aboard civilian airliner MH17. To prevent future acts of terrorism by Russia, Ukraine should join NATO. #PutinCon

Gordadze: Russia's 2008 war in Georgia =successful trial balloon. No price paid; Europe didn't call it "invasion." It shaped Putin vision: West is weak, decadent, divided. Tactics repeated in Ukraine, Syria–ethnic cleansing, RT media transformed to focus on W weaknesses #PutinCon

Borshchevskaya: Putin's intervention in Syria was years in the making. He saw yrs of Western enabling as weakness. Putin's primary goal is always regime survival–threatened by any democratic uprising. Thus Russia has supported Assad unequivocally since 2011 protests. #PutinCon

AB: Putin's deception & weaponry in Syria were to deter West, not to fight ISIS. What began as a civil war is now human catastrophe. Syria's ethnic cleansing displaced 12MIL, killed 500k. It distracted from Ukraine & exacerbated refugee crisis, further weakening West. #PutinCon

Borshchevskaya: Putin cynically used Syria as a training ground for Russian military, to test & sell Russian weaponry & establish Russian presence across Black Sea & Mediterranean, diminishing West's presence. All while enabling anti-Western terrorist forces from Iran. #PutinCon

.@mikercarpenter: Putin's wars are part of Russia's war w/ the West, an all-out assault on Western democracy. To weaken dem internally, develop fissures w/in alliances, delegitimize rules-based int'l order. The Kremlin playbook now violates all post-war norms/rules. #PutinCon

.@mikercarpenter: Disruptive powers–China, NoKorea, Iran–are watching us do nothing against Russia. We must 1) strengthen alliances, 2) build resilience (eg reform campaign finance), 3) root out corruption, 4) impose serious costs, 5) better support Russia's civil soc'y #PutinCon

#PutinCon @navalny: My team's been exposing Putin's political & economic corruption for years. This system has robbed my fellow Russian citizens of $3TRIL. State agencies are a rubber-stamp machine run by Putin loyalists. Law enforcement is an instrument of political persecution.

#PutinCon @Navalny: Putin's system of corruption that has fueled his aggression abroad. Western countries can do much more to fight Russia-related corruption within their borders. [link was cut. Navalny suggested elsewhere to impose strong personal sanctions against oligarchs]

.@PreetBharara: Powerful people, even heads of states, are subject to the rule of law in US. Money laundering, evasion of sanctions, political assassination are serious crimes that have been prosecuted, and can be if Americans have the will and courage to do it. #PutinCon

#PutinCon GOP Rep Dana Rohrbacher turns up in Boris @reitschuster's presentation of Western politicians (alongside Schroeder, LePen & Berlusconi, et al) whom Putin has influenced financially & otherwise to support pro-Kremlin policies.

Kilachenkov: Putin's business accomplices: 1) provide luxury lifestyle, 2) support his political party & election fund, 3) force their employees to vote for him, 4) finance state projects (Olympics), 5) influence by ownership (sports teams), 6) election meddling, Syria #PutinCon