For more than seven years, @SenJohnMcCain and Vladimir Kara-Murz aka @vkaramurza had each other’s backs as each criticized Putin and what they saw as his autocratic tendencies in Russia. /1

https://twitter.com/politico/status/1034617977042362368

Last April, a mutual friend brought Kara-Murza a personal message from McCain. The senator had been diagnosed nine months earlier with an aggressive form of brain tumor known as a glioblastoma and wanted the young Russian to be a pallbearer at his funeral. Would he agree? /2

“She had tickets for stuff there,” the source added. “Movie nights, things like that.” Accused Russian agent met with suspected Kremlin spy who headed Russian "cultural center" in DC that's been a suspected Kremlin spy hub for many years. @POLITICO politi.co/2veJzFw The state-run Russian Cultural Center in DC and parent org Rossotrudnichestvo also have come up in two separate ways in the Trump-Russia probes by Congress & Special Counsel Robert Mueller, including re: Michael Cohen's alleged mtg with Kremlin spooks in Prague (which he denies)

Sometimes one interesting story leads to another. Last year I wrote about how some U.S. govt probes into global drug trafficking by Hezbollah’s terrorist wing were derailed by the Obama admin's zeal for the Iran nuclear deal. politi.co/2jbt6fW After we published that story, a message popped up in my encrypted email inbox. A former DEA and Justice Dept official told me the same thing happened to his team, but worse... and in Afghanistan.