“Paul Erickson, the American political operative and boyfriend of admitted Russian agent Maria Butina, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in South Dakota on charges of wire fraud and money laundering,” the Daily Beast reports.

NPR: “Russia’s defense minister ordered work to begin on new land-based intermediate range missiles Tuesday, to be ready within two years. The move comes in response to the U.S. decision to pull out of a key nuclear arms treaty that symbolized the end of the Cold War.”

Senate Republicans “narrowly staved off an effort by Democrats to deal the Trump administration’s Russia sanctions policy an embarrassing rebuke,” the New York Times reports.

“Eleven Republicans joined Democrats in a vote to enforce sanctions against the corporate empire of an influential ally of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, but the effort fell three votes short of the 60-vote threshold required to advance the measure. The vote was 57-42, with one Democratic senator not voting.”

The Kremlin ridiculed as “nonsense” claims that President Trump has been working on Russia’s behalf, Bloomberg reports.

Said Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov: “That’s stupid. How can the president of the United States be an agent of another country? Just think about that.”

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also dismissed “accusations that President Trump is effectively a Russian agent” by attacking Congress and the American media for undermining the U.S. leader.

First Read: “In the United States, President Trump’s push for a border wall has now partially shut down the federal government for 26 days and counting.”

“And in Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May ‘suffered the biggest parliamentary defeat of any British prime minister in history Tuesday as lawmakers of all stripes crushed her plan to leave the European Union,’ per NBC News.”

“These developments — plus the instability in France and Germany — show just how politically crippled the West is right now. And, oh by the way, guess which country meddled in the 2016 elections in Britain and the United States?”

James Hohmann: “We don’t know exactly how much Moscow spent supporting influence operations to impact the U.K. and U.S. elections in 2016, but it seems hard to overstate how good the Kremlin’s return has been on what Western intelligence agencies believe was a relatively modest investment.”

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) slammed President Trump for communicating with Russian President Vladimir Putin without keeping “careful records” of it, CNN reports.

Said Romney: “It’s inappropriate for the president of or country to communicate with the president of another global power without having people there keeping careful records to make sure what is said by both parties is followed up upon.”

“Only one American was a firsthand witness to President Trump’s summit last summer with Russian President Vladimir Putin: veteran State Department translator Marina Gross,” ABC News reports.

“Gross’ job is to blend into the background and seamlessly help two leaders communicate. But now there is mounting interest in seeing Gross step into the spotlight, as Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Committees seek an explanation for what exactly transpired behind closed doors in Helsinki.”

Said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ): “It may be unprecedented to subpoena a translator to reveal the details of a private meeting between the president and another world leader. But Trump’s actions are unprecedented in a way that harms our national security.”

President Trump told Fox News that he did not try to conceal conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling a report last night “ridiculous.”

Said Trump: “I’m not keeping anything under wraps, I couldn’t care less. I mean, it’s so ridiculous. These people make it up. I have many one-on-ones, nobody ever says anything about it, but with Putin they say, ‘Oh what did they talk about?’ We talked about very positive things.”

He added: “Anybody could have listened to that meeting, that meeting is open for grabs. The whole Russia thing it’s a hoax, it’s a terrible hoax, everybody knows it.”

Worth watching: Rachel Maddow reviews instances of when President Trump parrots Russian narratives on international affairs in a way that seems oddly out of character from how Trump seems to understand the world.

“Russian officials say Moscow will continue to support a Russian woman in custody in the United States who has pleaded guilty to acting as a covert agent of the Russian government, even though it rejects that claim,” CBS News reports.

“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian news agencies on Friday that he ‘understands’ why Maria Butina pleaded guilty, quoting what he described as ‘torturous’ prison conditions.”

“Maria Butina, a 30-year-old Russian gun rights activist who stands accused developing a covert influence operation in the United States, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and cooperate with federal, state and local authorities in any ongoing investigations,” ABC News reports.

She faces up to five years in prison, but could get a lesser sentence for cooperating.

CNN: “Her cooperation will mainly focus on telling investigators about the role of her boyfriend Paul Erickson and her interactions with her Russian handlers.”