“Accused Russian spy Maria Butina appears to have reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors,” CNN reports.

“Butina is accused of trying to infiltrate Republican political circles and party leaders during the 2016 campaign in order to advance Russian interests, and prosecutors have said the former American University student was in touch with politically powerful Russians about her activities in the US.”

USA Today: “She is accused of infiltrating multiple political organizations, including the National Rifle Association, to gain influence for Russia.”

Daily Beast: “Following the abrupt cancellation of Donald Trump’s G20 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian state media roasted him. Known for seamlessly adhering to the Kremlin’s viewpoint, the troupe of Putin’s cheerleaders took turns laying into the president of the United States.”

Said one commentator: “Trump is a rock hanging around Russia’s neck.”

Said another: “What kind of a man is this – first he says it will happen, then it won’t… This is just foolishness, he seems to be an unbalanced person.”

The Atlantic: “At the very beginning of Trump’s presidency, as soon as he lied in that press conference, Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence possessed the ability to unmask Trump as a liar to the American public, revealing damaging information to Congress and the public about which they had previously been ignorant. BuzzFeed’s account of the negotiations involving a potential Trump Tower in Moscow hints at the wealth of documentary evidence that the Russians would possess to back up their claims.”

“As it would turn out, that was merely the beginning of their leverage. In September 2017, Donald Trump Jr. gave sworn Senate testimony that may be contradicted by Thursday’s revelations, raising the prospect that the Russians have been in possession of evidence suggesting that the president’s son may have committed a felony. And once Cohen lied to Congress about the matter, the Russians were in a position to expose the unlawful behavior of Trump’s personal attorney.”

CBS News: “Russia said on Wednesday it still expects a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump to go ahead as planned. Mr. Trump, in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, said he may cancel the sit-down with Putin in Argentina following Russia’s seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships last weekend.”

“Lawyers for alleged Russian spy Mariia Butina have entered into negotiations with federal prosecutors,” NBC News reports.

“The two sides requested to postpone the next hearing in the case because they are currently ‘in negotiations regarding a potential resolution of this matter,’ indicating that they are working towards a plea agreement.”

President Trump said he would pull out of a Cold-War era treaty with Russia that limited the number of missiles in each country because Russia has violated the agreement, USA Today reports.

Said Trump: “Russia has violated the agreement. They have been violating it for many years. And we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to.”

He said the U.S. would pull out “and then we are going to develop the weapons” unless Russia and China agree to a new deal, though China isn’t currently a party of the agreement.

The Guardian reported that John Bolton was pushing for the U.S. to withdraw “in the face of resistance from others in the Trump administration and U.S. allies.”

President Trump was interviewed by Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes:

TRUMP: I think I’m very tough with him personally. I had a meeting with him. The two of us. It was a very tough meeting and it was a very good meeting.

STAHL: Do you agree that Vladimir Putin is involved in assassinations? In poisonings?

TRUMP: Probably he is, yeah. Probably. I mean, I don’t–

STAHL: Probably?

TRUMP: But I rely on them, it’s not in our country.

STAHL: Why not– they shouldn’t do it. This is a terrible thing.

TRUMP: Of course they shouldn’t do it-

New York Times: “In one dramatic encounter, F.B.I. agents appeared unannounced and uninvited at a home Mr. Deripaska maintains in New York and pressed him on whether Paul Manafort, a former business partner of his who went on to become chairman of Mr. Trump’s campaign, had served as a link between the campaign and the Kremlin.”

“The attempt to flip Mr. Deripaska was part of a broader, clandestine American effort to gauge the possibility of gaining cooperation from roughly a half-dozen of Russia’s richest men, nearly all of whom, like Mr. Deripaska, depend on President Vladimir V. Putin to maintain their wealth.”

“The systematic effort to win the cooperation of the oligarchs, which has not previously been revealed, does not appear to have scored any successes. And in Mr. Deripaska’s case, he told the American investigators that he disagreed with their theories about Russian organized crime and Kremlin collusion in the campaign… The person added that Mr. Deripaska even notified the Kremlin about the American efforts to cultivate him.”