Russian bounty program
The Russian bounty program is an alleged project of Russian military intelligence to pay bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American and other allied service members during the war in Afghanistan. The existence of the program was reported in the media in 2020 and became an issue in the 2020 presidential election campaign. In June 2020, "The Washington Post" reported that intelligence suggesting the existence of a bounty operation dated to as early as 2018. The "Washington Post" and Associated Press both reported that Trump administration White House officials were informed of the intelligence reports in early 2019. In June 2020, "The New York Times" also reported that U.S. intelligence agencies had assessed, several months earlier, that Unit 29155 of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU had secretly offered Taliban-associated militants bounties to kill U.S. troops and other coalition personnel in Afghanistan, including during peace talks with the Taliban. "The New York Times" reported that "Officials said there was disagreement among intelligence officials about the strength of the evidence about the suspected Russian plot." Defense Department officials then reported that U.S. military intelligence was unable to corroborate the reported program. In April 2021, the U.S. government reported that the U.S. intelligence community had only "low to moderate confidence" in the bounty allegations.
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bounties
Concept
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Taliban
Concept
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war
PER
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Afghanistan
LOC
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2020 presidential election campaign
Concept
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The Washington Post
MEDIA
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Associated Press
ORG
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Trump administration
MEDIA
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Unit 29155
ORG
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GRU
ORG
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peace talks with the Taliban
MEDIA
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Defense Department
Concept
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military intelligence
Concept
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U.S. intelligence community
Concept
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Russian bounty program
UNK
2020-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2020
DATE
2020-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2020
DATE
2020-06-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
June 2020
DATE
2018-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2018
DATE
2019-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2019
DATE
2020-06-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
June 2020
DATE
2021-04-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
April 2021
DATE
country
location
part of
subsidiary