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From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy. | | | | |  | | By Matt Berg and Ari Hawkins | |  While Alexei Navalny is a fierce critic of Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN and anti-corruption blogger, students point out that he has also made comments calling immigrants “cockroaches,” used gay slurs and only recently said he believes Crimea. | Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo | With help from Alex Ward Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Matt A chorus of students at Georgetown University’s foreign service school are lashing out at the administration over a controversial choice of speaker for Saturday’s commencement — the daughter of an imprisoned Russian opposition leader. While ALEXEI NAVALNY is a fierce critic of Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN and anti-corruption blogger, students point out that he has also made comments calling immigrants“cockroaches,” used gay slurs and only recently said he believes Crimea — a Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia in 2014 — should be returned to Ukraine. He’s been imprisoned in Russia since 2021 on fraud charges in a trial that was denounced as politically motivated by his supporters. His wife and daughter, DASHA NAVALNAYA, have served as his proxies during that time, and the school said it invited Dasha to underscore the plights of political prisoners worldwide. Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service is full of students likely to become influential in international affairs in years to come and its commencement often brings in big names. In recent years, Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN, United Nations Secretary-General ANTÓNIO GUTERRES and former Secretary of State MADELEINE ALBRIGHT have taken the podium. With the ongoing war in Ukraine and Wall Street Journalist EVAN GERSHKOVICH’s recent imprisonment in Russia, Navalnaya — a 22-year-old junior psychology major at Stanford — seemed to the school to be a fitting choice to underscore free speech while pushing back against the Kremlin’s behavior. That’s not how a number of Ukrainian and Georgian students saw it. Ukrainian student IRYNA TIASKO, an undergraduate senior, said she hopes to serve in Ukraine’s parliament one day, and being pictured with a Russian political figure, pro-war or not, could be detrimental to her future. “Last year, they shook Blinken’s hand, who was giving the speech. Am I supposed to shake her hand?” Tiasko told NatSec Daily. “Like, I’m not going to, even if I have to.” Students have written a series of scathing letters, and hundreds of students, faculty and alumni have signed a petition protesting the choice. Following the backlash, Georgetown shifted gears to take the spotlight off Navalnaya alone. The school has added two new speakers to include several perspectives: DEBRA TICE, the mother of imprisoned journalist AUSTIN TICE, and EVAN MAWARIRE, a Zimbabwean pastor who has challenged corruption, injustice and poverty, according to the school. This week it also bought about 200 Ukrainian flags that students plan to use during a peaceful demonstration at the ceremony, according to students and a school official. But the school says it never considered dropping Dasha from the program. “We do not disinvite speakers on the Georgetown campus, and we don't dissuade speakers from speaking,” JOEL HELLMAN, dean of SFS, told NatSec Daily. “We do communicate to speakers when concerns are raised among students, so they can take those into account.” Dasha and the other speakers won’t be shaking any students’ hands, SFS spokesperson MARIE HARF said, but she’ll sit front row on stage alongside the two other speakers. She and the other speakers also won’t receive an honorary degree, as those in the past have. Dasha’s response team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The uproar began on May 3, the day Georgetown announced its lineup of speakers. When RUSLANA KOCHMAR, a Ukrainian masters student finishing up her final year, heard Navalnaya was going to deliver the speech, “I honestly thought that it was just a very bad joke,” she told NatSec Daily. Since then, she has organized students against the decision. In a May 5 letter to students, which POLITICO obtained, Hellman wrote: “I understand that some of the individuals whose stories will be highlighted have made past statements that are deeply problematic,” adding that the university doesn’t condone Navalny’s past comments. But he insisted that Dasha’s speech would go on. The students continued to urge university officials to reconsider their choice in a May 9 letter signed by six student senators, who each represent a school of study in student government at Georgetown. The student campaigners say the new speakers don’t make up for having Dasha at the podium. When she takes the stage, many graduates intend to stand, some with their backs facing the stage, in a peaceful act of protest, along with holding the Ukrainian flags provided by the school. Not all students believe Dasha’s appearance is such a bad thing. In comments on a post on the school’s Instagram account announcing the speakers, a handful of people defended Dasha against others that bashed the school for being “tone deaf.” One user asked if the speech would be recorded. The end of the spring semester is usually a time for Georgetown students to focus on finals and end-of-year celebrations. This year, Kochmar said, “It’s been such chaos and a mess.”
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Our mission is to prepare you for the future by engineering advanced capabilities today.
Many of today’s military systems and platforms were designed to operate independently. Through our 21st Century Security vision, Lockheed Martin is accelerating innovation, connecting defense and digital to enhance the performance of major platforms, to equip customers to stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn more. | | | | | NOT SO EFFED-16S: It’s a good day for Ukraine. On Friday, President JOE BIDEN told G-7 leaders in Japan that the U.S. will support a joint international effort to train Ukrainian pilots on modern fighter aircraft, including F-16s, our own LARA SELIGMAN reports. The training will take place outside Ukraine at a site in Europe and will require months to complete, a senior administration official told Lara. Officials hope to begin the training in the coming weeks, the official said, which marks a major step forward for the larger and longer-term goal of eventually sending advanced Western fighter jets to Ukraine. The coalition of countries participating in the training effort will decide when to actually provide the jets, how many to send and who will transfer them as the training takes place over the coming months. ZELENSKYY’S GLOBAL APPEALS: At the G-7 summit, Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY is expected to make his plea for more military and financial support on Sunday, our own ELI STOKOLS and STUART LAU report. Before his appearance, Biden and other G-7 leaders on Friday reaffirmed their commitment to defend Ukraine against Russia by ratcheting up the West’s economic pressure campaign, vowing in a joint statement “to provide the financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support Ukraine requires for as long as it takes.” Leaders also unveiled a fresh set of sanctions against Moscow, adding 70 entities to its export blacklist and expanding sanctions on another 300 entities and additional sectors of Russia’s economy. The news comes as Zelenskyy visits Saudi Arabia on Friday in an effort to bolster relations between Kyiv and Riyadh, whose leaders have been accused of helping Russia economically since the war broke out. It’s his first trip ever to the Kingdom, intended to “enhance bilateral relations and Ukraine’s ties with the Arab world,” Zelenskyy tweeted. He met with Saudi Crown Prince MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN and held additional bilateral talks during the trip, with Russia’s annexation of Crimea, his peace “formula” for the war and energy cooperation on the agenda, the Associated Press’ SUSIE BLANN reports. FBI OVERSTEPPED IN BLM PROBE: The FBI used Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to investigate whether protesters involved in the Black Lives Matter movement had ties to terrorists, according to two reports declassified Friday, our own MAGGIE MILLER reports. The FBI ran a “batch query” related to 133 individuals “arrested in connection with civil unrest and protests” between May 30 and June 18 of 2020, the report found. When asked about why this occurred, a senior FBI official told reporters on a call Friday that the query was conducted due to a “lack of understanding on the part of the person who ran it, and that person received remedial training as well.” The revelation that the FBI used these authorities comes amid a tough debate on Capitol Hill on whether to reauthorize the surveillance tool before it expires at the end of the year. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have raised repeated concerns about the FBI and other agencies exceeding their authority and violating the privacy rights of Americans. But the federal government has argued that Section 702 is vital to national security, and noted that it has been used to stop terrorists and cyberattacks, among other planned incidents. BAKHMUT BATTLE RAGES: Russian troops have been on the defensive in eastern city of Bakhmut in recent days, prompting Wagner chief YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN to claim his forces won’t capture the eastern city soon. "Bakhmut has still not been taken," Prigozhin said in an audio message on Telegram. "Bakhmut is unlikely to be taken either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow." Russian soldiers were attempting to take back land they had lost in several parts of the city on Friday, but Ukrainian troops repelled the efforts, Reuters’ PAVEL POLITYUK and TOM BALMFORTH report. Ukrainian officials said the opposing forces had made some ground in the city, but heavy fighting still continued. WRONG GUY: The Pentagon is walking back claims that they killed a senior al Qaeda leader in a missile strike earlier this month, the Washington Post reported Thursday night. LOTFI HASSAN MISTO, 56, was killed by a Hellfire missile attack in northwest Syria on May 3. Hours after the strike, U.S. Central Command claimed that a leader of the terrorist organization was the victim. Doubt is now spreading inside the Pentagon as to whether that was accurate. “We are no longer confident we killed a senior AQ official,” one DoD official told the Post. Another official said, “Though we believe the strike did not kill the original target, we believe the person to be al-Qaeda.” DRINKS WITH NATSEC DAILY: At the end of every long, hard week, we like to highlight how a prominent member of Washington’s national security scene prefers to unwind with a drink. Today, we’re featuring Sen. TIM KAINE (D-Va.), the SASC and SFRC member we spoke to this week about his fentanyl bill. The lawmaker is super clear about what he likes. "My favorite drink is bourbon on the rocks. And I say I keep it really simple on liquids: water, bourbon, Dr. Pepper, black coffee –– and occasionally combined!" After a deep investigation, we've come to learn that Kaine is mostly partial to Virginia Gentleman bourbon, because of course. And where is the harmonica-riffing Kaine enjoying his solo or combined liquids? "Sitting with my wife looking out at the James River from where I live in Richmond." (Cue the "awwwws.") Cheers, senator! IT’S FRIDAY. WELCOME TO THE WEEKEND: Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily. This space is reserved for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage gets made. Aim your tips and comments at award@politico.com and mberg@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter at @alexbward and @mattberg33. While you’re at it, follow the rest of POLITICO’s national security team: @nahaltoosi, @PhelimKine, @laraseligman, @connorobrienNH, @paulmcleary, @leehudson, @magmill95, @johnnysaks130, @ErinBanco, @reporterjoe and @_AriHawkins.
| | IT’S OFFICIAL: Sen. TIM SCOTT (R-S.C.) filed paperwork to officially join a growing field of Republicans looking to overtake former President DONALD TRUMP in the GOP primary, writes our own NATALIE ALLISON. In a New Hampshire town hall earlier this month, Scott blasted Biden’s border policies, and called to reinstate the Title 42 immigration restrictions to combat fentanyl-related overdoses. HALEY: JAN. 6 ‘A TERRIBLE DAY’: Former U.N. ambassador and Republican 2024 hopeful NIKKI HALEY denounced the Jan. 6 riots, and said anyone who engaged in illegal activity “should pay the price,” NBC News’ ALI VITALI reported, Haley, also a former South Carolina governor, was asked about how she could ensure a “fair and speedy” trial for those charged for their actions related to the Jan. 6 march on the capitol, during a town hall in Iowa on Thursday "It was not a beautiful day, it was a terrible day, and we don't ever want that to happen again. I don't know enough about each individual [rioter] but that's my rule: If you break the law, you pay the price. And so I think that's the way we need to look at it,” said Haley, who was a member of the former president’s cabinet. The comments put Haley at odds with Trump, who called the insurrection a “beautiful day” at a CNN town hall earlier this month. Trump also said he was inclined to pardon a “large portion” of the rioters, a line that drew cheers from the audience. Back in January 2021, Haley blamed Trump for the attack on the capitol and said the former president “went down a path he shouldn't have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can't let that ever happen again.” But weeks later, she said she opposed impeaching the former president over his role, and later declared that “there was fraud in the election, but I don’t think that the numbers were so big that it swayed the vote in the wrong direction.”
| | | |   | | | | | UK CHIP SECTOR GETS A BOOST: The British government will offer companies $1.2 billion to boost London’s computer chip sector over the next decade, per the government’s long-awaited semiconductor strategy unveiled Friday, our own TOM BRISTOW writes. The strategy will focus on the U.K.’s strengths in design and compound semiconductors, where it already has clusters in Cambridgeshire and South Wales — rather than competing with U.S. and EU manufacturing subsidies worth nearly $100 billion. Around $250 million of the U.K. funding will come between now and 2025, the government said, which will support setting up a National Semiconductor Infrastructure Initiative to “unlock the potential of British chip firms.” Chip companies will be offered just under $250 million between 2023 and 2025, with the remaining $995 million to be doled out by the end of 2033, according to the British government’s National Semiconductor Strategy.
| | MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: Lawmakers are angry that the Pentagon miscalculated Ukraine aid by a massive $3 billion — and that they found out about it two months after it was discovered, our own JOE GOULD, CONNOR O’BRIEN and PAUL McLEARY reported (for Pros!) late Thursday. House Foreign Affairs Chair MIKE McCAUL (R-Texas) and House Armed Services Chair MIKE ROGERS (R-Ala.) penned a statement calling the disclosure and its timing “extremely problematic, to say the least.” “These funds could have been used for extra supplies and weapons for the upcoming counteroffensive, instead of rationing funds to last for the remainder of the fiscal year,” they wrote.
| | | ‘THEY’VE MOVED ON’: As McCaul threatens to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress over the administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal, some lawmakers aren’t convinced that voters care, our own ANTHONY ADRAGNA reports. For the House GOP, the military removal that resulted in the death of 13 U.S. service members in 2021 remains a potent political liability for Biden. Yet Afghanistan is far trickier to make a sticking point for the Republican Party than the base-pleasing topics of border security or the Biden family. “Americans want their pizzas in 30 minutes, and that’s about our attention span,” said Rep. TIM BURCHETT (R-Tenn.), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. “The average American, they’ve moved on.” Rep. TOM COLE (R-Okla.) said that “all you had to do was turn on the television. … The American people know it was a debacle, but I think they’d like to understand the decision-making process leading up to it.” McCaul told Anthony that he views his Afghanistan oversight as “a federal prosecutor” might, vowing that “I’m not trying to score political points here.” His Democratic counterpart atop the committee, Rep. GREGORY MEEKS (D-N.Y.), countered that the investigation is part of a broader strategy by Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY to make Afghanistan matter in the 2024 elections.
| | | | GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | NO GAMES, PLEASE: China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson WANG WENBIN criticized the U.S. for potentially playing “geopolitical games” ahead of Blinken’s trip to Papua New Guinea this weekend. The White House has aimed to incorporate the Pacific region into its global outreach to counter China’s rising influence in the region, and Blinken was tapped to fill in for Biden after the president canceled the visit due to debt ceiling discussions. Washington interacting with leaders in that region isn’t the issue, Wenbin told reporters, per the AP. “China has no objection to normal exchanges and cooperation between relevant parties and Pacific Island countries,” Wenbin said during a daily briefing Friday. “We also oppose any introduction of any geopolitical games into the Pacific Island country region,” he said.
| | | — REBECCA BROCATO has launched Stony Run, a strategic advisory firm. She previously was chief of staff of the Development Finance Corporation and NSC senior director for legislative affairs and is a State Department and Sen. BEN CARDIN (D-Md.) alum.
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S HEALTH CARE SUMMIT: The Covid-19 pandemic helped spur innovation in health care, from the wide adoption of telemedicine, health apps and online pharmacies to mRNA vaccines. But what will the next health care innovations look like? Join POLITICO on Wednesday June 7 for our Health Care Summit to explore how tech and innovation are transforming care and the challenges ahead for access and delivery in the United States. REGISTER NOW. | | | | | | | | — ANA LUIZA ALBUQUERQUE, Foreign Policy: Hungary’s plan to build an army of American intellectuals
— MIKHAIL FISHMAN, The Atlantic: Russia’s rogue commander is playing with fire
— FUMIO KISHIDA, Foreign Affairs: The new meaning of Hiroshima
| | — International Institute for Strategic Studies, 8 a.m.: Mitigating the risks of an unconstrained Iranian nuclear programme — Wilson Center, 9 a.m.: Wilson China Fellowship Conference 2023 — Middle East Institute, 10 a.m.: Expanding the neighborhood: China’s widening and deepening involvement in South Asia and the Gulf states — Atlantic Council, 10:30 a.m.: 2023 Warsaw Week — Center for Strategic and International Studies, 3 p.m.: Countering AAPI Discrimination and its Intersections with U.S. Foreign Policy — Atlantic Council, 4:30 p.m.:A fireside chat with European Commissioner for Transport ADINA VĂLEAN — Institute of World Politics, 5 p.m.: Classification Policy Reform and the Issues of Overclassification Thanks to our editor, Heidi Vogt, who wishes she could dissuade us from writing this newsletter. We also thank our producer, Sinobia Aiden, who can speak as our proxy any day.
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Our mission is to prepare you for the future by engineering advanced capabilities today.
Many of today’s military systems and platforms were designed to operate independently. Through our 21st Century Security vision, Lockheed Martin is accelerating innovation, connecting defense and digital to enhance the performance of major platforms, to equip customers to stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
