I was wondering the same thing.

The key players in this drama are the gullible and willfully ignorant voters who define themselves in terms of a culture war that is endlessly manipulated by the media, algorithms and now the Russians for their ends, whether those are viewership/readership or the weakening of the US (which honestly, I don't understand, weakening the US strengthens China, not Russia, so I don't think the chess players in the Kremlin have thought this out too well.)

As for actual criminal prosecution, we'll see what the folks at the DoJ come up with. Indictments are far easier to get than convictions in cases like these.

I remember when Reagan said that if the Russians had reduced the state of public school education to what it was in the 80s we would have considered it an act of war on their part. And to think that Putin's army of disinformation hackers and bots could never have taken root without an electorate incapable of critical thinking. (I believe this statement was made around the time of the Nation at Risk report, but I could not find the exact quotation.)

It seems like a step though it may or may not prove wrong doing of Trump. Either way it's concerning how we can now be manipulated in this manner. It would not surprise me if it was just Putin doing it to prove a point about our democratic society.

Isn't this why the electoral college was originally devised? Because the masses might do something foolish with their voting rights? They could then be overridden by the electoral college. Not that I'd want that to happen these days since foolish decisions are made by people at all levels.

The assistant attorney general pretty much said we will not be able to. But it helps inform people to be weary of all fb and social media memes, they are all propaganda and not fact wether or not put forth by Russian nationals.

Not just memes, you know...

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/16/586361956/as-an-american-tragedy-unfolds-russian-agents-sow-discord-online

1) As crl mentions above, if any of the Russians travel to a country with which we have an extradition treaty, they can be held there and extradited to the US. That is some 100 countries, according to a quick google search.

2) A talking head on TV last night said that indicting the Russians also served the purpose of communicating to their US associates that we were coming for them and it would be a good time to come in and cut a deal with the government.

I saw the same type of information last night as Graywings. Can I add as well that by indicting and laying out the case in the 37 pages the way Mueller did makes it alot harder for frumpy to fire him or Rosenstein. It was said that the indictments also reflect that all of the agencies are assisting with the investigation as well as sources from other countries. One talking head said that this has started to shift the Republican thinking as well with stronger support for the investigation. I love that there are security clearance issues arising as well. What a mess.

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/02/20/587242391/venezuelas-deepening-crisis-triggers-mass-migration-into-colombia

This is a mess as well!

I agree with a couple of prior posters. The real value of the 13 indictments is the detailed information on what the Russians did and how they did it. If the Trump administration is smart, they'll use those indictments as a resource for developing some procedures which will prevent or at least inhibit Russian meddling with our elections in the future. I also think we need to hit Russia with a cyber attack of some kind so it will think twice before meddling in our elections again and we also need to keep the existing Russian sanctions in place and implement the Russian sanctions that the Congress recently enacted because it is clear that Putin is desperate to have those sanctions lifted and he wouldn't be that desperate unless the sanctions were having an impact.

OK, so the crime was that it was done by Russians?

Seems to me, it's time to educate US citizens, so they don't fall for this, regardless where it's coming from.

I agree. I posted something over in HT about this. Use your brains! People have knee jerk reactions to certain words and don’t even finish what they are reading. Most of that Russian propaganda doesn’t even make sense.