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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's team accused Vice President Mike Pence of stoking a "primitive" fear of the Kremlin in eastern Europe, after the vice president condemned President Vladimir Putin's use of force in the region.

"Pence made another series of anti-Russian statements in Podgorica, scaring leaders of Western Balkan states with a mythic Russian threat,' " the Russian Foreign Ministry said late Thursday.

Pence, while traveling for a summit hosted by new NATO member Montenegro, faulted Russia for "seek[ing] to redraw international borders by force." Moscow noted that Russia annexed Crimea and sent special forces to eastern Ukraine at the request of the ethnic Russians in the region.

"We have to state with regret that Washington is sliding more deeply into using primitive ideology-driven clichs of the Cold War era, which are totally out of touch with reality," the Foreign Ministry said.

Pence was speaking at the Adriatic Charter Summit, a gathering of leaders from the western Balkans. The host country, Montenegro, joined NATO in June. The accession to NATO was controversial among Montenegrins and Russia opposed the move, to the point of backing a coup against the nation's pro-Western leadership, according to authorities.

"Russia's intentions were laid bare over the past year when Moscow-backed agents sought to disrupt Montenegro's elections, attack your parliament and even attempt to assassinate your prime minister to dissuade the Montenegrin people from entering our NATO alliance," Pence said. "The United States of America rejects any attempt to use force, threats or intimidation in this region or beyond. The Western Balkans have the right to decide your own future, and that is your right alone."

Russia countered that the United States is forcing eastern Europe into "a blatantly destructive choice of being either with the West or with Russia,' " and inducing their neighbors to join NATO.

"We urge our American colleagues to stop demonising Russia and its foreign policy, which has always been based on respect for partners, readiness for joint constructive work, and mutual consideration of interests," the Foreign Ministry said.

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Russia rips Mike Pence over 'primitive' criticism - Washington Examiner

Brynn Tannehill

Rank/branch of military: Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy. In the reserves until July 1, 2017 Hometown: Phoenix, AZ Proudest moment: All the years of training and dedication came together for me in those moments where I was there for my shipmates when they needed me the most. They survived because we were there. Biggest misconception: The idea that its too expensive to retain transgender service members is laughable to me. It costs more to replace two highly trained transgender service members than to provide health care for every last one of them.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Rank/branch of military: Captain, U.S. Army Hometown: Scranton, PA Proudest moment: Taking command of my first platoon after I graduated from West Point. Leading American soldiers is the single greatest honor Ive ever received. Biggest misconception: People often assume I joined the Army to make a man out of myself. I didnt. I joined the Army out of a sense of gratitude for all Id been given by this country.

Photograph by T.J. Kirkpatrick.

Rank/branch of military: Senior Chief, U.S. Navy SEALs Hometown: Wellsville, NY Proudest moment: I saved the life of an Afghanistan man in the middle of chaos. I also saw him later on and was able to have tea with him. Biggest misconception: The idea that this is a new issue. Transgender people have been serving since the Revolutionary war, and most of us dont cost a thing.

Photograph by T.J. Kirkpatrick.

Rank/branch of military: Active Duty Navy Lieutenant Commander Hometown: St. Louis, MO Proudest moment: The day I qualified in submarines and was pinned with my dolphins. Biggest misconception: We are obsessed with transitioning and cannot function or do our jobs. Many transgender service members are at the top of their game and they only get better when they are allowed to transition.

Photograph by T.J. Kirkpatrick.

Rank/branch of military: Army Sergeant Major, retired in 2012 Hometown: Jersey City, NJ Proudest moment: My service in Afghanistan in 20102011. I was awarded the French National Defense Medal, the first American to receive that medal since World War II. Biggest misconception: Expensive, complicated surgeries would make them non-deployable or [reduce their] effectiveness.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Rank/branch of military: Colonel, U.S. Army. Retired December 4, 2004, after 35 years of service. Hometown: Manitowoc, WI Proudest moment: I was the first woman to (legitimately) wear an infantry uniform after my DD 214 was changed to reflect my authenticity. I wore that uniform at [a] Pentagon Pride Event and [the] White House Pride month reception in June 2015. Biggest misconception: Some people, particularly the older generation, believe trans individuals are mentally ill. Being transgender is a medical condition, no different than someone suffering from diabetes or heart disease. All medical conditions are deserving of treatment.

Photograph by Kevin Miyazaki.

Rank/branch of military: Active Duty Army Soldier, Intelligence Officer Hometown: Houston, TX Proudest moment: The day I took command of a company. It was something I had given up hope on ever doing after deciding to transition, assuming that my career would be over. Biggest misconception: I think what it all comes down to is this stereotype people have of who trans people are. Once you work with someone and know someone personally, it breaks those stereotypes down.

Photograph by Robbie McClaran.

Rank/branch of military: Retired Army Corporal, worked as a Health-care Management Administration Specialist Hometown: Waipahu, HI What is your proudest moment in the service? Knowing that the solider was going to be able to go home to their family was and is always the most satisfying part of my career. What is the biggest misconception youd like to correct? The most common one in my opinion is that transgender people are incapable of fulfilling a duty because they are mentally unstable. In order to serve in these roles, you have to be mentally sound.

Photograph by T.J. Kirkpatrick.

Rank/branch of military: Captain, Kentucky National Guard. Currently serving in the 198th Military Police Battalion as the Senior Human Resources Officer Hometown: Lexington, KY Proudest moment: Being selected as T.A.C. (Teach, Assess, Counsel) officer of the year. It meant a lot to me to know that both my soldiers and command thought so well of my work, even as the Army was processing me for involuntary discharge due to being transgender. Biggest misconception: That being transgender is the most important part of who we are. I am proud to be a transgender man, but when it comes down to it, I am a commissioned officer in the United States Army.

Photograph by Jacob Roberts.

Rank/branch of military: Active Duty Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Hometown: Flower Mound, TX Proudest moment: To be fortunate enough to see the policy change for transgender military members like myself. To see my brothers and sisters no longer have to serve in silence is a humbling experience. Biggest misconception: We only want to serve in the military to have our transitions paid for. At no point is my military service about me; its about those who came before me.

Photographed by Matthew Mahon.

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Is Mike Pence Measuring the White House Drapes Yet? - Vanity Fair

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Department of Justice is reviewing its policy on media subpoenas as part of an effort to combat leaks. (The Washington Post)

Remember Judith Miller? She is the former New York Times reporterwho in 2005spent almost three months in jailbecause she refused to identify the government source who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday raised the prospect that more journalists will have to make the same decision Miller did out the source or go to jail when he said the Justice Department is reviewing policies affecting media subpoenas as part of the Trump administrations effort to crack down on leaks.

Ive listened to our career investigators, FBI agents and others and our prosecutors about how to most successfully investigate and prosecute these matters, Sessions said at a news conference. At their suggestion, one of the things we are doing is reviewing policies affecting media subpoenas. We respect the important role that the press plays and will give them respect, but it is not unlimited. They cannot place lives at risk with impunity.

[Sessions says the media cannot place lives at risk with impunity. Are leaks really that dangerous?]

Sessions has come under harsh criticism from President Trump, who accuses him of (among other things) not doing enough to plug leaks. It's ironic, then, thatjournalists top defender against subpoenas that would require them to reveal sources was once Vice President Pence, who as a congressman took an interest in Miller's case and in 2007 proposed a federal shield law to protect journalists.

A quick review of the Miller episode:

A grand juryinvestigating whether the leak of Plames nameviolated a federal law against disclosing the identities of covert agents issued a subpoena demanding that Miller reveal her source. The probe sought to determinewhether the leak was a retaliation against Plames husband, former diplomatJoseph C. Wilson IV, who had publicly criticized the George W. Bush administrations justification for invading Iraq.

Miller was not in danger of prosecution. The landmark Pentagon Papers Supreme Court case established the right of reporters to publish classified information provided to them. But the person on the giving end of the leak was in legal jeopardy, and the grand jury wanted to know who that person was.

The White House is pledging to crack down on "leakers," but there are ways to blow the whistle and disclose information lawfully. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Miller refused to comply with the subpoena and was held in contempt of court for 85 days. Hersource, I. Lewis Scooter Libby, Vice President Richard B. Cheneys chief of staff, ultimately released her from their confidentiality agreementand wasconvicted in 2007on charges related to the leak.

Miller, now a Fox News contributor,wrote last yearabout how Pence, then a Republican congressman from Indiana, invited her to his office upon herrelease from jail and promised to pushfor a shield law:

True to his word, Mr. Penceintroduced the Free Flow of Information Actwith Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia. As a conservative who believes in limited government, he said after reintroducing the legislation, which failed the first time he proposed it, I believe the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press.

Pences bill was far from perfect. The language describing when reporters would be forced to reveal sources on national security grounds was far broader than I would have liked. First Amendment purists attacked it then and now as being too loose, noting that most politically sensitive cases ensnaring reporters and classified information involve national security information.

Yet writing in The New Yorker, even Steve Coll, the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University who is no fan of Mr. Pences, called the legislation politically plausible and much, much better than the status quo. The bill was also endorsed by the Society of Professional Journalists.

In 2007, the Columbia Journalism Review called Pencejournalisms best ally in the fight to protect anonymous sources.

In the end, however, Pence failed to secure passage of his shield law, and there is still none in place. That is one reason that Sessions now has the power to subpoena journalists.

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Jeff Sessions might subpoena journalists to reveal leakers. Mike Pence once fought against that. - Washington Post

INDIANAPOLIS Vice President Mike Pence has turned over emails from private AOL.com accounts he used to conduct official business while he was Indiana's governor.

The state's public records law generally requires state officials to preserve and make available correspondence or documents related to state business, with some exemptions. But Pence waited months to hand over the records and only did so after his use of the private accounts was widely reported.

Attorneys for the vice president notified current Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb's office in July that an electronic database containing the emails was handed over, Holcomb spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said.

"We delivered to you a complete electronic production of state records that were in the custody of Vice President Pence from during the time that he served as governor," attorney Karoline E. Jackson wrote in an email to the Republican governor's office. The email states that Pence's attorneys also provided guidance on emails and documents they believe could be withheld from release.

Pence has touted himself as a champion of a free press and the First Amendment, though he repeatedly stonewalled public records requests as governor, often delaying their release if not denying them outright.

Holcomb's office for months has been grappling with a backlog of roughly 50 public records requests from activists, political groups and news organizations, including The Associated Press. Some are more than a year old and most are seeking emails from Pence's private accounts.

Pence provided 13 boxes containing paper copies of the emails in March when news of his use of the AOL.com accounts first drew scrutiny. But Holcomb's office said at the time that there were more emails that had yet to be provided. And Holcomb's office also sought electronic access to the emails, so they could be searched and reviewed much more easily.

The state hired the Indiana law firm McNeely Stephenson in May to handle the crush of requests, entering a contract that could cost taxpayers as much as $100,000.

Pence's AOL account was subjected to a phishing scheme in spring 2016, before Trump chose him to join the Republican presidential ticket. Pence's contacts were sent an email falsely claiming that the governor and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and needed money.

The hacking of Pence's private emails have led some to raise questions of hypocrisy after he frequently attacked Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail over her own email use. He argued Clinton's use of a private server when she was secretary of state could have jeopardized national security if her emails got into the wrong hands.

But Pence spokesman Marc Lotter has said charges of hypocrisy are unfair because there is a big difference between the Secretary of State's correspondence about sensitive national matters and business conducted by a governor through a private emails address.

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Mike Pence hands over AOL emails from his time as Indiana governor - South Bend Tribune

Russia continues to seek to redraw international borders by force, Mr. Pence said. And here in the western Balkans, Russia has worked to destabilize the region, undermine your democracies and divide you from each other and from the rest of Europe.

He added, The western Balkans have the right to decide your own future, and that is your right alone.

Mr. Pences tone on trans-Atlantic relations was far more reassuring than that of President Trump, who once called NATO obsolete, castigated allies for not spending more on defense and characterized the European Union as a tool of German influence.

Mr. Pence hewed on Wednesday to a more traditional American view of NATO and the European Union as bulwarks of Western democracy. Whether your future is in NATO, the European Union or both, the United States supports you because either path will strengthen Europe, he told the Balkan leaders.

As to Mr. Trumps nationalist outlook, Mr. Pence said, America first does not mean America alone.

Montenegros invitation to join NATO comes at a time of high tension between the alliance and Russia.

Yet Jonathan D. Katz, a former State Department official who is now at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, expressed skepticism about Mr. Pences performance.

While his message of greater security support and further European-Atlantic integration should be of great relief to these countries, it is tainted by Trumps continued embrace of Putin and deep cuts in U.S. assistance to the Western Balkans, Mr. Katz said in an email, referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Along with Prime Minister Dusko Markovic of Montenegro, the leaders present included the prime minister of Albania, the chairman of the council of ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the prime minister of Croatia, the president of Kosovo, the prime minister of Macedonia, the prime minister of Slovenia and the prime minister of Serbia.

Of the eight countries, two Croatia and Slovenia are members of the European Union. Four of them Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and Slovenia belong to NATO.

Seven of the eight countries at the summit meeting (all but Albania) emerged out of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Montenegro gained independence from Serbia in 2006, but Kosovo, which declared its own independence in 2008 with American backing, is not recognized by Serbia or its historic patron, Russia.

Mr. Pence did not dwell on the past.

You belong to a new generation of Balkan leaders, and this is a historic moment for progress in the western Balkans, he said on Wednesday. I urge you with great respect to make the most of this moment.

Several of the leaders are, like Mr. Pence, fairly new to their jobs: Croatias prime minister, Andrej Plenkovic, 47, a former diplomat and member of the European Parliament, took office last October; Macedonias prime minister, Zoran Zaev, 42, in May; and Serbias prime minister, Ana Brnabic, 41, the first woman and first openly gay person to hold that position, in June.

Albanias prime minister, Edi Rama, 53, a former artist and basketball player, showed up for the summit meeting in white sneakers.

Mr. Pence is the highest-ranking American official in a century to visit Montenegro, a small country on the Adriatic Sea, and the first vice president to do so. Montenegro was the final stop of a trip that took Mr. Pence to Estonia, where he reassured leaders of the Baltic States, and Georgia, which fought a brief war with Russia in 2008.

Echoing a point made by Montenegros prime minister, the vice president said: NATO is made up of large countries and small countries, but the U.S. has no small allies and we cherish our new alliance with Montenegro through NATO.

At a NATO summit meeting in May, Mr. Trump was recorded on video appearing to shove his way past Mr. Markovic while making his way to the front of the group for a photograph of the alliances leaders. Mr. Markovic, who smiled and let Mr. Trump pass, did not appear offended, but many observers expressed outrage.

On Wednesday, there was no shoving.

Follow Sewell Chan on Twitter @sewellchan.

A version of this article appears in print on August 3, 2017, on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Pence, Critical of Russias Aims, Assures Balkan Leaders of U.S. Support.

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Mike Pence, in Montenegro, Assures Balkans of US Support - New York Times