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A constituent of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., gestures as she responded to the congressman during a town hall meeting with him in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

A constituent of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., gestures as she responded to the congressman during a town hall meeting with him in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., back to camera, answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., back to camera, answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., gestures as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., gestures as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., answers a question during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., answers a question during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., answers a question during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., answers a question during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Brat, who rode Tea Party rage to office, faces angry constituents

BLACKSTONE, Va. -- Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., who drew national notice after complaining that women were "in my grill" because he was reluctant to hold a town hall meeting, finally relented and came face to face with those women - and plenty others - at a raucous public event Tuesday night.

Brat held the meeting in a tiny town in Nottoway County, a rural community carried by Trump in November. It's about an hour south of the most populous part of Brat's district, but that didn't stop a stream of people from driving into town and filling up the town hall, with scores shut out on the sidewalk.

For a little more than an hour, Brat was heckled nonstop as he fielded questions on health care, President Donald Trump's policies and the border wall.

His answers seemed to antagonize most in the crowd of 150, who yelled back at him, at points drowning him out and prompting a few of his supporters to leave early in disgust.

At one point, Brat launched into a goofy impression of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., apparently intended to illustrate they agree that voters are frustrated with what they see as a corrupt Washington.

Toward the end of the town hall, Mary Mullins, a 61-year-old constituent and professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who lives in Chesterfield, stood up and briefly held the floor, demanding that Brat give direct answers.

She prodded him to add some detail to one of his usual lines about his value system: "Some actual principles please, not this Judeo-Christian generality," she said.

Before the event got underway, she pondered how she could teach her students critical thinking when the Trump administration seems "based on superstition and who's the biggest bully."

"He certainly seems to be riding the wave," she said of Brat.

On four separate occasions, Brat awkwardly plugged his book, saying it's an effective sleep aid. The joke fell flat each time.

Some of the loudest jeers came over Republicans' promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act as people held up red cards signaling their discontent.

"The problem is Obamacare has just collapsed," said Brat, who stood at a podium in the Blackstone Herb Cottage. The crowd began shouting: "No, it has not!"

The town hall came after constituents, many of them organizing online, made daily calls and sent repeated emails to Brat's office to ask for a public meeting.

Participants began to line up along Main Street hours before the doors opened at 6:30 p.m. Many held signs referring to Brat's recent gaffe, including one that read "VA 7th district, it's grilling time!"

Another sign said, "This grandmother drove 165 miles to be in your grill, Mr. Brat and no one paid me to be here!" - a reference to an interview Brat had with a Richmond paper in which he dismissed protesters as "paid activists."

As he ticked off the names of the counties he has visited in the district, a few in the crowd yelled "Arizona," a jab at his plans to attend a town hall meeting with Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., in Gold Canyon, Arizona, on Thursday. Brat had accepted that invitation before agreeing to hold a town hall in Virginia, a move that enraged some of his critics.

Blackstone Mayor Billy Coleburn acted as an emcee, reading written questions collected from the crowd. Asked "Do you deny climate change?" Brat said "No, the climate changes all the time." His apparent attempt at a joke angered the crowd, some of whom yelled, "Answer the question!"

Asked how as a fiscal conservative Brat could justify the cost of the wall along the southern border promised by Trump and estimated to cost between $15 billion and $25 billion.

"The answer is 'easily,' " Brat said. "Then you pay for it!" a woman in the audience shot back.

He also gave an unpopular answer when asked if he agreed with Trump that the administration was running smoothly so far.

"The answer to that is, given the obstruction in D.C., it's remarkable what he has gotten done," he said. The crowd drowned out his answer forcing him to struggle for a moment - "The stock market is going like 'zing!' for the first time" - before moving on to a question about the Second Amendment.

Nicole Subryan, 44, a registered nurse from Petersburg, which is not in Brat's district, kept up a loud running commentary through the town hall and held up a sheet of paper with the word, "LIE."

She and others seemed unimpressed with Brat's recitation of his grass-roots credentials, which helped him topple House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014. Cantor was criticized for being aloof and out of touch with his constituents - many of the same accusations now plaguing Brat.

"I was one of the first to run as an outsider against the establishment and the crony deals on Wall Street. I think we're going to drain the swamp," he said, invoking one of Trump's favorite lines. The comment sent the crowd into an uproar once again.

"I want to get the power out of D.C. and Wall Street and back to Main Street," Brat said. To which a man yelled, "Wall Street's in the Cabinet now."

"Are the words yes and no in your vocabulary?" Subryan yelled. Then she added, "You're full of [it]!"

Another constant heckler was Alyssa Mitchell, 21, a college student from Richmond, which is not in Brat's district. At one point she yelled: "How about Trump! Why doesn't he pay his taxes?"

Again and again she shouted: "You're misinformed!"

Brat, who seemed a little startled at the beginning of the evening, said afterward that he didn't mind the constant jeering and that he understood the country's divisions have deepened since the election.

"I thought it was going to be worse," he said.

Jenna Portnoy covers Virginia, Maryland and D.C. politics for The Washington Post. @jennaportnoy

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Brat, who rode Tea Party rage to office, faces angry constituents - seattlepi.com

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Three county officials will speak at the Calhoun County Tea Party meeting this week.

Treasurer Brian Wensauer, Clerk and Register of Deeds Anne Norlander and county board Chairman Derek King will present monthly reports at the meeting, held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Kool Family Community Center, 200 W. Michigan Ave. The meeting is open to the public.

The officials are expected to take questions from the audience after their reports.

Contact government reporter Jennifer Bowman at 269-966-0589 or jbowman@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter: @jenn_bowman. Listen to the podcast she co-hosts, The Jump Page, at soundcloud.com/enquirerpodcasting.

Read or Share this story: http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/story/news/local/2017/02/21/county-officials-speak-tea-party-meeting/98190770/

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County officials to speak at Tea Party meeting - Battle Creek Enquirer

But Russian President Vladimir Putin effectively withdrew from the Minsk agreement last week by signing an executive order recognizing travel documents issued by separatist authorities in the region.

Critics fear that recognizing the pro-Russian governments in eastern Ukraine is a step toward Putin's government declaring the disputed regions to be independent states.

But Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is recognizing the travel documents "for humanitarian reasons."

"This law does not violate international law in any way," Peskov said. "For humanitarian reasons, it was necessary to do it and recognize these documents. Imagine, the situation only happened because of the official blockade of Kiev, hundreds of thousands (of people) do not have the opportunity to apply for passports, renew their passports, driving licenses, etc."

By "blockade," Peskov was referring to the claim that the Ukrainian capital was making life in the east difficult by not letting people apply for passports and pensions.

Ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine have been significantly reduced since the new truce took effect at 12 a.m. local time Monday, but "ingredients" for a "further flare-up" remain, said Alexander Hug, chief monitor of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

"Since midnight, we have seen them significantly reduced, and we have only seen up until now small arms fire in the Donetsk region, that is promising," Hug said by phone from Kiev.

"However, heavy weapons remain on both sides of the contact area where they shouldn't be, and positions of the Ukrainian armed forces and the formations on the other side are far too close to one another -- ingredients of further flare-up."

Ukrainian military spokesman Col. Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said, "The intensity of fire was 10 times less, but there were no calm places at the front line."

On Monday afternoon, he said there had been 24 ceasefire violations in the Donetsk region, including 12 with heavy weapons.

Ukrainian Secretary of National Security and Defense Oleksandr Turchynov said Putin's order was the death knell for the Minsk agreement, the framework for peace in the region since pro-Russian militants occupied areas of eastern Ukraine in 2014.

"By signing this decree, Putin legally recognized quasi-terrorist groups that have this as a fig leaf covering the Russian occupation of Donbass," he said.

The German government slammed Putin's move.

"Recognition of identity documents from separatist-held areas by #Russia is (a) clear violation of spirit and objective of #Minsk," the German Foreign Ministry tweeted.

Eastern Ukraine has seen a spike in violence in recent months between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian armed forces.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it was a positive move that the foreign ministers "agreed once again for the state of a ceasefire on February 20." He said the deal also includes the start of the withdrawal of heavy arms in eastern Ukraine.

OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier said that Putin's executive order would hurt the chances of the ceasefire to take hold.

It called for the "bilateral cessation of the use of all weapons," and the decentralization of power in the region "with respect to the temporary status of local self-government in certain areas of the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions."

At the time, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk spoke with guarded optimism.

"We had just two options: bad, and worse," he said. "So we decided at this particular period of time to get the bad option. Probably this option will save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, and I hope this option will save lives of Ukrainian civilians, of innocent people, who are under a constant shelling of Russian-led terrorists."

"It's better to have this new deal rather than not to have (it)," he said. "But we do not trust any words or any papers. We are to trust only actions and deeds."

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence told world leaders that the United States will stand firm against Moscow -- while also seeking avenues for cooperation.

"Know this -- the United States will continue to hold Russia accountable, even as we search for new common ground, which as you know, President Trump believes can be found," Pence said.

Outspoken Russian lawmaker Alexey Pushkov interpreted Putin's executive order as a response to the tough words that Pence and US Defense Secretary James Mattis have had for Russia in recent days.

"With the recognition of passports to Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics, Moscow lets everybody know that pressure on the Ukrainian question won't give any results," Pushkov tweeted.

Euan McKirdy wrote from Hong Kong, and Emma Burrows reported from Moscow. CNN's Holly Yan, Radina Gigova, Victoria Butenko, Sebastian Shukla, Nick Paton Walsh and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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Eastern Ukraine ceasefire begins -- but will it hold? - CNN.com

New York Times

Ukraine Lawmaker Who Worked With Trump Associates Faces Treason Inquiry New York Times Prosecutors in Ukraine are investigating whether a member of Parliament committed treason by working with two associates of President Trump's to promote a plan for settling Ukraine's conflicts with Russia. In a court filing on Tuesday, prosecutors ... Ukraine backs more sanctions against Russia in passport spatWashington Post Ukrainian MP Plans to Travel to Washington to Push Peace PlanU.S. News & World Report As casualties mount in eastern Ukraine, some wonder whether Putin is testing TrumpFox News NBCNews.com -Business Insider -CNN -Washington Post all 398 news articles »

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Ukraine Lawmaker Who Worked With Trump Associates Faces Treason Inquiry - New York Times

An Austrian appeals court on Tuesday approved the extradition to the United States of a Ukrainian oligarch withties to a former senior Trump adviser on corruptioncharges.

Dmytro Firtash, a billionairewho made a fortune as a middleman in Ukraines rough-and-tumblegas industry, has been indicted by U.S. prosecutors for allegedly bribing Indian officials to secure a titanium deal. An extradition request in 2015 had been denied by a Viennese court, which called the U.S. allegationspolitically motivated. A final decision on whether to hand over Firtash to the United States will be made by Austrias justice minister.

Firtash wielded significant political power in Ukraine under former president Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown amid street protests in 2014. Firtash was arrested in Vienna on an FBI warrant just weeks after Yanukovych fled to Russia and was succeeded by a vocally pro-Western government. Firtashs lawyers say that he is being targeted by the United States as part of a political inquisition against Yanukovychs former political allies.

It wasnt for us to judge whether Mr. Firtash was guilty, but only whether the extradition is allowed, Judge Leo Levnaic-Iwanski said in the ruling on the U.S. request Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported. This decision only means that another country will make a decision whether he is guilty.

Lawyers for Firtash had sought to paint the allegations against Firtash as a strategy to limit Russian influence in Ukraine.The criminal investigation was initiated duringthe Obama administration.

In a statement, Firtashs U.S. legal team said it wasdisappointed by the appeals court decision and said he was innocent.

If and when Mr. Firtash is required to come to the United States, the team will fight to obtain dismissal of this unjust case by the Department of Justice or, if necessary, in U.S. courts, to clear Mr. Firtash's name, the statement read.

Firtash had previously weighed teamingup with American investors and political strategist Paul Manafort, who for a time managed Donald Trumps presidential campaign, to buy high-end real estate in the United States, including the famous Drake Hotel in New York.

According to correspondence revealed in a 2011 lawsuit brought against Firtash by former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko,Manafort met with Firtash in May, June and August of 2008 to seal the Manhattan real estate deal, according to a memo by Rick Gates, another Trump strategist. Firtash had agreed to put $112 million into buying the Drake Hotel, tearing it down and building a new luxury skyscraper, to be called the Bulgari Tower.

Tymoshenko claimed that Firtash was trying to invest ill-gotten proceeds from gas deals in Ukraine. The lawsuit was thrown out of a U.S. court for lack of evidence. No deals were completed, and Firtash has denied that he invested in the project.

Firtash owned half of a company that negotiated natural gas sales from Russia and Central Asian countries to Ukraine, a lucrative business that Reuters in 2014 reported made him billions of dollars.

In another twist, Firtash was detained shortly after Tuesdays decision by Austrian police serving a Spanish warrant separate from the extradition ruling. Spain in November sought Firtashs arrest for charges of money laundering and reported ties to organized crime. It was not immediately clear why the arrest came shortly after the extradition ruling or whether the Spanish extradition request would take precedence.

Read more:

Inside Trump adviser Manaforts world of politics and financial dealmaking

Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort named in Ukraine anti-corruption probe

Ukrainian oligarch with ties to Russias Gazprom arrested on FBI warrant

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Austrian court approves extradition of Ukrainian oligarch tied to Trump campaign adviser - Washington Post