| Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1951, a federal judge sentenced Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to death after their conviction on charges of conspiring to pass atomic secrets to the U.S.S.R. | | |  | The big idea | | It's implicit, but unmistakable: No return to business as usual for Russia |  Photos from the war in Ukraine are shown on a screen as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York City on Tuesday. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images) | | | The question is being asked in government hallways, executive suites and newsrooms the world over: Can there ever be a return to business as usual with Russia as long as Vladimir Putin wields power? President Biden is increasingly making it clear his answer is no. He has called Putin a war criminal. Displaying what he later described as his personal "moral outrage," Biden has declared "[f]or God's sake, this man cannot remain in power." He has pushed Congress to strip Russia of its World Trade Organization benefits, a step that would be hard to reverse. On Monday, Biden took things a step further. With the world staring at photos of bodies in the streets and mass graves in Kyiv's suburb of Bucha, recently under Russian control, the president not only repeated his war crimes accusation against Putin but called for gathering evidence to hold a formal "war crimes trial." | - "He should be held accountable," Biden told reporters against the backdrop of his Marine One helicopter, a symbol of presidential power. "This guy is brutal. And what's happening in Bucha is outrageous. And everyone's seen it."
| | It all points in one direction. | | The Daily 202 has been asking whether the economic and diplomatic damage the world has done to Russia over its invasion of Ukraine is a lasting proposition, or whether and how quickly memories will fade and countries and corporations will once again seek the Kremlin's favor. It may seem premature — Moscow's bombs and missiles pummel Ukraine day and night, sanctions have not (yet?) bitten deeply enough into Putin's economy to slow his ambitions. The war is plainly not over, and may not be for months, or longer, according to the White House. Calls for putting Putin on trial someday won't save any Ukrainian lives tomorrow. But the stakes of the war extend beyond Ukraine's borders. We may be watching the reshuffling of an international order following concerns that oil- and gas-rich Russia used Europe's thirst for energy as a way to smother criticisms of Putin, while NATO seemed unsure of its post-Cold War mission. Still, sanctions imposed can also later be dropped. Corporations that fled Russia may return. A shocked U.S. public can grow weary and may turn away. Kremlin-friendly leaders may rise in Europe. Even today, U.S. claims that Putin is an international pariah overlook China's refusal to back sanctions and the muted responses from India and Israel to the war. Cue the call for a war crimes trial. "We do not believe that this is just a random accident or the rogue act of a particular individual. We believe that this was part of the plan," Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Monday, tying the atrocities directly back to decision-makers in Moscow. Neither he nor Biden agreed with Zelensky that Russia's actions in Ukraine constitute "genocide." | | It's a long, tortuous road from making the accusation, to gathering evidence, to holding a trial. And, even if convicted, Putin himself may never actually be held accountable as long as Russia refuses to turn him over, as this detailed explainer from my colleague Claire Parker makes clear. But the charge adds to Putin's pariah status and forces other leaders to choose whether to stand with someone Washington wants to see dragged before a war crimes court. Same goes for corporations, whether they decamped from Russia after the Feb. 24 invasion or not. | | The "war criminal" label's impact on negotiations between Ukraine and Russia is unclear. I wrote Monday about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's balancing act — keeping up steady rhetorical fire on Putin while also pushing for face-to-face talks to end the conflict. In addition to arming Zelensky's people with weapons to kill Russian forces, the Biden administration keeps pulling from the same playbook of diplomatic and economic sanctions, some of which seem calibrated more symbolic impact than substantive damage. On Monday, the Justice Department announced the seizure of a yacht owned by a billionaire close to Putin. A few hours later, asked whether there was evidence going after Russian oligarchs was paying off, the White House demurred. | - "Our expectation is not that one component is going to lead to a direct change," Biden press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. "These are just a range of pressure points, and we're going to use all of them that we possibly can."
| | At Biden's direction, the United States plans to push at the United Nations today for Russia to be suspended from the world body's human rights council. Psaki called Moscow's membership "ludicrous." Moments later, she was asked whether Biden also wanted China off the council, since the United States has accused Beijing of committing genocide against its Muslim-majority Uyghur population. "Our focus right now on the international stage on this question is on Russia," Psaki said, "given the invasion of Ukraine and given what we're seeing — the photos from Bucha, others that we may see in the future." | | |  | What's happening now | | GOP Rep. Upton, who voted to impeach Trump, will not seek reelection |  Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) speaks to reporters outside the White House on May 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) | | | "[Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.)], who has served since 1987, also backed the bipartisan infrastructure bill and received death threats afterward for helping President Biden get a legislative win," Amy B Wang reports. | Zelensky demands accountability after 'terrible war crimes' | McCarthy's record fundraising haul fuels GOP optimism | Stacey Abrams reaches millionaire status before 2nd campaign | | "Abrams now says she's worth $3.17 million, according to state disclosures filed in March. That's compared with a net worth of $109,000 when she first ran four years ago. Her rapid ascent into millionaire status corresponds with her rise in national politics," the Associated Press's Jeff Amy reports. | Elon Musk joins Twitter board after becoming biggest shareholder | | "Elon Musk has been appointed to Twitter's board of directors, the company announced Tuesday, a day after regulatory filings revealed the Tesla chief had become the social media platform's biggest outside investor," Taylor Telford reports. Remember this? "Last month, Musk polled Twitter on whether the app 'rigorously adheres' to the principles of free speech, remarking that the poll's consequences will be 'important.'" | | |  | Lunchtime reads from The Post | | The gatekeepers who open America to shell companies and secret owners | | "Few facilitators in the U.S. financial system operate with as little oversight as the thousands of registered agents who often serve as the only publicly known contact for companies with anonymous owners," Debbie Cenziper, Will Fitzgibbon, Emily Anderson Stern, Michael Korsh and Alice Crites report. "Oligarchs, criminals and online scammers have reaped the benefits." The Ukraine link: "The matter has taken on fresh urgency since Russia invaded Ukraine, prompting governments to trace and freeze assets held by oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. After the war began on Feb. 24, a coalition of experts called on Congress to pass the Enablers Act and other measures, pointing to revelations in the Pandora Papers that Russian billionaire Igor Makarov secretly held real estate and a 13-seat private jet through an LLC and trust in Wyoming." | Town by town, Ukrainian prosecutors build Russian war crimes cases | | "The prosecutor general's office estimates [Ukraine] is using about 50,000 investigators from five different law enforcement agencies to investigate war crimes. They are conducting interviews across the country and meticulously documenting evidence that they hope to use in war crimes prosecutions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the military force he sent to invade Ukraine," Robert Klemko reports. | The sullied mission of the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program |  In this Feb. 2, 2020, photo, the Department of Defense shows empty lodging facilities at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Tex. (Todd Holly/U.S. Air Force via AP) | | | "Anna Cook was already having second thoughts about working as a contractor at the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program when, in 2016, a coworker she was having a dispute with threatened to hurt her children, she alleged. The coworker, Moses Espinosa, has also threatened other contractors and staff, according to other contractors and staff who worked at the program," David Roza reports for Task & Purpose. But the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was unable to conclude that Cook's story "establishes violations of the statutes." "The Air Force Wounded Warrior Program is a federally-funded Air Force program headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. Its mission to help injured airmen is hampered by what numerous people say is a deeply toxic workplace. Anna was among two dozen sources who told Task & Purpose over several months that top leaders at AFW2 have created a climate of retaliation and favoritism that drives away employees and contractors and alienates wounded warriors." | | |  | The Biden agenda | | With Obama looking on, White House to open ACA plans to more families |  President Biden speaks during an event on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg News) | | | "President Biden plans to announce Tuesday that his administration is making a tweak to federal rules long sought by advocates that would allow millions of additional families to buy health plans through the insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act," Amy Goldstein reports. "The announcement will represent Biden's latest effort to use the ACA as the main fulcrum for his goal of making health insurance more available and affordable to American consumers." More on that: Obama to visit White House as Biden seeks a reset | Biden will decide this month whether to extend the student loan payment pause | | "Biden has two choices for student loan relief: extend the student loan payment pause or let the student loan payment pause expire. With only weeks remaining until the planned restart of student loan payments, student loan borrowers are waiting for an answer," Forbes's Zack Friedman reports. | Build Back Center: Biden plows a revamped lane for the midterms | | "After taking office promising sweeping legislation and transformed government, Joe Biden is poised to fight the midterms the same way his two immediate Democratic predecessors did: trumpeting moderation and a center-left agenda," Politico's Christopher Cadelago reports. The new blueprint: "To emphasize police and defense spending, accentuate federal deficit reduction and propose higher taxes on the ultra-rich … gone is his early-presidency emphasis on bold deficit spending and revamping the social safety net to achieve long-sought Democratic priorities. In its place is an increased focus on domestic and international security and stability." | | ICYMI: "Naomi Biden, the eldest granddaughter of President Biden and first lady Jill Biden, will hold a wedding reception at the White House later this year," Amy B Wang reports. | | |  | Place-based policing, visualized | | | A crime-reduction strategy known as "place network investigations" was abandoned by Louisville police after the March 2020 fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor. Now, it's spreading to other cities, our colleagues report. | | |  | Hot on the left | | The corporate past of former covid czar Jeffrey Zients |  Jeffrey Zients, the former Director of the National Economic Council who worked for President Barack Obama, is photographed in his office in Washington, D.C., on April 19, 2018. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) | | | "In the span of a single week in March, a two-part vanishing act disappeared America's COVID response plan and the man overseeing it. On March 17th, COVID czar Jeffrey Zients announced that he would be replaced in a month's time by Brown School of Public Health dean and Albright Stonebridge consultant Ashish Jha, who is set to take over a job without a working budget," the American Prospect's Daniel Boguslaw and Max Moran report. "The hasty exit of Zients, the government's most senior pandemic coordinator, follows his attempt to downplay the health impacts of the disease, encourage the removal of mask mandates, and incentivize a return to the workplace. As the COVID coordinator, his leadership and rhetoric read to many as more management consultant than public-health expert." The findings: "Over the span of two decades, the health care companies that Zients controlled, invested in, and helped oversee were forced to pay tens of millions of dollars to settle allegations of Medicare and Medicaid fraud. They have also been accused of surprise-billing practices and even medical malpractice. Taken together, an examination of the companies that made Zients rich paints a picture of a man who seized on medical providers as a way to capitalize on the suffering of sick Americans. In the end, it seems to have all paid off." | | |  | Hot on the right | | Black Lives Matter secretly bought a $6 million house |  A Black Lives Matter sign is pictured in the front yard of a house. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) | | | A look inside: The house spans more than 6,500 square feet and has more than half a dozen bedrooms and bathrooms, several fireplaces, a soundstage, a pool and bungalow, and parking for more than 20 cars, Sean Campbell reports for New York Magazine. "The California property was purchased for nearly $6 million in cash in October 2020 with money that had been donated to BLMGNF." Why we're paying attention: "The transaction has not been previously reported, and Black Lives Matter's leadership had hoped to keep the house's existence a secret. Documents, emails, and other communications I've seen about the luxury property's purchase and day-to-day operation suggest that it has been handled in ways that blur, or cross, boundaries between the charity and private companies owned by some of its leaders. It creates the impression that money donated to the cause of racial justice has been spent in ways that benefit the leaders of Black Lives Matter personally." | | |  | Today in Washington | | | At 1:30 p.m., Biden, Vice President Harris and former president Barack Obama will speak about the Affordable Care Act in the Rose Garden. | | |  | In closing | | One burning question as Sarah Palin announces her congressional run: | | Jimmy Fallon | "You know, for someone who could see Russia from her house, she should have known years ago what Putin was up to, don't you think?" | | | | | | | Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. | | | | | |
