In this task, you will be presented with a passage and have to answer a question based on your understanding of the events inferred from the passage. Try to find the best answer that is most likely to fill in "_". Note that the URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].

(CNN) Russia, of late, has been demonstrating not only increased confidence in its own abilities and capabilities, but also a sense of urgency in being as well prepared as possible for open conflict. Russia's ramping up of hostile actions reflects not so much a disregard for its international reputation, as some commentators have suggested, as an urgent concern in Moscow at the prospect of impending conflict with the West. Each week brings startling new evidence of Russia's lack of restraint in pursuing its own security agenda. Opinions differ on the underlying objectives, but it is almost always a mistake to look for a single reason for Russian actions.Keir Giles: Each week brings new evidence of Russia's lack of restraint in pursuing its own security agendaRussia sees that it is already in conflict with the West in every domain except direct and deliberate military clashes, he says 
 Question:The move to overt, even blatant, intelligence gathering and probing for vulnerabilities has led to the activities of _ hackers, spies, submarines and satellites that previously were conducted in deep secrecy now being commonly reported in open media.
Russia

Washington (CNN) George W. Bush tried it. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tried it. Now Donald Trump is vowing to reset relations with Russia. But could the unintended costs outweigh the benefits? The President-elect's Russian gambit seems like a solid foreign policy goal, given that the estrangement between the rivals -- owners of the world's biggest nuclear arsenals -- is deeper than at any time since the Cold War. An improvement in relations could yield gains for the United States in reviving non-proliferation projects and closer anti-terrorism cooperation. But there are big questions about whether Trump will be any more successful than his predecessors, whose initial inroads eventually foundered largely due to the behavior of President Vladimir Putin, and whether he will end up emboldening a leader that many -- including key Republicans in Congress -- see as a top US adversary.Closer US-Russia ties could revive non-proliferation projects and closer anti-terrorism cooperationBut closer ties could also mean restoring Russian influence at the direct expense of the US 
 Question:Trump has made no secret of his admiration for the Russian strongman, once saying he was a better leader than Obama, and on the campaign trail showed little concern about resurgent _ influence.
Russia

(CNN) Black voters should not be blamed for Hillary Clinton's stunning election night loss of the presidency. The roots of Donald Trump's shocking, long-shot, and divisively improbable rise to the presidency can be traced back to election night four years ago when black voter percentage, for the first time in American history, surpassed whites. Black voters led the multiracial groups of voters that re-elected Barack Obama and seemed poised to do so in future presidential election cycles. But a strange thing happened on the way to a rendezvous with victory. The Supreme Court's 2013 Shelby v. Holder decision did more than just effectively gut law enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act. More profoundly, it neutralized black voter participation in key electoral battleground states, including North Carolina and Florida -- states that provided president-elect Trump's margins of victory.Peniel Joseph: Trump's victory isn't the fault of black votersSince 2012, voting rights for African Americans have been under attack 
 Question:During the 19th century and earlier, enslaved _ were denied the vote and punished, even killed for openly expressing dreams of black citizenship.

American