The United States on Friday released an intelligence assessment sent to more than 100 countries that found Moscow was using Russian spies, social networks, and state media to erode public confidence in its integrity. in democratic elections around the world.
“This is a global phenomenon,” the assessment said. “Our information shows that high-ranking Russian government officials, including the Kremlin, see the value in this type of influence operation and see it as effective.”
A State Department official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said Russia was encouraged to step up its election influence operations by its success in raising false information about the election of Americans in 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The success is more and we see the US election as a factor,” the official said.
The Russian embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The publication of the assessment comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Russia the war in Ukraine and many other things.
The assessment was sent in a State Department cable dated Wednesday to more than 100 US embassies in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa for distribution to their governments, he said.
Washington will privately brief recipient governments and share the assessment “in advance of elections on the horizon next year,” the official said.
The report represents Washington’s latest move to counter what it says are Moscow’s efforts “to sow instability” in democratic countries by describing elections as “dysfunctional and the resulting governments as which is not legitimate.”
“Washington recognizes its vulnerability to this threat,” the report said, noting that US intelligence agencies found that “Russian actors disseminated and amplified information to undermine trust to the public in the 2020 election.”
The Democratic President Joe Biden defeated his Republican predecessor in 2020Donald Trump, who refused to accept the results, and falsely claimed that he lost due to fraud.
Russia’s concerted operations between 2020 and 2022 sought to “undermine public confidence in at least 11 elections in nine democracies, including the United States,” according to the report, adding that 17 other countries is subject to “less pronounced” efforts.
He did not identify with any other countries.
Russia “used overt and covert mechanisms, including networks of influence and proxies managed” by Russian spy services, the report said.
As an example, he continued, Russia’s FSB security service is secretly working to intimidate election workers, organize election day protests, and “sabotage overseas voting” in 2020. election in an unknown European country.
Russian state media openly claimed the election was undemocratic and “raised false allegations of fraud” ahead of several elections in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America between 2020 and 2021, he said.
Russia also used social media platforms and “proxy websites” to sow doubt about the integrity of the election, he said.
Yes ok, China interfered in the election, and is not considered to be using that tactic, the official said. China denies meddling in the election.
