America’s intelligence businesses have alleged for the third election in a row that Moscow favors Donald Trump
Russia is making an attempt to sway the US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump, American intelligence officers have claimed. Comparable allegations by US spies during the last eight years have been confirmed false.
In a briefing to reporters on Wednesday, the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence (ODNI) alleged that the Kremlin has mounted a “whole-of-government” effort to show public opinion in opposition to President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats.
“We’re starting to see Russia goal particular voter demographics, promote divisive narratives and denigrate particular politicians,” the ODNI acknowledged. “Moscow seeks to form electoral outcomes, undermine electoral integrity and amplify home divisions.”
The ODNI officers didn’t state precisely how Russia goals to attain these targets, past spreading propaganda on social media and feeding anti-Democrat and anti-Ukraine narratives to “influential US voices.” The officers didn’t title any of the “particular politicians” or teams who had been allegedly focused, or any of the “influential US voices” supposedly concerned within the marketing campaign.
Requested whether or not Russia was searching for to spice up Trump’s probabilities of defeating Biden, one of many officers replied: “We’ve got not noticed a shift in Russia’s preferences for the presidential race from previous elections, given the position the US is taking part in with regard to Ukraine and broader coverage towards Russia.”
Throughout the 2016 and 2020 elections, US intelligence businesses repeatedly claimed that Moscow was deploying hackers and utilizing “info warfare” to swing the vote in favor of Trump.
None of those claims have been confirmed true. The US’ 17 intelligence businesses issued a press release in January 2017 alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally “permitted and directed” a cyber-warfare and affect marketing campaign in opposition to Hillary Clinton, which was contradicted by Particular Counsel Robert Mueller’s report two years later.
In 2020, greater than 50 “former intelligence officers” revealed a letter claiming that recordsdata on Hunter Biden’s laptop computer – which implicated the Biden household in a number of overseas corruption schemes – had been fabricated by Russia. The laptop computer’s contents have since been confirmed real, and fashioned the premise for a number of Republican-led investigations into the president’s overseas dealings.
Putin has dismissed the concept that he backs a sure faction in US politics. “It isn’t concerning the persona of the chief,” he informed American journalist Tucker Carlson in February. “It’s concerning the elites’ mindset.” A number of days later, nevertheless, Putin stated that he would like to proceed coping with Biden, calling the incumbent US chief “a extra skilled and predictable particular person,” and “a politician of the previous type.”