U.S. intelligence: Russia ramping up interference in foreign elections

Simon Druker
·2 min read
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UPI
Russia, encouraged by its success in interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, is ramping up its efforts to do the same across the democratic world, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment. File Photo by Gary I Rothstein/UPI

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Russia is attempting ramp up its efforts to interfere in elections in democratic countries, including the United States, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment.

Russian actors are working to influence politics in 17 democratic countries, according to an unclassified cable sent to several American embassies around the world and obtained by the Washington Post.

American officials also confirmed Russia interfered in up to 11 elections in nine separate countries, including the United States, between 2020 and 2022.

"We are seeing them look at their perceived success in 2016 and their perceived success in 2020 in gumming up outcomes to be something that should be continued moving forward, and even maybe expanded," a senior intelligence official told CBS News in an interview.

The assessment found that Russia, using its spy agency, was able to intimidate poll workers on the ground and stir up protests during a 2020 election in an unnamed European country, Bloomberg reported.

Americans will go to the polls on Nov. 5, 2024, for the United States' next presidential election.

"Russia is pursuing operations to degrade public confidence in the integrity of elections themselves," the diplomatic cable states. "For Russia, the benefits of these operations are twofold: to sow instability within democratic societies, and to portray democratic elections as dysfunctional and the resulting governments as illegitimate."

In July 2022, a Russian operative was charged in federal court for masterminding an election interference campaign in multiple U.S. states.

Prosecutors contend Aleksandr Ionov carried out "malign influence" campaigns between December 2014 and March 2022 to "sow discord, spread pro-Russian propaganda and interfere in elections within the United States."

Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov dismissed the assessment in a statement issued Saturday, calling it "highly likely" that its nothing more than "a compilation of outright speculations, gossips and Russophobic outbursts."

"We are not surprised by such insinuations," he said in a social media post. "They are rooted in the administration's insecurities about the correctness and efficiency of methods of resolving problems both at home and at the international arena."