US believes Putin approved bid to influence election
March 17, 2021
A US intelligence report released on Tuesday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely approved an effort by Moscow to try to swing the 2020 presidential elections towards Donald Trump.
The report, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, found that Putin authorized "influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US."
It also said that unlike in 2016, there were no "persistent cyber efforts to gain access to election infrastructure."
Iran tried to hinder Trump, China 'did not deploy'
The report also found evidence of a "multi-pronged covert influence campaign" by Iran, seeking to undermine Trump.
It also found that Beijing "considered but did not deploy" influence operations, and ultimately did not seek to interfere with the elections from either side. The reports' authors believed China did not see enough difference in either candidate to warrant the risk of being detected.
The findings also stated that other foreign actors such as Lebanese Hezbollah, Cuba, and Venezuela also attempted to influence the elections, although on a much smaller scale.
No interference in voting process itself
Despite these attempts to sway voters and undermine the election, US intelligence found "no indications that any foreign actor attempted to interfere in the 2020 US elections by altering any technical aspect of the voting process, including voter registration, ballot casting, vote tabulation, or reporting results."
Former President Trump had made several attempts at claiming rigged elections and voter fraud in the following months.
The report adds some proof to allegations that some of Trump's top aides amplified claims of Biden's links to Ukraine. Intelligence also concluded that Russia-backed figures such as Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach enlisted unnamed US political figures in their campaign to smear Biden and his son Hunter. Konstantin Kilimnik, linked with Russian intelligence, was found to have met Derkach and handed over materials to Trump's aides to push for formal investigations into Biden.
Similar to the 2016 election, the so-called Russian troll factory called Internet Research Agency pushed disparaging stories against Biden on social media. It also sought to intensify racial issues, said the report.
tg/msh (AP, Reuters)