Tag: russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin

Intelligence Report Says Kremlin Agents Boosted Republicans In 2022

A newly released intelligence report indicates that the Russian government acted to “denigrate the Democratic Party” ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. The report suggests that Russia acted against Democrats because of President Joe Biden's effectiveness in unifying Western countries and creating support for Ukraine. In the process, Russia took a truly incredible action in which it traded Russian lives to protect Republican votes.

The declassified report, which is heavily redacted, does not give many details about how Russia worked behind the scenes. However, it is clear about the rationale for why both the Russian government and its proxies sought to help Republicans. “While Russian officials most likely recognized that U.S. support for Ukraine was largely bipartisan, Russian influence actors disproportionately targeted the Democratic Party,” the report concludes, “probably because Moscow blames the U.S. president for forging a unified Western alliance and for Kyiv’s continued pro-Western trajectory,

The report also indicates that China and Iran launched efforts to interfere in the election. Neither of those attempts appears to be as strongly partisan as the Russian interference. China reportedly aimed its efforts at affecting the outcome of “a handful of races.” Iran put its efforts behind decreasing confidence in American democracy, election integrity, and support for Israel.

The assessment indicates that efforts to interfere in the election increased when compared to the 2018 midterms, but did not rise to the “comprehensive, whole-of-government” effort that Russia undertook in 2016. It also concludes that a higher level of inference is expected by multiple countries during the 2024 election cycle.

In its efforts, Russia reportedly used themes designed to reduce U.S. support for Ukraine. Interestingly, efforts to shift the outcome of the election included not just establishing fake accounts on social media sites, but included enlistment of commercial PR firms and “payments to influencers.” If those influencers are named in the report, that information is hidden behind the black bars of redactions … but it would be very interesting to know who took Vladimir Putin’s payment to help erode democracy.

The assessment notes that many of the operations don’t involve overtly false reports. Instead, Russia and other foreign governments are using issues that already generate media attention and partisan friction in America—and “amplifying” those “authentic” public narratives.

This is a technique that Russia has employed going back well into the Soviet Union period. Specifically, Russia has long played up issues of racism in the United States to increase political divisions. A Senate report in 2018 showed how Russia uses a two-pronged approach to increase racial tensions by appealing to racism on the right while deflating Democrats’ efforts to organize Black voters. In the 2016 elections, that even included running ads on radio stations with heavily Black audiences to depress turnout for Hillary Clinton.

At the time of the 2022 elections, support for Ukraine was still relatively high, even among most Republicans. However, one of ways Russia worked to change that was through pressing a message that has not been difficult to find in the news. “As the election neared, Russian influence actors amplified questions about whether US aid to Ukraine if the balance in power shifted after the midterms,” the report says.

In what may be the most astonishing connection to Russia’s efforts to influence the election and events on the ground in Ukraine, the report indicates that Russian military officials “proposed delaying the Russian withdrawal from Kherson until after the midterms to avoid giving a named political party a perceived win before the election.”

The report doesn’t indicate whether this plan was carried out. However, Election Day in 2022 was November 8. Russia announced its withdrawal from Kherson on November 9. Considering the information provided, it’s very hard to view this as a coincidence.

During those final days, Russian forces were low on supplies, Ukrainian troops were advancing, and every moment of delay exposed Russian supplies and equipment to destruction. But Russia was willing to take that risk rather than give Democrats a perceived win ahead of the election. That’s how determined they were to play a role in 2022. Considering how Republicans in Congress have completely stalled America’s assistance to Ukraine, the sacrifices Russia made in Kherson may have been their best investment since the illegal, unprovoked invasion began.

The report concludes that no foreign government is currently working to directly attack U.S. election infrastructure. The assessment notes the difficulty of undertaking any such operation in a broad sense because of the differing systems and layers of security. The intelligence agencies also believe that the warnings that the public attention following Russia’s 2016 interference is still helping to secure elections today. “We also judge that since 2016, senior-level US public and private messaging to foreign about the potential costs of tampering with election systems probably has deterred some of this activity by establishing clear redlines.”

Frustratingly, while the report says repeatedly that China “focused more on efforts to support or undermine specific candidates,” details about which candidates came in for Beijing’s attention are hidden behind redactions. However, these candidates reportedly came from both parties and were targeted for “anti-China” statements. Unsurprisingly, China’s actions included leveraging TikTok to spread social media messages.

Iran’s actions were less targeted at specific campaigns than they were reducing faith in democracy and elections while playing up social divisions (this was considered nonpartisan activity, but it would be easy to see such view efforts as objectively pro-Republican). Iran also created false “personas” on social media “masquerading as left-leaning Americans” that endorsed candidates whom Iran viewed as pro-Palestine or anti-Israel.

The 2022 elections were far from the “red wave” that Republicans were expecting. But it did deliver the House to Republicans. How much that is due to Russia’s efforts to undercut the Democratic Party—including sacrificing forces on the ground in Ukraine to prevent what could have been seen as a win for Biden—was not evaluated in the report. But it would certainly be nice to know which “influencers” got a Putin payday.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Trump 'Jokes' About Fleeing To Russia In Bizarre Rant On Georgia Case

Trump 'Jokes' About Fleeing To Russia In Bizarre Rant On Georgia Case

Some Russian media pundits have commented that if former President Donald Trump ever decided to move to Russia, they would be glad to have him. And Trump joked about fleeing to Russia after agreeing to surrender in Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis' case against him.

TheDaily Beast reports that Trump announced he plans to surrender this Thursday, August 24. And the former president followed his announcement with a rant on his Truth Social platform.

Trump, who is facing four separate criminal indictments, wrote, "The failed District Attorney of Fulton County (Atlanta), Fani Willis, insisted on a $200,000 Bond from me. I assume, therefore, that she thought I was a 'flight’ risk – I'd fly far away, maybe to Russia, Russia, Russia, share a gold domed suite with Vladimir, never to be seen or heard from again."

The "Vladimir" Trump was referring to was obviously Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump also wrote, "Would I be able to take my very 'understated' airplane with the gold TRUMP affixed for all to see. Probably not, I'd be much better off flying commercial – I'm sure nobody would recognize me!"

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Vladimir Putin

Fearing War Crimes Arrest, Putin Will Avoid BRICS Summit In South Africa

Russian President Vladimir Putin is skipping next month's BRICS summit in South Africa due to concerns that he could be arrested by the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed in Ukraine, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

BRICS is the economic alliance between Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa that was established in 2009 to compete with the G7, to which Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States belong.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced after a "number of consultations" with Moscow that "Russia has made it clear that arresting its sitting president would be a declaration of war. It would be inconsistent with our constitution to risk engaging in war with Russia."

Ramaphosa's opposition followed the Democratic Alliance's demands that Putin be taken into custody. Instead, Putin will appear virtually, The Guardian noted.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov "denied Moscow had told South Africa that arresting its president would mean an act of war, but said it was 'clear to everyone what [that kind of] infringement against the head of the Russian state would mean."

The ICC accused Putin in March of orchestrating a pattern of atrocities throughout Ukraine, including conducting forced locations, the "unlawful deportation" of children to Russia, and executions of civilians.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

In Russia, A Fluid Situation Or 'A Big Mess' -- But We Sure Don't Need Trump

In Russia, A Fluid Situation Or 'A Big Mess' -- But We Sure Don't Need Trump

Well, they have spoken – by which I mean Vladimir Putin and Sergey Prigozhin, but I may as well throw the Third Pretender in there, too, Defendant Trump, who couldn’t resist getting his two-cents in Saturday with this bit of well masticated wisdom on his Truth Social platform: “A big mess in Russia, but be careful what you wish for. Next in may be far worse!”

Boy, am I ever glad we’ve got the Don of Bedminster to depend on when things get weird on the world stage. When he was president and met with other world leaders for his first time at the G-7 in Sicily in 2017, there was this:

Former President Donald Trump at the G-7 meeting in Sicily in May 2017


Then in 2018, another photo summed up a summit Trump ended by calling for Russia’s readmission to the G-7, four years after it had been ousted for its annexation of Crimea. The photo shows German Chancellor Angela Merkel giving him a piece of her mind while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stands by with a look of disgust. The face of French President Emmanuel Macron can be seen behind Merkel with British Prime Minister Theresa May partially obscured by the man leaning on the table in the foreground. Oh, and behind Trump is National Security Adviser John Bolton, who suddenly discovered he has a backbone lastFormre

Former Prime Minister Theresa May confronting former President Donald Trump at G-7 meeting in June 2018

I digress, but only as a reminder of what it was like when the American equivalent of the Putins and Prigozhins of the world was at the helm of the American ship of state. Can you imagine what Defendant Trump would be doing if he was in the Oval Office while the revolt in Russia was happening on Saturday? Offering to send the Proud Boys to defend Red Square wouldn’t be out of the question.

The news slowly leaking out of the world’s other nuclear superpower today was, to put it mildly, unsettling. Prigozhin is supposed to be in Belarus, but nobody knows for sure if he’s there. He was last seen on Saturday evening greeting a crowd from the back seat of what looked like a large American SUV in downtown Rostov-on-Don, which his troops had seized from Russian forces earlier that day. The Guardian called it “Prigozhin’s rockstar exit from Rostov,” and quoted one citizen of the city observing that, “There is a real interest in Prigozhin and his fighters. The nation longs for a change. To some, Prigozhin is a valuable alternative to Putin.”

Yevgeny Prigozhin leaving Rostov-on-Don on Saturday, June 24, 2023

Ooops. There it is, the deadly nightshade of a word to any dictator worth his custom-tailored suit and retinue of lickspittles: alternative. There just aren’t supposed to be alternatives to all-powerful dictators, don’t you see, because as Defendant Trump put it so eloquently for us in his first campaign for the presidency in this country, “I alone can fix it.”

Most of us bipeds wandering around the planet going about our business live with a nagging uncertainty that we matter to anyone but those closest to us. We’re reminded of this by the little things that happen, perhaps not daily, but enough that we are unsettled by our humanness: the car won’t start; a favorite pet dies; a child comes home with a “D” in math; the boss at work hesitates as he walks by your desk and shakes his head slowly before moving on.

Not dictators and wannabe dictators. For them, there is no doubt that they matter. Listen to the words of Vladimir Putin, just 48 hours after a convoy of tanks, rocket launchers, armored personnel carriers, and infantry soldiers were on the march unopposed just 125 miles away from the Russian capital, Moscow: “Civic solidarity has shown that any blackmail attempts to create internal unrest are doomed to failure,” Putin said today in a little speech filmed in a room somewhere in Russia, with mahogany paneling, a couple of Russian flags, and what looked like the back of one of the world’s most uncomfortable chairs behind him. “The consolidation of the society of executive and legislative power at all levels was shown," he continued, looking into the eye of the camera as forcefully as he could. “There was a firm unequivocal position in support of the constitutional order. In fact, the entire Russian society united and rallied everyone.”

Wow. If you were a citizen of Russia, and you were looking to be comforted after an upheaval that shook the Kremlin and forced soldiers and tanks into the streets of Moscow, that is just the thing to settle your stomach and get you ready for your next gulp of the clear stuff in the little shot glasses.

Prigozhin spoke bluntly, presumably from a bunker in Belarus, or Russia, or Ukraine, or somewhere: “We did not have the goal of toppling the existing regime and legitimately-elected government,” Prigozhin began in a manner that can probably be described as just barely conciliatory, before he really got into it. “The aim of the march was to avoid destruction of Wagner and to hold to account the officials who through their unprofessional actions have committed a massive number of errors.”

Prigozhin repeated his charge that 30 of his soldiers had been killed by a missile strike from regular Russian forces. His brief audio address, released on his Telegram channel, appeared to be a rejection of a rumored plan to integrate his Wagner mercenaries into the regular Russian forces, which Prigozhin indicated would be a death sentence for his soldiers. “Experienced fighters, experienced commanders will be simply 'smeared' and will basically be used as meat," he predicted.

So, that’s where we stand, two days after the biggest threat to Putin’s rule in Russia in more than 20 years. Putin’s not giving an inch, and apparently allowed a rumor to spread yesterday that the charges against Prigozhin for instigating an insurrection could be reinstated at any time. Another rumor spread that Prigozhin plans to consolidate his Wagner group in Belarus and fight from there. The last time Russia tried attacking Kyiv from the north, it didn’t go so well for them, and at that time in the war, it was rag-tag guerrilla-style assaults by hastily-formed Ukrainian units that drove the attackers back. I think we can assume that Kyiv is much better defended today than it was in February of last year, so maybe Prigozhin should give his plans more thought.

But who knows? I love the word “fluid” when it’s used to describe situations like this, because my mind, anyway, forms an image of a river, with currents swirling and dangers lurking beneath its surface. That’s as good a description as any of Russia this evening, and we’ll be here to keep an eye on it for you.

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. You can subscribe to his daily columns at luciantruscott.substack.com and follow him on Twitter @LucianKTruscott and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV.

Please consider subscribing to Lucian Truscott Newsletter, from which this is reprinted with permission.