The United States on Friday released a U.S. intelligence assessment sent to more than 100 countries that found Moscow is using spies, social media and Russian state-run media to erode public faith in the integrity of democratic elections worldwide.

WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday released a U.S. intelligence assessment sent to more than 100 countries that found Moscow is using spies, social media and Russian state-run media to erode public faith in the integrity of democratic elections worldwide.

“This is a global phenomenon,” said the assessment. “Our information indicates that senior Russian government officials, including the Kremlin, see value in this type of influence operation and perceive it to be effective.”

A senior State Department official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said that Russia was encouraged to intensify its election influence operations by its success in amplifying disinformation about the 2020 U.S. election and the COVID-19 pandemic.

      • jimmydoreisaleftyEnglish
        -5•1 year ago

        Yes, clumsy or just illegal way of doing things, not sure why they pay their lawyers and personnel, why not ask the experts for the legal way of communicating with foreign countries.

        Trump and his people are not the most trusting when it comes to gov’t alphabet orgs.

        Many on the left used to also share that view, a distrust of the gov’t, JFK/MLK/MalcomX conspiracies.

        Those talks proved to be a “fruitful back channel between the leadership of our two countries,” former KGB general Oleg Kalugin wrote in “Spymaster: My Thirty-two years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West,” adding that Kissinger “began to convey to us that Nixon was no anti-Communist ogre and that he wanted improved relations with USSR.”