2023-10-21 16:46:21
A person casts his vote in a ballot box. EFE/Federico Anfitti/Archive
Russia attempted to undermine the legitimacy of at least 11 elections in nine democratic countries between 2020 and 2022, according to US intelligence services, which have warned countries around the world of the operations that the Kremlin has underway.
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In addition, Russian intelligence services attacked the validity of elections in 17 other countries through social media campaigns, amplifying “domestic narratives.”
But Washington considers these cases to be only a small part of Russian destabilization activities.
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These warnings are included in a diplomatic cable sent by the US State Department to numerous countries around the world.
In the cable, US authorities report increasing efforts by Russian intelligence services to “globally undermine democratic processes” and influence election results through disinformation campaigns.
Russia covertly sent at least $300 million to foreign political parties and candidates in more than 20 countries since 2014 to gain influence, according to a US intelligence document released Tuesday.
“The United States has identified, and this is a growing concern, Russia’s efforts to undermine democratic processes: Russia is conducting operations to degrade public confidence in the integrity of the elections themselves,” the telegram explains.
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Among the recipients of the diplomatic cable are Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico or Uruguay in America or Spain, Italy, France and the United Kingdom in Europe.
Senior officials of the State Department and the United States intelligence services, who requested not to be identified, pointed to two specific cases in South America and Europe, in which the Russian intelligence services activated electoral disinformation campaigns.
“In one case in South America, Russian Telegram channels included false news reports of alleged fraud and Russian trolls on social media platforms amplified concerns about post-election instability and violence,” US officials explained.
Although the sources refused to identify the affected South American country, they did point out that the US detected “web pages connected to Russian intelligence in the protests against the election result.”
Argentine citizens exercising their right to vote, in an archive photograph. EFE/Raúl Martínez
In the case of another country, in this case in Europe, US intelligence services detected websites connected to Russia that distributed articles in English with accusations of electoral fraud.
Also in a European election in 2020, the Russian Federal Security Service, the heir to the Soviet KGB, used intermediaries “to deploy agitators and intimidate election workers, organize protests on voting day, and sabotage voting abroad.”
The Kremlin considers these operations to be “effective” and low-cost, according to the same sources, who added that they are sharing information with governments around the world “to have a better idea of Russian tactics and techniques.”
“Electoral interference is a low-cost and easy operation. In many cases, they are amplifying local narratives that call into question the integrity of elections,” such as responses to COVID-19, U.S. officials noted.
“Our perspective is that Russia is capitalizing on what it perceives as a relatively cheap success in the 2020 US presidential election to apply it more globally,” they concluded.
(With information from EFE)
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