DISINFO: Accusations against Russia aim to “demonise” it
SUMMARY
Russia, unlike Washington and its allies, has not interfered and is not going to interfere in the internal affairs of either the EU or other countries of the world. The accusations of the US and the EU against Russia are absurd and unsubstantiated. Despite suspicions about the “Russian interference” in the US presidential election, the Americans could not find concrete evidence. The sanctions against Moscow imposed because of these accusations still remain in force. The main purpose of these accusations is to “demonise” Russia in the eyes of Europeans.
RESPONSE
Attempts of election meddling by Russia are already well documented. Investigations were conducted by the authorities of various countries, for example, Parliament's committee (UK). Numerous investigations have provided convincing evidence of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum and in elections across Europe and in the US. Thus, in the US, 126 million people were reached on social media by Russia-linked users, 29 million of them have seen the content "directly". See more information here, here and here. Russian meddling in the 2016 election was established by US intelligence agencies before the publication of the Mueller report. Robert Mueller’s investigation decisively concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Specifically, Mueller's report declared that there were "two main Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election", where the first one is the Internet Research Agency's disinformation campaign and social media operations to disrupt the election, and the second one is the Russian government's hacking operations against the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organisations. The findings of the Mueller investigation have led to US senators' proposals to extend sanctions on Russia to deter further election meddling attempts. For a similar case see here. Other cases about Russia's interference can be consulted here. Ahead of the European elections 2019, Microsoft registered cyberattacks targeting think tanks and non-profit organisations working on topics related to democracy, electoral integrity, and public policy, that are often in contact with government officials. Microsoft continues to investigate the source of these attacks but is confident that many of them originated from a group called Strontium, also known as APT 28 or Fancy Bear – which is believed to be associated with Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU. Read more here. Furthermore, the report on the implementation of the Action Plan Against Disinformation made clear that "the evidence collected revealed a continued and sustained disinformation activity by Russian sources aiming to suppress turnout and influence voter preferences”. An overview of Russia's methods of electoral interference is here, and case studies are available here and here.