According to a source, Vladimir Putin approved operations to swing the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump
According to a source, Vladimir Putin approved operations to swing the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump
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According to a declassified intelligence report, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his approval to manipulate operations to help Donald Trump win the presidential election last November. The study found large attempts by the Kremlin and Iran to influence the race’s result, but no proof that any foreign agent changed votes or otherwise disrupted the voting process.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a study on Tuesday that provides the most in-depth analysis of the various international threats to the 2020 election. Iran’s attempts to weaken voter trust and damage Trump’s re-election chances were among them, as were Moscow operations that used Trump’s allies to discredit eventual winner Joe Biden.

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Despite the attacks, intelligence officials discovered “no evidence that any foreign agent tried to intervene in the 2020 US elections by modifying any technological component of the voting process, including voter registration, ballot casting, vote tabulation, or reporting results.”

Even as Trump supporters continue to make unfounded allegations of international or domestic intervention and refuse to recognize Biden’s win, the study is the latest official affirmation of the election’s legitimacy. Several judges, as well as Trump’s own Justice Department, have dismissed allegations of systemic fraud. Even though Trump has questioned the election’s validity, intelligence officials believe Russia attempted to manipulate people close to Trump in order to sway the election in his favor.

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Russia served to support Trump’s candidacy

The study delves into the politically fraught task of determining which foreign adversaries backed which candidates in the 2020 election, a topic that dominated headlines last year. Trump, whose 2016 campaign was aided by Russian intelligence officers’ hacking and a clandestine social media campaign, seized on an intelligence assessment from August that said China favoured a Biden presidency, despite the fact that the same assessment also said Russia was trying to promote Trump’s own candidacy by disparaging Biden.

However, according to the report released Tuesday, China did not intervene on either side and “considered but did not deploy” influence operations aimed at influencing the outcome. Officials from the United States claim Beijing prioritized a cooperative relationship with the United States and did not see any election result as beneficial enough to risk the “blowback” that would follow if it was caught interfering.

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According to intelligence officials, the main threats came from Russia and Iran, albeit with different motives and using different methods.

According to the paper, Russia attempted to derail Biden’s campaign because he was seen as a threat to the Kremlin’s interests, despite taking some measures to prepare for a Democratic administration as the election approached.

Putin gave his approval for the operations

According to the report, Putin approved influence operations aimed at smearing Biden, bolstering Trump, undermining election trust, and exacerbating social divides in the United States.

The use of proxies linked to Russian intelligence to “launder power narratives” by using media organisations, US officials, and people close to Trump to spread “misleading or unsubstantiated” accusations against Biden was central to that effort.

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Officials from the CIA did not target any Trump supporters in this operation. However, longtime associate Rudy Giuliani met with Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach multiple times in an attempt to connect Biden to unsubstantiated corruption allegations in 2020. According to US officials, Derkach is a “powerful Russian agent,” and Putin is believed to have “purview” over his activities, according to Tuesday’s article.

However, Russia did not attempt to hack election systems as aggressively as it had in previous election cycles. According to the study, Russian cyber operations against state and local government networks last year were most likely not election-related, but rather part of a wider campaign to threaten the United States and global entities.

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Meanwhile, Iran launched its own influence campaign aimed at undermining Trump’s re-election bid, which US officials believe was likely approved by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran attempted to exploit vulnerabilities on state election websites and did “compromise US institutions affiliated with election systems as part of a large targeting campaign across multiple sectors worldwide,” the study concluded.

The 15-page paper is a declassified version of an election interference report that Trump obtained on Jan. 7, one day after a riot at the US Capitol erupted while Congress was meeting to certify election results.

A separate document issued Tuesday by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security drew a similar conclusion regarding the election’s legitimacy, stating that there was no proof that any foreign agent had changed votes.

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