Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) greets Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani (L) during his meeting at the Grand Kremlin Palace on March 28, 2017 in Moscow, Russia.
Mikhail Svetlov | Getty Images
Russia and Iran carried out operations to try to interfere in the 2020 presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, according to a U.S. intelligence report released on Tuesday.
The U.S. intelligence community has also determined that China has not attempted to change the outcome of the 2020 races and said there is no evidence that foreign actors have attempted to change US ballots or tabulation of votes, the report says.
The assessment was released as the Biden government works to strengthen relations with the United States’ main allies in order to increase pressure on Russia and Iran.
Tehran and Moscow previously denied any involvement in trying to influence elections in the United States.
But the report said that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized “influence operations designed to denigrate the candidacy of President Biden and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbating socio-political divisions in the United States. “.
One of Moscow’s main strategies, the report said, was to use proxies linked to Russian intelligence to spread misleading statements and narratives among certain U.S. media and individuals – “including some close to former President Trump and his government”.
These plans were put into action by “a number of Russian government organizations”, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Iran “carried out a multifaceted covert influence campaign aimed at undermining ex-President Trump’s re-election prospects – albeit without directly promoting his rivals – undermining public confidence in the US electoral process and institutions, and sowing division and exacerbate social tensions in the USA, “according to the report.
Intelligence experts also found that China, which was previously thought to be expanding its U.S. influence efforts, ultimately did not implement operations to affect the outcome of the Trump-Biden election.
Chinese President Xi Jinping
Fred Dufour | AFP | Getty Images
“China sought stability in its relationship with the United States, saw none of the election results as advantageous enough for China to run the risk of being caught meddling in,” the report said.
Beijing “assessed that its traditional tools of influence – mainly targeted economic measures and lobbying – would be sufficient to meet its goal of shaping US-China policy, regardless of the winner.”
However, one expert – the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber - said that China “has taken steps to try to undermine former President Trump’s reelection.”
These assessments, each delivered with “high confidence”, came in a disqualified report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The investigation was carried out by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA.
The report also found that, unlike the previous presidential election cycle, there was no indication that foreign actors attempted to alter voter registration, ballots or tabulation of votes in the 2020 elections in the United States.
“We believe that it would be difficult for a foreign actor to manipulate electoral processes at scale without detection by collecting intelligence on the actors themselves, through physical and cyber security monitoring around voting systems across the country, or in post- electoral processes ”, affirm the authors. of the intelligence report wrote.
In a statement, the president of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Emphasized that the report shows that Russia remains the biggest threat to elections in the United States.
Although China and Iran also “took specific measures related to the US elections,” said Schiff, they were “at a much less significant or systematic level than those taken by Russia”.
“We must be clear and direct with the American people that different countries have different intentions and capabilities, and are not equal threats to our free and fair elections,” said Schiff.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., Said that while the United States has strengthened its defenses against foreign interference, “the problem of foreign actors trying to influence the American electorate is not going away and, given the current party divisions in this country, it may find fertile ground for growth in the future.”
In addition to Iran and Russia, the investigation found that Cuba, Venezuela and Lebanon Hezbollah also worked to influence the election, albeit on a smaller scale.
The unrated assessment published on Tuesday is based on the analysis that the intelligence community has provided to policymakers throughout the 2020 electoral cycle.