Elections

Leaked documents reveal Putin's plot to sway 2016 US election

By Pakistan Forward

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a National Security Council meeting on January 22, 2016, at the Kremlin. [The Kremlin]

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a National Security Council meeting on January 22, 2016, at the Kremlin. [The Kremlin]

New evidence details the Kremlin's plot to spread disinformation and undermine democracies, including a secret multi-agency effort to interfere in US elections five years ago.

During a closed session of Russia's National Security Council on January 22, 2016, President Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election, The Guardian reported July 15, citing leaked Kremlin documents.

At the meeting, Putin, his intelligence chiefs and other senior ministers agreed to a number of objectives, including "the destabilisation of the US's sociopolitical system" and the weakening of the American presidency, according to the leaked documents.

The leaked documents appear to represent a "serious and highly unusual leak from within the Kremlin", according to The Guardian, which showed the papers to independent analysts who assessed them to be genuine.

Shown is the 'special part' of a secret Kremlin document setting out measures to arouse turmoil and division in America. [The Guardian]

Shown is the 'special part' of a secret Kremlin document setting out measures to arouse turmoil and division in America. [The Guardian]

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) shakes hands with Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) director Sergei Naryshkin during a ceremony for senior officers and prosecutors in Moscow on April 11, 2019. [Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP]

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) shakes hands with Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) director Sergei Naryshkin during a ceremony for senior officers and prosecutors in Moscow on April 11, 2019. [Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP]

Inserting 'media viruses'

An official photo from the January 22 meeting shows Putin sitting at the head of the table with then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to his right.

Other officials in attendance included Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, in charge of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency; Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) then-chief Mikhail Fradkov; Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Alexander Bortnikov; and former FSB director Nikolai Patrushev, who attended as Security Council secretary.

The officials discussed the economy and Moldova, according to an official summary.

But the leaked report, authored by Vladimir Symonenko, the senior official in charge of the Kremlin's expert department, suggests the real purpose of the meeting was to discuss confidential proposals drawn up by Symonenko's team, The Guardian reported.

The suggestions include how Russia might insert "media viruses" into American public life that would "alter mass consciousness, especially in certain groups".

After the meeting, Putin set up by decree a new and secret interdepartmental commission with the urgent task of realising the goals set out in the "special part" of the report, according to a separate leaked document.

The decree said the commission, headed by Shoigu, should take practical steps against the United States as soon as possible.

The decree put the GRU in charge of "preparing measures to act on the information environment of the object". This command, according to The Guardian's assessment, includes the hacking of sensitive American cyber-targets identified by the SVR.

The SVR was told to gather additional information to support the commission's activities, while the FSB was assigned counter-intelligence.

The spy chiefs received orders to return with concrete plans by February 1.

Just weeks after the security council meeting, one such plan appears to have been executed.

GRU hackers raided the servers of the US Democratic Party National Committee and released thousands of private emails in an attempt to undermine the 2016 US election.

With the United States in turmoil, "Putin would be able in clandestine fashion to dominate any US-Russia bilateral talks, to deconstruct the White House's negotiating position, and to pursue bold foreign policy initiatives on Russia's behalf," said the leaked report, according to The Guardian.

The report also addresses sanctions and admits that those imposed by the United States after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea had contributed to domestic tensions.

Long history of interference

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the allegations brought by The Guardian story, but the Kremlin's denials are not surprising.

The Russian regime has a history of supporting hackers to stir unrest, steal information, spread disinformation and carry out other cyber crimes.

Last October, the US government charged six GRU officers in absentia with carrying out cyber-attacks on Ukraine's power grid, the 2017 French elections and the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The six Russian agents were also accused of staging a 2017 malware attack called "NotPetya" that infected computers of businesses worldwide, causing almost $1 billion in losses to three US companies alone.

In addition, they allegedly targeted for obstruction international investigations into the nerve agent poisoning in England in 2018 of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, as well as waging cyber-attacks on media outlets (2018) and parliament (2019) in Georgia.

Last October, the Russian regime was caught stealing US voter information ahead of the 2020 election in an attempt "to communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos, and undermine confidence in American democracy".

The US government on July 15 offered $10 million rewards for information on ransomware attacks, which officials say often originate in Russia.

US President Joe Biden raised the issue with Putin on two recent occasions, threatening to take action directly if Moscow does not curb cyber crime, the White House said in a statement.

The United States on April 15 announced sanctions and the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats in retaliation for the Kremlin's US election interference, a massive cyber-attack and other hostile activity.

Among other measures, Washington sanctioned six Russian technology companies accused of supporting Moscow's cyber intelligence activities, particularly the SolarWinds hack discovered in December, which compromised thousands of US government and private sector computer networks.

In February, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as "Putin's chef", for his Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Saint Petersburg-based "troll factory" that was behind US election interference in 2016 and 2020.

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