An annual threat assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies said Russia employed influence operations during the 2022 midterm elections and will continue to use clandestine means to spread information favorable to its agenda.
The "Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community," dated Feb. 6 but released Wednesday by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, read: "Moscow views U.S. elections as opportunities for malign influence as part of its larger foreign policy strategy."
It stated that Russia has "conducted influence operations against U.S. elections for decades, including as recently as the U.S. midterm elections in 2022. It will try to strengthen ties to U.S. persons in the media and politics in hopes of developing vectors for future influence operations."
Concerns about Russian influence on the 2022 elections were not as strong as after 2016, when, special counsel Robert Mueller's report found, "the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion." When Mueller's report was released in 2019, then-Attorney General William P. Barr said neither then-President Donald Trump nor his campaign colluded with Russia, reported The Washington Post.
U.S. intelligence agencies warned Russia would try to influence elections in 2018 and 2020, as well.
The intelligence assessment stated Russia presents one of the most serious foreign influence threats to the U.S. because it uses intelligence services, proxies, and other tools to try to divide Western alliances, while attempting to undermine U.S. global standing, sow discord inside the U.S., and influence U.S. voters and decision-making.
"Moscow probably will build on these approaches to try to undermine the United States as opportunities arise," it read. "Russia and its influence actors are adept at capitalizing on current events in the United States to push Moscow-friendly positions to Western audiences."
The assessment stated that Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, and influence actors routinely inject themselves into contentious U.S. issues, even if that causes the Kremlin to take a public stand on U.S. domestic political matters.
"Moscow seeds original stories or amplifies preexisting popular or divisive discourse using a network of state media, proxy, and social media influence actors and then intensifies that content to further penetrate the Western information environment," the assessment read. "These activities can include disseminating false content and amplifying information perceived as beneficial to Russian influence efforts or conspiracy theories."
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