Fakes and Propaganda: Russia Spreads Disinformation Ahead of US Elections

Politico reports this, citing statements by representatives of the US Congress.

Senate Intelligence Committee Deputy Chairman Mark Warner and House Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat Jim Himes said the details of the Russian operations were contained in a classified report on foreign election interference that U.S. intelligence agencies provided to their offices earlier this week.

Himes described the scale of Russian information operations as “a veritable carnival.” He said Moscow seeks to create “a sense of chaos and anarchy” in the United States.

Russian disinformation covers a variety of topics, from undermining trust in government institutions to spreading doubts about the reliability of voting machines.

Warner also said that intelligence indicates that Russia is using artificial intelligence tools to spread disinformation more quickly and increase its influence on Americans.

At the same time, the lawmakers did not name specific candidates against whom the campaign is directed. They suggest that Moscow is trying to discredit all politicians who support Ukraine, both Democrats and Republicans.

At the same time, American intelligence has not found evidence that Russia attempted to hack the US election infrastructure or the computer networks of campaign headquarters.

What methods does Russia use?

One example of a possible Russian operation was published by Graphika researchers. According to their findings, the Russian-linked Storm-1516 influence network, which has been operating since 2023, distributed a video on the social network X using deepfakes.

The videos accused Democratic U.S. Senate candidate from Texas, James Talarico, of sexual assault. Researchers have linked the videos to a disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting the politician.

According to Warner, this is not the first time that Russian operations have been carried out to influence American elections. In particular, Moscow has spread disinformation against Democrats in every election cycle since 2016.

At the time, Russian intelligence agents were linked to cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee and the emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff. In addition, Russia conducted large-scale information operations against the presidential candidate.

In 2018 and 2024, Moscow was again accused of spreading disinformation to influence the American elections.

Russian influence operations have also been recorded in other countries, including Georgia, Moldova, and France.

Other countries are also involved in the campaigns

According to Warner and Hymes, the classified report also mentions attempts by China and Iran to influence the US election. However, the intelligence community has focused the most attention on Russia because of the scale of its operations.

Meanwhile, last week, social network X announced the removal of more than 13,000 accounts linked to disinformation campaigns by Russia, Iran, and China. According to the platform, they were used to influence electoral processes and discredit candidates and public figures from different political camps.

Representatives of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to a request for additional information about the classified report.

It was previously reported that the Paris prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into possible Russian interference in the upcoming presidential campaign in France. Law enforcement officers are investigating the spread of fake news about potential candidates Gabriel Attal, Edouard Philippe, and Raphael Glucksmann.

Also follow “Pryamim” on Facebook , X , Telegram , and Instagram.