Putin likely directed 2020 U.S. election meddling, U.S. intelligence finds

Putin likely directed 2020 U.S. election meddling, U.S. intelligence finds | Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin likely directed efforts to try to swing the 2020 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump, according to an American intelligence report released on Tuesday that sources said would likely trigger U.S. sanctions on Moscow.

That's the opening paragraph of a very comprehensive article. Six minute read. Recommended.

The intelligence report details Putin's likely involvement, Russian Ukrainians and links to Rudy Giuliani. In other words, things we already knew, but with added findings.

The report also names other foreign governments and the extent of their involvement in the 2020 election.

The U.S. intelligence report also found other foreign attempts to sway American voters in 2020 including a “multi-pronged covert influence campaign” by Iran intended to undercut Trump.

U.S. officials said they also saw efforts by Cuba, Venezuela and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to influence the election, although “in general, we assess that they were smaller in scale than those conducted by Russia and Iran.”

Contrary to Republican claims, China was not involved.

The report also punctured a counter-narrative pushed by Trump’s allies that China was interfering on Biden’s behalf, concluding that Beijing “did not deploy interference efforts.”

“China sought stability in its relationship with the United States and did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk blowback if caught,” the report said.

Biden is expected to impose sanctions on Russia, though the sources are anonymous.

Washington is expected to impose sanctions on Moscow as soon as next week because of the allegations, three sources said on condition of anonymity.

There's quite a bit there to digest. Putin, Iran, the assorted other small players. China's neutrality. Giuliani's involvement. Sanctions.

Any thoughts welcome. I figure it's good to know the truth from our IC, despite "deep-state" dismissals by malcontents.

 

In the words of Hillary, what difference does it make? Honestly, the Democrats had 4 years of investigations. If they don't know how to fix the problem by now, they never will. Actually, I'm not sure that they ever wanted to fix the problem. What did the Russians do, how do you stop them from doing it. Those are the questions that I want to see asked. All I see is fluff.

 

I disagree it's fluff. The exact opposite. It's serious work done by serious professionals devoid of political motive. Kinda like NASA. It's patriotic. It's real.

Nobody cares about Hillary and I'm not aware of the four years of investigations. Trump conducted investigations for four years, but only one against him.

I agree completely about transparency. Unfortunately, the amount of intelligence available to the public is limited (without declassification). I want answers as well, but I'm not sure how we go about getting them.

I also agree that the government did nothing to stop it. That's one reason Biden is imposing sanctions. We'll see what happens.

 

But didn't Democrats just recently say that nothing nefarious happened at all in the last election? How can that be if Russia et. al. is interfering? Does it only matter if a Republican wins? I'm not seeing any reason to put this story out except to point back at Trump who isn't the POTUS any longer. If it's a problem still, we need to investigate Biden's involvement (since they obviously helped him win). Will sanctions work this time as opposed to all the other sanctions that we've put on all the other countries that pissed us off? It has never worked before, I'm not sure why it would do anything this time except make the Russians work harder.

 

Yeah...sorry, I don't believe that China did not try and influence the election. They had every reason to want Trump out and Biden in.

In any case I find the faux outrage about other countries meddling in our affairs to be just that...faux outrage. The US is ALWAYS messing with other peoples affairs AND elections. And for the most part both sides are mum to it. To think that other countries wouldn't try and do the same to the US is simply naïve at best.

 

It is a well-known fact that Putin was responsible for getting Donald Trump elected in 2017 and that he also elected Joe Biden this year. In fact, Putin has managed to get the last six presidents elected single-handedly!

 

So a few internet trolls is election meddling but suitcases of fake ballots is "nothing to see here"?

 

Thank you, doombug.

 

Trump isn't POTUS anymore. Yet, you see conspiracy in an intelligence report. It's not about Trump.

Sanctions obviously work. That's why countries make deals to get them lifted.

 

I don't see conspiracy here. I see fluff. I see a report that tells me nothing that everyone doesn't already know. If it's all that important, what is the great Biden going to do about it? Make them buy some stuff from another country? That'll show 'em (and hurt us).

 

To the left there is no such thing as election interference or cheating unless it was to benefit the Republicans.

Democrats are all just perfect little angels who can do no wrong. (Kidding)

To see the Russia Russia Russia b's makes me want to

 

We can't even stop the Putin from interfering in the NHL.

 

Please show evidence of suitcases of fake ballots. It's been 6 months and the best evidence the right wing has put forth is testimony from a voting machine glass cleaner who made the conclusion that because some poll workers were still hungry, the vans could not have been filled to the brim with food, So they must have been filled with ballots.

 

It's neither "intelligence" nor a "community" of any sorts, it's another bloated government program with people who are protected with public jobs and frankly are untouchable as a result.

We get the government we deserve, always.

 

You guys slay me. We're supposed to believe that Vladimir Vladimirovich wanted Trump re-elected in spite of the harshest sanctions against Russia in the past several decades? Really? Iran, I can see. China, I can see.
I wonder where the IC were when the Tan Messiah used our tax money to fund NGOs in Israel attempting to kick Netanyahu from office? That shallow little man-child with the dumbo ears got his dignity shat upon by Bibi, right in his own office. He DESERVED it as well. Funny that... never saw any reference to "election tampering" on that little venture. If Putin DID try to help Trump, he should be ashamed of the effort. He wasn't even in the same league with what the DNC pulled off...

 

ONLY when our votes actually CHOOSE that government. Tens of millions of us aren't letting 2020 go.

 

That's right. In addition to infiltrating U.S. hockey teams, with men such as Victor Nechayev, Putin's agents also routinely switch the puck with one equipped with a special light-weight magnet, drawing it towards the goal of Moscow's choice. As it spins, it also emits sublime messages to the spectators prompting them to vote for Putin's man in Washington.

 

It was pretty hard to fix the problem when we had a quisling in the White House and the repubs in Congress enabled his actions.

 

Lol...enjoy beating your dead horse.

 

Speaking of dead horses. Forget actually fixing the issue, did they even come up with a fix that the evil GOP would let them do? As far as I can tell, they couldn't even define the problem better than Russia meddled.

 

All this hysteria against Russia over the following non definitive comment by Reuters.

Putin likely directed efforts

What if it was likely they directed efforts to elect Biden? Proof being Biden got elected. Slam dunk.
Now you claim nobody cares about Hillary. Well by god when Trump was president, the love fest for Hillary was apparent.

 

Cool, they did Russia! So, when does U.S. Intelligence investigate:

• China
• MSM
• Big Tech

Time Magazine already shared how they rigged the election.

 

CIA owns shares in that conglomerate, why would they bite hands that feed them?

off the record

 

I call BS on that. The Dems were powerless to disclose while Trump was in office, largely due to Trump and Barr completely corrupting the Justice Department, blocking investigations or refusing to investigate at all. Barr had them too busy "investigating" his other big lie that his 2016 campaign was spied upon. The Intelligence committees in the House and the Senate were chaired by Republicans until this year, a few days before the violent insurrection.

Barr even managed to convince most Americans that the Mueller Report exonerated Trump, which it most certainly did not, according to Mueller himself.

How do the Dems get the facts out in such circumstances? Aside from the few in the Intelligence services who've been digging into all of this for the last few months, most were convinced that the whole "Russia thing" was a hoax made up to hurt poor widdle Donnie.

Elections have consequences, and sometimes those consequences are clarifying.