[9/7/16] The US political and media establishment seems to have lost their collective minds, talking about a massive, covert Russian plan to disrupt the US electoral process and to sow distrust in American political institutions. Commenting on the absurd charges, Russian experts warned that they may be a step in preparations for vote-rigging in November.
On Monday, The Washington Post reported that US intelligence and law enforcement agencies are now seriously “investigating what they see as a broad, covert Russian operation in the United States to sow public distrust in the upcoming presidential election and in US political institutions.” The effort, the newspaper noted, is being coordinated by director of national intelligence James Clapper.
At the same time, while a senior unnamed official admitted to the paper that the intelligence community has absolutely no “definitive proof” of Russian intentions to tamper with US elections, he added that “even the hint of something impacting the security of our election system would be of significant concern. It’s the key to our democracy that people have confidence in the election system.”
Talk of Russian interference in the US presidential race began earlier this summer. In July, US officials accused Russian hackers affiliated with the government of hacking the Democratic National Committee, resulting in leaks that showed Democratic Party collusion with Hillary Clinton against anti-establishment candidate Bernie Sanders. The scandal, which exploded after WikiLeaks published DNC emails, quickly led to Clinton supporters accusing Russia, the Kremlin and President Putin of personally coordinating an anti-Clinton information war. Nevertheless, US officials are in no hurry to publically accuse Russia, or to provide any actual evidence of Russian involvement. Nevertheless, Washington’s official silence has prompted politicians from both parties to demand that President Obama ‘take the Russians to task’. Moscow’s motive all along, they’ve claimed, has been the desire to discredit US global leadership.
On Monday, Hillary Clinton commented on the Washington Post story by suggesting that it “raises some grave questions about potential Russian interference with our electoral process,” adding that there is every reason to believe that Moscow favors her opponent, billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump.
Russian officials have consistently denied any interference in the US electoral process, emphasizing that the Kremlin is ready to work with any American administration. Putin, for his part, candidly told Bloomberg recently that “in order to influence the course of the US elections, it’s necessary to have your finger on the pulse, and to get the specifics of domestic political life in the US. I’m not sure that even our foreign ministry experts are sensitive enough to it.” Nevertheless, accusations against Russia have not stopped. For their part, Russian political analysts, stunned by the barrage of unsubstantiated claims directed against Moscow, suggested that the tone of the rhetoric, which seems to be growing more and more menacing with each passing day, has become very reminiscent of the atmosphere which was prevalent during the darkest days of the Cold War, when sinister Russian influence in the form of the ‘red menace’ was seen in every facet of American life. Commenting on The Washington Post article’s claims, Fedor Lukyanov, editor of the Russia in Global Affairs magazine, told Sputnik that the accusations were “very strange,” to say the least.
“Of course, accusations were earlier made against Russia for hacking into some American servers,” the analyst recalled. “For non-specialists it difficult to judge [what was going on]; after all, no concrete evidence has been provided.”
“But in The Washington Post’s latest piece, it’s all just completely incomprehensible. It’s not even clear exactly what they were trying to say. The article just talks about a large-scale Russian plot to spread distrust in American democracy and the success of US policy among Americans. However, the journalists did not tell readers how exactly this could actually be achieved…CONTINUE READING