US Election 2024 – Voice of America (VOA News)

In its attempt to influence the outcome of the upcoming US presidential election, Russia is resorting to a familiar tactic: According to American intelligence agencies, the country is looking for ways to strengthen the candidacy of former President Donald Trump by denigrating the campaign of incumbent President Joe Biden.

A new assessment of threats to the November election released Tuesday does not mention either candidate by name, but an intelligence official told reporters that the Kremlin’s view of the U.S. political landscape has not changed compared to previous election cycles.

“We have not observed any shift in Russia’s presidential election preferences since last election,” the official told reporters, agreeing to discuss the intelligence information only on condition of anonymity.

The official said this preference was further cemented by “the role the United States plays with respect to Ukraine and its overall policy toward Russia.”

This caution from U.S. intelligence agencies comes nearly four years after they issued a similar warning regarding the 2020 presidential election, which pitted then-President Trump against Biden.

Moscow is using “a range of measures to denigrate, above all, former Vice President Biden and what it sees as the anti-Russian ‘establishment,'” said William Evanina, then head of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center.

“Some Kremlin-linked actors are also trying to support President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television,” he added.

A declassified post-election assessment published in March 2021 confirmed the original findings. Russian President Vladimir Putin approved “influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party” while offering his support to Trump, the report said.

US intelligence officials said they had been in contact with both presidential campaigns and the candidates, but declined to say what kind of information was shared.

Trump’s resistance

The Trump campaign team on Tuesday dismissed the US intelligence agencies’ assessment as backward.

“Vladimir Putin endorsed Joe Biden for president because he knows Biden is weak and easily intimidated, as demonstrated by Putin’s years-long invasion of Ukraine,” national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an email to VOA.

“When President Trump was in the Oval Office, Russia and all of America’s adversaries were deterred because they feared the United States response,” she said.

“The only people in America who don’t see this clear contrast between Biden’s ineffective weakness and Trump’s effective approach of peace through strength are the left-wing stenographers in the mainstream media who make their living writing misrepresentations about Donald Trump,” she added.

The Biden team has not yet responded to VOA’s questions about the new US assessment.

Russian sophistication

Russian government officials have also not responded to requests for comment on the latest allegations. The Kremlin is accused of using a “whole of government approach” to help Trump and other US candidates who are seen as Moscow-friendly to win in November.

“Moscow uses a variety of approaches to strengthen its messaging and lend a veneer of authenticity to its efforts,” the U.S. intelligence official said. “This includes outsourcing its efforts to commercial entities to conceal its role and laundering narratives through influential U.S. voices.”

Russian efforts also appear to be focused on targeting U.S. voters in so-called swing states, those most likely to influence the outcome of the presidential election, officials said.

Some of these efforts have already come to light.

Russia and AI

On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice announced the seizure of two internet domains and another 968 accounts on the social media platform X. The seizure was part of an operation by the Russian secret service and the Russian state news channel RT, which, according to official information, is based on artificial intelligence.

A statement from the Justice Department said Russian intelligence and RT used special AI software to create authentic-looking social media accounts that resembled U.S. citizens. “The operators then used these accounts to spread messages in support of Russian government goals.”

A joint warning issued simultaneously by the United States, Canada and the Netherlands said Russia was expanding its AI-powered influence operation to other social media platforms.

The U.S. intelligence official, who spoke to reporters on Tuesday, called the use of artificial intelligence a “malicious influence accelerator” and warned that the technology had already been used – presumably by China – in the run-up to elections in Taiwan last January.

China is waiting

However, US intelligence agencies currently see little evidence that Beijing is attempting to interfere in the US elections, as it did in 2020 and 2022.

China “sees little benefit in having to choose between two parties that are both believed to be trying to contain Beijing,” the U.S. intelligence official said, noting that things could change.

“The PRC is seeking to expand its ability to collect and monitor data on U.S. social media platforms, likely to better understand and ultimately manipulate public opinion,” the official said. “In addition, we are monitoring whether China might attempt to influence select lower-ballot elections, as it did in the 2022 midterm elections.”

The Chinese embassy in Washington, which had rejected previous US allegations, responded by calling the US the “biggest disseminator of disinformation.”

“China has no intention and will not interfere in the U.S. election, and we hope the U.S. side will not make China’s role in the election an issue,” spokesman Liu Pengyu said in an email to VOA.

“Chaos Agent”

The new threat assessment for the US election warns that in addition to concerns about Russia and China, there is growing evidence that Iran wants to play the role of a “chaos agent” in the upcoming US election.

“Iran is seeking to stoke social divisions and undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions in connection with the elections,” an unclassified version of the assessment said.

It also warned that Tehran “has long shown an interest in exploiting political and social tensions in the United States through a variety of means, including social media.”

As an example, officials on Tuesday pointed to recently declassified intelligence showing Iran trying to exploit pro-Gaza protests in the United States.

“We have observed actors with ties to the Iranian government posing as activists online to call for protests and even provide financial support to protesters,” said Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

Haines warned, however, that Americans who have dealt with Iranian actors “may not be aware that they are dealing with or receiving support from a foreign government.”

Iranian officials have not yet responded to VOA’s request for comment.