United States Intelligence Report Finds Massive Russian Financing of Foreign Politicians and Parties

A United States intelligence report finds that the Russian Federation, under tyrant Vladimir Putin, an ex-Soviet intelligence agent who is trying to restore the Soviet Union, has covertly spent at least $300 million financing politicians and political parties in dozens of representative States around the world since 2014, not including its successful campaign to influence American politics. The report notes the total money spent could be a multiple of the reported figure. The partly declassified report names particularly several States on different continents. Some far-left organizations and far-right pro-Putin Western European parties are known to have accepted Russian funding. The timeframe coincides with the launch of Putin’s “active measures” operation to influence politics abroad that include both overt and covert propaganda and disinformation. That same year, Russia invaded Ukraine, in violation of its agreement to recognize the former Soviet Republic’s independence, sovereignty and self-determination, in exchange for Ukrainian relinquishment of Soviet-era nuclear weapons. Currently, Russia is interfering in foreign elections by openly urging electorates to vote against governing parties that have imposed sanctions on Russia because of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. Putin’s interference is designed to urge voters to punish their own countries’ governments for the economic shock of the sanctions, instead of accepting the sacrifices as necessary for national security to thwart Russian aggression.