Putin Associate Admits to Russian Interference in American Elections

A close associate of Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, the ex-Soviet intelligence officer who is trying to restore the Soviet Union, today admitted that the Kremlin has been, is currently and will continue to interfere in the American elections. The admission would not have been made without the approval of the Kremlin, whose bidding the Putin ally does as the founder of the infamous Russian mercenary organization, the Wagner Group. Putin interferes in the elections of many foreign States, overtly and covertly in various ways, including through stealing and releasing information, and through disinformation, and sometimes through violent acts. Russian active measures, which accelerated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, are intended to divide Eastern Europeans from the West, divide Western Europeans from each other and the United States, to divide Americans against each other, and to undermine confidence in elections and in the truth, in addition to backing candidates favorable to Putin. Russian interference in the 2016 American elections, including in both major parties primaries, resulted in the Republican nomination of Donald Trump and his election to the presidency. Trump, who welcomed and accepted Russian interference and who was favorable to Putin, was backed again by the Russian tyrant in 2020. Trump believed Putin’s previous denials of interference, despite the unanimous conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies, a Republican Special Prosecutor and the GOP-majority Senate Intelligence Committee. He and his supporters have denied and minimized intereference from a hostile foreign power, or even justified it, or tried to blame the Democrats or Ukraine, or claim that Russia was helping the Democrats. Now Russia has admitted it is continuing to do what it has had success with, a success that is aided by acceptance of the fruit of Russian interference by most Republicans. Russia recently openly urged voters before the Italian parliamentary elections to punish governments that imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its full-scale aggression against Ukraine, which contributed to the gain by the opposition party to the national unity government. The Italian result thus discouarages other governments from asking their citizens to make economic sacrifices to deter aggression. Americans go to the polls in federal and state elections on Tuesday.