A “sensitive” diplomatic cable issued by the United States revealed that over £ 260 million has been secretly spent by Russia trying to influence politicians and other officials in more than two dozen countries.
The US State Department took the unusual step of releasing the cable, signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which was sent Monday to US embassies and consulates overseas, many of them in Europe, Africa and South Asia. exposing concerns.
The document was not intended for a foreign audience but was not classified and contained a number of talking points that US diplomats had been tasked with raising with their host governments regarding alleged Russian interference.
It does not name Russia’s specific targets, but states that the United States is now providing confidential information to certain individual countries.
According to the contents, intelligence officials believe Russia it planned to transfer “at least hundreds of millions of dollars more” in funding to solidarity parties and officials around the world.
Putin’s interference
The cable does not say how intelligence officials came up with the total figure or address concerns that Russia or other adversaries might again attempt to interfere in US policy.
The steps that diplomats have been told to recommend include sanctions, travel bans, and exposing covert funding.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskii and his deputies have long accused the Russian president Vladimir Putin of interference in domestic politics.
And a senior US administration official told The Associated Press that there have been allegations of Russian influence in recent elections in Albania, Bosnia and Montenegro, all Eastern European countries that have come under historical pressure from Moscow.
Photo: Associated Press
Just last week, President of the United States Joe Biden extended a national emergency declaration to address the continuing threat of foreign election meddling.
First declared in September 2018, it said it would be extended for another year, covering elections to the House of Representatives and the Senate to be held in November.
“We are promoting coordination with our Democratic colleagues,” the official said. “And we will exchange the lessons learned, all to promote our collective electoral security, but also our electoral security here at home.”
Read more:
The leaked report details Russian “cyber espionage” during the 2016 US election campaign
Unlike foreign governments’ declared efforts to lobby for privileged initiatives, Russia’s covert influence involved using front organizations to funnel money to favored causes or politicians, the cable says.
This includes think tanks in Europe and state-owned enterprises in Central America, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
State Department spokesman Ned Price called Russia’s covert financing an “assault on sovereignty”.
“It is an effort to undermine the ability of people around the world to choose the governments they feel are best suited to represent them, represent their interests and represent their values,” he said.
