“Outside the Kremlin”: When it matters to remember: Russians followed in the footsteps of US elections | Culture

In modern society, especially in the United States, events are overwhelming. Therefore, it is probably difficult to remember today that the American media actively wrote about Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election a few years ago.

Articles made headlines, with intelligence officials sadly proclaiming one after another that the Kremlin was really working for Donald Trump. An official investigation was also carried out and a mysterious dossier was published.

But then the fight for Trump’s impeachment began. And a coronavirus pandemic. And the economic collapse. And protests against racism.

Reminds me of a forgotten issue and problem

Until recently, the dominant theme, Russian interference in elections, was removed from the limelight. This is not surprising, although the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller, whose report has been deleted, has also helped.

It is true that there are people who do not want to forget. One of them is D. Shimer, an American historian and international relations analyst.

In his book, he explains that the Kremlin’s efforts to influence American politics were visible many decades ago, even though the Cold War reversed a process in which the United States successfully and secretly influenced the political life of many countries. .

The author of the book also explains in detail why the Russian intervention was not invented: this is the statement of D. Trump and his environment. According to Shimer, the Barack Obama administration has been unable to resist Moscow’s ambitions, officials responsible for election security say.

“We thought we were in a very good position and that no one would try to do that in the United States. But we were wrong, “admitted former US Undersecretary of State Anthony Blinken.

The book is still relevant today, when D. Trump clarifies with hysterical statements that the votes were incorrectly counted during the election he lost to Joe Biden. There has been a lot of investment in electoral security this time, at least, and officials say the irregularities are very minor and cannot change the outcome of the elections.

However, it is already clear today that in 2016, Russian programmers were embedded in the computer systems of individual states and were able to change the election results. They didn’t because they seemed to just try to show what they could, but maybe the situation has changed this year?

The CIA actively intervened in the elections

The book is rich in sources. It is based on archives (both in the US and Russia), as well as interviews with former high-ranking scouts on both sides.

Shimer begins the story with the Bolsheviks who have just seized power from the Tsar, who quickly realized that they wanted to spread Soviet ideology and began funding similar organizations in other parts of the world.

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Joseph Stalin ordered the manipulation of democratic elections in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and East Germany.

Washington, on the other hand, lags far behind. It was not until 1948 that the explorers received formal permission to conduct covert operations in Italy, where important elections were held.

The United States has publicly announced that Italy will not receive funding under the Marshall Plan if it wins a pro-US coalition. Furthermore, it has been reported that Italians who support the Communist Party will not be allowed to enter the United States.

For its part, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) privately financed propaganda that intimidated the Italian communists. Americans also financially supported specific politicians and covered the voter mobilization campaign.

When the Christian Democrats defeated with certainty, Washington congratulated itself: we saved Italian democracy! This operation became a model for other interventions in Latin America and Asia. D. Shimer extensively describes the actions of the Americans in Chile, Japan.

Then it seemed to be justified: there was a Cold War, whose participants, the United States and the USSR, struggled to have influence in the world. In the United States, the left was believed to be repressed and the KGB supported candidates who would be friends of Moscow in the international arena.

True, Soviet ambitions increased rapidly: they tried to influence the elections in the United States. For example, in a 1960 letter, Nikita Khrushchev asked Adlai Stevenson to fight Richard Nixon in the election (Stevenson refused to help).

Soviet intelligence also tried to harm troubled politicians like Nixon, Henry Jackson, and Ronald Reagan. The Kremlin in the United States spread false news about racism because it believed that “America’s greatest weakness is its diversity.”

I knew it but reacted too late

In this most interesting part of the book, D. Shimer obviously means that in 2016, the Putin regime already knew what to do: all it took was to adapt KGB practice to the digital age.

Putin, like the former leaders of the USSR, sought to harm a hostile candidate (Hillary Clinton, ed.), To help a friendly one (Trump, ed.), And more broadly to deepen American divisions and force the Americans to distrust democracy.

Knowing that now that Trump screams about the victory he claimed to have stolen from him in the 2020 election, more than half of Republican voters believe him, it is probably necessary to affirm that such tactics are paying off.

The Kremlin trolls have already written on Twitter and Facebook more than once, as well as about the adventures of programmers on the servers of the National Committee of the Democratic Party. The emails that were made public were very damaging to H. Clinton.

However, the most important thing is that US intelligence, as well as President Obama himself, knew of Russia’s intervention long before the elections. Here, D. Shimer spares no critical comments; it is true that he would speak through the lips of high officials.

Obama administration officials did not believe Putin could dare. But when he saw that he dared, the first ones flashed and arrived late.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus boldly told Shimer about the administration’s excessive caution: “In general, the administration was cautious. It was an administration that took no action beyond the red line. “

Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense for Obama’s reign, also didn’t look for a word in his pocket: “The more cautious Obama was, the more confident our enemies were that it could be used.”

Granted, such evaluations from officials who have seen the president often are brutal. And yes, Obama warned Putin not to intervene, and after the elections and Trump’s victory, he announced sanctions against Russia – but kept silent when action was necessary, that is, as early as the summer of 2016.

By the way, in August of that year, US intelligence informed the White House that Russian programmers have the ability to edit the number of votes already cast or remove thousands of voters from databases, thus preventing them from voting.

What you may know is that the Kremlin may have found a way to do this and not leave a trace. After all, D. Trump’s victory was primarily determined by 80,000. votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

No interference was officially observed this year, and Biden’s lead over Putin is greatest in these key states as well. But doubts have already been raised about the fairness of the elections, and while Trump is making noise, he drinks champagne in the Kremlin.