Russia still on with effort to meddle in U.S. elections

With American presidential election nearing, more opinion makers in the U.S. are involved in Russia’s influence ops.

Russian media, starting from February 6, have been promoting the visit to Russia by Tucker Carlson, an American media personality to interview President Vladimir Putin.

Carlson’s visit was prepared by the Kremlin, which covers the costs of his stay in Moscow. The Federal Protective Service (FSO) that provides security for Russia’s government ensures his safety. The Russians work with Tucker as if he is part of a recruitment project. We believe that Carlson was arranged to interview Putin to add, first of all, to the effort of meddling in U.S. elections, aiming to show American voters the Kremlin’s vision of world order, where Russia is a victim of Washington’s policy.We paid attention to the promo and interview response by Mangiante Papadopoulos, who took part in an information operation in January to undermine the United States, and interviewed Andrei Derkach, the Kremlin’s spy on sanctions. Mrs. Papadopoulos makes unsuccessful attempts to minimize the impact by the Russiagate and the game with Moscow she took part in. That is why she provides information support for other Russian operations to distort the charges and suspicions about her.

As with Papadopoulos, Russia chose Carlson not just for similar ideology, but also for his closeness to Donald Trump, the presidential favorite.

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council, told on his blog, just before Carlson announced he was going to interview Putin, that Russia needs to meddle in elections abroad.We believe the threat by Russia’s meddling in elections abroad is much overlooked, as Russia establishes political parties in Europe, and easily affects EU decisions, using puppet politicians and agents of influence. With FBI unable to prove Russia’s meddling in the 2016 elections, the fact is the Kremlin did that. If we deny this fact we risk posing a threat to democracy and the electoral process in America. Russia will not give up the opportunity to interfere with American votes, not so much for betting on a particular candidate, but to introduce chaos into the electoral process, undermine the idea of democratic elections, which is alien to Russia and makes Russia reveal its incompetence.

Russia, since 2014, has been active to apply democratic values, the First Amendment to the US Constitution in particular, for influence ops.

The Kremlin is currently aiming to discredit Joe Biden. The Kremlin believes Russia should be pictured as a victim of the United States before the U.S. elections. This goes in line with Russia’s policy of denial. Moscow is eager to have sanctions lifted, with influence redistributed, and Washington sure to lose its ground in Europe. Russia needs to perform in Europe like the United States performed by withdrawing troops from Afghanistan,  which will make European nations seek the Kremlin as an ally and refuse military and political cooperation with Washington. That means Russia intends to dismantle NATO and try to bring back a Warsaw Pact version in response to the threat of the war likely to spread to Eastern Europe and the Baltics. This scenario is within reach, with Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands defense ministers voicing the need to prepare for war with Russia. European governments are most likely to be persuaded to compromise with Russia, if Russia poses immediate threat, and the U.S. lose security and defense ground in Europe. Some surveys on whether people in NATO are ready to take part in a potential war with the Russians indirectly confirm this fact.

To our knowledge, Nikolai Patrushev inspired the idea of Tucker interviewing Putin, and manages the process. Patrushev is anti-American with old-fashioned mentality of a KGB officer, who supports conspiracy theories.

Tucker himself, given his financial situation, regards the interview as a professional opportunity to show alternative view, likely to be in demand in the United States after the presidential election, to support foreign policy shift towards Russia. His reasons obviously include insult, revenge, and some lack of appreciation after FoxNews dismissed him. The Russians know how to play on Tucker’s emotions. Thus, he considers that interview as a way to live up his ambitions and gain more influence in the United States.Russia uses Tucker Carlson just like Oliver Stone, who also interviewed Putin, to convey a message, he says, Americans don’t want to hear. Both Oliver Stone and Tucker Carlson follow strong Russian narrative. That might be a hype and desire to be seen by the information market, on one hand, or the outcome of the Kremlin’s order, on the other. Alternative way of presenting information, like for MH-17 disaster coverage, or the Nord Stream explosions, was the basis for Russia’s information ops.