One of the most stunning statements in the January report of the American intelligence agencies about the hacker attacks Russia became the following statement: “Russia seeks to influence the course of elections across Europe”. This warning about the campaign, which goes far beyond the United States, has attracted almost no attention in America.
Perhaps the Russian history, we replace the total private: the Kremlin’s attempt to intervene in the presidential elections in the United States is part of a much larger hidden strategy of Russia, where the campaign of Donald trump was just one of the tools. This secret manipulation, if not contained, could represent an “existential threat” to Western democracy, according to French Ambassador to U.S. Gerard Araud (Gérard Araud).
Let’s hope that the investigation begun by the FBI and Congress will prove or disprove connection between trump and the Russian manipulators. A more serious result will be that these investigations will help to strengthen the transatlantic community’s attempts to reclaim the political space which tries to infiltrate the Kremlin. Last weekend, the Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov said that the world is entering a “postzapadnoy” era. If the US does not strongly support its allies, Lavrov’s statement can be true.
The Russians became masters of what they call “active measures” in the “information space”. The Russian intelligence services for more than 100 years the use of “fake news” and the stolen information to manipulate the U.S. and Europe. But what has changed today is that the power of digital technology allows intelligence agencies to change the landscape of facts.
The attack on the electoral system of the United States signaled the emergence of the “new rules” in the Russian influence operations, warned the us intelligence community on January 6. “We believe that Moscow will apply the skills that she obtained in the course of its campaign to influence the U.S. presidential election in his future campaigns influence in America and around the world, including campaigns against the allies and their electoral systems”.
Let’s turn our attention to Germany, where in September there should be elections to the Parliament. In his report of 22 December the German government informed the Parliament that last year the German computer systems were attacked from the intelligence services of foreign States.
The German government warned that “Russia can make a cyber attack on the Federal electoral system of Germany” in the autumn of this year and underlined that the Bundestag may be “in the focus of Russian intelligence.” The authors of the report pointed to direct involvement by Russia to the attacks on the Bundestag and German political parties committed in may and August, the hacker group, ART-28, which the FBI considers a tool of the Russian authorities.
Bruno KAHL (Kahl Bruno), head of the German intelligence service, clearly outlined the purpose of foreign hackers. “Violators are interested in fact, to deprive the democratic process legitimacy,” he said in an interview with Süeddeutsche Zeitung at the end of November. Hans-Georg Maassen (Hans-Georg Maassen), head of the German equivalent of the FBI, told reporters: “In recent years we have seen the readiness of the Russian intelligence service to carry out sabotage operations.” In addition to these cyberattacks from Russia in Germany, there are numerous supporters and facilitators who regularly promote Moscow’s line, as stated in the November report of the Atlantic Council.
France, too, can become an object for political manipulation Russia, because in the spring there should pass presidential elections. In 2014, a Moscow Bank gave a loan to the party of the far-right candidate marine Le Pen (Marine Le Pen), as reported by the Atlantic Council. Le Pen openly adheres to Pro-Russian positions.
Russia, of course, was behind a devastating hacking attack on the channel TV5 Monde, which was accomplished in April 2015 and which was applied a program of ART-28. In October last year, the French intelligence service informed the political parties about the threat of hacker attacks, as reported by the newspaper Le Monde.
French journalists suspect that the Kremlin is somehow involved in the spreading of rumors about Emanuele the Macron (Emmanuel Macron), one of the favorites in the presidential race who hold anti-Russian views. Chief Advisor of Macron said that a hacker attack on the website of the election headquarters “come from the Russian border,” although he provided no evidence. Russian propaganda publications published materials that indicate homosexual orientation Makron.
The transatlantic Alliance were able to resist the manipulations of Russia for 70 years, but today it has become extremely fragile. That’s why Americans should pay close attention to the suspicious attempts of the Ukrainian deputies to use business partners trump to represent Pro-Russian peace plan to the White house, trump’s words, which in 2013 boasted that in that year at one of the dinners in Moscow, he was able to meet with almost all oligarchs, as well as reports of contacts between representatives of the election headquarters of the trump with the Russians last year.
Please note that the hacking operation is not a “trick,” as trump said last week. So Russians are trying to undermine Western policy in secret, boldly and often illegally. They perfectly know how to do it. If the US and its allies will not fight back, the era of domination of the West can indeed come to an end.
