In 2017, I warned that candidates for high office openly and directly speak of Russia, have to worry about Russian interference in our elections. At that time I had no idea that I would be one of such candidates. But this month I saw on the TV screen, his own face behind the figure leading the “Fox news”, Tucker Carlson (Tucker Carlson), which has already done me a false statement.
Experts on U.S. national security a few years ago warned that Russia in 2020 will intervene in our elections. The reality was even worse: supporters of the President of trump copying Russian tactics.
In 2017, I was attacked by far-right forces and Russian politicians, when performed publicly as the Obama administration assistant Secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. Today against me is a campaign within the country, though not without the help of Russian trolls. This year the political stakes are much higher for all Americans, not just for me. Used in the campaign tactics demonstrates a threat to American democracy tendencies.
In Putin’s Russia for plugging the mouths of the internal opposition are widely used misinformation and scare tactics (and even murder). False statements followed by contradictory and false interpretations, have become the norm for the Russian media and political discourse. Misinformation is so widespread, many Russians became indifferent to what actually is true. In trompowsky America rooted the same tactics. What was discouraging vicious link between Russia and the reactionary right-wing forces in the U.S. and other countries, has become an integral part of the repertoire of the American right.
I originally raised the alarm about links between trump, his advisors, the Kremlin leaders and their proteges. Giving in March 2017 interview Em-es-EN-Bi-si (MSNBC), I told him that I know everything when the media, representatives of the Obama administration and the intelligence community began to discover the connections between the headquarters of the trump and Russia. I drew conclusions based on my existing knowledge on policies and actions of the Kremlin, and on the basis of the analysis of the actions and conversations of staff of the trump.
First attacks on me appeared on Twitter and other social networks. The authors were right-wing sources. I showed the data forensics, indicating that at least one organization had connections with Russia. Then the attacks increased, became more violent, and in the end with the criticism I’ve gotten in the allies trump from the Republican camp and “Fox news”, as well as the more famous sources out of the mainstream. These and other conservative publications have accused me of orchestrating leaks of classified information, and even the tapping of trump Tower. These allegations diverted attention from the evidence in my favor, which is becoming more. Me and my colleagues from the Obama administration called to testify in the house Committee on intelligence, which was controlled by the Republicans.
This month was published the record my testimony from 2017. They demonstrated that I had not organized the leak of classified information was right in saying at the beginning about the cooperation of trump and the Kremlin. My arguments have been confirmed in the report of Muller and the recently published findings of the Senate intelligence Committee.
Figures the right wing was immediately launched another campaign of misinformation, claiming that the TV I was talking about the presence of my access to classified information, where relationships trump with Russia have caused me concern. Nothing like I said, but these new allegations confirm the allegations that the recently published testimony showed me lying on television. These outrageous and false accusations so confusing that it’s hard for me to understand them. In this is the whole point.
Trump’s henchmen, including the former head of his campaign Corey Lewandowski (Corey Lewandowski), Donald trump Jr. and the host of “Fox news” Tucker Carlson is, in fact, accused me of cheating, calling one of the “false” initiators “fake Russia”. These attacks have become an integral part of the charges of trump in the framework of the “Obamagate”, distracting attention from the disastrous results of his administration in the fight against the pandemic and designed to shift the blame for the intervention of Russia in the Obama administration. The goal of this disinformation campaign is to be presented as illegal efforts of the Obama administration to prevent the actions of Russia and their investigation.
These widely publicized allegations are accompanied by a barrage of online attacks by trolls in my campaign for election to Congress. Our accounts in Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, our email, and our phones are flooded with the torrents of vicious, vulgar, and sometimes threatening messages that cause emotional exhaustion among staff and volunteers. Since our team communicates with supporters on the Internet, attacks are made on them too. Attempts to intimidate people interfere with our work, causing them to be invisible at a time when our election campaign largely depends on the active messaging on the eve of the scheduled for June 23 primaries.
There is evidence that its contribution in these attacks make Russian. In the day when observers and experts, the right wing began to make accusations, they began to help accounts, recently created in the Russian Twitter. The next day the Russian centers of misinformation posted different versions of this story. Many accounts, carrying out attacks on Twitter, put information in unison, which suggests there is a hypocrisy in social networks.
But the truth is this: I am not gagged in 2017, did not plug it now.
Our country should be able to hold safe and fair elections without foreign interference, without intimidation. Americans must demand an end to the spread of fake news through social networks. We must do more than ever to fight for the truth and those who speak truth to power.
Evelyn Farkas (Farkas Evelyn) from 2012 to 2015 was the assistant Secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. She is now a candidate for the Democratic party in the elections to the house of representatives, with the intention of representing the 17th congressional district of new York.
