Sep. 14 () –
The United States has accused Russia of financing political parties and candidates from almost thirty countries with at least 300 million euros with the aim of influencing other states, as reported by ‘The Washington Post’ on Wednesday.
The Kremlin would have planned, since 2014, to allocate hundreds of millions of euros as part of a covert campaign to weaken democratic systems and promote political forces considered aligned with Russian interests, according to a report by the United States Intelligence Services to the that the aforementioned newspaper has had access to.
Among the countries that Russia would have tried to influence are states in Europe, Africa and other parts of the world.
Senior officials have pointed to the example of an Asian country — which they did not want to name — where the Russian ambassador offered millions of euros to a presidential candidate. Other countries included in the Kremlin list are Albania, Montenegro, Madagascar and, potentially, Ecuador, according to ‘The Washington Post’.
“By shedding light on Russian covert political financing and Russian attempts to undermine democratic processes, we are putting these foreign parties and candidates on notice that if they secretly accept Russian money we can and will expose it,” a senior official said. American.
He has also argued that Kremlin-linked forces have also used shell companies, opinion groups and other means to influence political events, sometimes to the benefit of far-right groups.
In the United States, the Obama Administration detected a spike in Russian covert political funding in 2014.
Later, assessments by US spy agencies and a bipartisan Senate investigation concluded that Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, launched a campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to help then-candidate Donald Trump.
Since the beginning of this year, the White House has made the decision to repeatedly release declassified intelligence information related to Moscow’s intentions and actions related to Ukraine, as part of an attempt to roll back Putin’s ambitions there and counter what the US officials have described them as Russian disinformation operations.
On Monday, the US State Department sent a letter to US embassies in more than 100 countries outlining alleged Russian activities and suggesting measures the US and its allies can take to counter them, including sanctions, travel bans or the expulsion of suspected Russian spies involved in political financing activities.
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