U.S. agencies warn of Russian disinformation on election eve
One day prior to the U.S. presidential elections, American security agencies issued a strong warning regarding the increase in disinformation activities originating from Russia.
In a joint statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) emphasised that Russia is the leading source of “foreign influence operations” aimed at undermining American confidence in the integrity of the electoral process, according to reports from the BBC.
According to various reports, Russian influence agents have created fake videos and articles intended to incite fear and undermine the legitimacy of the elections. A commonly employed strategy has involved spreading rumours about potential electoral fraud in key states, including ballot tampering or cyber manipulation of the results. In Arizona, for instance, videos circulated alleging that fake ballots had been printed to support the candidacy of Kamala Harris.
“We anticipate that on election day and in the weeks following, these operations will intensify, targeting states with fragile electoral balances,” the statement indicated.
At the same time, American authorities reported that Iran is also running influence campaigns aimed at the Trump administration in response to the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in January 2020.
It is important to note that today, November 5, 2024, presidential elections are taking place in the United States, where Americans are voting for their 47th president. The main candidates are Democrat Kamala Harris, the current Vice President, and Republican Donald Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021. Polls indicate an extremely close race, with both candidates nearly equal in voter intentions. The elections are conducted according to the Electoral College system, where each state has a specific number of electors, and to win, a candidate must obtain at least 270 electoral votes. The states considered decisive in this election include Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
