US: Putin approved operations to help Trump against Biden

Mar 17, 20210

Jon Elswick, Associated Press count

This March 4, 2020, image shows a collection of Instagram posts, which Facebook, the owner of Instagram, yanked off the site in October after concluding that they originated from Russia and had links to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian operation that targeted U.S. audiences in 2016. Social media accounts linked to Russia have begun to disrupt this year's U.S. presidential race and it's become harder to detect the posts on platforms like Instagram, according to a new report from University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Young Mie Kim released Thursday, March 5. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

WASHINGTON - Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to help Donald Trump in last November's presidential election, according to a declassified intelligence assessment that found broad efforts by the Kremlin and Iran to shape the outcome of the race but ultimately no evidence that any foreign actor changed votes or otherwise disrupted the voting process.

The report released Tuesday from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence represents the most detailed assessment of the array of foreign threats to the 2020 election. These included efforts by Iran to undermine confidence in the vote and harm Trump's re-election prospects as well as Moscow operations that relied on Trump's allies to smear Joe Biden, the eventual winner.

Despite those threats, though, intelligence officials found "no indications that any foreign actor attempted to interfere in the 2020 US elections by altering any technical aspect of the voting process, including voter registration, ballot casting, vote tabulation, or reporting results."

https://www.startribune.com/us-putin-approved-operations-to-help-trump-against-biden/600035009/