US trying to disrupt Russian election – intelligence report

Washington is allegedly seeking to reduce the turnout at the upcoming presidential vote, according to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service

The administration of US President Joe Biden has allegedly tasked its NGOs with reducing the turnout at the upcoming Russian presidential election, according to a statement by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). 

The agency’s press bureau said on Monday that it has obtained information that suggests Washington is seeking to disrupt the vote, set to take place from March 15-17, in order to delegitimize the election results.

“At the instigation of Washington, calls are being spread through opposition Internet resources for Russian citizens to ignore the elections,” the SVR claimed. It added that the US is also planning to carry out cyber attacks on the remote electronic voting systems in order to make it impossible to count the ballots of a significant portion of voters.

“The plan is simple in the American way. According to Washington’s calculations, the resulting ‘reduction in turnout’ will give the West a reason to question the election results,” the report says.

However, the SVR suggested that the West’s attempt to undermine the Russian election could potentially backfire.

“Citizens of the EU will undoubtedly be interested in hearing maxims about ‘voting with their feet’ from the lips of [French President Emmanuel] Macron, who at the last presidential election in France in 2022 failed to get even 30 percent of the votes,” the SVR wrote. Such statements would also not suit Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who only scored 26 percent of the vote amid a record low turnout in the 2022 parliamentary elections, the intelligence service argued. 

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The agency also pointed to the low percentage of votes secured by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party in the 2021 Bundestag elections, adding that recent polls in the country suggest that only 14 percent of voters would support him if direct elections were held today.

“Or maybe this is a subtle hint from the Americans to Rishi Sunak, who cleverly took the chair of the British Prime Minister in 2022, bypassing the general vote of citizens. Now the current prime minister is in every possible way delaying the holding of early parliamentary elections, the results of which will clearly cost him his post,” the SVR said.

Meanwhile, according to projections from the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, Vladimir Putin, who is seeking another presidential term in the upcoming election, is expected to win by a wide margin, likely securing 82% of the vote with a 71% turnout.

Putin announced plans to seek another term in office last December.