Probe reveals how Russians tried to influence US elections
13 RUSSIANS INDICTED Tactics included fake social media accounts, asking people to join protests
WASHINGTON : A year before Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy, two Russian operatives landed in the United States to lay groundwork for an intelligence operation targeting the legitimacy of the 2016 election.
What began as a Cold War-like attack by an old adversary would mix old-fashioned political agitation with 21st century social media tools that ultimately roiled the election and shook America’s political landscape. The indictment of 13 Russians by special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday revealed that the now welldocumented Russian social media campaign also relied on extensive intelligence work by operatives on US soil. It also began earlier than commonly believed.
The indictment does not specifically tie the influence operation to Russia’s intelligence apparatus. Instead, it fingers a group of operatives working for a unit called the “Organization”, financed to the tune of millions of dollars by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a St Petersburg businessman dubbed “Putin’s chef” because his restaurants have catered dinners for the Kremlin leader and foreign dignitaries.
The scheme outlined in the indictment began with fraudulent visa applications for US travel. Though some of the Russians were rejected, two operatives, Aleksandra Krylova and Anna Bogacheva, allegedly travelled as tourists through at least nine states over about two weeks in June 2014. They had developed “evacuation scenarios” in case their cover was blown.
Another unindicted operative travelled to Georgia in November of that year. Prosecutors say the operatives were gathering intelligence used to evaluate political targets on social media.
The operation developed metrics on social media groups, measuring things like frequency of posting and audience engagement.
Later, back in Russia, some of the operatives posed as US citizens to contact political and social activists. The indictment describes one interaction with someone at a “Texas-based grassroots organization” who suggested they target closely-contested purple states like Colorado, Virginia and Florida.
It was banal conventional wisdom, but afterwards, the Russian operatives began using the jargon in their own interactions, which US authorities somehow were able to access.
The early groundwork set the table before the campaign was in full swing.
Social media accounts were established to lend credibility to their covert efforts. The Russian-based operatives posed as US political activists from all corners.
Later, goals were set and enforced by the group’s leadership: undermine Hillary Clinton while boosting her Democratic opponent in the primary, Bernie Sanders, as well as Trump.