U.S.: Putin OK’D operations to help Trump

Intelligence report finds Kremlin effort to influence race

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 used 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.”

The report is the latest official affirmation of the integrity of the election, even as Trump supporters continue to make false claims of interference, from foreign or domestic actors, and refuse to accept Biden’s victory. Multiple courts and even Trump’s own Justice Department refuted claims of widespread fraud. The document makes clear that even while Trump has cried foul about the legitimacy of the election, intelligence officials believe Russia leaned on his associates to try to tip the outcome of the election.

The report wades into the politically freighted assessments of ferreting out which foreign adversaries supported which candidates during the 2020 presidential election. Trump, whose 2016 election effort benefited from hacking by Russian intelligence officers and a covert social media campaign, seized on an intelligence community assessment from August that said China preferred a Biden presidency to Trump’s re-election. And his intelligence director faced blowback from some Democrats for a hastily called news conference on Iranian efforts he said were aimed against Trump.

Tuesday’s report, however, says China ultimately did not interfere on either side and “considered but did not deploy” influence operations aimed at affecting the outcome. U.S. officials say they determined that Beijing valued a stable relationship with the U.S. and did not consider either election outcome as advantageous enough for it to risk getting caught with interference.

The primary threats instead came from Russia and Iran, albeit with different intentions, according to intelligence officials.

In the case of Russia, the report says, Russia sought to undermine Biden’s candidacy because it viewed his presidency as disadvantageous to the Kremlin, though it likely took some steps to prepare for a Democratic administration as the election neared.

The report also says Putin authorized influence operations aimed at denigrating Biden, boosting Trump, undermining confidence in the election and exacerbating social divisions in the U.S.

Intelligence officials did not single out any Trump ally in that effort, but longtime associate Rudy Giuliani met repeatedly with Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, who released heavily edited recordings of Biden speaking while vice president with Ukraine’s then-president in an effort to link him to unsubstantiated corruption. U.S. officials have said they regard Derkach as an active Russian agent, and Tuesday’s report said Putin is believed to have “purview” over his activities.

The report says that Russian cyber operations that targeted state and local government networks last year were probably not focused on the election and were instead part of a broader effort to target U.S. and global entities.

Ten years have passed since college students in Albany’s Pine Hills neighborhood used the St. Patrick’s Day parade as an excuse to assault their city.

Yes, we’re talking about the “Kegs and Eggs” rampage, which lives in infamy and on Youtube. Young adults, mostly University at Albany students, engaged in drunken, early-morning mayhem that included rocks and bottles thrown at police, cars vandalized, and furniture and appliances thrown off second-floor porches. Dozens of students were arrested or ticketed.

It was, of course, a terrible way to celebrate a saint. And it was a terrible way to treat a city where both the university and the Feast of St. Patrick are points of pride.

But from the sea of broken glass and red cups rose positive changes, as leaders from the city and university reacted to the viral embarrassment by realizing, at long last, that they could no longer ignore unacceptable conditions in the neighborhood dubbed “the student ghetto.”

To get students out of town for the holiday and its celebrated parade, the

university moved its spring break. It also canceled the annual bout of bacchanalia known as Fountain Day. The city, meanwhile, became less tolerant of public and underage alcohol consumption, as police worked with the school to target repeat offenders.

As Times Union reporter Steve Hughes recently reported, those and other changes have made a difference in Pine Hills. In important respects, the quality of life there has improved.

But ten years after Kegs and Eggs, can we say that enough has been done? The obvious answer, for anyone who knows the neighborhood, is no.

The section of Pine Hills in question, mainly north of Madison Avenue and along Quail Street, remains marked by dilapidated, overcrowded housing. Garbage, much of it the apparent detritus of late-night partying, sullies streets and alleys. On a recent warm afternoon, maskless students turned streets like Hudson Avenue into a massive outdoor party, defying coronavirus rules and wisdom.

Sure, a neighborhood with a large student population will always be rowdier than older parts of town. But not everybody who lives in that part of Pine Hills is a student. What about their quality of life?

Clearly, the city must do more. It should invest more in code enforcement and hold wayward landlords to account — and not just in Pine Hills. Its police department should disperse large and rowdy crowds, particularly during a pandemic, and make clear that the streets of Albany aren’t the inside of a tavern. And just how many of those drinking are of legal age?

The university, meanwhile, can relieve some of the pressure on the city by building more on-campus housing — there is plenty of state land to the east, remember — and by making it ever more clear to its minority of misbehaving students that Albany must be treated with respect.

The city and its residents can be pleased that the Kegs and Eggs melee, for all its ugliness, was a turning point toward progress. But ten years on, there is much more to accomplish.