Russia accused of shady acts in 27 nations

Allegations range from hacking to political subversion

Russia has meddled in the affairs of at least 27 European and North American countries since 2004 through interference from cyberattacks to disinformation campaigns, according to an analysis by a surveillance organization.

According to the report, the meddling started in former Soviet republics allied with the West and spread to Western Europe. More recently affected are Canada and the USA, where Congress and an independent counsel are investigating possible

Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election.

The alleged Russian interference abroad was compiled by the Alliance for Securing Democracy of the German Marshall Fund, a non- profit organization that fosters closer bonds between the United States and Europe. In August, the group began tracking Russian efforts to influence U. S. public opinion through a network of Twitter accounts that disseminates messages helpful to the Kremlin.

Wednesday, Facebook said an internal investigation uncovered $ 100,000 in advertising spending by hundreds of fake accounts and pages, probably operated out of Russia, which sought to sow political division during the U. S. presidential election. The giant social network shared the findings with U. S. investigators.

The pattern of Russian governmentlinked behavior in the USA is similar to that seen in other countries, said Laura Rosenberger, director of the alliance.

“These are all the tools they use to undermine democratic institutions in different places,” Rosenberger said. “For a lot of Americans, the question of Russian interference in U. S. elections came out of nowhere. It sounds crazy to most people that this has been part of the Russian playbook for more than a decade.”

Countries the alliance said have been targeted are: Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Mac- edonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, Ukraine and the USA.

Targets include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who faces re- election this month. A few examples: uApril 27, 2007: Estonia, a former Soviet republic, accused hackers using Russian IP addresses of a wide- scale attack that shut down the Internet in Estonia, one of NATO’s newest members. The attack followed Estonian authorities’ decision to move a Soviet World War II memorial from a central square in Tallinn, the Baltic nation’s capital. Russia denied involvement.

uAug. 7, 2008: Cyberattacks conducted from Russia brought Internet traffic to a halt in the former Soviet re- public of Georgia, while Russian troops invaded Georgian territory.

uJanuary 2013: Spain’s Civil Guard unraveled a Russian mafia network accused of laundering large sums of money through Banco Madrid.

uSept. 17, 2014: Russian “election observers” attempted to cast doubt on the validity of the Scottish referendum on independence from the United Kingdom a day before the vote.

uJuly 22, 2016: WikiLeaks published about 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee that U. S. intelligence and independent cyber security firms said were stolen by Russian government hackers a month earlier.

uMarch 9: Canada’s foreign minister was targeted in a Russian media campaign focusing on alleged Nazi links.

The Kremlin repeatedly has dismissed the allegations as anti- Russian propaganda.