Russians push disinformation on pandemic

WASHINGTON — Russian intelligence services have been spreading disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, according to newly declassified intelligence, material that demonstrates how Moscow is continuing to try to influence Americans as the election draws closer.

Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, has used its ties with a Russian government information center, InfoRos, and other websites to push out English-language disinformation and propaganda about the pandemic, such as amplifying false Chinese arguments that the virus was created by the U.S. military and articles that said Russia’s medical assistance could bring a new détente with Washington.

The disinformation efforts are a refinement of what Russia tried to do in 2016. The fake social media accounts and bots used by the Internet Research Agency and other Russia-backed groups to amplify false articles have proved relatively easy to stamp out. But it is far more difficult to stop the dissemination of such articles that appear on websites that seem legitimate, according to outside experts.

“Russian intelligence agencies are taking a more central role in disinformation efforts that Russia is pushing now,” said Laura Rosenberger, the director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy. “It is not the blunt force” of the operations mounted by the Internet Research Agency.

Two American officials described the newly declassified intelligence but would not provide the underlying reports about the activities of the GRU and the SVR, Moscow’s equivalent of the CIA. They discussed the information on the condition of anonymity.

Last week, intelligence officials warned about Russian, Chinese and Iranian efforts to interfere with the election. While Democrats criticized the warning for a lack of specifics, officials promised to release more information.

While the disinformation efforts outlined by U.S. officials Tuesday were focused on the pandemic, security researchers said Russia continued to push disinformation on a variety of topics.

The government’s accusations came as Mandiant Threat Intelligence, part of the FireEye cybersecurity firm, reported that it had detected a parallel influence campaign in Eastern Europe intended to discredit the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including disinformation about the coronavirus. While the Mandiant report did not specifically name Russia and its intelligence agencies, it noted that the campaign was “aligned with Russian security interests” in an effort to undermine NATO activities.

Facebook has begun labeling stories that appear on state-sponsored news sites like RT and Sputnik. But it is harder for the social media companies to identify and label news articles that are posted on conspiracy-minded sites, according to experts.

Many of the pieces created by Russian intelligence were published on InfoRos, a site controlled by the Russian government, and OneWorld. Press, a nominally independent site that U.S. officials said had ties to the GRU. American officials said other sites, such as GlobalResearch.ca, regularly amplify GRU propaganda, but officials have not directly linked it to Russian intelligence.

U.S. government officials mostly described disinformation focused on the pandemic, but they also outlined ties between Russian intelligence and a think tank that had published articles on politics.

The Strategic Culture Foundation is directed by another Russian intelligence agency, the SVR, according to two American officials. The foundation and its ties to Russian intelligence are also being investigated by the FBI, according to another official.

In May, the foundation published an article critical of Evelyn Farkas, a former Obama administration official who lost a primary race in June in New York for a seat in Congress.

Farkas said the Russians were continuing to repeat their efforts from 2016 to try to influence the election.

“They want to sow dissent and reduce confidence among Americans in our democracy and make democracy look bad worldwide,” she said. “They want to prevent people who are tough on Russia from coming into power.”

Michael Averko, a contributor to the foundation, did not return a request for comment, but he said in a recent mass email to reporters that he had been visited by the FBI. Averko said he told the FBI that he did not know about any ties between the foundation and Russian intelligence, but that he doubted they existed.

Neither OneWorld.Press nor GlobalResearch.ca returned requests for comment. But OneWorld has denied that it spreads disinformation or is an arm of the Russian state, and insisted it was not responsible for what people wrote on its platform.

“It isn’t ‘foreign interference’ for people to share their views about their own countries or the rest of the world on a foreign platform,” the site wrote in response to a BBC report.

American intelligence officials said the GRU’s psychological warfare unit, known as Unit 54777 or the 72nd Special Service Center, was behind the propaganda campaigns that were often devised to obscure Moscow’s role in creating them. A 2018 report in The Washington Post linked InfoRos to the GRU’s Unit 54777.

U.S. intelligence reports have identified two Russians, Denis V. Tyurin and Alexander G. Starunskiy, with ties to the GRU and who make sure the messaging and disinformation drafted by the intelligence officials are pushed by InfoRos and on InfoBrics.org and OneWorld.Press.

Russian officials did not immediately return a request for comment.