DISINFO: The US are planning cyber attacks on the electoral system in Russia to reduce the turnout
SUMMARY
With the participation of leading American IT specialists, the United States is planning cyber attacks on the remote electronic voting system for the Russian presidential elections in order to complicate the counting of votes. The US wants to make it impossible to count the votes of a significant share of Russian voters.
Opposition Internet resources, at the instigation of Washington, are calling on Russians to ignore the election of the head of state.
In addition, the administration of US President Joe Biden set American NGOs the task of reducing voter turnout in the upcoming March 15-17 vote, in order to then cast doubt on the election results.
RESPONSE
The SVR, the primary successor to the KGB's First Directorate foreign spying service, has accused the US of planning cyber attacks on the Russian electoral system. However, it did not provide any evidence to support its claims, as noted by Reuters.
Pro-Kremlin media in Russian claim that the "non-systemic" opposition in Russia, meaning those not approved by the Kremlin, is instigated by Washington. They also assert that grassroots protests exist everywhere except in Russia. This is a conspiracy. Some Russian opposition leaders urged Russian citizens to go to voting stations despite the lack transparency of the election.
Domestic Russian NGO Golos, banned in Russia and whose members are imprisoned, said that "the majority of legislative changes implemented between 2018 and 2023 were directed at restricting citizens' electoral rights, diminishing opportunities for public scrutiny, and expanding avenues for manipulation".
Pro-Kremlin media engage in mirror accusations, attributing the Kremlin's own methods to others. For example, in 2018, the US identified, summoned, and sanctioned 19 Russian citizens for being behind a hacking attack and an online disinformation campaign in 2016. Independent journalistic investigations have confirmed the existence of Russian troll factories working on online disinformation campaigns. Experts from Google and FireEye confirmed that a Russian intelligence unit, the GRU, hacked the emails of Emmanuel Macron's campaign in 2017. Their detailed investigations have not been addressed by Russian authorities.
Putin is Russia's paramount leader since the last day of 1999. He changed the Russian Constitution in 2020 to remain in power. Last presidential election observed by ODIHR OSCE took place in 2018. With many of the candidates themselves stating that they did not expect to win, the election lacked genuine competition. A number of activists who questioned the legitimacy of the election were detained. Instances of pressure on voters to take part in the election were reported to the ODIHR EOM. All these violations contravene a number of OSCE commitments and other international obligations regarding freedom and equality in the campaign, ODIHR OSCE stated in 2018.