DISINFO: The US never presented evidence of Russia’s involvement in election interference or cyberattacks
SUMMARY
Russia never received any kind of evidence of the cyberattacks in which it is supposedly involved or of its alleged interference in the US elections. The claims that Russian hackers or Moscow are behind it are a farce. Never, not once, did the US make the effort to present any kind of testimonies or evidence. The accusations are unfounded.
RESPONSE
Contrary to the claim, there is plenty of evidence of Russia’s attempts to interfere in the US elections as well as cyberattacks.
The investigation led by US special counsel Robert Mueller presented plentiful evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election -including testimonies and physical proof-, which led to the criminal indictment of 34 people, 26 of them Russian citizens or entities including the infamous Internet Research Agency. The 5-volume report of the US Senate Intelligence Committee widened the scope of the investigation and provided additional evidence of Russia’s meddling in the electoral process in 2016. The National Intelligence Council warned both before and after the 2020 election in the US that Russia also attempted to interfere in favour of one candidate and against the other.
The United States formally named the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), also known as APT 29, Cozy Bear, and The Dukes, as the perpetrator of the broad-scope cyber espionage campaign that exploited the SolarWinds Orion platform and other information technology infrastructures. The U.S. Intelligence Community had high confidence in its assessment of attribution to the SVR. The SVR’s compromise of the SolarWinds software supply chain gave it the ability to spy on or potentially disrupt more than 16,000 computer systems worldwide. The US imposed sanctions on Russian technology companies involved in supporting the attack.
See here for our previous debunk on this episode.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that Czech investigators have no evidence of Russian involvement in the Vrbetice explosion, that London failed to provide proof of Novichok and Russia’s responsibility in Skripal case, that there is no evidence that civilians were killed by Russian airstrikes and that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons, that the Navalny case is an outrageous fraud and an anti-Russian campaign, or that in 2021 Russia will remain the perfect scapegoat.