DISINFO: No proof of Russian meddling in the elections anywhere
SUMMARY
The charges of Russian interference are numerous: they concern the French election, the Brexit referendum; Russia is also accused of being behind the movement of yellow vests in France and of supporting Matteo Salvini’s North League (Lega Nord). First, there is no Russian interference. The accusations come from some environments who have an interest in developing a new cold war. In France no single proof was found. Nowhere else either. [The same claims] were evoked in Germany, but after that a major magazine in Germany asked “But, where are the Russians?”. Because the election was over and there was no interference. The German secret services stated that they hadn’t found anything. But it stays in the mindset after the media campaign. It is a fantasy that came from the United States and was married by pro-American elites throughout Europe.
RESPONSE
No evidence given that the accusations come "from some environments who have an interest in developing a new cold war." The attempts of Russian election meddling are already well documented. Investigations were conducted by the authorities of the countries, Parliament's committee (UK) , as well as by journalists. Thus, in the US, 126 millions of users were reached by Russia-linked users, 29 millions from them have seen the content "directly". In France, Russian media outlets spread disinformation on Emmanuel Macron's support by "gay lobby" and "bank lobby". Macron's rival Marine Le Pen received a credit of 9,4 million euros from a Russian bank which filed for bankruptcy and the credit is unlikely to be reimbursed. The e-mails of Emmanuel Macron's party top members and of him himself were hacked. It was perpetrated, according to the Insider and Mediapart, by the same GRU unit also responsible for hacking of Democrats' servers in the US. Russian State TV spoke about "an offshore account of Macron". It turned out to be a fabricated evidence. Currently, the General Secretariat for Defense and National Security (SGDSN) in France is in charge of the investigation of the alleged meddling of Russian social media accounts in the yellow vests protests. In Germany, after almost one-year investigation by the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) the intelligence report has stated that Russia has had a "more confrontational course" towards Germany since 2014 and calls the reporting of Russian media and its German offshoots such as RT Deutsch and Sputnik News hostile. In 2017 "the strategy that pro-Kremlin Russian actors adopted in the months leading to the elections was to attack Merkel and her government, advance the AfD and The Left, and avoid excessive bashing of the CDU/CSU and SPD.", Anton Shekhovtsov writes in his report to EPDE. Read more on the pro-Kremlin tactics here “‘Make Germany Great Again’. Kremlin, Alt-Right and International Influences in the 2017 German Elections“. In Italy, Espresso reports, Russia offered to the League of Nord three million euros for EU election. See more disinformation cases about Russian meddling in the elections in the West here and here.