DISINFO: Western media hysterical over rehashed falsehoods of Russian election meddling
SUMMARY
The Western media is whipping up a frenzy, persisting in its hysteria amid rehashed claims of Russian interference in US elections. Washington has taken its persecution campaign against journalists who work with Russian media to new heights by slapping sanctions against the Rossiya Segodnya media group, RIA Novosti, RT, Sputnik and Ruptly. The move was presented as a response to “Moscow’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 US presidential election." The claims invoke a sense of déjà vu for the 2016 'Russiagate' conspiracy theory. The falsehoods peddled by failed presidential runner Hillary Clinton to excuse her loss to Donald Trump have been dusted off, reheated and served to the public.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative denying Russian interference in the US elections, being pushed again, in an attempt to counter legal measures by US officials against Russian networks of influence in the United States ahead of the 2024 electoral contest. Contrary to the claims made by this disinformation story, there is evidence proving that Russia interfered in the U.S. electoral processes in 2016, 2020, and again in 2024. See also our article Kremlin disinformation targets US elections.
Regarding the 2016 election, a significant part of this massive corpus of evidence was compiled in the two-volume Mueller report and the five-volume US Senate investigation. Mueller’s investigations led to the criminal indictment of 34 people, 26 of them Russian citizens or entities including the infamous Internet Research Agency. Many other findings by The New York Times and The Washington Post, for which they received the Pulitzer Prize in 2018, were later backed by the evidence presented in court, further investigations or confessions of those involved.
The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) concluded that similar strategies were deployed again in the 2020 election in support of Donald Trump. Russian interference in the 2024 election -which according to US officials included novel techniques- has been widely documented by the US Department of Justice, independent analysts, cybersecurity experts and tech firms.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the US never presented evidence of Russia’s involvement in election interference or cyberattacks, that Russiagate was a fraud orchestrated by the West, that US maintains sanctions on Russia even though accusations of interference proved to be unfounded, or that the Mueller report is another proof of how Russia is always falsely accused.