Since 2014, Russia has quietly sent a total of at least $300 million to political parties and candidates in more than 20 countries to exert influence, according to a US intelligence estimate released on Tuesday (September 13).
The United States “believes that these are minimum estimates and that Russia likely and covertly transferred more funds that were not detected,” said a senior US official, without specifying the countries involved.
Information Transferred to Other Countries
For example, according to this senior official, a Russian ambassador stationed in an unspecified Asian country gave millions of dollars to a presidential candidate. Joe Biden’s administration had requested such an estimate from its services after invading Ukraine on February 24, coinciding with the launch of several initiatives to isolate Moscow on the international scene.
The senior official said US diplomacy will share these insights with the governments of more than 100 other countries, building on the Democracy Summit that President Joe Biden hosted virtually in December 2021.
This new assessment did not analyze Russian interference in US politics, but US intelligence had previously said Moscow interfered in the 2016 US election, including using social media to support Donald Trump, who expressed his admiration for expressed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The United States is working hard to address our vulnerabilities, and we encourage other countries to do the same and join us in this important effort,” the official said.