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A new government report avoids directly discussing U.S. election interference. Through Moscow, despite the call of lawmakers for more information.
By Julian E. Barnes
WASHINGTON — Russia continues to use a network of proxy websites to spread pro-Kremlin disinformation and propaganda in the United States and other parts of the West, according to a State Department report released on Wednesday.
The report is one of the Trump administration’s top detailed explanations to date of how Russia disseminates the data, but largely avoids discussing how Moscow is trying to influence the existing campaign. Even though Democrats on Capitol Hill suggested the U.S. government. Declassifying more information about Russia’s efforts to interfere with the election, President Trump has continually told officials that such revelations are not welcome.
Most of the report focuses on an ecosystem of websites, many of them fringe or conspiracy minded, that Russia has used or directed to spread propaganda on a variety of topics. Those include an online journal called the Strategic Culture Foundation and other sites, like the Canada-based Global Research. The document builds on information disclosed last week by American officials about Russian intelligence’s control of various propaganda sites.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who announced the release of the report on Wednesday, said the State Department would offer rewards of up to $10 million for information to help identify any person who, acting at the direction of a foreign government, tries to hack into election or campaign infrastructure.
The report was prepared by the department’s Global Engagement Center, whose mandate is only to examine propaganda efforts outside the United States.
The report states that the Strategic Culture Foundation runs through Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the S.V.R., and is “a fair example of long-standing Russian tactics to hide the state’s direct involvement in misinformation and propaganda.” The organization publishes a wide variety of marginal voices and conspiracy theories in English, although it seems difficult to understand its sponsorship of the Russian government.
“The Kremlin bears direct responsibility for cultivating these tactics and platforms as part of its approach of using information and disinformation as a weapon,” said Lea Gabrielle, the coordinator of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center.
There is no mention of how one of the editors of the Strategic Culture Foundation took a thought this spring at a number one Democratic race in New York. The writer, Michael Averko, published articles about the foundation and in a local publication in Westchester County, New York, attacking Evelyn N. Farkas, a former Obama administrative officer who ran for Congress.
In weeks, the F.B.I. asked Mr. Averko about the Strategic Culture Foundation and its ties to Russia.
While these attacks had a decisive effect on the elections, they showed Moscow’s continued efforts to influence votes in the United States, Dr. Farkas said in an interview Wednesday.
She criticized the State Department for not knowing how the Strategic Culture Foundation had attempted to interfere with existing elections, arguing that the report had missed the opportunity to “wake up to others.”
“The State Department does not disclose data that is so sanitized that they do not explain the magnitude of the situation,” Dr. Farkas said. “The goal of writing a report like this is to alert other Americans.”
Intelligence officials in recent days have briefed members of Congress about election threats from Russia and other countries. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, and other lawmakers have called on the administration to declassify and release to the public information about those threats.
“The fact that they are publishing this report on what the Russians are doing in the world but not in the United States shows even more how data on our own security deserves to be declassified,” Blumenthal said in an interview Wednesday. “The classified briefings have surely been frightening and frankly frightening because of the magnitude of the external risk we face for our electoral security. It’s a breakup.”
The State Department report attempts to assess the scope of pro-Russian propaganda sites. Global studies are by far the most popular. According to the report, it has accumulated 12.4 million page views, attracting an average of 351,247 other people according to the article. Other sites, such as News Front and SouthFront, have nine million and 4.3 million readers. The Strategic Culture Foundation has much less Internet traffic, and attracts only about 990,000 visitors.
Global Research, according to the report, is a “local Canadian website” that, however, has been incorporated into Moscow’s propaganda ecosystem. The report explains how the site’s founder, Michel Chossudovsky, a former contributor to RT, the foreign television channel sponsored by the state of Moscow, and is on the advice of other pro-Russian conspiracy sites.
In the past, Global Research denied being part of a network of pro-Russian websites, but did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
The State Department report also highlights how Internet sites spread theories about misinformation and conspiracy around the pandemic, and adds the false story that the new coronavirus created in a U.S. Army lab.
One false story by Global Research claiming that the coronavirus pandemic was not real was then spread by 70 other sites and publications, Ms. Gabrielle said.
“The main Russian and pro-Russian media have sought to capitalize on the concern and confusion surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic by actively enacting conspiracy theories,” the report says.
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