U.S. – Russia relations April 2024 –

Owen Matthews: Putin has played Trump like a fiddle
Trump sees talks as a path towards peace. Putin sees talks as a path towards victory. Just as his invasion was diplomacy by other means, so his peace overtures are war by other means.
(The Spectator) Trump claimed that he had had a ‘very good and productive’ conversation with Putin. In reality, Putin played Trump like a fiddle. The two men agreed to form a contact group that would meet very soon to discuss detailed proposals at a Middle Eastern location. Another home run for Putin. He gets to bury negotiations in committee for months, while adhering to every appearance of constructive engagement.
Thorny issues remain, and the Kremlin readout made no bones about the fact that Putin put his hard-line demands on the table. The Kremlin demanded ‘the complete cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence to Kyiv’ during any full ceasefire period – plus a halt to Ukraine’s mobilisation of new recruits. Putin also repeated his demand for a commitment to keeping Kyiv out of Nato, the ‘demilitarisation’ of Ukraine in the form of restrictions on its armed forces and and a recognition of Russia’s control over the five regions that Moscow annexed since 2014.
These are hard conditions for Trump to swallow. But here again Putin’s strategic nous came into play. The Kremlin indicated that it was in strong agreement that Iran should never be allowed the wherewithal to strike Israel. Possible joint projects to exploit the resources of the Arctic have been discussed – as well as as-yet undefined joint business opportunities for US companies in Russia. By pulling back the focus to encompass a global picture, impresario Putin sought to cast Ukraine as a mere detail in a wide panoply of potential geopolitical collaboration.

18 March
Trump fails to get Putin to stop the shooting
Jamie Dettmer, opinion editor, Politico Europe.
Russia insists on terms to end the war that spell the end of democratic Ukraine, and has followed up the Trump call with an assault on Kyiv.
(Politico Eu) “Plan A is: Get the shooting to stop,” said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday, noting the U.S. administration’s main goal is to secure a quick ceasefire before moving on to broader talks about a settlement to permanently end Russia’s war on Ukraine.
But that clearly isn’t what Russian President Vladimir Putin has in mind, as he demonstrated by withholding his agreement to a full 30-day ceasefire in his 90-minute phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday. Shortly after the call, Russia launched a drone assault over Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
The call heard around the world
(Politico Nightly) There remains no indication that Putin dropped or changed his increasingly steep demands for ending the war outright, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a news conference today that he had “skepticism” about the deal, but that “if there is a partial ceasefire, this is a positive result.” Meanwhile, much of Europe is unconvinced of Trump’s success and hopes to bring Ukraine into a closer partnership with them; multiple countries in Northern Europe are pushing the EU to speed up the process of making Ukraine a full member of the bloc.
Putin, in call with Trump, agrees to partial ceasefire in Ukraine
The deal, if Ukraine agrees, would spare energy infrastructure from attacks.
It’s unclear if Putin’s steep conditions for agreeing to a broader ceasefire — including a pausing U.S. defense aid to Ukraine, barring Ukraine from future NATO membership and requiring Ukraine to hold new presidential elections — will be too onerous for Zekenskyy to accept.
(Politico) Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a partial 30-day ceasefire of attacks on energy infrastructure with Ukraine during a lengthy phone call Tuesday with President Donald Trump.
The White House celebrated the news but it fell short of the full 30-day pause that Ukraine had agreed to, which could complicate efforts to speed negotiations for a full end to the war.
According to a readout from the White House, Russia “will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire,” and additional negotiations are being planned on the implementation of “a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace.”
… Trump has yet to publicly pressure Putin the way he has Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Both Trump and Putin, in their respective readouts, expressed a desire for normalizing relations and working together in other areas.
… In the run-up to his call with Putin, Trump made clear that his focus, to a large extent, was already on determining how much of Ukraine’s territory Russia will get to keep under a pact to end the fighting.
Putin Wants All Arms to Ukraine Halted for Trump Truce
(Bloomberg) Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding a suspension of all weapons deliveries to Ukraine during a ceasefire proposed by US counterpart Donald Trump, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The two leaders began a phone call at 10 a.m. in Washington

17 March
Trump and Putin to discuss power plants, land in talks to end Ukraine war
“I think we’ll be able to do it,” Trump says of Ukraine peace
Trump to speak with Putin on Tuesday on ceasefire proposal
Ukraine backs 30-day ceasefire proposal, says Putin prolonging war
Russia demands Ukraine’s neutrality, exclusion from NATO
Europe, UK ready to send peacekeepers if ceasefire agreed
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said he would speak to Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Tuesday morning about ending the Ukraine war, with territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant likely to feature prominently in the talks.

13 March
Why Putin will seek to sink Trump’s Ukraine ceasefire plan
Former Kremlin diplomat trashes idea that Russian leader will sign up to U.S.-brokered truce in Ukraine.
(Politico Eu) The Russian leader won’t see it as in his interest to accept and he will seek to bog down discussions by raising a never-ending series of modifications in order to sink it, said Boris Bondarev, who worked for the Russian permanent mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva until he resigned in opposition to Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Trump has warned Moscow against stalling on the Ukraine ceasefire and on Wednesday threatened Russia with significant financial consequences if it fails to sign on to the agreement, brokered during negotiations earlier this week between American and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.
Overall, Putin is likely to reckon that “Trump is much more concerned about a peace deal than about Ukraine,” Bondarev added.
Trump prides himself on his skill to strike deals, and he attacked Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy late last month when he viewed him as an obstacle to a peace settlement. …
Ukrainian officials hope now that Putin will become the target of Trump’s wrath. But Bondarev warned that Putin will seek to play Trump and to deflect the U.S. leader’s anger back onto Zelenskyy.
12 March
What leverage does Trump have over Putin in Ukraine negotiations?
Peter Beaumont
The Russian president remains unwavering in his demands, making wider sanctions and tariffs ineffective
(The Guardian) Ukraine’s agreement to support a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in its war against Russia’s invasion has focused attention on what Moscow may or may not agree to, and what pressure can be brought to bear on Vladimir Putin by the Trump administration.
While the question has frequently been asked over the last few years as to what leverage Putin might have over Trump, the question here is what leverage Trump might have to persuade Putin.
On Wednesday the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the US expected to have contact with Russia later in the day, suggesting Washington hoped for a “positive answer”.
For its part, Moscow has said it needs to be briefed by Washington before replying, with the Kremlin press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, cautioning media against “getting ahead” of themselves, while suggesting Putin and Trump could speak in person.
It is in the economic sphere, however, that Russia remains most vulnerable. While the cost of war and international sanctions have not collapsed the economy in the way some suggested it might, high interest rates and low growth are slowly crippling Russia.
As an incentive, the US could offer an end to its banking sanctions and its prohibition on access to western technology, bearing in mind many non-US sanctions are likely to remain in place from countries allied with Ukraine.
Beyond that, issues become more complicated. Putin’s long-term demands have not shifted: the demilitarisation of Ukraine, a commitment that Ukraine will not join Nato in the future, and his desire to hold on to annexed territory – not least the Crimean peninsula.
None of which are likely to fly with Ukraine’s European allies.

8 March
Russia launches devastating attack on Ukraine after Trump’s defence of Putin
Latest attacks came hours after Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin was ‘doing what anybody would do’
Russia’s relentless bombardment of Ukrainian cities has intensified after a torrid week in which Trump has pulled the plug on intelligence sharing with Ukraine and halted the supply of US weapons.
These hostile moves mean the alarm system that warns Ukrainian civilians of incoming enemy missiles is less effective. Asked if Putin was taking advantage of US aid pauses, Trump on Friday acknowledged Ukraine was experiencing a “tremendous pounding”.
He suggested, however, that “anyone in Putin’s position” would do the same. Before a meeting on Tuesday between US and Ukrainian representatives in Saudi Arabia, Trump said he was “finding it easier” to deal with Moscow than with Kyiv.

1-2 March
Russia celebrates US foreign policy that now ‘coincides’ with Moscow’s worldview
Moscow hopes to take advantage of a growing rift between the U.S. and Ukraine, and Europe more broadly.
(Politico Eu) The Kremlin on Sunday cheered the shift in U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump, saying the American view now “largely coincides” with Russia’s take on geopolitics.
Trump has upended U.S. policy on Ukraine in recent weeks and sought a more conciliatory approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin, echoing Moscow’s talking points and recently accusing Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy of obstructing efforts to resolve the conflict started by Putin’s unprovoked invasion.
“The new [U.S.] administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely coincides with our vision,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday in a video published on Telegram.

24 February
Trump’s Bargain With Putin Is ‘Shameful’
By David French and Kori Schake
Turning our back on Ukraine would only weaken America.
(NYT) The Trump administration may be considering negotiating a peace deal with Russia that would end the war in Ukraine. “No American president in the last 80 years and probably 100 years before that would have made this bargain,” Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, tells the Opinion columnist David French.

18 February
Moscow’s media gloats over US-Russia talks
Preparing for possible Ukrainian peace negotiations is being portrayed in the Russian media almost as secondary in the bigger picture of Putin and Trump coming together to decide the shape of a new multipolar world order.
(Politico Eu) Talks in Saudi Arabia between U.S. and Russian officials, led by each country’s foreign ministers, lasted more than four hours. It was the first high-level, face-to-face contact between American and Russian delegations since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
And as far as Moscow’s state-directed media commentators were concerned, it was a big win for the Russian president.
U.S. and Russia Pursue Partnership in a Head-Spinning Shift in Relations
The two sides met in Saudi Arabia for their most extensive discussions in years …agreeing to work together on ending the Ukraine war, financial investment and re-establishing normal relations. The meeting between senior officials from both countries was a striking display of bonhomie after three years of American efforts to isolate Moscow for its 2022 invasion.
(NYT) After more than four hours of talks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both sides had agreed to work on a peace settlement for Ukraine as well as to explore “the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians,” both geopolitically and economically.

12-13 February
In phone call with Putin, Trump abruptly ends U.S. efforts to isolate Russia
(AP) — By saying Ukraine’s NATO membership is “impractical” and the return of Russian-occupied territories to Kyiv is “illusionary,” the Trump administration is giving its blessing to key items on President Vladimir Putin’s wish list — even before a potential settlement of the conflict.
Rarely was a policy change between Moscow and Washington so swift and drastic than President Donald Trump’s phone call with Putin, abruptly ending a three-year, U.S.-led effort to isolate the Russian leader over Ukraine.
‘What Putin had been waiting for’: Moscow buoyant after call with Trump
Pjotr Sauer
Russian president will feel momentum has shifted in his favour and that US may help him fulfil Ukraine objectives
(The Guardian) Viewed as a whole, the rapidly unfolding events will probably be seen in Moscow as the culmination of Putin’s months-long diplomatic overtures to Trump, during which he lauded the president’s braveness and intelligence and echoed some of his favourite narratives, including unfounded claims that the 2020 US election was stolen from Trump.
“Now, Putin’s main focus is Trump – everyone else is irrelevant,” the foreign policy source said. “His next move is to secure a closed-door meeting with Trump, where he can further press his case,” the source added, saying they believed the two leaders could soon meet for a summit in Saudi Arabia.
Trump and Putin Agree to Ukraine Talks in US Policy Reversal
Trump says they’ll meet soon, probably in Saudi Arabia
Trump’s approach to the war represents sharp break with Biden
(Bloomberg) President Donald Trump agreed in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to start negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, sweeping aside three years of US policy and blindsiding European allies who feared the more conciliatory American stance amounted to a giveaway to the Russian leader.
Trump’s Ukraine Deal Looks Great — for Putin
Details to come, but in public it’s a jackpot for Putin — and the US
By Marc Champion, Bloomberg Opinion columnist

8 January
Trump Asked When He Will Talk With Putin, Says War ‘Would Have Never Happened’ If He Were In Office (YouTube)
During a press briefing at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, President-elect Trump spoke about when he hopes to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who invaded Ukraine, to discuss the Russo-Ukraine War.

2024

20 December
Trump-Putin relations enter a new chapter and the world is at stake
Putin wants a sit-down with Trump as equals in which they divide the world into spheres of influence.
By Robyn Dixon, Catherine Belton and Francesca Ebel
(WaPo) Two self-proclaimed geopolitical alpha male leaders will be squaring off next year.
In one corner will be President Donald Trump, hungry for a Ukraine peace deal that would make him look like a global peacemaker. In the other, Russian President Vladimir Putin, an astute, manipulative and vehemently anti-American autocrat who hopes to entice Trump into creating a transactional new world order without rules or human rights.
Putin is seeking a grand bargain on European security that would leave Ukraine at the Kremlin’s mercy, weaken NATO and cement Russia’s place as a global power.
Ahead of any talks, the Kremlin is carefully assessing Trump’s messaging, ambitions and vulnerabilities, while remaining wary of his unpredictability. Trump’s weaknesses, according to Russian analysts, include geopolitical naivety, a short attention span and a propensity to rely on gut not brain.
“Trump deliberately keeps silent, I think, because he doesn’t know,” said Konstantin Remchukov, editor of Nezavisimaya Gazeta. “We saw his campaign. He’s not a profound thinker on geopolitical stuff.”

21 November
In raising nuclear threat, Putin bets Trump is willing to back down on Ukraine
Mark MacKinnon
Vladimir Putin has escalated Russia’s hybrid war against the West again and again over the past decade, betting each time that the United States, in particular, will back down before he does.
(Globe & Mail) Now Mr. Putin is upping the ante like never before, challenging Washington and its allies with a blunt question: Are they willing to risk a nuclear war over the fate of Ukraine?
The long-ruling Kremlin boss is betting that the answer will be no, particularly once U.S. president-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

19 November
Putin Sees America Hurtling to Disaster, With Trump at the Wheel
By Mikhail Zygar, a Russian journalist and the author of the newsletter The Last Pioneer.
(NYT) The American election results were received with enthusiasm in Moscow. President Vladimir Putin, offering his congratulations, seemed genuinely pleased. But it’s not because Donald Trump is seen as a pro-Russian politician or even one of their own — those illusions faded long ago. Nor is it the prospect of an advantageous peace deal in Ukraine, ruthlessly brokered by Mr. Trump. The first reported call between the two leaders, which the Kremlin denies took place, suggests that the incoming administration will be no pushover.
Instead, the excitement comes from something else. It’s that to many in the Kremlin, a Trump presidency might bring about the collapse of the American state.
The idea that the United States is entering the final stage of its history has been kicking around Russia for some time. For years, it was confined to fringe voices. But since around 2020, figures from the Kremlin have been making the argument, too.

Heather Cox Richardson November 11, 2024
… Maxim Trudolyubov of the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan foreign affairs think tank, suggested Friday that Putin’s long-term goal of weakening the U.S. has made him more interested in dividing Americans than in any one candidate. Kremlin Was Hoping for Division in America, Not Victory for One Candidate
Indeed, rather than backing Trump wholeheartedly, Russian president Vladimir Putin has been undercutting him. He did not comment on Trump’s election until Thursday, when he said that the power of liberal democracies over world affairs is “irrevocably disappearing.” Although Ellen Nakashima, John Hudson, and Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post reported that Trump and Putin had spoken on Thursday, Putin denied such a call as “pure fiction.”
Exacerbating America’s internal divisions and demonstrating dominance over both the U.S. and Trump might explain why after Trump became president-elect, laughing Russian media figures showed viewers nude pictures of Trump’s third wife, Melania, taken during her modeling career.
In an interview, Putin’s presidential aide Nikolay Patrushev said today: “To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.” Meanwhile, U.S. and Ukrainian officials report that Russia has massed 50,000 soldiers, including North Korean soldiers, to reclaim territory in the Kursk region of Russia taken this year by Ukrainian forces.
Kremlin rejects reports of a conversation last week between Putin and Trump
(AP) The Kremlin on Monday rejected reports that President Vladimir Putin spoke last week with President-elect Donald Trump about the war in Ukraine, and a spokesman for Trump refused to comment on what he called his “private calls” with world leaders.
The Washington Post first reported on Sunday, citing anonymous sources, that the two spoke on Thursday, with Trump advising Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and cited the sizable U.S. military presence in Europe.
In a conference call Monday with journalists, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said “there was no conversation” and the report was “completely untrue, it is pure fiction.”

7 November
Putin congratulates Trump on his election victory in his first public comments on the US vote
(AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday congratulated Donald Trump on his election victory in his first public comment on the U.S. vote, and he praised the president-elect’s courage during the July assassination attempt.
… Putin also said that what Trump has said “about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion, deserves attention at least.”

4 September
Right-wing influencers were duped to work for covert Russian influence operation, US says
(AP) — They have millions of followers online. They have been major players in right-wing political discourse since Donald Trump was president. And they worked unknowingly for a company that was a front for a Russian influence operation, U.S. prosecutors say.
An indictment filed Wednesday alleges a media company linked to six conservative influencers — including well-known personalities Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson — was secretly funded by Russian state media employees to churn out English-language videos that were “often consistent” with the Kremlin’s “interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition” to Russian interests, like its war in Ukraine.
In addition to marking the third straight presidential election in which U.S. authorities have unveiled politically charged details about Russia’s attempted interference in U.S. politics, an indictment indicates how Moscow may be attempting to capitalize on the skyrocketing popularity of right-wing podcasters, livestreamers and other content creators who have found successful careers on social media in the years since Trump was in office.
The U.S. Justice Department doesn’t allege any wrongdoing by the influencers, some of whom it says were given false information about the source of the company’s funding. Instead, it accuses two employees of RT, a Russian state media company, of funneling nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based content creation company for Russia-friendly content.
13 September 2022
US: Russia spent $300M to covertly influence world politics

1-3 August

Inside the Secret Negotiations to Free Evan Gershkovich
(WSJ) The effort to bring home The Wall Street Journal reporter and others unfolded on three continents, involving spy agencies, billionaires, political power players and his fiercest advocate—his mother

Long Johns, Forensics and a Bound Russian Killer: Inside the Big Prisoner Swap
The complex choreography caught some prisoners being freed in their robes and slippers, unaware of their fates, and required forensic experts to make positive identifications.
(NYT) This account of the tense hours surrounding the exchange — the biggest between Moscow and the West since the Cold War — is based on new details revealed by Western government officials involved in the process, and on early testimony from the Russian political prisoners released as part of the deal.
The swap [involved]…a complex seven-country deal that required intricate planning and timing. The successful transfer highlighted the ability of some of the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies to cooperate on a distinct operation of shared interest, even as Russia and the West engage in a tense standoff over the war in Ukraine.
… Last month, C.I.A. officers met with F.S.B. counterparts in Turkey to agree on the final terms of the swap, and also to plan the dizzying logistics for how it could actually be carried out on the tarmac in Ankara.
But even in the final hours, the Western officials said, the Americans and Germans worried that something could go wrong — for example, that Russia might not deliver the agreed-upon roster of prisoners or swap in look-alikes.
US and Russia complete biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history, freeing Gershkovich and Whelan
(AP) — The United States and Russia completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history on Thursday, with Moscow releasing journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan, along with dissidents including Vladimir Kara-Murza, in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free.
The trade unfolded despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War . Negotiators in backchannel talks at one point explored an exchange involving Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny but after his death in February ultimately stitched together a 24-person deal that required significant concessions from European allies, including the release of a Russian assassin, and secured freedom for a cluster of journalists, suspected spies, political prisoners and others.
Evan Gershkovich release: Biden and Harris greet Americans freed after prisoner swap
Emotional scenes at Andrews air force base as Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva step onto American soil
How Evan Gershkovich was finally freed after a 500-day odyssey in Russia’s prison system
Gershkovich was the first reporter to be charged with espionage since the cold war, and Putin barely hid his aim
(The Guardian) Evan Gershkovich was on a reporting trip deep in the Russian regions when the FSB came for him. The Wall Street Journal reporter was in Yekaterinburg, more than 850 miles from the Russian capital, when agents approached his table at a local bistro. As they frog-marched him out of the restaurant, the officers pulled Gershkovich’s shirt over his head to obscure his identity, witnesses said. The signal was clear: this was no ordinary arrest.
That began a nearly 500-day odyssey in Russia’s notorious prison system for Gershkovich, the first reporter to be arrested and charged with espionage since the cold war. The Russian government said Gershkovich had been recruited by the CIA to collect information about the country’s larger producer of main battle tanks, Uralvagonzavod.
The Kremlin Gets What It Wants
The release of journalists and dissidents is unequivocally good news—but the grubby reality is that the Russians have engaged in successful hostage-taking.
By Tom Nichols
(The Atlantic) Russia and its junior partner, Belarus, have agreed to a prisoner exchange with the United States and Germany. The deal includes the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and the Russian British journalist and Kremlin opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza among the people who are being released after arrests and convictions on various charges. Some Russian dissidents, including allies of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny—who himself died in a Russian prison—were also freed and allowed to leave the country.
The Russians, for their part, are going to get their usual basket of criminals, including Vadim Krasikov*, a colonel in the Russian intelligence services who was sentenced to life in a German prison after carrying out a Kremlin-ordered hit on a Russian dissident in Berlin. Moscow’s shopping list also reportedly includes a Russian money launderer now in an American prison and two Russian spies caught in Slovenia.
*[Vadim Krasikov: who is Russian hitman linked to Navalny prisoner swap claim? – Allies of Russian opposition leader say he was killed to thwart exchange with FSB colonel jailed in Germany]
Today’s exchange is not a deal to trade professional intelligence officers as part of some romantic Cold War drama. No one is going to do a Bridge of Spies walk to freedom. (The hostages were flown to Ankara, where both sides agreed to meet and trade their prisoners.) The grubby reality is that the Russians have engaged in successful hostage-taking: They have arrested people on minor or trumped-up charges, and then agreed to free them in return for some very bad people the Kremlin wants to bring back to Russia. Krasikov, for one, will likely go home to “a hero’s welcome,” according to the investigative journalist Christo Grozev (who was reportedly involved in the negotiations). It’s that simple.
Trump congratulates Putin over deal that brought Evan Gershkovich home
(WaPo) Former president Donald Trump congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin over a prisoner swap that took place this week, saying the Russian strongman had outsmarted U.S. officials as part of the largest such deal since the end of the Cold War.

1 August
Foreign Interference in U.S. Election Heats Up
Russia and Iran aim to sow discord in the 2024 presidential race, officials warn.
(Foreign Policy) The U.S. intelligence community expects that Iran and Russia are adjusting their disinformation strategies to undermine democratic institutions, foment discord, and change public opinion in light of last month’s events, said a U.S. intelligence official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity based on ground rules set by the intelligence community.
– Russia is heavily leaning into right-wing conspiracy theories, including about the Trump assassination attempt, but said that the Kremlin expresses no clear preference for Trump in their efforts.
– Scaling up. The scale of foreign disinformation targeting U.S. elections is growing, especially with artificial intelligence powering it, and it’s getting more sophisticated, too.
– The U.S. intelligence official said foreign actors, especially Russia, are getting more professional, including by co-opting marketing and public relations firms to try to shape U.S. public opinion with fake websites and campaigns, even though Western authorities are catching up.