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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 14 september 2022
U.S.: Russia spent $300M to covertly influence world politics

By NOMAAN MERCHANT of talking points that U.S.
Associated Press diplomats were instruct-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rus- ed to raise with their host
sia has covertly spent more governments regarding al-
than $300 million since 2014 leged Russian interference.
to try to influence politicians Among steps diplomats
and other officials in more were told to recommend
than two dozen countries, include sanctions, travel
the State Department al- bans, and exposure of co-
leges in a newly released vert financing.
cable. According to the cable, in-
The cable released Tues- telligence officials believe
day cites a new intelli- Russia planned to transfer
gence assessment of Rus- "at least hundreds of mil-
sia's global covert efforts to lions more" dollars in fund-
support policies and parties ing to sympathetic parties
sympathetic to Moscow. and officials around the
The cable does not name world.
specific Russian targets but The cable does not say how
says the U.S. is providing intelligence officials came
classified information to se- up with the total figure of
lect individual countries. $300 million. It also does
It's the latest effort by the Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a plenary session at the Eastern Eco- not address concerns that
Biden administration to de- nomic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. Russia or other adversaries
classify intelligence about Associated Press may again try to interfere in
Moscow's military and po- U.S. politics.q
litical aims, dating back to groups and been respon-
ultimately correct assess- sible for efforts to topple
ments that Russia would or undermine foreign gov-
launch a new war against ernments. The official, who
Ukraine. Many of President briefed reporters on con-
Joe Biden's top national dition of anonymity under
security officials have ex- rules set by the administra-
tensive experience coun- tion, rejected comparisons
tering Moscow and served between Russia's activities
in government when Rus- and current U.S. financing
sian President Vladimir Pu- of media and political ini-
tin launched wide-ranging tiatives.
campaigns to influence Putin was spending huge
the 2016 and 2020 U.S. pres- sums "in an attempt to ma-
idential elections. nipulate democracies from
A senior administration of- the inside," the official said.
ficial declined to say how State Department spokes-
much money Russia is be- man Ned Price called Rus-
lieved to have spent in sia's covert funding an "as-
Ukraine, where President sault on sovereignty."
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and "It is an effort to chip away
his top deputies have long at the ability of people
accused Putin of meddling around the world to choose
in domestic politics. The of- the governments that they
ficial noted allegations of see best fit to represent
Russian influence in recent them, to represent their in-
elections in Albania, Bos- terests, and to represent
nia and Montenegro, all their values," he said.
Eastern European countries Russia's embassy in Wash-
that have faced historical ington did not immediately
pressure from Moscow. respond to a request for
Unlike declared efforts by comment.
foreign governments to The State Department took
lobby for preferred initia- the unusual step of releas-
tives, Russia's covert influ- ing a diplomatic cable that
ence involved using front was sent on Monday to
organizations to funnel many U.S. embassies and
money to preferred causes consulates abroad, many
or politicians, the cable al- of them in Europe, Africa
leges. That includes think and South Asia, laying out
tanks in Europe and state- the concerns.
owned enterprises in Cen- The cable, which was
tral America, Asia, the Mid- marked "sensitive" and not
dle East, and North Africa. intended for foreign audi-
The U.S. has in its history also ences but was not clas-
covertly funded political sified, contained a series