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Wednesday, September 23rd, 2020

C.I.A. Reasserts Putin Is Likely Directing Election Influence Efforts to Aid Trump

Author:     Julian E. Barnes and David E. Sanger
Source:     The New York Times
Publication Date:     Sept. 22, 2020
 Link: C.I.A. Reasserts Putin Is Likely Directing Election Influence Efforts to Aid Trump
Stephan:   Lest there be any doubt.
Russia has become an authoritarian country under President Vladimir V. Putin, and little in its foreign policy occurs without his knowledge or blessing, national security officials have repeatedly said.
Russia has become an authoritarian country under President Vladimir V. Putin, and little in its foreign policy occurs without his knowledge or blessing, national security officials have repeatedly said.Credit…Pool photo by Mikhail Klimentyev

WASHINGTON — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is most likely continuing to approve and direct interference operations aimed at raising President Trump’s re-election chances, a recent C.I.A. analysis concluded, a signal that intelligence agencies continue to back their assessment of Russian activities despite the president’s attacks.

The assessment was disseminated in support of sanctions imposed this month on Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker who has spread information critical of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. It is consistent with intelligence officials’ warning to lawmakers in January that Russia was interfering on Mr. Trump’s behalf, a briefing that outraged Republicans and eventually helped oust Joseph Maguire from his post as acting director of national intelligence.

The C.I.A. has moderate confidence in its analysis, a lower degree of certainty than its 2016 assessment of Mr. Putin’s preferences, in part […]

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