Freedom House Chapter 6 Flacks and Friends Did the Russian government attempt to surrepti- , tiously influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election As an operator, but not as a human in Donald Trump's favor? The answer to that question being, | would Say Putin. The Way he may never be definitively known. There is, neverthe- played the whole Syria thing. Bril- less, a critical mass of evidence that Kremlin-allied liant.” forces were responsible for hacking into the Dem- : ocratic National Committee's computers, stealing —Nigel Farage, on the world leader he most admires millions of files, and turning the information over to WikiLeaks, which in turn circulated it to the media. “| admire his cool head. Because Some may find the evidence unsatisfactory. But given there is a cold war being waged Russia's well-established record of cyberwarfare, : : previously directed at neighboring states like Estonia against him by the EU at the behest and Ukraine, and the Russian regime's dislike for the of the United States... | admire that Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, there is ample he has managed to restore pride and reason to treat charges of Russian culpability as contentment to a great nation that strongly credible. had been humiliated and persecuted for 7 rs." Another body of evidence can be found in Russia's or 70 years record of involvement in the internal politics of a —Marine Le Pen number of countries in Europe, including European snen eee ee In mee ere ; “[Putin] makes a decision and he exe- utin, Russia has repeatedly interfered in the affairs o : ; European states in ways that the Kremlin would regard cutes It, quickly. And then eve rybody as intolerable if Russia were the target. reacts. Thats what you call a leader. —Rudy Giuliani Russian involvement is usually camouflaged so as to ensure a degree of deniability, but the disguise is sometimes rather thin. In late 2014, France's far-right oo. ou. National Front party, led by Marine Le Pen, secured a FiISSIon