Russia has sent more than 300 million euros to candidates and political parties in about 20 countries since 2014 to try to exercise its influence, according to a US intelligence estimate released today.
A senior US official noted that the US considers this $300.49 million (€300.49 million) “a minimal estimate, and that Russia may have secretly transferred more undisclosed funds,” without specifying the countries involved.
According to the same source, a Russian ambassador stationed in an unspecified Asian country donated, for example, millions of dollars to a candidate in the presidential elections in that country.
The government of the current US President, Joe Biden, asked its secret services to make such a calculation after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on February 24 of this year, while it launched several initiatives to isolate Moscow on the international scene.
The senior official announced that US diplomacy will share its findings with the governments of more than 100 other countries, following the democracy summit organized by Biden roughly in December 2021.
This new assessment did not analyze Russian interference in US politics, but US intelligence previously reported that Moscow interfered in the 2016 US presidential election, in particular by using social media to support Donald Trump, that he would be the elected candidate and that he had expressed admiration for the Russian president. Vladimir Putin.
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