“Russia is the most active threat,” U.S. Intel Community Warns Ahead Of Today's Elections

Russian disinformation is currently the "most active threat" to undermining public trust in American elections, according to the U.S. Intelligence Community, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

In a joint statement Monday night, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned that the Intel community (IC) has observed "foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans."

"The IC expects these activities will intensify through election day and in the coming weeks, and that foreign influence narratives will focus on swing states," reads the statement.

The authors went on to elaborate, "Russia is the most active threat. Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences, judging from information available to the IC."

The statement, which came just hours before today's election, follows videos circulated online last week that falsely depicted instances of voter fraud. The IC released a statement over the weekend that the videos were created by "Russian influence actors."

"This Russian activity is part of Moscow's broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans," the statement added.

Besides Russia, Iran is also a "significant foreign influence threat to U.S. elections," the Intel community concludes, noting the previous cyber attack aimed at former President Donald Trump's campaign.

"Iranian influence actors may also seek to create fake media content intended to suppress voting or stoke violence, as they have done in past election cycles," reads the IC statement. 

"We previously reported that Iran also remains determined to seek revenge against select former US officials whom it views as culpable for the death of IRGC-Qods Force Commander Soleimani in January 2020. It has repeatedly highlighted former President Donald Trump among its priority targets for retribution," the authors concluded.