[Moscow has run a yearslong operation to blame Ukraine for its own
2016 election interference. Republicans have used similar talking
points to defend President Trump in impeachment proceedings.]
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UKRAINIAN MEDDLING? A RUSSIAN OPERATION, U.S. INTEL SAYS  
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Julian E. Barnes and Matthew Rosenberg
November 22, 2019
New York Times
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_ Moscow has run a yearslong operation to blame Ukraine for its own
2016 election interference. Republicans have used similar talking
points to defend President Trump in impeachment proceedings. _

President Vladmir V. Putin of Russia has been pushing false theories
of Ukrainian interference since early 2017, according to American
officials, Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, via Reuters

 

WASHINGTON — Republicans have sought for weeks amid the impeachment
inquiry to shift attention to President Trump’s demands that Ukraine
investigate any 2016 election meddling, defending it as a legitimate
concern while Democrats accuse Mr. Trump of pursuing fringe theories
for his benefit.

The Republican defense of Mr. Trump became central to the impeachment
proceedings when Fiona Hill, a respected Russia scholar and former
senior White House official, added a harsh critique during testimony
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Thursday. She told some of Mr. Trump’s fiercest defenders in
Congress that they were repeating “a fictional narrative.”
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said that it likely came from a disinformation campaign by Russian
security services, which also propagated it.

In a briefing that closely aligned with Dr. Hill’s testimony,
American intelligence officials informed senators and their aides in
recent weeks that Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to
essentially frame Ukraine as responsible for Moscow’s own hacking of
the 2016 election, according to three American officials. The briefing
came as Republicans stepped up their defenses of Mr. Trump in the
Ukraine affair.

The revelations demonstrate Russia’s persistence in trying to sow
discord among its adversaries — and show that the Kremlin
apparently succeeded, as unfounded claims about Ukrainian interference
seeped into Republican talking points. American intelligence agencies
believe Moscow is likely to redouble its efforts as the 2020
presidential campaign intensifies
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The classified briefing for senators also focused on Russia’s
evolving influence tactics, including its growing ability to better
disguise operations.

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Russia has engaged in a “long pattern of deflection” to pin blame
for its malevolent acts on other countries, Dr. Hill said, not least
Ukraine, a former Soviet republic. Since Ukraine won independence in
1991, Russia has tried to reassert influence there, meddling in its
politics, maligning pro-Western leaders and accusing Ukrainian critics
of Moscow of fascist leanings.

“The Russians have a particular vested interest in putting Ukraine,
Ukrainian leaders in a very bad light,” she told lawmakers.

But the campaign by Russian intelligence in recent years has been even
more complex as Moscow tries not only to undermine the government in
Kyiv but also to use a disinformation campaign there to influence the
American political debate.

The accusations of a Ukrainian influence campaign center on actions by
a handful of Ukrainians who openly criticized or sought to damage Mr.
Trump’s candidacy in 2016. They were scattershot efforts that were
far from a replica of Moscow’s interference, when President Vladimir
V. Putin ordered military and intelligence operatives to mount a
broad campaign
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sabotage the American election
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The Russians in 2016 conducted covert operations to hack Democratic
computers and to use social media to exploit divisions among
Americans.

_Read the entire story
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the New York Times_

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