US report says Russia, with Putin's knowledge, meddled in 2020 election

Russian President Vladimir Putin knew of and likely directed a Russian effort to manipulate the 2020 US presidential campaign to benefit former President Donald Trump with "misleading or unsubstantiated allegations" against challenger Joe Biden, US intelligence officials said on Tuesday.

The assessment was made in a 15-page report into election interference released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It underscored allegations that Trump's allies played into Moscow's hands by amplifying claims made against Biden by Russian-linked Ukrainian figures in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election. Biden, a Democrat, defeated Trump, a Republican, and became president on Jan. 20.

US intelligence agencies found other attempts to sway voters, including a "multi-pronged covert influence campaign" by Iran intended to undercut Trump's support. Trump pulled the United States out of an international nuclear deal with Iran and imposed fresh sanctions.

The report also punctured a counter-narrative pushed by Trump's allies that China was interfering on Biden's behalf, concluding that Beijing "did not deploy interference efforts."

"China sought stability in its relationship with the United States and did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk blowback if caught," the report said.

US officials said they also saw efforts by Cuba, Venezuela and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to influence the election, although "in general, we assess that they were smaller in scale than those conducted by Russia and Iran."

US intelligence agencies and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller previously concluded that Russia also interfered in the 2016 US election to boost Trump's candidacy with a campaign of propaganda aimed at harming his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

The Russian, Chinese and Cuban Embassies in Washington did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The Iranian mission to the United Nations and the Venezuelan Ministry of Information also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Moscow, Beijing and Tehran routinely deny allegations of cyber espionage and subterfuge.

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The new report said Putin knew of and "probably directed" the election interference efforts. As an example, Putin "had purview over the activities of Andriy Derkach," a Ukrainian lawmaker who played a prominent role in the effort and has ties to Russian intelligence, the report said.

"We assess Russian leaders preferred that former President Trump win re-election despite perceiving some of his administration's policies as anti-Russia. We have high confidence in this assessment," the report stated.

A key role was also played by a second man with Russian intelligence ties, Konstantin Kilimnik, according to the report. Kilimnik and Derkach met with and gave materials to Trump-linked people to push for formal investigations, and Derkach released four audio recordings to try to implicated Biden in corruption, it said.

That refers to conversations that right-wing figures in the United States cited as evidence that Biden tried to protect his son Hunter from a probe in Ukraine.

Kilimnik was an associate of Paul Manafort, who served as Trump's 2016 campaign chairman. Trump last year pardoned Manafort for a criminal conviction that stemmed from Mueller's investigation.

Russian agents also tried to "phish" employees of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, "likely in an attempt to gather information related to President Biden's family," it said. Hunter Biden had served on Burisma's board.

As in the 2016 election, the Russian so-called troll factory formerly known as the Internet Research Agency pushed disparaging stories on social media about Biden and Democrats and complained about censorship by the tech companies, the report said. It also sought to exacerbate US divisions on racial justice issues, the report said.