Securing Democracy Dispatch

Department of Justice announces steps to counter malign foreign influence: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said on July 18 that the Justice Department will notify American citizens, companies, and organizations being targeted by “foreign actors attempting to affect elections or the political process.” Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Rosenstein stated that, “Russian intelligence officers did not stumble on the idea of hacking American computers and posting misleading messages because they had a free afternoon, it’s what they do every day.” The new policy comes alongside the publication of DOJ’s Cyber-Digital Task Force Report, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions praised as “thorough, first-of-its-kind … [the report] comprehensively details the scope of the problem and provides initial recommendations.” In its report, the Task Force — which was established in February — underscores the damage caused by cyber-attacks in the United States. The Task Force explains that “Malign foreign influence operations did not begin in 2016,” but notes that the year marked a watershed in digitally assisted political interference. The report provides a typology of interference operations, including cyber-attacks on election infrastructure, cyber efforts to steal and/or disseminate sensitive information, “covert influence operations to assist or harm political organizations, campaigns, and public officials,” influence efforts using disinformation and sowing division, and “overt influence efforts.” Among other recommendations, the Task Force suggests that the Department of Justice must work closely with state and local officials to counter cyber-attacks on election infrastructure, enforce FARA, and partner with social media companies to disrupt malicious activities. (The Washington Post, Vox, Department of Justice)

Russian woman arrested for undisclosed political influence activities: Maria Butina, a Russian citizen with ties to Kremlin-linked official Alexander Torshin, was arrested and charged on July 16 with conspiracy to act as an unregistered Russian agent. Butina allegedly acted under Torshin’s instructions to advance Russian state interests by “identify[ing] and exploit[ing] personal connections” with influential Americans and the National Rifle Association (NRA). According to the filings, Butina used Torshin to inform Moscow of her activities, and collaborated with an “American political operative” to organize meetings with NRA officials and other influential people. Butina attended the 2016 and 2017 National Prayer Breakfasts, where the American operative tried to organize a Torshin-Trump meeting, and attempted to hold “friendship and dialogue dinners” between American political figures and Russians. On July 18, the government filed a memo seeking to have Butina held without bail prior to trial, deeming her a flight risk. The same day, Judge Deborah Robinson agreed with the prosecution that Butina should be detained. In April, Butina reportedly told the Senate Intelligence Committee that her gun rights organization, the Right to Bear Arms, was funded by Russian investor Konstantin Nikolaev. The Daily Beast first reported on Butina’s activities in February 2017, while Rolling Stone published an investigation in April detailing Russian efforts to influence the NRA. (The Washington Post, Justice Department, Lawfare, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone)

Tensions rise over alleged Chinese theft and interference: In a House Intelligence Committee hearing on July 19, witnesses testified about China’s use of both legal and illegal methods to obtain cutting edge U.S. technology and secure an economic advantage in the future. They pointed to cyber theft, industrial espionage, exchange students, forced technology transfers, and company acquisitions as the main tools Beijing uses to steal technology. According to The Wall Street Journal, despite stricter national security reviews, China is still investing heavily into American technology companies that are loosely regulated. On the other hand, the Chinese ambassador to the United States recently published an op-ed in which he refuted claims that China engages in intellectual property theft, and argued that many companies have benefited from investing in China. Meanwhile, The Daily Beast published an article on Australia’s recent report which found that China used political donations, media, and academia to influence political decisions in Australia. The issue pertains to the United States as well. The United Front, a Chinese government agency active in dozens of U.S. cities, uses operations that “resemble the CIA’s soft attempts to buy off, co-opt, or coerce influential community leaders,” in addition to traditional state propaganda. The United Front also targets Chinese living abroad with what one analyst described as the goal of turning “Americans against their own government’s interests and their society’s interests.” Some Senators have taken notice of Chinese information operations and political interference: On July 11, a group of 12 U.S. Senators urged the White House to develop a comprehensive strategy for Chinese interference in democracies worldwide. (House Intelligence Committee, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Daily Beast)

Facebook touts reforms amidst critical media, legislative scrutiny: Facebook endured yet another week of critical press and skepticism from Congress. In a July 17 House Judiciary Committee hearing, Republicans criticized Facebook for removing conservative posts and pages, while Democrats asked why notorious fake news site InfoWars remains on Facebook. Facebook policy chief Monika Bickert told the committee about the site’s content removal policies, but remained vague on the exact details; she admitted that “We don’t have a policy of removing fake news.” The same day, British MP Damian Collins said that Cambridge Analytica’s illicitly collected Facebook data “had been accessed from Russia and other countries,” drawing renewed attention to the social media giant’s recent privacy scandal. On July 18, Facebook announced that it would remove false information that could incite violence, a reaction to “episodes in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and India in which rumors that spread on Facebook led to real-world attacks on ethnic minorities.” In addition, Facebook-owned WhatsApp announced two days later that it would limit Indian users’ ability to forward content, a feature that has been blamed for facilitating the spread of false rumors that have sparked numerous “mob lynchings” in the country. (House Judiciary Committee, CNN, The New York Times, BBC News)

Oxford Internet Institute releases new report on social media manipulation: In a report that analyses new trends of social media manipulation, Oxford Internet Institute found evidence of “organized social media manipulation” campaigns in 48 countries – with political parties or government agencies using social media to manipulate public opinion; political parties spreading disinformation during elections; evidence of disinformation campaigns operating over chat applications; and computational propaganda making increasing use of paid advertisements and search engine optimization on Internet platforms. According to the report, since 2010, “political parties and governments have spent more than half a billion dollars on the research, development, and implementation of psychological operations and public opinion manipulation over social media.” In most countries, this involves “the spread of junk news and misinformation during elections, military crises, and complex humanitarian disasters.” (University of Oxford)

Evidence of Russian election interference and election infrastructure vulnerabilities grows: The Illinois State Board of Elections announced that the state’s voter registration database was “very likely” targeted by the Russian hackers charged by special counsel Robert Mueller with interfering in the 2016 presidential campaign. Researchers have also discovered that Russian operatives significantly ramped up their disinformation campaign over Twitter on the eve of WikiLeaks releasing emails from the Clinton campaign, suggesting that Russians may have known about the email dump in advance. In addition, the United States is learning more about past and existing election vulnerabilities. A top voting machine vendor recently admitted that it sold remote-access software to election management systems, which could create serious vulnerabilities. And The Washington Post called attention to vulnerabilities in Maryland’s election infrastructure due to its electronic information being stored by a firm with ties to Russian oligarchs – and even Putin himself. (The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, Motherboard)

United States considers actions to improve election security ahead of midterms: With the U.S. November midterms fast approaching, stakeholders across the country are beginning to take action to improve election security. All 50 states have now requested their portion of Congressionally appropriated funds intended to bolster the election security infrastructure across the country. Leadership on the Senate Armed Services Committee endorsed the Secure Elections Act, while support for the bipartisan DETER Act, which would implement mandatory sanctions for election interference, gained support this week. U.S. representatives Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Kathleen Rice (D-NY) urged President Trump to appoint a coordinator to run all U.S. election security efforts across the government, pointing out that agencies “cannot do their jobs effectively if they are working in a silo.” Additionally, the NSA and Cyber Command announced that they will be working together to combat Russian election interference. Despite growing support for election security, the House rejected a measure to increase election spending along party lines. Republicans argued that there was still plenty of funding left for states and additional funding would be unnecessary. (EAC, Politico, Congress.gov, Reuters, The Washington Post)

U.S. lawmakers introduce new bill for NATO members targeting Nord Stream 2: Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced the Energy Security Cooperation with Allied Partners in Europe (ESCAPE) Act on July 18, which aims to “improve energy security” for NATO members by imposing sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and easing restrictions on transatlantic exports and imports of U.S. natural gas for NATO members. The legislation states that the United States and other NATO member countries “should explore ways to ensure that NATO member countries diversify their energy supplies and routes in order to enhance their energy security, including through the development of a transatlantic energy strategy.” Senator Barrasso explained in a statement that the Act “will take this geopolitical weapon away from Russia by sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and facilitating the export of more American natural gas to our allies,” and added that President Trump was “absolutely right” to voice his concerns over the pipeline during his meeting with NATO members in Brussels earlier this month. Meanwhile, President Putin dismissed President Trump’s concerns over the pipeline, claiming that Ukraine will still be a part of Gazprom’s plans. (Senate.gov, The Hill, Forbes)

New findings on Russian interference efforts in Macedonia: Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told BuzzFeed News that his government has received multiple reports that “Greek businessmen” who are “sympathetic to the Russian cause” paid Macedonians amounts ranging from $13,000 to $21,000 to “commit acts of violence” ahead of a referendum that would allow the country to join NATO. According to Interior Ministry documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News’s reporting partners, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and Investigative Reporting Lab Macedonia, investigators have gathered evidence that a former Russian politician Ivan Savvidis has distributed more than $350,000 to Macedonian politicians, members of radical nationalist organizations, and “soccer hooligans … who participated in recent riots,” in an effort to provoke violence ahead of the referendum. While Savvidis did not respond directly to requests for comment from a BuzzFeed News reporter, his company released a statement saying, “We make it absolutely clear that businessman Ivan Savvidis has nothing to do with the allegations of this totally false and highly slanderous report.” Meanwhile, a new investigation revealed that the popular fake news sites that thrived in Macedonia in 2016 may have connections to Russia. According to senior Macedonian officials, Macedonian security agencies are cooperating with law enforcement in the United States and at least two Western European countries to “probe possible links between Russians, U.S. citizens, and the pro-Trump ‘fake news’ websites.” (Buzzfeed News, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project)

ASD’s Bret Schafer joined NPR’s Ari Shapiro to discuss the network of Russia-linked Twitter accounts monitored on ASD’s Hamilton 68 dashboard. Discussing the recent use of “#impeachtrump” on the dashboard, Schafer explained that the monitored accounts were “using a hashtag that probably started with the critics of the president and using the hashtag to undermine that position. So they’re using the same hashtag to draw the same viewers, but they’re actually saying that this is a ridiculous position that the president is promoting peace, et cetera, et cetera.”

ASD’s Laura Rosenberger participated in a conversation on PBS NewsHour with Judy Woodruff, where she discussed ASD’s efforts to monitor Russia’s use of social media to inflame domestic debates and how those efforts fit into the broader picture of Russian tactics to undermine American democracy. After noting several prominent examples where accounts operated by the Internet Research Agency weighed in on both sides of a controversial issue, Rosenberger noted how “we see these kinds of activities basically trying to stoke tensions within America.”

Laura Rosenberger was also interviewed on The Bill Press Show, where she spoke about the NATO summit, which she attended, the Helsinki summit, and her role with ASD. Rosenberger emphasized the bipartisan nature of ASD, stating that “so much of this [Russian interference] actually hinges on trying to divide Americans from each other … and we need to stand up against that.”

ASD’s Brittany Beaulieu moderated an Atlantic Council panel on “Russia’s Interference in the U.S. Judiciary,” featuring Vladimir Putin’s “number-one enemy,” Bill Browder; lawyer Pavel Ivlev; Dr. Anders Aslund of the Atlantic Council; and reporter Casey Michel of ThinkProgress. The experts discussed Russia’s use of “lawfare” to intimidate, harass, and bankrupt the Kremlin’s opponents, and proposed possible policy solutions. They also covered a wide range of related topics and recent news events, from anti-money laundering regulations to the Helsinki Summit.

Accounts tracked on the Hamilton 68 dashboard this week tweeted on a range of foreign policy issues surrounding U.S. – Russian relations. Early in the week, chatter on the dashboard centered on the outcome of the Trump-Putin Helsinki summit. Pro-Kremlin accounts seized on hashtags used to criticize the summit, such as #treasonsummit and #impeachtrump, to voice sarcastic messages against critics and share genuine support for the two presidents. Accounts also adopted the conspiracy theories and rhetoric publicized by Putin at the conference, launching unsubstantiated articles claiming that U.S. intelligence funneled $400 million to the Clinton campaign into the top URLs on the dashboard. Later in the week, accounts tracked on the dashboard seized on another Kremlin information operation by promoting “freemariabutina.” Butina was arrested on July 16 for failing to declare herself as a Russian foreign agent to the U.S. attorney general. On Thursday, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched an online campaign to #freemariabutina by changing the profile pictures of its social media accounts to a low-resolution photograph of Butina sharing the same message.

“We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security.”

– Daniel R. Coats, Director of National Intelligence, July 16, 2018

“Exposing schemes to the public is an important way to neutralize them. The American people have a right to know if foreign governments are targeting them with propaganda.”

– Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, July 19, 2018

Kremlin disinformation proves effective on its most important target audience, Russians. July 17 marked the fourth anniversary of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine by a Russian anti-aircraft missile, killing all 298 civilians on board. An international team of investigators revealed earlier this year that the missile was transported across the Russia-Ukraine border by the Russian military, and several countries have called on the Kremlin to take responsibility for the downing. Since 2014, the Kremlin has consistently proliferated a wide range of conspiracy theories regarding the downing in an attempt to muddle the truth of the event and prevent the establishment of a clear, shared narrative implicating Russia. A report by The Moscow Times interviewed Russian citizens in Moscow to gather their thoughts on MH17 on the fourth anniversary of its downing. The responses revealed that Kremlin disinformation efforts have successfully sowed enough confusion and doubt surrounding the events that Russian citizens are unable to distinguish fact from fiction, allowing the Putin regime to shed responsibility.

The views expressed in GMF publications and commentary are the views of the author alone.