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Securing Democracy Dispatch
Announcements This is the Dispatch’s final edition of 2024. We will resume our usual publishing schedule on Thursday, January 9, 2025. Happy holidays to all our readers! Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: Assassination of Russian General: Russian officials and state media implied that the United States assisted the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) with the assassination of Russian General Igor Kirillov. On the eve of the attack, Ukrainian prosecutors charged Kirillov, the head of the Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear Defense Troops of the Russian Armed Forces, with using banned chemical weapons in Ukraine. Russia
Securing Democracy Dispatch
Our Takes Especially after Iran targeted US President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 election cycle, his incoming administration should build on existing US government work to counter foreign interference in the United States, including by maintaining current institutional structures, Co-Managing Director David Salvo wrote. The EU must “more forcefully confront the revisionist regimes that use hybrid tactics” against European infrastructure, elections, and democratic institutions or risk turning “the continent into a mere battleground for larger powers”, Research Analyst Etienne Soula told the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state med
Keep the US Government Focused on Combating Foreign Interference Operations
The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) detailed charges against Iranian operatives involved in the plot to assassinate Donald Trump during the recent presidential campaign should dispel any skepticism about US national security threats emanating from foreign interference operations. If Trump is serious about advancing “peace through strength”, he should advance US government efforts to push back against these threats. After all, it is his administration that foreign adversaries will target in the next four years to destabilize the United States domestically and undermine its interests abroad. For the moment, however, such threats do not appear to be a priority. Elon Musk’s alleged t
Securing Democracy Dispatch
Announcements Co-Managing Director David Salvo moderated a panel on democratic resilience at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s 70th Annual Session in Montreal. Read about the conclusions agreed at the summit here! Our Takes The chief task for strengthening the state of US democracy in the next decade will be “finding a way to engage the political middle, not just to turn out every four years … but to actually be engaged in politics and help govern”, Co-Managing Director Rachael Dean Wilson told Fox News. “The easiest way for foreign governments to win an information operation is to sow chaos. … As domestic turmoil deepens, the United States is forced to focus on int
Rachael Dean Wilson Interviewed on Fox News about Reengaging the Political Middle and More
Co-Managing Director Rachael Dean Wilson spoke to Fox News about the importance of reengaging the political middle and those who have disengaged from politics in the United States, among other topics. [fusion_button link="https://youtu.be/ZWwTAvtxAao?si=5uXb2bnVPABCPFMt" title="" target="_self" link_attributes="" alignment_medium="" alignment_small="" alignment="" modal="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" sticky_display="normal,sticky" class="" id="" color="default" button_gradient_top_color_hover="" hue="" saturation="" lightness="" alpha="" button_gradient_top_color="" button_gradient_bottom_color_hover="" button_gradient_bottom_color="" gradient_star
Securing Democracy Dispatch
Announcements The Securing Democracy Dispatch will take a break next week to celebrate Thanksgiving! We will resume the following week. Come work with us! ASD is hiring a Washington, DC-based research trainee for Spring 2025. Learn more and apply here! Our Takes Foreign interference has undoubtedly evolved, becoming more sophisticated and extensive since Russia’s sweeping operation in 2016, but so have the US government’s strategies to expose, counter, and mitigate these attacks as demonstrated in the 2024 election cycle, Research Assistant Krystyna Sikora writes for ASD. Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week:
Interference Interrupted: The US Government’s Strides Defending Against Foreign Threats to the 2024 Election
This year’s US election cycle was marked by increasingly brazen attempts by foreign actors to interfere and influence voters. Iran orchestrated a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump and successfully accessed documents from his campaign and leaked them to the media. Russia created dozens of websites that masqueraded as legitimate US news outlets and funneled money to a Tennessee-based company that contracted American media personalities to spread Kremlin talking points. Finally, the People’s Republic of China sought to sway down-ballot races by using bot accounts to post negative content about congressional candidates it deemed anti-China. Foreign interfere
Securing Democracy Dispatch
Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: Nuclear Threat: Russian state media escalated its nuclear warmongering, following several public statements from government officials and national security experts. In his keynote speech at the Valdai Discussion Club meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that there was no guarantee that the West would not employ nuclear weapons, a phrase repeated by many news outlets. Meanwhile, Sputnik Ossetia renewed allegations that Ukraine is capable of creating a dirty bomb with plutonium from its nuclear power plants, while TASS news agency quoted the Secretary of the Security Counc
Bret Schafer Interviewed on CBS News about Suspected Russian Threats Against US Polling Places
Senior Fellow Bret Schafer joined CBS News to discuss faux bomb threats at US polling places that originated from Russian domains. [fusion_button link="https://youtu.be/_Zh66-fzcXo?si=2VtKOhYD_9qNmBPb" title="" target="_self" link_attributes="" alignment_medium="" alignment_small="" alignment="" modal="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" sticky_display="normal,sticky" class="" id="" color="default" button_gradient_top_color_hover="" hue="" saturation="" lightness="" alpha="" button_gradient_top_color="" button_gradient_bottom_color_hover="" button_gradient_bottom_color="" gradient_start_position="" gradient_end_position="" gradient_type="" radial_directi
Securing Democracy Dispatch
Our Takes Leading up to Election Day, Russian influence campaigns shifted from targeting candidates or policies to eroding Americans’ “trust of the actual administration” of the elections, recognizing confidence around the process as a “real fault line” in US politics, Senior Fellow Bret Schafer told CNN. Furthermore, if the Kremlin was behind the fake bomb threats called in to US polling places on Election Day, it represents “a huge escalation”, Schafer told NBC News, and potentially a new page in their election interference playbook, especially given they seemingly adopted the same tactic in Moldova’s election last weekend, Investigative Open-Source Analyst Larissa