Securing Democracy Dispatch

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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.

Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week:

• Threats of World War III: Russian officials threatened NATO countries with the prospect of World War III following US President Joe Biden’s administration’s decision to permit Ukraine to use US-supplied long-range missiles for attacks on Russian territory. Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev declared that the use of NATO missiles to strike Russian territory can be qualified “as an attack by the bloc’s countries” and gives Russia “a right to retaliate with weapons of mass destruction against Kyiv and the main NATO facilities”. Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov emphasized that striking deep into Russia with Western long-range weapons means that the outgoing US administration intends to escalate the war, a sentiment echoed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. RT en Español quoted Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of health and human services, who claimed that the current administration wants to start World War III before it leaves the White House.

• Cabinet nominees: Russian state media last week covered several of Trump’s cabinet nominees. RT in Arabic criticized US Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth for his tattoos, which they suggested represent “the slaughter of Muslims in the holy war” and indicate his firm pro-Israel stance. Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz, nominees for secretary of state and the national security advisor, respectively, were labeled “anti-Russian hawks”. State media had more positive responses to the nominations of Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Kennedy for secretary of health and human services. Sputnik India blamed the US “Deep State and its supporters” for attacking Gabbard, while RIA Novosti reported that the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine had deleted publications accusing Gabbard of working for “Kremlin money”. Additionally, propagandist Vladimir Solovyov recalled that Kennedy has repeatedly condemned “the pumping of weapons into Kyiv’s regime” and has stated that “there was no chance” for Ukraine to win the conflict. 

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: 

• Xi-Biden Meeting: On November 16, PRC President Xi Jinping met with Biden in Lima, Peru. Most PRC diplomats who posted about the meeting mirrored the dispassionate tone of Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Hua Chunying and the PRC embassy in the United States, deploring rivalry and competition, and calling for partnership and friendship. Xinhua reported that Xi warned Biden of “red lines”, including “the Taiwan question, democracy and human rights”. China Daily also noted that Xi denounced US restrictions on the Chinese tech sector. On a decidedly less diplomatic note, the PRC Consul General in Belfast, Ireland asked whether Biden was late for a photo after “changing his diaper”.
• Infrastructure Competition: The opening of a new port in Chancay, Peru was promoted by both diplomats and state media as a project that would “revolutionize regional trade”, create “huge revenues” and “direct job opportunities”, and act as a “a starting point of an Inca Trail of the New Era”. The Global Times attacked a suggestion that goods going through Chancay could be subjected to US tariffs and Pakistan-based diplomat Zhang Heqing amplified commentary denigrating a US initiative to provide trains to Lima. The editor-in-chief of the China Internet Information Center, Wang Xiaohui, contrasted “China’s large-scale investments” to “outdated” US efforts in Latin America.

EU agency, several news outlets eyeing the exits on X: The EU’s Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is considering leaving X, while trusted news outlets like the Guardian and Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia have already announced that they will no longer post their articles on the platform, citing growing issues with X, including rampant bots, partisan advertisements, and hate speech. Senior Fellow Bret Schafer told the Dispatch, “While I understand the push factors leading many organizations to flee X, there is a need—particularly for government agencies—to meet audiences where they are. I’m concerned that if authoritative accounts abandon X en masse, that will simply lead to more informational fragmentation, less trust in authoritative voices, and fewer opportunities for credible information to reach skeptics. That does not mean that X should be prioritized, but for now, it shouldn’t be abandoned.”

FBI investigates post-election text threats sent to minority groups: The FBI is investigating a series of text messages sent to Black, Latino, and LGBTQ people in more than 20 states threatening to respectively enslave, deport, or send them to reeducation camps days after the election; some of the messages falsely purported to be from the “Trump campaign” or his supporters. Co-Managing Director Rachael Dean Wilson said, “Effective information operations often use emotionally charged—and in this case incredibly offensive and threatening—content to bring about the desired response, be it fear, division, distrust, etc. or action. After a polarizing election, the transition period will be ripe for false information campaigns, which can be tailored to the individual as demonstrated by this example. Americans need to be on the lookout for this type of threatening information campaign and ready to report it.”

Czech secret service accuses Russia of orchestrating school bomb threats: Czechia’s intelligence chief has accused Russia of orchestrating a wave of hoax bomb threats that forced hundreds of schools in Czechia and Slovakia to shut down for several days in early September. Co-Managing Director David Salvo said, “Bomb threats have become another low-risk, high-reward tactic in the Russian playbook to try to disrupt and destabilize democratic societies. What’s notable is that Russian actors aren’t using bomb threats solely to target official institutions or functions like elections—though that allegedly happened in the United States earlier this month. Increasingly, they’re using sabotage techniques to target social services and functions. Schools and cargo airlines delivering goods to citizens, for example, are basic social services we rely on. Much in the way that ransomware can shut down or disrupt banks and hospitals, bomb threats are an easy way to make fraught the mundane, ordinary aspects of living in a free society. When you think about it, that objective isn’t all that different from terrorism.”

In Case You Missed It

• Election offices in over half of Minnesota’s counties have received bomb threats since last Friday, according to the secretary of state’s office.
• A former poll worker was indicted for allegedly mailing a fake bomb threat to a polling station in Jones County, Georgia.
• One in five US adults regularly receive their news from online news influencers, who are more likely to lean politically right than left, a Pew Research Center survey of accounts across major platforms finds.
• Two individuals in Italy are under investigation for supplying sensitive information about Italian military installations and surveillance systems in Milan and Rome to Russian intelligence in exchange for cryptocurrency payments.
• A bipartisan pair of US senators introduced a bill that would strengthen an interagency federal body’s authority to assess threats from technology products made by companies with ties to the PRC and other US adversaries.

“For the last 1,000 days, in its war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia has killed many thousands and repeatedly violated international law. … We are convinced that this is the moment when we must deliver and ensure that our citizens live in peace, freedom, and prosperity.”

—A joint declaration from a meeting of the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom in Warsaw on November 19.

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