Americans can spot election meddling because they’ve been doing it for years

As I write, president-elect Donald Trump – soon to become the most powerful individual on Earth – is having a tantrum on his Twitter feed. Losing the popular vote can have devastating consequences for a bigoted plutocrat’s ego, and accusations that Vladimir Putin’s regime intervened to his advantage are getting him down. “The ‘intelligence’ briefing on so-called ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed until Friday,” he claims (falsely, apparently), “perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!” Did Putin intervene in the US election? It is entirely plausible, although evidence from the CIA (with its dubious record) and the FBI needs to be carefully scrutinised, whatever our feelings on Trump. And if the Democratic establishment pin the supposedly unthinkable calamity of Trump’s triumph on a foreign power, they will fail to learn the real lessons behind their defeat.
The president-elect has repeatedly proven that an understanding of the complex problems presented by technology eludes him, but that hasn’t stopped him tweeting about it. The consequences could be dire
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That doesn’t mean alleged interference by the Russian regime shouldn’t be taken seriously. Putin heads a hard-right, kleptocratic, authoritarian government that persecutes LGBT people, waged a murderous war in Chechnya, and has committed terrible crimes in Syria in alliance with Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship. It is a pin-up for populist rightwingers across the west, from Trump to Ukip, from France’s Front National to Austria’s Freedom party. Its undemocratic manoeuvres should be scrutinised and condemned.
But while Americans feel justifiably angry at alleged interference with their political process, they have also been handed a mirror, and the reflection should disturb them.
For the US is a world leader in the field of intervening in the internal affairs of other countries. The alleged interference is far more extensive than hacking into emails belonging to unfavoured political parties. According to research by political scientist Dov Levin, the US and the USSR/Russia together intervened no less than 117 times in foreign elections between 1946 and 2000, or “one out of every nine competitive, national-level executive elections”.
Indeed, one cannot understand US-Russian relations today without acknowledging America’s role in the internal affairs of its defeated cold war foe. As Stephen Cohen puts it, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the approach of US advisers “was nothing less than missionary – a virtual crusade to transform post-communist Russia into some facsimile of the American democratic and capitalist system”.
As soon as Bill Clinton assumed the White House in 1993, his experts discussed “formulating a policy of American tutelage”, including unabashed partisan support for President Boris Yeltsin. “Political missionaries and evangelists, usually called ‘advisers’, spread across Russia in the early and mid-1990s,” notes Cohen: many were funded by the US government. Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security adviser, talked of Russia “increasingly passing into de facto western receivership”.
The results were, to put it mildly, disastrous. Between 1990 and 1994, life expectancy for Russian men and women fell from 64 and 74 years respectively to 58 and 71 years. The surge in mortality was “beyond the peacetime experience of industrialised countries”. While it was boom time for the new oligarchs, poverty and unemployment surged; prices were hiked dramatically; communities were devastated by deindustrialisation; and social protections were stripped away. To the horror of the west, Yeltsin’s popularity nosedived to the point where a communist triumph in the 1996 presidential elections could not be ruled out. Yeltsin turned to the oligarchs, using their vast resources to run an unscrupulous campaign. As Leonid Bershidsky puts it, it was “a momentous event that undermined a fragile democracy and led to the emergence of Vladimir Putin’s dictatorial regime”. It is even alleged that, in 2011, Putin’s key ally – then-president Dmitry Medvedev – privately suggested the election was rigged. In the run-up to the election, Russia was granted a huge US-backed IMF loan that – as the New York Times noted at the time – was “expected to be helpful to President Boris N Yeltsin in the presidential election”.

The Guardian

Americans can spot election meddling because theyve been doing it for years

As I write, president-elect Donald Trump soon to become the most powerful individual on Earth is having a tantrum on his Twitter feed. Losing the popular vote can have devastating consequences for a bigoted plutocrats ego, and accusations that Vladimir Putins regime intervened to his advantage are getting him down. The intelligence briefing on so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, he claims (falsely, apparently), perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Did Putin intervene in the US election? It is entirely plausible, although evidence from the CIA (with its dubious record) and the FBI needs to be carefully scrutinised, whatever our feelings on Trump. And if the Democratic establishment pin the supposedly unthinkable calamity of Trumps triumph on a foreign power, they will fail to learn the real lessons behind their defeat. The president-elect has repeatedly proven that an understanding of the complex problems presented by technology eludes him, but that hasnt stopped him tweeting about it. The consequences could be dire Read more That doesnt mean alleged interference by the Russian regime shouldnt be taken seriously. Putin heads a hard-right, kleptocratic, authoritarian government that persecutes LGBT people, waged a murderous war in Chechnya, and has committed terrible crimes in Syria in alliance with Bashar al-Assads dictatorship. It is a pin-up for populist rightwingers across the west, from Trump to Ukip, from Frances Front National to Austrias Freedom party. Its undemocratic manoeuvres should be scrutinised and condemned. But while Americans feel justifiably angry at alleged interference with their political process, they have also been handed a mirror, and the reflection should disturb them. For the US is a world leader in the field of intervening in the internal affairs of other countries. The alleged interference is far more extensive than hacking into emails belonging to unfavoured political parties. According to research by political scientist Dov Levin, the US and the USSR/Russia together intervened no less than 117 times in foreign elections between 1946 and 2000, or one out of every nine competitive, national-level executive elections. Indeed, one cannot understand US-Russian relations today without acknowledging Americas role in the internal affairs of its defeated cold war foe. As Stephen Cohen puts it, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the approach of US advisers was nothing less than missionary a virtual crusade to transform post-communist Russia into some facsimile of the American democratic and capitalist system. As soon as Bill Clinton assumed the White House in 1993, his experts discussed formulating a policy of American tutelage, including unabashed partisan support for President Boris Yeltsin. Political missionaries and evangelists, usually called advisers, spread across Russia in the early and mid-1990s, notes Cohen: many were funded by the US government. Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security adviser, talked of Russia increasingly passing into de facto western receivership. The results were, to put it mildly, disastrous. Between 1990 and 1994, life expectancy for Russian men and women fell from 64 and 74 years respectively to 58 and 71 years. The surge in mortality was beyond the peacetime experience of industrialised countries. While it was boom time for the new oligarchs, poverty and unemployment surged; prices were hiked dramatically; communities were devastated by deindustrialisation; and social protections were stripped away. To the horror of the west, Yeltsins popularity nosedived to the point where a communist triumph in the 1996 presidential elections could not be ruled out. Yeltsin turned to the oligarchs, using their vast resources to run an unscrupulous campaign. As Leonid Bershidsky puts it, it was a momentous event that undermined a fragile democracy and led to the emergence of Vladimir Putins dictatorial regime. It is even alleged that, in 2011, Putins key ally then-president Dmitry Medvedev privately suggested the election was rigged. In the run-up to the election, Russia was granted a huge US-backed IMF loan that as the New York Times noted at the time was expected to be helpful to President Boris N Yeltsin in the presidential election. The Guardian