Matt Bush, FISM News
A review by the U.S. intelligence community revealed that Russia has spent more than $300 million in payments directly to foreign politicians, officials, and political parties all over the world, according to a CNN report that cited an anonymous Biden administration official.
“In its review, the IC found that Russia has covertly transferred over $300 million dollars, and planned to covertly transfer at least hundreds of millions more to foreign political parties, officials, and politicians in more than two dozen countries and across four continents in this period. Russia likely has transferred additional funds covertly in cases that have gone undetected,” the senior Biden administration official told reporters.
Democrats and legacy media outlets have incessantly accused Russia of meddling in American elections since 2016. However, those claims were rarely, if ever, backed by evidence pointing toward direct contact with political leaders. This appears to be a continuation of the same.
George Szamuely, a senior research fellow at the Global Policy Institute, highlighted the far-from-surprising narrative coming from the Biden administration.
What a shock! Eight weeks from an election, and the US media/political establishment are once again running with the "Russia is interfering in our elections!" story. The script never gets old. https://t.co/Gccmaet1fN
— George Szamuely (@GeorgeSzamuely) September 14, 2022
The $300 million, allegedly spent since 2014 — which conveniently fits the narrative of Democrats, who lost control of the Senate and 13 seats in the House that year — has been for direct influence on governments around the world. A Forbes article states, “The money was often covertly sent to politicians and parties through think tanks, fake contracts, state-owned enterprises, and shell companies.”
While the money sent to these countries was sent “covertly” as mentioned in numerous articles, this was not a subtle attempt by Russia to influence governments and democracies around the world. In many cases, these allegedly were direct payments into the hands of politicians and leaders for political favor later or to directly help them win elections.
The State Department sent a cable marked “sensitive” to U.S. embassies and consulates around the world with talking points regarding the information. According to that cable, it is believed that Russia planned to transfer “hundreds of millions more” dollars to sympathetic politicians and regimes.
Rather than keeping this information gathered by U.S. intelligence quiet and attacking the problem covertly, the Biden administration has been upfront and vocal about it. Similar to releasing information leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the world, the White House has fought covert attacks with communication and so-called openness that, likely not coincidentally, benefits Democrats politically.
According to CNN, a U.S. intelligence official said, “By shining this light on Russian covert political financing and Russian attempts to undermine democratic processes, we’re putting these foreign parties and candidates on notice that if they accept Russian money secretly, we can and we will expose it. So we really see this multifaceted benefit from sharing this IC study in the way that we are.”
Despite the official’s claim, the administration did not explicitly expose any individual politicians in the report. According to NBC News, some of the countries influenced by Russia include “Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, and the east African island nation of Madagascar.”
The Biden administration has expressed hope that this information will succeed in “raising global awareness about the threat of Russian covert political financing, triggering other countries to come back to the U.S. with their own information about Russia’s operations, and making clear that Russia’s covert political influence is a global phenomenon that demands coordinated action.”
Additional edits and reporting by Jacob Fuller, FISM News.