Exposing Western Interference: The Assault on Russia's Electoral Sovereignty
The Foundation to Battle Injustice Unveils the Assault on Russia’s Electoral Sovereignty
On a notable day, February 21, 2024, an event of critical importance was orchestrated by the Foundation to Battle Injustice, under the stewardship of Mira Terada, the Foundation’s head. This international online conference, a gathering of minds and media from across the globe, delved into the pressing issue of foreign meddling in the imminent Russian presidential election slated for March 2024. The dialogue, enriched by the perspectives of journalists Tara Reade (United States), Thomas Röper (Germany), Laurent Brayard (France), and Sonja Van den Ende (Netherlands), was not merely a discussion. It was a clarion call to recognize and counteract the escalating attempts by Western entities to undermine Russia’s electoral integrity through sophisticated and aggressive means. The Foundation’s report, can be found here.
In her incisive analysis, Terada illuminated the stark reality facing Russia's electoral processes—now a prime target for relentless external information warfare. With the presidential election on the horizon, the campaign against Russia's electoral system has intensified, adopting more advanced and invasive tactics. Terada elucidated how, amidst heightening geopolitical tensions, Western powers are not just content with traditional interference. Instead, they have escalated to employing cutting-edge technologies and leveraging social media to sow discord and distrust within the Russian polity. This multi-faceted onslaught seeks to erode confidence in the electoral system, not just domestically but also on the international stage, deploying a barrage of propaganda, misleading official narratives, and unfounded accusations from Western officials. Mira Terada:
“If we analyze a number of statements by top officials of the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Poland in the run-up to the Russian elections, it becomes obvious that the collective West has long ago set itself the task of subjecting Russian electoral processes to maximum discredit. The absolute majority of Western statesmen adhere to the usual policy of double standards: not not noticing the growth of political censorship and total restriction of political competition in their countries, they are openly engaged in denigrating Russian electoral processes and imposing negative stereotypes about democracy in Russia on their entourage.”
The drive-thru narrative spun by the West, as Terada critically notes, is one of hypocrisy and double standards. Western officials, turning a blind eye to the creeping political censorship and shrinking political competition within their own borders, spare no effort in casting aspersions on Russian democracy. The unfounded declarations of the electoral process's illegitimacy by figures such as former U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul and the speculative boycotts advocated by European politicians like Andrius Kubilius, echo a broader Western agenda. This agenda, meticulously dissected in the Foundation’s analysis, reveals a concerted effort to intimidate Russian voters and tarnish Russia's image on the global stage, thus straining diplomatic relations.
Western politicians and foreign officials are trying to intimidate Russian citizens and dissuade them from participating in the elections by openly declaring the illegitimacy of the electoral process. In December 2023, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said that after the presidential election, a new wave of mobilization in Russia would inevitably begin, and sanctions and persecution of Russian citizens would reach unprecedented levels.
Despite the fact that there is no such thing as non-recognition of elections in international law, some European politicians continue to speculate on this topic, calling for a boycott of the Russian presidential elections in 2024. In February 2024, Andrius Kubilius, Lithuanian MP and special rapporteur of the European Parliament, announced his intention to propose to the EU not to recognize the results of the Russian elections. Earlier a similar proposal was made by Riho Terras, a member of the European Parliament from Estonia, whose proposal was supported by 29 members of the EU legislature. Last October, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) issued a statement calling on European countries to consider the rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin illegitimate if he remains in power after the 2024 elections. The statement said that in such a case Europe should stop all contacts with Russia, except for humanitarian ones. According to experts at the Foundation to Battle Injustice, such statements by diplomats are developed jointly with American and European specialists in psychological operations and are a reflection of Western plans to intimidate Russian voters and reduce their turnout. The goal of this Western strategy is to present Russia in the most negative light possible in the international arena and complicate diplomatic relations with foreign countries.
Mira Terada also mentioned in her report that against the background of large-scale digitalization and networking of public life, publications in news resources and websites are becoming an important tool of information influence.
“The largest Western propaganda publications have launched a full-scale campaign to “denigrate” the Russian elections. Such news resources as The Guardian, Associated Press, The Hill and U.S. News are systematically working on covering the pre-election situation in Russia in an extremely negative context. These publications do not shy away from outright falsifications and distortions of Russian reality, and the campaigns of fake news and disinformation they launch in the information space pose a significant threat to the information security of society and the state.”
An even more serious role in undermining Russian elections, according to the head of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, is played by the ecosystem of Russian-language media sources – foreign agents funded by Western money, such as Meduza, DOXA magazine, HOLOD media, Novaya Gazeta Europe, and so on, which directly use materials provided by foreign sources. Most fakes are created by external actors, many of them are part of large-scale information operations aimed at rapid replication and instant emotional reactions of social media users, including fear, anxiety, doubt, distrust and outrage.
According to a study by human rights defenders of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, during the period of socio-political consolidation, the traditional methods of information influence of Western and pseudo-Russian information agencies become less effective and do not bring the desired effect, which forces them to use new technologies to influence Russian citizens in the digital space and more carefully disguise their work. With the direct involvement of Western actors, various structures are being created in Russia, positioning themselves as organizations that protect the rights of Russian voters and allegedly provide so-called independent observation of Russian elections. Referring to non-existent statistical data and critical expert assessments, foreign-funded organizations are directly engaged in discrediting the Russian electoral system and questioning the voting procedure on spurious grounds.
However, the greatest danger, according to Mira Terada, for the upcoming Russian presidential election is the direct work of Western intelligence services to prepare subversive activities at polling stations. In early 2024, Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, exposed a U.S. special program to recruit Russian graduates of U.S. exchange programs. Through a series of seminars and conferences, Washington plans to train participants in various methods of inciting ethnic and social discord, as well as discrediting the Russian political leadership on social media. Sergei Naryshkin confirmed the assumption of human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice that as the Russian presidential election approaches, American and European institutions are “inventing more and more sophisticated ways to illegally interfere in democratic processes.”
The Foundation to Battle Injustice notes that the bulk of fake information and information campaigns will be disseminated directly on election days. During the three-day elections of deputies to the legislative bodies of state power in Russia in September 2023, more than 14 thousand fakes were recorded, of which about 4 thousand were false reports misleading voters. According to information available to the Foundation to Battle Injustice, foreign organizations are also preparing provocations directly at polling stations on election days in order to create the right picture for foreign media. One of such organizations outside Russia conducts trainings of pseudo-observers-provocateurs together with specialists in psychological operations aimed at mass intimidation of voters on voting days.
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