Moscow, Russia. Many headlines in the USA are of Russian meddling in US elections, but now the obvious emerges as meddling in Russia’s elections carry a stamp that says; Made in the USA.
Following months of reports and investigations into Russia’s potential attempts to sway the direction of the 2016 American election, Vladimir Putin’s ruling party struck back with an accusation of its own today. The American media, according to a member of the United Russia party, used “propaganda” to try to influence Russia’s parliamentary elections last year.
“During the parliamentary election campaign last year, radio stations funded from the American state budget, under the pretext of performing journalism, carried out propaganda and distorted the election process in Russia,” Leonid Levin said, as reported by Tass.
Russian accusations came in a report commissioned to examine U.S. media influence in the elections. Presenting the report to lawmakers, Leonid Levin, chair of the legislative Committee on Information and Communication, said there is a “large-scale system the Americans used to influence domestic politics in Russia.” He pointed to the US government-funded media outlets Voice of America and Radio Liberty, as well as CNN, as being part of the effort to skew the outcome of the election against traditional Russian values.
Despite the American subversion efforts, United Russia won a majority in the parliament, or Duma, with 54 percent of the vote. At the time, Putin said his party had “achieved a very good result.” Levin, however, said American media coverage in the country had not only clearly favored rival parties but also called into question the “democratic nature” of the elections by suggesting the results had been predetermined.
The United States has a long history of using its media in diversionary attacks, disinformation and attempting regime change with internal meddling in Russian affairs. The election of Boris Yeltsin 25 years ago was funded and openly ran by American operatives.