Russia has meddled in European elections – and will do so again, Democrat report claims
Report claims Trump has ignored the threat by Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin has systematically attacked democratic institutions across Europe and in his own country for two decades in efforts to undermine elections and other governments, a report by US Senate Democrats has announced.
Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a 206-page report that said President Donald Trump’s failure to recognise the danger or to challenge Putin means Russia is likely to interfere in the next US presidential race in a repeat of the 2016 campaign.
“Never before in American history has so clear a threat to national security been so clearly ignored by a US president,” said the report, released by Senator Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the committee.
“President Trump must be clear-eyed about the Russian threat,” Cardin said, and “take action to strengthen our government’s response and our institutions.”
The House and Senate intelligence committees and the Senate Judiciary Committee are all investigating aspects of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, conducting hearings and interviews. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee did not conduct a similar inquiry.
The report details Putin’s use of what it called his “asymmetric arsenal” to thwart fragile democratic processes in neighbouring Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet Republics, as well as efforts to undermine elections in long-established democracies in Britain, Germany and France.