Heightened Russia, China meddling in 2022 US midterm elections as compared to 2018, reveals declassified report

A recently disclosed intelligence report has revealed heightened attempts by China, Russia, and Iran to interfere in the 2022 US midterm elections compared to their involvement in the 2018 midterms, according to a report. According to The Hill, the intelligence report, produced in December 2022 and declassified last week, presents the assessments of the US intelligence community (IC) regarding foreign threats during the elections. Although no evidence pointed to a directive from foreign leaders for a comprehensive influence campaign akin to Russia’s actions in 2016, the report highlights an increased level of foreign activity compared to 2018. The IC observed a “diverse and growing group of foreign actors” engaging in such operations, emphasizing China’s greater willingness to conduct election influence activities. The report attributes the rise in foreign involvement to shifting geopolitical risk calculations, the normalization of election influence activities, the low cost but potential high rewards, and increased emphasis on election security in IC collection and analysis. Contrary to continuous efforts to gain access to election infrastructure or manipulate votes, the foreign actors now concentrate on “amplifying authentic US public narratives” to influence electoral outcomes and foster sociopolitical divisions, offering deniability as they propagate US content. The intelligence community, with high confidence, concluded that the Russian government and its proxies aimed to denigrate the Democratic Party and undermine confidence in the elections, likely to diminish US support for Ukraine. Kremlin intelligence services extensively researched US audiences, identifying target demographics, narratives, and platforms. With high confidence, the IC also assessed that China tacitly approved efforts to influence specific midterm races against politicians perceived as anti-China. The report suggests that China’s growing efforts to amplify US societal divisions may be a response to perceived US attempts to promote democracy at China’s expense. The intelligence community, with moderate confidence, determined that Iran sought to exploit perceived social divisions and undermine confidence in US democratic institutions. Iran’s efforts were likely constrained by available resources amid internal unrest. The report further notes that various foreign actors, including Cuba, took steps to undermine US politicians seeking reelection. Cuba’s efforts, described as smaller in scale and more narrowly targeted than those of China, Iran, and Russia, focused on candidates in Florida while attempting to shape impressions of other US politicians, as reported by The Hill. With inputs from agencies