The findings are contained in a classified report on foreign influence in elections, which American intelligence agencies handed to lawmakers at the beginning of the week, Agence reported, citing the American publication Politico.
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner and the top Democrat on the House counterpart committee, Jim Himes, said that Russia is trying to discredit politicians who support Ukraine, and that both Democrats and Republicans may be in Moscow’s sights. Himes added that such operations are meant to sow distrust in American institutions and voting equipment and create a “sense of chaos and anarchy”.
According to Warner, Russia is using artificial intelligence to spread disinformation faster and target audiences more precisely. The lawmakers did not name specific politicians, and intelligence agencies did not detect attempts to hack election infrastructure or the computer networks of campaign headquarters.
The same report also discusses operations by China and Iran, but lawmakers singled out the scale of Russia’s actions. A representative for Republican Rick Crawford, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, criticized Democrats for disclosing information from the secret document and accused them of selective quoting.
Reports about Russia’s campaign to interfere in the 2026 US elections began in September, when the disinformation network “Matryoshka” posted videos featuring Hollywood celebrities supposedly urging people to vote against Democrats. Then The New York Times, citing intelligence officials, reported that the Kremlin had authorized a covert campaign to undermine trust in the elections and sought to sow chaos rather than ensure the victory of one party.
Later, the research company Graphika described attacks on nine Democratic candidates, including Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, and linked fake videos and fabricated posts to the Russian network “Matryoshka” and the “Foundation to Battle Injustice” created by Yevgeny Prigozhin. In mid-October, Bloomberg reported on 130 fake videos and fake newspaper pages spread by “Matryoshka” from September 10 to October 9, and X announced the removal of more than 13,000 accounts linked to alleged operations by Russia, Iran, and China.
