A recently declassified US intelligence report shows a direct correlation between the current impasse in the US Congress on aid to Ukraine and Russian intelligence operations.
www.kyivpost.com
Russian military commanders, in cooperation with the
Kremlin propaganda campaign, delayed withdrawal from Kherson to prevent giving Democrats a positive takeaway on Ukraine prior to the 2022 midterms, according to intelligence reported by the CIA, FBI, NSA, Homeland Security and the State Department between June and December of 2022.
Russian forces, surrounded on three sides with the Dnipro River at their back, were allowed to take heavy casualties for months after the bridges by which they were supplied were destroyed by HIMARS missles.
Russia publicly announced its withdrawal from Kherson on November 9 - the day after the November 8 election. The casualties were sustained solely for the purposes of influencing public opinion in the US, targeting Republicans to reduce support for Ukraine. The Russian narrative was enthusiastically picked up by political and media supporters of Donald Trump.
Fox News repeated a string of
Kremlin talking points intended to undermine US support for the defense of Ukraine from the continued Russian invasion, going so far as to cast Ukraine as the aggressor.
This is the first major American corporation to announce plans to manufacture arms in Ukraine.
Among Republican politicians, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has led the way in normalizing extremist pro-Russian propaganda, making a public appearance at a
pro-Putin rally and calling the defense of Ukraine a corrupt scheme. She citied a Russian propaganda outlet that was
sanctioned by the US Treasury Department over alleged interference in the 2020 presidential elections as her source.
On the US Senate side,
Tommy Tuberville of Alabama blames Democrats, claiming Democrats “created” the war in Ukraine - exactly
parroting the Kremlin influence operation, and has gone so far as to green-light a Russian takeover of Ukraine, opining against all contrary evidence that he
sees no risk of further Russian aggression once Ukraine is subdued.
Donald Trump, who
campaigned by praising Putin for invading Crimea and took up the call to
end sanctions against Russia as a primary foreign policy goal, personally fed pro-Kremlin narratives, including unsupported, self-serving conspiracy theories that have their
origin with Russian intelligence. One element of the first impeachment was Trump’s attempt to pressure President Zelensky into announcing an investigation into whether it was Ukraine, not Russia, that hacked the DNC and disseminated emails embarrassing to the Clinton campaign prior to the 2016 election.
According to the National Intelligence Council, Russian intelligence specifically targeted the MAGA audience, catering to the same audience carefully conditioned to be receptive to the message. The report cites the focus before the 2022 election on asking why the US should help Ukraine instead of solving social and domestic problems?