The Russian interference in the Presidential Elections of United States, 2016 has its roots in the political, economic and social changes that Russia wants to force on America. The roots of this interference can be linked with the tussle between the two countries. The two countries have never come close to each other because both of them pursue different ideologies. The current interference is evidence that Russia wants to utilize President Trump who somehow has stakes in Russian ideologies.
Furthermore, the Russian attempt to interfere in the elections is also backed by its motive to destabilize the US on a political basis. The Russian interference in the Presidential Election of US is proved by several pieces of evidence. The motive of this negative interference was to damage the political stability in the US. However, the Russian interference has also put strains on the free and fair election process in the US, and also opened several ways for Russian by which it can harm the US national security.
The Russian interference in the elections of US has been proved by several agencies and independent observers. However, a minimal effort has been put by Russia to retaliate to the situation and claims. The Russian government was accused by the Homeland Department of Security soon after their interference in 2016. The Homeland Department of Security claimed that the Russian Government was directly involved behind the email hackings to interfere in the elections (Masters, 2018).
The Current US Relations with Russia:
- Furthermore, the department also claimed that the planning to interfere the elections was made in Russian at the government level and that many big names such as Vladimir Putin were also directly involved in ordering the alleged interference. The interference has been recently proved through evidence presented by the Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating the Russian interference in US elections. The US elections are riddled with cyber-attacks and social media campaigns. Mueller has recently proved that 13 people and three Russian agencies were involved in meddling with the elections.
These individuals and agencies worked from 2014 to plan their interference. Mueller also alleged that the approval of this interference was given by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. However, he did not give direct evidence for the alleged approval given by Putin. The US top agencies including the FBI and CIA are investing the election scam. On the other hand, the US President, Donald Trump is continuously denying the results and evidence of Mueller and the investigating agencies (Jon Swaine, 2018).
Donald Trump also sees this investigation propaganda against him. The controversial Presidential win of Donald Trump has already created a divide within the US. People are divided on the unexpected winning of Trump. Therefore, Trump took the benefit of the situation and termed the investigations as an attempt to impeach him. On the other hand, the Russian investigations are slow paced. And lack the interest of their government agencies. The Russian foreign minister has recently quoted that how could 13 people challenge the billion dollar budget of US intelligence.
The relationship between the United States and Russia Since the cold war:
The statement of Russian foreign minister is also a faceoff to the current situation that Russia has successfully created in the US. The statement of Russian Foreign minister is also evidence of meagre security resources of US intelligence. The US cyberspace is one of the best across the world. However, the Russian interference in the US election has proved that the US intelligence agencies and cyberspace security is at stake. The question here is not limited to the breach of intelligence security or the cyberspace (Demetri Sevastopulo, 2018).
Rather, the question has extended to the free and fair election process in the US. The US is the world’s strongest democracy. However, the Russian interference has proved that the US citizens still lack the rights of the free and fair voting process. The Russian interference has sparked outrage across the US. The situation is exactly what the Russian government wanted. The US citizens went on strikes soon after the news of alleged Russian interference was spread.
Another motive of Russian interference was to foresee a government and President who could be easily manipulated. Donald Trump is naïve to politics and the Presidency. He never took part in politics before the Presidential election. He never remained a governor of any state, neither had he remained an incumbent of the public office. Therefore, the Russian government would expect him to dell easy prey for the Russian baits. On the other hand, the rival of Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton has a vast experience in politics.
She had served on several key government positions. She was shrewd enough to tackle Russian diplomacy and manipulative tactics. Therefore, the Russian government went on to interfere with the elections. The US citizens were in favour of Hilary Clinton to a great extent. The elections results were shocking for the whole world. No one has expected that Donald Trump would win even after his controversial statements and stances related to immigrants, neighbour countries, and US policies. The Russian interference has shown that Russia can also manipulate the public with social media campaigns.
The recent scam of a data breach at Facebook has shown that social media can be used to trigger a psychological effect that can manipulate the voters. The Facebook data breach was done by Cambridge Analytica, a company which provided data from millions of users to other companies (cnbc.com, 2018). These findings have proved that the free and fair elections would become a dream in upcoming years. The data of social media users is analyzed, and the users are hit with positives or negatives of a certain candidate.
The Russian interference has proved that the US has opened ways of its destruction at the hands of Russia. The Russian diplomacy had just paid off when Rex Tillerson warned the US government of putting unnecessary sanction on Russia (rferl, 2018). The Russian government is eying to seek the maximum benefits of their interference in the US elections. President Donald Trump also proposed to cut short the State Department budget by 37 per cent. The huge cut down in the budget would favour the Russian government.
The lower budget of the State Department will not allow the US to push back Russia on several matters (Schwartz, 2017). The US President has never spoken a word against the Russian President even after the Russian President has taken several negative steps to suppress the democratic process in Ukraine. The silence of US President is a motivation for Russia to maintain an expansionist and realism approach across the world.
Conclusion
The Russian Interference in the Presidential US election has been proved by evidence provided by the intelligence agencies. However, the Russian government is continuously denying the facts and reports. The Russian interference has posed challenges for the national security and the free and fair election process in the US. The national security is at stake because Russia is motivated to achieve its objectives and it further seeks the opportunities to harm the US. Furthermore, the Russian attempt to create political instability in the US is also fostering.
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References
cnbc.com. (2018, 04 10). Facebook-Cambridge Analytica: A timeline of the data hijacking scandal. Retrieved from cnbc.com: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/10/facebook-cambridge-analytica-a-timeline-of-the-data-hijacking-scandal.html
Demetri Sevastopulo, C. W. (2018, 02 17). The US charges Russians with 2016 election interference. Retrieved from Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/21f8a01a-1347-11e8-8cb6-b9ccc4c4dbbb
Jon Swaine, M. B. (2018, 02 17). Mueller charges 13 Russians with interfering in US election to help Trump. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/16/robert-mueller-russians-charged-election
Masters, J. (2018, 02 26). Russia, Trump, and the 2016 U.S. Election. Retrieved from Council on Foreign Relations: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/russia-trump-and-2016-us-election
rferl. (2018, 02 19). Tillerson Says the U.S. Considering Additional Sanctions Against Russians. Retrieved from rferl.org: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-tillerson-sanctions-u-s-/29047976.html
Schwartz, F. (2017, 02 27). Trump Proposes Cutting State Department Budget by 37%. Retrieved from Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-proposes-cutting-state-department-budget-by-one-third-1488306999
