Credit: CIA
Josh Rogin, Washington Post: Secret CIA assessment: Putin ‘probably directing’ influence operation to denigrate Biden
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top aides are “probably directing” a Russian foreign influence operation to interfere in the 2020 presidential election against former vice president Joe Biden, which involves a prominent Ukrainian lawmaker connected to President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, a top-secret CIA assessment concluded, according to two sources who reviewed it.
On Aug. 31, the CIA published an assessment of Russian efforts to interfere in the November election in an internal, highly classified report called the CIA Worldwide Intelligence Review, the sources said. CIA analysts compiled the assessment with input from the National Security Agency and the FBI, based on several dozen pieces of information gleaned from public, unclassified and classified intelligence sources. The assessment includes details of the CIA’s analysis of the activities of Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach to disseminate disparaging information about Biden inside the United States through lobbyists, Congress, the media and contacts with figures close to the president.
“We assess that President Vladimir Putin and the senior most Russian officials are aware of and probably directing Russia’s influence operations aimed at denigrating the former U.S. Vice President, supporting the U.S. president and fueling public discord ahead of the U.S. election in November,” the first line of the document says, according to the sources.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Treasury Department have identified Derkach as a Russian agent, but it has not been publicly reported that the CIA, NSA and FBI believed Putin may be personally directing the campaign. Derkach has denied working on behalf of Moscow.
The CIA assessment described Derkach’s efforts in detail and said that his activities have included working through lobbyists, members of Congress and U.S. media organizations to disseminate and amplify his anti-Biden information. Though it refers to Derkach’s interactions with a “prominent” person connected to the Trump campaign, the analysis does not identify the person. Giuliani, who has been working with Derkach publicly for several months, is not named in the assessment.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: Probably?!?!?!? What Washington Post Josh Rogin is saying is just a repeat on what FBI Director Wray said last week when he claimed that Russia is trying to undermine Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Biden and that Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker, is primarily responsible for it .... FBI Director Wray Says Russia Is Working To Sway Election In Trump's Favour. Says Antifa Is Not A Terrorist Organization (September 17, 2020). So why are so many in the intel community focused on a Ukrainian lawmaker? It is because of Andriy Derkach that we know Hunter Biden worked for the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, and that he made huge sums of money even though he had zero knowledge on how the natural gas business works in Ukraine .... Ukraine MP: Burisma Paid Joe Biden $900,000 For Lobbying (October 10, 2020). There is also another reason why the intel community and the FBI Director are coming out at this moment in time to downgrade the information that Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach has provided. The GOP are about to release their report on Hunter Biden's relationship with this Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, and the impact that it had on the Obama administrations policies toward Ukraine .... GOP set to release controversial Biden report (The Hill). As an outside observer looking in. There is no question in mind. The intel community and officials like the FBI Director are circling the wagons to protect Joe Biden.
