JRL NEWSWATCH: “Can Russia Use the Coronavirus to Sow Discord Among Americans?” – New York Times/ Thomas Rid

Conditions are ripe: The pandemic is sweeping right into campaign season, and Trump’s response is highly contested.

“Close observers of Russian disinformation tactics in electoral interference have two big questions as the 2020 election approaches: How large is the appetite for escalation among Russian intelligence agencies this time around? And where was, and is, S.V.R., Russia’s counterpart to the C.I.A.? The internal competition between Russian spy agencies is fierce, and S.V.R., a potent and storied foreign intelligence agency, is widely recognized as more competent, and stealthier, than Russia’s bumbling military spy agency, G.R.U. It was G.R.U. that was caught red-handed in 2016 meddling in the presidential election. …”

Click here for: “Can Russia Use the Coronavirus to Sow Discord Among Americans? Conditions are ripe: The pandemic is sweeping right into campaign season, and Trump’s response is highly contested.” – New York Times/ Thomas Rid

Thomas Rid, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, is the author of the forthcoming book “Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare.”