Russia will aim to “manipulate” European elections 2024 to isolate Ukraine, a senior US Government official has claimed.
James Rubin, the Special Envoy and Coordinator for the Department of State’s Global Engagement Centre (GEC), warned that both China and Russia have shown interest in influencing forthcoming votes across the continent.
He insisted Russia would pose the “largest threat”, with Moscow likely to try to push the European Union away from supporting Ukraine.
“Russia is hoping that the number of elections in Europe this year could change what has been a remarkable coalition and disciplined opposition to its war,” he said during the last day of the World Economic Forum conference on January 19.
“We do believe that the Russians will conduct information operations throughout Europe to try to change opinion on Ukraine during this election season.”
Rubin said he believed that such manipulation would come in the form of Russia and China “sponsoring” journalism, which he claimed would be billed as “independent” – in the hope of swaying voters.
Russia was accused of deploying a similar method of election manipulation in South America by the GEC. Moscow denied the claim at the time, describing the accusations as “unfounded”.
Switzerland on Monday agreed to host a global peace summit on Ukraine at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. https://t.co/x1BSQLNHZg
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 16, 2024
Rubin’s warning comes amid increasing Western concern over the state of the war in Ukraine, with an increasing number of public figures expressing scepticism about how the conflict is developing.
According to Bloomberg, the administration of US President Joe Biden has told Kyiv to halt its attacks on Russian-controlled territory and focus on defence, a move many say seems aimed at conserving the country’s military strength.
Others now fear Ukraine lacks “any hope” of retaking the territory lost during the conflict. Ian Bremmer, the head of the Eurasia Group think-tank, warned that the country was at risk of being partitioned.
“At a minimum, Russia will keep control of the territory it now occupies on the Crimean Peninsula and in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts [regions] – about 18 per cent of Ukraine’s territory – as the war settles into a defensive struggle with a fairly static line of control,” he said.
Bremmer warned that such a carve-up would result in several “real risks”, including the increased possibility of a war between Russia and NATO as well as the “delegitimization” of the US as a world power.
“The United States made a major security commitment to help Ukraine protect itself and regain its land for ‘as long as it takes’.
“Domestic politics is leading the US to renege on this commitment, worsening the image of the US as an unreliable partner,” he said.
“Rogue and revisionist states will be emboldened accordingly.”
The majority of the Leopard 2A6 tanks sent to Ukraine by Germany are no longer functioning, a senior politician for the German Greens has said. https://t.co/1u6YVUsrKv
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 3, 2024
