Thread by @The_War_Economy

"TRUMP, PUTIN AND THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF HOW RUSSIA INTERFERED IN THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION"

Kurt Eichenwald, January 10, 2017

newsweek.com/trump-putin-ru…

"At the Kremlin last August, officials began to worry that they had committed a massive blunder. Donald Trump, they feared, was psychologically unstable."

"Moscow's hacking and disinformation campaign, designed to interfere with the American election, had been underway for months. In a series of operations overseen by Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman..."

"... Russia had engaged in similar interference in the Netherlands, Estonia, Germany, Britain and other nations with mixed success. But by late July, some Russian officials believed Peskov's work had gone too far. Sergei Ivanov, the chief of staff for the presidential..."

"... executive office in the Kremlin, was furious at what he saw as a botched and ill-conceived attempt to use hacking and disinformation to interfere in a failed coup attempt in Turkey. As for the American effort, Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian prime minister..."

"... had grown increasingly afraid of a backlash as news articles appeared implying that Russia had been trying to split the supporters of Democrats Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton while building up Republican Donald Trump. Still, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president..."

"... had remained pleased with Moscow's progress. Even Ivanov expressed his belief that, while Washington had failed to split the Russian elite with sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, the cyberattacks had created political division in the U.S."

So we will now skip a little further into the article.

"About that time, according to reports obtained by Western intelligence, a Trump associate met with a pro-Putin member of Russian parliament at a building in Eastern Europe maintained by Rossotrudnichestvo, an agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs..."

"... that is charged with administering language, education and support programs for civilians. While Newsweek could not determine the purpose of the meeting, a Western intelligence official said that..."

"... surveillance of the meeting was conducted by or on behalf of the Estonian Information Board (EIB), the foreign service of Estonia. (Last year, EIB advised government leaders that the Russian government posed the greatest near-term danger..."

"... to the security of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. As a result Trump's apparent support for Putin during the campaign raised concerns within the Baltic governments that, with a Trump presidency, they would face increased national security threats from Russia.)"

"However, no evidence has emerged that Trump knew of the meeting or was briefed about it afterward."

We'll skip ahead again.

"While there was widespread agreement among Western European and American intelligence agencies about the Russian effort - it was the British who first alerted the United States to its scope - there remain subtle disagreements regarding its intent."

"Over many weeks of debate, American intelligence agencies concluded that the campaign, which they believe was authorised by Putin, was intended to help Trump become president. Some Western European intelligence officials instead believe the Kremlin's..."

"... efforts were motivated not to support Trump, but to hurt Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. Some of these overseas agencies also believe the effort was not set in motion by Putin, but received his support once underway. During Clinton's time as secretary of state..."

"... Putin publicly accused her of interfering in Moscow's affairs. For example, her statement that Russian parliamentary elections in December 2011 were 'neither free nor fair' infuriated him."

Let's cut forward again.

"Officials in Western Europe say they are so dismayed, they now feel compelled to gather intelligence on a man who is set to become the next president of the United States. According to a Western intelligence source..."

"... at least one allied nation is currently conducting intelligence operations in the United States, collecting details on officials surrounding Trump and executives in his company, the Trump Organization..."

"... the source, who works in government, expressed disbelief that such an effort had been deemed essential."