A few thoughts I hope don't get lost in the crush of news around Russian efforts to interfere in 2020 (a thread).
1) In this broadest sense, this isn't really news. Over months, multiple senior administration officials have warned of Russian activity targeting 2020. That it aims to undermine confidence in the vote and puts the primary in its crosshairs isn't surprising.
2) That's in large part because Russian interference never stopped! It didn't end after 2016, or 2018. Elections are but flashpoints in what we must understand is a long term, ongoing effort to weaken our democracy.
3) Recent disclosures are in keeping with what we observe Moscow doing right out in the open. @SecureDemocracy tracks Russian state backed media and official accounts on twitter. Here's some of what we've been seeing:
In short: efforts to paint the election as rigged by the “corporate media” and democratic elites against Senator Sanders, and to amplify narratives of division within the democratic party.
The Iowa Caucus was a flashpoint for this. securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/hamilton-weekl… 
4) Russia generally doesn't create new narratives out of whole cloth -- it amplifies the most divisive material that *already exists* here at home. We're giving them a lot to work with.
5) Among the biggest lessons of 2016: partisanship is our number one vulnerability. It creates an environment ripe for disinformation to flourish. And it renders us seemingly incapable of responding effectively. We don't seem to have improved on that score.
6) We need to remember that this isn't about any one candidate or party. This activity targets leaders and civil society groups on both sides of the aisle.
7) Russia's underlying goal is to make democracy appear unattractive -- ineffective and corrupt. The point is to advance regime security by making the democratic model less appealing to activists at home, and by gaining relative power over the West by weakening it.
8) It's not just Russia that is capable of using asymmetric tools -- including cyber operations and information manipulation -- to their advantage. Other actors will use them to pursue other goals. Which is why we can't be nearsighted.
