DISINFO: Russia is not interfering in the EU elections

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the EU elections 2019 and election meddling. In January, Microsoft found that a group of hackers called Fancy Bear targeted email accounts of European think tanks and NGOs as well as political opponents of Russian president Vladimir Putin. The group, believed to be associated with the Russian intelligence, were spreading messages aimed at disrupting upcoming elections. Fancy Bear was previously involved in 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee of the United States. According to Politico, hackers tried to hack EU member states’ institutions, political parties and elections 11 times in the last five years. In August 2015, hackers associated with Fancy Bear infiltrated IT networks of Germany’s parliament. In May 2017, hackers attacked elections in France while targeting Macron’s campaign. On February 2018, the head of the top six U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed that Russia interfered into the U.S. 2016 election campaign. Russian or Russia-linked hackers interfered into computers of the Democratic party, personal Gmail account of Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta and disseminated fake news on social media. In addition, the US Justice Department has charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic officials in the 2016 US elections. Previously, 13 Russian citizens as well as the Internet Research Agency, Concord Management and Concord Catering had been charged with interfering with the US political system.