Russians to interfere in US midterms

Two years after a successful influence operation coordinated by the Russian government resulted in the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, it is revealed that Russia again are attempting to influence a US election; the 2018 midterms. This year, the entire House of Representatives and the 34 senators of Class I will be elected, along with countless state and local positions. President Trump's historic unpopularity makes it likely that 2018 will experience a 'blue wave' where the Democrats may take control of one or both of the Houses of Congress.

However, like in 2016, it has been revealed that the Russian government are attempting to undermine and influence the vote as they did two years ago. Earlier this week, Facebook announced that they had shut down 32 pages which were spreading disinformation ahead of the November poll. This included divisive and controversial posts designed to spread misinformation and confusion. The accounts in question were linked with Kremlin-supported group, the 'Internet Research Agency', which was involved in the 2017 campaign.

In private briefings to members of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, Facebook representatives explained how a Russian influence campaign had been popularising trends such as '#abolishICE', a campaign to shut down the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, which has been criticised recently for its role in separating children from their parents at the border. This has been done in order to paint Democratic candidates as extremists and increase support for the struggling Republicans.

Democrat Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said, "It is clear that much more work needs to be done before the midterm elections to harden our defences, because foreign bad actors are using the exact same playbook they did in 2016- dividing us along political and ideological lines, to the detriment of our democratic system".

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been criticised for not doing enough to prevent Russian interference in the midterms. White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley said Trump had , "made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference into our electoral process from any nation-state or other malicious actors." Despite these fine words, Trump remains open to the prospect of Russian help for the Republicans, saying "collusion is not a crime".