MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/. Over 100 foreign media campaigns have been launched to convince the public that Russia’s upcoming presidential election is illegitimate, head of the State Duma’s (the lower house of parliament) Commission Investigating Foreign Interference in Russia’s Domestic Affairs Vasily Piskaryov said.
"Control centers based in the US, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Poland and Ukraine have stepped up their activities to discredit our election. Over 100 media campaigns launched by them are working to prepare the foreign audience for the move to declare Russia's presidential election illegitimate. These are the same outlets on a mission to discredit our armed forces as well," he said at a meeting with Igor Borisov, a member of Russia’s Central Election Commission.
According to Piskaryov, NATO countries have intensified the activities of their intelligence agencies and "agents of influence" aimed at gathering data about problems facing Russia’s regions, while "special think tanks (in the US and the UK) are assessing their impact on protest moods ahead of the election."
"The Central Election Commission has also been recording similar activities by various OSCE institutions, which are actively interfering in Russia’s domestic affairs," Borisov pointed out. He stressed that attempts at election interference "will be made throughout the entire election campaign."
According to Piskaryov, the commission is also seeing efforts by opposition activists based in other countries who "are trying to sow discord among patriotic members of Russian communities abroad."
Participants in the meeting decided to set up a special monitoring group to detect and prevent attempted foreign interference in the election campaign, "which will be tasked with ensuring electoral sovereignty and people’s right to freely express their will.".