MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/. Those who authored the US National Intelligence’s report on alleged interference by some countries, including Russia, in the US elections were trying to cater to the expectations of the Joe Biden-led Democratic administration, for in his election pledges Biden vowed to "sort out" relations with Moscow, the board chairman of the fund for support of the international discussion club Valdai, Andrei Bystritsky, told TASS on Wednesday.
He recalled that the US authorities had declared their intention to impose sanctions on Russia on the basis of data contained in that report. This scenario fits in with the logic of Biden’s election rhetoric and his promises to take a hard line against Moscow, Bystritsky said.
"I am certain that those who authored this report wished to rise to the expectations of the United States’ current authorities. The problem is the bureaucrats who authored this memo were keen to ensure, on the one hand, it should be most convenient for use in politics, but on the other by no means backfire on them, should they say something that can be easily refuted," Bystritsky said. "This explains why there are not very many facts, but mostly hints and speculations. Strictly speaking, the secret services, mostly their bureaucrats, provided some stuff they had been asked for."
Bystritsky said that the report as such was provocative and geared to the maximum extent to finding a foreign foe. Although the document lacks any serious facts or evidence that might prove the authors’ conclusions about Moscow’s alleged interference in the US elections, this by no means eases the risks involved, because "after sometime nobody will bother to recall if it was well-founded."
"It will be regarded as a universally established fact," he warned.
The report and the sanctions it envisages are not just a means of pressure on Russia and other countries mentioned in it, such as Iran, but also a means of defaming the previous president, Donald Trump, Bystritsky said. He stressed that Trump remained an active player on the US political scene and the Democrats found him fearsome enough. For this reason, they never missed a chance to put obstructions in his way.
On Tuesday, the office of the US National Intelligence’s director issued a report claiming that the Russian authorities had been trying to discredit the current president Joe Biden, and also the Democratic Party during last year’s election campaign in the United States. As Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Wednesday, the Kremlin regarded the allegations about Russia’s intervention in the US election in 2020 as utterly groundless and lacking any proof.