Russia's spy service accuses US of trying to meddle in presidential election

President Vladimir Putin's foreign intelligence service on Monday accused the United States of trying to meddle in Russia's presidential election and said that Washington even had plans to launch a cyber-attack on the online voting system.

Putin, who is almost certain to win the March 15-17 presidential election, has warned the West that any attempts by foreign powers to meddle in the ballot would be considered an act of aggression.

Russia's SVR Foreign Intelligence Service said in a statement it had information that US President Joe Biden's administration had set out to meddle in the election, state media reported.

"According to information received by the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the administration of Biden is setting a task for American NGOs to achieve a decrease in turnout," the SVR was cited as saying.

"With the participation of leading American IT specialists, it is planned to carry out cyber-attacks on the remote electronic voting system, which will make it impossible to count the votes of a significant proportion of Russian voters," the SVR said.

The Kremlin last week said that Russia will not meddle in the November US presidential election, and dismissed American findings that Moscow orchestrated campaigns to sway both the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections.



Reuters