Is Russia interfering with the US elections?
The US Democrats have fallen victim to another cyber attack. Hacked emails had already been made public via Wikileaks. Washington is not ruling out Russian involvement in the attacks. Wikileaks has hurt Hillary Clinton's chances of election, some commentators criticise. Others say the attacks won't have any impact on the election results.
Assange was used by the Russians
By publishing confidential emails of the Democratic National Committee Wikileaks founder Assange has allowed himself to be used by the Russian secret services, writes the blog Poliitika.guru:
“This time the form of the publication is far bigger news than the actual content. ... Instead of shocking revelations, as expected most of the mails testify to inner-party feuds. By the looks of it, however, Russian intelligence agencies tried to influence public opinion so that the candidate that best suits their interest is elected president. Wikileaks is just a tool in this process. Assange has failed to keep his promise of 'scientific journalism'. He has published information that is of no public interest but which harms many innocent people. The sources, the time, the sloppy manner of the revelations and Assange's personal hatred of Clinton leave little room for doubt.”
Hacker attack won't make any difference
The hacker attack on the US Democrats will have little impact on the election campaign, the Russian web portal Slon.ru suspects:
“The whole story of the hacked and leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee indeed bears all the hallmarks of a classic secret service operation: compromising information was leaked to damage the target, her supporters were demoralised, and the position of the perpetrators' ally was strengthened. Nevertheless it is unlikely that this will have any concrete impact on the election result. The operation testifies to a lacking understanding of the mechanisms of US domestic politics and an inappropriate assessment of how effective it could be - even if we assume that it was planned in Russia. Such measures will hardly change anything in a country with 300 million inhabitants, free media and campaign budgets that rise into the billions.”
Putin could make Trump president
The alleged Russian cyber attacks could put Trump in the White House, La Repubblica fears:
“Neither Obama nor his party nor counterintelligence can do anything to prevent this interference in the US election campaign. They can't calm the Clintons' fears that thousands of emails could be poured into the election campaign like hot oil. They can only hope that the imprudent lady didn't leave behind too many traces in her accounts of her or her husband Bill's compromising financial ties with Arab states like Saudi Arabia. The 'dirty wars' of espionage are dirty because none of the warring sides is really clean. And Trump, who has pledged to restore America to its former glory, could become the first president to be elected with the help of the Russians, with the help of Putin's bears.”
Take action against cyber attacks
It is not only the US that needs urgently to defend itself against Russian cyber attacks, warns România Liberă:
“The bad news is that the cleverest brains in the CIA have still not decided how best to fend off these attacks. Some have moral scruples, others political ones, still others fear provoking an all-out cyber war with Russia. But if they don't make up their minds soon, Putin might just achieve what he set out to do, namely sabotage Hillary Clinton's election campaign. ... If the Russians continue to be able to act unchecked who knows what disaster they might provoke in the run-up to the elections in November. If the Kremlin succeeds in disrupting US democracy the Europeans need to develop defence strategies very rapidly indeed. ... Because nothing would please Putin more than to turn the Western democracies into a Russian puppet show.”
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