Russia says Biden is meddling in its upcoming election

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has accused the United States of attempting to meddle in Russia’s upcoming presidential election. But is the accusation true? Let’s look at what is being claimed by Russia. 

In a statement from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the agency claims that Joe Biden’s administration is using non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to affect voter turnout according to a Newsweek report. 

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The SVR claimed that the United States is hoping to undermine the upcoming election in Russia by dissuading voters from casting their ballots, but no evidence was provided to support the intel agency’s accusations. 

“According to information received by the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the administration of Joe Biden is setting a task for American NGOs to achieve a decrease in turnout," the SVR explained in its statement. 

The independent Russian and English Language news website Meduza reported at the beginning of March that Russia was facing record-low interest from voters regarding the upcoming presidential election in the country. 

A combination of knowing who will win the election coupled with a labor shortage in the country has left Russians more disinterested than ever, which may explain why Russia’s intelligence service accused the U.S. of election meddling. 

Meduza previously reported that the Kremlin wants Vladimir Putin to win the upcoming election with at least 80 percent of the vote, a victory that may prove difficult for Putin to achieve if the reports about voter disinterest are true.

“The task is simple: get 80 percent or more in the presidential elections,” one unnamed source who works in the Northwestern Federal District of Russia explained to Meduza, not meeting this goal could turn out to be a problem. 

The SVR accused the Biden administration of trying to lower voter turnout as a way to criticize Putin’s victory as illegitimate according to Newsweek, which added low turnout could be a sign that voters already knew who would win. 

“The plan is simple in the American way. According to Washington's calculations, the resulting 'reduction in turnout' will give the West a reason to question the election results," the SVR report explained. 

"With the participation of leading U.S. IT specialists, it is planned to carry out cyberattacks on the remote electronic voting system, which will make it impossible to count the votes of a significant proportion of Russian voters," the SVR added.

The United States did not immediately respond to the accusations levied by the SVR according to Reuters, but a State Department spokesperson explained in an email to Newsweek that the claims were “another false narrative of the Kremlin.”

The State Department spokesperson went on to add that officials in Russia were spreading disinformation against those who raised questions about the Kremlin’s narratives, adding that this was especially true when it came to the war in Ukraine. 

"The United States does not take sides in elections; our only interest is in the democratic process. The Russian people deserve free and fair elections, and the ability to choose between candidates," the spokesperson wrote. 

"Russians, like everyone else, deserve access to impartial information to help them choose the leadership and future direction of their country,” the spokesperson added. Whether Russians will get this information has yet to be seen. 

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In January 2024, the head of the SVR Sergei Naryshkin accused the United States of “seizing on the slightest opportunity to ‘shake up’ the internal political situation in our country,” according to a transition from The Guardian.