NATO told Russian election meddling evolving threat that must be met

HALIFAX — A NATO draft report says the problem of Russian meddling in democratic elections continues to evolve and alliance members must be ready to meet the threat.

U.S. Democratic congresswoman Susan Davis told NATO’s science and technology committee meeting in Halifax that Russian interference continued in the early stages of the recent mid-term elections in her country, although not on the scale seen during the 2016 presidential election.

Davis says technology companies shut down hundreds of fake accounts aiming to disrupt the elections.

She says some of the accounts identified and deleted were also Iranian and the U.S. government now believes other states including China are emulating Russia’s tactics.

Giorgi Kandelaki of the associate Georgian delegation told the committee that he was the victim of a Russian inspired disinformation campaign that popped up on Facebook news feeds.

Kandelaki says his experience taught him that the Russians are still “a step ahead of us”, and he added that so far the threat response has been largely through “conferences and seminars.”

The report was presented as part of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Halifax.

The Canadian Press