Putin Calls For Mutual Ban on Election Meddling With US

US intel agencies claim Russia, China, and Iran are meddling in 2020 election

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the US and Russia should sign an agreement promising not to meddle in each other’s elections.

Putin proposed, “exchanging guarantees of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, including electoral processes, including using information and communication technologies and high-tech methods.”

The Russian president proposed an agreement that would seek to prevent major cyberspace incidents. Putin compared the idea to a treaty signed in 1972 between the Soviet Union and the US that was signed to prevent incidents at sea and in the air between the two countries’ militaries.

Putin asked for a reset in US-Russia relations in the cyber arena. “We would like to once again address the US with a suggestion to agree on a comprehensive program of practical measures to reboot our relations in the field of security in the use of information and communication technologies,” he said.

An unnamed senior White House administration official responded to the proposal in a statement to Buzzfeed. “A good starting point for discussion would be Russia discontinuing its ongoing meddling with the US election,” the official said.

While the allegation that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in 2016 has fallen apart, there is still a bipartisan consensus that Moscow interfered in 2016, and continues to today. However, key tenents to the Russiagate narrative have also collapsed.

It was recently revealed by declassified House testimony from 2017 that the private cyber-security firm CrowdStrike had no proof that Russia hacked the DNC and liberated the emails that were published by WikiLeaks. The DNC hack and leak is one of the primary examples of Russian interference in 2016.

US intelligence agencies continue to claim Russia, along with China and Iran, is meddling in the upcoming election. Everything from state media coverage and activities of unknown hackers is deemed election interference.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.