U.S. officials only learned of Russian election meddling because they heard someone bragging about it

Moscow.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

U.S. officials first caught wind of the full extent of Russia's plot to meddle in the presidential election back in May 2016, when spies intercepted a Russian military officer boasting about his intended exploits, Time's Massimo Calabresi reported in the magazine's latest cover story:

Like many a good spy tale, the story of how the U.S. learned its democracy could be hacked started with loose lips. In May 2016, a Russian military intelligence officer bragged to a colleague that his organization, known as the GRU, was getting ready to pay [Hillary] Clinton back for what President Vladimir Putin believed was an influence operation she had run against him five years earlier as secretary of state. The GRU, he said, was going to cause chaos in the upcoming U.S. election.What the officer didn't know, senior intelligence officials tell Time, was that U.S. spies were listening. They wrote up the conversation and sent it back to analysts at headquarters, who turned it from raw intelligence into an official report and circulated it. [Time]

Now, of course, the U.S. knows this GRU officer was foreshadowing Russia's plans to infiltrate American opinion through a wide-reaching social media campaign intended to spread disinformation. U.S. officials have learned that 2016 could just be the beginning: The Russians are now apparently "running a more sophisticated hack on Twitter" that allows hackers to "take control of the victim's phone or computer — and Twitter account."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Read the full story on Russia's growing social media powers at Time.

Explore More