The official noted that President Joe Biden had recently extended a national emergency declaration addressing the continued threat of foreign election interference. The report does not name specific Russian targets but says Moscow likely will increasingly turn to covert political financing to undermine international sanctions over its war in Ukraine. The State Department is publicly providing some information from the review because of an expectation that Russia would "increasingly rely on its covert influence toolkit" in the coming months, they said. intelligence community of Russia's efforts to influence other countries' politics, the official said. The information follows a review by the U.S. diplomats were sharing their findings with governments in more than 100 nations. "We think this is just the tip of the iceberg, and we are engaging with allies and partners to gather more information about this threat," the official said. intelligence believes $300 million is a "minimum" estimate and that Russia likely has transferred additional funds in cases that have gone undetected, an official who briefed reporters said. The money was spent to support think tanks backed by far-right nationalist political parties and on such things as front organizations used to funnel money to preferred causes or politicians. State Department alleged on September 13.
Russia has covertly spent more than $300 million since 2014 on efforts to influence politicians and other officials in more than two dozen countries, the U.S. The agreement was announced ahead of a scheduled visit to Venezuela on April 2 by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is due to hold talks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.Ĭhavez has sought to develop close ties with Moscow in recent years and has bought more than $4 billion of Russian weapons, including assault rifles, helicopters, planes, and missiles. The minister said the new joint company plans also to build a facility to process about 450,000 barrels of oil a day. The Venezuelan company will own 60 percent of the venture. Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said a new joint company will be run by Venezuela's state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, and a consortium of five Russian companies - Rosneft, LUKoil, TNK-BP, Gazprom, and Surgutneftegas. Officials say the project aims to produce 50,000 barrels per day starting this year. Venezuela and Russia have announced a joint venture to drill for heavy crude oil in Venezuela's Orinoco River basin.