Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally authorised a secret spy agency operation in order to extend support to former US President Donald Trump in the US Presidential elections of 2016.
As per the leaked papers accessed by The Guardian, the closed session of Russia’s National Security Council was held on January 22, 2016, between President Putin, his spy chiefs and all his senior ministers. All of them had agreed upon the fact that President Trump being at the helm of the affairs at the White House will be of great help to Moscow in securing its strategic objectives. The objectives included “social turmoil” in the US and fading of the negotiating position of the American President.
As per a ruling signed by President Putin, three Russian spy agencies were given the task to come up with practical ways to support Trump.
Donald Trump by that point was the frontrunner in the nomination race of the Republican Party. A report by Putin’s expert department suggested Moscow use “all possible force” to ensure Trump’s victory.
A spokesperson of the Putin-led Russian government has called the idea of Russian leaders meeting and agreeing to extend support to Trump as “great pulp fiction,” The Guardian report said.
As per The Guardian’s assessment of the papers, report no “32-04\vd” was classified as secret. The report had tagged Trump as the most promising candidate from Kremlin’s standpoint.
Additionally, the report also contained a brief assessment of Trump from a psychological perspective where he has been described as an impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex.
The papers also contain ostensible proof confirming that the Kremlin is in possession of potentially compromising material on Trump which was collected when he was in Russia on “non-official visits”.
The leaked papers have cited various potential measures that could be adopted by the Kremlin in case of hostility from Washington.
Moreover, it included a list of weaknesses of the US including a “deepening political gulf between left and right”, its “media-information” space, and an anti-establishment mood under the then-President Barack Obama.
The papers, however, have no mention of Trump’s 2016 rival Hillary Clinton, who was the candidate of the Democrats. The papers also suggest using media resources in the process of undermining top US political leaders.
The leaked papers have photographic evidence of the meeting that took place in the Kremlin in 2016. An official photo shows Putin along with the then prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev and veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
Defence Minister and GRU chief Sergei Shoigu, SVR foreign intelligence service chief Mikhail Fradkov and FSB’s boss Alexander Bortnikov were also present in the meeting along with Nikolai Patrushev, the ex-director of FSB who had attended the meeting as a security council secretary.
A press release was sent out saying the meeting was called to discuss matters pertaining to the economy and Moldova, while the leaked papers suggest the actual purpose was to deliberate on the secret proposals drawn up by Putin’s analytical service in response to US agreements against Moscow.
After the meeting, as per another leaked document accessed by The Guardian, Putin had issued a decree to constitute a new and secret interdepartmental commission to work on the goals demarcated in the “special part” of the document No “32-04\vd”.
As per the document, each spy agency was assigned a role with the defence minister given the task of coordinating the work of sub-divisions and services.
They had a little over a week to come up with their inputs which were to be submitted on February 1, 2016. In addition to this, the defence minister was also in charge of collecting and systematising crucial information and coming up with measures to act on that information.
SVR was given the task to gather additional information to support the commission's activities, while FSB was in charge of counter-intelligence activities. This document was approved by Putin on January 22, 2016.
While Putin continuously denies all allegations of involvement in the democratic processes of the West, these leaked documents are a huge contradiction. They have put out documentary evidence suggesting his role in the US Presidential elections of 2016 that was aimed at planting Trump at the top office.
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