US intelligence believes Russia is seeking pragmatic cooperation, not conflict with the United States. This is stated in the annual report on the assessment by the American intelligence community of various threats to the United States in the world. A declassified version of this document was made public on Tuesday by the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence.
“We expect Moscow to seek pragmatic cooperation with Washington on its own terms. And we believe that Russia does not want a direct conflict with US forces,” the report says.
At the same time, it argues that “Moscow will continue to use different tactics this year to undermine US influence, develop new international norms and partnerships, split Western countries and weaken Western alliances, and demonstrate Russia’s ability to shape global events as a major player in a new multipolar world order “. “Russia will continue to develop its military, nuclear, space, intelligence and cyberspace capabilities by actively engaging [with other countries] abroad and leveraging its energy resources to advance its agenda and undermine [positions] USA “, – the American special services consider.
From their point of view, Moscow has long assumed that the United States is conducting its own “influence campaigns” aimed at “undermining Russia, weakening President Vladimir Putin” and creating “West-friendly regimes in the states of the former Soviet Union.” and in other regions. “Russia is seeking an agreement with the United States on non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, recognition by the United States of the sphere of influence in most of the space of the former Soviet Union, which Russia claims,” the authors of the report are convinced.
Military construction estimates
American intelligence expresses the opinion that Moscow will build up its military power, including “expand and modernize” its nuclear potential, improve “strategic and non-strategic weapons,” and “integrate information warfare components to challenge US interests.” Russia will remain “the largest and most potential US rival in the field of weapons of mass destruction in the foreseeable future,” the American intelligence services admit. At the same time, they reproach Russia for allegedly remaining in danger of unauthorized access to some of its nuclear materials, despite the improvement in the physical protection of the relevant facilities in comparison with the situation in the 1990s.
Russia will also be a “key competitor in space”, developing “new anti-satellite weapons” and other types of space weapons, and “the highest cyber threat” to the United States, using, among other things, “offensive potential,” the report says. According to its authors, Moscow uses operations in cyberspace “to protect against what it sees as a threat to its stability.”
Elections
In addition, the authors of the report accuse Russia of seeking to “sow discord” within the United States, “to influence American voters and the decision-making process” in Washington. “Moscow almost certainly sees the American elections as an opportunity to try to undermine the global position of the United States <…>. Moscow carried out operations to influence the US elections in 2016, 2018 and 2020,” the American intelligence said.
Meanwhile, such conclusions of Washington, which have never been supported by public evidence, have already been rejected many times by Moscow.
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