Did Moscow Propose A Noninterference Agreement With The United States When It Comes To Elections?

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

John Hudson, Buzz Feed: How Secret Talks With Russia to Prevent Election Meddling Collapsed

With the 2018 midterms on the horizon, Moscow proposed a sweeping noninterference agreement with the United States, US officials tell BuzzFeed News. The Trump administration said no.

The Trump administration has rejected a sweeping Russian proposal seeking a mutual ban on foreign political interference, three senior US administration officials tell BuzzFeed News.

Russia first broached the subject in July, when one of Vladimir Putin’s top diplomats arrived in Washington with a sheet of proposals aimed at addressing a top concern of the US government: A resurgence of Russian meddling in the 2018 elections.

At the time, the midterms were 16 months away, but Washington had only just begun to understand the extent of Russia’s alleged involvement in the 2016 election, including the widespread use of troll accounts to disseminate inflammatory messages, and efforts to probe US voter registration databases in 21 states. The consensus among cybersecurity experts was that the US was ill-prepared to defend against another concerted effort by Moscow to influence US elections.

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Update: On the Russian Proposal for Mutual Noninterference in Domestic Politics (Jack Goldsmith, Lawfare).

WNU Editor: I noticed that the above author uses the story that Russia probed US voter registration databases in 21 states to enforce his argument that Russia interfered in last year's election .... but someone should tell him that this story has already been debunked .... Yet Another Major Russia Story Falls Apart. Is Skepticism Permissible Yet? (The Intercept). As for the story of trolls disseminating negative information .... we now know that most of these efforts were done after the election .... and those efforts (if it was a Kremlin operation) were (and are) laughable .... Can You Buy The U.S. Presidency For $100,000? (October 17, 2017). As for the author's story on Russia wanting a noninterference agreement with the United States when it comes to elections .... I have to admit that I am skeptical. One anonymous source in the meeting is who John Hudson is relying on for this story .... I suggest that he find a few more. I am also skeptical because I know that the Kremlin is not going to advance any radical proposals in the current environment in Washington. Anti-Russian sentiment among many in the U.S. government and in the media has been poisonous since the inauguration, doubly so since the start of the Mueller investigation,  and the Kremlin has known since spring that the probability of a Russian proposal being accepted is zero.