Bomb fears with Moscow’s fingerprints seem designed to help Donald Trump – Mother Jones

A voter leaves a polling place after voting on November 5, 2024 in Rutledge, Georgia.Illustration of Mother Jones; John Bazemore/AP

It started with Georgia: Several bomb threats targeted polling stations in heavily Democratic areas. Two polling places in Union City near Atlanta, where the population is nearly 90 percent black, were temporarily closed. Georgian officials, citing federal law enforcement, identified Russia as the culprit because the threats originated from that country’s email domains.

Threats continued to be made on Election Day, leading to polling station closures and evacuations for short periods of time. It appears that Russia, as in the past, has brazenly interfered in Trump’s affairs, but this time more openly.

There were dozens of bomb threats today in blue neighborhoods around Atlanta. The Fulton County Police Chief said law enforcement responded to 32 cases. Several areas were temporarily closed. “They don’t want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.

Threats have also targeted Democratic areas in other swing states. Some of them were sent to Navajo County in Arizona, where many Native Americans vote. (Secretary of State Adrian Fontes also blamed Russia.) The critical Blue Wall states are Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. received there are threats too, as are those in Minnesota, Maine and Ohio, according to various reports. “The FBI is aware of bomb threats at polling places in several states, many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains,” the agency said in a statement. “None of the threats have yet been recognized as real.”

If Russia is indeed the culprit, it means President Vladimir Putin feels emboldened enough to openly help Donald Trump on Election Day by trying to disenfranchise Democratic voters. These efforts follow recent disinformation viral videos published by a Russian-backed propaganda organization. How Mother Jones has reportedThere is evidence linking a Moscow-backed disinformation unit to fake videos that have fueled fears of voter fraud in recent weeks. One video allegedly shows recent Haitian immigrants voting for Kamala Harris in Georgia; in another, Haitian immigrants boast about voting at several polling places in the state. A third fake video shows Trump mail-in ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania.

Putin would clearly prefer Trump to be in the White House. From the former president said he will mediate peace between Russia and Ukraine, which will be a victory for Russia, questions America’s membership in NATO, and generally cares about Putin and other authoritarian leaders. Harris, on the other hand, has stated her commitment to supporting Ukraine and strengthening NATO.

Following bomb scares, the US intelligence community warned that Putin’s goal was to sow chaos and distrust in the democratic process. They don’t expect Russian interference to end just because Election Day is coming to an end. “If it’s chaos,” said Chris Krebs, former director of the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Washington Post“The most appropriate time for harm to occur is during the pre-certification period after November 5.”