For months, the question of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 elections has been raging. Did a foreign power attempt to interfere in American elections? And how direct was that influence? The evidence has been piling up to show that, even if Russia didn’t directly interfere with the election, it was definitely attempting to tip the balance. And that fire has gained new fuel now that it’s been revealed there may be, quite literally, witnesses to the crime, in the form of Dutch intelligence experts.
According to the Daily Beast, Dutch newspapers broke the story of domestic intelligence agency Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst, or AIVD, attempting to hunt down what was, at the time, a Russian annoyance nicknamed Cozy Bear in 2014. They were able to not only track down Cozy Bear’s base of operations, but were allegedly able to breach security cameras in their building to capture faces of Russian operatives going in and out of the building. They also reportedly observed the group stealing thousands of emails from Democratic Party leaders, which was shared with U.S. intelligence agencies and is the basis of the claim of high confidence that Russia was attempting to interfere in the election.
It’s unlikely Russia will acknowledge any of this, especially since the political ramifications for its government would likely be enormous. It’s also unlikely we’ll see a Dutch spy take the stand before Congress and detail exactly what they saw, or that, even with photographs, we’ll have names applied directly to faces. But regardless, it’s another piece of the puzzle for many, and if anybody was hoping this investigation would go away, this revelation makes that unlikely.
(via The Daily Beast)