WASHINGTON — An increasing number of foreign actors, including non-state actors, are seeking to influence US elections, and Russia, China and Iran, while the most significant, are far from alone, US officials told a Senate committee on Wednesday.

“Specifically, Russia remains the most active foreign threat to our elections,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said. “The Russian government’s goals in such influence operations tend to include eroding trust in US democratic institutions, exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the United States, and degrading Western support to Ukraine.”

Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s chairman, said declassified intelligence assessments identified not just Russia, China and Iran but also Cuba, Venezuela, Islamic militants “and a range of foreign hacktivists and profit-motivated cybercriminals” as seeking to influence US politics.

“The barriers to entry for foreign malign influence — including election influence — have become almost vanishingly small,” Mr. Warner said.

The senator listed foreign efforts to influence elections and public opinion, including harassment operations against candidates and impersonations of US organizations, such as Russian imposter social media accounts purporting to represent the Tennessee Republican party and the Black Lives Matter movement.

“We’ve witnessed increasingly large numbers of Americans — of all political stripes — who simply do not trust US institutions, from federal agencies and local law enforcement to mainstream media institutions, coupled with an increased reliance on easily manipulated internet media platforms,” Mr. Warner said.

Congressional committees began looking into reported foreign — particularly Russian — efforts to influence American public opinion after US intelligence agencies concluded that entities backed by the Kremlin had sought to boost Republican Donald Trump’s chances of winning the White House in 2016.

Moscow has denied involvement.

Trump is running for reelection this year against Democratic President Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in 2020.

As the election approaches, officials also are increasingly worried about the risks that artificial intelligence (AI) poses to elections, including by the use of convincing “deepfakes” that trick voters.

Separately, a bipartisan group of senators, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, called on Congress on Wednesday to approve $32-billion in funding for AI research to keep the US ahead of China in the powerful technology. 

Wednesday’s hearing was the intelligence panel’s first open hearing on the subject during the 2024 US election cycle, with more scheduled, including a session with unspecified technology companies. — Reuters

BEIJING/MOSCOW — Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to work with counterpart Vladimir Putin to “rejuvenate” their countries as the pair started a day of talks in Beijing, saying China would “always be a good partner” of Russia, according to Chinese state media.

Mr. Putin arrived on Thursday for a two-day state visit that will include detailed talks on Ukraine, Asia, energy and trade with Mr. Xi, his most powerful political backer and fellow geopolitical rival of the United States.

“The China-Russia relationship today is hard-earned, and the two sides need to cherish and nurture it,” Mr. Xi told Mr. Putin as they met in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. “China is willing to … jointly achieve the development and rejuvenation of our respective countries, and work together to uphold fairness and justice in the world.”

China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Mr. Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War II.

By picking China for his first foreign trip since being sworn in this month for a six-year term that will keep him in power until at least 2030, Mr. Putin is sending a message to the world about his priorities and the strength of his personal ties with Mr. Xi.

Mr. Putin told Mr. Xi their cooperation was a stabilizing factor.

“It is of crucial significance that relations between Russia and China are not opportunistic and are not directed against anyone,” Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency cited Mr. Putin as saying.

Later describing their initial session as “warm and comradely,” Mr. Putin outlined sectors where the two are strengthening ties, from nuclear and energy co-operation to food supplies and Chinese car manufacturing in Russia.

The leaders formally signed a statement deepening their strategic relationship, with Mr. Xi saying both sides agreed that a political settlement to the Ukraine crisis was the “right direction.”

Mr. Putin said he was grateful to China for trying to solve the crisis, adding that he would brief Mr. Xi on the situation in Ukraine, where Russian forces are advancing on several fronts.

In an interview with China’s Xinhua news agency before his departure, Mr. Putin praised Mr. Xi for helping to build a that partnership based on national interests and deep mutual trust.

“It was the unprecedentedly high level of the strategic partnership between our countries that determined my choice of China as the first state that I would visit after taking office as president,” Mr. Putin said.

CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS OF TIES
Mr. Putin, 71, and Mr. Xi, 70, will participate in a gala celebration marking 75 years since the Soviet Union recognized the People’s Republic of China, which Mao Zedong declared in 1949.

The United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat while US President Joseph R. Biden says this century will be defined by an existential contest between democracies and autocracies.

Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi share a broad world view, which casts the West as decadent and declining, just as China challenges US supremacy in everything from quantum computing and synthetic biology to espionage and hard military power.

After meeting Mr. Xi, Mr. Putin said they were working for a multi-polar world, without closed alliances in Asia.

Mr. Putin will also visit the northeastern city of Harbin, which has historic ties to Russia. A mall devoted to Russian-made goods from about 80 Russian manufacturers opened on Thursday, the China Daily said. China has strengthened trade and military ties with Russia in recent years as the United States and its allies imposed sanctions on both countries, particularly Moscow, for its invasion of Ukraine.

Western governments say China has played a crucial role in helping Russia withstand the sanctions and has supplied key technology that Russia has used on the battlefield in Ukraine.

But China, once Moscow’s junior partner in the global Communist hierarchy, is by far the most powerful of Russia’s friends globally.

Mr. Putin’s arrival follows a mission to Beijing late last month by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in part to warn China’s top diplomat Wang Yi against growing military support for Russia. — Reuters