Russian Disinformation Efforts, Including Faked Walz Video, Could Continue After Nov. 5, Officials Say

Foreign powers including Russia and Iran could move quickly right after the vote to undermine the democratic process, intelligence agencies warn.

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Voters at a polling location on Monday in Las Vegas, where early voting has started. Russia, along with Iran and China, has already sought to influence the U.S. election by spreading disinformation.

Russia is considering actions to stoke protests and even violence over the U.S. election results, intelligence officials said on Tuesday, as foreign powers appear to be moving aggressively to undermine the democratic process during what is already expected to be a contentious vote count.

Russia, along with Iran and China, has already sought to influence the election through myriad efforts to spread disinformation. The officials said new intelligence showed that Moscow had created and spread a staged video falsely accusing Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, of sexual misconduct.

The video, which was quickly debunked, is the latest in a series of false narratives that Russian operatives have fabricated this year.

With the election two weeks away, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, along with the F.B.I. and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, raised new warnings about the post-election period, arguing that Russia and Iran were considering stoking and amplifying domestic unrest.

The intelligence agencies said in a report that they expected “foreign actors to continue to conduct influence operations through inauguration, denigrating U.S. democracy, including by calling into question the results of the election.”

Intelligence officials first raised concerns about the post-election period in a classified document prepared earlier this month. The director of national intelligence, Avril D. Haines, declassified it last week and released a partially redacted version on Tuesday.

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