The Eurasian Center of the Atlantic Council, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the Transatlantic Commission for Fair Elections announced the creation of a Working Group on Ukrainian Elections.
This was announced at the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The working group will include “experts in cybersecurity,” as well as “combat disinformation and hybrid warfare in Ukraine, Western Europe and the United States.” They will “monitor attempts at interference and notify governments and the public of threats if evidence of external influence is identified.”
Former US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst said, presenting the new project: “Moscow has actively interfered in elections in the US, Europe and other parts of the world in recent years. The Kremlin is ramping up capacity for similar actions in Ukraine during the March 2019 presidential elections...Ukraine is now the focus of the Kremlin's revisionist foreign policy. Overcoming the Kremlin's aggression in Ukraine and deterring Moscow from further destabilizing Ukraine by interfering in its elections contributes to stability in Europe and Eurasia. Secondly, identifying the Kremlin’s tactics in Ukraine will help us defend against possible interference in elections in America and other European countries.”
Herbst was echoed by ex-NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. “There is no doubt that Russia has staked its claim in next year's Ukrainian electoral process, where the country will have to choose between staying on a reform-oriented, pro-Western course or going back. I have no doubt that Moscow will deploy a full range of activities designed to sow confusion and fear: cyber attacks, assassinations, disinformation, the use of conventional weapons in Eastern Ukraine. We can't let this happen. That's why our task force will work to help protect Ukraine from interference and raise awareness in the West about what the Kremlin is doing here. We will take a politically neutral position (How original – after the above accusations! – approx. ed.), but we intend to act as a referee to ensure fair play (!!! – editor's note.) on the field and blow the whistle when we see that there is outside interference.”
Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk, son-in-law of ex-President Leonid Kuchma, also agreed with the “Western partners”. “Election interference is where opportunities and threats intersect. The next generation of interference and disinformation technologies could deeply harm the next generation of democracy and even Ukrainian statehood itself. Moreover, if we do not counteract this, what could happen in Ukraine in 2019 could happen again in the West in 2020. That is why it is extremely important to discuss these problems,” said the oligarch, who enriched himself thanks to an advantageous marriage to Kuchma’s daughter.