Russian meddling in U.S. elections may go back to the Tea Party ‘revolution’ of 2008
Ukrainian botnets and an inner circle with questionable associations
Louis Anslow
In October of 2007, the race for the White House was heating up, and a debate among Republican candidates had just taken place. Shortly after, 162 million unsolicited emails were sent out promoting one candidate: Ron Paul. The subject lines included such lauding pronouncements as “Ron Paul wins GOP Debate!” and “Ron Paul Stops Iraq War!” The messages were made to look as if they had been sent from real people, but they were actually sent from a botnet based in Ukraine. With troubling links now emerging between Ukrainian hackers and Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, the web-driven “Ron Paul Revolution” deserves a second look.
The spam in the Ron Paul case caught people’s attention, and when security researchers discovered the real source several weeks later, it made headlines. Some pointed the finger at the Paul campaign, accusing them of “dirty tricks.” Jesse Benton, Ron Paul’s spokesman and grandson-in-law, brushed off the incident as either the work of an overzealous supporter or a political rival looking to discredit the campaign. At the time, these were the only three thinkable scenarios. But after the 2016 election, the rise of Trump, and revelations of foreign meddling, another possible perpetrator comes to mind: Russia. It was unthinkable in 2008, but at least plausible in retrospect.
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But why would Russia help Paul, an uncompromising, anti-authoritarian, Constitutionalist?
To begin with, it is widely acknowledged that Russia’s covert strategies are often outwardly confusing and geared toward scattershot destabilization of the U.S. As retired KGB General Oleg Kalugin described it, the goal is “to drive wedges in the Western community alliances of all sorts, particularly NATO, to sow discord among allies, to weaken the United States in the eyes of the people in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and thus to prepare ground in case the war really occurs.”
But it also turns out that despite the seeming contradiction, Paul is a consistent and vocal defender of Russia. In recent years, he has called into question whether Kremlin-backed separatists shot down flight MH17, justified Russia’s invasion of Crimea, and called the chemical attacks ordered by Syria’s Russia-supported President Bashar al-Assad a false-flag operation. In 2008, he also opposed a House resolution condemning Moscow for the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence agent who died of radiation poisoning in London in 2006. “The real purpose,” Paul said, “is to attack the Russian government by suggesting that Russia is involved in the murder. There is little evidence of this beyond the feverish accusations of interested parties.” (The Ron Paul Institute did not respond to requests for comment on this piece.)
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https://timeline.com/ron-paul-russia-hacking-e248f87f38f2
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