Biden accuses Russia of meddling with 2022 congressional elections with 'misinformation'

United States President Joe Biden on July 27 accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of seeking to interfere in the 2022 congressional elections by spreading “misinformation.” During a trip to the office of the director of national intelligence near Washington on Tuesday, Biden said, “Look at what Russia is doing already about the 2022 elections and misinformation” while referring to information he receives during his daily briefing. He added, “It's a pure violation of our sovereignty."

Biden also lambasted Putin and said that the Russian President has a “real problem, he is sitting on top of an economy that has nuclear weapons and nothing else” adding “He knows he is in real trouble, which makes him even more dangerous in my view." Furthermore, US President reportedly revealed his concerns regarding the recent surge in cyberattacks in the country including via ransomware which means that the cybercriminals encrypt victims’ data and then demand money to restore the access.

"If we end up in a war, a real shooting war, with a major power, it's going to be as a consequence of a cyber breach," Biden said. The United States will be conducting elections in the fall of 2022 wherein all seats in the House of Representatives along with one-third of the Senate seats will be on the ballot. While most recently White House accused China of carrying out the massive hack in March of Microsoft Exchange, it has also repeatedly called on Russia to take action against ransomware attacks originating from its country.

Biden and Putin hailed ‘positive’ talks last month

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the ‘positive’ talks as they met for the first time on June 16 and sought to cool off the tensions in the combustible relationship of both the nations. However, Biden appeared to draw a line of “what’s off-limits” in nearly four-hour-long talks in the villa overlooking Lake Geneva. Both leaders said that no “threats” were issued during the talks held in private but Biden was emphatic about warning the Kremlin over any cyberattacks against what he explained as 16 clear defined areas of US critical infrastructure. US President warned that violations would trigger America’s response in kind “cyber.”

Biden said, “I gave them a list, if I’m not mistaken — I don’t have it in front of me — 16 specific entities; 16 defined as critical infrastructure under U.S. policy, from the energy sector to our water systems.”

“So we agreed to task experts in both our — both our countries to work on specific understandings about what’s off limits and to follow up on specific cases that originate in other countries — either of our countries,” he added before saying, “I think that the last thing he wants now is a Cold War.”

IMAGE: AP