Russian President Vladmir Putin is driving his country’s interference in both United States and European elections, according to four experts.
“No doubt,” former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns told the Senate Intelligence Committee during a Wednesday hearing on Russian meddling in European elections.
Burns was responding to a question from Chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., in which he asked the panel of witnesses if they had “any doubt that Russian interference in our election is driven by Putin himself.”
Vesko Garcevic, who served as the former Ambassador of Montenegro to NATO, in Brussels, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, in Vienna, told Burr he was giving the “same answer.”
The other two witnesses — Director of NATO Strategic Communication Center of Excellence Janis Sarts and Constanze Stelzenmueller of the Brookings Institution — also told Burr there was no doubt Putin was driving interference.
“It happened systematically,” Burns added.
Garcevic then said: “It happened, happens and is going to happen.”
