During today’s confirmation hearings on Mike Pompeo’s Secretary of State candidacy

During today’s confirmation hearings on Mike Pompeo’s Secretary of State candidacy we have once again heard unfounded accusations of Russia's meddling in U.S. electoral processes both fr om the U.S. legislators and the candidate himself. With that, they arrogantly compared U.S. engagements (“promoting democracy and human rights”) to Russian actions (“undermining Western democracies” and “desire to influence the outcome of elections”).

In this regard we would like to once again state that Russia does not engage in regime changes, meddling in domestic affairs of other states or masterminding staged 'revolutions'. The U.S., however, has mastered these techniques, as they have quite an experience in this area. Please take a moment to look at just a small list of their 'achievements' and examples of 'bad behavior' taken fr om American sources.

The U.S. regularly violates national sovereignty of other countries by interfering in their domestic affairs. The favorite tactic of the American intelligence services is to intervene in electoral processes of foreign states and stage coups in order to topple undesired regimes.This fact is recognized by experts and former U.S. intelligence operatives.

Steven L. Hall, who retired in 2015 after 30 years at the C.I.A., wh ere he was the chief of Russian operations in an interview to the "The New York Times" on February 17, 2018 said The United States “absolutely” has carried out such election influence operations historically “and I hope we keep doing it.” (Link)

The newspaper also gives estimates of Dr. Johnson, a regents professor at the University of Georgia, who claimed that the CIA has been interfering in foreign elections since its creation in 1947.

According to a research based on declassified documents of the U.S. intelligence made by a Carnegie Mellon scholar, Dov H. Levin from 1946 to 2000 the U.S. has over 80 times interfered in the elections of 45 countries (this number does not include military coups and “color revolutions”). Such operations were classified and included financing and organization of election campaigns, deliberate misinformation and propaganda, as well as economic pressure on the leadership of certain countries. According to Mr.Levin, the success rate of such operations was 59%. (Link)

Specific examples of such meddling include:
During the Italian elections of 1948 the Americans managed to lead the Christian Democratic Party to victory and prevent the Communists from coming into power. According to F. Mark Wyatt, a former C.I.A. officer (from the declassified under the Freedom of Information Act materials of the year 1996), in subsequent years, Washington squandered money on elected politicians to keep American sympathizers in power. The Harry Truman Administration also drew in the Roman Catholic Church to support the election campaign of the Christian Democrats. (Link)

According to a CIA report declassified in 2014, the U.S. interfered in the Chilean elections of 1964 through support and financing of the Christian Democrat leader Eduardo Frei in his struggle against Salvador Allende. (Link)

In 1990 in Nicaragua the CIA spread disinformation on corruption within the ranks of Sandinistas in power. The opposition managed to win with American support.
From 1950 to 1960 the Americans provided financial aid to the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan. The CIA secretly transferred millions of dollars to help political struggle of the LDPJ against the Communists. In fact, the entire party leadership consisted of individuals receiving “corruption donations” from the U.S. intelligence operatives, who, in return, received national secrets and economic preferences for American business.

Ramon Magsaysay won the Philippian presidential elections of 1953 with support of the CIA. Moreover, intelligence agents fully led his election campaign and discredited his political rivals by publishing incriminating evidence on them.

In 1991 in Haiti the US intelligence with the help of local military, who de-facto were on a U.S. payroll, removed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide form power after his election victory. During the election campaign CIA agents used the local media under their control to discredit the “unwanted” candidate in every possible way. After his victory, they organized a military coup that forced the head of the state to resign and flee the country. It is quite peculiar that in 3 years the Americans removed the junta from power through intervention threats and decided to put the same Aristide as president.

Through funding and other support the U.S. ensured victory of the Democrats over the Communists in the Czechoslovakian parliamentary elections of 1990. The Americans fully controlled and sponsored the election headquarters of Vaclav Havel, as well as purchased political media adds.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates of the George W. Bush Administration admitted in his memoirs that Washington really did perform an "awkward and unsuccessful attempt to organize a coup" in Afghanistan during the 2009 elections, and that President Karzai expressed his indignation about American interference in his conversations with Mr.Gates. (Link)

In Bolivia during the 2002 elections the U.S. Embassy was openly agitating local population against Evo Morales. The Administration, on its part, sent public signals that in case of his victory the U.S. will discontinue providing financial support to the Bolivians and stop investing in their economy.

From 2012 to 2016 Administration of President Obama significantly financed democratic opposition in Macedonia through NGOs, which had close ties to the State Department.
During his years as a U.S. Senator Barack Obama was personally involved in Kenyan elections meddling, as he openly showed support to Raila Odinga, a Democratic Party presidential candidate in 2006. He personally travelled to the country on many occasions to promote Mr.Odinga.

There is a long trace of meddling operations in order to topple “undesirable regimes” left behind the U.S. intelligence services. For instance, in 1953 in Iran they managed to remove Prime Minister Mossadegh from his post. In Guatemala Jacobo Arbenz was pushed aside from power through a CIA operation PBSUCCESS in 1954. Numerous attempted coups were made possible by the U.S. in Cuba (for example, operations Mongoose and Zapata in 1950-1960), in Indonesia (coup attempt in 1965). In Panama, in 1989 the U.S. conducted a direct military intervention in order to remove Manuel Noriega, who was forcefully taken to the U.S., wh ere he faced a 30-year imprisonment.

Moreover, there are documented facts of U.S. meddling in elections of Albania, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, U.K., Haiti, Guyana, Guatemala, Greece, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Iceland, Iran, Costa Rica, Cambodia, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mauritius, Malta, Nepal, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Somalia, Thailand, Ukraine, Uruguay, Chile, Sri Lanka and Jamaica.