Russia may open probe into ‘possible US meddling’ in election, says security chief Medvedev

Interview comments appear to be a veiled warning to western social media companies

Russian Security Council deputy chief Medvedev accused Twitter, among others, of meddling (Yekaterina Shtukina/POOL/TASS)

Russia’s deputy security chief Dmitry Medvedev has suggested Moscow may be poised to open an investigation into what he described as “foreign meddling” in the September 17-19 legislative elections.

The accusation turns the looking glass on allegations made against Russia following several recent western elections — and appears targeted at social media giants the Kremlin is trying hard to bring to heel.

Responding to pressure and reported threats made against local employees, both Apple and Google agreed to delete materials related to Alexei Navalny, the prominent Kremlin critic who found himself poisoned, then jailed and labelled extremist on his return to Russia.

The tech-savvy Medvedev, who was known as Russia’s “iPhone president” during his four years of filling in for Vladimir Putin over 2008-2012, issued a blunt message to other big tech companies who are dragging their heels. Russia could “limit, block, throttle, fine... or even ban” those apps who do not fall in line, he said.

“I’ve seen how it all works for myself,” he said in the interview with RT, the Russian state television network also known as Russia Today. “I’m a Twitter user, with 4.5 million subscribers, and when I looked at recommendations about who to follow, the first person to come up was [Alexei] Navalny, a man who is currently serving a criminal jail term. How is this not meddling in the affairs of another country? It’s meddling pure and simple!”

No love is lost between Mr Navalny and the former president. In 2017, the self-styled anti-corruption activist released an investigation into the then prime minister’s life of alleged luxury, corruption and free “gifts” from oligarchs. The probe provoked massive street protests, and a decimation of Mr Medvedev’s already low popularity rating.

The interim president’s subsequent career nosedived. Many others now appear to be ahead of him in the contest for a long-term successor to Vladimir Putin. Notionally the former president remains deputy security chief and chair of the United Russia party. But this summer he was also humiliatingly dropped from the party’s PR election lists because of dismal polling figures. (He claimed he never wanted to run.)

Mr Medvedev said his party had done well despite the elections being subjected to “an enormous number of [hostile] cyber attacks”. Approximately 50 per cent of the alleged attacks came from the United States, he claimed. That, he suggested, was grounds to begin an investigation.

As many noted, United Russia’s 50 per cent official share of the vote stretched the bounds of credulity for a party consistently polling below 30 per cent. Statistical analysis of the vote also appears to show how an improbable cluster of dubious results skewed the final United Russia figures from a more likely share of around 35 per cent.

But Mr Medvedev said he had no time for those who criticised the elections.

“Frankly, I couldn’t give a damn,” he said.