Abstract:

In this study, the manipulations of the Russian Federation (RF) in the presidential election process held in the United States of America (the US) in 2016 November are examined within the scope of RF's cyber espionage and US' counter-espionage capacities. RF has managed to manipulate the election process with the cyber espionage capabilities of the military intelligence service GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye/Main Intelligence Directorate), which has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years. FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), which is the USA's counter/espionage capacity and the main intelligence service establishing this capacity, could not uncover this intervention process and within this framework failed to resist against the intelligence activities of a hostile country aimed at its own country. The manipulation of GRU in the US presidential elections has been constantly brought into question by the opponents of Donald Trump in order to create political oppression against him following his election as the President of the US. In this context, the intelligence activities of GRU have been revealed in detail by the relevant official intelligence services of the US. The analysis of these details has become important in terms of understanding the weaknesses in the counter-espionage system of the US coordinated under the leadership of the FBI, as well as the RF's cyber espionage capabilities dominated by the GRU.

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