Washington DC July 28 : Joe Biden, the president of the United States of America, on Tuesday, accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of trying to disrupt the 2022 US midterm elections, slated to be held in November next year, when all 435 seats in the US House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested. Referring to Putin as “dangerous”, the US president alleged that his Russian counterpart is leading an economy that only has nuclear weapons and “nothing else”.<\/p>\n
Biden made these remarks to about 120 representatives of the US intelligence who gathered on this day at the headquarters of the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI) in northern Virginia.<\/p>\n
“Look at what Russia doing already about the 2022 elections and misinformation,” said the US president, referring to the information he received during his daily briefing. Without elaborating much on the matter, Biden said that the Russian president’s actions are a “pure violation” of the United States’ sovereignty.<\/p>\n
“Putin has a real problem,” Biden said. “He is sitting on top of an economy that has nuclear weapons and nothing else. He knows he is in real trouble, which makes him even more dangerous in my view.”<\/p>\n
The US president also pointed out the recent increase in cyberattacks, including ransomware, allegedly conducted by Moscow. “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 warned, adding that the ransomware attacks typically see hackers encrypting victims’ data and then demanding money for restored access.<\/p>\n
The US midterm elections are scheduled to be held on November 8, 2022. As many as 39 state and territorial gubernatorial and numerous other state and local elections are also slated to be held around the same time.<\/p>\n