WASHINGTON: The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States has concluded that Russia intervened in the recent elections to help President-elect Donald Trump win the White House, and not just to undermine confidence in the US electoral system, an official said on Friday.

US intelligence agencies have assessed that as the 2016 presidential campaign drew on, Russian government officials devoted increasing attention to assisting Mr Trump’s effort to win the elections, the US official familiar with the finding told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Citing US officials briefed on the matter, the Washington Post reported that intelligence agencies had identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including the chairman of Democratic party candidate Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, to WikiLeaks.

President Barack Obama ordered intelligence agencies to review cyber attacks and foreign intervention into the elections and deliver a report before he leaves office on Jan 20, the White House said on Friday.

Mr Obama’s homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, told reporters the report’s results would be shared with lawmakers and others.

“The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process... and to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders, to include the Congress,” she said during an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

As summer turned to fall, Russian hackers turned almost all their attention to the Democrats. Virtually all the emails they released publicly were potentially damaging to Ms Clinton and the Democrats, the official told Reuters.

“That was a major clue to their intent,” the official said. “If all they wanted to do was discredit our political system, why publicise the failings of just one party, especially when you have a target like Trump?”

A second official familiar with the report said the analysts’ conclusion about Russia’s motives did not mean the intelligence community believed that Moscow’s efforts altered or significantly affected the outcome of the election.

Russian officials have denied all accusations of interference in the US elections.

A CIA spokeswoman said the agency had no comment on the matter.

The hacked emails passed to WikiLeaks were a regular source of embarrassment to the Clinton campaign during the race for the presidency.

US intelligence analysts have assessed “with high confidence” that at some point in the extended presidential campaign Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government had decided to try to bolster Mr Trump’s chances of winning.

The Russians appear to have concluded that Mr Trump had a shot at winning and that he would be much friendlier to Russia than Ms Clinton would be, especially on issues such as maintaining economic sanctions and imposing additional ones, the official said.

Moscow is launching a similar effort to influence the next German elections, following an escalating campaign to promote far-right and nationalist political parties and individuals in Europe that began more than a decade ago, the official said.

Published in Dawn December 11th, 2016