False bomb threats were issued in Georgia, in the middle of the presidential election. The FBI and local officials have blamed operations carried out from Russia.
False bomb threats attributed to Russian destabilization operations targeted polling stations in the United States on Tuesday, November 5, notably briefly disrupting the vote in Georgia, one of the states where the presidential election is being played out.
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The FBI, the American federal police, indicated in a press release “that it is aware of bomb threats at polling stations in several states, several of which appear to emanate from Russian internet domain names”.
“None of these threats have so far been considered credible,” underlines the FBI without specifying the states concerned and calling on the population to report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.
Brief closures of polling stations
The head of elections in Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, for his part affirmed that the source of the false bomb threats in his state “had been identified and (that) it was Russia”.
Police in Fulton County, in Atlanta, the state’s main city, reported 32 bomb threats at the end of the day, 27 of which were quickly deemed false and five leading to brief closures of polling stations.
In neighboring DeKalb County, similar alerts targeted seven locations, including five polling stations closed as a precaution, according to local authorities. A judge consequently extended voting hours in the offices concerned.
American authorities have repeatedly warned in recent weeks against disinformation attempts by “Russian agents of influence”, particularly in the state of Georgia.
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