The Guardian view on Trump and Russia: playing Putin’s game – again | Editorial

It is important to be sceptical of redacted intelligence assessments, but the issues raised about Russia's role in the 2016 US election are too serious to be dismissed so lightly

The first foreign power to interfere directly in a United States presidential election was not Russia - but France. The date of this interference was not 2016 but 1796, and the intended beneficiary not Donald Trump but Thomas Jefferson. The French ambassador in the US tried to promote Jefferson, a democrat and francophile, against the federalist and anglophile John Adams. The move backfired, and helped Adams to win.

Now, fast forward 150 years. During the cold war, and even afterwards, both the US and the Soviet Union tried, mostly surreptitiously, occasionally bloodily, sometimes successfully, to shape elections in many parts of the world. So, whatever else there is to say about Russia's alleged involvement in the 2016 US election, do not make the mistake of saying that such a thing is unprecedented - because it is not.

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