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... Researchers who track online influence operations and lawmakers who've been briefed by the intelligence community say Kremlin-backed groups are renewing familiar tactics they've used to sow distrust and discord in previous elections in the U.S. and around the world.

"It's a carnival out there," Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking member on the House intelligence committee, told reporters this week. "They're throwing everything out there to generate a sense of chaos and anarchy."

The goal is to exacerbate divisions, erode confidence in democracy and, crucially, undermine U.S. support for Ukraine.

"At the end of the day, the main issue for Russia is and has to be Ukraine," said Darren Linvill, co-director of Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub, who has tracked foreign propaganda campaigns for years.

Linvill says the Russian playbook is consistent. A false claim or divisive narrative is seeded on social media or on a fake website posing as a news organization or think tank. It's spread by state media, automated fake accounts or, increasingly, paid influencers, in the hopes that it gets seen and repeated by real people. ...