washington<u+2014>a russian-backed hacking effort that has rocked the presidential campaign may peak on election day, but is likely to continue next year and into 2018 as moscow seeks to influence u.s. politics and key elections in europe, obama administration officials warn. russian meddling, in fact, may become more potent in europe than in the u.s., white house officials and other experts say, because moscow has long courted political figures there, and has forged ties with euroskeptic political parties strengthened by the recent influx of migrants and refugees. upcoming contests in europe include dutch elections in march, french presidential elections in april and may, and german elections in the fall. moscow is hoping that gains by kremlin-friendly parties like france<u+2019>s national front could help russia break free of some of the diplomatic isolation and sanctions imposed on moscow after its seizure of the ukrainian peninsula of crimea in 2014, kremlin watchers say. <u+201c>the german elections, the french elections and other elections in the coming year all have big geopolitical implications for russia,<u+201d> said pasi eronen, russia project researcher at the foundation for defense of democracies, a washington-based think tank. although large-scale interference from the kremlin is relatively new to the u.s., mr. eronen said russia has been active in europe for the past two years with hacking and disinformation campaigns designed to weaken those the kremlin considers to be political rivals. officials say that even if russia fails to elect its own allies in european elections next year, the sustained meddling in the u.s. and europe will serve a long-term kremlin goal<u+2014>namely, to put russian president vladimir putin <u+2019>s perceived foes in the west in disarray, making it easier for him to safely reseat himself as russian president when his country holds elections in 2018. <u+2018> the national nightmare might only be beginning. <u+2019> u.s. and european observers have criticized previous elections under mr. putin as rigged and marred by obvious fraud<u+2014>criticism that mr. putin has described as a veiled attempt to overthrow him. mr. putin hopes to inoculate himself against such criticism by sowing so much chaos in u.s. and european elections before then that western leaders will be too preoccupied with domestic problems to spend much effort criticizing the russian poll, one senior white house official said. by hacking and dumping emails, russia is trying <u+201c>to denigrate the american electoral system, to make it look chaotic, make it look manipulable, make it look subject to intrusion, cheating and vulnerable so you can<u+2019>t trust it<u+2026>to make us look no better than the russian electoral system,<u+201d> the official said. if the west criticizes putin<u+2019>s re-election in 2018, russia<u+2019>s response will be, <u+201c><u+2018>yeah, you<u+2019>re not so good either,<u+2019><u+201d> the white house official said, calling the russian strategy <u+201c>a long-term challenge that the united states is going to have to deal with and probably other countries, including those in europe, [will have] to take seriously.<u+201d> russia has dismissed allegations that it has tried to influence elections outside its borders or that it has anything to do with the hacking of democratic party emails this year. but senior u.s. intelligence officials have said repeatedly they are convinced the russian government stole and then leaked emails in an effort to interfere with the u.s. elections. they say that conclusion is based on digital evidence left behind in the hacks and the way the information was leaked, which closely mirrors how russia has tried to interfere in previous elections in europe. although the hacks into democratic party computer systems were performed months ago, the data was parceled out in the past few weeks on the eve of voting, apparently when it would have maximum impact. because moscow is more likely trying to disrupt u.s. politics than to elect any specific candidate, more emails may be dumped after the elections, said tom graham, managing director of kissinger associates in new york and former white house adviser on russia to president george w. bush. <u+201c>the national nightmare might only be beginning,<u+201d> he said. if hillary clinton prevails in the vote, the russians may choose to dump more information about her afterward to raise a clamor for impeachment proceedings, mr. graham said. or the kremlin may hang on to some particularly damaging information and privately show it to the white house in a blackmail attempt, he said. cyberexperts say attempts to hack into the computer systems of several german political parties this summer were likely a harbinger for similar problems for europe. german counterespionage officials informed two political parties and the lower house of parliament in september that some of their email inboxes had been targeted by hackers with apparent ties to a foreign intelligence agency. the group german officials identified as responsible for the attack, apt28, was also tied by investigators to the u.s. hacks as well as cyberattacks last year on a french-language tv broadcaster and the german lower house of parliament, which forced the legislature to shut down its computer system for several days. germany<u+2019>s domestic intelligence agency said the hacking group appeared to be <u+201c>steered by the russian state.<u+201d> <u+2014>anton troianovski in berlin contributed to this article.
russia aims to disrupt other western elections, u.s. officials say    - wsj
alan cullison