INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
People vote during the mid-term elections in California on November 6, 2018
it did in the 2016 vote that brought President Donald Trump to power.The already strained ties between Washington and Moscow have "no doubt"
worsened over Russian's continued attempts to interfere in the US voting process, Mattis said at the Reagan National Defense Forum in
California.Russian President Vladimir Putin "tried again to muck around in our elections this last month, and we are seeing a continued
effort along those lines," the Pentagon chief said.Putin has "continued efforts to try to subvert democratic processes that must be
defended," Mattis said, stressing he was unsure whether there were growing threats from Russia."We'll do whatever is necessary to defend
them."Mattis spoke as President Donald Trump suddenly scrapped a planned meeting with Putin at the G20 summit of world leaders in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, citing a Russian military intervention in Ukraine.Ahead of last month's vote, Twitter and Facebook shut down thousands of
Russian-controlled accounts, while 14 people from Russia's notorious troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, were indicted.And US law
enforcement agencies warned that "Americans should be aware that foreign actors -- and Russia in particular -- continue to try to influence
public sentiment and voter perceptions through actions intended to sow discord."The troll farm's finance chief, named as Yelena Khusyainova,
was indicted by the US Justice Department days before the November 6 midterms, becoming the first person to face charges of interfering in
the US vote.Russia in turn condemned the US for indicting her, saying the accusations were fabricated in order to impose further sanctions
on Moscow.Trump himself is at the center of a probe into whether his 2016 presidential campaign conspired with Russian operatives to tilt
the election in his favor.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a
