Russia’s Disinformation Pro-GOP Campaign is Hardly a Train Wreck

Recorded tight off the air or from social media accounts: Trump’s and DeSantis’ questioning why the United States continues to feed a seemingly bottomless pit of support for Ukraine. Kevin McCarthy and Marjorie Taylor Greene echoing these sentiments are equally popular. But the happy recipients are not in the United States. These messages are viewed by the Russians via state-controlled television, newspapers and social media. The subtext is how unpopular supporting Ukraine is with Americans.

A new hero in Moscow, not remotely fluent in Russian, is US action hero, Steven Segal, who faces sexual assault charges and seriously delinquent tax assessments here. But Putin has made Segal a Russian citizen by decree. The aging actor has declared himself “100% Russian” and has accused the United States of spreading a false narrative of mis- and disinformation about Russia’s engagement in Ukraine. Segal gets lots of coverage in his anti-American rants in his new homeland.

But as our intelligence agencies report, Russia’s efforts at turning Americans against Democrats and the Biden administration, in the hopes of electing more anti-Ukraine-supporters among the Republican Party. Trump’s buddying up to Putin is well-documented. Russia’s election interference rises and increases in sophistication with every election cycle. The interference can be found in many other democracies around the world. The hackers and manipulators are often cadres of experts who are unofficially funded by Moscow. They are able to scan social media, even individual email and social media accounts, and able to detect biases and predispositions of those users. The information generated creates tailored social media interaction and direct communications with voters susceptible to being influenced. Conspiracy theorists are the low hanging fruit of vulnerability.

The dis- and mis-information is usually based on the individual characteristics of these voters and is then tailored to them as if they were dealing with real people, instead of the computer-driven (with lots of AI) “bots” that take over the spread of that false narrative. According to our own police and intelligence agencies, the amount of traffic emanating from malign actors, particularly Russia, has never been higher.

Once Elon Musk allowed Twitter users to gain credibility by getting a blue checkmark for $8/month, the Russian propaganda machine broke into a massive collective grin. Whenever there is an opportunity to undermine trust and support of our government, the Russia auto-bot machine swings into action. And Twitter made their efforts so much easier. Even about issues you would never expect. As David Klepper, writing for the March 19th Associated Press (and carried in the Los Angeles Times), illustrates:

“Soon after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts spread misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk’ s new verification system to expand their reach while creating the illusion of credibility.

“The accounts, which parroted Kremlin talking points on myriad topics, claimed without evidence that authorities in Ohio were lying about the true impact of the chemical spill. The accounts spread fearmongering posts that preyed on legitimate concerns about pollution and health effects and compared the response to the derailment with America’s support for Ukraine following its invasion by Russia.

“Some claims were verifiably false, and others were more speculative, seemingly designed to stoke fear or distrust. Examples include unverified maps showing widespread pollution, posts predicting an increase in fatal cancers and others about unconfirmed mass animal die-offs… ‘Biden offers food, water, medicine, shelter, payouts of pension and social services to Ukraine! Ohio first! Offer and deliver to Ohio!’ posted a pro-Moscow account with 25,000 followers. Twitter awarded the account a blue check mark in January.

“Regularly spewing anti-U.S. propaganda, the accounts show how easily authoritarian states and Americans willing to spread their propaganda can exploit social media platforms to steer domestic discourse… The accounts were identified by Reset, a London-based nonprofit that studies social media’s impact on democracy, and shared with the Associated Press… Felix Kartte, a senior advisor at Reset, said the report’s findings indicate that Twitter is letting Russia use its platform like a bullhorn… ‘With no one at home in Twitter’s product safety department, Russia will continue to meddle in U.S. elections and in democracies around the world,’ Kartte said.”

We have devolved and polarized to such an extreme extent that mainstream politicians, with a heavy emphasis on Republicans who are against “anything and everything that Biden is for,” even where they once embraced those policies themselves, are perfectly content to give aid and comfort to our obvious enemies, even brutal dictator Vladimir Putin, to demean and take down their political opponents. The Russians involved can be in the government or obvious tied to it.

Another example is Yevgeny Prigozhin, who heads the Wagner Group, a private Russian military company whose fighters are battling Ukrainian soldiers, which “operates troll farms that have targeted U.S. social media users in the past. Last fall he boasted of his efforts to meddle with American democracy.” AP. He and his ilk are having a field day with a wide open and willing cooperating cadre of senior Republican leaders who continue to create amazing sound bites effectively supporting Russia against the United States. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and that these modern-day Benedict Arnolds call themselves “patriots” is particularly disturbing… and that a huge constituency of voters hangs on their every malignant word even more horrifying.