They had a monthly budget of $1,250,000 – enough to make most American political candidates or campaigns swoon.
According to special counsel Robert Mueller, a grand jury has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for interference in the 2016 presidential election. CNBC reports this included “’information warfare’ against the U.S. election process to help Donald Trump win.”
The efforts were launched in 2014 and did not “support” then-candidate Donald J. Trump until early to mid-2016, and that was AFTER supporting Bernie Sanders.
Social media played a critical role with the defendants working as part of a Russian organization, called the Internet Research Agency, which established a “virtual private network” using fake American personas and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts in an attempt to influence American voters.
The efforts were launched in 2014 and did not “support” then-candidate Donald J. Trump until early to mid-2016, and that was AFTER supporting Bernie Sanders. The stated goal was “spread[ing] distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general,” according to the indictment. This included the purchase of social media and other online ads paid for by Russia.
A CBS News report reveals they even went to far as the pose as Americans themselves, contact U.S. political and social activists learning enough to target “purple” or potentially critical swing states, like Colorado, Virginia and Florida.
From CBS:
They created hundreds of social media accounts and used them to develop fictitious U.S. personas into “leaders of opinion in the U.S.” The defendants worked day and night shifts to pump out messages, controlling pages targeting a range of issues, including immigration, Black Lives Matter, and they amassed hundreds of thousands of followers.
hey had a monthly budget of $1,250,000 – enough to make any political candidate or campaign swoon.
Following the election, the defendants then attempted to organize and coordinate political rallies to both support and protect the election results. The defendants also used “computer infrastructure, based partly in the United States, to hide the Russian origin of their activities and to avoid detection.”
According to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, there is no indication any American was a witting participant in the scheme OR that the election outcome was affected.
However, the above CNBC report notes that an American named Richard Pinedo may have helped them to facilitate their operations bypassing security systems and processing payments using stolen, authentic American identities, including social security numbers, home addresses and birth dates.
According to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, there is no indication any American was a witting participant in the scheme OR that the election outcome was affected. Presuming this includes Americans President Trump, his campaign team and family members, this may be the vindication President Trump has been waiting for… whether or not the mainstream media will connect those dots, or share that headline, will be seen in the next few days.
While much of the focus has been on the 2016 candidates themselves, the real victim of this Russian operation was the integrity of America’s democratic process which has continued to suffer from the stoked tensions and stymied inter-party cooperation on Capitol Hill and in civil society, notably in the American media.
Finally, considering the far from mom and pop grassroots budget, and the fact that it reeks of the notorious Russian “illegals” intelligence practices, it’s likely former KGB Russian President Vladimir Putin was pulling the puppet strings all along trying to gain some perceived strategic advantage against the U.S. It’s not likely to have improved the Kremlin’s relations with the Trump administration going forward, though it’s unlikely to hurt Putin’s own re-election when Russians cast their limited ballots next month.
Not to distract from the seriousness of this when it comes to our national security, but one can’t help but recall 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s much-mocked and misquoted remarks about seeing Russia from some points of Alaska (or per Saturday Night Live, being able to see Russia out her window!), and wondering if we as a nation were overconfident on the Pacific serving as a safety blanket of sorts in the Internet Age.
