Newly declassified US intel claims Russia is laundering propaganda through unwitting Westerners

[pppolitics]

Washington
CNN
 —
Russian intelligence is operating a systematic program to launder pro-Kremlin propaganda through private relationships between Russian operatives and unwitting US and western targets, according to newly declassified US intelligence.

US intelligence agencies believe that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) is attempting to influence public policy and public opinion in the West by directing Russian civilians to build relationships with influential US and Western individuals and then disseminate narratives that support Kremlin objectives, obscuring the FSB’s role through layers of ostensibly independent actors.

“These influence operations are designed to be deliberately small scale, the overall goal being US [and] Western persons presenting these ideas, seemingly organic,” a US official authorized to discuss the material told CNN. “The co-optee influence operations are built primarily on personal relationships … they build trust with them and then they can leverage that to covertly push the FSB’s agenda.”

[...]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/25/politics/us-intel-russia-propaganda/index.html

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Earth-shattering findings which we've never heard of before. Next, the six-figure-salary analysts will tell us that bears are sh!tt!ng in woods.

[oldtimer]

Earth-shattering findings which we've never heard of before. Next, the six-figure-salary analysts will tell us that bears are sh!tt!ng in woods.

This sums it up:

https://twitter.com/dpjankowski/status/824544184807915520

[Hindsight was 2020]

😱

[PSOL]

With no named names, how can we verify the authenticity of this report?

[TheReckoning]

America does the exact same thing, how is this news?

[pppolitics]

With no named names, how can we verify the authenticity of this report?

You didn't read the article, did you?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Shocking! Who could have guessed?

[Santander]

1. This was obvious
2. Declassifying and releasing intel is itself a form of propaganda

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

We know they've been doing this, they're just not very good at it and can only hire the dumbest hacks and grifters.

[CumbrianLefty]

With no named names, how can we verify the authenticity of this report?

You didn't read the article, did you?

Who actually reads articles when we have the headline to tell us what it says?

(nb - this is sarcasm)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

We know they've been doing this, they're just not very good at it and can only hire the dumbest hacks and grifters.

<Looks at the last two decades of US politics>
<Looks at the Republican party>

I'm not sure about "good", but they're certainly getting the results they want.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

We know they've been doing this, they're just not very good at it and can only hire the dumbest hacks and grifters.

<Looks at the last two decades of US politics>
<Looks at the Republican party>

I'm not sure about "good", but they're certainly getting the results they want.

The political trends in the US are incidental to whatever the Russians are trying to do, and the actual policies of the Trump administration--withdrawing from New START, bombing Wagner in Syria, arming Ukraine--were much more overtly hostile to Russia in practice than any other post-1991 president before him.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Oh no more scary Hillary memes!