Russian disinformation campaign is behind Republican and right-wing extremist attempts to create an alternate reality.

This is a little off topic, given today’s report that over 3,000 people in the US died after being infected by COVID-19– and another three thousand are likely to die today. It’s important, though, because our country is being torn apart by an alternate reality projected in an attempt to seize control of the government. This is made possible by the efforts of a president bent on altering our perception of the election just finished and supposedly certified. How can he do this? With his magic reality-bending powers. Where did he get these powers? From the Russians.

Yesterday, I chanced upon a Senate report from the Committee on Foreign Relations about Vladimir Putin. The report, dated January 10, 2018, explained how Putin is engaged in massive subversion outside of Russia [specifically in the US, although the report doesn’t say so] to fortify his interests. The Senate doesn’t go into detail about how Putin secretly supports and encourages right-wing, anti-democratic forces in the US.

The report is deeply sourced and describes Putin in chilling detail. It is available from the US Government Printing Office online here. A supporting document dated October 24, 2017 from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) that describes how Putin’s wealth is held among his family and friends is available here. We must note that, as the report states, “Given the ongoing investigations by the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, this report does not delve into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election.”

The report does not cover certain important and very malign activities accomplished by the Russian secret service within the US, including its interference in the 2016 election. The Russians set up a group called the Internet Research Agency (IRA), which originally was specialized in Ukrainian activities; it began to support he-who-must-not-be-named in December 2015. The IRA employed more than a thousand people at its height and spent a million dollars a month, concentrating on fake internet accounts that produced content supporting the Kremlin’s interests in a number of countries including parts of the Middle East and the US.

Vladimir Putin was a veteran of the Communist Party’s internal and external security apparatus and the director of the Federal Security Service (roughly comparable to the US FBI and a successor to the USSR’s KGB or “Committee for State Security.”) He was elevated to the position of prime minister by Boris Yeltsin in August 1999.

Shortly afterwards, there was a series of terror bombings– five in all, with three more foiled by alert citizens– that struck in cities all over Russia. Putin responded by attacking Chechnya from the air, followed by an invasion. His popularity soared, and he soon became president– a post he has held ever since. The perpetrators of the bombings were never clearly established.

My next post: the Russian terror bombings: who did it and why?