Kremlin Trolls

[church mouse guy]

It seems that Putin has a building full of trolls in St. Petersburg. They are paid about a thousand dollars a month and they post all over the world. They say that Putin is not murdering his opponents but the CIA, that Putin was right to annex Crimea, and that the Ukrainian patriots are neo-nazis, etc.


The Kremlin has always dabbled in propaganda, but in the past year its troll campaign has gone into overdrive, adding hundreds of online operatives to help counter Western pressure over its role in the pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. The program is drawing Serbia away from its proclaimed EU membership path and closer to the Russian orbit, and is targeting Germany, the United States and other Western powers. The operation has worried the European Union enough to prompt it to draw up a blueprint for fighting Russia's disinformation campaign, although details have not yet been released."


http://townhall.com/news/politics-e...anda-push-with-online-kremlin-trolls-n2005380

 

[The American Dream]

So what are your expectations? The Republicans coming to the rescue, liberal as they are?

 

[Rolfe]

CMG- RT is a legitimate news source. :laugh:

There is a saying about TASS and Pravda: There is no news in the truth and no truth in the news.

 

[Revmitchell]

The DNC has been doing it for years. Some of them are right here on this board.

 

[Lewis]

Shh!!! Putin Bans Talking about Dead Russian Troops in Ukraine –
May 29, 2015

"Most of the headlines Russian President Vladimir Putin garnered on Thursday were due to his decision to wade into the controversy over corruption in FIFA, soccer’s world governing body. Less noticed, though, as Putin blasted the U.S. for “meddling” in the affairs of international soccer, was a more grim piece of news: The Russian president has signed a new law that makes it illegal to reveal the death of Russian soldiers in peacetime.

"Under near-universal condemnation for continued support of an armed uprising in Eastern Ukraine, Russia has consistently and forcefully denied that it has either soldiers or equipment in the war-torn country, part of which it invaded last year.

"However, inconveniently for the Kremlin, corpses of Russian soldiers are being returned to their families bearing wounds that suggest death in a war zone. Journalists and, increasingly, the Russian public have been publicizing this fact and pushing back against the Kremlin’s insistence that it has no troops deployed to Ukraine.

"Now, it appears, simply stating the simple fact that a Russian soldier is dead can land someone in jail.

"According to Agence-France Presse, the edict signed by Putin on Wednesday, declares that “information revealing losses of personnel...in peacetime during special operations” is now classified as a state secret.

"Earlier this month, a group of activists aligned with murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov came together to release a report that Nemtsov had been working on when he was gunned down just steps from the Kremlin. It had gathered evidence of Russian involvement in Ukraine and alleged that thousands of troops had been deployed there, with hundreds killed."
Link

 

[poncho]

Interesting read . . .

A report from Bloomberg News on Wednesday, though, added a weird twist to stories about the Ukrainian conflict. Russia, despite fairly copious evidence to the contrary, has long insisted that it has no troops fighting in eastern Ukraine. However, according to two U.S. lawmakers quoted by the news service, Russia has brought mobile crematoriums into Ukraine to dispose of its war dead.

- See more at: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/...-Soldiers-Deaths-Ukraine#sthash.QMhgw2x9.dpuf

Where is this "copious evidence"?

Be nice if you guys would post some actual evidence instead of all the "he said, she said, they said" stuff. :sleep:

Show me the proof.

http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=92615

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks

Pentagon Armies of Paid Trolls

On May 22, Michael Snyder reported on an amendment added to a defense authorization bill in Congress that would legalize "psychological operations" aimed at American citizens.

"The latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act would overturn the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1987," Snyder writes.

Those two laws essentially make it illegal for propaganda that is used to influence public opinion overseas to be targeted at U.S. citizens back here at home. If those two laws are struck down, there will be essentially very few limits to what the U.S. government can do to shape our opinions. The government would be able to bombard us with propaganda messages on television, on the radio, in our newspapers and on the Internet and there would not even be a requirement that those messages be true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMvM1KJBlEE

Bill Text 112th Congress (2011-2012) H.R.5736.IH

To amend the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 to authorize the domestic dissemination of information and material about the United States intended primarily for foreign audiences, and for other purposes.


http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.5736:

The NDAA Legalizes The Use Of Propaganda On The US Public

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-legalizes-propaganda-2012-5#ixzz3bfW9S5sS

Who's opinion is in your head?

Why Would Bloomberg News Completely Disappear the February, 2014 Ukraine Coup?

So three of four people here can go on believing what they haven't been able to prove in over a year. :laugh:

http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=99906

 

[church mouse guy]

The DNC has been doing it for years. Some of them are right here on this board.

A Russian troll is probably motivated by fear of starvation in Putin's bleak Russian poverty-stricken economy, but a DNC troll must just suffer from low self-esteem.

 

[poncho]

A Russian troll is probably motivated by fear of starvation in Putin's bleak Russian poverty-stricken economy, but a DNC troll must just suffer from low self-esteem.

So what's your story? Sounds like you're motivated by the trolls in Washington and the corporate media.

 

[OldRegular]

It seems that Putin has a building full of trolls in St. Petersburg. They are paid about a thousand dollars a month and they post all over the world. They say that Putin is not murdering his opponents but the CIA, that Putin was right to annex Crimea, and that the Ukrainian patriots are neo-nazis, etc.


The Kremlin has always dabbled in propaganda, but in the past year its troll campaign has gone into overdrive, adding hundreds of online operatives to help counter Western pressure over its role in the pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. The program is drawing Serbia away from its proclaimed EU membership path and closer to the Russian orbit, and is targeting Germany, the United States and other Western powers. The operation has worried the European Union enough to prompt it to draw up a blueprint for fighting Russia's disinformation campaign, although details have not yet been released."


http://townhall.com/news/politics-e...anda-push-with-online-kremlin-trolls-n2005380

I thought you were talking about the Crab and the leftist democrats from the thread title.

 

[Lewis]

Where is this "copious evidence"?

Must hand it to Vladimir, It is a little hard to prove Russia's involvement when his opposition is murdered or beat up. Even so, no one is denying that Russia has indeed seized Crimea, after it had been a part of Ukraine since 1954. Or "reintegrated" as Vlad's defenders describe it :laugh:

Nevertheless, even the Moscow Times is reporting on Russia's losses and expenses in Ukraine:

Moscow Times
May. 12 2015
...
"Nemtsov Report Details Human and Financial Costs of War in Ukraine
About 70 Russian soldiers were killed early this year in eastern Ukraine's Debaltseve alone, in addition to at least 150 others who died during major battles last August, according to excerpts from a long-awaited report by murdered opposition leader Boris Nemtsov quoted by Russian media.

"Nemtsov, who was shot and killed in central Moscow on Feb. 27, had begun the work on the report early this year to counter pro-Kremlin rhetoric deluging Russians from television screens, according to the document, quoted Tuesday by the RBC news portal.

"The report is based on interviews with families of Russian troops who fought in Ukraine and their representatives — many of whom were later frightened into silence by Nemtsov’s shooting death within a stone’s throw from the Kremlin, Nemtsov's allies have said.

"According to those sources, at least 150 Russian soldiers were killed in eastern Ukraine in August, 2014 alone.

"The soldiers' families received 2 million rubles each ($39,000 at the current rate), after signing pledges to not disclose the circumstances of their loved ones deaths,RBC quoted the report as saying.

"About 70 more Russian soldiers were killed in January-February this year in battles around Debaltseve, according to figures Nemtsov gathered from the troops' families and their representatives, RBC reported.

"But by then, Russia had started discharging troops from the army before sending them to Ukraine, and the Defense Ministry refused to pay compensation it had promised to the soldiers' families, the report said.

"The financial burden of Russia's annexation of Crimea a year ago, and its support for separatist rebels in Ukraine's east is also staggering, according to economists' estimates cited in the report.

"Russia has spent 53 billion rubles from state coffers in the 10 months of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, according to estimates by the head of macroeconomic studies at the esteemed Higher School of Economics, Sergei Aleksashenko, one of the co-authors of the report.The costs included 21 billion rubles ($1 billion) to operate a force of 6,000 Russian “volunteer” soldiers in Ukraine, another 25 billion rubles to support 30,000 local insurgents, and 7 billion rubles for the maintenance and repairs of military machines, Aleksashenko said, RBC reported.

"The 64-page report, divided into 11 chapters, follows the crisis in Ukraine starting from the street protests that toppled the country's previous, Moscow-backed administration — events that the report said prompted the Kremlin to begin planning to seize Crimea.

"Ilya Yashin, who was an aide to Nemtsov, accused Putin of lying to Russians by waging the war amid denials of involvement.

"The war with Ukraine is an undeclared war, a vile cynical war which amounts to a crime against all of the Russian nation. Putin will go down in history as the president who made Russians and Ukrainians foes," he told a news conference on the report.

 

[poncho]

Must hand it to Vladimir, It is a little hard to prove Russia's involvement when his opposition is murdered or beat up. Even so, no one is denying that Russia has indeed seized Crimea, after it had been a part of Ukraine since 1954. Or "reintegrated" as Vlad's defenders describe it :laugh:

Nevertheless, even the Moscow Times is reporting on Russia's losses and expenses in Ukraine:

Moscow Times
May. 12 2015
...
"Nemtsov Report Details Human and Financial Costs of War in Ukraine
About 70 Russian soldiers were killed early this year in eastern Ukraine's Debaltseve alone, in addition to at least 150 others who died during major battles last August, according to excerpts from a long-awaited report by murdered opposition leader Boris Nemtsov quoted by Russian media.

"Nemtsov, who was shot and killed in central Moscow on Feb. 27, had begun the work on the report early this year to counter pro-Kremlin rhetoric deluging Russians from television screens, according to the document, quoted Tuesday by the RBC news portal.

"The report is based on interviews with families of Russian troops who fought in Ukraine and their representatives — many of whom were later frightened into silence by Nemtsov’s shooting death within a stone’s throw from the Kremlin, Nemtsov's allies have said.

"According to those sources, at least 150 Russian soldiers were killed in eastern Ukraine in August, 2014 alone.

"The soldiers' families received 2 million rubles each ($39,000 at the current rate), after signing pledges to not disclose the circumstances of their loved ones deaths,RBC quoted the report as saying.

"About 70 more Russian soldiers were killed in January-February this year in battles around Debaltseve, according to figures Nemtsov gathered from the troops' families and their representatives, RBC reported.

"But by then, Russia had started discharging troops from the army before sending them to Ukraine, and the Defense Ministry refused to pay compensation it had promised to the soldiers' families, the report said.

"The financial burden of Russia's annexation of Crimea a year ago, and its support for separatist rebels in Ukraine's east is also staggering, according to economists' estimates cited in the report.

"Russia has spent 53 billion rubles from state coffers in the 10 months of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, according to estimates by the head of macroeconomic studies at the esteemed Higher School of Economics, Sergei Aleksashenko, one of the co-authors of the report.The costs included 21 billion rubles ($1 billion) to operate a force of 6,000 Russian “volunteer” soldiers in Ukraine, another 25 billion rubles to support 30,000 local insurgents, and 7 billion rubles for the maintenance and repairs of military machines, Aleksashenko said, RBC reported.

"The 64-page report, divided into 11 chapters, follows the crisis in Ukraine starting from the street protests that toppled the country's previous, Moscow-backed administration — events that the report said prompted the Kremlin to begin planning to seize Crimea.

"Ilya Yashin, who was an aide to Nemtsov, accused Putin of lying to Russians by waging the war amid denials of involvement.

"The war with Ukraine is an undeclared war, a vile cynical war which amounts to a crime against all of the Russian nation. Putin will go down in history as the president who made Russians and Ukrainians foes," he told a news conference on the report.

"The 64-page report, divided into 11 chapters, follows the crisis in Ukraine starting from the street protests that toppled the country's previous, Moscow-backed administration — events that the report said prompted the Kremlin to begin planning to seize Crimea.

Street protests? Well I guess if you're trying to hide Washington and George Soro's role in supporting the bloody coup that prompted the Russian Federation to "seize" Crimea you could call it a "street protest" nevermind all the evidence proving it was a planned "regime change" or "undeclared war" against the democratically elected government of Ukraine by Washington DC that split the country up and started the "civil" war.

If Putin is evil for planning to "seize" Crimea how much more evil are those who supported the bloody coup and subsequent "civil" war that prompted (better word would be provoked) Putin to start planning to "seize" Crimea?

 

[church mouse guy]

After all these years, Poncho, you have resorted to personal attacks instead of addressing the issues. That alone refutes your case.

 

[poncho]

After all these years, Poncho, you have resorted to personal attacks instead of addressing the issues. That alone refutes your case.

Translated from newspeak that means I'm addressing the issues you'd rather avoid.

The evidence shows Washington and NATO provoked Russia by staging a bloody coup (undeclared war if you prefer Lewis) but that doesn't fit into your "our good team vs their bad team" narrative so you have to keep ignoring it to believe something you cannot prove.

That alone refutes the case you you'd like to have but don't.

After all the personal attacks and guilt by association fallacies you've chucked my way all these years your attempt to come off looking innocent now is just making you look hypocritical.

 

[church mouse guy]

Translated from newspeak that means I'm addressing the issues you'd rather avoid.

The evidence shows Washington and NATO provoked Russia by staging a bloody coup (undeclared war if you prefer Lewis) but that doesn't fit into your "our good team vs their bad team" narrative so you have to keep ignoring it to believe something you cannot prove.

That alone refutes the case you you'd like to have but don't.

There you go again.

 

[poncho]

There you go again.

Facts are stubborn things. Get used to having them inserted every time you try to leave them out.

I'm just making sure everyone knows you have to leave some very important facts out to keep your whole "Russia is acting without provocation" narrative from falling apart.

 

[Lewis]

Street protests? Well I guess if you're trying to hide Washington and George Soro's role in supporting the bloody coup that prompted the Russian Federation to "seize" Crimea you could call it a "street protest" nevermind all the evidence proving it was a planned "regime change" or "undeclared war" against the democratically elected government of Ukraine by Washington DC that split the country up and started the "civil" war.

If Putin is evil for planning to "seize" Crimea how much more evil are those who supported the bloody coup and subsequent "civil" war that prompted (better word would be provoked) Putin to start planning to "seize" Crimea?

The West, or Angela Merkel, or whoever may well have helped stir the pot in Kiev. But they did not send in armor and troops, and they did not seize Crimea. It was Putin who did that.

I haven't called Putin evil. He probably thinks he is doing what is best for mother Russia.

 

[poncho]

* First Things - - - > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-RyOaFwcEw

The West, or Angela Merkel, or whoever may well have helped stir the pot in Kiev. But they did not send in armor and troops, and they did not seize Crimea. It was Putin who did that.

I haven't called Putin evil. He probably thinks he is doing what is best for mother Russia.

*It's First Things first not second things first.

In other words if the events (including those leading up to the coup) are put in their proper order your narrative of unprovoked Russian aggression falls apart.

Exclusive: Ukraine’s President Poroshenko has tapped another international “carpetbagger” to rule his people, ex-Georgian President Saakashvili, a neocon hero wanted in his homeland for embezzlement and human rights abuses who now governs Odessa, reports Robert Parry.

Continue . . . https://consortiumnews.com/2015/06/02/neocon-fugitive-given-ukraine-province/


U.S. Propaganda 101: Illegally Invade Countries, Fund the Media, Call it “Independent”

Foreign Policy Magazine recently had a column called Cranks, Trolls, and Useful Idiots, in which the author, Dalibor Rohac, hunts down “Russia’s information warriors” who, he claims, have infested the web with their lies and propaganda on websites potentially paid for by the Russian government.

Rohac writes:

“Throughout the conflict in eastern Ukraine, these sites have systematically regurgitated Russian propaganda, spreading lies, half-truths, and conspiracy theories, often directly translated from Russian sources…

The Czech weekly Respekt published a feature article about the mysterious “news” site Aeronet (also known as AENews). Started in 2001 by aviation fans, the domain has changed ownership several times. Since the summer of 2014 it has regularly published articles accusing the new Ukrainian government of fascism and claiming that American and British mercenaries were fighting in eastern Ukraine. (Dalibor Rohac, Cranks, Trolls, and Useful Idiots, Foreign Policy, March 12, 2015)

First let’s look at the weakness of the claims in the article.

Continue . . . http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-propaganda-101-illegally-invade-countries-fund-the-media-call-it-independent/5437617

 

[poncho]

U.S.-funded “independent” media abroad

While accusations against Russia’s “shadow funding” of state-controlled news outlets abound in the Western mainstream media, we hardly, if ever, hear about the U.S. funding of foreign media.

The U.S. government funds media abroad and, most of the time, covers its tracks by giving money to so-called non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which in turn give grants to foreign news outlets aligned with the Western mainstream media narrative.

When Russia does it, the media on the receiving end is described as a state-controlled media. When the U.S. engages in this kind of endeavour, however, it is presented in its very own Orwellian way as an effort to “develop an independent media sector abroad”. State-funded “independent media?” That sure sounds like an oxymoron.

Since 2007, the US government has directly given at least $25.5 million dollars in grants to various US non-profit organizations for media projects in Ukraine only. On 18 grants, 14 went to Internews Network. A quick look at its website shows it is aligned with the Western mainstream media narrative, thus, with the White House’s foreign policy agenda. Among Internews Network’s donors are numerous Western governmental agencies and well-known “democracy makers”, namely organizations committed to furthering US interests abroad under the guise of defending democracy and human rights. Here are some of them:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-propaganda-101-illegally-invade-countries-fund-the-media-call-it-independent/5437617

 

[OldRegular]

It seems that Putin has a building full of trolls in St. Petersburg. They are paid about a thousand dollars a month and they post all over the world. They say that Putin is not murdering his opponents but the CIA, that Putin was right to annex Crimea, and that the Ukrainian patriots are neo-nazis, etc.


The Kremlin has always dabbled in propaganda, but in the past year its troll campaign has gone into overdrive, adding hundreds of online operatives to help counter Western pressure over its role in the pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. The program is drawing Serbia away from its proclaimed EU membership path and closer to the Russian orbit, and is targeting Germany, the United States and other Western powers. The operation has worried the European Union enough to prompt it to draw up a blueprint for fighting Russia's disinformation campaign, although details have not yet been released."


http://townhall.com/news/politics-e...anda-push-with-online-kremlin-trolls-n2005380

Shucks I thought you were talking about the Crab!

 

[poncho]

The problem I see with CMG's OP is that the Russian "trolls" manage to put way more evidence into their propaganda than the western corporate sponsored "trolls" put in their's.

When in doubt look at the evidence. All the evidence.

That's why the western corporate sponsored "trolls" fear the Russian "trolls" so much. The Russian "trolls" are free to provide evidence to support their narratives, the western "trolls" don't dare to provide any evidence, other than the "he said, she said, they said" and the standard name calling/demonization routine which isn't evidence at all.

If the western corporate sponsored "trolls" did provide evidence their narratives would fall flat.

And they know it.

That's why they're so worried.