Opinion: The Far-Reaching Effects Of Russian Disinformation Operations; Putin Wins

AP featured image
From the left: Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia and First Deputy Defense Minister Valery Gerasimov, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and Deputy GRU chief, Vice Adm. Igor Kostyukov look at documents prior to a meeting marking the centenary of Russia’s military intelligence, GRU in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018 . Putin hailed the agency, saying that he highly appreciates intelligence information and analytics it provides. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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It seems as though the specter of Russian Interference! in our elections just won’t go away. Vladimir Putin must be laughing himself to sleep every night at just how gullible a goodly part of the American Public is proving to be. As you may recall, I’ve previously opined that yes indeed, the Russians did interfere in our 2016 Presidential election…something they’ve been doing since Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov opened up the joint under the moniker , USSR. In one particular piece I wrote:

I’m talking about the ultimate Russian objective, which wasn’t to elect a preferred candidate in the U.S. Presidential election, but rather to sow chaos and undermine the public’s faith in our system. Webb, as far as I know, is the only major pundit to clearly call out the Democrats (and the press too) for actually helping to achieve the Russian objective of sowing discord — discord meant to undermine the public faith in our electoral systems and institutions.

Further down, I concluded that the Russians had gotten one helluva ride for the ruble in that operation.

Think about this. If you are the President of these United States, what are your two most precious commodities? The answer, of course, is time and personal energy. For a pittance, the Russians were able to execute an operation with very little effort, that took a goodly chunk of our President’s time and energy and diverted it away from supporting and defending the Constitution of these United States…each and every day since he was elected.

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Read: Fiona Hill’s Testimony and a RedState Flashback: Russians, Democrats and David Webb

Well folks, it looks like the Russians are still riding on that same ruble. Helping to further the false narrative is USA Today who writes:

Federal authorities said the Russian operatives were associated with the same group, known as the “Sandworm” team of military unit 74455, that was linked to Russia’s campaign to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election.

Read: Six Russian intelligence operatives charged in global hacking operation; same group linked to 2016 election

I’m not a lawyer, and it’s been some time since I spent the night in a Holiday Inn Express, but even my lay self can see that was a pretty foolish move. Publicly indicting members of a foreign country’s intelligence service, while they are in their home country and unlikely (“unlikely,” as in, Ain’t gonna happen!) to be extradited, doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless there is another motive. My initial thought was that this was clearly an attempt to continue the same story from 2016; If Trump won (which he didn’t!) it was because of the bad old Russians! Remembering that I am only a lay person, I consulted with one of our favorite legal eagles, ShipwreckedCrew, who kindly gave me some thoughts:

Re the story — yes, that was big issue when the GRU hacking case was unsealed by the SCO [Mueller’s Special counsel’s Office]. That was a red flag they never intended to actually prosecute any of those guys because by naming them and unsealing you tell them they can’t travel to any country where they might get picked up b/c of an Interpol Red Notice, and the subjected to extradition.

No certainty they would have done that anyway, but once the indictment is public, there’s no chance now the Kremlin would ever risk them leaving the country. And so there is no chance these guys might have ever been arrested now in connection with this new criminal activity Those guys have probably been “rewarded” by the Russians with decent living arrangements and a nice salary as compensation for the fact they can never leave Russia now.

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Bottom line? This is a blatantly political announcement driven by establishment operatives within the Department of Justice. It follows the same pattern as when Robert Mueller made a huge deal out of indicting of Russian Nationals for election interference (BOT Farms not on U.S. soil) knowing full well there was no way the defendants could be extradited.

Bringing the absurdity to an even higher level, one of the companies caught up in this, showed up in court (via their legal team) to answer the indictment. The Mueller team immediately filed for a postponement, citing unpreparedness and that they hadn’t yet served the indictment on the suspects. You cannot make this stuff up.

What is really sad, is that the leftists are perfectly willing to continue with a long debunked narrative in order to gain and keep political power. What is most egregious, is that by doing so, they are playing right into the hands of a man who we all know is no friend of these United States.

We might not like Vladimir Putin. As a former KGB Lieutenant Colonel, there is of course inherently much to dislike. At one time I did however, favorably compare him against President Barack Obama. My contention was for all his faults, at least Putin appears to know which country’s interests he was supposed to be supporting. President Obama, not so much.

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Today I can say the same thing. Putin as bad as he is, he believes he is promoting his own country’s interests by attempting to damage our electoral process and sow further discord. The Democrats…are doing the same. By their words and actions, are promoting Russia’s interests. It’s pretty sad when one of our Nation’s enemies appears to have more moral authority in his actions, than the American political Party providing aid and comfort to him.

Oh. One more note. Remember that GRU (Russian Military intelligence) Lieutenant Colonel who I posited creating and running this Russian disinformation op on a shoestring budget? He’s probably a 3-Star General now sharing drinks and laughter with his boss Putin as they chortle about what useful idiots the Democrat Party is.

Hat Tip: ShipWreckedCrew.

For more on Russian disinformation Ops

Read: Yesterday, the Democrats Lost and Putin Won.

Read: Opinion: I Told You So; It Was Never Trump Who Putin Supported

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