I’m betting there are far more than three or four Soviet-Russian agents aboard FR, and I’m also making an educated guess there are at least a few of them who were assigned the task to join from the early beginnings of the forum. Consequently, you cannot tell who they are by looking at when they joined FR. Soviet intelligence maintained extensive dossiers on every U.S. officer and as many of the enlisted personnel as they could discover. Likewise, they are anal retentive when it comes to monitoring the political and social activities of political and economic targets of their operations. Blackmail was always a preferred tool for NKVD, GRU, KGB, and FSB agency use against their chosen targets. FR is one of those venues which would attract their close attention. It remains to be seen how much the dissolution of the Soviet Union disrupted this type of intelligence gathering in the 1990s versus their resumption in more recent years.
I estimate there are at least 12 Russian trolls (intelligence agents) active on FR. There are several categories of Russian trolls. Some are blatant and easily identifiable. Others are insipid and conduct the classic communist influence operation: demoralization, repudiation, propaganda and reconciliation. The purpose is to accept the propaganda without actually realizing it. This is possible because the focus of interaction is attaining a consensus with the operative over some innocuous point. This redeems the target’s confidence and, more importantly, requires them accept the propaganda -the real purpose of the interaction.
They are very active, and successful, on conservative and conspiracy sites. Some sites may even be run by them.
IMO they are currently running an influence operation to support Russia’s interests in Syria and energy exports to Western Europe. Middle east oil exported into Europe via Turkish pipelines competes directly with Russian oil exports. Qatar, Kuwait, SA and Iraq all want to export to the EU but do not have secure pipeline routes. Imagine that.
“there are at least a few of them who were assigned the task to join from the early beginnings of the forum. Consequently, you cannot tell who they are by looking at when they joined FR.”
Additionally, If the account is 10 years old, it doesn’t necessary mean that the same person is using it these days...