Posted on 03/26/2015 7:55:01 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
More and more, posts and commentaries on the Internet in Russia and even abroad are generated by professional trolls, many of whom receive a higher-than-average salary for perpetuating a pro-Kremlin dialogue online.
There are thousands of fake accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and vKontakte, all increasingly focused on the war in Ukraine. Many emanate from Russia's most famous "troll factory," the Internet Research center, an unassuming building on St. Petersburg's Savushkina Street, which runs on a 24-hour cycle. In recent weeks, former employees have come forward to talk to RFE/RL about life inside the factory, where hundreds of people work grinding, 12-hour shifts in exchange for 40,000 rubles ($700) a month or more.
St. Petersburg blogger Marat Burkhard spent two months working at Internet Research in the department tasked with clogging the forums on Russia's municipal websites with pro-Kremlin comments. In the following interview, he describes a typical day and the type of assignments he encountered.
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
If Laz upgrades me to “Paid Russian Troll” I expect payment in bitcoin...
lol, cool... “Great Expectations”.
Hope it won’t be sent from Russia, bitcoins are illegal there.
Excerpt from wikipedia on the National Endowment for Democracy:
“The current events in Ukraine are interesting when considered against the background of work done by the National Endowment for Democracy in the Ukraine. In their 2012 report,[23] NED indicated that it spent US$3,381,824 (from the US federal budget) on the following programs in the Ukraine:
ANGO Resource Center: $30,086
Association of Ukrainian Law Enforcement Monitors: $44,900
Bakhchisarai Center of Regional Development “Top-Kaya: $15,526
Bukovyna Partnership Agency: $48,295
Center for International Private Enterprise: $359,945
Center for Political Studies and Analysis: $27,940
Center for Progressive Young People Apelsin: $25,000
Center for Research on Social Perspectives in the Donbas: $39,776
Center for the Study of Social Processes and Humanitarian Issues: $30,060
Center UA: $26,920
Cherkasy Committee Voters of Ukraine: $34,993
Chernihiv Youth Educational Center “Initiative”: $27,930
Chernivtsi Committee of Voters of Ukraine: $29,920
“Civic Space” Information and Analytical Center: $31,535
Civil Initiative Support Center: $48,486
Democratic Initiatives Foundation: $73,464
Dniprovsky Center for Social Research: $25,000
Dniprovsky Center for Social Research: $25,000 (SIC from NED website)
Donetsk Press Club: $39,810
Donetsk Committee of Voters of Ukraine: $52,930
East European Democratic Center: $78,969
East European Democratic Center: $41,584
Foundation for Promotion of Civil Activity: $27,130
Garage Gang Collective: $37,637
Human Rights Training Center: $19,370
Independent Association of Broadcasters: $39,271
Independent Center of Political Researchers and Journalists: $33,611
Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation: $48,120
Institute of Mass Information: $34,470
Institute of Political Education: $47,994
Institute of the Republic: $29,990
International Republican Institute: $250,000
International Republican Institute: $35,000
International Republican Institute: $95,000
Journal Ji Analytical Center: $34,981
Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group: $47,200
Kherson Association of Journalists “South”: $31,675
Kherson Association of Journalists “South”: $39,578
Kherson Committee of Voters of Ukraine: $40,890
Krytyka Journal: $47,000
Luhansk Business Club “European Choice”: $32,000
Lutsk Center for Political Analysis and Electoral Consulting: $26,523
“Moloda Cherkaschyna” Coalition of Cherkassy Youth NGOs: $31,855
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs: $345,000
Odesa Committee of Voters of Ukraine : $41,851
Our House - Svatovschina: $21,945
Policy Association for an Open Society: $39,934
Polissya Foundation for International and Regional Research: $25,000
“Postup” Human Rights Center: $24,030
Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Research: $39,990
School for Policy Analysis of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy: $52,750
Smoloskyp: $36,294
Spilnyi Prostir Association: $50,000
Sumy Regional Committee of Youth Organizations: $56,260
Sumy Regional Organization “Bureau of Political Analysis”: $31,293
“Tamarisk” Center for Support of Civic and Cultural Initiatives: $30,890
Telekritika” $69,800
Ukrainian Catholic University: $35,000
Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research: $56,950
Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union: $47,994
Ukrainian Youth Association of Ukraine: $42,900
Vinnitsa Youth Organization “Nashe Podillya”: $52,046
Volyn Resource Center: $16,170
Youth Alternative: $42,143”
If one researches all these organizations one finds a complex web of corporate partnerships and relationships, private equity funding, State Department/CIA relationships, a whole host of other foundations and NGOs, the total resources of which are so large that funding is never an issue for “soft power projection” overseas which works on behalf of global elites.
And that’s just the “Western half” of the web of influence of financial elites. The web extends into all countries, including Russia, which has its own organizations and government that ultimately are also just fronts for the financial elite.
Not to mention the fact that the news and entertainment media is at the disposal of the global elites as well, and they also run the educational systems of the world, which provides them with countless intellectuals and indoctrinated young adults that are taken in by their agendas. The public in the East and West are just subjected to local versions of history and news which filter out all mention of the most important controlling influences, preserving the East/West thesis/antithesis. Case in point: the ongoing relationship between financial elites and both Eastern and Western political regimes, an example of which is Stalin’s relationship with the Rothschilds.
I know this post is a bit broader than the narrow topic of the “Internet Research Agency”, but I thought it would be informative for the lurker to see the agency in the context of the broader picture.
It would be interesting to see which Russian oligarchs the “Colonel” is associated with, and trace any backchannel ties they have to the West. Most Russian oligarchs, from what I understand, have established ties in the UK.
“Without disclosing my identity, can you verify for WhiskeyX that I have every appearance of not being a Russian agent unless Ive been some kind of sleeper from birth?”
That is entirely unnecessary. As I have commented several times before, it is nearly impossible to know who and who is not a Russian posting on FR, so I try to use the description of a behavior rather than assume rightly or wrongly someone is supposed to be a certain nationality. Whenever I see pro-Russian comments and especially pro-Russian comments that repeat common Russian false propaganda and disinformation as agitprop, I have to conclude the commenter is disseminating pro-Russian agitprop regardless of who the person is and what the person’s nominal nationality is supposed to be. I will give some leeway in interpreting pro-Russian comments as more likely to be coming from a Russian national when the usage of American English is improper absent.
“You didnt comment the last time I posted about the Stalin-Rothschild connection, so I reposted, so you would make another auto-bot style response.”
I didn’t respond immediately because I was preoccupies with responses to other posts and IRL activities.
“Now youre responding with the same bot-style spam comment that youre using to reply to any posts that you apparently do not want to rationally discuss.”
On the contrary, I was giving an appropriate response to the troll like attempts to hijack the subject of the news story. naturally the responses will be about as repetitious as the ridiculous number of posts used to attempt the hijacking of the topic. Every time a news story has come up about the Russian Internet trolls and been posted to FR, the same group of commenters descend upon the post and do everything in their power to change the subject to anything other than the criticism of the Russian troll activities. Naturally, it takes a lot of stubbornly similar responses to put these commenters on notice that their deliberate attempts to change the subject were not going to be unopposed.
“You appear to be desperate to somehow prove that Im a Russian agent of some kind, but unfortunately for you, Im about as American as they come.”
On the contrary, I’m only interested in what you do and not who you are. The differences between a Russian or an American posting pro-Russian false propaganda and disinformation and disrupting on topic discussions of Russian internet trolls is not particularly very relevant for the purposes of investigating the activities of the pro-Russian information warfare. I’ve encountered any number of Communist Americans IRL and an assortment of other political persuasions with similar anti-American and/or pro-Russian beliefs. How American your political beliefs are versus your American nativity can be a matter for dispute, as it is for everyone born with U.S. citizenship.
“My FReeper handle comes from one of my earliest ancestors, one of the first settlers of the Mabie family, who settled in Newington, NH (just inland from Portsmouth) in the 1600s and operated a ferry there. The other side of my family goes back to at least the 1700s, as a member of the family signed a document in Pequannock, NJ that predated the Revolution. I was born in Pequannock, NJ in Chilton Memorial Hospital. I was only ever outside of the US when I traveled on business to Canada and to Australia. Ive been a registered Republican since I was old enough to vote, and my first vote for President was for Ronald Reagan in 1984, just after I graduated high school.”
Congratulations. All of my ancestors were 17th Century colonists, early 18th Century colonists, or native 18th Century Amerindians, with the exception of three English and German ancestors who immigrated before 1835. One of my 2nd great-grandfathers was among the founders of the Republican Party in Illinois. I own an original photograph of Abraham Lincoln which was given by Abraham Lincoln to my 2nd great-grandfather during the 1860 election because of his Republican founder’s support and because his brother-in-law served as an attorney-at-law on the same Illinois circuit court as one of Abraham Lincoln’s friends and colleagues. For more full disclosure I will add in part that I have cousins who have served as a Republican circuit court judge, A Democrat Illinois State Senator, a Democrat Arkansas State Senator, and a Republican Treasurer in a major metropolitan city controlled by a major Democrat majority, and a Democrat Precinct Committee Chairman for nearly fifty years. My father-in-law’s close cousin and life-long friend from their childhood days was a Tennessee Judge, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, primary candidate for President of the United States, and the longest serving U.S. Secretary of State in U.S. history. I have served as a Republican elector, and I have personally testified before a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
“Im simply of the opinion that America should not employ her armed forces to do the bidding of elite financiers who are hostile to Americans in their unwavering support of government spending, higher taxes, imported cheap foreign labor, exporting American jobs, undermining the Christian faith, spreading immorality through the media and education, etc.”
“And Im also of the opinion that basically all of US foreign policy, including Eastern Europe and the Mid East, revolves around the machinations of said elites, and American should have no part of it.”
I’m well acquainted with your kind of political philosophy and the arguments related to it, having family and acquaintances who espoused various forms of it. I also have some minor experience in discussing such matters with a diverse range of occupations including in part U.S. and foreign corporate directors, U.S. and foreign senior military officers, Soviet diplomats, and Soviet KGB officers. Refuting them is well beyond the scope of this forum, but suffice it to note we are diametrically opposed on most points of your political philosophy. On other points of your political philosophy we will agree upon the problem, but we will not agree on the approach to gaining a solution to the problem.
“And Im also of the opinion that our political parties are but cheezy theater to pose as a legitimate government and draw attention away from the behind-the-scenes control by the elites.”
To the extent such sentiments as those of your may be true, their truth does not justify your approach for handling those realities.
In particular, your changing of the subject to criticize the United States in a post about a news story reporting on the activities of the Russian trolls and in prior news stories is a breach of the etiquette for the forum. You know or should know such matters as the role of the Soros propaganda can be and should be discussed in the posts about those news stories, and not in this one. Even given your antipathy towards the elite of the U.S., it hardly seems credible you would obstruct the discussion of the faults of the past and present Russian elite who have a proven track record of murdering and killing tens of millions of human beings, while threatening today to kill tenfold more if they aren’t allowed to conquer whom they please when they please in defiance of the Law of Nations.
Now see?
You’ve gone and done it again, posted an inconvenient truth that hasn’t been EuromaidanPR/Clinton Civil Society/Soros Open Society approved...
...”posted an inconvenient truth that hasnt been EuromaidanPR/Clinton Civil Society/Soros Open Society approved...”
Maybe insignificant, but I wondered if 50% on FR actually knew what “Euro..Maiden” was, came from, and why - particularly in the context of Ukraine and Russia conflict.
Meant the term “Euro.. Maiden”
See this article and then explain to me how Valerie Jarrett and Obama are not Communists who would not be in their positions today had it not been for the actions of the Russian elite.
Remind us to provide a chair for you at the children’s table at the next meal.
“See this article and then explain to me how Valerie Jarrett and Obama are not Communists who would not be in their positions today had it not been for the actions of the Russian elite”
Ok, read.
Never said VJ or Obama were not communists.
The article only proves what I said before in this thread to you — http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3272344/posts?page=232#232 — that ValJar is an American (”Chicago Communist”), born to American parents, and is American, by heritage, through and through. That includes her ideology.
Her parents were working in Iran in 1956, when she was bon during the Shah’s gov’t in Iran & left Iran when she was 5 yrs old - simple as that.
From the link to me:
“Now her Chicago roots are more disturbing and indicative of her ideology. They also connect her to Obama and his ideological roots.”
“So, to sum up, Obamas mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, worked with the literal relatives of Valerie Jarretther grandfather and future father-in-lawin Chicagos Communist Party circles in the 1940s.”
By the way, I violated the HELL outta the etiquette for the forum today, on your thread.
Wanna know why?
Because I thought it was interesting enough to get more exposure, and going "BTTT" is SO boring. So I make it fun, people respond (and thusly bumping the thread too) and viola: More exposure.
You're welcome.
Now, on to your incredibly arrogant tone....
Humblegunner, we got a live one here. He's ****so***** much better than us.
See, I come from a family tree of recent immigrants (1900's), all without skills and much by way of intelligence or wisdom or looks or money.
Yet I'd still stack our family, proudly, against yours.
“certainly Nuclear none care to use....at least not yet.”
You could not be more dead wrong. There is a belief among the Muslims of Iran that it will be necessary for Iran to launch a nuclear war to create the conditions for the Mahdi and Jesus Christ to return to Earth and usher in Judgment Day.
China has been constructing vast underground nuclear missile facilities, military aircraft facilities, and cities to withstand a nuclear war. Some of their military officers have voiced confidence in being able to wage and survive a nuclear war with their core assets intact.
Russia has also long prepared an underground city and various facilities designed to survive a nuclear war. Putin has recently been refurbishing and adding to these facilities and capabilities at a fast pace.
“Everyone who has watched the exchanges between Nato/Eu/US and Russia for decades now knows that Russia’s red line was Ukraine as Nato continued it’s expansion.... As did those who pursued interfering in Ukraine’s affairs. What did they expect Russia would do...just stand by?”
The Ukraine is an independent nation. The Ukraine has been an independent nation and a recognized member of the United Nations entitled to its own vote in the United Nations along with Byelorussia. You and Russia do not get to come her all these decades later and pretend that Ukraine was a part of Russia, when the historical record clearly establish the Ukraine was not a part of Russia. Ever since the Ukraine declared its full independence from the USSR in 1991, the Russian Federation recognized the independence of the Ukraine, until now when Putin wishes to conquer the Ukraine and make it part of a new Russian province to be known as Novorussiya. Putin’s plans predate the Maidan and anything the EU and U.S. have done or not done. The Russian complaints are nothing but disinformation used as a fake excuse to pursue their dreams of military conquest.
“Humblegunner, we got a live one here. He’s ****so***** much better than us.”
Oh, is that so. My ancestry is what it is before I was born, so it is my heritage to live with in any event. The other poster offered his ancestry to demonstrate his American heritage. I responded to him in kind. Perhaps you have an inferiority complex which makes you so bigoted as to make such a disparaging remark. Never mind your bigoted remark; because the traditional Republicans take a dim view of the Democrat relationships, the even more traditional and mindless Democrats take a dim view of the Republican relationships, and I’ve taken a dim view of most of the Democrats, Communists, Socialists, Libertarians, Ron Paul bots, and the RINOs. I prefer to consider myself as a traditional American who takes a dim view of all party politics which are not commensurate with our nation’s original Republicanism. I only participates on the Republican side of the party politics on occasion for lack of a better alternative in an election.
“See, I come from a family tree of recent immigrants (1900’s), all without skills and much by way of intelligence or wisdom or looks or money.”
I see, so you missed out on being born a White racist who is supposedly responsible for the slavery of non-White people and the present day burden of an unearned White privilege you must surrender. Got it.
“Yet I’d still stack our family, proudly, against yours.”
Why? What’s the point?
“There is a belief among the Muslims of Iran that it will be necessary for Iran to launch a nuclear war to create the conditions for the Mahdi and Jesus Christ to return to Earth and usher in Judgment Day.”
No, you’re wrong. Please provide *factual* proof for your assertion.
There is neither a “belief” nor consensus among “muslims in Iran”. Not even among the Iranian Regime members, “that it will be necessary...[for them] to launch a nuclear war to create the conditions for the Mahdi and Jesus Christ to return to Earth, etc...”
In fact, theologically, Mahdi is meant to arrive in time. Nothing can expedite his arrival - that’s the general belief.
People are entitled to believe what they want. That includes deciphering through propaganda fed on both sides of the POLITICAL spectrum.
“that ValJar is an American (Chicago Communist), born to American parents, and is American, by heritage, through and through. That includes her ideology.”
When I talk about Valeria Jarrett’s heritage, I’m talking about her entire heritage to include her socialization and not just her blood relationship and citizenship. You have to keep in mind how her family and she were participants in a Communist ideology which perceives themselves to be internationalists more than just U.S. citizens. In other words, she was born into a family and political culture which fostered deliberate disloyalty to the citizens of the United States in favor of an international political movement, and an international political movement dominated by a Bolshevik Communist Russia.
Even if Valerie Jarrett wanted to be fiercely loyal to the sovereign citizens of the United States, her Communist upbringing and adult associations with Communism ideology exclude any possibility for her to respect the sovereignty of U.S. citizens.
“When I talk about Valeria Jarretts heritage, Im talking about her entire heritage to include her socialization and not just her blood relationship and citizenship. “
Fine. That’s the socialization I’m talking about too.
Her socialization is American, in America, in Chicago, her American parents, her American grand parents, her American great grand parents, her friends, her neighbors, her colleagues later in life, and so on..
You can hardly convince me she had any type of “communist” “socialization” up to 5 yrs of age when she left Iran with her parents. Besides, Iran back then was, in NO WAY, communist or Islamist, in ‘socialization’ or social engineering.
ValJar’s socialization started post her departure from Iran, in 1961-62.
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