Then in August of 2008, I was falling asleep watching the TV news laying next to my Russian girlfriend in my Washington flat. On the news, missiles were flying around in an obscure place called Georgia. The only message of the broadcasts was “The evil Putin Is Invading.” Whatever was indeed happening was important, but these were the same newscasters were who lied us into Iraq. I at first figured the Georgia conflict was about the oil pipeline but learned later there were far bigger wheels turning.
My Russian girlfriend never talked about geopolitics, so I had not the slightest idea how she felt about Putin until I drew her out in 2011. She liked Putin just fine, but don’t share that with our Ukie friends. I was mystified, as I had a hard time telling the difference between our Ukie and Russian friends.
Next, the Sochi Olympics came, and the anti-Russian propaganda was thick. There was Victoria Nuland’s smirking face on my TV screen and all over the internet, and since by that time I knew damn well who the neocons were, their bringing yet another war was readily apparent. But I was still mystified at their hostility toward Russia. In February 2014, I was back in Brazil and following the Maidan Coup on the internet. The neocon lies were thick, and it was so apparent for me this was a USA-backed coup. I also knew that if the neocons were involved, then surely there was an Israel component.
The Odessa Massacre of May 2014 and the memes of Colorado beetles, patterned like St George Ribbons, being burned by cigarette lighters — the message was clear the Americans, and their allies were trying to provoke Putin into an impetuous response. And anger is a powerful motivator.
After Odessa, matters only got worse. First, the MH17 tragedy and the massive American propaganda. Then the suspicious Sinai plane crash and the knowledge my Russian friend takes that flight sometimes. A blatantly obvious false flag in Syria in 2013 and the aftermath of Russia’s whole fight against terrorism versus the USA pretending to fight terrorism while overthrowing Syria for Israel and a pipeline — all this and much more let me have nothing but contempt for the American media and our government spokesmen. They insulted our intelligence, and Russian media like RT left me feeling more informed, thereby gaining my trust.
So, this is how I suppose “Kremlin Trolls” are converted, if you ask me. By telling the more reasonable truth and by gaining trust.
Chapter VIII: Putin’s Provocateurs
“Europeans are really dying out!”
In Russian spy terminology provocateurs are operatives sent to incite a target group to action for entrapping or embarrassing them. Clearly, both the anti-Russian and pro-Russian side of the current crisis are subcultures made up of a menagerie of such characters, as well as other more organic genetic material. Like any group, club, or organization the Russia support group is a societal melting pot imbued with myriad motivational norms. In these pages, I’ve already profiled grandmas and media executives, alongside political theorists and thrill seekers. If Vladimir Putin has a “troll army” such as western media antagonists suggest, then these soldiers joined up like patriots and mercenaries. As this book progresses, it should be crystal clear that no such troll army ever existed. Whatever motivated a couple of hundred ordinary people to influence the several million more, the fact that so few engaged so many with so much resource should have stunned the world. Somehow though, a real-life 300 Spartans epic has gone unnoticed by most.
Speaking of the troops of King Leonidas, I suppose the top Spartan actually had little to do with Spartan number three hundred. So, my own ignorance of people like special Kremlin stooge Mark Chapman (mentioned by Bausman above) is normal. Chapman, who started blogging and commenting as the world’s “Rambo of Russophiles” in July 2010, shares the same thread of indignation most of the rest of us do. He’s been interviewed on some occasions, and each time reflects the same credible truth — utter distaste for Russophobia and lies. This quote from a Chapman talk with another “Kremlin Troll” named Anatoly Karlin, where the Kremlin Stooge relates experiences from Sochi similar to my own, it bears repeating here. Chapman, who initially engaged the anti-Russian throng at the infamous La Russophobe blog, talks with Karlin’s audience about the deep hatred that fueled this current crisis:
“Prior to the initial accidental visit to La Russophobe, I was quite honestly unaware of that brand of barking mad Russophobia. I understood, of course, that bias against Russia existed, but there’s some degree of bias against almost everybody, and I rationalized that some had good reasons to dislike Russia while others just thought they did. But there’s a gulf of difference between reasoned disapproval and slobbering hate.”[24]
Interestingly, it was Chapman who first debunked theories of Moscow paying hordes of troll agents in a post entitled “Kremlin Troll Army Myth Deconstructed”[25] for Russia Insider back in 2015. In the story, Chapman tells of the common practice across western mainstream media of censoring dissenting viewpoints. His references to Britain’s Guardian deleting comments containing pertinent facts mirror what I’ve seen from my colleague Holger Eekhof at media such as Germany’s ZEIT and others. Yes, Chapman, Eekhof, me or anybody else with a valid view is going to be provocative in a forum where the community is divided. And where the “message” is intended to follow a script, we often become the well intentioned and sometimes inadvertent provocateurs. In a way, it seems reasonable to say everybody is a troll or provocateur depending on the point of view.
Returning for a moment to Andrew Aaron Weisburd, the man who thinks himself the definitive expert on Putin’s Internet agents, there were less than 400 Kremlin Trolls in May of 2015.[26] Weisburd’s flawed metrics even went so far as to geolocate us Putin fanboys by country instead of reflecting reality. According to the Van Helsing in search of bloodless Kremlin agents, the clear majority of us reside in either the US, the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, Canada or Switzerland. This goes to show that witch hunters need not be digital sociologists or analysts, but only religious zealots. I guess it never occurred to Weisburd to factor in arguments for and against Russia based on the countries with highest Internet proliferation? I’ll just bet most NATO trolls come from the same countries using his methods. But this is all subjective for now.
The reason I bring Weisburd back in at this point is to make a point. For every one of the alleged 400 influential pro-Russian voices in social media, there are at least 100 anti-Russian “operatives.” Just looking at the Twitter “follows” of Weisburd (@webradius) reveals a bizarre short-list of Putin haters. As an expert in social media myself, it’s fair to ask the question, “Who in the hell follows the official Israel Defense Forces Twitter as their second act on that social network?” Israel, Israel, Israel, the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, Khodorkovsky minion CNN’s Michael Weiss, NATO, and General Philip Breedlove could serve to make up a lunatic Twitter psychoanalysis? Reading what Weisburd writes and what he tweets, the impartial observer would label him a psychotic stalker (or troll). He routinely tracked down noted pro-Russian journalists like RT’s Mark Sleboda, calling him a traitor to the US because his view differs from the troll hunter’s.[27] One thing I will say for this would be spy hunter, he’s thorough when it comes to pointing fingers at those who disagree with Washington, London, Berlin, and Tel Aviv. From Brazilian journalists Pepe Escobar to supposed “Putin man” Baltnews producer Alexander Kornilov, the ghosts and ghoul stories conjured to implicate all dissenting views remind me of the foolhardy anti-heroes from comic strips. If all these “subjects” are truly FSB operatives, the western world is doomed — not a shred of evidence supports Weisburd’s or other Kremlin Ghostbuster’s contentions.
24
Interview with Mark Chapman (The Kremlin Stooge), Anatoly Karlin’s blog, June 22, 2011.
25
“Kremlin Troll Army Myth Deconstructed”, by Mark Chapman for
26
“Geolocating Kremlin Trolls and Their Engaged Followers”, by A. Aaron Weisburd, kremlintrolls.com, May 2015
27
“Raised Among Wolves, or Why Putin’s Thugs Annoy Me”, by A. Weisburd, kremlintrolls.com, February 2015