I read a fantastic exploration of Putin’s misinformation campaign recently. As much as he was a part of the tradition of USSR style dissembling, it wasn’t until 2008 that he really got going with it. I read that he felt humiliated by the global response to his invasion of Georgia and promptly renamed Russia Today RT and prioritised making it an acceptable source of news in the west. It then moved to legitimate news but dripping in nods to popular conspiracy theories, beginning with implying knowledge of 9/11 being an inside job. Gradually it legitimised conspiracy. Alongside this, he utilised his troll farms to stoke anti-UK and anti-US messages in BRICS nations, and this has grown to encompass the world.
Yeah, the Internet Research Agency is quite the thing.
If you’re interested in this stuff, there’s quite a light hearted book rolling through it by Danny Wallace (no, not that one) called Somebody Told Me.
