re: #123 Dr Lizardo

I wonder if that’s because Russian trolls speak better English than they do other languages; obviously, it would make more sense for them to concentrate resources on their biggest perceived foe (ŧhe USA) so English-language skills would be in more demand than say, French or German or Italian.

Lupin can probably describe it a bit better, but in the latest Presidential election in France, there was a cyberattack and hack of emails dropped right before the election, in the “quiet period” where candidates cannot. It turned out to be a dump of emails and documents seeded with fake incriminating material. The French press explained that the cyberattack occured, that there was no time in the 48 hours before the election to validate any of the information, and they would be cooperating with the election authorities and would not publish them.

The Russian trolls have tried to stir up trouble with the fake Cologne rape story. A girl was supposedly raped by a group of Arabs on New Years, which was hyped up by Russian media and even the Foreign Minister to raise anti-immigrant tensions and prop up the far right. She actually confessed later to being at her boyfriends’ that night and this didn’t happen. The trolls have been constantly pushing anti-immigrant sentiment, especially among ethnic Russian Germans, and supporting Allianz fuer Deutschland, the fascist party. Similar stuff in Italy with the populist Five Star movement.