The Russia watchRussia’s best allies: Conspiracy theorists; Russia’s MH17’s fake stories; Russia smears black activists, and more

How an obscure British blogger became Russia’s key witness against the White Helmets(Chris York, Huffington Post)
Vanessa Beeley is a British blogger who believes the attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was staged, al-Qaeda wasn’t behind the 9/11 attacks and that “Zionists rule France.” But her real passion is trying to convince the world that the White Helmets, the group that rescues people from the rubble of Syria’s civil war, is a terrorist-linked organisation that fakes its activities to elicit sympathy in the West for a regime change plot against Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad.

Desperate for dirt on Western intelligence agencies, Russia just makes it up (John R. Schindler, Observer)
Western intelligence has been a target of Kremlin spies for penetration and disruption for a full century now, since the Bolshevik coup took power in Russia. For a hundred years, Russian spies—Chekists, to use the proper term that’s cited proudly by President Vladimir Putin, the chekist-in-chief—have sought to win the SpyWar against the West by besting our spies in the endless, dimly lit struggle between espionage agencies. Moscow’s victories in recent years, above all the Snowden Operation and the resulting espionage-propaganda offensive against the Democrats in our 2016 election, have been without precedent in the annals of Kremlin espionage. Nevertheless, triumphant Chekists aren’t resting on their laurels. Their dishonest propaganda (properly termed disinformation) aimed at harming and discrediting Western intelligence continues unabated. As the head of counterintelligence for the U.S. Intelligence Community recently explained, Edward Snowden’s stolen trove of more than a million classified documents continues to be released, bit by bit, nearly five years after the defector landed in Moscow, doing more damage to American and Western intelligence than ever.

Public radio station smears black activists: Another symptom of Russia panic(Adam Johnson, Salon)
Does appearing on Russian media make you a Putin tool? Russophobia is now fueling a crackdown on dissent

Troll farm takes aim at American audiences in new web campaign(Global Voices)
On April 4, 2018, RIA FAN, a self-described news organization with known connections to Saint Petersburg’s Internet Research Agency (IRA), revealed its plans to launch a brand new venture, entitled “USA Really”, within the next month.

Nobody knows who was behind half of the divisive ads on Facebook ahead of the 2016 election(Emily Stewart, Vox)
According to a new study, “suspicious” groups were behind half of divisive political ads on Facebook in the 2016 election, and one-sixth of those were linked to Russia.

Hackers leak Russia’s fake stories on MH17 disaster(The Australian)
Kremlin leaks have revealed Russian use of disinformation over the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 in which 38 Australians died. … The eight narratives sought to blame Ukraine for the disaster, although the Boeing jet was shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile.

European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip warns of Russian campaign to weaponize information(Government Europa)
“In Russia, for example, military doctrine sees cyber operations as part of its tactics for information warfare. Deception, false data, and destabilising propaganda are deemed legitimate tools to convince people to ‘buy’ the disinformation message as credible information.”

Does the U.S. have a secret germ warfare lab on Russia’s doorstep?(Coda)
Welcome to one of the more obscure frontlines in Russia’s information war with the West: The inside story of a Kremlin disinformation campaign in Georgia.

The DNC v. Russia: The question of foreign sovereign immunity(Ingrid Wueth, Lawfare)
Are Russia and its officials entitled to foreign sovereign immunity?  Does President Trump have constitutional power to determine the immunity of Russian operative Guccifer 2.0?

U.S. government weighing sanctions against Kaspersky Lab(Patrick Howell O’Neill and Chris Bing, Cyberscoop)
The U.S. government is considering sanctions against Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab as part of a wider round of action carried out against the Russian government, according to U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the matter.