The Russia watchCohen’s Prague mystery; Russia’s secret weapon? America’s idiocracy; America’s long goodbye, and more
• “Russia ran Donald Trump for President!” - ex-Israel intelligence officer’s shock claim
• What do Mueller and the Kremlin know about Michael Cohen’s alleged Prague trip?
• Is the Michael Cohen “Prague” story true?
• A holiday mystery: Why did John Roberts intervene in the Mueller probe?
• How Russia’s military intelligence agency became the covert muscle in Putin’s duels with the West
• Russian interference in U.S. elections far from over – Here’s what to watch for
· Russia’s secret weapon? America’s idiocracy
• The Steele Dossier and the perils of political insurance policies
• How to wage political warfare
• How a world order ends. And what comes in its wake
• America’s long goodbye. The real crisis of the Trump era
• Isolation and reconquista: Russia’s toolkit as a constrained Great Power
• In Russia, 2018 ends you
“Russia ran Donald Trump for President!” - ex-Israel intelligence officer’s shock claim (Martina Bet, Daily Express)
Russoia chose Donald Trump and ran him as President as Moscow thought he would be the most advantageous candidate, a former agent of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has claimed.
Speaking at the Marker’s digital conference in Israel on Monday, ex-Mossad chief Tamir Pardo held a discussion about disinformation and bots during political campaigns. Regarding Donald Trump’s presidency, Mr. Pardo suggested Russia picked the American firebrand as a candidate to achieve Moscow’s goals and used online tactics to ensure his victory. He said: “Officials in Moscow looked at the 2016 U.S. presidential race and asked, “Which candidate would we like to have sitting in the White House?
“Who will help us achieve our goals?’
“And they chose him.
“From that moment, they deployed a system of bots for the length of the elections, and ran him for president,”
“What we’ve seen so far with respect to bots and the distortion of information is just the tip of the iceberg.
“It is the greatest threat of recent years, and it threatens the basic values that we share—democracy and the world order created since World War Two.”
The Kremlin leader Vladmir Putin is widely suspected to be behind global cyber attacks, particularly on the U.S., with interference in the 2016 presidential election.
This month, a report released by the U.S. Senate exposed the scale of Russian disinformation efforts.
The report suggests YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram and PayPal - as well as Facebook and Twitter - were used to spread propaganda.
It also claims Russia had a particular focus on targeting conservatives with posts on immigration, race and gun rights.
Philip N Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute commented: “It’s a whole family of social media sites.
“We think the goal was to make the campaigns seem more legitimate.”
