Fake Russian websites are still spreading election disinformation in an attempt to help Trump get elected. These websites attempt to falsely portray themselves as legitimate mainstream news sources. Keep in mind -- if you are voting for Trump then you are nothing more than Putin's stooge. Newly Exposed Russian Disinfo Sites Echoed GOP’s False Narratives About Non-Citizen Voting https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/russian-disinfo-sites-non-citizen-voting-trump On April 8, a shocking article appeared under the banner of the “Washington Post.” The headline declared that President Joe Biden, who was at the time running for a second term, “needs migrants” to win the election. It went on to allege that Biden and the Democratic Party had “smuggled over 320,000 illegals by plane through several airports last year” to secure victory and further a nefarious agenda. “The Democrats are determined to win elections at any cost so they can continue to fuel wars around the world. Therefore, they promote uncontrolled illegal migration in every possible way,” the article said. The report would have been a blockbuster … if it were true. It was, however, completely fake. It included wholly made up quotes that appear in no other search results and faked Washington Post branding to advance the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that non-citizens are voting en masse for Democrats in U.S. elections. While the page the story was posted on looked exactly like the Washington Post and featured the byline of one of the newspaper’s journalists, it was actually hosted on “washingtonpost.pm,” a web domain that the Justice Department has linked to a “Russian government-directed” influence campaign known as “Doppelganger.” An FBI affidavit filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania that was unsealed earlier this month flagged the spoof Washington Post site as one of 32 domains that were seized by law enforcement after the U.S. government identified them as part of the Kremlin propaganda push. “The propaganda did not identify, and in fact purposefully obfuscated, the Russian government or its agents as the source of the content,” the Justice Department explained in a press release announcing the domain seizure. “The perpetrators extensively utilized ‘cybersquatted’ domains, a method of registering a domain intended to mimic another person or company’s website … to publish Russian government messaging falsely presented as content from legitimate news media organizations.” TPM subsequently unearthed some of the content published on these pages, much of which has since been deleted or seized by the FBI, and found multiple articles on the fake sites that advanced the debunked narrative about non-citizen voting. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in U.S. elections. It is extremely rare that a non-citizen manages to cast a vote, experts have determined, and the few instances have no impact on outcomes due to the systems already in place to detect and prevent it. Yet former President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly and persistently made false claims about migrants illegally voting for Democrats on a massive scale as they lay the groundwork to dispute a potential election loss. The Russian-linked content is particularly notable because it mirrors those Republican talking points. In fact, some of the articles on the Russian propaganda sites specifically amplified claims from Trump-aligned organizations. A website called “Across The Line,” which was one of the pages seized by the FBI and identified as part of the “Doppelganger” campaign, published an article dated June 25 that was headlined “Immigrants Are Voting.” That piece was based on a statement released the previous day from America First Legal, a group that was launched in April 2021 by Trump’s former senior advisor, Stephen Miller, and other ex-officials from his administration with the explicit goal of “upholding” the former president’s agenda. Unlike the fake “Washington Post” site, Across The Line did not masquerade as a major American news outlet. Instead, it was billed as a publication focused on “tackling the problem of refugees across the globe and at the US border.” And unlike the non-citizen voting article on the faux “Washington Post” page, which was almost entirely filled with wholly made up quotes, this article featured actual statements from a press release sent by Miller and his group. “In the current political landscape, there are significant challenges, including the risk of non-citizens entering the voting process. AFL emphasizes the importance of immediate action,” the article said. America First Legal, which is one of the advisory groups involved in the controversial Project 2025 initiative, did not respond to requests for comment on this story. While most of the website is no longer accessible, archived pages show Across The Line published articles about supposed non-citizen voting on at least two other occasions. Another site linked to the Russian campaign by the FBI, ElectionWatch.io, published a piece earlier this month noting over 300 “stateless migrants” were registered to vote in Oregon. While there was indeed an incident earlier this month where officials in Oregon announced non-citizens had mistakenly been added to the voter rolls after applying for drivers licenses, the result of a bureaucratic error, legitimate local news outlets were clear the situation would not affect election results. According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, “officials were also emphatic that the errant registrations would not impact this year’s election, saying noncitizens found to have been registered would be notified that they would need to submit proof of citizenship before being mailed a ballot next month.” ElectionWatch.io, the site linked to the Russian campaign, essentially — and erroneously — reported the opposite. “No one can give full guarantees that this system will not affect the elections,” the Election Watch article said of the situation in Oregon, adding, “And now a lot is becoming clear, namely the reason why Kamala Harris is so actively importing migrants. If the government fails to limit the participation of non-citizens in the electoral process, we will face the most unfair elections in the history of the United States.” The fact that non-citizen voting is already illegal and essentially a made-up issue has not stopped Trump and the GOP from honing in on it during this year’s presidential campaign. Republican efforts to promote fears about non-citizen voting have included legislation like the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. That bill, which has been backed by Trump, would require proof of citizenship to vote in U.S. elections, in spite of the fact that it is already illegal for non-citizens to cast ballots. The SAVE Act passed in the GOP-controlled House in July, but it was not taken up by the Democratic majority in the Senate. It was then included in a government funding measure that failed to pass a House vote on Wednesday. Afterwards, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he discussed the matter with Trump and indicated they were both “frustrated” with the failure to advance the redundant non-citizen voting legislation. Johnson also stressed they both would continue to push the issue, even as he sought another path for funding the government. “President Trump understands our dilemma,” Johnson said. “He wants election security as I do. We’re going to use every opportunity, every measure, every platform we have to press that.” In July, shortly after the SAVE Act passed in the House, the fake “Doppelganger” WashingtonPost.pm page featured an article touting the bill in strikingly racist and partisan terms. “The savages that the Democrats want to give the right to impose their president on us are already turning the US into a third world country,” the article said. An article that appeared on the fake “WashingtonPost.pm” news site, which the Justice Department has alleged was part of a Russian propaganda campaign. (Photo: Web Archive) All of the articles on the fake WashingtonPost.pm site were attributed to Loveday Morris, who is the real newspaper’s Berlin bureau chief, and featured her headshot. Morris, who covers Europe and, among other things, has written about Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether she was aware her name and image were falsely used for the propaganda campaign. Republicans have pursued legislation premised on the non-citizen voting myth in statehouses around the country, a story TPM’s Khaya Himmelman has chronicled. As part of her reporting, Himmelman talked to experts who noted how the measures aid Trump politically by fueling election conspiracy theories and anti-immigrant sentiment. “It’s all kind of driven by the same political motivation to reduce trust in elections, to cast doubt on the integrity of the process and to demonize immigrants as the kind of source of the flaws, perceived or real or not, in our electoral system,” Jonathan Diaz, director of voting advocacy and partnerships at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, told TPM in June. Diaz also pointed out how the stepped-up identification requirements in these bills might lead to obstacles that will discourage qualified voters from registering and turning out to vote. “They have the potential to erect barriers that will make it harder, if not impossible, for certain people, eligible voters in those states, to register and vote,” Diaz said. The FBI detailed extensive evidence to allege that the domains were used by Russian companies — Social Design Agency (SDA), Structura National Technology (Structura), and ANO Dialog — that were “operating under the direction and control of the Russian Presidential Administration, and in particular First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko.” According to the unsealed affidavit, meeting notes obtained by investigators indicate Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally briefed on aspects of the project. The fake news sites were allegedly just a part of a sprawling Kremlin campaign to disrupt this year’s U.S. election detailed by the Justice Department in recent weeks. On Sept. 4, the same day that the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced the domain seizures and efforts to disrupt the “Doppelganger” network, Manhattan federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment that alleged employees of the Russian media company RT secretly financed and directed the operations of an American right-wing media outlet that worked with notable influencers including Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Lauren Southern, and Dave Rubin. Along with the network of faux news websites, the FBI affidavit filed in the Pennsylvania court revealed evidence investigators uncovered indicating the Russian “guerilla” influence campaign included efforts to establish a “social media influencers network” of fake Twitter accounts, YouTube videos, and social media pages. The FBI affidavit included attached “propaganda project proposals” from the Russian companies involved in the “Doppelganger” campaign. While the names of American candidates and political parties were redacted, various references in the documents make clear that the redacted versions referred to the GOP as “U.S. Political Party A” and Trump as “Candidate A.” And these documents make clear the Russian effort was specifically designed to promote Trump’s agenda. One plan, called the “Good Old U.S.A. Project,” which the FBI said was proposed by the Russian Social Design Agency, was particularly explicit on this front. “It makes sense for Russia to put a maximum effort to ensure that the U.S. Political Party A point of view (first and foremost, the opinion of Candidate A supporters) wins over the U.S. public opinion,” the proposal said, a statement that, the document indicates, refers to the Republican Party and Trump. The fake, Russian “Washington Post” made its pro-Trump sympathies clear in several articles, including one dated Sept. 10 that suggested Biden had put the world in danger with his handling of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and flatly declared “the whole trick is that it is the Democrats who are exactly the ones who piss off the Russians the most.” That piece was headlined “Democrats Abandoned Americans.” “The closer Nov. 5 gets, the more it becomes clear what base the parties are relying on to achieve victory in the presidential race,” the fake article said. “Obviously, the Republicans intend to act in the interests of ordinary people, while the Democrats have staked their support on the bosses of big corporations and their money.”
Russian disinformation is not confined to right-leaning networks. Let's take a look at Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate at the Russian disinformation outlet Grayzone. Their support of the Assad regime on the behalf of Russia is cynical. https://newlinesmag.com/argument/pu...ng-space-for-russia-linked-media-on-the-left/
Let's see what Russia is attempting to do in Moldova -- where Putin's regime is trying to perfect its election interference operation so they can use it to undermine other countries. It's basically a form of hybrid warfare. Just keep in mind that this is what Russia is also attempting to do in the U.S. -- the payments to pro-Russian MAGA influencers is just a portion of this. Moldova becomes ‘testing ground’ for Russian election interference https://thehill.com/policy/international/4934967-russia-interference-moldova-elections/ Russian efforts to influence Moldova’s Oct. 20 elections have reached unprecedented levels, with Moscow allegedly spending up to hundreds of millions of dollars to buy votes, pump out deepfake videos generated by artificial intelligence and boost the campaigns of Kremlin-favored candidates. The blitz illustrates the lengths Russia will go to keep the tiny, former Soviet republic within its sphere of influence. Sandwiched between Ukraine and NATO-member Romania, Moscow is working to upend Moldova’s efforts to distance itself from Russia and build closer ties with democratic governments in the European Union and the U.S. “This is a very clear message for Moldova and the international community that they [Russia] will not abandon Moldova,” said Ion Manole, director of Promo-LEX, a democracy and human rights organization based in the capital Chișinău. “They will try to destabilize, they will try to do what they want against Moldova because Moldova is important for them to fight against Ukraine. If they can’t control Moldova, at least to destabilize, to make a huge chaos here, this will be an important contribution for their attacks in Ukraine.” The Hill traveled to Moldova at the beginning of October on a four-day tour organized by the German Marshall Fund, the nonpartisan policy organization that promotes closer ties between Europe and the U.S. The group organized interviews with Moldovan government officials, opposition candidates, think tanks and journalists to provide insight into the stakes and tensions around the election. Moldovans will go to the polls for both the presidential election and to vote on a referendum to change their constitution by adding accession to the European Union as an imperative. Moldova, with a Romanian-speaking majority and Russian-speaking minority, is about the size of Maryland, with 2.5 million people, and an estimated 1 million in its diaspora. ‘Moldova is the unfortunate testing ground’ Russia’s goal, according to Moldovan government officials and civil society watchdogs, is to dampen popular support for European integration and tank the reelection of the country’s incumbent pro-European president, Maia Sandu, who appears likely to win. The 2024 campaign is viewed as a dress rehearsal for Moldovan parliamentary elections in 2025, where Moscow’s goal is to bolster pro-Russian parties in the government. “Moldova is the unfortunate testing ground in this hybrid war. We’re building resilience against their lies, election meddling, sowing social discord, and I’m proud our people refuse to give in to the hatred they spread,” said Moldova Prime Minister Dorin Recean. “Moldova is the front line in defending democracy. The challenge is building the resilience needed to defend it, and it’s a tough balance.” Moldova under Sandu has more forcefully turned itself away from ties with Russia in favor of closer ties with the EU, an uphill climb made all the more difficult over decades-long efforts to integrate with the pro-Russian separatist regions of Transnistria — which hosts a Russian troop presence — and Gagauzia, an autonomous region home to a Turkic-ethnic group of about 140,000 people, where Russian is the dominant language. In June, the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement warning that Russian actors are carrying out a plot to influence Moldova’s elections, and in September, issued sanctions against Kremlin-backed entities and individuals in the county engaged in what they described as a vote-buying scheme and efforts to incite violent protests, among other election interference plots. “One lesson we learned is that Russia’s electoral interference is a continuum,” said Stanislav Secrieru, secretary of the Supreme Security Council of Moldova and adviser to the president. “It starts long before elections. It manifests on the day of elections. And continues after elections too.” Estimates vary, but Moldovan government officials and civil watchdogs estimate Russia has spent more than $10 million per month, since January, on influence operations. They point to the fugitive pro-Russian businessman Ilan Shor as one of the main drivers of the campaign. Shor, sanctioned by the U.S. and living in exile in Moscow, was convicted in absentia in April 2023 for his role in the stealing of $1 billion that went missing from Moldovan banks in 2014. The U.S. has characterized him as a “Russian government asset”. “In [the] case of Russia’s electoral interference, the most important element is dirty money,” a Moldovan government official told The Hill, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive topics. “This is oil of hybrid attacks. Without money, many things related to interference would not happen. People are paid to do things. If they are not paid, they are unlikely to participate in hybrid attacks.” Standing up to Russia ‘has costs’ Russia’s campaign combines overt and covert spending, with hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on social media advertisements; an alleged contract campaign of promising monthly salaries for votes; bribes of food for votes; and promises of other payouts from Russia. The money spent in the 2023 elections for Gagauzia’s governor is a stark example of Russia’s power. In that election, the Shor-backed candidate Evgeniya Gutsul — who emerged out of political obscurity to win the governorship in runoff elections — spent more than $100,000 in the four weeks of campaigning, compared to the runner-up candidate who spent less than $50,000 in five weeks, according to an analysis by the news site Nokta. An estimated 60,000 people voted. Sandu, the president, has refused to recognize Gutsul’s win over charges of election fraud and irregularities. The U.S. sanctioned Gutsul in June as an alleged member of Shor’s criminal network. And on Oct. 14, the EU also sanctioned Gutsul, three of her staff and Shor’s Russian-based nongovernmental organization Evrazia. Moldovans are likely to reelect Sandu on Oct. 20, but the incumbent is facing deepening frustration over the slow pace of realizing the anti-corruption promises that brought her into power in 2020 and which gave her Party of Action and Solidarity an absolute majority in parliamentary elections in 2021. And even as Moldova has benefited from a free-trade agreement with the EU — remittances make up more than 12 percent of the country’s GDP (with the majority of Moldovan expats working in Europe) — support for Sandu and her government has fallen amid inflation linked to the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing global recovery from pandemic shocks to the economy. This has allowed fertile ground for Russian propaganda and vote-buying efforts to take root. Moldova’s national police announced earlier this month it had uncovered a Russian-financed plot to bribe 130,000 Moldovans to vote against the EU-referendum and support pro-Russia candidates in the presidential election. “Standing up to a big country like Russia has costs for the Republic of Moldova and costs a lot,” said Andrei Curararu, co-founder of the think tank WatchDog.md and the initiative Citizens for Europe, which works to promote Moldova’s integration into the EU and push back against Russian disinformation and manipulation campaigns. “Because it’s too much of a pressure with not enough results that are being provided by the government.” Support for EU high but anxiety remains Sandu’s opponents criticize her for scheduling the referendum at the same time as the presidential election, describing it as a political ploy to build support for the parliamentary elections. A senior adviser to Sandu said the decision on the timing of the referendum is linked to prioritizing the government’s resources toward EU integration. “We face several challenges: if we want the people’s decision, we should seek it sooner rather than later,” the adviser told The Hill. “While I’m not suggesting that Russia will stop pressuring us once EU membership is in the constitution, it would be an important step to strengthen Moldova’s commitment to this path.” But even others in the pro-Europe camp are critical of the combined vote. Presidential candidate Renato Usatii, the colorful and controversial former mayor of Bălți, Moldova’s second-largest city, said he’s boycotting the referendum over Sandu icing out other political parties in the decision to schedule the vote. “To say ‘Guys, I organize the referendum,’ and in two weeks [then] you invite political parties [to participate], it’s the same as if I marry a woman and in two weeks I ask to talk to her parents [to ask their permission]. A little bit strange,” he said. Usatii, who fluctuates between the second- and third-leading candidate behind Sandu with 12.7 percent in the polls, said he’s not encouraging his supporters to follow his lead, saying promoting a boycott would play into the Russian playbook. He has denounced Russian-election interference and the influence of Shor. There are 11 candidates in total running in the presidential election, a few viewed as pro-Russian and favored by the Kremlin, but all polling far behind Sandu. It points to a race where Sandu is likely going to have to face the second-place candidate in a runoff election, perhaps a candidate whose fortunes have been boosted by the Kremlin. But on EU integration, support appears high, with more than 60 percent of those polled in September by WatchDog.md saying they are planning to vote in favor of the referendum. And more than half of those polled believe that disinformation and manipulation of public opinion by foreign actors contribute a lot to the “setback in Moldova.” Still, anxiety is high that such malign foreign influence could overwhelm efforts from government institutions and civil society organizations promoting democratic values and processes. Russia has “never been so diverse and so liquid [flexible]. To some extent, that’s worrying me,” said Vadim Pistrinciuc, executive director of the Institute for Strategic Initiatives, and also a co-founder of the Citizens for Europe initiative. “If that will be the new reality for us, then I don’t know what type of institution we should have to stop this, or maybe we’ll get used to it. I don’t know, because we have never faced this type of meddling into our elections.”
Basically its a paid Russian operation peddling Kremlin material. Should call it MAGAsphere. Right-wing influencers hyped anti-Ukraine videos made by a TV producer also funded by Russian media https://apnews.com/article/social-m...ne-zelenskyy-9d4281756246b94eda05c478f3dac203 The Kremlin could not have asked for better publicity at a better time when Ben Swann, a self-described independent journalist who promotes conspiracy theories, released a 12-part video series he promised would reveal dark truths about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Swann’s flashy documentary-style videos were filled with innuendo, attacks on Zelenskyy’s character and commentary from guests sympathetic to Russia in its two-year war with Ukraine. The series, titled “Zelenskyy Unmasked,” launched in April as Congress was debating increasing military assistance to Ukraine, and it quickly caught the attention of conservative social media influencers who hyped the project to their millions of followers. Among those who promoted the series was Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son. “Curious about the billions of dollars and weapons Congress sent Ukraine?” Trump Jr. posted on X, Truth Social and Threads. “You need to watch the first episode of the explosive 12-part series.” (Much more at above url)
Most of the MAGA talking points you see on ET are just re-posted nonsense from a Russian troll farm. The Russian troll farm sowing chaos in the US election State Department offers $10m bounty for information ‘leading to the identification or location’ of Rybar and its employees https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/10/19/russia-rybar-sow-chaos-us-election-social-media/ A Russian blogger with ties by the country’s defence industry is behind a string of pro-Republican social media channels, the US government has said. Rybar – better known for its pro-Kremlin coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – is using the channels to sow discord and stoke racial tensions in an attempt to sway the US election, Washington claims. The State Department is offering a $10 million bounty for information “leading to the identification or location” of the media outlet and its employees. Rybar has over one million subscribers on Telegram, the instant messaging and social media platform. The military blog was once funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late Russian warlord behind the notorious Wagner Group of mercenaries. Rostec, the state-owned defence and industrial group, which has been placed under US sanctions, is the outlet’s latest benefactor. Bloggers behind two social media accounts Rybar aims to “bolster Russia’s military capabilities and advance pro-Russian and anti-Western narratives”, the US government said, in its statement on the Rewards for Justice website. It was said the Russian bloggers were behind two social media channels – #HOLDTHELINE and #STANDWTHTEXAS – that have been used “to promote Russian government political interests” in the US. The hashtags are synonymous with Republican supporters, and the latter has even been shared by Undercover Billionaire star Grant Cardone, who has more than a million followers on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. The US said Rybar was also managing the TEXASvsUSA account on X, which has since been suspended for violating the social media platform’s rules. When it was active, the account was used to “promote social division, stoke partisan and racial discord, and encourage hate and violence” ahead of the presidential elections next month. After the 2016 election, the FBI, CIA and NSA declassified intelligence assessments that said Vladimir Putin had sanctioned a campaign to sway the vote in favour of Donald Trump. And in September, the US government said the Kremlin had spent millions of dollars in an attempt to influence the upcoming presidential election and “covertly spread Russian government propaganda”. Anti-Western narrative The US sanctioned the Russian state-funded broadcaster RT, formerly known as Russia Today, and its editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, a Kremlin propagandist, as part of the crackdown. Just over a week later at a Uniondale, New York, rally, Trump boasted that he draws in larger crowd sizes to his events than Elvis Presley did, claiming he himself was the “greatest of all time” – and without having a guitar like Presley. He claimed that 50,000 people showed up for the event, despite the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum’s 16,500-seat capacity. Last Saturday, Trump also appeared to over-inflate his crowd sizes during a Coachella, California, campaign stop – which saw dozens of people abandoned in the desert after rallygoers accused the campaign of failing to organize return buses from the venue.
Today's Hint: He is a traitor and should be treated like one. Russia reportedly paid a former Florida cop to pump out anti-Harris deepfakes and disinformation John Mark Dougan, a retired sheriff’s deputy, reportedly created fake news sites with funding from the Russian military. https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/24...formation-deepfakes-john-dougan-2024-election