To speed up this process, the Kremlin has unleashed a carefully crafted and skillfully executed communications campaign to sway public opinion in key Western countries. Audiences around the world, but specifically in Europe, are being hit hard by a combination of internationally targeted propaganda and a locally fine-tuned communications support effort.
I received my first personal taste of this when I was targeted by the Kremlin’s now-famous army of online trolls last week. I had been invited to discuss the West’s relationship with Russia on one of Germany’s prominent political talk shows. A day before the live broadcast, the show’s lineup was announced on Twitter, and within minutes, the smear campaign started.
Scores of unknown and mostly unidentifiable people heaped scorn on me, mostly on my own Twitter account, about 50 of them within the first two hours alone. It was enormously flattering, but it was also creepy and disturbing.
I am not the first person to experience such a barrage, of course. But to me, this episode demonstrated several things.
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