Putin's Got Plans To Get Americans (Republicans) Waaaaay More Excited About Genociding Ukraine
American officials say the stakes for him are higher in 2024 than they were in 2016 or 2020. Get ready.
The Daily Beast and Reuters have horrifying articles today about so-called “Storm-Z” battalions in Russia, squads of 100 to 150, full of convicts and others being punished, who are sent to the worst parts of Putin’s war against Ukraine, often without ammunition, training, food, water, or anything else. “Storm fighters, they’re just meat,” said a Russian soldier. Most of them die. They leave their bodies out to just rot and decompose.
Meanwhile, today the New York Times has an article about how excited Vladimir Putin is to get Republicans in America to see his side of things in Ukraine, and what he hopes to do next to convince more Americans to support his campaign to kidnap and execute Ukrainian children and otherwise commit genocidal atrocities against that autonomous country.
The Times article says American officials believe Putin’s about to turn up the dial on the propaganda, in America and against our European allies:
American officials said they are convinced that Mr. Putin intends to try to end U.S. and European support for Ukraine by using his spy agencies to push propaganda supporting pro-Russian political parties and by stoking conspiracy theories with new technologies.
The Russia disinformation aims to increase support for candidates opposing Ukraine aid with the ultimate goal of stopping international military assistance to Kyiv.
He thinks it’ll work, and he has good reason, since he’s done it before, what with all the work his manservants put in to install Donald Trump as president in 2016. (Not to mention the success he’s had with influence ops in Europe.)
The Times piece suggests Putin is laser-focused on how debates over Ukrainian aid are playing out in the United States and Europe, we imagine looking for fissures and cracks to exploit wherever he can.
Moscow is also likely to try to boost pro-Russian candidates in Europe, seeing potential fertile ground with recent results. A pro-Russian candidate won Slovakia’s parliamentary elections on Sunday. In addition to national elections, Russia could seek to influence the European parliamentary vote next year, officials said.
And then of course comes the 2024 election in the US.
Putin’s interference worked extremely well in 2016. No one will ever know exactly how many votes were shifted/suppressed due to Russia’s attacks, but he was definitely a key player in there helping Trump win by a negative-three-million-vote landslide. In 2020, it didn’t work so well. He tried. It just wasn’t enough.
But the Times says US intel agencies think 2024 is the biggest deal of all for Putin:
President Biden has sent billions of dollars of aid to Ukraine and pledged that the United States and its allies would support Kyiv for “as long as it takes.” Mr. Trump, far ahead in the polls for the Republican nomination, has said supporting Ukraine is not a vital U.S. interest. […]
The ultimate goal of Russia would be to help undermine candidates who support Ukraine and to change U.S. policy. Some U.S. officials doubt Russia would be able to do that.
Even if Putin can’t steal the 2024 election for Trump — God knows Trump’s motives for that are also already firmly established — the Times quotes officials who say it could make it harder and harder for Congress to pass Ukraine aid.
Oh, and look what just happened! One of the many ways powerless loser Speaker Kevin McCarthy caved to get a temporary spending bill passed in the House is that it didn’t include extra aid for Ukraine. Mission accomplished for the Republican Treason Caucus!
By the way, all the experts say the interference is likely to be smarter and more technologically advanced this time around.
Shit’s gonna get real weird in this election, y’all.
Evan Hurst on Twitter right here.
@evanjosephhurst on Threads!
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I'm old enough to remember duck and cover nuclear drills and came of age during the Reagan administration.
This malign support of this fascist plutocrat by some of my fellow citizens is, in my considered opinion, outright treason.
morning Jeff...
@itsJeffTiedrich
first they came for Kevin McCarthy, and I didn't speak out— because I was laughing so hard that I couldn't catch my breath