Diving Into the Russian Social Media Ads–2/3/19

Russian President Vladimir Putin superimposed into a Russian Flag. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

This is part of an ongoing series where we review some of the ads purchased by the Russians. In doing so I hope we can get a better understanding of what they were trying to do, and how to recognize it the next time we’re faced with propaganda.

If you want to follow along, the ads can all be downloaded here.

Please note the images will have extra space as they are how the documents appear. You will find the file number at the bottom of each page.

A common thread in these ads is the racial tensions in America. In fact, more than half were pushing one side of the racial divide or another. This is not new for Russia. This is not new either. During the 1984 Olympics agents from the KGB sent fake KKK letters to African and Asian athletes. I learned from the Garry Kasparov book, Winter is Coming, that Russia likes to use American racial discord among its citizens as an example of how horrible things are in the US, and how superior life is in Mother Russia. Their propaganda was supposed to divide us while uniting Russian citizens. Some examples (found in the 2015-q2 file):

I will share more interesting ads I come across in other posts. For now, enjoy this Open Thread and remember, we can beat the Russians by not hating one another.

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