Russia’s war on Ukraine is not only fought on the battlefield. Through its “digital army”, Moscow floods the information space with falsehoods to undermine Ukraine, divide the West, and destabilize democracies. …
Storm-1516 [a Russian propagandist group which creates and spreads online disinformation to further the interests of the Russian government] has been active since August 2023 and has since launched multiple aggressive operations producing “AI-powered disinformation at industrial scale” aimed at discrediting Ukraine and eroding trust across the West.
The group creates a false narrative, generating deceptively convincing articles and AI-generated videos, relying on its vast network of propagandists and pro-Kremlin voices to push their fake narratives.
Gnida Project reported that this is the first time Storm-1516 has impersonated real living journalists to spread its propaganda. Although Russia has deployed similar tactics, such as stealing the identities of deceased civilians to create fake profiles of “writers” and “experts” to spread its propaganda.
…
I’ve learned that I’ve been writing for this fake news outlet since March. It’s quite disturbing when you see my photo, my name, and my first name associated with conspiracy theories. I’m a journalist; I have absolutely nothing to do with this content. – Audrey Parmentier, journalist at French newspaper Le Monde
…
Fake news stories spread across Europe using stolen identities across Europe [the article provides examples for Storm 1516-propaganda in Romania, Moldova, France, Germany, Armenia, Norway].
…
Who are Storm-1516’s key figures?
- John Mark Dougan: In June 2025, US-based fact-checker NewsGuard named John Mark Dougan—an ex-Florida deputy sheriff who fled to Moscow—its “2024 Disinformer of the Year.” Dougan engineered Storm‑1516, a Kremlin-linked disinformation network behind over 171 fake news sites and 32 false narratives, racking up over 67 million views in 16 languages—reaching audiences worldwide and even influencing US congressional debate.
- Alina Lipp: a German citizen with nearly 180,000 followers on Telegram, “News from Russia and Donbas,” runs one of the most popular Russian propaganda outlets in Germany. She has spread multiple disinformation campaigns outlined above.
- Lucas Leiroz is a key amplifier of Kremlin-linked disinformation from the “Foundation to Battle Injustice” (R-BFI), founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin—leader of the Russian PMC Wagner Group until his 2023 demise—and run by Mira Terada, a former US prisoner narrowly avoiding a drug trafficking conviction.
…
French disinfo watchdog VIGINUM considers Storm-1516’s activities “meet the criteria of foreign digital interference, and represent a significant threat to the French and European digital public debate.”
VIGINUM labels Storm-1516 a “significant threat” to European digital debate. France strongly condemns Russia’s destabilizing campaigns, and Storm-1516’s actions make Russia unworthy of a UN Security Council seat.
French authorities urge social media platforms to take responsibility in fighting this foreign interference, affirming that no manipulation will deter France’s support for Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression.
…
Okay fun! Let’s see if I get banned.
The state religion of the West is known as Liberalism. This ideology has an insufferably self-righteous view of itself, like all religions. In this framing, only liberalism can be the path to good, and all other ideologies are flavors of the dreaded Authoritarianism™
In this way, liberalism becomes Capital’s perfect shield against all criticism or worse yet class consciousness. We can’t tax the rich, that would be authoritarian! The “Liberty” of the ownership class is the top priority, and the material concerns of the working class should barely even be spoken of.
The crown jewel of this system is media control, also known as “manufacturing consent”. We can’t have scary gommunism because Stalin and Mao killed a hundred bajillion people, I read about it in my trusted national news sources. The modern tactic is to “spread democracy” by pouring money into reactionary elements through well-known CIA cutouts like NED. This is known as a color revolution and wait for the best part! Either the color revolution succeeds and overthrows a government that prioritizes the working class over capital, OR the color revolution fails and we have a new slander to plaster across the media!
Once you stop caring about the “Liberty” of the capital class and start counting coups you might have a different understanding about what freedom actually means. Is it freedom to have to work for the capital class day in and day out or else your family will starve?
I honestly agree with this take. Liberalism has become a religion. Worse than a religion, a cult of capital, in fact. And it also views all deviations that are deviated as authoritarian. But that’s because it doesn’t know about less authoritarian socialist and communist movements, mainly thanks to the influence of the burgeoisie.
Only dumbfuck right-“libertarians” say that taxing the rich is authoritarian. You will soon discover that they care more about property than any other freedom, that’s what capitalism is based upon after all. Also, they tend to believe in hierarchies, at least explicitly from the point they decide to take Hoppe seriously. You can call them liberals for all you want though, the waters are muddy here.
We can’t have communism as long as people like Stalin and Mao keep showing up and promising us communism, whilst delivering state capitalism instead. Communism is a classless, moneyless, stateless society, or the pursuit of it; MLs and relateds do pursuit by strengthening the state, creating a political class and not abolishing currency. It’s not logical.
or just… invading them? did you forget the original talking point was full on invasion? You’re intentionally weakening your point, and for what?
Color revolution has become for left-wing authoritarians as extremism for liberals. A way to shrug anything you don’t like with a single phrase meant to exist as a thought-terminating cliche, made to get you angry even without knowing why. Without even understanding why it happened. And that’s my biggest thing with authoritarians, they do NOT Listen to the workers. They fap over ruling over the workers, they do not take them seriously. MLism and related is WMINO - worker movement in name only. MLs and liberals are the same, they do not believe in worker’s rights, they only pretend to do so. They pretend they’re pro-worker by enacting a minor reform, but then cut into the worker’s power. That’s not communism. That’s statism.
It is not freedom to have to work to survive. That’s also why I oppose MLism and similar ideologies, the “authoritarians” I keep talking about, because they are fundamentally the same. You get jailed for not working. Works in capitalism and in state “socialism”.
Ok, honestly off to a very agreeable start. It sounds like we agree about the class system and the secondary systems that uphold it.
I agree that few people actually explicitly say we shouldn’t tax the rich, that line of argument has fallen very far out of fashion. Some especially pedantic Libertarians like Russ Roberts call themselves “Classical Liberals” but I agree that the lines get blurred. What I am saying is that any time something like a wealth tax comes up in the public discourse, the argument that is made is essentially “taxing the rich is authoritarian” but with a few layers of indirection and insinuation to obscure the bones of the argument.
So that makes you a Trotskyist or Ultraleftist? Does that mean in your view the USSR and the PRC are functionally equivalent to the Capitalist/Imperialist states? I want to understand if that’s your position before engaging with it.
Well I was talking about “manufacturing consent” specifically but the imperial powers are certainly not above invasion.
This is a deep rabbit hole and we can trade facts and figures if you like but before diving in perhaps we can swerve away: Do you literally believe that the working class is no better off in ML/AES states than in the imperial Western states and their neocolonies?
I’d love a source for this one, it sounds like Red Scare silliness to me.