Russian disinformation efforts to diminish support in the U.S. for Ukraine's defense against the brutal Russian invasion are aimed at "populist" anti-establishment voices here, an article in today's Washington Post describes:
"When President Biden proposed an additional $24 billion in supplemental funding for Ukraine in August, Moscow spin doctors working for the Kremlin were ready to try to undermine public support for the bill, internal Kremlin documents show.
In an ongoing campaign that seeks to influence congressional and other political debates to stoke anti-Ukraine sentiment, Kremlin-linked political strategists and trolls have written thousands of fabricated news articles, social media posts and comments that promote American isolationism, stir fear over the United States’ border security and attempt to amplify U.S. economic and racial tensions, according to a trove of internal Kremlin documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post."
It's no wonder that many of the statements by such pro-Russian stooges like Sen. Ron Johnson (Sedition-WI), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Traitor Greene (Sedition-GA) and many others sound like transcripts from Russian state media broadcasts. They're following some of the bots employed by the Russian intelligence service. Last week, two senior Republican congressmen, Rep. Michael McCaul and Rep. Mike Turner, acknowledged that a number of their pro-Russian colleagues were "infected" by Russian propaganda. The article continues:
“The impact of the Russian program over the last decade … is seen in the U.S. congressional debate over Ukraine aid,” said Clint Watts, the head of Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center. “They have had an impact in a strategic aggregate way.”
“You would never have previously heard … politicians in the U.S. saying Ukraine is not significant enough and we will not support NATO. On a digital platform, your ability to do these things works.”
Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), who chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday it was “absolutely true” that some Republican members of Congress were repeating Russian propaganda about the invasion of Ukraine. “We see directly coming from Russia attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages — some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor,” Turner said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”...
McCaul had similar concerns about the "infection" of the MAGAt base with Russian propaganda:
In an interview with Puck News’s Julia Ioffe, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) — none other than the GOP chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee — flat-out said that Russian propaganda has “infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”
McCaul suggested conservative media was to blame.
“There are some more nighttime entertainment shows that seem to spin, like, I see the Russian propaganda in some of it — and it’s almost identical [to what they’re saying on Russian state television] — on our airwaves,” McCaul said.
He also cited “these people that read various conspiracy-theory outlets that are just not accurate, and they actually model Russian propaganda.”...
There's much more at the links providing examples of how Russia is using its disinformation trolls to push pro- Russia/ pro- Trump/ anti- Ukraine propaganda, working through social media networks as well as through right- wing news media. The rare Republican voices warning about the "infection" are likely to be drowned out by the leader of their cult and his lickspittles, whose interests have always been in alignment with Russia and its war criminal dictator.